What Is Real About Reality TV? (James A.E. MacLellan)

I was recently listening to a podcast by The Gospel Coalition entitled "Going Deeper with TGC."  The topic was My Top 10 Theology Stories of2013 by Mark Mellinger, as interviewed by Colin Hansen. One of them asked an interesting question in the interview: "What is real about Reality TV?"  That grabbed my attention, because it was meant to be rhetorical.  The answer is nothing!    Reality TV is not real. 

Reality television is a type of program that attempts to show actual events and it seems to usually employ characters that aren't known to be movie stars (although that is not always true).   I read that it started in about the 1990s but by all accounts on my satellite provider's program listing, it is exploding!   In our home we watch such things as restaurant makeovers to Duck Dynasty.  From 'little people' to people with huge families, these shows seem to attract a huge audience – all on the pretense of reality!

So what is reality? The dictionary tells us it’s a noun that is:

1. The quality or state of being actual or true; or
2. That which exists objectively and in fact.

This hunger for reality is a tell-tale sign of the human frustration.  There is a sense where reality escapes all of us.  This quote is attributed to Heraclitus of Ephesus: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”  Everyone of us and everything in nature is in flux – changing.  There is only one being that is a true being.  As Dr. R.C. Sproul says, "God is being, not becoming, not changing. He is eternally the same. And so we say there’s one being."  We are becoming.  We are changing.  God is always the same.

In that sense there is but one reality in the universe: God. In Exodus 3:11-14 God reveals Himself to be “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh” (I Am who I Am).  "[He] replied, I AM THAT I AM, using the verb to be (Heb hāyāh). It means "I am the One who is" . . . This is also supported by LXX reading: egō ei’mi o‘ ōn. God expressed the unchanging, eternal, self-existence of His being." [1]

God is always "I am".  He is eternal.  He is unchanging.  He can never be better than He was yesterday.  He needs no improvement.  God is the ultimate Reality.

Perhaps the hunger for Reality TV is a hidden passion to find something that is actually true – actually the way it is.  Many today are longing for that reality but don't know where to find it.  The Apostle Paul makes it clear: It is “. . . the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God . . . Jesus Christ as Lord . . ..” (2 Corinthians 4:4–5, ESV)  


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1. KJV Bible Commentary. 1994 (E. E. Hindson & W. M. Kroll, Ed.) (124). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

The Christmas Angels Were Calvinists! (James A.E. MacLellan)

Author and pastor, Anthony Carter writes, “Our world is fond of talking about peace. We hold peace summits and rallies. We establish peace accords and treaties. We even hand out peace prizes . . . Yet, for all of its summits, accords, and Nobel Prizes, the world has not achieved peace . . ..”[1]  Of course you don't need to be a pastor or author to know that.  The world knows that!  Yet 2000 years ago a message came to the world through angels to shepherds: 

 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14, AV) (or so reads the King James Version.)

Paul identifies that this pronouncement of peace came at a great cost to our Savior.  In Colossians 1:19–20 (ESV).

¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Christ came as the Prince of Peace that through the Cross He might provide peace to men and women. But unlike the translation omission of the King James Version, this peace just doesn't naturally fall upon everyone.  The ESV like the NASB, translates the angel’s announcement this way: ““Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”” (Luke 2:14, ESV).   The NIV renders the verse “. . . on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”” (Luke 2:14, NIV).

Our English Bibles seem to struggle with this announcement.  How do we properly communicate it?  As I study the text it seems as if the translators go around the issue.  So how should we understand what the angels are communicating?  Well Luke uses the same phrase in chapter 10. The NIV seems to capture the idea so well.  Notice what it says,

“At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.” (Luke 10:21, NIV)

Now that phrase "what you were pleased to do" is the same phrase used by the angels.  Matthew also uses this phrase (the only other time it is used in the Gospels).  Notice what he writes (Again I'm using the NIV): “At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.” (Matthew 11:25–26, NIV)

Consistently again the idea being conveyed by this word "what you were pleased to do." So if we were going to maintain our consistency, we must conclude that the angels' announcement conveys the idea that God peace is given to those whom "He is pleased to give to."  Daryll Bock, who has written an exceptional commentary on Luke and Acts notes:

"The praise of the heavenly host offers honor to God and peace to men on whom his favor rests. This last phrase is not a declaration of universal salvation but refers to those who are the special objects of God's grace . . . They are the "saved" or the "elect," those on whom God has bestowed the favor of his grace."[2]

This is supported by the original text as noted by the NET Bible notation.  I quote:

"'Most witnesses (א² B² L Θ Ξ Ψ Ë^1,13 Ï sy bo) have ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκία (en anqrwpoi" eudokia, “good will among people”) instead of ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας (en anqrwpoi" eudokia", “among people with whom he is pleased”), a reading attested by א* A B* D W pc (sa). Most of the Itala witnesses and some other versional witnesses reflect a Greek text which has the genitive εὐδοκίας but drops the preposition ἐν. Not only is the genitive reading better attested, but it is more difficult than the nominative.' The meaning seems to be, not that divine peace can be bestowed only where human good will is already present, but that at the birth of the Saviour God’s peace rests on those whom he has chosen in accord with his good pleasure” (TCGNT 111)."[3]

The point is that God’s peace is not something people, earn, it is gift – a gift given according to the delights of His own good pleasure of God’s will. When we truly experience God’s peace we learn that it is all of grace.  It is a gift.  John MacArthur notes: "The verb form of the same word is used in 3:22; 12:32. In each case, it refers to God’s sovereign good pleasure. So a better rendering here might be “peace toward men on whom God’s sovereign pleasure rests.”^[4]

A faithful rendering of the text this Christmas will not avoid the notion that peace and reconciliation are gracious gifts of the Father, bestowed upon those whom He has sovereignly and freely chosen.  “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:7–10, ESV).

The Christmas angels believed in the sovereign, merciful electing love of God in Christ. 

 

 

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[1] Carter; Anthony (2013-03-19). Blood Work (p. 61). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[2] http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/Luke/Birth-Jesus

[3] http://classic.net.bible.org/passage.php?passage=Luk%202:8-14#n22

^[4] The MacArthur Study Bible. 1997 (J. MacArthur, Jr., Ed.) (electronic ed.) (1515). Nashville, TN: Word Pub.

The 5 Gossips You Will Meet (Tim Challies)

Gossip is a serious problem. It is a problem in the home, in the workplace, in the local church and in broader evangelicalism. It is a problem in the blogosphere, in social media, and beyond. In his book Resisting Gossip, Matthew Mitchell defines gossip as “bearing bad news behind someone’s back out of a bad heart” and shows that when the book of Proverbs uses the word “gossip,” it does so in the noun form, not the verb form. In other words, the Bible is concerned less with the words that are spoken and more with the heart and mouth that generate such destruction. Words matter, but they are simply the overflow of the heart. As always, the heart is the heart of the matter.

Here, drawn from Mitchell’s book, is a gallery of gossips, five different gossiping people you will meet in life.

To read more, click HERE!

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ABOUT TIM CHALLIES

I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario, and am a co-founder of Cruciform Press.