Timeline leading up to attack and one summary of events
http://www.christianpost.com/news/osama-bin-ladens-killing-to-add-to-pakistans-woes-50080/
Some immediate responses from Christian leaders:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/osama-bin-laden-dead-christians-debate-response-50060/
Christianity Today on reaching Islam after Osama Bin Laden (note further links to other responses at end of article)
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/mayweb-only/osama-islam.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4dc06da5ab0dabb5%2C0&start=1
American mission agencies concerned about responses home and abroad
http://www.christianpost.com/news/osama-bin-ladens-death-merits-prayer-more-than-revelry-says-mission-group-50068/
Al Mohler weighs in:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-trial-that-still-must-come-the-death-of-osama-bin-laden-and-the-limits-of-human-justice-50077/
John Piper speaks
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/how.does.god.feel.about.osama.bin.ladens.death/27935.htm
Some timely thoughts on such from Don Carson
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/05/02/don-carson-on-osama-bin-laden/
Michael Horton with the sobering voice of Scripture, history and reason:
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2011/05/02/the-death-of-osama-bin-laden-what-kind-of-justice-has-been-done/
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Sunday, 1 May 2011
God At Work in the Reid family of Elmira
A synopsis of the amazing story of Bruce Reid, his horrific traffic accident at the hands of a drunk driver one year ago and how he, his family and his church and his God have impacted so many lives through it. We know these people a bit. This is the Real McCoy. You GOTTA watch this. (Keep the tissues handy.)
http://vimeo.com/23117041
I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
http://vimeo.com/23117041
I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9 Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
Psalm 34 ESV
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Whence the lowly typewriter? How the mighty have fallen!
The apparent end of an era. Farewell old friend!
http://mashable.com/2011/04/26/rip-typewriter/#13161Typewriter
http://mashable.com/2011/04/26/rip-typewriter/#13161Typewriter
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Gospel Coalition Conference Plenary Session Video
Couldn't make it to the big event? No sweat! Now you can take it in at your leisure as many times as you like!
TGC The Gospel Coalition
Watch all nine #TGC11 plenary sessions http://ow.ly/4IsyS
Saturday, 23 April 2011
Love is all You need. ... REALLY? What was that Cross about again?
Yes, I did actually read Love Wins by Bell. Most of the words, anyway. What a sad and sorry excuse for a real book. Re-hashed liberal nonsense with a smattering neo orthodox double talk delivered in a post modern stream of consciousness. But it purports to champion God's Love so ... it must be good, RIGHT? Try to clear your head junior and then work through the material Resurgence has put together for us:
http://theresurgence.com/2011/03/15/a-chronology-of-rob-bell-on-hell
For a great Reformed perspective on this, enjoy this link:
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/?s=rob+bell
------------------------------------------------------
8Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9Resist him, firm in your faith 1 Pet 5
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 1 Pet 3:15 ff
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24And the Lord’s servantd must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 2 Tim 2 22-26
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spiritsa of the world, and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, Col 2
http://theresurgence.com/2011/03/15/a-chronology-of-rob-bell-on-hell
For a great Reformed perspective on this, enjoy this link:
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/?s=rob+bell
------------------------------------------------------
8Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9Resist him, firm in your faith 1 Pet 5
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 1 Pet 3:15 ff
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24And the Lord’s servantd must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 2 Tim 2 22-26
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spiritsa of the world, and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, Col 2
That Shack thing...
For all of you looking for a sound concise biblical response to the actual message behind The Shack, download and read this review. For all of you who got warm fuzzies reading the book, please read the review and ask yourself seriously whether the Real Trinity would want you to promote this stuff. This warm fuzzy teddy bear has a real and dangerous hook inside. PLEASE be careful!
http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/a-review-of-the-shack-download-it-here
Have a blessed Easter! May it be focused on the love of the Real Father who sent his one and only Real Son to die for us and be raised again that the Real Holy Spirit might bring us into newness of Life! Three Persons. One Substance. Holy Holy Holy
http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/a-review-of-the-shack-download-it-here
Have a blessed Easter! May it be focused on the love of the Real Father who sent his one and only Real Son to die for us and be raised again that the Real Holy Spirit might bring us into newness of Life! Three Persons. One Substance. Holy Holy Holy
Friday, 22 April 2011
Pietism vs Confessionalism/Truly a false dichotomy!
Can Pietism and Confessionalism Be Friends?
(Can anybody say both sides of the same coin?)
The Following excellent article is copied from the great blog
DeYoung Restless and Reformed
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/04/14/can-pietism-and-confessionalism-be-friends-part-3-of-3/
Those outside Presbyterian circles may not be aware (and may not care), but there has been a lot of discussion over the past few years about the dangers of pietism and how it differs radically from the older (read: better) model of confessionalism. Pietism, it is said, emphasizes dramatic conversions, tends toward individualism, pushes for unity based on shared experience, and pays little attention to careful doctrinal formulation. Confessionalism, on the other hand, is a more churchly tradition, with creeds and catechisms and liturgy. It emphasizes the ordinary means of word and sacrament and prizes church order and the offices. It is pro-ritual, pro-clergy, and pro-doctrine, where pietism, it is said, stands against all these things.
I am sympathetic with much of this critique of evangelical pietism. I agree with Darryl Hart’s contention in The Lost Soul of American Protestantism that American evangelicalism has tried too hard to be relevant, has largely ignored organic church growth by catechesis, has too often elevated experience at the expense of doctrine, has minimized the role of the institutional church, and has worn out a good number of Christians by assuming that every churchgoer is an activist and crusader more than a pilgrim. Confessionalism would be good tonic for much of what ails the evangelical world.
