Steve Turner's "Creed"

Creed

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin. We believe everything is OK as long as you don't hurt anyone, to the best of your definition of hurt, and to the best of your knowledge. We believe in sex before during and after marriage. We believe in the therapy of sin. We believe that adultery is fun. We believe that sodomy's OK We believe that taboos are taboo. We believe that everything's getting better despite evidence to the contrary. The evidence must be investigated. You can prove anything with evidence. We believe there's something in horoscopes, UFO's and bent spoons; Jesus was a good man just like Buddha Mohammed and ourselves. He was a good moral teacher although we think his good morals were bad. We believe that all religions are basically the same, at least the one that we read was. They all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on matters of creation sin heaven hell God and salvation. We believe that after death comes The Nothing because when you ask the dead what happens they say Nothing. If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then it's compulsory heaven for all excepting perhaps Hitler, Stalin and Genghis Khan. We believe in Masters and Johnson. What's selected is average. What's average is normal. What's normal is good. We believe in total disarmament. We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed. Americans should beat their guns into tractors and the Russians would be sure to follow. We believe that man is essentially good. It's only his behaviour that lets him down. This is the fault of society. Society is the fault of conditions. Conditions are the fault of society. We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him. Reality will adapt accordingly. The universe will readjust. History will alter. We believe that there is no absolute truth excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth. We believe in the rejection of creeds.  --Steve Turner

Happy Halloween--Er--I Mean, Happy Reformation Day!

494 years ago today, a monk named Martin Luther started a revolution. Historian Kirsten Birkett explains:

"On [31 October 1517], Luther nailed his famous [95] theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Such complaints were not unusual or particularly offensive, as they were used as a basis for debate, and Luther intended no more than that. He had not counted on the fact that his complaint actually went to the heart of the existence of the church at all.  

Though it wasn't Luther's intention, this became the traditional date that marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

For a good and readable account of the Reformation, see Kirsten Birkett's The Essence of the Reformation. http://www.matthiasmedia.com/the-essence-of-the-reformation

Also, watch this four minute clip from the excellent 2003 film "Luther." The film depicts the famous standoff at the Diet of Worms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5P7QkHCfaI

Baby Thinks News Magazine is an iPad

At 29, I am actually old enough to remember the days when, if I wanted to know some historical fact, I would look it up in my family's 20-volume 1981 World Book Encyclopedia. My family didn't have a desktop computer until I was probably 15 or 16, and we didn't have internet until I was about 17. So my first exposure to computers came at school. First there were grainy old Apples with dark screens, and clunky old PC's that ran MS-DOS. Then came Windows '95! Ah, a screen with more colors than just black and green! I still remember the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia--"I can't believe it! You can listen to a 30 second clip of the actual 'I Have a Dream" speech!'" Then, of course, there was the Oregon Trail computer game. There, my friends and I would trek the untamed West from Nauvoo to Sacramento, shooting bears and fording rivers and contracting cholera and administering laudanum. Those were the days!

Today, little Suzy Davis knows how to use an iPad.

I thought of all this when I saw this news story on someone's wall. Which reminds me: a couple of weeks ago, I overheard someone using the word 'wall' in a conversation, and my first assumption was that they meant 'Facebook wall.' Turns out they were referring to the old-fashioned kind--you know, the ones that are perpendicular to floors and separate rooms from each other?

Here's the news story:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/baby-thinks-print-magazine-broken-ipad-201148361.html

Seven Reasons Halloween Judgment Houses Often Miss the Mark

Russell Moore lays it out in this article.

http://www.russellmoore.com/2011/10/24/seven-reasons-halloween-judgment-houses-often-miss-the-mark-2/

What Are Warnings For? Understanding Perseverence

John Dagg was an early Southern Baptist theologian. This except dates from the mid 1800s. In it, Dagg is discussing how God intends the warning passages to function in our perseverance. For clarity, I will cite the passage of Scripture he is commenting on.  

