Commentary on Growing Old (Aging)

Why do we grow old and die? Is it really a curse, as most people seem to think? Maybe not...

Childhood

        Every child wants to get older so they can ride a two-wheeler or stay up later or walk home from school by themselves. Every one of us has said, "When I grow up I want to..." But then we do grow up.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.  Proverbs 22:6.

Career and Marriage

We leave high school and go to college or get a job, and discover that responsibilities are starting to press in from every side. We get married and maybe have children---the responsibilities increase a hundredfold. As our children grow, we do everything we can to help them in school, in sports, physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.  Proverbs 18:22.
• Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.  Psalm 127:3.

Middle Age

        Suddenly, we discover that our children are grown and married. We may even be grandparents. Our responsibilities may decrease but now we get to enjoy our grandchildren in a way we never had time to enjoy our children. Now we can read them that "one more chapter, please"! But behind this looms our own mortality. The end may be in view on the most distant horizon and we have to take it into account.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.  Titus 2:2.
• Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father.  1 Timothy 5:1.

Growing Old

        This page isn't really about growing up and maturing. These seem to be natural things and we can easily take them in stride. This page is about "aging", that is, growing OLD! Again, remember that it is only the body that grows old. Lucy Spencer said that however old we get on the outside, we never age inside. I think that, in spirit, we are all about 30! God has truly "set eternity in our hearts [our inner being]".

        Relevant Scriptures:

• We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  2 Corinthian 4:16-18.
• Remember your Creator...before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim...  Ecclesiastes 12:1-3.
• By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.  Genesis 3:19.

What happens when we grow old?

        Some things make good fodder for jokes:

• We gain weight
• We need glasses and hearing aids and false teeth
• We start to forget things (or forget to start things)
• We at last get to retire
• We can't keep up with our sons on backpacking trips any more.
• Our daughters can now outlast us on any shopping trip.
• We crouch for a book or a dish on the bottom shelf and our knees will hardly bring us back up again.
• Etc., etc., etc.

What is our mental approach to growing old?

        We may try to push it right out of our mind by thinking or reading or watching movies about the exploits o youth in romance, or adventure, or war. To quote Dorothy Sayers, The Whimsical Christian, "from the relentless reality of age, they seek to escape into a fantasy of youth---their own or other people's." We may submit to or resist or resent growing older. We may courageously "foresee the event and endure it." "Paradoxical as it may seem, to believe in youth is to look backward; to look forward, we must believe in age."

        Relevant Scriptures:

• I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.  Psalm 37:25
• Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am he, I am he who will sustain you.  Isaiah 46:4
• Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.  Proverbs 16:31.
• The length of our days is seventy years---or eighty, if we have the strength, yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass and we fly away.  Psalm 90:10
• The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.  Ecclesiastes 12:14.

Can God sympathize with our problems of age?

        To bring this whole discussion into God's light, I quote again, "...for whatever reason God chose to make man as he is---limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death---he (God) had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game his is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile."

        Although Jesus obviously never experienced old age, he certainly experienced the factors that we fear in old age---"pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death."

        Aging does bring deterioration of most of our five senses---there's no denying it. But for the Christian, it's like a metamorphosis; it's what we go through to get something better. The illustration of the butterfly is apt---The caterpillar crawls around on the ground, eating leaves and grass; then it builds its chrysalis and sleeps. In the spring it breaks out of its old life and soars. We too can soar one day!

        Relevant Scriptures:

• We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are---yet was without sin.  Hebrews 4:15
• The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me...  2 Timothy 4:6-8.
• Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.  Revelation 22:17.

Commentary on Statements of Faith: Salvation

        The obvious question here is, do we need salvation? And if so, why? The obvious answer is, because we have all sinned, and one sin is all it takes to merit death.

        Some people refer to "original sin" and point at Adam and Eve in Eden. As our physical DNA would be traceable to them, so would our spiritual or soulish "DNA" because it comes from them as well. Proof of this would seem fairly easy---in a physical way, red hair or aquiline noses or blue eyes tend to run in families. In another sense, spiritual or soulish characteristics seem to run in families---things like determination to succeed, love for music and rhythm, facility in language or rhetoric, etcetera, etcetera.

        All of mankind is thus related both physically and spiritually through a single ancestor. [As an aside, it seems that the angels and demons are different, each is a "one-off", one of a kind.]

