Albert Mohler is the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, as well as occupying an upper-shelf among Baptist scholars these days. Get to know him, grow to love him. Here is an article he posted today about the waning strength of the rabid pro-abortion people. Turns out, the abortion movement has voluntarily eliminated its own stock of younger voters and activists. Who knew?! Conversely, folks actually having babies tend to be pro-life, and guess what? They tend to raise children who share their beliefs. The irony is so thick you can eat it with a fork...but use a spoon to get every drop.
On another, somewhat less hopeful note, my favorite living writer, Doug Wilson, lists 7 Reasons Why Your Taxes Will Go Up in the near future. In another in a long parade of worthy things to read from pastor Wilson, here is why Christianity seems so political all the time these days.
On another completely unrelated note, consider this:
When faced with the Gospel testimonies, skeptics take one of two tacts (and then alternate between them as the situation seems to warrant.)
1. They say that the Gospels cannot be inerrant Scripture, because the writers include different details about the same event, sometimes in a manner that makes reconciliation of the accounts a serious task. Did the Centurion go out to Jesus in Matthew 8, or did he merely send servants? What's the order of the events on the day of Christ's resurrection? Etc.
or
2. They say that when the Gospels put the same events in the same order, and even use the exact same language and word order to describe them, well, then, that obviously means that Luke copied from Mark, or whatever.
At some point, these kinds of complaints begin to sound like what they are: grasping at straws in order to avoid the truth of the matter.
Either the Scripture includes too many disparate details, or it is in too much agreement about the details. Either way is good for the unbeliever. Any port in a storm.
"The Bible isn't inspired because the details vary!"
"The Bible isn't inspired because the details are the same!"
This is throwing every argument like a plate of spaghetti against the wall and desperately hoping something sticks.
How dumb would Matthew and Luke need to be, really, to copy large sections from Mark's gospel (which all the super smart guys think they did) but to then go ahead and leave some accounts of some things different? I mean, if they're copying in the first place, wouldn't that be for the purpose of making sure that they all got their stories straight? So why not go the whole nine and eliminate every instance of variance?
Friday, April 30, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Hey Look! More Stairs!
I have been informed that a Presbyterian Church (USA) in our region is planning a special sort of service this morning.
One of the children of the congregation, a 10 year old girl, will be leading the entire service, including the performance of all the liturgy and preaching the "sermon." When asked what her sermon was going to be about, she responded, "Hugs." About the time you think that Christianity has become as irrelevant and trivial as it possibly could (and voluntarily so, by its own devices) we find more stairs leading downward.
Okay, I want to make it clear that I know this little girl and her family. They are all very likeable, very decent people. You would enjoy being around them.
So please don't hear me saying something overly personal about them in this.
I just want to point out that this incident, if it indeed happens (and I see no reason why it won't,) really shows the depths to which the PC(USA) has sunk. It's not that the little girl is a bad girl: as little girls go, she's quite nice actually. But she has no business in a pulpit, no business leading the corporate worship of God's people, no business preaching.
The sad thing is that the people at this church are ALL really nice folks. You'd enjoy their company.
But if they read or hear of this post, I will likely be a villain and a bad guy for pointing out that this is outrageous evidence that they have all "lost the plot," Biblically speaking. Just because a group of genuinely nice people get together and agree to do something in church, that doesn't make it right.
My issue here is not with who the little girl is, or who her family is: I happen to like all of them, and have been on friendly terms with them. My issue is with a church agreeing that being led in worship by a 10 year old could be a good thing, in any universe. However cute and adorable her talk about hugs will be, this will be true: the Gospel of Jesus Christ will not be preached there. God will not be glorified in it. The Word of God will be denigrated in it.
And all the nice folks will rave and gush about how adorable it was. Not one of them will have any twinge of Scriptural conscience nagging at them, to the effect that maybe something wrong is happening here. Maybe the corporate worship of the Lord Almighty ought to be about something a little more profound. Those thoughts will pass through no one's mind this morning in that place.
That's the tragedy.
One of the children of the congregation, a 10 year old girl, will be leading the entire service, including the performance of all the liturgy and preaching the "sermon." When asked what her sermon was going to be about, she responded, "Hugs." About the time you think that Christianity has become as irrelevant and trivial as it possibly could (and voluntarily so, by its own devices) we find more stairs leading downward.
Okay, I want to make it clear that I know this little girl and her family. They are all very likeable, very decent people. You would enjoy being around them.
So please don't hear me saying something overly personal about them in this.
I just want to point out that this incident, if it indeed happens (and I see no reason why it won't,) really shows the depths to which the PC(USA) has sunk. It's not that the little girl is a bad girl: as little girls go, she's quite nice actually. But she has no business in a pulpit, no business leading the corporate worship of God's people, no business preaching.
The sad thing is that the people at this church are ALL really nice folks. You'd enjoy their company.