Concern for Confessionalism
And yet, I worry that confessionalism without a strong infusion of the pietism it means to correct, can be a cure just as bad as the disease. Is there a way to reject revivalism without discounting genuine revival in the Great Awakening? Can I like Machen and Whitefield? Is there a way to say, “Yes, the church has tried too hard to Christianize every area of life” while still believing that our private faith should translate into public action? Hart argues that after revivalism Christian devotion was no longer limited to “formal church activities on Sunday or other holy days,” but “being a believer now became a full-time duty, with faith making demands in all areas of life” (13). Given the thrust of the book, I think it’s safe to say Hart finds this troubling.
Further, Hart clearly sides with the Old Side in New England that opposed the Great Awakening, its emphasis on inner experience, and the insistence that ministers be able to give an account of God’s work in their hearts (32-42). While I agree wholeheartedly that experience does not a Christian make, I wish the strong confessional advocates would do more to warn against the real danger of dead orthodoxy. It is possible to grow up in a Christian home, get baptized as an infant, get catechized, join the church, take the Lord’s Supper, be a part of a church your whole life and not be a Christian. It is possible to grow up in an Old World model where you inherit a church tradition (often along ethnic lines), and stay in that church tradition, but be spiritually dead. There are plenty of students at Hope College and Calvin College (just to name two schools from my tradition) who are thoroughly confessional as a matter of form, but not converted.
I have no hesitation in commending confessionalism. My concern is that pietism–with its private Bible study, small group prayer, insistence on conversion, and the cultivation of “heart” religion–is frequently set against confessionalism. For example, Hart argues, “Confessional Protestantism invites another way of evaluating the making of believers. Its history demonstrates the importance of inheritance and the way that believers appropriate faith over a lifetime through the sustained ministry and counsel of pastors as opposed to the momentary crisis induced by the itinerant evangelist or the pressures of sitting around a fire at summer camp” (184). I like the first sentence, but why so negatively caricature the work of itinerant evangelists and the real conversions that may come at summer camp? I could be misreading Hart. Maybe he has no problem with any of these things. But when he says, “the central struggle throughout Protestantism’s history has been between confessionalism and pietism, not evangelicalism and liberalism” (183), I worry that committed Presbyterians will steer clear of anything that gets painted with a broad brush as “pietism.”
A Confessionalism with Deep Piety
We all feel and respond to different dangers (for example, see Ligon Duncan’s post and William Evans’ post, both of which I like). No doubt, revivalistic, hyper-experiential, adoctrinal, deeds-not-creeds, tell-me-the-exact-moment-you-were-born-again, go-conquer-the-world-for-Christ Christianity has a load of problems. If that’s pietism, then I want no part of it.
But I want a certain kind of confessionalism. I want a confessionalism that believes in Spirit-given revival, welcomes deep affections, affirms truth-driven experience, and understands that the best creeds should result in the best deeds. I want a confessionalism that believes in the institutional church and expects our Christian faith to impact what we do in the world and how we do it. I want a confessionalism that is not ashamed to speak of conversion—dramatic conversion for some, unnoticed conversion for many.
I want a confessionalism that preaches and practices deep piety. Whether this is labeled “pietism” or just part of our rich confessional tradition doesn’t matter to me. What matters is that we have ministers and parishioners who realize there is an external and internal dimension to the faith. I want Christians to know that going to church, hearing the word, reciting the creeds, singing the hymns, and partaking of the sacraments is not peripheral to the Christian life; it is our lifeblood. And I also want Christians who do all those things every week to pray in “their closets,” look for opportunities to share the gospel with the lost, submit to Christ’s lordship in every area of life, and understand that true faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in his Word is true; it is also a deep-rooted assurance” that not only others, but they too “have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation” (Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 21).
Part of the problem with this whole discussion is that there is no agreed upon definition of pietism or confessionalism. It’s not like “Presbyterianism” which is defined by the Westminster Standards. Confessionalism and pietism, as Carl Trueman points out about the Puritans in a different, but related, context, are not single, definable entities (Histories and Fallacies [1], 165). In some discussions, then, it’s easy for confessionalism to stand for churchly, doctrinal, mature Christianity while pietism is code for shallow, kitschy, decisionistic evangelicalism.
But the lines are not always neat and clean. For example, Jean Taffin (1529-1602), a Dutch reformer writing in the 16th century, well before pietism or Edwards’ Religious Affections [2], argues “that there are two main ways by which God shows us who his children are. The one is external and consists of visible marks to men. The other is internal and consists of testimonies by which the believer feels within himself that he is a child of God” (The Marks of God’s Children [3], 35-36). The external mark is “that we are members of the church of Christ” (36). The internal mark is that God “opens our eyes and ears to comprehend the revelation of our adoption and to certify to our hearts the assurance of faith” (38). External allegiance to the church and inner piety of the heart: these are the two ways God shows us we are his. If you’ll permit anachronism, this sounds like a good blending of the concerns of confessionalism and pietism.
Let me give one more example, this time from the father of pietism, Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705). In his classic Pia Desideria (“Pious Desires”), Spener argues for several innovations (for his day) that now seem commonplace to most evangelicals. He encourages lay ministry, arguing that one pastor is incapable of caring for the whole church. He advocates personal prayer, small group Bible studies, and accountability with a “confessor.” He criticizes overly academic sermons and the prevalence of constant polemics in the pulpit. While careful not to disparage learning, he maintains that “study without piety is worthless” (42). Moreover, Spener urges that those who “have put on Christ in Baptism, must also keep Christ on and bear witness to him in our outwardly lives” (48). He writes to cultivate an orthodoxy that affects the inner man and translates into living Christianity.