        This is why the Bible says, "The first Adam became a living being", in contrast to "the last Adam [Jesus], a life-giving spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45) To save the family of man, Jesus had to participate in humanity.

Commentary on Statements of Faith: The Problem of Evil

Evil is a problem---no doubt about it! Here is a Christian perspective with answers to the six primary journalistic questions about it.

What is evil?

        Webster's definition is "something that brings sorrow, distress, or calamity"; the Oxford dictionary says "bad, sin, harm". If we have any glimmer of an idea what evil is, these definitions are understated. The Bible's description of loathsomeness, pain, frustration, hopelessness, fear, horror, hate and terror hardly seems in the same league as the dictionaries indicate. Essentially, the Bible's definition of evil is "disobedience or opposition to God, and the consequences".

        Relevant Scriptures:

• They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity...envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice...gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful...they disobey their parents...senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless... Romans 1:29-31

Where did it start? And when?

        Most of us think of Adam and Eve and the temptation by the serpent (the Devil) in the garden of Eden. Unfortunately, evil goes farther back than that. The Bible pictures a magnificent spiritual being named Lucifer, who wanted to supplant God. He was subdued and expelled from heaven, but not completely crushed. This creature became Satan and it was he who appeared in the garden to tempt Adam and Eve. Their disobedience ("The Fall") is the origin of evil on earth and this fault, this propensity to disobey, has been inherited by every human being since.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• Jesus replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." Luke 10:18.
• As in Adam all die... 1 Corinthians 15:22.
• ...the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men... Romans 5:18

Who does it?

According to the Bible, EVERYBODY!

        Relevant Scriptures:

• There is not a righteous man on the earth who does what is right and never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20.
• ...every inclination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil all the time.  Genesis 6:5.

Why is it done?

        We can't help it! Just as genetics and DNA seem to point back in mankind's history to common origins, we also have a common soulish or spiritual origin as well. We might almost say that "spiritual genetics" keep us doing evil, even when we don't want to, just as physical genetics keep us brown-eyed or musical or curly-haired, when we might want to be something else.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'.  Matthew 15:19
• I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  Romans 7:18.

How is it done?

        Everybody knows how evil is done. Why re-state the obvious? Simply because evil comes in every shade. Great evils like the Holocaust or Pearl Harbour or the WTC attack (dare we even include Hiroshima as a great evil of war?) are probably no darker than organized crime that promotes the drug trade or prostitution. Over the ages, thousands, perhaps millions, have died because of the latter two vices. But that little lie or that hateful thought is still some shade of grey, it is disobedience to God's will.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• ...all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.  Isaiah 64:6.

Should it be stopped? Why?

        If no effort is made to stop sin, it always escalates. Witness the Arab/Jew conflict in the middle east or the so-called Protestant/Catholic confrontations in Ireland, or the Hindu/Muslim massacres in India. What about the aunts or uncles who haven't spoken to each other in fifty years because of some disagreement?

        Relevant Scriptures:

• ...lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.  Matthew 6:13.

Can we stop it in ourselves? In others?

        Have you ever tried to go through a day without sinning? Good luck! But you can't do it. You may have cursed the alarm clock the moment you woke, you probably had vengeful thoughts against fellow employees or supervisors before you finished washing, envy of other's cars may have taken over before you got to work, and lust may have overwhelmed you as you passed through the lobby. You can't stop sin in yourself. Don't kid yourself about stopping it in others, even friends.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• ...when I hoped for good, evil came.  Job.30:26.
• ...the evil I do not want to do---this I keep on doing.  Romans 7:19.

What is the near result of evil? The ultimate result?

        The earliest result is personal unhappiness. This can spread as a mild disease, to infect your family, your friends, your workmates and neighbours. The same unease and unhappiness in others bumps into yours and magnifies to property and money disputes, to civil strife and full-blown war. God punishes sin with death, but after death there is further punishment.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• The soul who sins is the one who will die.  Ezekiel 18:4.
• ...you have punished us less than our sins have deserved.  Ezra 9:13.
• ...the evil man has no future hope.  Proverbs 24:20.
• ...with You the wicked cannot dwell.  Psalm 5:4.
• The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son... John 5:22.
• ...those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.  John 5:29.

What is the remedy for evil?

