DOUGLAS BOND BOOKS

• On the Road: Walking in Calvin's Footsteps. MODERN REFORMATION, June/July, 2009, Special John Calvin Quincentenary issue
  
• The Devil Hates Goose Quills. MODERN REFORMATION, March/April, 2010 
• Listening for the Fine Print . MODERN REFORMATION, (pending)
• Other articles by Bond have been published in 48 North, Light and Life, Western Reformed Seminary Review, and others.
  

"This afternoon I read "On the Road: Walking in Calvin's Footsteps" by Douglas Bond in the June/July 2009 issue of Modern Reformation. I'd like to see more from this fellow. His writing has a 'you are there' quality that has a way of helping me remember the facts he's sharing. I found his article to be very enjoyable and informative as well."                   Blessings, Diane Barnett

History is filled with ironic contortions. Consider the bungling of Scottish moderns placing a life-size bronze statue of John Knox in the ambulatory of St. Giles, Edinburgh, the very church in which Knox preached against idolatry. Or consider John Calvin decrying simony when funding for his entire education had come from benefices his father had finagled for his son.

Or consider thousands of Calvinists descending on Geneva July 10, 2009 to commemorate the 500^th birthday of the man who considered the medieval sacrament of pilgrimage to be one of the "faults contravening the Reformation." Is this yet another instance of self-contradictory theological buffoonery, a quest for merit tallied by stamps in the passport?

Tempting as these conclusions are to critics, I think not. As he lay dying, Calvin insisted that his body be buried in an unmarked grave. Some believe this was Calvin trying to avoid being the object of what he termed the “fictitious worship of dead men’s bones.” I’m inclined, however, to think that his dying request is yet another myth-buster; he didn’t want his bones enshrined because Calvin was so taken with the glory of Christ that the veneration of John Calvin never occurred to him. And for such humble piety alone Calvin would be worthy of our perennial attention.

SANCTIFICATION BY IMITATION

Theodore Beza, Calvin’s successor, in whose arms Calvin died, wrote of him on the final page of his account of Calvin’s life, “Having been a spectator of his conduct for sixteen years… I can now declare that in him all men may see a most beautiful example of Christian character, an example which is as easy to slander as it is difficult to imitate.” 

Seventeen times in the New Testament we are told to imitate exceptional men as they seek to follow Christ. Calvin is a man worthy of imitation. There’s no idolatry in giving double honor to men who serve faithfully, who employ their considerable gifts in devoted service to Christ and his Kingdom. Hence, a tour in commemoration of the 500^th birthday of John Calvin is no superstitious medieval pilgrimage.

There’s no intrinsic conferring of grace to be had by going to Geneva or, for that matter, Jerusalem. If, however, one wants to find inspiration to live a more godly, Christ-honoring life, to hone and employ skills to be more useful in the cause of the Gospel, or if one desires to expand his appreciation of the sovereign working of God in history, using vacation dollars to follow Calvin around Europe for the days surrounding his 500^th birthday could be time and money well invested.

For those cutting back on vacation spending, or who have already committed those dollars for a trip to Hawaii, join me in the next few paragraphs for an imaginary tour of some of the most important sights in the life of the most important Christians since St. Augustine.

CALVIN IN NOYON

"Thank you for your insightful essay in the recent Modern Reformation.Verse is too great a gift to be dismissed as cavalierly as it is today.  In a little monograph of mine earlier this year (Why Johnny Can't Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers), I attempted to argue that the decline of the pulpit is largely due to the decline of verse in our culture, and I have encouraged those who would preach to be lifelong readers of poetry (and, perhaps, some will write it also). At any rate, I no longer feel like an oddball crank in suggesting that verse has distinctive properties that shape our sensibilities in important ways. Thank you for assuring me that I am not alone."

Yours in Christ, Dr. T. David Gordon, Professor of Religion and Greek, Grove City College [author of Why Johnny Can't Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers]

"I enjoy reading MR... Thank you for providing such a biblically helpful resource. I read and agreed with the article by Douglas Bond, "The Devil Hates Goose Quills: And Why it Matters to the Church." I took the advice and sat down and wrote one for Easter..."

Dr. Ron Daves, Pastor, Temple Baptists Church, Columbia, SC

POST-POETRY CULTURE

Martin Luther, who said “The Devil hates goose quills,” insisted that in a reformation, “We need poets.” Most of us scratch our heads and wonder what on earth we need them for.

Our postmodern, post-Christian, post-Biblical culture has almost totally dismissed what used to be called poetry. Few deny it; ours is a post-poetry culture. But who cares? 

“Poetry is a marginal art form,” wrote poet Campbell McGrath, “in a culture that values neither literacy nor artistic expression in any vital way. America does not persecute poets, it does not seek to smash them like bugs—it just doesn’t care a lot.”

Martin Luther cared deeply about poetry, in the most vital way. But do most Christians today? Most accept the decline of poetry without a whimper, with barely a wafture of good riddance.  But does it matter?

Paul Johnson, decrying the decline in literacy, argues that students should “produce competent verse in a wide variety of strict meters, under examination conditions.”

To what purpose should they be subjected to such literary tortures? After all, what good is it? Won’t the machinations of society carry on just fine without poetry? Won’t the church do just fine without it? It’s not like poetry contributes anything vital. You can’t eat it.  

So thought Hanoverian King George II. “I hate all boets!” he declared. If you’ve ever been flummoxed at lines you were told were poetry, ones about wheelbarrows and chickens, you may agree with George’s abhorrence of poets.

But are Christians to stand deferentially aside as culture pitches poetry—the highest form—into the lowest circle of hell? 

WHAT HAPPENED TO POETRY? 

I’ve been accused of the pedagogical unpardonable sin of depriving my writing students of what has become poetry’s sole consideration: individual self-expression. “Why don’t you let them write in free verse?” I’m asked. “I do,” I reply. “We just call it brainstorming.”

Arguably vers libre achieved its foothold with Walt Whitman, a man with new ideas simmering in his bosom, new ideas that demanded a new form. “Through me forbidden voices, voices of sexes and lust, voices veiled, and I removed the veil.” The Devil, no doubt, rubs his hands in glee at Whitman’s goose quill.

LARGE PRINT fine print

“The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away," croaks experimental songwriter Tom Waits. We feel cheated when advertisers or politicians do this to us. How much more so when it’s done in the pulpit and the gospel is at stake.

Judging from the Apostle Paul, tampering with the truth by less-than-open statements must be nothing new. “We have renounced disgraceful, and underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (II Corinthians 4:2).

THERE’S A WAR ON

Trotsky said, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” Peace-loving Christians disinterested in conflict hope controversy will go away if we pretend it’s not there. This never works. The deceiver attacks sometimes as a roaring lion (large print), and other times as an angel of light (fine print). The new attack on Reformed soteriology is not from without. It’s cloaked as an angel of light—an inside job.

Make no mistake. Though we’re inclined to get along superficially with others, and call it unity, there’s a real war on. If we love the gospel, we must train our ears to hear cunning preaching that widens the gap between the large print and the fine print.

“Where the battle rages,“ wrote Luther, “there the loyalty of the soldier is proved.” Where does it rage today? Where it always has. Church history is the chronicle of cunning attacks on the gospel.

So it shouldn’t have sounded odd to the 2007 General Assembly of the PCA, debating the findings of a study committee, when R. C. Sproul said, “Gentlemen, it’s the gospel that’s at stake.”

For those who care about biblical preaching, consider with me several troubling fine-print deviations from confessional truth about Christ and the gospel. 

TAMPERING WITH INTERPRETATION