But for all this, he does not set this new “pietism” opposite the older “confessionalism.” Spener writes:
As the [Luther] Catechism contains the primary rudiments of Christianity, and all people have originally learned their faith from it, so it should continue to be used even more diligently (according to its meaning rather than its words) in the instruction of children, and also of adults if one can have these in attendance. A preacher should not grow weary of this. In fact, if he has opportunity, he would do well to tell the people again and again in his sermons what they once learned, and he should not be ashamed of so doing.” (Pietists Selected Writings [4], 47)
Certainly, some later pietists went off the rails. But I quote from Pia Desideria lest we too casually dismiss everything in the pietist tradition, thinking it equivalent to the worst excesses of evangelicalism. Spener was responding to real deficiencies in the German church. We should be thankful for things he wanted to change, and that his proposed changes allowed that some things should stay the same.
Proponents of confessionalism often turn to John Williamson Nevin (1803-86) for support. And with good reason. Nevin introduced the so-called Mercerburg theology, a kind of high church Calvinism which stressed the churchly, liturgical, sacramental, and clerical elements of the faith.
In his most famous work, The Anxious Bench [1] (1844), Nevin attacked the revivalistic system that made surprising conversions the norm and weakened the role of the institutional church. He maintained that Finney’s New Measures could not be reconciled with the older method of lifelong catechesis: “The spirit of the Anxious Bench is at war with the spirit of the Catechism” (62). On one hand, you have the system of the Bench which “makes conversion, in its own sense, to be the all in all of the gospel economy and the development of the Christian life subsequently a mere secondary interest” (70). On the other hand, you have the system of the Catechism which believes in sermons, systematic instruction, pastoral visitation, catechetical training, attention to order and discipline, and patient perseverance (61). These two systems are altogether different. You must choose one or the other. And according to Nevin, “It must be ever a wretched choice, when the Bench is preferred to the Catechism” (63).
Nevin was concerned that the New Measures were putting all the attention on bending the will to make a decision for Christ in a moment of great existential angst. By contrast, the better method of ministry is the slow, deliberate, ordinary work of preaching, worship, sacraments, discipline, instruction, and catechism. Nevin is right: the best ministries are “constant, regular, earnest; not marked with noise and parade; but like the common processes of nature, silent rather, deep, and full of invisible power” (76).
Old School, New Side
But it would be a mistake to read The Anxious Bench as a blanket attack on revival, religious fervor, or experiential Christianity. According to Darryl Hart, Nevin later moved away from his Princetonian pro-revival training (John Williamson Nevin [2], 101-103). But in 1844 at least—in his work that is usually seen as a devastating polemic against evangelical pietism—Nevin was decidedly not against the Great Awakening. Nevin opposed the New Measures, but in The Anxious Bench he puts his lot squarely with the New Side Presbyterians.
Nevin was not anti-conversion. He believed in “sudden conversions in later life, attended with experience more or less violent.” Conversions like this “under the proper circumstances are entitled to entire confidence and may be expected to occur frequently under faithful ministrations on the part of the Church.” The error “is in making this the exclusive conception of the process” (68).
Likewise, Nevin was not anti-revival. Because of the abuses of revival, some maintained strong prejudice “against everything of the sort.” But in truth, true revivals “belong constitutionally to the system of the Catechism” (74). Although the system of the Catechism “makes more account of the regular, the ordinary, and the general than it does the occasional and the special” it does not “by any means preclude the presence of what is out of the usual way” (72). Indeed, “For such special showers of grace, it is the privilege of the Church to hope, and her duty to pray, at all times. To call in question either the reality or the desirableness of them, is a monstrous skepticism, that may be said to border on the sin of infidelity itself. They are the natural product of the proper life of the church” (72-73).
Less Bathwater, More Baby
Nevin was careful to say what the system of the Bench did and did not entail. He didn’t want to lift up the Catechism by pulling down every good thing that might be associated with revivalism and the Bench.
In this system, room is found naturally and easily, of course, for all evangelical interests. It is a prodigious abuse of terms when some of the most vital and prominent of these are crowded out of their proper place, and made to stand in another connection entirely; when social prayer-meetings, for instance, and the various missionary and benevolent operations of the Church, are divorced in imagination from the regular life of Christianity, and ranked in the same bad category with such tricks of human device as the anxious bench. Family prayer, and social prayer, belong as much as private prayer itself, to the very nature of the Church. The spirit of missions is identical with the spirit of Christianity. For a church or a minister to oppose prayer-meetings, or efforts to send the gospel to the heathen, or efforts to raise up faithful ministers, or to circulate Bibles and tracts, for the promotion of genuine godliness at home, is to oppose Christ. We hear, it is true, of churches and ministers that look upon all these things as fanaticism, while they pretend to honor the good old way of the Catechism; but such ministers and churches, in the emphatic language of the apostle, “lie and do not tell the truth.” They honor neither the Catechism, nor the Bible, or Christ. And the evidence of this appears invariably in the fact, that the same ministers and churches hate all serious, earnest godliness, are perfectly worldly in their temper, make no account of the new birth, and show no sense of religion whatever any farther than as it may be supposed to consist in a decent morality, and an outward use, to some extent, of its standing ordinances. (72)
At times, Nevin could sound downright pietistic:
Dead churches and dead ministers that turn catechetical instruction into an empty form, and make no account of inward living piety, as a necessary qualification for membership in the Church of Jesus Christ, have no right most assuredly to identify themselves with the system of the Catechism. . . . God forbid that we should countenance for a moment that dreadful supposition that the work of the ministry calls for no special zeal, no missionary devotion, no full and entire consecration to Christ, no earnest concern for the salvation of immortal souls; or that a church may be considered in a right state, where the voice of prayer is silent, the tear of penitence unknown, the hand of benevolence palsied, the language of Canaan despised, and, the power of godliness treated as an idle dream. A church without life is an abomination in the sight of God. (71)
If nothing else, I’ve written these posts on confessionalism to get to that paragraph. I love the Catechism (I wrote a book on one!). I love the church (and wrote a book on that too). I don’t believe I’ve been shy to criticize the shallowness of evangelical theology and the general adoctrinal nature of contemporary evangelicalism. I like much of what I read from the proponents of confessionalism. I’ve always thought of myself as a confessional Christian, ministering in a confessional church. But I’ve learned over the years that confessionalism is not, by itself, Christlikeness. I’m not suggesting anyone is saying exactly that. I just don’t want young Presbyterian pastors and young, restless, Reformed Christians to think that a passion for evangelism, or small group Bible study, or doing good in the world, or a concern for piety, or an insistence on private prayer and inner experience is somehow antithetical to being good Calvinist churchmen. Most of the time I’m after the evangelical pietists to be more confessional. But I also believe those in the confessional tradition can easily lose the vibrancy, sincerity, warmth, and personal piety that have marked experiential Christianity at its best, from the Dutch Reformation to the Puritans to the Great Awakening to neo-evangelicalism. Provided we define our terms thoughtfully, confessionalism and pietism can be friends. In fact, we would all do well to introduce one to the other.