But if they read or hear of this post, I will likely be a villain and a bad guy for pointing out that this is outrageous evidence that they have all "lost the plot," Biblically speaking. Just because a group of genuinely nice people get together and agree to do something in church, that doesn't make it right.
My issue here is not with who the little girl is, or who her family is: I happen to like all of them, and have been on friendly terms with them. My issue is with a church agreeing that being led in worship by a 10 year old could be a good thing, in any universe. However cute and adorable her talk about hugs will be, this will be true: the Gospel of Jesus Christ will not be preached there. God will not be glorified in it. The Word of God will be denigrated in it.
And all the nice folks will rave and gush about how adorable it was. Not one of them will have any twinge of Scriptural conscience nagging at them, to the effect that maybe something wrong is happening here. Maybe the corporate worship of the Lord Almighty ought to be about something a little more profound. Those thoughts will pass through no one's mind this morning in that place.
That's the tragedy.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Different Flavors of Faith
The Bible uses a family of fairly similar words to speak of sin: iniquity, transgression, wickedness, lawlessness, perversion, sin, etc. They are roughly equivalent terms, but with enough nuance and slight variation to warrant the separate expressions.
In the same way, the Bible also uses a number of related terms to give full expression to what it means to believe in God. As with the sin family above, these words are very close to one another, and yet varied enough to warrant different expressions.
I have found this a helpful way to think about how "faith" is related to its cousin-words in the Scripture. The different flavors of faith, if you will.
------------
When faith is confronted with the Word of God, it believes what it hears.
When faith hears the promises of God, it trusts.
When faith hears of the absolute holiness of God, it becomes the "fear of the Lord."
When faith hears of God's plans for our future, it hopes.
When faith hears of God's hatred of sin, it repents.
When faith toughs it out over the long haul, it's called perseverance.
When faith is finally confronted with the Object of its longing, it loves eternally.
In the same way, the Bible also uses a number of related terms to give full expression to what it means to believe in God. As with the sin family above, these words are very close to one another, and yet varied enough to warrant different expressions.
I have found this a helpful way to think about how "faith" is related to its cousin-words in the Scripture. The different flavors of faith, if you will.
------------
When faith is confronted with the Word of God, it believes what it hears.
When faith hears the promises of God, it trusts.
When faith hears of the absolute holiness of God, it becomes the "fear of the Lord."
When faith hears of God's plans for our future, it hopes.
When faith hears of God's hatred of sin, it repents.
When faith toughs it out over the long haul, it's called perseverance.
When faith is finally confronted with the Object of its longing, it loves eternally.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Pushing our Doctrine out our Fingertips
As long as I've been preaching, it has not been my practice to publish my sermon notes. There are a lot of reasons for this, maybe the chief being that I can't stand reading other Pastors' blogs out there when they do publish them. YAWN!!
So please forgive me this one exception. I may have gone out of my mind, but I am convinced that you really need to grasp these truths, meditate on them and make them part of you, if you really expect to grow in grace.
Last night's message was titled Four Things You Need to Know to Grow in Grace. The subject was "sanctification," the Christian's practical growth in holiness, his gradual conformity to the image of Christ. The text was the whole of Romans 6, but a few verses in particular.
Specifically, I focused on places where Paul lays stress on certain things that we need to think if we expect to be separated from sin. The battle to be more sanctified day-to-day begins within, in the mind. We have to think like God tells us to think before we can hope to act like He tells us to act.
Here are those four places again, with meager suggestions for how they ought to begin to impact our thought-life.
1. Romans 6:3 "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?"
The next couple of verses stress that in our conversion we have been united to Christ. Without this unity, there is no basis for sanctification. His death is our death. His resurrection is our new life.
Hopefully, you recognize that as solid Christian theology. But know this: you will not progress in daily, real-life sanctification until that particular bit of good theology runs through your veins just as surely as plasma.
The person you used to be is dead. That person was crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20.) This must move from being a confession of faith to becoming the very air you breathe.
2. Romans 6:6 "We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin."
You were a slave to sin. Just as there is a sense in which natural death has the power to "free" a person from a state of slavery, so your death with Christ has freed you from that particular master. You no longer have to serve that old one.
In the same way that Christ walked out of the tomb, proving that death no longer had dominion over him (Romans 6:9) so you have been empowered to walk away from the plantation on which you used to serve.
But none of this will happen if you don't get your mind right, and agree to really think that this is true: Your death with Christ has set you free.
3. Romans 6:11 "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
This is the same sort of language, the language of "imputation," that Paul belabors in chapter 4. It is a matter of what you are willing to write down on your own account balance, in a manner of speaking.
In justification, God has imputed righteousness to you, apart from your works. The perfect righteousness of Christ was laid to your account when you were, in point of fact, a flagrant sinner.
Now, you are commanded to do some reckoning yourself: reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God.