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 ESV)

"The explanation which has been given of this passage [1 Cor. 9:27], removes all appearance of inconsistency between it and the doctrine of the saints' final perseverance; yet it admits that Paul was stimulated to activity and perseverance in the Christian conflict, by the belief that his obtaining of the crown depended on his perseverance and success in the struggle. The who understand the doctrine of perseverance to imply that God's people will obtain the crown without the struggle totally mistake the matter. The doctrine is that God's people will persevere in the struggle; and to suppose that they will obtain the crown without doing so is to contradict the doctrine...So God has appointed necessary means for preserving the divine life in the soul, and the use of these means is as indispensable to the accomplishment of the purpose in this as in all other cases in which he has chosen to work by means...The warnings which the Scriptures give to the people of God constitute an important part of the means which God has appointed for their perseverance in holiness to eternal life. As the rock in the mariner's chart guards him from being dashed to pieces, so these warnings preserve the spiritual mariner from destruction. The awful warnings given by Paul to the Hebrews were designed to guard them against final apostasy. They therefore imply that there was danger of such apostasy. The heirs of promise might have strong consolation in the hope founded on the oath and promise of God that they would be brought safely through the danger. In the wisdom of God, the warnings are so given so as to secure their proper effect without destroying the confidence in God which is the Christian’s hope and joy.” 

John Dagg- Abstract of Theology    

(For a defense of this view by a modern Baptist, see Tom Schreiner's Run to Win the Prize. http://www.amazon.com/Run-Win-Prize-Perseverance-Testament/dp/1433514362/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319889525&sr=1-6 )

Trembling at His Word

"We may not always find it easy to reconcile the various truths of the Bible. Nevertheless, we must humbly keep in check both our desire for logical consistency and our outrage at truths we do not like. God will no doubt reward our search by giving us ever-greater insight into the relationships among the truths He has revealed about Himself. We may be quite sure that all that God does is, in fact, logical and self-consistent. But we should not presume to reject that which we have not had the patience or humility to accept on God’s own terms."

David Clotfelter, Sinners in the Hands of a Good God: Reconciling Divine Judgment and Mercy

Why Twelve Apostles?

"Jesus called twelve men to be his disciples. The symbolical nature of their number was not accidental. Jesus' audience could not have helped but notice the number. "Twelve" conjured up in the mind of any Jew the twelve tribes of Israel. At the time of Jesus the common conception was that only two and a half tribes remained--the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and half the tribe of Levi. The other nine and a half tribes were lost in 722 B.C. when Samaria fell, and those tribes were scattered in exile among the Gentiles. The time would come, however, when God would visit his people and restore the twelves tribes of Israel. In that day, the day of Israel's salvation, the lost tribes would be reunited and God would establish his kingdom upon the earth (compare Isaiah 11:10-16; 49:6; 56:8, Micah 2:12; Sirach 48:10, and so on).

Jesus' calling of the twelve disciples was a symbolic act that demonstrated visually what he proclaimed verbally: 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near' (Mark 1:15). God was visiting the people of Israel. The restoration of the twelve tribes was taking place. For Jesus, however, this restoration did not involve a political revival of the nation of Israel. It involved, rather, the experience of the divine presence and the arrival of the kingdom of God in a unique way among his people."

Robert H. Stein, Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of the Life of Christ

Jesus is Totalitarian

If you want a book surveying the life of Christ for late high schoolers and up, look no further than Robert Stein's Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of the Life of Christ. Stein taught New Testament and Hermeneutics at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (he was the mentor of that Rob Plummer fellow I quoted last week). This work chronicles the life of Christ as presented in the Gospels, explaining the historical and cultural background and summarizing Jesus' teachings. It would also be good college prep reading, since Stein introduces you to (and refutes) liberal and unbelieving views of Jesus and the Gospels. Though technical at times, this book  is still quite accessible, and is a good historical resource for any Christian to have. (Look for more excerpts from it in the future.)

"The 'totalitarian' nature of Jesus' demand for allegiance must not be lost sight of or compromised. To require greater loyalty than that due to father or mother, wife or children (Luke 14:26) is to demand the kind of allegiance that only God can make. In light of all this, one cannot avoid the questions "Who is this who thinks that the world revolves around himself? A deranged egomaniac? A false prophet? Or can it be that this is indeed the King of kings and Lord of lords?"

Robert H. Stein, Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of the Life of Christ


http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Messiah-Survey-Life-Christ/dp/0830818847/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319765434&sr=1-3

If Jesus is Alive...

"The resurrection of Jesus issues the surprising command: don’t be afraid. Because the God who made the world is the God who raised Jesus from the dead and calls you now to follow him.…Believing in this God means believing that it is going to be all right, and this belief is ultimately incompatible with fear."

N.T. Wright

quoted in Edward T. Welch,  Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest

Are You a Jerk?

"A jerk is a person who nitpicks about the way a question is asked rather than taking the opportunity to address the issue in a serious way."