(Can anybody say both sides of the same coin?)
The Following excellent article is copied from the great blog
DeYoung Restless and Reformed
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/04/14/can-pietism-and-confessionalism-be-friends-part-3-of-3/
Those outside Presbyterian circles may not be aware (and may not care), but there has been a lot of discussion over the past few years about the dangers of pietism and how it differs radically from the older (read: better) model of confessionalism. Pietism, it is said, emphasizes dramatic conversions, tends toward individualism, pushes for unity based on shared experience, and pays little attention to careful doctrinal formulation. Confessionalism, on the other hand, is a more churchly tradition, with creeds and catechisms and liturgy. It emphasizes the ordinary means of word and sacrament and prizes church order and the offices. It is pro-ritual, pro-clergy, and pro-doctrine, where pietism, it is said, stands against all these things.
I am sympathetic with much of this critique of evangelical pietism. I agree with Darryl Hart’s contention in The Lost Soul of American Protestantism that American evangelicalism has tried too hard to be relevant, has largely ignored organic church growth by catechesis, has too often elevated experience at the expense of doctrine, has minimized the role of the institutional church, and has worn out a good number of Christians by assuming that every churchgoer is an activist and crusader more than a pilgrim. Confessionalism would be good tonic for much of what ails the evangelical world.
Concern for Confessionalism
And yet, I worry that confessionalism without a strong infusion of the pietism it means to correct, can be a cure just as bad as the disease. Is there a way to reject revivalism without discounting genuine revival in the Great Awakening? Can I like Machen and Whitefield? Is there a way to say, “Yes, the church has tried too hard to Christianize every area of life” while still believing that our private faith should translate into public action? Hart argues that after revivalism Christian devotion was no longer limited to “formal church activities on Sunday or other holy days,” but “being a believer now became a full-time duty, with faith making demands in all areas of life” (13). Given the thrust of the book, I think it’s safe to say Hart finds this troubling.
Further, Hart clearly sides with the Old Side in New England that opposed the Great Awakening, its emphasis on inner experience, and the insistence that ministers be able to give an account of God’s work in their hearts (32-42). While I agree wholeheartedly that experience does not a Christian make, I wish the strong confessional advocates would do more to warn against the real danger of dead orthodoxy. It is possible to grow up in a Christian home, get baptized as an infant, get catechized, join the church, take the Lord’s Supper, be a part of a church your whole life and not be a Christian. It is possible to grow up in an Old World model where you inherit a church tradition (often along ethnic lines), and stay in that church tradition, but be spiritually dead. There are plenty of students at Hope College and Calvin College (just to name two schools from my tradition) who are thoroughly confessional as a matter of form, but not converted.
I have no hesitation in commending confessionalism. My concern is that pietism–with its private Bible study, small group prayer, insistence on conversion, and the cultivation of “heart” religion–is frequently set against confessionalism. For example, Hart argues, “Confessional Protestantism invites another way of evaluating the making of believers. Its history demonstrates the importance of inheritance and the way that believers appropriate faith over a lifetime through the sustained ministry and counsel of pastors as opposed to the momentary crisis induced by the itinerant evangelist or the pressures of sitting around a fire at summer camp” (184). I like the first sentence, but why so negatively caricature the work of itinerant evangelists and the real conversions that may come at summer camp? I could be misreading Hart. Maybe he has no problem with any of these things. But when he says, “the central struggle throughout Protestantism’s history has been between confessionalism and pietism, not evangelicalism and liberalism” (183), I worry that committed Presbyterians will steer clear of anything that gets painted with a broad brush as “pietism.”
A Confessionalism with Deep Piety
We all feel and respond to different dangers (for example, see Ligon Duncan’s post and William Evans’ post, both of which I like). No doubt, revivalistic, hyper-experiential, adoctrinal, deeds-not-creeds, tell-me-the-exact-moment-you-were-born-again, go-conquer-the-world-for-Christ Christianity has a load of problems. If that’s pietism, then I want no part of it.
But I want a certain kind of confessionalism. I want a confessionalism that believes in Spirit-given revival, welcomes deep affections, affirms truth-driven experience, and understands that the best creeds should result in the best deeds. I want a confessionalism that believes in the institutional church and expects our Christian faith to impact what we do in the world and how we do it. I want a confessionalism that is not ashamed to speak of conversion—dramatic conversion for some, unnoticed conversion for many.
I want a confessionalism that preaches and practices deep piety. Whether this is labeled “pietism” or just part of our rich confessional tradition doesn’t matter to me. What matters is that we have ministers and parishioners who realize there is an external and internal dimension to the faith. I want Christians to know that going to church, hearing the word, reciting the creeds, singing the hymns, and partaking of the sacraments is not peripheral to the Christian life; it is our lifeblood. And I also want Christians who do all those things every week to pray in “their closets,” look for opportunities to share the gospel with the lost, submit to Christ’s lordship in every area of life, and understand that true faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in his Word is true; it is also a deep-rooted assurance” that not only others, but they too “have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation” (Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 21).
