2009-09-13

Piper excerpts Obama’s speech to children, calling it ‘amazing’ within its spiritual limitations, and noting that headlines which reduce it to hand-washing and protecting the environment will miss the wisdom of it. I’ve Read the President’s Speech- Amazing

Engwer comments on the discussion at Wheaton college over whether one can be evangelical and catholic. The discussion was vague and ecumenical. Timothy George underestimates the errors of Rome, and he has an overly positive view of Romanism. While Beckwith and George agreed that 1 Cor. 15 is shared by both, the very meaning of ‘he died for our sins’ is what is in question, and Paul made it clear in Galatians that the addition of works to the Gospel nullifies what he summarized in 1 Cor. 15, and the Gospel includes the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice, which he defines in a way that made the inclusion of works as a means of attaining justification a denial of the sufficiency of Christ and His finished work. Timothy George And Francis Beckwith On Being Evangelical And Catholic

Hays has some interesting comments on the realistic depiction of a nihilistic and meaningless secular worldview in Alpha Dog; the way the amoral kids stay logically true to their own unbelieving worldview, where vice is typically rewarded, and virtue is penalized. One error commits them to a greater evil to try to cover their tracks. Critics panned the movie – probably because liberals like to blame poverty and oppression for crime (i.e. ‘victims’ of tragic circumstances), and yet the movie depicts a bunch of privileged yuppie delinquents doing godless things. It’s probably like looking in the mirror for much of hollywood. These kids are like them. Alpha Dog

Pike, amazed at this himself, writes of Camille Paglia, “I agree with almost the entirety of her latest column. She still won’t admit that Obama is the problem (it’s always his advisors who make mistakes, and never him for nominating such incompetent people), but the rest of the article savages Democrats.” After citing a number of striking quotes, he concludes, “Most of her article could have been written by a conservative. When a leftist feminist starts thinking this way, it doesn’t bode well for Democrats in 2010.” Here’s one quote: “Why has the Democratic Party become so arrogantly detached from ordinary Americans? Though they claim to speak for the poor and dispossessed, Democrats have increasingly become the party of an upper-middle-class professional elite, top-heavy with journalists, academics and lawyers (one reason for the hypocritical absence of tort reform in the healthcare bills). Weirdly, given their worship of highly individualistic, secularized self-actualization, such professionals are as a whole amazingly credulous these days about big-government solutions to every social problem. They see no danger in expanding government authority and intrusive, wasteful bureaucracy. This is, I submit, a stunning turn away from the anti-authority and anti-establishment principles of authentic 1960s leftism.” Agreeing With...Camille Paglia-!-!

T-fan responds to an attempt to say that Pharez (the son of Judah’s daughter-in-law Tamar and Judah, as the result of her pretending to be a prostitute) was legitimate. Was Pharez Legitimate-

Leeman points to Ben Franklin’s description of his failed attempt to implement what is now considered to be a postmodern epistemic humility, often lauded by avant-garde thinkers today. Franklin found himself proud of his humility. True humility is not a product of one's epistemology; it's not a property firstly of the mind. True humility comes from the Spirit, and is a property firstly of the heart. Whenever a writer appeals to something like post-modernism as the of ground Christian humility he points to a false humility. Benjamin Franklin on Sounding Humble by Jonathan Leeman

JT summarizes Piper’s article on the marks of a spiritual leader, wherein he describes the characteristics of a good teacher. What Is a Good Teacher-

Repentance is hard. It means being actually sorry, actually grieved over your sin. It means confessing it, not excusing it. It means asking for forgiveness for the sin. And it means turning from it in the future and not tolerating it in your life. This is difficult because it is an affront to everything prideful. God commands that people everywhere repent (Acts 17:30-31). It is the call to repentance that God gave after Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 238). Repentance

Piper is stunned at the outcry against Obama’s speech to students, e.g. the governor of his state said its "disruptive . . . uninvited . . . and number three . . . I don't think he needs to force it upon the nation's school children." Piper calls the speech an answer to specific prayers of his. He hopes his daughter hears it. I Hope My Daughter Hears the President’s Speech

