2009-04-05

9Marks blogs through Total Church. Some interesting points: i) Christ rules His church through His word, which is why the ability to understand and teach it is absolutely central and essential to pastors. ii) Being word-centred is to be Spirit-centred since our role is to read, hear, and proclaim that word, and the Spirit’s role is to do the work of God through that word. iii) By becoming Christian one belongs to Christ and other Christians. One doesn’t make a decision to join a local church. Our identity is being in Christ and that means being with others in Christ. Failing to live out this corporate identity in Christ – an identity that supercedes biology, Matthew 10:34-37; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 11:27-28 – is adultery. http://blog.9marks.org/2009/02/blogging-through-total-church-part-2.html

Thabiti reminds us to pray for the persecuted brethren around the world: “Various incidents in India. Religious freedom violations in Morocco. Destruction of church buildings and forced relocations in Laos. 500 Christians face new Sharia regime under Taliban rule in Pakistan village. Raids, arrests and harrassments in Uzbekistan.” A Friendly Reminder by Thabiti Anyabwile

Hays reminds those who would call themselves confessional Calvinists that just because they quote the Confessions doesn’t make them a confessional Calvinist. It’s ironically out of the spirit of the original confessions and unfaithful to the men who formulated them. Gisbertus Voetius (Synod of Dordt) and Samuel Rutherford (Westminster divine) were themselves not content to quote, and were formidable polemicists, concerned with the details and proving their case. Confessional Calvinism

Hays warns of the spiritual peril in de facto denying post/extra-biblical miracles, in that it can foster false expectations. Some Christians take Humean view, even unwittingly, who thought that the only function of miracles is evidentiary, and that miracles validate whatever religion they’re attributed to. Hays points to Jesus’ taken up on the mountain (a Satanic miracle; which attests the existence, power, and character of the devil – all fully biblical truths) and the psychic in Acts 16 (attesting to the reality of demons, possession, superhuman powers). This doesn’t cancel out divine miracles – it’s fully compatible with biblical demonology. Hays writes that those with the most undeveloped, dogmatic, and rigid beliefs are often the most vulnerable. They’re totally ill-equipped to handle such an encounter. On the brink

Phillips summarizes Lawson’s conference message on Calvin’s legacy. i) he left a theological standard by the careful handling of God’s word in his Institutes and commentaries. Westminster and Dordt were dominated by his God-centred biblical doctrine. ii) His theology upheld the centrality of the glory of God in everything, that man should have the zeal for the glroy of God as his reason for existence, and this touched work, in that it could glorify God, education, in that all people should have a God-centred worldview; and law and order in society, in that the standard of morality was binding on all people. Free market capitalism also flowed from this, since hard work, personal property, and stewardship, honesty and integrity, necessity of God’ blessing on your work, and the nobility of profit making so as to share with the poor. Politics even felt his influence, forming a republican democratic rule patterned after the elders who ruled a church. iii) Internationally, Calvinism was the reason for the establishment of Harvard and Yale and Princeton, millions of people were part of Reformed churches in france, he influenced John Knox, Oliver Cromwell, Whitfield, Edwards, and even John Adams freely acknowledged John Calvin's influence of the idea of liberty in the West. The American missions movement started with Calvinists. The enduring legacy of John Calvin, Steven Lawson (PCRT 2009 Sacramento)

Phillips relates the Q&A on Calvin with Richard Phillips and Steve Lawson. It’s all interesting, but most pertinent is the Servetus myth. “In 1553, the city fathers burned Servetus - Calvin did not. Calvin did not prosecute him, and had no powers of execution. Calvin wasn't even a citizen of Geneva at the time. Calvin was only an expert witness, and argued for a more humane death. The RCC had already condemned Servetus to death, and Servetus begged not to be sent back to their hands. Servetus was given the option to leave Geneva, and refused. Servetus was executed by civil authorities, not elders or pastors or teachers. The civil authorities were Calvin's enemies, not his supporters. They consulted other cities' leaders, and they agreed to put him to death. Servetus would have been executed, regardless. Servetus defiantly ignored a warning not to come to Geneva. He was the only heretic to be executed for blasphemy, as opposed to the hundreds of thousands martyred by Rome during the Inquisition.” Also, to the question, “Is belief in the five sola's and the doctrines of grace sufficient condition to call oneself a Calvinist?” Phillips said "Reformed" will mean covenant theology; Calvinist soteriology will get one named a Calvinist. Question and Answer, Richard Phillips and Steven Lawson (PCRT 2009 Sacramento)

Hays has some words for blind creedalism. “Creeds do not outrank us. Scripture outranks us. You can’t elevate the teaching authority of the church above the actual content of its teaching. Falsehood is not authoritative. Only true is authoritative.” Blind, idolatrous creedalism

Hays writes that unbelievers who deny the miraculous often assume their own conclusion, then fail to do any research on the matter (since the stuff isn’t real, right?) and so fail to find any contrary evidence. They have a circular argument. Hays goes on to provide lengthy quotations of paranormal and miraculous accounts over the last two thousand years. Miracles- now and then