Part of the problem with this whole discussion is that there is no agreed upon definition of pietism or confessionalism. It’s not like “Presbyterianism” which is defined by the Westminster Standards. Confessionalism and pietism, as Carl Trueman points out about the Puritans in a different, but related, context, are not single, definable entities (Histories and Fallacies [1], 165). In some discussions, then, it’s easy for confessionalism to stand for churchly, doctrinal, mature Christianity while pietism is code for shallow, kitschy, decisionistic evangelicalism.
But the lines are not always neat and clean. For example, Jean Taffin (1529-1602), a Dutch reformer writing in the 16th century, well before pietism or Edwards’ Religious Affections [2], argues “that there are two main ways by which God shows us who his children are. The one is external and consists of visible marks to men. The other is internal and consists of testimonies by which the believer feels within himself that he is a child of God” (The Marks of God’s Children [3], 35-36). The external mark is “that we are members of the church of Christ” (36). The internal mark is that God “opens our eyes and ears to comprehend the revelation of our adoption and to certify to our hearts the assurance of faith” (38). External allegiance to the church and inner piety of the heart: these are the two ways God shows us we are his. If you’ll permit anachronism, this sounds like a good blending of the concerns of confessionalism and pietism.
Let me give one more example, this time from the father of pietism, Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705). In his classic Pia Desideria (“Pious Desires”), Spener argues for several innovations (for his day) that now seem commonplace to most evangelicals. He encourages lay ministry, arguing that one pastor is incapable of caring for the whole church. He advocates personal prayer, small group Bible studies, and accountability with a “confessor.” He criticizes overly academic sermons and the prevalence of constant polemics in the pulpit. While careful not to disparage learning, he maintains that “study without piety is worthless” (42). Moreover, Spener urges that those who “have put on Christ in Baptism, must also keep Christ on and bear witness to him in our outwardly lives” (48). He writes to cultivate an orthodoxy that affects the inner man and translates into living Christianity.
But for all this, he does not set this new “pietism” opposite the older “confessionalism.” Spener writes:
As the [Luther] Catechism contains the primary rudiments of Christianity, and all people have originally learned their faith from it, so it should continue to be used even more diligently (according to its meaning rather than its words) in the instruction of children, and also of adults if one can have these in attendance. A preacher should not grow weary of this. In fact, if he has opportunity, he would do well to tell the people again and again in his sermons what they once learned, and he should not be ashamed of so doing.” (Pietists Selected Writings [4], 47)
Certainly, some later pietists went off the rails. But I quote from Pia Desideria lest we too casually dismiss everything in the pietist tradition, thinking it equivalent to the worst excesses of evangelicalism. Spener was responding to real deficiencies in the German church. We should be thankful for things he wanted to change, and that his proposed changes allowed that some things should stay the same.
Proponents of confessionalism often turn to John Williamson Nevin (1803-86) for support. And with good reason. Nevin introduced the so-called Mercerburg theology, a kind of high church Calvinism which stressed the churchly, liturgical, sacramental, and clerical elements of the faith.
In his most famous work, The Anxious Bench [1] (1844), Nevin attacked the revivalistic system that made surprising conversions the norm and weakened the role of the institutional church. He maintained that Finney’s New Measures could not be reconciled with the older method of lifelong catechesis: “The spirit of the Anxious Bench is at war with the spirit of the Catechism” (62). On one hand, you have the system of the Bench which “makes conversion, in its own sense, to be the all in all of the gospel economy and the development of the Christian life subsequently a mere secondary interest” (70). On the other hand, you have the system of the Catechism which believes in sermons, systematic instruction, pastoral visitation, catechetical training, attention to order and discipline, and patient perseverance (61). These two systems are altogether different. You must choose one or the other. And according to Nevin, “It must be ever a wretched choice, when the Bench is preferred to the Catechism” (63).
Nevin was concerned that the New Measures were putting all the attention on bending the will to make a decision for Christ in a moment of great existential angst. By contrast, the better method of ministry is the slow, deliberate, ordinary work of preaching, worship, sacraments, discipline, instruction, and catechism. Nevin is right: the best ministries are “constant, regular, earnest; not marked with noise and parade; but like the common processes of nature, silent rather, deep, and full of invisible power” (76).
Old School, New Side
But it would be a mistake to read The Anxious Bench as a blanket attack on revival, religious fervor, or experiential Christianity. According to Darryl Hart, Nevin later moved away from his Princetonian pro-revival training (John Williamson Nevin [2], 101-103). But in 1844 at least—in his work that is usually seen as a devastating polemic against evangelical pietism—Nevin was decidedly not against the Great Awakening. Nevin opposed the New Measures, but in The Anxious Bench he puts his lot squarely with the New Side Presbyterians.
Nevin was not anti-conversion. He believed in “sudden conversions in later life, attended with experience more or less violent.” Conversions like this “under the proper circumstances are entitled to entire confidence and may be expected to occur frequently under faithful ministrations on the part of the Church.” The error “is in making this the exclusive conception of the process” (68).
Likewise, Nevin was not anti-revival. Because of the abuses of revival, some maintained strong prejudice “against everything of the sort.” But in truth, true revivals “belong constitutionally to the system of the Catechism” (74). Although the system of the Catechism “makes more account of the regular, the ordinary, and the general than it does the occasional and the special” it does not “by any means preclude the presence of what is out of the usual way” (72). Indeed, “For such special showers of grace, it is the privilege of the Church to hope, and her duty to pray, at all times. To call in question either the reality or the desirableness of them, is a monstrous skepticism, that may be said to border on the sin of infidelity itself. They are the natural product of the proper life of the church” (72-73).
