2009-03-18

Turk points out that Paul left Titus to put things in order by appointing elders. This involves: Silencing the insubordinate (Titus 1:10-11). Teaching all kinds of people how to behave (Titus 2:1). Rebuking with all authority (Titus 2:15). Obeying rulers and authorities (Titus 3:1). If you’re a pastor, is this what you’re doing? Or did you make up your own job description? Put it in Order

Here’s a list from a 9marks blog contributor of 17 things that seminary never taught him. Seventeen Things that Seminary Never Taught Me by Deepak Reju. Thabiti observes that the local church seems to teach these things. Seminary + Local Church by Thabiti Anyabwile

Mckinley points out things that there are things you can’t learn without doing them (funerals), that some things are learned, like systematic theology, but one won’t know how to use them until knee deep in problems. “I'm encouraging guys in my church to skip or at least delay going away to seminary.  It doesn't seem to make sense to take a man out of a church where he can be known by others, see a real life example of pastoral ministry, and serve fruitfully.  To be honest, you can access seminary classes on the web and you can read a book any place.  So I'm not against seminary educations, but I have concerns about the approach that makes the M.Div the basic qualifications for the profession (like a JD or MD).” RE- Things Seminary Didn't Teach Me by Michael Mckinley

McKinley comments on the beauty of repetitive preaching. Whereas formerly he tried to avoid it, now he sees it as part of the point. The Holy Spirit has inspired repetition (e.g. Luke). We forget. We need to hear things repeatedly. Without careful attention we tend to lose our grip on the Gospel and the necessary implications in our lives. “That's our calling as pastors, I think.  Not a lot of new information, but the same glorious truth every week.” Repetitive Preaching by Michael Mckinley

Commenting on the attraction some have to red letter ‘Christianity’(in that Jesus is simple/vague while the apostles are cold/complex, Clint writes, “Being a Christian is no less than following Jesus, but it is far more, understood only in the Gospel. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to the apostles.” Contra Followers V. Founders

Piper comments on the final judgment and second coming, which will not be private, secret, or pleasant for unbelievers. Jesus gives two reasons for not believing claims about His having come. The first is that it will be as publicly unmistakable as lightning, and global in significance. The second is that he will come like vultures come on a corpse - when the world is as ready for judgment as road kill is for the vultures, then he will come in great wrath. The Second Coming Is Like Lightning and Vultures

JT strongly recommends, Scott Klusendorf's new book, The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture. The Case for Life

Girltalk recommends two more books for parents: Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman, and The Duties of Parents by J.C. Ryle.

In light of Jane Williams (wife of Rowan Williams) comments about being the wife of a bishop, which seem to express a general disdain for the home, etc. Bayly exhorts the church to esteem the woman that does not make a practice of whining about laundry and dishes or the hardships and costs of hospitality, but rather takes her greatest joy in washing the feet of the saints. Her husband and children rise up and call her "blessed." He points to a church that would have the pastor’s wives interview a pastoral candidate’s wife, with veto power over hiring! It’s time for the church to stop honouring those who are not honouring: “Or must we keep on blathering about women theologians, by which we mean women not burdened down by more than two children, and not particularly joyful about cooking and cleaning and changing diapers?” Pastors' wives- honor only to whom honor is due

Interesting comment from Benjamin Keach (1689), “Is it not strange men should say, all children of believers are in covenant, and that there is no falling from a state of grace; but that the New Covenant is so well ordered in all things, and sure, that it will secure all that are indeed in it, unto eternal life; and yet many of these children, who they say, are in this covenant, perish in their sins, dying unregenerate?” Keach on the contradictions of Calvinist Paedobaptism

Grimmond of Solapanel doesn’t like Driscoll’s four ways ‘new calvinism’ is so powerful. 1) It appears he has characterized the Old Calvinism in terms of fundamentalism versus liberalism because his desire is to get to cultural engagement, and that he thinks both liberals and fundamentalists failed completely. But what would you do when you are part of a world where people were calling themselves Christian and disobeying the gospel and rejecting the atoning work and Lordship of Christ? One biblical response is to separate from them (e.g. 1Cor 5:9-13, Rom 16:17, Tit 3:10). 2) On what basis does he think cessationists fear the Holy Spirit?? Every thoughtful cessationist believes in the intimate work of the Holy Spirit. Here, it would seem, Driscoll simply has in mind ‘words of knowledge’ and so on. (a) Jesus was skeptical of belief based on miracles. (b) the book of 1 Corinthians is in fact profoundly uninterested in the externally miraculous, looking instead for Christian love as evidence of the work of the Spirit. 3) While Driscoll talks about not burning bridges and bringing Christians together, he makes non-cessationism a defining principle in his third point.  Driscoll’s New Calvinism

Lawson had some high words for Calvin. “Schaff identifies's the Reformation as the second most important event to Christ's life itself, and at the center of the Reformation stands John Calvin, the greatest theologian since the apostles, and the greatest influence on the church since Peter and Paul. Spurgeon said that, among all those born of women, there has not arisen one greater than Calvin.” His influence cannot be overlooked. Lawson looks at Calvin’s life in eight sections: 1) Calvin was a genuine believer who'd been converted by the true Gospel. 2) He was a brilliant teacher, and people would gather to him. 3) He was faithful pastor for half his life. He "fenced the Table," and refused in 1538 to serve the Supper to certain people living in public sin and disgrace.Interesting point: He didn’t want to go back to Geneva before the Servetus incident! 4) He was a prolific author (huge amounts, 59 large volumes). 5) He was a zealous reformer, and truth had to have an impact and not remain theoretical. 6) He was a visionary educator. 7) He was a vibrant church planter, very missions-minded, sending out 88 missionaries from Geneva that were known, but many more not known, for their own safety. 8) Calvin was tireless and unwavering in his focus, an indomitable worker. 9) Calvin was shot at, threatened, mocked, insulted publicly; once Libertines stormed into church and threatened him with drawn swords in Geneva. “Beza knew him, and said Calvin gave an example of Christian character that was "as easy to slander as it is difficult to emulate."” The Extraordinary Life of John Calvin, Steven Lawson (PCRT 2009 Sacramento)

Hays quotes Ehrman saying that “much of the basic information” in Luke and Acts is reliable about Jesus and Paul, pointing out the huge admission, since high Christology is a basic element of Luke, and supernaturalism is basic to Acts – how then can one be an atheist? Lukan Christology

It would seem, from this quote, that Calvin thought in categories of Active and Passive Obedience. e.g. “our Lord come forth as true man and took the person and the name of Adam in order to take Adam's place in obeying the Father, to present our flesh as the price of satisfaction to God's righteous judgment, and, in the same flesh, to pay the penalty that we had deserved.” John Calvin on Christ's Obedience