2009-05-04

Patton discusses seeker-sensitive church movements in this post. Basically, it involves tailoring the whole church service to the unbeliever, to making the ‘seeker’ feel comfortable. The church attempts to build a bridge with the unbeliever so that ultimately he’ll hear the Gospel and be saved. While Patton wouldn’t try to make a service seeker-repulsive, he will not compromise truths that the world doesn’t like (e.g. hell) and he holds that the church service is for the believer, not the unbeliever, and that the service is intended to perform the particular function of covenant renewal through discipleship, fellowship, and worship. Seeker Sensitive Churches

Challies provides a short quote from Frederick Leahy's The Cross He Bore. He points out that at Christ’s trial, both God and Satan said, ‘one for all’, and God meant it to accomplish salvation via the substitutionary death of Jesus so as to bring life to many, while Satan meant to be rid of Jesus. The Cross He Bore - Sentenced to Death

AiG posts links to various articles with commentary. One interesting point is that even for uniformitarians, the geologic record is filled with evidence of catastrophe. Whereas creationists see most of the fossil record as evidence of one great worldwide catastrophe (viz., the Flood of Noah’s day), old-earthers find several major “extinction events” and many more minor ones, each blamed on various hypothetical culprits. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/04/04/news-to-note-04042009

Phil Johnson comments on the exchange with Scot McKnight, Tony Jones, Kevin DeYoung, and Brett and Alex Harris. i) Jones thinks he absolutely knows the Reformers and Augustine, yet denies the perspicuity of the Scriptures. ii) Jones hates caricatures but caricatures ‘young Reformed guys’. It’s true, though, that we don’t think that Christians need to become something totally different for every culture or become doctrinal chameleons in the culture. iii) McKnight and Jones hypocritically rail against DeYoung for being ‘uncharitable’, saying he’s behaving wickedly. iv) McKnight doesn’t much like critics observing that postmodern epistemology lies at the root the Emergent/ing movement's agenda, yet he admits that his discovery of postmodernism at Fuller was the turning point that brought him into Emergent thought. For him, the quest for certainty engenders "power and violence." (insert Hitler comment here). Frustrating, Funny, Fascinating, and Frightening

Ephiphenomenalism holds that the some or all mental states are side-effects or by-products of the physical states of the world, and that the mind, in its states, not processing, cannot affect the physical world. Christians usually hold a two-way causal relation between the soul and body, where they mutually affect each other. Philosophy Word of the Day – Epiphenomenalism

Haykin points out that while formal credentials and theological education are extremely desirable, they are not indispensible. “one thinks of John Bunyan, for example, or John Gill, that indefatigable commentator, or Fuller, the theological father of the modern missionary movement, or William Carey or those remarkable preachers C.H. Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones” who lacked former credentials. A learned ministry, the danger of arrogance, and wise words from Andrew Fuller

Historical criticism cannot be Christianized. At its heart it involves a radical skepticism of the biblical sources, and it disallows divine causation. Moreover, once one affirms the Lordship of Christ in his scholarship, he has left the ‘nurturing bosom’ of historical criticism. Yarbrough on the Failed Enterprise of Christianizing Historical Criticism

Due to the narrative nature, readers of Acts are left with few positive commands and they wonder, what is normative… what is a positive/negative example… are certain events included for historic, etc. reasons? Blomberg says a fundamental hermeneutical axiom is to distinguish “[1] consistent patterns of behavior from multiple contexts within the books (and within the rest of the New Testament more generally) and [2] patterns that vary from one context to the next.” Blomberg- An Axiom on Applying Acts

Turk looks on the bright side of recognizing that you may not be qualified for ministry and yet you ‘feel the call’ to ministry. What’s worse than someone who defames the ministry? So it’s great that God puts both a burden for ministry and purity on the heart. And the God who can reveal your impurity is the God who chastens those He loves. The real danger is not seeing your own sin, or blaming others. God will qualify those who desire ministry if He wills. Be sanctified because God is sanctifying you through the victory in Christ and our spiritual weapons. Advice for Dave

