The American Churchman: Cultivating a Family Identity

Divine Truth as an Attribute of God

Well, hello, it is Jumpy John and Matthew for the American Churchmen podcast, where we talk about ways to encourage men to fulfill their God-given duties with gentleness and courage. How are you doing, Matt?

I'm doing good. And yes, you are quite jumpy, but that's okay, because whenever I rarely do this, but whenever I decide to look back at one of our episodes, you always look just so smooth, and then randomly my camera gets really blurry for some reason.

So I guess now you have to experience this, so sorry to see that, John.

The funny part is I was giving someone advice earlier today on their camera, and they had jumpiness and it actually was freezing. And now I just feel like a big hypocrite. So I don't know what's causing this, but it doesn't seem to be the camera itself.

It seems like it's the browser, and I'll have to explore that, but right when we needed it to work. Anyway, if you're listening in audio, you have no clue what we're talking about, which is just fine.

We have a big conference coming up. I should let everyone know about this first. We have a couple of conferences, but the big one, let's see, I'll pull it up and see if I can, yeah, there we go. Talk about it while we're doing it.

So it's called the Christianity and the Founding Conference. It says actually on TrueScript, it says Church and the Founding. So maybe it's because that's shorter. Maybe Christianity was too long. I don't know, but it is actually Christianity and the Founding.

And that's in Sullins Grove, Pennsylvania from April 25th through 26th. If you click on that link at truthscript .com, you can check it out or you can just go directly there at Christianityandthefounding .com and you can register 30 bucks.

That's honestly a really good price for what you're going to be getting. And then a VIP dinner, $50 if you want to be part of that, that's on Friday night. And we've got some great guests, some great speakers, and yeah, it's just, it's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday thing, Friday night, Saturday, Sunday in April.

So check it out, Christianityandthefounding .com and of course, as always, if you want to donate to TruthScript, which is underwriting this conference, truthscript .com, scroll to the bottom where it says donate.

All right.

Well, with that, Matthew, let's start off with our attribute of God for today.

Yes.

I kind of always say something like this, but I feel like this one, I really do need to say this because I feel like this one's going to get a little bit deeper, but we're going to be diving into this attribute of God known as divine truth or just truth being an attribute of God.

Now it may seem like pretty straightforward.

Okay.

What is something that's true? Something that coheres with reality, but describing this as an attribute of God, actually there's a lot more built into it, believe it or not. So we may be getting into some deep territory today.

And so I look forward to that because I'll see if I can actually sufficiently explain or whether I look like a sood. But anyways, two verses we're going to be reading today. Both are from the New Testament.

We're going to be going over John 14, six and Hebrews six, verse 16 through 18. So I'll start off with John 14, six. Most people know this like easy Bible verse to memorize, demonstrating that Christianity alone is the one true faith.

And through Christ alone, we can come to salvation where John 14, six says, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father, but by me. Notice that second thing he says, I'm the way, the truth and the life.

Remember our attribute of it today is divine truth. So Christ claimed to be the truth. Very interesting. Hebrews six, verse 16 through 18 says for men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife, wherein God willing more abundantly to shoe unto the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie.

We might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Notice in that verse there in verse 18, in which it was impossible for God to lie, which means God can only speak the truth.

So in order for us to understand how it is that God is truth and that truth is an attribute of God, we must first define what truth is. I kind of said this in a very simple way to begin with. Truth is just that which coheres with reality.

If something is in line with reality, it is true. But metaphysically, when we speak of truth, truth is one of the transcendental properties of being. When we think of the transcendentals, we think of truth, beauty, and goodness.

And so truth is one of those transcendental properties. And notice I said it's a property of being. What is being? It simply is to exist. It's pure existence itself. So if truth is one of the properties of being, and we think of being, being as such is true in the ontological sense that it is what it is, and it cannot be something else.

Really quick before I go on, I usually always list my sources before, but our three sources we're going to be pulling from today is Richard Moeller, Herman Bavink, and then Gregory of Nyssa. So we'll be delving into that a little bit, needed to, before I continued on, my apologies for forgetting.