T-fan wonders if the Truly Reformed like R Scott Clark out at Westminster West would respond to the Lutheran charge that Calvin was an Enthusiast who separated the Spirit from the Word. It’s mistaken to blame Calvin(ism) for either Enthusiasm (emphasizing emotional experience, especially in an unguided way, as allegedly being the leading of the Holy Spirit), Pietism (focus on piety without regard for orthodoxy), or Church Growth Movements, which are largely rejected by Calvinism. T-fan notes such accusations cause him to think 1689 LBCF confessional Reformed Baptists are closer to Presbyterians than Lutherans. Would R. Scott Clark Respond to the Enthusiast-Calvinist Accusation-

We need to get priorities straight. In Knowing God, Packer wrote that there is a ‘gigantic conspiracy of misdirection’ from current Christian publications (1973) since from them you might think that the most vital issue for any real or would-be Christian in the world today is church union, or social witness, or dialogue with other Christians and other faiths, or refuting this or that -ism, or developing a Christian philosophy and culture, etc. So many in our day seem to have been distracted from what was, and is, and always will be, the true priority for every human being: That is, learning to know God in Christ. Christian Publishing's Gigantic Conspiracy of Misdirection

Interesting post from Haykin: My top twelve needed dissertations in the Greek Fathers

The ELCA recently approved the ordination of practicing homosexuals. The ELCA, the UCC, the PC(USA), and the RCA share an agreement that they recognize each other “as churches in which the gospel is rightly preached and the sacraments rightly administered to the Word of God.” DeYoung writes on the idea that "Cutting ties with the ELCA over their Assembly’s narrow decision would witness to the world that Christians will fight and divide themselves from one another, and break the bonds of Christian fellowship, over such an ethical difference.” i)) Unity is an overused trick which begs the question, unity with whom on what grounds? Unity in truth is good. Some division is indeed called for (cf. 1 Cor. 11:19). ii) visible external unity must be pursued only with those with whom we share real spiritual unity. iii) Just as there is schism that masquerades as principle, there is also faithless compromise that goes by the guise of unity. iv) And there are hardly many new converts made because a watching world can watch the unity of the World Council of Churches, for it is a unity based on doctrinal indifferentism and progressive politics. v) Are we really to believe that if the Apostle John and Philip started having sex together in a committed monogamous relationship that Peter (not to mention Jesus) would have been ok with that? It takes some massive mental gymnastics and historical revisionism, and hubris, to think the Apostles and the Church Fathers would be marching in gay parades and defending their associations with those who would. vi) Jesus, who defended the sanctity of marriage against the liberalizers of his day and the woman at the well, promised not to relax the least of the commandments of the Law, and he would not bless homosexual intercourse in direct disobedience to Leviticus 18 and 20. vii) This is a Gospel issue. Promoting homosexuality is to celebrate that from which we are called to repent. viii) Promoting homosexuality (esp. under the guise of unity) puts one at odds with 99% of the church in history! ix) When we make a decision that every Christian who ever lived would have considered unthinkable we ought to pause. x) Homosexuality is so clearly and often forbidden in Scripture that to encourage it is to call into question the very authority of Scripture: the New Testament sees it as a matter for discipline (1 Corinthians 5), separation (2 Corinthians 6:12-20), and an example of perverse compromise (Jude 3-16). xi) A true church does not encourage people in deliberate sin when it ought to call them to repentance. Those who use grace as a license to sin and sensuality are false teachers. No, Homosexuality is Not Just an Ethical Issue

JT: An 8 minute video of David Powlison talking about some common issues that come up in counseling married couples. David Powlison on Marital Intimacy- Part 1

Hays notes this attempted face-saving comment by a Romanist: “A canon of a council is not ipso facto a dogma, but conciliar canons can contain and define dogma.” But if councils and canons can contain error, they’re no good for sifting truth from untruth. You need an external source to adjudicate. If you’re dependent on them, you’re lost in the jungle. The Catholic rule of faith always devolves into a vicious infinite regress. Using an incorrect answer key to correct an exam