JT says of the October 2010 Christianity Today cover story of Mohler: “As far as I can see, it’s the lengthiest profile they have done (at least in recent memory) and certainly the most condescending.” He found the author’s bias subtly and explicitly pervades the article. He asks a series of questions on key issues, in part to show how much an author’s own presuppositions influence the direction of the narrative. Christianity Today Cover Story on Albert Mohler
Here’s an example of the government imposing solutions instead of seeking them. A law requiring the ability to ‘unscramble encryption’ is useless, technically inept, and dangerous. U.S. Government Wants to Read Your Emails
JT points to Carson on the Law, and asks six questions as a litmus test for whether you understand the relationship of the Law and the Gospel. One key point is that “law” does not refer to a misunderstanding/perversion of to condemnation of the law. A Good Test Case for Your Understanding of Law and Gospel
Spurgeon has words for the The [Post]modern Missional Strategy. “This is the suggestion of the present hour: if the world will not come to Jesus, shall Jesus tone down his teachings to the world? In other words, if the world will not rise to the church, shall not the church go down to the world? Instead of bidding men to be converted, and come out from among sinners, and be separate from them, let us join with the ungodly world, enter into union with it, and so pervade it with our influence by allowing it to influence us. Let us have a Christian world… In order to win the world, the Lord Jesus must conform himself, his people, and his Word to the world. I will not dwell any longer on so loathsome a proposal.” He observes how people turn their houses of prayer into theatres, into musical displays. [and they think they’re novel today…] "The [Post]modern Missional Strategy
Clint points to Terry Stauffer, two years after his daughter was murdered, as an example of true heaven-mindedness. More serious about life and what we believe
CMI: Dinosaur and pterosaur skeletons are often found in this characteristic posture: head thrown back, hind limbs bent, tail extended. The question of why so many fossils exhibit this posture “has troubled paleontologists for more than a century”. Tendons drying out, etc. is inadequate; animals dying from being poisoned or hit by a car often adopt the posture while still (barely) alive. The death throes of these animals are explicable by a global flood. Death throes
Reformation21 has an interesting anecdote relating the story of someone who showed promise for Gospel ministry, but withdrew himself on account of his doubts, saying, ‘I would give anything to share you convictions about the bible, but I don't and I cannot in good conscience go into the ministry confused and doubting as I am.' He had lost confidence in the authority of Scripture and felt, rightly, that he had nothing to say, and he refused to go into the ministry. Actually he went on to be an effective worker in his local church and over the years has regained his trust in the scripture for which I am grateful to God. Full Confidence (Liam Goligher)
Hays responds to opposition to retributive justice. i) To say no one deserves eternal punishment is to indict God as an unjust judge by punishing sinners more harshly than they deserve. ii) The Nicene creed is a primitive, uninspired statement of faith. It omits much that Scripture teaches. It won’t work as a permission slip before God to excuse one from believing revealed truths. iii) “The Church” doesn’t get to decide what we are free to disbelieve. God obligates us to believe whatever he reveals. One can’t game to system by citing loopholes in fallible creeds. iv) We’re in a position to have a better grasp of Biblical theology than the church fathers. And to whom much is given, much is required. v) Israel had a sacrificial system, involving vicarious punishment. vi) God exacts full retributive justice on the damned, and full retributive justice on the Redeemer instead of the elect. vii) There can be gradations of punishment even though all of the damned are damned. viii) The only condemnation is not to reject Jesus. People are condemned even before that. The incarnation doesn’t create that situation. Rather, the Incarnation exposes that situation. Only the Holy Spirit can heal the blind (Jn 1:13; 3:3-8). Just desserts
T-fan cites Machen: "There is not one law of God for the Christian and another law of God for the non-Christian." He also speaks on the redemption of culture. What Would Machen Say to Darryl Hart-
