2009-06-11

Here’s a mix video of Piper on the supremacy of Christ as the treasure in our lives in such a way that everything in our lives is as nothing to us. Everything is given to us so that we might enjoy it in such a way that we show that none of it is our treasure, but Christ. It is being used by the Don’t Waste Your Life Tour. 2 DWYL Videos

Bird quotes Markus Barth saying that Paul didn’t proof-text, but rather discovered step by step, learned, and presented what Scripture says about the Messiah, redemption, and faith, based on Paul calling Scripture a ‘witness’ (Romasns 3:21): He is dependent upon it for his conclusions. Markus Barth on Paul and Scripture

Bird gives his recommended readings for a Romans course. Reading for a Romans Course

Piper, in commenting on the difficulty of navigating the issue of ‘celebrity pastors’ (which he is by third parties considered), distinguishes between hero worship (e.g. it can show itself in that something is important because a certain pastor said it; that he says it is more important than what he said) and holy emulation, with the former being sinful, and the latter, endorsed by Scripture (1 Cor. 11:1; Phil. 3:17; 4:9; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Timothy 3:10; 3:14; Titus 2:7), is characterized by a realistic admiration for Christ’s sake, sees evidences of God’s grace, and desires to learn from them. http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2009/3974_Hero_Worship_and_Holy_Emulation/

DeYoung points to two books for pro-life apologetics: Francis Beckwith’s Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice, and The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture by Scott Klusendorf. i) It’s not enough to pity the unborn – act. ii) Stick to the central question in debate – is the fetus human? Ask if the same pro-choice argument would work for a toddler. iii) Ask if these confer humanhood: Size, level of development, environment, degree of dependence (SLED). iv) Embryology textbooks uniformly state that new human life comes into existence upon completion of fertilization. This is scientific fact, not a theological belief. v) It is nonsense to say 5k-10k women died per year from botched abortions. 45k die each year from all causes. It’s probably closer to 500 women annually from botched abortions. “The bloodiest single-day battle in American history was at Antietam in 1862, where 23,000 Americans lost their lives.” Now imagine Antietam every 5-6 days for 32 straight years. That’s the loss of life. 2112 Antietams

Anderson at Koinonia continues on the Book of Mormon (yesterday he summarized its evidential function: how the Book of Mormon catalyzes a self-validating spiritual experience that convinces Latter-day Saints of the divine authority of Joseph Smith and his mission). More than this, the book also exerts a formative influence shaping Mormon culture. The book creates a culture of witness or testimony; modeling/teaching a pattern for how to obtain witness from God and thus to act as a witness oneself. The narrative passages provide a paradigm for those who want to obtain witness – they are encouraged to emulate the characters in receiving Christ. The Testimony of Three Witnesses and The Testimony of Eight Witnesses both report how groups of people saw the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was purportedly translated. “The book acculturates its readers to new norms, and initiates them into a community of witnesses spanning from the text to the local congregation” Understanding the Book of Mormon, part 4 by Ross Anderson

MacArthur writes that “discernment is [in its simplest] nothing more than the ability to decide between truth and error, right and wrong. Discernment is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth. In other words, the ability to think with discernment is synonymous with an ability to think biblically.” 1 Thess. 5:21-22; 1 John 4:1. It isn’t optional, but essential for every Christian. Sadly, most Christians don’t do this, and so don’t hone their abilities, and they are tossed about by every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). Rather, God’s word gives us what we need to discern every issue. Christians have what they need – the true knowledge of Christ. 2 Peter 1:3. Defining Discernment

A woman who has gained legal recognition as a man makes the news for giving birth (“Pregnant man gives birth”). This is how foolish and sinfully lost our culture is becoming. Pregnant “Man” Gives Birth

At the Basics Conference, Alistair Begg spoke on 2 Cor. 5 on the matter of preaching that confronts people's stubborn wills - persuasive preaching. Now, this is a biblical model, where precept is used to urge people, and it is connected to inevitable suffering for the preacher. He talks of three challenges to preaching (in addition to the fact that it’s not in vogue, and much less Gospel preaching). i) Personal challenged: Don’t drown the message in complacent familiarity, don’t be fearful on account of self-preservation, and don’t be inhibited in proclaiming what God said. ii) Cultural challenges; e.g. entertainment. iii) Theological challenges: Don’t find comfort in systems of theology rather than Christ; don’t ‘worry that the non-elect may somehow be saved’.  Be clear about the Gospel and be bold (which follows on clarity). You can preach exhortation without the substance behind it (e.g. benefits of the gospel without it). The Basics Conference (III)