Less Bathwater, More Baby
Nevin was careful to say what the system of the Bench did and did not entail. He didn’t want to lift up the Catechism by pulling down every good thing that might be associated with revivalism and the Bench.
In this system, room is found naturally and easily, of course, for all evangelical interests. It is a prodigious abuse of terms when some of the most vital and prominent of these are crowded out of their proper place, and made to stand in another connection entirely; when social prayer-meetings, for instance, and the various missionary and benevolent operations of the Church, are divorced in imagination from the regular life of Christianity, and ranked in the same bad category with such tricks of human device as the anxious bench. Family prayer, and social prayer, belong as much as private prayer itself, to the very nature of the Church. The spirit of missions is identical with the spirit of Christianity. For a church or a minister to oppose prayer-meetings, or efforts to send the gospel to the heathen, or efforts to raise up faithful ministers, or to circulate Bibles and tracts, for the promotion of genuine godliness at home, is to oppose Christ. We hear, it is true, of churches and ministers that look upon all these things as fanaticism, while they pretend to honor the good old way of the Catechism; but such ministers and churches, in the emphatic language of the apostle, “lie and do not tell the truth.” They honor neither the Catechism, nor the Bible, or Christ. And the evidence of this appears invariably in the fact, that the same ministers and churches hate all serious, earnest godliness, are perfectly worldly in their temper, make no account of the new birth, and show no sense of religion whatever any farther than as it may be supposed to consist in a decent morality, and an outward use, to some extent, of its standing ordinances. (72)
At times, Nevin could sound downright pietistic:
Dead churches and dead ministers that turn catechetical instruction into an empty form, and make no account of inward living piety, as a necessary qualification for membership in the Church of Jesus Christ, have no right most assuredly to identify themselves with the system of the Catechism. . . . God forbid that we should countenance for a moment that dreadful supposition that the work of the ministry calls for no special zeal, no missionary devotion, no full and entire consecration to Christ, no earnest concern for the salvation of immortal souls; or that a church may be considered in a right state, where the voice of prayer is silent, the tear of penitence unknown, the hand of benevolence palsied, the language of Canaan despised, and, the power of godliness treated as an idle dream. A church without life is an abomination in the sight of God. (71)
If nothing else, I’ve written these posts on confessionalism to get to that paragraph. I love the Catechism (I wrote a book on one!). I love the church (and wrote a book on that too). I don’t believe I’ve been shy to criticize the shallowness of evangelical theology and the general adoctrinal nature of contemporary evangelicalism. I like much of what I read from the proponents of confessionalism. I’ve always thought of myself as a confessional Christian, ministering in a confessional church. But I’ve learned over the years that confessionalism is not, by itself, Christlikeness. I’m not suggesting anyone is saying exactly that. I just don’t want young Presbyterian pastors and young, restless, Reformed Christians to think that a passion for evangelism, or small group Bible study, or doing good in the world, or a concern for piety, or an insistence on private prayer and inner experience is somehow antithetical to being good Calvinist churchmen. Most of the time I’m after the evangelical pietists to be more confessional. But I also believe those in the confessional tradition can easily lose the vibrancy, sincerity, warmth, and personal piety that have marked experiential Christianity at its best, from the Dutch Reformation to the Puritans to the Great Awakening to neo-evangelicalism. Provided we define our terms thoughtfully, confessionalism and pietism can be friends. In fact, we would all do well to introduce one to the other.
New Calvinism/Eternal Security
Easter is coming! Hallelujah!
I thought of a couple more links to share with you. The first is an online bible tool in multiple languages and translations. Good search feature and some other good tools too:
http://biblos.com/
Here is a nice article on the "new calvinists" that I feel is pretty accurate. These men represent more or less the type of teaching you will find at my church and in the books and studies we use. It is important to clarify that they do not represent the extremes of what some refer to as Hyper Calvinism. The older extreme Calvinists sometimes did not want to evangelize or even relate to the world much. I don't think it is fair to put Driscoll, Grudem, Mahanney, Dever, Sproul, Piper, Keller, MacArthur or Mohler in that group. These men all have a passion for the Word and for the lost. They do self identify as Calvinist for the most part and rightly so. They stand clearly in the Reformation tradition of evangelical Protestantism. To condemn what these men stand for outright is inappropriate whether I fully agree with them or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Here is a sympathetic Christian overview of the same topic:
http://theresurgence.com/2010/
This article by Driscoll might help you understand what kind of Calvinism you are likely to encounter at Mars Hill Seattle for example:
http://theresurgence.com/2009/
If you really want to dig on the Calvinist issue, you might want to read this article. Anything on this site is pretty good, by the way.
http://www.theopedia.com/
Finally if you don't have time for anything else PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO:
http://www.marshillchurch.org/
More specifically about eternal security. The belief that those who are truly saved will always remain saved is also known as the Perseverance of the Saints or just Perseverance. You will generally find that all self identified Calvinists believe this as well as many who aren't sure what they are. The general concept is also referenced as Eternal Security or Once Saved Always Saved. Generally speaking, the reason it is consistent with a Calvinist perspective is this: If God does it, it's done and you couldn't undo it if you wanted to.
The non Calvinist or Arminian tends to think we have more say in our choice for salvation. Simplistically, if you chose it, you could maybe change your mind or fall away. This type of thinking may appear to be consistent with what we observe around us, but probably does not reflect God's view as spelled out in the Bible.
We are told to keep ourselves in the faith and we are told that we are kept by God for His glorious kingdom. Both have to be true.
That's my simplistic answer. For something more in depth you might start here:
http://www.theopedia.com/
BE CAREFUL! You certainly don't need to take it all in at once. If this is new material for you and you try to absorb it at one sitting you may get indigestion. And it will probably make your head hurt!