JT notes that while there is much to commend the three-fold distinction between the Law, it doesn’t seem to work. The Sabbath command is surely part of the moral law in the OT, and is never repeated in the NT, but Paul seems to regard it a matter of some indifference (Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:16–17). Carson says that the problem “with the tripartite division of law, which as a device for explaining continuity and discontinuity between the Testaments… is that it attempts to construct an a priori grid to sort out what parts of the law Christians must keep or do, and holds that Paul must have adopted some such grid, even if he does not explicitly identify it.” Carson suggests using it a posteriori, by first discerning Paul’s patterns of continuity and discontinuity, and after this, old covenant laws which Christians “fulfill” in a fashion most closely aligned with their function within the old covenant may safely be labeled “moral”. On the Tripartite Division of the Law
Mounce writes that we use context to determine whether a Greek sentence is a question (since the punctuation isn’t in the original). Subjunctive verbs may be a deliberative subjunctive (inviting the hearer to ponder; i'.e. ‘what should we wear?’). Greek ou indicates that the sentence may be a question where the expected answer is a negative (do you not care we’re perishing?). μη is just like using ου except that the expected answer is "no." (e.g. all don’t have the gift of tongues, do they?). When is a Sentence a Question- (Monday with Mounce 77)
JT points to the Ordinary Pastors Project, and cites a number of encouragements from Matt Redmond. Here’s a few: “Be encouraged when young men grown fat on the feast of podcasts question your every move. Be encouraged when no one knows your name; it is written in blood in the book of life. Ordinary pastor, be encouraged: Your faithful labor in the darkened forest of obscurity is heroic.” Ordinary Pastors- Be Encouraged
Patton likes Roger Olson, but takes serious issue with his friendliness to Purgatory: “The very idea of Purgatory goes against everything that the Reformation was about. Let me back up. In essence, this is what I am hearing Olson say: “There are some Christians who have done some really, really bad things and had some really, really bad attitudes. Therefore, I am considering that these Christians have to enter into an educational corrective half-way house before entering Heaven. Let’s call this a ‘Protestant Purgatory’.”… What is wrong with hate-filled Christians going through corrective therapy as a consequence for their sinful thinking? Really? Are we being serious here? If Olson had simply said that we will all be learning in heaven, if Olson had said that all our thinking be instantaneously sanctified upon entering Paradise, maybe if this was not in the context of Purgatory, I might have been able to follow him a bit more. But to suggest that certain people are just too bad to get a true free pass evidences how difficult it is, even for someone as astute as Olson, to comprehend how radical God’s grace is and how sinful we all are. To single out these fellas is problematic as it seems, like the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, to place a breaking point on the grace of God. ” Patton contrasts Purgatory with the view of the prodigal son. Baptist Seminary Professor Roger Olson Headed Toward Rome
Dane Ortlund: “While the Bible is not uniform, it is unified.” The Grace of God in Every Book of the Bible
Burk commends the new book The Faithful Parent: A Biblical Guide to Raising a Family (co-authored with Martha Peace). Stuart Scott’s New Book
CMI: “Stephen Hawking is still using tendentious cosmological speculation to support his atheopathic faith”. Hawking atheopathy
DG citing DeYoung: “Simply put, God's will is your growth in Christlikeness. God promises to work all things together for our good that we might be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29). . . . God never assures us of health, success, or ease. But He promises us something even better: He promises to make us loving, pure, and humble like Christ. In short, God's will is that you and I get happy and holy in Jesus. So go marry someone, provided you're equally yoked and you actually like being with each other. Go get a job, provided it's not wicked. Go live somewhere in something with somebody or nobody. But put aside the passivity and the quest for complete fulfillment and the perfectionism and the preoccupation with the future, and for God's sake start making some decisions in your life. Don't wait for the liver-shiver. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be in God's will, so just go out and do something. ” God's Will for Your Life- Follow Jesus, and Do Something
Though I don’t know the authors, these lists are certainly interesting: [See Infertility: People Say the Dumbest Things and What Not to Say When Someone is Grieving.] HT: Bock’s blog, What Not to Say- Adoption
Hays observes that while the church formally denies continuing revelation, which requires them to appeal to the theory of development to justify their theological innovations, they do nurture belief in Marian apparitions. They’re wary of official pronouncements but certainly open to the idea that Mary even reveals things from the future (Fatimia prophecies). But what is this if not a theory of continuing revelation? Also, why does the Roman church need a teaching office then? It has a living prophetess in the person of Mary. Who needs the pope when you have Mary? She outranks the pope. If Mary can pop in to unveil new truths, then the papacy and the development of doctrine are pretty superfluous. The Fatima Prophecies
Mohler writes that, in light of accusations swirling around Atlanta’s Bishop Eddie Long, the media have turned back to Ted Haggard, who, at the time of his own scandal, was pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Haggard actually said, “Nobody’s guilty until the court says he’s guilty.”, as if it takes a court to define sin! A church cannot possibly settle for this as a principle of how to deal with accusations of sin. The church does not need the courts to define either sin or its remedy. http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/09/27/it-takes-a-court-to-define-sin
DeYoung writes that Christianity is no friend of rationalism, but it is rational. That is to say, although divine truth comes by revelation not by unaided reason, that revealed truth is nevertheless reasonable. Too often mystery is a cover for anti-propositional bias, a suspicion of truth claims, or just plain intellectual laziness. But American culture does not encourage careful thinking. He relates an anecdote of an encounter with a woman illustrating complete disregard for argumentation, and serious cognitive dissonance (e.g. “She called herself a Christian, but on takeoff claimed the sunset in front of us was God”). DeYoung asks, “How do you give a reason for the hope that you have when the people asking you aren’t interested in reason? It seems to me one of the first tasks of evangelism today is to reintroduce the law of non-contradiction.” Reasons for Reason
This post takes issue with the myth of short web content: “Unfortunately, it is an ongoing myth that web content must be short. There are no “rules” with length of successful content, in fact if you look at some of the most popular digital personalities… you’ll see their content is quite in depth.” ... “ It is an ongoing myth you need to write short, pithy posts. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you are writing about a complex subject matter, wish to tell deeper stories or have lots of examples to share, do it. Just be sure to format properly, have compelling hooks, use visuals to break up content and show readers that yes, you have longer format content – but it is unmissable. ” HT: Challies. http://thefuturebuzz.com/2010/09/27/myth-of-short/
Manata responds to this: “By morality, I am referring to the social rules we are all familiar with . . . It is the behavior we learn from our earliest development, from our immediate social encounters (usually parents and siblings).” He notes that this sounds odd coming off of his interlocutors strongly worded indictments of the inquisitions, for he’s lost the right to critique and condemn the moral practices of others from other cultures or societies. This cultural relativism has several unfortunate problems, apart from its being false. His interlocutor wants to make “the world a better place”, but if culture defines what is right and wrong, then to critique culture from some transcendent perspective is not only inconsistent with a denial of any such perspective, it is itself immoral. In other words, cultural relativism cannot account for moral reform. If a culture thinks slavery is good, then a William Wilberforce is bad. If a society is the standard, then it can’t be made “better.” Better compared to what? Is Belief in God Good, Bad (Religion), or Irrelevant- – 3
Beggar’s All: “I've cited Paul Johnson to the effect that 1/3 to 1/2 of all priests had concubines and illegitimate children, a system which perpetuated itself (Paul Johnson, "History of Christianity"). As bad as that was, it wasn't the cause for the Reformation.” The post cites an author who talks about "the extent to which hierarchy, Pope, bishops, priests, and monks are understood to have exchanged poverty for greed." But even on top of all of these evils, it wasn't the worst thing, and it wasn't the cause for the Reformation. ” The doctrinal heart of the Reformation was the doctrine of justification. Doctrinal causes of the Reformation
T-blog points to some stats that don’t reflect well for American priorities. A Recent Survey On Religious Knowledge
Hays responds to the problematic idea that taking the Bible at its word means thinking in terms of a flat earth. One obvious problem is “the assumption that stories of ascents and descents necessarily refer to physical locomotion. Although that’s sometimes the case, this imagery can be both a literary convention as well as a description of the mystical experience.” (Ezek. 40:2; Rev 21:10). Locomotive imagery can be conceived of in visionary or out-of-body terms, and is also employed in mystical literature. Ascent of Mount Carmel
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