But anyways, back to being. We basically would say about being that being is true in as much as it cannot be non-being. If something is, it must cohere with reality. Thus, now all this comes back to truth as an attribute of God.

The truth of God is essentially the correspondence and identity of the understanding and will of God with the essence of God, making God himself truth in an absolute sense. So God is truth. God as pure being must be true because God cannot be non-being, and why can God not be non-being?

Because God exists of himself. Remember, that's our attribute of aseity, which we went over a few weeks ago, and aseity is an attribute of God, and if God exists in and of himself as pure being, he must be truth itself.

All things that are true in reality are true because they cohere with reality or being, and in doing so, they participate in being himself, which is God. So that was a mouthful. We're going to read two brief quotes to kind of help us digest this.

The first would be from Herman Bavink. Bavink, on this topic of God as truth, he says, God is also true and trustworthy. He can be counted on. Truth is a matter of veracity and genuineness, of logical consistency and ethical correspondence between a person's being and self-revelation.

God is true in all senses. He is the only God, and he cannot lie or be in error. He is truth in its absolute fullness, the source and ground of all truth, all reality. He is the light by which alone we can know truth.

Now, when I was speaking about being earlier and the correspondence of being with truth and how in order for something to be true, it has to be participating in being, that's like a very platonic notion.

So it's very philosophical. So I know that some people aren't the biggest fans of philosophy and Christianity. So, you know, maybe bite your tongue a little bit when you listen to this. But this next quote we're going to be going over kind of touches on the nature of being.

And this is from the church father, Gregory of Nyssa, from his work, The Life of Moses. So Gregory of Nyssa writes here, and I'm going to kind of go through this again. It can be a little complicated, but it's really illuminating for our understanding of what truth is and how this relates to being, which obviously relates to God, who is pure being.

Nyssa writes, it seems to me that at the time the great Moses was instructed in the theophany, he came to know that none of those things which are apprehended by sense perception and contemplated by the understanding really subsists, but that the transcendent essence and cause of the universe on which everything depends unload and subsists.

For even if the understanding looks upon any other existing things, reason observes, and absolutely none of them, the self-sufficiency by which they could exist without participating in true being. On the other hand, that which is always the same, neither increasing nor diminishing, immutable to all change, whether to better or to worse, for it is far removed from the inferior and it has no superior, standing in need of nothing else, alone desirable, participated in by all, but not lessened by their participation, this is truly real being.

And then listen to this last part, and the apprehension of it is the knowledge of truth. So that is essentially how I would go over truth as an attribute of God. It got very philosophical. We got into a lot of platonic territory.

I hope I made somewhat sense, but that's truth as an attribute of God.

Excellent.

Yeah.

Thank you, Matthew. Now your camera's going blurry. So forgive us for those streaming right now. We are having a little bit of a difficulty with, I guess, something, internet connection. I don't know what, but that was an excellent description of truth.

And I don't know if you're equipped to talk to this yet. I don't know if you do study Vantil at all, and maybe you get him in apologetics at seminary.

I may at some point. I haven't read a whole lot of Vantil, admittedly. I mean, when I was in middle and high school, I was kind of in the pop Vantilian train and all that, but I mean, that's not actually reading Vantil.

So I've not engaged too much with that now.

So Theology Matters says this is what Vantil grounds his apologetic in, and John Frame agrees that he does the same. Check out John Frame's examination of Vantil's thoughts. But I've read Frame on apologetics.

I'm not sure which source Theology Matters is referencing there. But no, I think the description you gave, definition of truth is pretty compatible for, I would think, all apologetic, well, major apologetic approaches.

They would all agree with that for the most part. I mean, the correspondence theory of truth is the major one that you hear about. But it's not the only one that's out there. I mean, you could have the coherence.

Actually, some people have told me that's more into Vantil. His thinking is the coherence theory of truth, where truth is that which coheres to itself and does not have any contradictions within it. Anyway, I don't know if we want to get into a big discussion about that.

I can see both of those things actually being, truth can't have contradictions in it. But it also corresponds to reality. I think it was Michael Butler, who's a Vantilian, I was listening to was saying, I've listened to one of his courses a few times where he says that truth is that which coheres to God, right?

