2009-04-11

Phil Johnson is wary of post by Challies on watchblogs. He writes, “It needs to be said that "calling people out for damnable heresies that are causing people to drift away from the true faith" is a shepherd's duty, not an option—and it can be quite edifying if done well.” Pointing to the examples of Jesus and Ezekiel, he argues that there is a place for mockery of evil – that is, being amused by its foolishness. “Such things are certainly not more funny than they are abominable and tragic, but they nevertheless look hilariously comedic at times.” He “does think it's evil and irreverent to regard apostasy as nothing more than something to mock and be entertained by.” But if someone wants to seize that point in order to suggest that it's always better to be an encourager than a critic, his reply is: That very attitude is largely responsible for getting us into this mess in the first place. Turning a Blind Eye to Evil Is Evil, Too

Some Romanists have claimed that Luther said "To the gallows with Moses." Swan points out that according to Berkouwer, the quotes were from Johannes Agricola, not Luther. Luther fought against these statements from Agricola. Luther said, To the gallows with Moses!

Clint continues his thoughts on the spiritual ‘free market’, cautioning confessional churches that wish to preserve their doctrinal heritage (a good thing!) from becoming another niche marketer (i.e. the product being the confessional Reformed theology), with little vision or expectancy for ventures that seek to see the Gospel spread – a crippling thing for a healthy church to fall in to. This vitality of ‘venturesome expectancy’ is perhaps a very encouraging thing about the young, restless, and reformed crowd, despite criticisms of as just another revivalistic phenomenon. He also asks, “are the confessionally Protestant churches that are worried about the 'emerging' quality of church planting efforts in their own denominations (eg. PCA) attempting to plant churches themselves?”  The Free Market Spiritual Economy Part 2

Mounce explores the various potential meanings of the ‘husband of one wife.’ 1. The elder must be married – but the construction emphasizes the one, and Paul and Timothy weren’t married. 2. Prohibition against polygamy, but this was a rare occurrence, so why prohibit it? Same term also used in 1 Tim. 5:9, in reverse, applied to widows, and there was no evidence of polyandry. 3) The dominant view places primary emphasis on the "one" and says that being above reproach means he has only been married once. ‘husband of but one wife’ is inappropriate. There are disagreements over whether this applies to divorced men, or also to those whose wives died. Mounce thinks on the basis of the same criterion in the widows list that a man needn’t be married only once, and potentially a man divorced long ago could be an elder.  http://www.koinoniablog.net/2009/03/can-an-elder-be-divorced.html

DeYoung points to a book, Why Johnny Can’t Preach, in which the main points is that the “overwhelming majority of those ordained to Christian ministry cannot preach even a mediocre sermon.” This is aimed at conservative Reformed circles as well. i) He thinks less than 15% of sermons that he’s seen had a discernable point, and about 10% of those took the point from the text. ii) most church-goers wants shorter sermons because their preacher can’t preach. iii) Dabney’s cardinal points for preaching are missing: “textual fidelity, unity, evangelical tone (is the minister eager to bless the congregation or scold them?), instructiveness, movement, point, and order.” The reasons for this are that Johnny can’t read and write. “We have been trained by a image-based, sound bite, attention span deficient culture to skim books and fly past arguments.” Preachers therefore come to the text with general ideas, and when they see those ideas again, they preach on them again. They merely have their banal assumptions confirmed, and the congregation isn’t challenged by their triviality. Why Johnny Can't Preach (1)

Patton continues, “God is glorified when he is known truly. God is glorified by our trust in what he says. It is God’s great pleasure to reveal himself to his children. God is glorified when he is known and understood. God desires orthodoxy and right belief.” He responds to the baseless pragmatism of our culture, which rejects doctrine for its divisiveness, thinking life is all about them, and doctrine isn’t worth it if it doesn’t produce an immediate result, according to their standard (e.g. environmental, etc). Many beliefs have immediate application (e.g. we should forgive others). What of those, like sovereignty, that don’t seem to? The culture thinks like this: “Our generation, through a series of epiphanies, has made those teachings and beliefs off-limits because of their counter-productive tendency to divide. Plus, they don’t have any direct application to our lives. If someone is to have an opinion about them, lets just keep it at that—an opinion.”" And therefore they consign God to the unknowable, putting him in the practical application box. All good is defined by the degree which we listen to, understand, and believe the whole council of God, both in his world and in his Word. To prioritize truth, doctrine, understanding, and belief is to be transformed from the inside out, rather than the outside in. Giving people truth is our first priority – to do our part in making God known. Knowing God pleases God. The fragrance (application) produced by this is inevitable, and impossible without it. That’s what James meant. Christianity is first about true belief. “Belief is No Good Without Practice” and Other Stupid Statements (Part I’m Done)