        How can we gauge the value of one wrong act or thought? It is like a gold ring with "just a dab of mercury put to it" from a broken thermometer. The gold is no longer pure and the ring will fall apart. How much mercury does it take to do this?---only a drop. A similar analogy might be drawn---how big a sin makes a person "impure"? The answer, obviously, is "any size". We may have the power to refrain from "really big" sins like murder, and even smaller ones like theft or pilfering, but who can resist envy or jealousy? As the size of the sin decreases (as we would judge), the power needed to resist it goes up astronomically. We need infinite power to resist the smallest sin. We haven't got it! We need help. And this is the remedy for evil---faith in Jesus Christ, God's infinitely pure, infinitely holy Son.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• Just as man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of the people.  Hebrews 9:27.
• Christ has appeared once for all in the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.  Hebrews 9:26.
• You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Romans 5:6.
• ...the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  1 John 1:7.

Commentary on Statements of Faith: Jesus Christ

        This item of faith digs even deeper into our understanding of Christianity. Item one stated that God is eternal and, consequently, so is His Son, Jesus.

        Jesus is the visible person of the Godhead---virtually everything we know about God, we know through Him. Notice that statements of faith seldom have a paragraph titled "Father". This is partly because, when Philip said, "Show us the Father", Jesus responded, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father."  John 14:6.

        Jesus took human flesh in Palestine during the reign of Herod, but He appeared, visibly, on numerous occasions in the Old Testament. These "theophanies" make fascinating reading. For example, when Joshua was about to attack Jericho, a man appeared with a drawn sword in his hand and said, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy."  Joshua 5:13-15.

        Going back further, three visitors came to Abraham when he was camped near the great trees of Mamre, and one of them was Jehovah (Genesis 18:10, "the LORD"). And near the beginning, Adam and Eve "heard the sound of the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) as he was walking in the garden."  Genesis 3:8.

        We believe that man was Jesus. And it was for this reason, among many others, that Jesus could say to the Jews, "Before Abraham was born, I AM!"  John 8:58.

Commentary on Statements of Faith: The Trinity

The Trinity

        The Bible investigator starts at a disadvantage because the term "trinity" never appears in the Book. It was first used by Theophilus of Antioch (d.181 AD) to indicate "three-in-one". The Athanasian Creed spells it out: "We worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons, nor separating the substance." This "tri-unity" is written into the very fabric of both Old and New Testaments.

Who is God?

        Scripture references in turn call the Father, God; the Son, God; and the Holy Spirit, God. In fact, the same acts of God are variously attributed to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit:

1. In creation God and the Spirit of God and Jesus were active together.
2. In Old Testament history, God the Lord and Jesus are both credited with providing water from the rock during the exodus.
3. God, Jesus, and the Spirit are expressly involved, with unlimited power, in the resurrection of Jesus.
4. In salvation...
5. This is partly why we say there is one God and not three. A plurality in the Godhead is implied in Genesis 1:26, while the same Godhead acts as one in verse 27. The same is true in Genesis 3:22 compared with verse 24. This is confirmed, of course, by Paul's statements in at least two places, that there is "one God".

        Relevant Scriptures:

1. (a) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:1-2.  (b) Through him (Jesus) all things were made; without nothing was made that has been made.  John 1:3.
2. (a) The Lord answered..."Strike the rock, and water will come out of it..." Exodus 17:5-6. (b) ...they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.  1 Corinthians 10:4.
3. (a) He (God) has given proof of this to all men by raising him (Jesus) from the dead. Acts 17:31. (b) Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple (His body) and I will raise it again in three days." John 2:19. (c) And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you...Romans 8:11. 
4. (a) Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  1 Timothy 1:15. (b) ...the Father has sent his son to be the Savior of the world. 1 John 4:14. (c) Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance... Ephesians 1:13, 14.
5. (a) Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..." Genesis 1:26.  (b) So God created man in his own image...Genesis 1:27.  (c) And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us..." Genesis 3:22.

Commentary on Statements of Faith: God (Part 2)

What is God?

        God is spirit, but He will express Himself in a body at times. For instance, He appeared to Abraham in bodily form, He appeared to Joshua in bodily form, and lastly, He appeared in flesh as "Jesus", Immanuel (God with us). All three persons of the Godhead are evident at Jesus' baptism.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• But God is one. Galatians 3:20
• For there is one God. 1 Timothy 2:5
• God is spirit and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
• Jesus was baptized...the Spirit of God descending like a dove...a voice from heaven said, "This is my son, whom I love..."  Matthew 3:16, 17.

When did God "begin"? Will He "end"?