This Reformed Baptist pastor relates what he calls ‘spanking evangelism’: He would frame all childhood discipline in the law-court setting, with him as judge and executioner. He would lead them through a trial, obtaining testimony, accusations, etc. and establishing agreed upon facts, then getting them to admit their guilt and responsibility, and agree that the punishment was just, and then administering a smack as necessary. He would remind his children that such justice was necessary by God’s rule, and that their disobedience was also disobedience in God’s court, connecting it to God’s laws, and reminding them of the due penalty. He would then remind his children of the cross, and how through the work of Christ God will forgive a sinner by faith. He would teach them how to pray and trust in Jesus, and he would have them recount the Gospel. “I’m sorry” wasn’t sufficient, but rather a Gospel transaction of requesting forgiveness for particular sins is required. “Discipline your son while there is hope, and do not desire his death. (Prov 19:18) Corporeal discipline should be employed early on in the life of the child. As their capacity to reason and their conscience matures, you should incrementally diminish the use of the rod and increase your appeals to their judgment.” Spanking Evangelism

Spurgeon exhorts believers to remember and hold fast to the glorious teaching of the imputation of the righteousness of Christ (Romans 5). “See what Christ has done in his living and in his dying, his acts becoming our acts and his righteousness being imputed to us, so that we are rewarded as if we were righteous, while he was punished as though he had been guilty.” Active Obedience

Adams reminds counselors that when dealing with obstinate Christians, especially those who think themselves skilled exegetes, but have no idea what they are doing, the task is too great for you. The thing you can do is to get them to study Scripture, for it is spiritually discerned, and it requires a work of the Spirit to illuminate the mind. How to Get Him to Think Straight

Engwer provides some explanations as to why Paul would write, “I, Paul” in his letters, in response to the suggestion that this shows it to be pseudonymous. i) It distinguishes authors in a multi-author document or a document written by a group. It also acts as a safeguard. ii) It provides emphasis, like our own repetition today. It invokes his authority, experience, affection. iii) Such language appears in legal contexts. iv) Literary convention (e.g. signatures). v) Remember Paul lives long ago, so it behooves us to consult versed scholars on the matter and not assume they communicated as we do. vi) Efficiency is often not a goal in writing. Engwer then provides scholarly commentary on the relevant passages to support the foregoing. Extra-biblical writings by Gregory Nazianzen, Papus, Porphyry, Josephus, Cicero show this habit. Why Does Paul Use I, Paul And Similar Phrases In His Letters-

Phillips, observing Scot MacKnight and Tony Jones whining about being misrepresented (allegedly by Kevin DeYoung, etc.) makes the pointed observation that this has been his experience with all false teaching (e.g. Romanists, Mormonism, universalism, etc., even NT Wright despite Piper’s attempt to bend over backwards to be over-charitable) except Jehovah's Witnesses. “That is, every false teacher, faced with an aggressive, pedal-to-the-metal, decisive refutation, says he's misunderstood and misrepresented.” He asks this question whether anyone can name a proponent of aberrant doctrine who has admitted when faced with decisive refutation that his opponent understands him, and yet still holds his position? Quick question about false teachers of every variety

Here’s an article arguing that Obama is Europeanizing America, and that this is a really bad thing. “A couple of weeks back, the evening news shows breathlessly announced that US unemployment had risen to seven per cent, the highest in a decade and a half. Yet the worst American unemployment rate is still better than the best French unemployment rate for that same period. Indeed, for much of the 1990s the EU as a whole averaged an unemployment rate twice that of the US and got used to double-digit unemployment as a routine and semi-permanent feature of life. Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe in the Sixties and Seventies, is now a country whose annual growth rate has averaged 1.1 per cent since the mid-Nineties; where every indicator – home ownership, new car registrations – is heading down; and in which government agencies have to budget for such novel expenditures as narrowing the sewer lines in economically moribund, fast depopulating municipalities because the existing pipes are too wide to, ah, expedite the reduced flow… for a continent of “family friendly” policies, Europe is remarkably short of families. While America’s fertility rate is more or less at replacement level – 2.1 – seventeen European nations are at what demographers call “lowest-low” fertility - 1.3 or less - a rate from which no society in human history has ever recovered. Germans, Spaniards, Italians and Greek have upside-down family trees: four grandparents have two children and one grandchild. The numbers are grim, and getting grimmer. The EU began the century with four workers for every retiree. By 2050, Germany will have 1.1 workers for every retiree.” “When the state “gives” you plenty – when it takes care of your health, takes cares of your kids, takes care of your elderly parents, takes care of every primary responsibility of adulthood – it’s not surprising that the citizenry cease to function as adults: Life becomes a kind of extended adolescence – literally so for those Germans who’ve mastered the knack of staying in education till they’re 34 and taking early retirement at 42 (which sounds a lot like where Obama’s college-for-all plans will lead).” http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/1931/26/

And even Obama’s supporters are apparently becoming a little disenchanted. http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/1932/

The UN wants to run the world because that’s what global warming really needs. http://centuri0n.blogspot.com/2009/03/who-didnt-see-this-coming.html