Phil Johnson writes that Evangelicals, historically, have regarded the Bible itself as the very Word of God and therefore the highest of all authorities on earth; and they have regarded the gospel of salvation by grace through faith through the work of Christ on the cross as the non-negotiable center of everything we believe and teach. Sola scriptura and sola fide. He points out that the NT repeatedly stresses these: the authority of Scripture and the importance of getting the gospel right. What it doesn’t stress with any emphasis whatsoever are the things that are important to the institutional, hierarchical systems of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Most of the epistles were written to defend these two evangelical truths. E.g., John defends the authority of revealed truth. Paul, in Galatians, defends the Gospel, and justification by grace alone through faith alone—apart from works—is the very heart of the gospel. The core truth of the gospel is embodied in the doctrine of justification by faith. That’s the evangelical principle. No one but evangelicals thoroughly and consistently grasp the principle of sola fide and all its implications, so it is also the defining doctrine of historic evangelicalism. The authors of the NT drew a line between truth and falsehood on the basis of revelation – a fundamental evangelical principle. Scripture and Evangelical Conviction

This article warns about the dangers of small groups (i.e. those that urge that the reality of God is found primarily in the experience of being close to others in a small group and finding ‘healing’ of emotions and hurts through this closeness, thus bringing us right into the presence of God). It warns against determining God's character and will from the small group experience, placing faith in that experience rather than Christ’s mediation, and experience is the god of this age. Such wrongheadedness can also turn small group mission teams horizontal (bringing people to us) rather than evangelical – bringing people to God (vertical). They can become anti-preaching, as the value of discussion and personal discovery is elevated above the preaching of God’s word. They can be anti-minister, where the laity ‘rise up’ to correct perceived deficiencies in churches. Small groups are great for involving people in ministry but they must not be mutinous. Finally, the closeness of small groups can be anti-congregation, to the exclusion of the total congregation life. Small, unaccountable groups do what is right in their own eyes, reducing commitment to church. The problems with small groups 2 (Factotum #8)

John Walton writes about teraphim: they appear to be ancestor images, and there probably were various practices with regard to whether these ancestors were worshiped or considered to even have quasi-divine status.  "The family gods were not only the tie between the family unit and its property but also the very heart of the family." Teraphim had a great deal to do with family and inheritance. Teraphim and Family Gods

Phillips summarizes a message from Jerry Bridges on the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to believers and the imputation of their sin to Him. “As Jesus was not made a sinner in His character and conduct, so neither are we made righteous in character and conduct. That is not Paul's meaning.” “Bridges said to picture a moral ledger sheet with every word, thought, deed and motive entered on that sheet. Most people hope the good will outweigh the bad. The problem is that all of our deeds are stained, all are unclean and impure.” There is no such thing as a positive ledger sheet, except in the case of Christ. First Address- The Great Exchange, Jerry Bridges (PCRT 2009 Sacramento)

Mathis asks, who is the naked guy in Mark? It’s probably Mark himself, as “Fathers of the Church conjectured that the young man was Mark himself, who is known to have been a resident in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12) and in whose house, it was held by tradition, Jesus celebrated the [Passover] meal.” It matters because it shows that no one stayed with Jesus – only He could bring salvation. Who's the Naked Guy and Why Does He Matter-

White says that there is a simple fact that must be remembered as the moral landscape changes: “God blesses a nation with peace, prosperity and safety. He curbs the natural evil of men. But when God's wrath comes upon a people, He gives them over to their sin. He removes His hand of restraint, and what truly fills the hearts of men begins to be seen with clarity. He brings disaster upon the nation, some natural, some in the realm of its military (invasion, defeat), or especially its economy.” If we do not do what we are called to do, not only will we not honor our God and His commands, but the blood of those who run around the corner headlong into perdition and destruction will be required of us who sat by, afraid to be warners because we loved ourselves more than we loved God and our neighbors--the very ones we avoided "offending." The Moving Moral Landscape

Why is it essential that Jesus be raised from the dead? It’s a sign that death is not the end. Christianity has the promise of eternal life in a physical world. And as Paul argues, without the resurrection there is no basis for the assurance that sins were paid for. Resurrection -- Empty Tomb Theology (Derek Thomas)

In the book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die, Piper, in answering why Jesus came to die, I tried to connect Calvary with the concentration camps. If You Have a Jewish Friend

HT quotes JI Packer in response to Tony Jones (a wolf in sheep’s clothing) saying that he finds the idea of the Son bearing God’s wrath “neither intellectually compelling, spiritually compelling, nor in keeping with the biblical narrative.” Packer writes that a gospel without propitiation at is heart is another gospel than which Paul preached. The implications of this must not be evaded. The love of God [1 John 4:8-10], the taking of human form by the Son [Heb. 2:17], the meaning of the cross [Rom. 3:21-26], Christ's heavenly intercession [1 John 2:1-2], the way of salvation--all are to be explained in terms of propitiation. As Paul said, “if anyone should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” The Implications of This Must Not Be Evaded

Here’s an interesting reminder that the death of Artemis turned the doxology of Paul in 1 Timothy 1:17 into a hymn of praise. The King of the Ages

This is a good point in light of Jonathan Edwards' distinction between the knowledge of honey and the taste of honey, which he uses to help us understand the sweetness of knowing Christ. “why is it that we have so little sense for the bitterness of sin?” A sense for the bitterness of sin by Jonathan Leeman

Ascol writes that in our consumeristic age (now compounded with a growing "government bailout" mentality) the idea that a person should live within his means seems rather quaint. Even Christians are often influenced more by the prevailing cultural attitudes on debt than biblical teaching. Yet, as Proverbs 22:7 summarizes, "the borrower is the slave of the lender.” How to stay out of debt