Don't let go of Jesus! He certainly isn't going to let go of you!
27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me,a is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.” John 10 ESV
------------------------------
8Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.14Remind them of these things, and charge them before Goda not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,b a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. 19But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” 20Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable,c he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
2223Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24And the Lord’s servantd must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
2 Timothy 2 ESV
I thought of a couple more links to share with you. The first is an online bible tool in multiple languages and translations. Good search feature and some other good tools too:
http://biblos.com/
Here is a nice article on the "new calvinists" that I feel is pretty accurate. These men represent more or less the type of teaching you will find at my church and in the books and studies we use. It is important to clarify that they do not represent the extremes of what some refer to as Hyper Calvinism. The older extreme Calvinists sometimes did not want to evangelize or even relate to the world much. I don't think it is fair to put Driscoll, Grudem, Mahanney, Dever, Sproul, Piper, Keller, MacArthur or Mohler in that group. These men all have a passion for the Word and for the lost. They do self identify as Calvinist for the most part and rightly so. They stand clearly in the Reformation tradition of evangelical Protestantism. To condemn what these men stand for outright is inappropriate whether I fully agree with them or not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Here is a sympathetic Christian overview of the same topic:
http://theresurgence.com/2010/
This article by Driscoll might help you understand what kind of Calvinism you are likely to encounter at Mars Hill Seattle for example:
http://theresurgence.com/2009/
If you really want to dig on the Calvinist issue, you might want to read this article. Anything on this site is pretty good, by the way.
http://www.theopedia.com/
Finally if you don't have time for anything else PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO:
http://www.marshillchurch.org/
More specifically about eternal security. The belief that those who are truly saved will always remain saved is also known as the Perseverance of the Saints or just Perseverance. You will generally find that all self identified Calvinists believe this as well as many who aren't sure what they are. The general concept is also referenced as Eternal Security or Once Saved Always Saved. Generally speaking, the reason it is consistent with a Calvinist perspective is this: If God does it, it's done and you couldn't undo it if you wanted to.
The non Calvinist or Arminian tends to think we have more say in our choice for salvation. Simplistically, if you chose it, you could maybe change your mind or fall away. This type of thinking may appear to be consistent with what we observe around us, but probably does not reflect God's view as spelled out in the Bible.
We are told to keep ourselves in the faith and we are told that we are kept by God for His glorious kingdom. Both have to be true.
That's my simplistic answer. For something more in depth you might start here:
http://www.theopedia.com/
BE CAREFUL! You certainly don't need to take it all in at once. If this is new material for you and you try to absorb it at one sitting you may get indigestion. And it will probably make your head hurt!
Don't let go of Jesus! He certainly isn't going to let go of you!
27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me,a is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one.” John 10 ESV
------------------------------
8Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.14Remind them of these things, and charge them before Goda not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,b a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 17and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. 19But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” 20Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable,c he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
2223Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24And the Lord’s servantd must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
2 Timothy 2 ESV
Rejoice in the Lord! Celebrate the Resurrection! Live in newness of Life!
Hallellujah! Maranatha!
JB
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Mack in the Shack/Calf in the Desert
I am halfway through The Shack now. Very very seductive and dangerous heresy. It's on a level with the golden calf, but nobody wants to admit it. All Israel saw the plagues and walked though the Red Sea on dry ground. All Israel then saw Pharaoh's troops drown in the same waters. Promptly they made a golden calf to worship.
What's the big deal with that? It was just a slightly different representation of the good god they all looked to, right? It's not like they weren't thankful.
That's the deceitfulness of sin. They just wanted something understandable and tangible to aid their worship of the true God. Really. How else can we possibly understand the entire nation agreeing to what happened in the context of what God just did for them? How is this different from the justifications modern evangelicals make for The Shack? It is not.
Either The Shack is from the the enemy of our souls or Moses lost touch with God's reality when he descended from the mountain.
Not all heretics have bad breath. Or crooked teeth. Or bad tempers. Or unsympathetic stories. They can be beautiful, vulnerable, creative, empathetic, endearing souls with a life story that breaks your heart. The only acid test is their theology. The Shack has a real theology. That theology is a very real lie. It's a beautiful lie. Like the golden calf. A very beautiful and deadly lie.
What did Moses demand be done with the golden calf? Why? Did that really happen? Was that REALLY necessary? Who initially obeyed God? Moses or the people? And how did Aaron get mixed up in this idolatrous mess?
Our God is a consuming fire. Even if you're not a wild eyed fundamentalist.
But the people begged for a contextualization of the Truth. What's a leader to do?
Aaron's response vs Moses' response
Golden calf vs Consuming Fire
False God of The Shack vs The Holy Triune God of Heaven
The Wide Way vs the Narrow Road
Few indeed there be that find it. Few indeed.
Dear God grant us clarity. In your Grace send Discernment. In your Mercy grant Repentance. In your Love send us Leaders.
Make them Men of God that we may follow them to YOU.
25See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29for our God is a consuming fire. Heb 12 ESV
BTW it is not my purpose or intent to judge or condemn those whose taste in literature differs from my own.
9(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?a 10He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherdsb and teachers,c 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,d to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ep 4 ESV
JB
What's the big deal with that? It was just a slightly different representation of the good god they all looked to, right? It's not like they weren't thankful.
That's the deceitfulness of sin. They just wanted something understandable and tangible to aid their worship of the true God. Really. How else can we possibly understand the entire nation agreeing to what happened in the context of what God just did for them? How is this different from the justifications modern evangelicals make for The Shack? It is not.
Either The Shack is from the the enemy of our souls or Moses lost touch with God's reality when he descended from the mountain.
Not all heretics have bad breath. Or crooked teeth. Or bad tempers. Or unsympathetic stories. They can be beautiful, vulnerable, creative, empathetic, endearing souls with a life story that breaks your heart. The only acid test is their theology. The Shack has a real theology. That theology is a very real lie. It's a beautiful lie. Like the golden calf. A very beautiful and deadly lie.