But this is an attribute of God, too. This is obviously who God is, is truth. That's why he's the same way, the truth, the life. It's probably the most profound thing that's ever been said in human history.

Yeah, for sure.

When I said that truth is that which corresponds to reality, in a sense, we can actually say that that which is true is reality itself participates in truth, which is why truth is that which corresponds to reality.

Because fundamentally, reality is just being. It's that which is. Because God is pure being and all that is true is that which participates in God. So it's really interesting to contemplate and think about the nature of truth and how it corresponds to God, who is truth and how God, in order to be pure being, must be truthful because he himself can't be non-being because aseity is an attribute.

And that, again, gets in the things I always bring up with our past episodes that whenever we go through these attributes, like we distinguish them. But if all that is in God is God, then all of these attributes, while we distinguish them from each other, they all they all are God, in a sense.

So it's really interesting to see like how the attributes relate to each other and how they sort of build upon one another in certain senses. And it just makes contemplation of God just incredible. And people who say that like, you know, oh, you have to make sure that, you know, you're actually like being devoted in your prayer life and not just studying theology.

Like, that's true. Absolutely. You can study theology and be a nerd all you want and not have a real relationship with.

God.

But there is a very practical devotional value to studying theology and especially the attributes of God, because it helps us in contemplating our Lord and God. And in so doing, it helps us to adore him.

And the adoration of God is essential for a good devotional life with God. So and that's just why I'm appreciative of this series, because every time I look into one of these, I'm just like, wow, I worship an incredible God.

That's why lies would also be such an anti-God thing. It's not just that they're denying truth, but they're also, in a sense, denying God. They're pretending to live in the reality that he hasn't made.

And so in a sense, it's like it's a false reality that you're creating.

Yeah.

No, a lie is a blasphemy.

It's a blasphemy in a sense.

Yeah, yeah.

Family Identity and the Natural Good of Marriage and Children

So, all right, well, let's talk about some of these articles. And we have two that we're going to talk about. The primary one is on the importance of family identity. So I'll pull that up so people can see it instead of just looking at my jitteriness here.

You actually cleared up, Matthew. You're looking good now. I don't know what's going on.

Very nice. Let's go.

The importance of family identity. So my mom actually wrote this, which is kind of cool. And so I have some, obviously, first-hand experience with—.

I saw that last name Harris, and then I looked at the picture, and I'm like, I wonder if that's John's mom.

Does it look like me? Yeah, I'll scroll down so people can—.

Yeah, no, I'm going to—.

It's small. I don't know. Yeah, you can't really—.

I zoomed in a little bit. You know, actually, I can see it. She has—you guys have a very similar phrenology.

Do we?

Okay.

Yes, yeah.

Yeah, phrenology. Is that how you say it? It's phrenology?

Wait, how would you say it?

I don't know. I think I've said phrenology. I probably said it—.

No, I'm talking about the pseudoscience of studying skull shapes.

No, it's a real science.

Oh, is it?

No, I don't know.

No, it could be if you really want it to be. If you want to be an early 20th century American progressive, then it could be.

Yeah, and a vowed scientific racist. Then phrenology is your thing, I guess. Fun fact, you know, the main critics of phrenology were Southern clergymen.

Oh, really?

Yeah, which is kind of against the narrative that you often hear, right? That they all use—.

Probably because it corresponded with evolution. So it's like, this is Yankee racism. We prefer good old-fashioned, you know?

Good old-fashioned racism?

Well, it was more like—yeah, they were bringing in these scientific categories and guys like Louis Gizaz, I'm probably botching his name too, and Samuel—what's his name now? Samuel Morton, I think, in Philadelphia.

So it was in the North, but they were big on this stuff and trying to say Africans weren't really human. Like, they really were arguing these things. And more, you know, animals. And this is before Darwin.

And I don't know how we got on this, but anyway, we're on it. So guys like—.

It was all because I was noting how you look similar to your mother and then we got on scientific racism. You know, that's our podcast.

Yeah, so anyway.

All right.

So yeah, Southern clergymen like James Henley Thornwell are super critical about this stuff. But we digress into the actual article, which is about having a family identity. And no, Matthew and I aren't phrenologists.