        God is outside of time, He never ages. This is why He could say to Moses, "I AM has sent you." Jesus said the same thing to the Jews, "Before Abraham was born, I AM." This is why scripture says, "A thousand years...are like a day." This is also one reason why He knows the future---it isn't future to Him. God seems to exist in an eternal present.

        One of the saddest expressions of conventional wisdom is Bertrand Russell's statement of why he was not a Christian---no one could tell him "Who made God?"

        Relevant Scriptures:

• I AM has sent me. Exodus 3:14
• Before Abraham was born, I AM. John 8:58
• A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by...  Psalm 90:4

Where is God?

        God is everywhere. In theological terms, this might be expressed as "omnipresent" or "immanent". There is nowhere we can go to get away from Him. David said, "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there." (Psalm 139:8) C.S.Lewis said, "We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito."

        Relevant Scriptures:

• "Am I only a God nearby," declares the Lord, "and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the Lord. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the Lord. Jeremiah 23:24
• In him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28

Why does God deal with humanity at all?

        God has created man as a trinity as well---body, soul, and spirit. The simplest way to show this would be as follows: the body sees, feels, hears and so on. The soul is that essential something that keeps the body alive. A brain-dead person is still "alive" in the sense that the physical engine is still running, the cells are still generating, cuts will repair, etc. The spirit is the conscious and self-conscious being, perhaps much like the idea of the mind. Soul and spirit, once created, will last as long as God, Himself, does. God has made us free, but He wants us to be in tune with Him. Therefore He has to reveal His will and His character, for us to know Him.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

How does God deal with humanity?

        Through scripture, God has shown His creativity, His love, His justice, His knowledge, His power, and even His needs and limits.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• ...it is impossible for God to lie... Hebrews 6:18
• ...we have one who was tempted in every way, just as we are---yet was without sin.  Hebrews 4:15
• ...he commands all people everywhere to repent.  Acts 17:30

A summary of the doctrine of the Trinity:

        There are three persons in the trinity---the Father, the Holy Spirit and the Son. All three act in such utter perfection of unity that there is no potential for disruption. God is good, God is just, He is love, and He is mercy. All these characteristics, taken to the infinity of God, spell perfection.

        Relevant Scriptures:

• Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...Matthew 28:19.

Commentary on Statements of Faith: God (Part 1 of 2)

        We believe in one eternal God who exists in three persons. And those three persons are equal. Not only the theology, but even the grammar is difficult. Outsiders consider us to be tritheistic because we say "the Father is...", "the Son is...", and "the Holy Spirit is...", but then we stay in the singular, combine the three Persons and say "God is..." In fact, the Hebrew word for God is "Elohim"--- a plural word with a singular verb. There was even a counsel in the Godhead--- "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness." Gen.1:26.

        We are way beyond "common sense" here. In fact, we are into a kind of sense that we doubt man could ever have thought of. For instance, "God is Love"--- an absolute statement like this would be impossible for a "one-person" god. At least two and probably three persons seem necessary for absolute love to exist.

        To go further, the details of God's actions in salvation are amazing. For instance, our sins against God are so immense that only an infinite God could deal with them all, either by punishing us or by punishing an infinite substitute and, therefore, a Second Person in the Deity.

        All this has endless ramifications in the Christian's understanding of God. For instance, the Father did not suffer (physically) and die, because He is Spirit. It was His eternal Son Jesus who suffered and died. The Athanasian Creed is rightly talking basic Christianity when it says, "we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance." Statements of faith rightly put an understanding of God and the Trinity first on their list.

Hymn of the Month: Immanuel's Land (BHB #190)

O CHRIST! He is the fountain,
   The deep, sweet well of love;
The streams on earth I've tasted,
   More deep I'll drink above;
There, to an ocean's fulness,
   His mercy doth espand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
   In Immanuel's land.

        This hymn, also called "The Sands of Time are Sinking", is just a few key verses from a nineteen stanza poem by Anne Ross Cousin. As she sat at her sewing one Saturday evening the words started to flow and, as she said herself, "...though I threw it off at that time, it was the result of long familiarity with the writings of Samuel Rutherford, especially his Letters."

        Anne Ross Cundell was born on April 27, 1824, in Hull, but the family soon moved to her surgeon father's hometown of Leith, near Edinburgh. Dr. Cundell died when Anne was only about three so we find her, at 15 years of age, living with her mother and one servant girl, in Great Stuart Street, in the Edinburgh parish of St. Cuthbert's.