What did Moses demand be done with the golden calf? Why? Did that really happen? Was that REALLY necessary? Who initially obeyed God? Moses or the people? And how did Aaron get mixed up in this idolatrous mess?
Our God is a consuming fire. Even if you're not a wild eyed fundamentalist.
But the people begged for a contextualization of the Truth. What's a leader to do?
Aaron's response vs Moses' response
Golden calf vs Consuming Fire
False God of The Shack vs The Holy Triune God of Heaven
The Wide Way vs the Narrow Road
Few indeed there be that find it. Few indeed.
Dear God grant us clarity. In your Grace send Discernment. In your Mercy grant Repentance. In your Love send us Leaders.
Make them Men of God that we may follow them to YOU.
25See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29for our God is a consuming fire. Heb 12 ESV
BTW it is not my purpose or intent to judge or condemn those whose taste in literature differs from my own.
9(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?a 10He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherdsb and teachers,c 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,d to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ep 4 ESV
JB
Corpus Christi Movie Imminent/Urban Myth?
As you know, we have to be very careful about much of what we find on the Internet. Even that which seems on the surface to honor our Lord may have other purposes or effects. Many even well meaning people may be used by the enemy of our souls to lead us astray or at least move our energies from the essential to the irrelevant. This is also true of the emails we may receive.
I did a quick search online with google news concerning the content of the email about the Corpus Christi play and movie. As you may know, google news finds, archives and tracks nearly all news sources on the Internet. Just as Wikipedia gives us a fairly accurate view of what people really believe is true, google news content and trends are a very accurate reflection of what is really going on over time. If you follow the links below, I believe you will find that the stories about this play peak in early 1998.
http://news.google.com/
The Christian Post is a good online source for Christian news stories.You will find the play referenced in passing near the end of this article by the late Jerry Falwell in 2003. Even then it is only in a summary of evil that he lists at the end of his piece for emphasis. It is not the main point of his story. If you know anything about the late Dr Falwell you will know he would have made a very big deal about it if there was any chance the play was gaining popular ground anywhere except on the edges of society.
http://www.christianpost.com/
It would initially appear to me that this nasty play, like many other blasphemous and profane works of "art", continues to make the rounds of a few small performance venues even today.
http://news.google.com/news?
I found no credible evidence of any sort for the idea that a film version is about to invade our theatres. It is certainly not impossible. That did happen about 15 or 20 years ago with The Last Temptation Of Christ. Even if something on that order was happening though, we need to 'keep our eye on the ball' and focus on getting the gospel out, not on controlling the artistic expression of unbelievers. I know this is hard. It runs against the desires of the heart to influence our society for good but the only thing that will change society in the end is multiplied personal conversions. They burned the books of evil in Ephesus because the gospel changed their hearts, not because the legalistic Jews (or Christians) marched against them.
11And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered alld of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. Acts 19 ESV
There is one more thing to keep in mind. If I'm not mistaken, whenever you hit 'forward' for and email, the whole list of email addresses you forwarded to gets sent back to the original sender. This means that people who simply want to collect email addresses for not so good reasons only have to send out distressing messages that sensitive people will send on in a panic. We need to be careful not to let them use us in that way.
Again, I applaud and thank those forwarding this stuff for caring so much about the possibility of even more disgusting blasphemy overtaking our society. Let us make all such events whether real or imagined a cause for prayer, evangelism and the strengthening of the church. Let's encourage each other not to get sidelined by the natural desire to control the sin of our society from the outside.
JB
I did a quick search online with google news concerning the content of the email about the Corpus Christi play and movie. As you may know, google news finds, archives and tracks nearly all news sources on the Internet. Just as Wikipedia gives us a fairly accurate view of what people really believe is true, google news content and trends are a very accurate reflection of what is really going on over time. If you follow the links below, I believe you will find that the stories about this play peak in early 1998.
http://news.google.com/
The Christian Post is a good online source for Christian news stories.You will find the play referenced in passing near the end of this article by the late Jerry Falwell in 2003. Even then it is only in a summary of evil that he lists at the end of his piece for emphasis. It is not the main point of his story. If you know anything about the late Dr Falwell you will know he would have made a very big deal about it if there was any chance the play was gaining popular ground anywhere except on the edges of society.
http://www.christianpost.com/
It would initially appear to me that this nasty play, like many other blasphemous and profane works of "art", continues to make the rounds of a few small performance venues even today.
http://news.google.com/news?
I found no credible evidence of any sort for the idea that a film version is about to invade our theatres. It is certainly not impossible. That did happen about 15 or 20 years ago with The Last Temptation Of Christ. Even if something on that order was happening though, we need to 'keep our eye on the ball' and focus on getting the gospel out, not on controlling the artistic expression of unbelievers. I know this is hard. It runs against the desires of the heart to influence our society for good but the only thing that will change society in the end is multiplied personal conversions. They burned the books of evil in Ephesus because the gospel changed their hearts, not because the legalistic Jews (or Christians) marched against them.
11And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered alld of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. Acts 19 ESV
There is one more thing to keep in mind. If I'm not mistaken, whenever you hit 'forward' for and email, the whole list of email addresses you forwarded to gets sent back to the original sender. This means that people who simply want to collect email addresses for not so good reasons only have to send out distressing messages that sensitive people will send on in a panic. We need to be careful not to let them use us in that way.
Again, I applaud and thank those forwarding this stuff for caring so much about the possibility of even more disgusting blasphemy overtaking our society. Let us make all such events whether real or imagined a cause for prayer, evangelism and the strengthening of the church. Let's encourage each other not to get sidelined by the natural desire to control the sin of our society from the outside.
JB
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