I shouldn't speak for you, Matthew. I don't think you're a phrenologist. I'm not a phrenologist.

No, I'm an avowed phrenologist. I'm very dedicated to the study. That's a joke, by the way.

Really comes through loud and clear. All right. Well, the importance of family. So my mom talks about the disintegration of the nuclear families, a little bit of her own experience in that. So she actually did.

Interestingly enough, this will be, I guess, fascinating for people who want to know more about me and stuff. My mom, I'm from California initially. That's where I was born, at least, right? My parents are from there.

So my mom's mom, so my grandma, she was very involved in Hollywood like not in acting or producing, but in managing the finances, personal finances for actors and actresses. She had her own business. And she was really close friends with Harriet Nelson from the Ozzie and Harriet Show, which you wouldn't remember at all.

Neither would I. But I just know it because of family history. It was a really popular show sitcom back in the 50s. And so anyway, she used to like, I guess, go down to the studio and she saw Mr. Ed and some of the Munsters and the different shows they would do.

And because of that, there were some Hollywood connections and stuff. She actually writes a little bit about this of what her early life was like and getting briefly into modeling and not wanting to go that direction.

And my parents wanted to keep us away from that world, or my parents and grandparents, just because they knew how dark it was, which with all the revelations coming about child trafficking and all of this, it's not a surprise to my family.

This was something that was known and something that they didn't want for me and so forth. So I'm grateful for that. But anyway, she talks about having a dysfunctional family and how all she really wanted was to have a good family, a solid family unit.

And so she gets into some of the problems. There's a lot of suicide and depression. And she thinks a lot of this is probably because of the insecurities that children have who are in broken homes. I agree.

And that there are these other places of belonging that want their allegiance, including Satan clubs, the LGBTQ plus, quote, unquote, community, which I've always thought that's not a community, but they always call it, right?

Yeah.

And and so these are not these are like substitutes. They're substitutes out there, but they're not actually replacements for the family. And I would add to this, like, you know, your Friendsgiving can even become like that, like where it's I'm not saying you shouldn't celebrate Thanksgiving with your friends, but if your your your group becomes the family replacement, then that's not a good thing.

And then, of course, the solution is cultivating this family identity. She gets into some of the things that she they did with us. Like we had our own little unique family festivals. So we had these harvest parties every year.

I thought every kid had it. I think when I was starting out, I realized, oh, it's just us. But we had family rules that were unique to the Harris's. And like my parents did all kinds of things like they had a family motto at one time, which was obviously this is an inside family joke.

But like Harris's stick together like Grandma Harris's tape, because my grandma would like wrap all her boxes in so much tape. You could barely you had to have a knife to just cut through. The tape to get into whatever the gift was that she had.

So but anyway, they tried all these things to cultivate a family identity. And so here's the radical thing about all this, I suppose you could. It's not actually that radical. It's actually common sense.

But today it might be considered that. I think the family identity for us was in terms of sequence, something that we were we were we died. I don't know how I want to say this accepted. Maybe that's the best word.

Like we accepted this and we we made it part of ourselves. Naturally, it wasn't like, you know, we didn't sign on a dotted line anywhere. It's just it's just how things went. Right. We're part of this family.

And this is sequentially before any of us became Christians. And in fact, you know, I my my youngest brother, he has not made a profession of faith in Christ. So this is somebody is a Harris. Right. And he's included in those things.

And I've talked to parents and families who, you know, might be having trouble with their.

Kids.

And I'm not saying this is a silver bullet, but I do think that if you're especially one of these like big homeschool families that really prizes the fact that you guys are Christians. I think that's great.

We were homeschooled. But I think if you make being a Christian part of the family identity or the same thing as the family identity, like there's no difference between the two. Then what happens is if you have a child who's not a Christian, they're on the outside.

They're not part of the family anymore.

They don't feel like it.

And it does, I think, create a pretext for rebellion that probably doesn't need to be.

There.

And I know this is controversial. There's going to feel good to disagree with me, but I've seen this firsthand. So my mom doesn't talk about this, but it sparked a thought in my mind that that was one of the things I thought they did a good job with was making sure that our Christianity was something that we had to abide by Christian rules.