John Piper

The Surest Sign of Hulility

Over the last three years, Kevin DeYoung has become on of my favorite contemporary authors. He pastors University Reformed Church in Lansing, Michigan, and blogs over at "DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed." GBC's college study and Wednesday night classes have utilized his book Just Do Something, and the college study plans to tackle his and Ted Kluck's book Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) after we finish our current study. This excerpt is from his meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism. 

"The simple act of getting on our knees (or faces or feet or whatever) for five or fifty minutes every day is the surest sign of our humility and dependence on God. There may be many reasons for our prayerlessness-time management, busyness, lack of concentration-but most fundamentally, we ask not because we think we need not. 

Kevin DeYoung,  (2010-03-17). The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism (p. 232). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition. 

Why Evil Exists

"The shadows exist in the painting, the dark corners of grief and trial and wickedness all exist so that He might step in side them, so we can know how low He can stoop. In this story, the Author became flesh and wandered the stage with Hamlet, offering His own life. In this story, the Author heaped all that He loathed, all that displeased Him, all the wrongness of the world, onto Himself. Evil exists so that He might be demeaned and insulted, so that the depth of His love could be expressed as much as possible in the small frame of history." 

N.D. Wilson, Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl, 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0849920078/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=redletters-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0849920078

 

God's Most Frequent Command

Edward Welch is a counselor and faculty member at Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF), along with people like David Powlison and Tim Lane. If you like this excerpt, he has written several helpful books, which are generally available from people in the church, including When People are Big and God is Small, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness, and Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave.

 

"Quick. What is, by far, God’s most frequent command?

The usual suspects include "Do not commit adultery," "Have no other gods before me," and "Love one another." The next group includes whatever commands you know you have violated, in which case they only feel as if they appear on every page of Scripture.

The actual answer is "Do not be afraid..."

"Don’t be afraid." "Don’t worry." They can be said so casually. I have said them to my wife when we have been on airplanes together and her palms were sweating before takeoff. My words, of course, were meaningless. They veered off into self-serving platitudes because I didn’t really want to hear about her fears. Already engrossed in the flight magazine’s crossword puzzle, I didn’t want to be bothered. But God’s words are nothing like my own.

Think about them. God never says anything just to get you off his back. The sheer number of times he speaks to your fears says that he cares much more than you know. He is not so busy that he attends only to macro-level concerns. Instead, he is close and speaks to the details of your troubles.

Do your troubles seem trivial, at least when compared to the dangers other people face? He knows you and has compassion. He does not compare your worries to those of others, decide which ones get priority, and then give everyone a number based on need. The way he repeats himself suggests that he understands how intractable fears and anxieties can be. He knows that a simple word will not banish our fears. He knows that our worries aren’t patiently waiting for permission to leave."

Edward T. Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest (p. 62). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition. 

 

True Love

"What you think of as being head over heals in love is in large part a gust of ego gratification, but it’s nothing like the profound satisfaction of being known and loved.

When over the years someone has seen you at your worst, and knows you with all your strengths and flaws, yet commits him- or herself to you wholly, it is a consummate experience. To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us our of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.

The kind of love life I am talking about is not devoid of passion, but it’s not the same kind of passion that is there during the days of naiveté. When Kathy first held my hand, it was an almost electrical thrill. Thirty-seven years later, you don’t get the same buzz out of holding your wife’s hand that you did the first time. But as I look back on that initial sensation, I realize that it came not so much from the magnitude of my love for her but from the flattery of her choice of me. In the beginning it goes to your head, and there is some love in that, but there are a lot of other things, too. There is no comparison between that and what it means to hold Kathy’s hand now, after all we’ve been through. We know each other thoroughly now; we have shared innumerable burdens, we have repented, forgiven, and been reconciled to each other over and over. There is certainly passion. But the passion we share now differs from the thrill we had then like a noisy but shallow brook differs from a quieter but much deeper river. Passion may lead you to make a wedding promise, but then that promise over the years makes the passion richer and deeper."

Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage

Both Sinners and Sufferers

"In attacking notions of ‘man as victim,’ biblical counseling has reaffirmed the biblical notion of human responsibility. In most graphic terms, on the day of judgment God will ask, “What did you do?” He will not ask, “What happened to you?” Nouthetic counseling has gone on to deal forthrightly with the omnipresent human tendency to rationalize, to portray oneself as a victim whose problems and sins are someone or something else’s fault. Victim theories ground our sins in our pain and our ‘needs.’ Let sins be derivative, and some other problem primary, people will not need Jesus Christ. In Christian guise Jesus becomes a need-meeter who makes victims feel better, not a Savior who purchases sinful men for God with His own blood.