Haykin laments what he calls a ‘paper-thin’ theology of baptism, namely, the water is not important, baptism is merely a symbol, etc. which stands in contrast to the rich views of baptists in history past, and instead shares more with the reactionism to Campbellism in the 19th century than biblical witness. He positively quotes Fuller to the effect that baptism is the place where conversion to Christ is ratified, that is (in the words of John Gill) “faith discovers itself,” and calls for a return to a deeper understanding. Fuller likens it to the Lord’s supper – the sign, when rightly used, leads to the thing signified. A plea for solid reflection on the meaning of baptism

This article from the Briefing seeks to define pornography and articulate its deceptive nature. Pornography is “anonymous visual or verbal communication intended to excite you sexually.” Both components are essential – it must be anonymous. Intentions are important in this definition – the make of media could intend to produce images, etc. for sexual excitement, and/or the audience can view it with the intention of sexual excitement (this need not be voluntary). Porn is an escape from reality, a freedom from the complexities of achieving excitement from even the woman on the street. Sex is meant to be man-to-woman and woman-to-man, and porn depersonalizes it. It’s a cop-out. Real men can deal with real relations. Porn lies in that it invents an unattainable and false image of beauty, leading its viewers to devalue their wives as sexual objects, comparing their minor faults to the perfection of shrink-wrapped porn. Sexiness has been redefined as beauty, when beauty should be only one factor in sexuality. Porn also leads men to view violence against women as sexy, to disbelieve rape victims, etc. It also leads men to use their wives as releases for the arousal of porn. Paul says we must pull our minds out of the gutter and think about what is pure (Phil 4:8), and porn is the antithesis of this. Stop thinking about porn and start thinking about relating to people properly—especially women. http://matthiasmedia.com.au/briefing/library/1559/

Bird looks at “we have believes” in Galatians 2:16 as referring to Jewish Christians and suggests that belief in righteousness by faith was not a ‘Pauline invention’ (as some have argues, an antithetical response to the proselytizers who argued for righteousness by works of law), and that it corresponds to Acts 15:11, meaning Paul is putting forward an authentic Petrine position, and not misrepresenting him. We believe ... justified by faith - Peter in Acts and Galatians

Phil Johnson responds to the assertion, which cites Gamaliel in Acts 5!) that we don’t need to concern ourselves with people who teach false doctrine. He points to Scriptures that prescribe a clear strategy involving exhortation, reproof, rebuke, and correction, which, while always done with patience, may even require a spiritual militancy, with warfare as the frequent image of the Christian leader. The duty of the defence of the faith has been largely shirked by evangelicals, as they have embraced fads and abandoned their historic core, replacing it with “a set of simplistic, solipsistic aphorisms” and moral platitudes, involving a conservative and mostly secular political agenda: “the message communicated to the world at large sounds like a social and cultural commentary driven by Republican-party politics.” Evangelicals refusal to contend for the truth has destroyed the evangelical movement. Do We Really Need to Wage War Against False Doctrine-

You let them drink from Your refreshing stream, For in You is life’s fountain. —Psalm 36:8, 9 (HCSB) Cracked Cistern-

Challies posts a meditation from The Cross He Bore on the injustice of those who executed Christ, and how such an utter rejection and overturning of the sphere of justice on their part must have been intense suffering in spirit for the Lord. The Cross He Bore - The Butt of Mockery

Payne has a post on the fear of man, and the snare that it is. While we yield to the fear of man because of what we might lose, we lose trust in the only one who can and will save us, the Lord who has revealed Himself. He lists ways that the fear of man manifests, including softening hard truths, avoiding Gospel preaching, or giving an honest rebuke, or standing for what is right, or sending an email rebuke instead of speaking face to face. The fear of man

Here’s a brief post on why “only” is preferred to “only begotten” in verses like John 3:16. One reason is that the Greek term monogenes is used in Hebrews 11:17 which states that Abraham “offering up his [only] son” Isaac. Isaac was not the only begotten son of Abraham, since Abraham fathered other children, but he was the unique son of Abraham. Isaac was the son of promise. The single nu supports this reading from the perspective of etymology as well. Only or Only Begotten -