We were part of a Christian family, but they didn't give us the false impression that we were saved because of membership in the family. And we were part of the family, whether or not we received Christ.

And because this is a natural thing, right? Just like in a nation or other natural institutions. So thoughts on any of that, Matt? I mean, I don't. I mean, you come from a pretty stable family, right?

Yes.

My immediate family. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

No, I mean, I thought this was a very interesting article, especially with the thought running through my head. I bet this is John Harris's mom. So, you know, I feel like I'm learning a bit about you.

But no, I definitely think that family identity is important because sorry, I keep having to clear my throat. So many people lack a sense of identity and they feel like they want to belong to something bigger.

And so they immediately like they're going to be like, oh, I'm going to become a nationalist. Oh, I'm going to take pride in my ethnic or racial heritage. Oh, I'm going to take pride in the fact that, you know, I belong to Christ, which is a good thing, by the way.

You know, but like they keep going to all these sayings. And but, you know, you could always just start off like with like, where did you first begin? Like you are a. You're a person, but you're not just a person.

If you're a person and you're here, it's because you are here by virtue of being in relation to somebody, your mom, you're a son, which is a title of relation. So you're intimately connected with a mom and a dad.

And if they had more kids, then you're connected to them because you share that relation. So where should we start? But the family. So that's like one of the most like foremost, like fundamental, like beginning pieces of identity on which everything is built.

And so I think that's really important. A lot of people feel like they lack a sense of identity. It's like, well, start with family. And I think that's something that I've always been like growing up.

I've always had like a good sense of family identity. And over the years, as I do like research and stuff like that's all been like confirmed. Like I've started doing like a lot of like tracing my ancestry and stuff and like looking at like my family members, like, you know, all the way back.

And my grandma is great to talk to about this because she has like all the records. And she tells me these stories about our ancestors and my great, great grandparents and all that. And it's really cool.

But it really is just so important for establishing like a piece of identity and kind of giving you like a start. Like there are various identities that you can have. So like I'd argue ethnic identity is important.

Your identity in crisis, arguably like one of the most important things, your identity and like in so many other aspects and areas like those all matter immensely. But a lot of that stuff really does spring from your family identity.

And there's so much like interconnection. Even with Christianity, John, I know you were saying that like, you don't think that, you know, maybe Christian shouldn't be like part of the essay or essence of being a Harris.

And that can be true. I think I would agree with that to a certain extent. But at the same time, you know, it's like, you know, you can say we're a Christian family, regardless of whether, but that doesn't necessarily mean, oh, in order to be a true Harris or a true Pearson, you have to be inwardly regenerated.

And if you're not, then you're not truly that. No, but like, you know, like, you know, religious identity still matters. That's why when we think of Christian nations, that doesn't mean every citizen of this common wealth is a regenerate Christian.

That'd be absurd. But like, you know, so much of this stuff with like identity, it really does spring from family and is incredibly important. But I feel like I've kind of been talking in a circle at this point, but I don't have anything to add to that.

Yeah, those good, good thoughts. I think one of the things that has bothered me about the gospel coalition over the years is how often they, I think, reinforce this idea that you can find these deep natural longings in the church.

And obviously, singleness is the big thing they talk about the most on this and that it's perfectly fine to be single. And if the Lord has called you to that, you know, that's praise God, right?

That's his domain.

But I think the natural course for the majority of people and the template God has laid down is for men and women to come together in marriage and have children. And this is the essence of a family is when a man and a woman come together.

And there is a beautiful thing about that. There's also a beautiful thing when you are able to have children. And I know what it's like to go years and wonder if you're even going to have kids and suffer through that infertility and all.

I get all those things. But I think the solution is not to say, well, you know, it doesn't really matter. You can be just as fulfilled in Christ. You can be just as fulfilled serving in his church. I think it's fine to say, you know, for somebody who wants to get married and isn't or wants to have children and they don't have them, it's fine to tell that person, you know, that really stinks.

I'm so sorry. Yeah, and I'm someone who's been through especially the latter there, like, you know, that must be hard because let's not sugarcoat it. These are things, blessings that God has made. And and if and they are fulfilling on a certain you need, I think, a measure of of grace from God to be able to handle not having those things.