McKinley provides more more points from Dever on social issues and church living. i) Don’t divide over secondary matters. ii) Good deeds have been a deadly distraction to earlier generations; e.g. social gospel. iii) Are you more excited by the Gospel, or something else? iv) Be on guard against the preference of many members, moreso younger/theologically doubting, for doing ministry valued by unbelievers. Popularity is a poor guide to faithfulness. v) Consider how much of members’ time ought to be occupied by activites that non-Christians might do (when non-Christians will never be giving themselves to evangelizing our community (or beyond)).  The Congregation and the Wider Community, Part 5 by Michael Mckinley

Mohler writes about how, with the Industrial Revolution, silence has since increasingly become a thing of the past (where once man spent much time alone, in silence), with ambient noise, iPods, TV, radio, etc. being constantly on (and permitting people to even make independent noise environments). This takes its toll on the soul. Psychologists argue that the development of individual identity requires extended periods of solitude, reflection, and silence. The Christian tradition has honored silence as a matter of spiritual discipline and an intentional effort to flee the noise of everyday life in order to hear what that noise cannot supply. He quotes an author arguing that our culture fears silence, likely because it would mean coming face to face with ourselves. Moreover, a lack of silence has left us without the beauty of natural sound (this post isn’t advocating complete silence), and we have passed on this fear of silence to our children. Children cannot focus in a pool of quietness, they are fragmented [could this have something to do with the inability of people to pay attention for any length of time?], and they are rarely able to experience the contrast between noise and quietness. “The life of the mind and the shaping of the soul require the ability to hear, recognize, and understand what would be lost in a cacophony of sound.” tp://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3937

T-fan quotes early church fathers speaking of the atonement and/or limited atonement: “Although Christ suffered for all, yet He suffered for us particularly, because He suffered for the Church.” (Ambrose; 339-97) “to this is end He came down, that thou mayest believe; if thou believest not, He has not come down for thee, has not suffered for thee.” (Ambrose) “The people of God hath its own fulness. In the elect and foreknown, distinguished from the generality of all, there is accounted a certain special universality; so that the whole world seems to be delivered from the whole world, and all men to be taken out of all men.” (Ambrosiaster; similarly Augustine) “He does not say that he gave his life for all, but for many, that is, for all those who would believe.” (Jerome, on Matt 20:28). “When John says that Christ died for the sins of the “whole world,” what he means is that he died for the whole church.” (Hilary of Arles, 401-449, on 1 Jn 2:2).  ““God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” And this also: “The Son of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” And John says in his epistle: “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also [for those] of the whole world.” The whole world then is the Church, and yet the whole world hateth the Church. The world therefore hateth the world, the hostile that which is reconciled, the condemned that which is saved, the polluted that which is cleansed.” (Augustine) “Just as everyone redeemed by Christ's blood is a human being, but human beings are not all redeemed by Christ's blood, so too everything that is unlawful is not good, but things that are not good are not all unlawful.” (Augustine) ““Was once offered” (he says) “to bear the sins of many.” Why “of many,” and not “of all”? Because not all believed, For He died indeed for all, that is His part: for that death was a counterbalance against the destruction of all men. But He did not bear the sins of all men, because they were not willing.” (Chrysostom) “When, therefore, our Saviour is said to be crucified for the redemption of the whole world, because of his true assumption of the human nature, yet may he be said to be crucified only for them unto whom his death was profitable.” “The death of Christ is not to be so laid out for human-kind, that they also should belong unto his redemption who were not to be regenerated.” (Prosper of Aquitaine) “It should be noted, of course, that he bore the sins of many, not of all: not all came to faith, so he removed the sins of the believers only.” (Theodoret of Cyrrhus, 393-466, on Heb. 9:27-28). “The Lord intercedes for us not by words but by his dying compassion, because he took upon himself the sins which he was unwilling to condemn his elect for.” (Bede). Some Church Fathers on the Atonement