        The very next time we hear of Anne is in 1847, in London, as she marries the Rev. William Cousin, a minister of the "Scotch" Presbyterian Church in Regent Square. Two years later, their first child was born, a son, John William

Muir Church, Irvine

Cousin. In 1850, Anne's husband was called to minister at Muir Church in Irvine, Scotland. It was in Scotland that five more children were born (three more boys and two girls) and it was here at the manse in Irvine that this amazing poem was written.

        Four verses are familiar to us from the Believers Hymn Book but many others are equally powerful, though not specifically as worship. For instance,

The King there in His beauty,
   Without a veil, is seen;
It were a well-spent journey,
   Though seven deaths lay between.

And,

The curse shall change to blessing---
   The name on earth that's banned
Be graven on the white stone
   In Immanuel's land.

        Just to remind ourselves---Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661) was a Covenanter. His faith and the strength of his convictions landed him in jail several times. His love for the King, Immanuel, gave him an intense love for souls, too...

Oh! If one soul from Anwoth
   Meet me at God's right hand,
My Heaven will be two Heavens
   In Immanuel's land.

        Rutherford was on his death-bed when the courts ordered him to appear before them on a charge of high treason. Anne's expression is fitting for this soldier of the Cross...

They've summoned me before them,
   But there I may not come,---
My Lord says, "Come up hither,"
   My Lord says, "Welcome home!"

        Anne Cousin wrote this poem in 1854, published it in The Christian Treasury in 1857, then saw it appear as a hymn in the 1865 Service of Praise. It's been in countless hymnals since, including, of course, the Believers Hymn Book, first compiled in about 1884.

        Immanuel's Land was the last hymn given out by C.H.Spurgeon and was sung at his bedside on January 17, 1892, two weeks before his death. The poem has appeared in less-expected places too---for instance at a tearful (fictional) funeral in The Sky Pilot by Ralph Connor...

"And so on to that last victorious cry,--- 

I hail the glory dawning in 

   Immanuel's Land."

        Perhaps the oddest place we find the poem is in the Guiness Book of Records for 1981:

"The longest hymn...in English is The Sands of Time are Sinking by Mrs. Anne Ross Cousin nee Cundell (1824-1906), which is in full 152 lines, though only 32 lines in the Methodist Hymn Book."

      One reviewer called Anne Ross Cousin "a Scottish Christina Rossetti, with a more pronounced theology." This is high praise. But, without a doubt, she wove the Scriptural and Rutherfordian imagery with great skill and technical grace, into a poem that satisfies the Christian through endless re-readings.

        

Hymn of the Month: How deep the Father's love for us.

How deep the Father's love for us,
    How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
   To make a wretch His treasure.

How great the pain of searing loss,
   The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One,
   Bring many sons to glory.

Behold the Man upon a cross,
   My sin upon His shoulders.
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
   Call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held Him there
   Until it was accomplished.
His dying breath has brought me life.
   I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything,
   No gifts, no power, no wisdom.
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
   His death and resurrection.

Why should I gain from His reward?
   I cannot give an answer.
But this I know with all my heart:
   His wounds have paid my ransom.

        This song, written by Stuart Townend about 1995, first came to my attention in worship in 2004, about the same time that Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ, was

still playing in theatres. Every stanza is packed with intense scriptural references but verse three hit me the hardest: "Behold the Man upon a cross, My sin upon His shoulders." I love the theme of Christ as the Divine Substitute, and Townend's picture was eloquent.

        Stuart Townend was born in West Yorkshire in 1963, the youngest of four children, son of a Church of England vicar. His website www.stuarttownend.co.uk/bio tells us that he began playing the piano at the age of seven and teaching himself the guitar as a teenager. "At the age of 13 he made his Christian commitment. Then at 18 he moved to Brighton to study literature at the University of Sussex. It is here he met Caroline, whom he married in 1988, and they now have three children: Joseph, Emma, and Eden. Stuart attends and regularly leads worship at the Church of Christ the King in Brighton...But it is as a songwriter that Stuart has had the greatest impact on the worldwide church, and it is this that is closest to his heart. 'It is so important that our lives are built not on our feelings or circumstances, but on the Word of God, and songs can really help us meditate on and retain truth.' "

        Other songs by Townend include In Christ Alone, The Power of the Cross, How Long?, You are my Anchor, and Beautiful Saviour.