You must do this in the face, in the very teeth, of how it feels sometimes. You must do it in the face of how you perform at times.
You must do it for one reason: God says it is true. You don't do it because that is what it looks like. You don't do it because that's what your experience seems to tell you. But because the Word says it.
If you can't assimilate this truth, make it part of your DNA, kiss your sanctification good-bye.
4. Romans 6:16 "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey...?"
Only once the above truths are really comprehended, can you make use of this priniciple.
That is, you must understand and believe your position with Christ, your legal standing in the courts of heaven, before you can make the right practical choices and actions for the right reasons.
If all we grasp in this chapter is this verse, this principle, then we will be left with merely a Christianly sort of moralism, where we strive very hard to use our "members" in the right way, outwardly at least. We will find ourselves right back under the law, where every misdeed and each transgression is a proof of alienation from God.
But, if we'll cling to the truths in 1-3 above, and really get them nailed down in our inner being, then when we come to this principle, it is a liberating joy. It becomes the practical principle of our freedom. I don't serve in God's fields of righteousness out of terror, but in thanksgiving for his inward deliverance (Romans 6:17.) The old taskmaster cannot drive me back into his fields, no matter how loud and threatening the crack of his whip. That guy he used to terrify is dead, and I know exactly where he is buried: I have the baptismal certificate to document it.
What a joy now to present my members as instruments of righteousness to a new and gracious Owner.
So please forgive me this one exception. I may have gone out of my mind, but I am convinced that you really need to grasp these truths, meditate on them and make them part of you, if you really expect to grow in grace.
Last night's message was titled Four Things You Need to Know to Grow in Grace. The subject was "sanctification," the Christian's practical growth in holiness, his gradual conformity to the image of Christ. The text was the whole of Romans 6, but a few verses in particular.
Specifically, I focused on places where Paul lays stress on certain things that we need to think if we expect to be separated from sin. The battle to be more sanctified day-to-day begins within, in the mind. We have to think like God tells us to think before we can hope to act like He tells us to act.
Here are those four places again, with meager suggestions for how they ought to begin to impact our thought-life.
1. Romans 6:3 "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?"
The next couple of verses stress that in our conversion we have been united to Christ. Without this unity, there is no basis for sanctification. His death is our death. His resurrection is our new life.
Hopefully, you recognize that as solid Christian theology. But know this: you will not progress in daily, real-life sanctification until that particular bit of good theology runs through your veins just as surely as plasma.
The person you used to be is dead. That person was crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20.) This must move from being a confession of faith to becoming the very air you breathe.
2. Romans 6:6 "We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin."
You were a slave to sin. Just as there is a sense in which natural death has the power to "free" a person from a state of slavery, so your death with Christ has freed you from that particular master. You no longer have to serve that old one.
In the same way that Christ walked out of the tomb, proving that death no longer had dominion over him (Romans 6:9) so you have been empowered to walk away from the plantation on which you used to serve.
But none of this will happen if you don't get your mind right, and agree to really think that this is true: Your death with Christ has set you free.
3. Romans 6:11 "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
This is the same sort of language, the language of "imputation," that Paul belabors in chapter 4. It is a matter of what you are willing to write down on your own account balance, in a manner of speaking.
In justification, God has imputed righteousness to you, apart from your works. The perfect righteousness of Christ was laid to your account when you were, in point of fact, a flagrant sinner.
Now, you are commanded to do some reckoning yourself: reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God.
You must do this in the face, in the very teeth, of how it feels sometimes. You must do it in the face of how you perform at times.
You must do it for one reason: God says it is true. You don't do it because that is what it looks like. You don't do it because that's what your experience seems to tell you. But because the Word says it.
If you can't assimilate this truth, make it part of your DNA, kiss your sanctification good-bye.
4. Romans 6:16 "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey...?"
Only once the above truths are really comprehended, can you make use of this priniciple.
That is, you must understand and believe your position with Christ, your legal standing in the courts of heaven, before you can make the right practical choices and actions for the right reasons.
If all we grasp in this chapter is this verse, this principle, then we will be left with merely a Christianly sort of moralism, where we strive very hard to use our "members" in the right way, outwardly at least. We will find ourselves right back under the law, where every misdeed and each transgression is a proof of alienation from God.
But, if we'll cling to the truths in 1-3 above, and really get them nailed down in our inner being, then when we come to this principle, it is a liberating joy. It becomes the practical principle of our freedom. I don't serve in God's fields of righteousness out of terror, but in thanksgiving for his inward deliverance (Romans 6:17.) The old taskmaster cannot drive me back into his fields, no matter how loud and threatening the crack of his whip. That guy he used to terrify is dead, and I know exactly where he is buried: I have the baptismal certificate to document it.
What a joy now to present my members as instruments of righteousness to a new and gracious Owner.
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