I watched with fascination as Christiane Amanpour interviewed ex-president Jimmy Carter about his efforts to rally evangelical Christians against “fundamentalists.” Amanpour interviewed Carter for her 6-part documentary series "God's Warriors." Amanpour describes her series as simply an attempt to let people “know what is happening.” However, if I were to summarize the purpose of her documentary I would say it was to create a sense of moral equivalence between Muslim homicide bombers and Christian home-schoolers. On the one hand, she says of maniacal Muslim extremists who slaughter others by detonating nail-filled bombs attached to themselves; "Really, martyrdom is actually something that historically was quite noble, because it was about standing up and rejecting tyranny, rejecting injustice and rejecting oppression and, if necessary, dying for that." On the other hand, she asks of teenage members of a Christian organization what difference there is between their dress code that limits the shortness of their skirts and the Taliban’s demand that women wear head-to-toe burkas.

Amanpour highlighted that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have formed a new Baptist organization to counter the influence of the Southern Baptist Convention. Carter has stated, "This is a historic event for the Baptists in this country and perhaps for Christianity.” Instead of traditional Southern Baptist-style biblical teaching, along with opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, the CarterClintianity will “fight poverty, global warming and war.”

When interviewing Carter, Amanpour threw up several softball questions about the evil fundamentalists that have taken the SBC hostage. Carter made it clear that fundamentalists are those who hold to “extremist” religious beliefs that define “who is in and who is out” rather than promote “love and tolerance.” What amazed me about this was that Amanpour—as a crack CNN reporter—seems unable to ask the obvious follow-up questions that expose the childishness of Carter’s view of religious truth. For instance, it seems as plain as the nose on one’s face that Carter’s statement is self-defeating because he holds to the absolute truth that those who believe that Christ is the only means of human salvation are absolutely wrong and should be denied leadership within the SBC.

I suspect that Amanpour actually has the mental ability to ask incisive follow-up questions; but, she is unable to see through Carter’s selective relativism because she adheres to the same philosophy of truth. In fact, my opinion is that her documentary is really about selective relativism. For example, according to her series, we are selectively to see that extremist Muslims are not really extremists. They are people to be understood and sympathized with. On the other hand, evangelical Christians who believe that teenage girls should demonstrate a modicum of public modesty are, in fact, a danger to our whole way of life. This is selective relativism. In other words, one man’s homicidal maniac is another man’s freedom fighter but teenage Christians who attend a “Battle Cry” event are deluded and, perhaps, dangerous.

The following is one of the poetic masterpieces of the Psalmist (I think the King James Version best captures the majesty of the imagery):

Psalm 36:5-8 (KJV) Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. 6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast. 7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

My recent adventure into the Sierra Nevada’s taught me a number of lessons about God. I think the Psalmist knew that if one wished to evoke an awe-inspiring sense of God’s majesty, one needed to turn to the great features of nature as a means to point the worshiper’s heart upward. I must say, I am still reeling from my experience of the divine in nature. Here are a few thoughts humbly offered.

1. We are “under the shadow” of His wings.

Coming back to “civilization,” one of the first things I noticed is the artificial sense of human self-reliance. With our roads, buildings, supermarkets and all of the other accoutrements of human society, I think we too easily deceive ourselves into believing the notion that we are in control of our own destiny. In some ways this self-deception seems laughable, even pathetic. As we learned with hurricane Katrina, human society is oh so very frail and vulnerable to the vagaries of nature and nature’s God. When my wife and I were trudging cross-country through dense forest with only a simple compass in hand to guide us to water, our appreciation soared for those settlers who completely crossed the Sierra’s in rugged wagon trains. We also thought of how most of them had a rock-hard faith in God forged by a sense of human vulnerability. When one touches the reality of our frailty, then one can more readily appreciate God’s graciousness. We are here at His pleasure. I am glad we can put our “trust under the shadow of” His wings.

2. His “righteousness is like the great mountains.”

Righteousness or justice (these words are virtually the same in the Psalmist’s Hebrew) is defined as giving to other’s what is their due. One of the unique insights of Hebraic religion was that Yahweh was the righteous judge who was “no respecter of persons.” I think though, that hiking in remote locations in the mountains provides a much better perspective on God’s righteousness. All sentimentality quickly evaporates. Suddenly God is a lot less “Santa God” and a lot more terrifying. I don’t mean this in a mean-spirited way. In and through nature, one cannot help but realize that God is an artist with an incomparable love of beauty. Beauty is everywhere. There is so much beauty that it is almost impossible to drink it all in. However, it is a dangerous beauty. Danger and beauty don’t seem to fit together well in human society; but, in nature they are like twins. My point is that to fully appreciate God we must realize that His righteousness “is like the great mountains”—beautiful, abundant and dangerous.

3. “…thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures”—whatever happened to work?

I am a thorough-going evangelical Christian. I deeply appreciate the fervor of evangelical worship and evangelicalism’s nice blend of social relevancy and biblical exposition. Evangelicalism is not without its problems and distortions; yet, I think it is one of the most vibrant expressions of orthodox Christianity extant today. That being said, something has happened throughout contemporary society that has affected evangelicalism and, I believe, many other forms of Christianity. We have increasingly become obsessed with leisure. As opposed to our forbearers we work to have leisure rather than have leisure from our work.