The Painting and the Painter

        Many years ago, I read a story about a girl whose mother had died in childbirth. Her father raised her on his salary as an art teacher, and in any spare time he had, he painted. He was skilled but meticulous, and over the years he sold only five or six paintings. But he absolutely refused to sign them. Sadly, he was dying of tuberculosis and worried about providing for his daughter. When she was in her early teens, he passed away and she was left as a ward of the school.

        Meanwhile, his assistant began turning out new paintings in the style of his master, and signing them---there was to be no mistake as to who the artist was. One day, the painter's daughter, now about sixteen, was in the school gallery, staring at her father's work, when it dawned on her that there seemed to be some writing in the smoke from a cottage chimney. She looked closer and, to her amazement, she could just make out her father's name!

        She moved to another of his paintings and there was his name in the ripples of a stream. Then she found the work of the apprentice---and there, along with the apprentice's signature at the bottom, was her father's name hidden in the swirl of autumn leaves. Another had his name outlined in snowdrifts against a hedge---the paintings were all by her father and the apprentice was a cheat. Her father really had provided for her, but his assistant had stolen all his other paintings.

        When we study the Bible and compare Scripture with Scripture we start to read God's signature in the column of smoke or the ripples in the stream or the swirl of leaves. In other words, we see God's hand in the self-consistency He has built into the Bible about the doctrine of salvation, or the person of Christ, or the Trinity, or the character of the Church, or any number of other Scriptural subjects. Let's give God full credit for overseeing the writing and preservation of the Scriptures. Surely if we trust Him to save our souls, we can trust Him to leave us in no doubt about what He has written. Only the painter's name was embedded in the paintings; the touch of the apprentice was only superficial. No one, in a similar way, can hide or erase God's signature, embedded as it is in His own work.

Figures of Speech Used in the Bible (3) Metonymy

        A very frequent figure of speech that appears throughout the Bible is metonymy. The dictionary definition of metonymy is "a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated."

        There are some examples we may be so familiar with that we don't even see the figure of speech anymore. For example, Deuteronomy 19:15 KJV says, "at the mouth of two witnesses, shall the matter be established." The physical mouth of the witness is not the important factor but the words that he says, or his testimony. A second example is Leviticus 26:6 NIV: "the sword will not pass through your country." Here it is not so much the physical sword as everything associated with fighting and war, misery and death. A final example from the Old Testament is 2 Samuel 14:19 NIV: "Isn't the hand of Joab with you in all this?" Again, it isn't Joab's physical hand but all his plans and arrangements.

        For our last example, look at Luke 16:29 NIV: "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them." In fact, they didn't literally have "Moses" or "the Prophets", they had what these men had written.

        A quote from my old grade eleven English textbook sums it up nicely: "The value of metonymy...lies in the fact that brevity is stronger than detail, that suggestion is greater than definiteness in stimulating the mind, and that the mind often grasps a part more easily than the whole."

Figures of Speech Used in the Bible (2) Hyperbole

        Figures of speech play a huge part in Scripture--far more than most Christians realize. Fortunately, the Bible itself indicates that this is so, when the disciples say to the Lord, "Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech." John 16:29. If we don't take this into account, we can think, like unbelievers, that the Bible is making mistakes.

        Hyperbole [hi-PER-buh-lee] is probably the most likely figure to be taken wrongly. A dictionary meaning is "exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally." Another definition is "extravagant exaggeration."

        A few Old Testament examples might be, "their hearts sank" Gen.42:28; "I carried you on eagles' wings" Ex.19:4; "a land flowing with milk and honey" Ex.13:5, and the waves "mounted up to the heavens." Psalm 107:26. Examples from both His enemies and the Lord are, "the whole world has gone after him!" John 12:19, and "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away." Matt.5:2.

Figures of Speech Used in the Bible (1) Litotes

        Some time ago, Gordon Rumford taught many of us a new word--litotes [pronounced lie-toe-teez].  The dictionary meaning is "understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary." This is best shown by Rumford's main example, "I am not ashamed of the gospel." (Rom.1:16) What the Apostle Paul meant by that was "I am PROUD of the gospel." Other scriptural examples are "a citizen of no ordinary city" (="a citizen of a great city", Acts 21:39) and "I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven" (=very obedient", Acts 26:19). Two Old Testament examples are, "A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (="You will accept and welcome and bless," Psalm 51:17), and "The ants are a people not strong" (="very weak", Prov.30:25 KJV).