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).