We have been wary of any emphasis on man as victim, for every version around is tainted by sin’s aversion to acknowledging sin. All this said, we still need to appreciate and clarify the many ways people are sufferers and fully responsible if we are to be faithful to the perfect fit between the Bible and human life. We have made a strong affirmation of human responsibility: the role of ‘the flesh.’ We have not discussed as fully the impact of the world and the devil as they master and shape human life. We have mined and processed certain biblical riches; there are other riches which we have not scrutinized as closely. There is a biblical view of man as a sufferer. We can say it even more plainly: there is a biblical view of man as a victim. Biblical counseling has been misunderstood repeatedly to say that all problems are a result of personal sin...

The biblical notion of man as victim is, after all, the source of much of the compassion with which our Deliverer approaches His groaning people. Our God has compassion on sufferers - who are also sinners responsible for their responses to suffering and even may have brought suffering on themselves."

David Powlison, "Crucial Issues in Contemporary Biblical Counseling" (1988 A.D.)

Al Mohler on Surrending the Truth of Scripture

http://www.albertmohler.com/2011/10/25/total-capitulation-the-evangelical-surrender-of-truth/

Already/Not Yet

"Even half a century after the event itself, Oscar Cullmann’s illustration from the events of the Second World War remains helpful for illuminating the present character of life in the Spirit. In that war, D-Day (the decisive intervention of the Allied Forces’ invasion of Europe in 1944) took place a year before the coming of VE-Day (the end of the war in Europe in 1945). In the interim, the battles remained fierce and bloody, even though the decisive act had taken place. So it is in redemptive history. The D-Day of redemption has taken place in Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, and giving of the Spirit. He has acted decisively against the powers of sin, Satan, and death which tyrannized his people. Yet the skirmishes with sin (as well as with Satan and death) continue to be severe. They are real and painful. But they take place within a different context from any struggle with sin that marked the old life in Adam from which the Spirit was absent. Now the Christian engages in conflict with sin from the standpoint of deliverance from the prisoner-of-war camp; the decisive victory over the dominion of sin is a present reality in the Spirit; the final victory is assured. But there is still blood-letting, and the whole armor of God must be worn. The Christian is, as Abraham Kuyper underlined, still ‘under the treatment of the Spirit.’ V-Day is yet to come.”   

Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit

Avoiding Mistakes When Doing Word Studies

Robert Plummer teaches Hermeneutics and Greek at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, did missionary work in China, Israel, and Turkey (among other nations), and bears a striking resemblance to Luke Skywalker (as this photo link will demonstrate: http://www.sbts.edu/theology/faculty/robert-plummer/ ). This excerpt is from his book 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible, which I would highly recommend with a few caveats.


"Word Study Tools

Never before in the history of Christianity has there been less need for word studies than today. With the multiplicity of many excellent English Bible translations, readers of the Bible have the fruit of scholars' painstaking research. At the same time, it is a healthy desire for Christians to want to suck the marrow from every word of Scripture. However, as noted above, an uninformed linguistic euphoria can result in distortions of the text, rather than greater understanding. The following represents two common dangers when it comes to word studies.

1. Illegitimate Totality Transfer. All words have a range of meaning, and the nuances of each particular use cannot be read into all other uses of the word. That is, if the reader takes the totality of what a word can mean and reads that potentiality as a reality in every word occurrence, he has illegitimately transferred the totality of the word means onto each instance (thus, the label 'illegitimate totality transfer'). People tolerate erroneous linguistic approaches to the Bible that they would never accept in ordinary speech. For example, imagine the howls one would encounter if he said "You just used the word cell to describe your phone. By that, I take it that your phone is a small room of incarceration, that your phone is a wireless device, and that your phone is a microscopic blob of protoplasm." Obviously, only one of the potential meanings of "cell"  is intended. Yet, how many times have we heard a similar litany of potential meanings from a preacher presented as the "real meaning" of a word in the Bible? One can see the danger of tools like The Amplified Bible, which provides several possible meanings of most words. Without further instruction, such tools lead one down the path of illegitimate totality transfer.