Backpacking in the Sierra’s instantly reminded me of how life—for most people throughout human history—has been work from sunrise to sunset. Our forbearers lived with the hard grind of chores and physical labor that was punctuated by blessed times of relaxation—usually on the Lord’s Day. This created a hearty stock of people as well as a hearty version of Christianity. Ours is certainly more of a leisure-version of Christianity. Listen folks; life is actually intended to be full of work! God abundantly supplies rivers of blessings through nature, but they must be converted to pleasures to be enjoyed by the means of work. In one of Jesus’ parables of the kingdom (Luke 19:11-27) the master tells his servants to “occupy until I come.” The New King James translates this as “do business until I come.” The meaning, of course, is that while Jesus is in heaven and until his return, he expects his followers to be busy with his business.

After living in the Sierra’s for six days, the whole faith-works argument seems silly. Of course, Christians are to work! God abundantly grants His graces through various means but they must be converted to His pleasures via human work. Then we may “drink of the river of (His) pleasures.”

Recently my wife and I had the privilege of taking a group of college students on a hike in beautiful Big Sur, California at Pfeiffer State Park. We followed a trail up to a grove of majestic Sequoia redwoods to view a waterfall and then hiked over to the Valley View overlooking a splendid scene of evergreens and the mighty Pacific Ocean. There I read this passage of Scripture:

Romans 1: 18-20 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

In Romans 1 Paul makes the case that that which “has been made” makes “plain” to humanity God’s reality, his “invisible qualities” as well as His “eternal power and divine nature.” Paul, of course, is taking about how nature declares the glories of God—and it does. This summer my wife and I have re-discovered one of our great hobbies. Since going on a vacation to Mammoth Lakes, California in early July where we were immersed in a culture of extreme wilderness sports, we have thrown ourselves back into high Sierra excursions. Our hotel in Mammoth was situated right at 9,000 feet. The first day it was a chore just to make it up the steps to register at the hotel lobby. However, by the end of our vacation we were already equipping ourselves for our next adventure.

Well, today—after a month of preparation, planning and training—we head out (just the two of us) for a six-day backpack trip through the Ansel Adams Wilderness to the southeastern tip of Yosemite National Park. We will start at 7,000 feet and pack up to 11,600 ft. Our destination is the amazing Triple Divide Peak situated in the Clark Range. From Triple Divide you can look west down into Yosemite Valley or look to the east and view the fascinating Minarets. It is breathtaking. One cannot but praise God when viewing such splendor.

Here is the deal. Thirty years ago we made the same backpacking trip. Then we hiked cross-country without a trail. Now there is a trail. Back then you could drink water from the streams without running it through a filtration system—now you can’t. Despite the encroachment of “civilization”, Triple Divide Peak remains a high Alpine destination where few people go on their vacation. There are many dangers including smart bears, poisonous snakes, mountain lions and the rigors of carrying packs over some of the most rugged territory in the world. Many of our friends and family question our sanity because we are no longer 20-somethings with the strength of youth on our side. But, most of them have never experienced the exhilaration of the clear, thin Alpine air and the beautiful vistas above the timberline. Though we are experienced wilderness hikers, we definitely sense our utter dependency upon God.

For the next week I will be completely cut off from any electronic devise except my altimeter watch. Obviously, I will not be blogging until I return. If you think of us, please offer a prayer for our safety. Until our return, may God bless you

Well, I thought it was about time for a little straight thinking from Aquinas. The topic under consideration in the “Summa Contra Gentiles, Book Four: Salvation, Ch. 18” is the subsistent person of the Holy Spirit. In this section Aquinas is making a case for the full divinity and personhood of the Holy Spirit. At the end of the chapter he shows how the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer as opposed to how the devil fills the hearts of wicked people. Here is what he says along with my simple explanation. This is very interesting.

“…the Holy Spirit is not a creature, but true God, it is accordingly manifest that we are not compelled to say that one must understand the Holy Spirit filling and dwelling in the minds of the saints in the same way that one understands the devil to be filling and dwelling in some minds…For, since the devil is a creature, as was manifested in the foregoing, he fill no one by a participation in himself, he is said to fill some men by the effect of his wickedness.”

The main thing I think Aquinas is saying is that because the devil is a creature he cannot fill and dwell in the human mind the same way that God the Holy Spirit can. The devil is unable to actually become united with another creature in a subsistent way. The Bible makes it clear that the devil can enter into a man’s heart and mind in a powerful and detrimental way. However, the devil’s indwelling in a person is not as an organic union; yet, he is able to infect some men with his evil influence to the point that they become “enthralled” by wickedness.

Aquinas continues.

“The Holy Spirit, of course, since He is God, dwells in a mind by His substance and makes men good by participation in Himself. For He is His own goodness, since He is God. And this can be true of no creature. Neither does this, for all that, change the fact that by the effect of His power He fills the minds of the holy.”

Here Aquinas indicates that the Holy Spirit’s influence in the life of a believer is actually one by which the believer participates in God’s very life. We might say that the believer’s spirit comes to live or abide in the Holy Spirit. The believer becomes “one” with God through the Holy Spirit. In this way, the Holy Spirit “fills the minds of the holy.”