And he can give that. But I've seen people try to find the substitute in the church and say, well, I have a church family. In fact, someone I'm thinking of right now who said that to me, that my church family is closer than my real family.

And therefore, I don't really have obligations to my real family anymore because I found this church family. And some of these people, this person has not even known past a year or two. Like, it's very little shared experience.

And I just kind of shake my head at that and think, well, you're looking for something that you're not going to ever find. You might think you're on a honeymoon phase. You think you found something, but that's there is something to be said for the natural family unit that God has created.

So, no, don't don't go looking for something like it's fine if you have like an old man in the church, you call an uncle or a grandpa. I had that with a grandma figure, but I wasn't ever fooled into thinking like, you know, this is a complete and total substitute for my actual grandma, right?

I could develop a lot of closeness and shared experience and all of that, but like, it doesn't negate the natural connections that God has created in the real world.

Yes.

No, it honestly is like this stuff is so important because I feel like it's just first off, it's almost like you're living in fantasy land if you think a lot of this stuff. But there's just there's so much that's very harmful about this.

Like the idea that because you lack a natural good or need that the spiritual alternative fulfills that need. I mean, that's ridiculous. Now, in the sense that the spiritual alternative can fulfill your ultimate need, which trumps that of a natural need such that it still sucks to not have the natural need.

But if you have like the ultimate fulfillment through the spiritual counterpart, that is sufficient and you do have everything that you need for this life and the next, and that's.

Good.

But to say that like, oh, that's the same thing. Oh, I don't need to be married because I belong to the body of Christ and the body of Christ is the bride of Christ and therefore I don't need to be married.

Okay.

You're now taking a stretch. Oh, I don't need a father figure in my life because I have God the father.

Okay.

You're also taking that to a stretch or, oh, I don't need to go to the doctor because Christ is a great physician. So you see where we're going here? Or it's almost, yeah, like it's just Jesus jukes and things like that can be scary.

Now it's like, say for example, like someone doesn't have an arm. An arm is something that is a good, you can grab things with it. And if you don't have any arms, that kind of sucks. You can't really do as much.

You can start using your legs. You can do whatever you want and that's great. But can you, in your mourning and sadness at having a lack of arms, find fulfillment in Christ? Yeah, absolutely. He's going to help you cope with what you have lost because even though you don't have this particular good, you know that you have a better good and a better reward awaiting you once we pass into the next life.

But at the same time, you still don't have arms and you still understand that that sucks. And you're not finding fulfillment in, oh, well, I have arms in Christ. No, that's ridiculous. Like you just acknowledge this is something I don't have because God in his providence for some reason did not grant this to me, but I will live.

It's fine.

But you can still say, yeah, that's not the best. And again, I ramble about this because this sort of thing can be so harmful because Jesus jukes are so shallow and they don't actually like they're not profound enough to deal with real problems that people have or they go through real trauma and sadness in life.

And ultimately, it just it leads to spiritual harm.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, one of the things I saw is years ago is churches that refuse to celebrate Mother's Day because of this because they'll say, well, some people want to have kids and want to be mothers, but they're not.

Or some people lost their mom. And it just brings feelings of sadness to recognize Mother's Day, which maybe there's good reasons to not recognize Mother's Day. It is not on a liturgical calendar. And I could see some with the regulative principles saying this isn't part of our.

But that's a very different reason. The reason of like it makes too many people sad because it reminds them of what's missing is not really good because, yeah, like that's a reality we have to face. And scripture also commands to rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

So I think it's a hard thing. And maybe some people can't handle that.

I get that.

Maybe that's you want to I don't know, like go to a different church that day where you don't stand out. I really don't know. There's different ways to handle that. But I think that the goal should be to get to the point where you're able to even if you're sad on that day, you're able to go rejoice with other people and still celebrate motherhood as this great thing that God has instituted.

And so, yeah, those are my thoughts. I don't think we should bend to that kind of pressure and try to make people feel like, oh, it's just totally fine that you don't you're not married or you don't have kids like like it hurts.