2. Etymological Fallacy. Etymology is the study of the ancestry of words. Thus, the etymological fallacy is to wrongly believe that knowing the history of a word gives us deeper insight into its current meaning. There have been periods in biblical scholarship when even well-trained scholars were taken in by the siren-song of etymology. More commonly, in popular preaching, one hears the etymology of a word sometimes given as "what this word really means." To illustrate the foolishness of the etymological fallacy to my classes, I give illustrations from the English language. For example:

• When you hear the word tuxedo, undoubtedly, you think of the Algonquin Indian word for "wolf," from which the word tuxedo was derived. Unconsciously, you almost hear yourself saying, "There goes that dapper wolf!" 
• When your neighbor speaks of spraying herbicide on dandelions in his yard, you think about the underlying French words dent de lion ("tooth of the lion"). You might ask, "Those roaring weeds are sinking their sharp incisors into your lawn again, eh?
• Your wife says she is cooking lasagna for supper. You can't help recalling that the word lasagna ultimately derives from the Greek term for "chamber potty" (lasonon). "Going to dish us up another one from the toilet?" you innocently ask.

The reality is that words mean what the writers intended them to mean in the historical context in which they were written. The ordinary use of language (a word's potential range of meaning) constrains the possible meaning unless the author clearly points out that he is using the word differently than the way it would normally be understood. Thus, in the early twenty-first century, to say that someone is wearing "gay clothing" (without further qualification) means something quite different from what it meant when the translators of the KJV chose that expression when translating James 2:3 in the early seventeenth century. 

In spite of all these warnings against the misuse of word studies, they can be helpful in clarifying the nuances of important words. IN the case of a very rare word where we have few or no other instances of the word in the same time period, it can be legitimate to appeal to etymology to help us determine its meaning. Also, proper names (the names of people and places) often are presented in Scripture as being informed by their etymology. The most reliable and accessible word study tool for those lacking knowledge of Greek and Hebrew may be Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words.

Robert Plummer, 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible 

Affronting God's Wisdom

"But, in particular, the wisdom of God is affronted and invaded…

In censuring God's relations and actions, if they be not according to our schemes: when we will not submit to his plain will without penetrating into the unrevealed reason of it, nor adore his counsels without controlling them, as if we could correct both law and gospel, and frame a better method of redemption than that of God's contriving. Thus men slighted the wisdom of God in the gospel, because it did not agree with that philosophical wisdom and reason they had sucked in by education from their masters (I Cor. 1:21, 22), contrary to their practice in their superstitious worship, where the oracles they thought divine were entertained with reverence, not with dispute, and though ambiguous, were not counted ridiculous by the worshipper. How foolish is man in this wherein he would be accounted wise! Adam, in innocence, was unfit to control the doctrine of God when the eye of his reason was clear; and much more are we, since the depravation of our natures. The revelations of God tower above reason in its much more above reason in its mud and earthiness. The rays of Divine wisdom are too bright for our human understandings, much more for our sinful understandings. It is base to set up reason, a finite principle, against an infinite wisdom; much baser to set up a depraved and purblind reason against an all-seeing and holy wisdom.

If we would have a reason for all that God speaks, and all that God acts, our wisdom must become infinite as his, or his wisdom become finite as ours. All the censures of God's revelations arise from some biased opinions, or traditional maxims, that have enthroned themselves in our minds, which are made the standard whereby to judge the things of God, and receive or reject them as they agree with, or dissent from, those principles (Col. 2:8). Hence it was that the philosophers, in the earliest times of the church, were the greatest enemies to the gospel: and the contempt of Divine wisdom, in making reason the supreme judge of Divine revelation, was the fruitful mother of the heresies in all ages springing up in the church, and especially of that Socinianism, that daily insinuates itself into the minds of men. This is a wrong to the wisdom of God. He that censures the words or actions of another, implies that he is, in his censure, wiser than the person censured by him. It is as insupportable to determine the truth of God's plain dictates by our reason, as it is to measure the suitableness or unsuitableness of his actions by the humor of our will. We may sooner think to span the sun, or grasp a star, or see a gnat swallow a Leviathan, than fully understand the debates of eternity. To this we may refer too curious inquiries into Divine methods, and "intruding into those things which are not revealed" (Col. 2:18). It is to affect a wisdom equal with God, and an ambition to be of his cabinet council. We are not content to be creatures, that is, to be every way below God; below him in wisdom, as well as power.” 

Stephen Charnock

Playing for the Old Team

The author of this excerpt, Mike McKinley, is pastor of Gilford Baptist Church near D.C. He should have a special claim on the hearts of folks at GBC Hartsville, because he was Rob Spinney's pastor from 2007-2010. McKinley was trained at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (where Josh and Abby Abbotoy are members) under Mark Dever, and at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. Pastor Carroll and I have both had the pleasure of hearing him preach during our visits with Rob, and can vouch for his soundness. This excerpt is from his book Am I Really a Christian? The chapter is entitled "You Are Not a Christian if you Enjoy Sin" (and if that title troubles you, read the book). 

But what would you think of someone who put on a new jersey but kept playing for the old team? That’s what we’re doing as Christians whenever we sin. We’re playing for the old team even though we’re wearing the new jersey. Sin for someone who claims to be a Christian is a strange kind of treason. It is taking Satan’s side in rebellion against God even though you’re saying you’re on God’s side. Don’t misunderstand. All Christians continue to struggle with sin. But the Bible also suggests that if your life continues to be characterized by a casual and comfortable attitude toward sin, you should stop and think about what you really are. Never mind what jersey you think you’re wearing. Who are you really playing for? If it’s mostly for the other team, maybe you really belong to their roster, after all. Here’s another way to put it: you are not a Christian if you love sin.

Mike McKinley, Am I Really a Christian? (9marks) (pp. 60-61). Crossway. Kindle Edition. 

 http://www.amazon.com/Am-I-Really-Christian-9marks/dp/1433525763/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319289836&sr=1-1

John Frame on the Clarity of Scripture

One of my favorite living theologians is John Frame, who teaches at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando. He has a knack for writing huge books on complex topics in way that is still clear and easy to read. The following excerpts are from his latest work, The Doctrine of the Word of God. He is discussing the clarity of Scripture.

"To say that God's word has authority...is to say that it creates obligations in its hearers: obligations to believe what it says, to do what it commands, to write it on our hearts, and so on. The clarity of God's word means that we have no excuse for failing to meet those obligations. To say that God's word is clear is to say that we have no excuse for misunderstanding or disobeying it. So the clarity of Scripture has ethical implications...

He goes on to qualify this by discussing the fact that Scripture is not equally clear to everyone.

...The six-year old is not likely to understand the sacrificial rituals of Leviticus. But he doesn't have to. God has not given him responsibilities for which a knowledge of that material is requisite. If he grows up to become an OT scholar, that situation will change.

I conclude this as an important principle: Scripture is always clear enough for us to carry out our present responsibilities before God." 

John M. Frame (The Doctrine of the Word of God, 2010 A.D.; emphasis his) 

To preview or buy the book, follow this link.

http://www.amazon.com/Doctrine-Word-God-Theology-Lordship/dp/0875522645/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319219978&sr=1-3

 

 

Retry

OK. Newby blogger here. Let's try that again, just in case you had a hard time reading that last excerpt.

"When people ask me how to pray for missionaries, I tell them they need to be remembered daily, because these kinds of stresses are everyday realities. Pray for the big things: that the gospel will advance through their efforts; that they will be sustained through loneliness; that the Lord will provide financial partnerships; and that he will protect them from illness and those who would do them harm. But also remember to pray for the everyday things: transportation to the market; strength to do tasks such as washing clothes and making meals, finding correct boundaries in relation to possessions and privacy, and enduring the stress of long periods of separation. Pray for the Lord to sustain their relationship with him and with one another. And particularly, pray for their children."

-Tommi Sitton

Praying for Missionaries

Most members of Grace Baptist Church in Hartsville know the name 'David Sitton.' We have supported him financially, and Tad has kept us praying for him on Wednesday nights for years.You may not know that he has published a new book. The title is Reckless Abandon, and can be purchased here.  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1935507443/deyorestandre-20

Here is an excerpt, in which his wife Tommi explains how to pray for missionaries, particularly in the mundane things of life (after all, missionaries are people, too). My counsel:  print this off and bring it with you to prayer meeting every Wednesday night. Use it to teach yourself and your children how to pray during family devotions. Beyond that, read the book. And if you don't want to buy it, I just ordered a copy.

"When people ask me how to pray for missionaries, I tell them they need to be remembered daily, because these kinds of stresses are everyday realities. Pray for the big things: that the gospel will advance through their efforts; that they will be sustained through loneliness; that the Lord will provide financial partnerships; and that He will protect them from illness and those who would do them harm. But also remember to pray for the everyday things: transportation to the market, strength to do tasks such as washing clothes and making meals, finding correct boundaries in relation to possessions and privacy, and enduring the stress of long periods of separation. Pray for the Lord to sustain their relationship with Him and with one another. And, particularly, pray for their children."

-Tommi Sitton,  

Inaugural Excerpt

Since I've gotta start somewhere, I may as well inaugurate this blog with one of my all-time favorite excerpts.

“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
–C.S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory"