Jul 1st, 2009 | Culture | No Comments
Here is a quote in a footnote in Grace Abounding, by John Bunyan (1666), paragraph 253:
The mode of admitting members into the church, among the Baptists, appears to have been the same in Bunyan’s days as it is now practiced (1700s). It is, first to be introduced to the minister, who endeavors to ascertain whether there is an earnest desire to flee from the wrath to come, sincere repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If so, he mentions it to the church; and visitors are appointed, to encourage the young convert, and to scrutinize into moral character. If they are satisfied, he is invited to attend a private church meeting; and if the members have a good hope that he is a decided believer in Jesus, they receive him into their fellowship; and if he requests it, he is publicly baptized in water, and communicates with the church at the Lord’s table. This appears to have been the mode in which Bunyan was admitted into the church at Bedford. Most of the Baptist churches now agree with Bunyan, that the baptism of the Holy Ghost, or inward spiritual regeneration, is, alone, the essential prerequisite to the Lord’s table; and they leave members to their own conclusions as to the validity of their having been sprinkled in infancy, or the necessity of immersion in water upon a profession of faith.
Jun 27th, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).
Jesus was surely speaking to hungry and thirsty people. Crowds, like sheep, eat and drink all the time. But it was not hunger or thirst that Jesus spoke of. The object of the desire here is critical. Jesus was adding His blessing upon those who desire righteousness, those who want to uphold biblical moral principles. People have no moral principles of their own. Apart from Christ, apart from the Shepherd, people will drain their resources and tear each other apart. Apart from Christ people are self-righteous, proud, irritable and afraid (fearful). Apart from Christ people know at some level that they are destined for death and Hell (Romans 1:20). People will stubbornly cling to their old habits of selfishness and godlessness. Nothing but their own death and rebirth in Christ can change them. The is the point of the Old Testament—nothing but Christ can change people.
Education only makes us smarter sheep, but has no effect on our stubbornness, or our blindness to the things of God. Educated people are only better able to justify their old habits. An educated Christian is a blessing, an educated heathen is not, it does not change their essential character. Wealth only makes us richer sheep, but has no effect on our stubbornness or our blindness to the things of God. Wealthy people are only better able to fund their old habits, not change them. A wealthy Christian is a blessing, a wealthy heathen is not. Health only keeps us from getting sick. Being healthy means being able to be what you are. So, a healthy sheep is better able to be a sheep than a sick sheep. Healthy sheep are better able to do sheeply things, but it doesn’t make them other than sheep. Health doesn’t change our character or habits, it just allows us to better engage them. → continue reading
Jun 16th, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
One of the great lies of this age is that we are individuals. We are not, not entirely! Well, we are until we become in Christ, until we find our deeper identity in Christ through the trinitarian character of God. Apart from Christ there is a very high cost for people to remain individuals. That cost is death. What do I mean? I mean that the most basic definition of life requires the ability of self-replication or reproduction. Individuals are not self-replicating. Individuals cannot reproduce. Reproduction requires a male and a female. God has provided the means, structure and order for the process of human reproduction, for human life on this earth.
God’s order is called the family, and it rests upon a covenant—a promise, an agreement, a commitment. People often mistakenly think that this covenant is or must be between one man and one woman because reproduction requires one man and one woman, but there is more to it than that. We call it a marriage covenant, but there is more to it than what most people usually think. → continue reading
Apr 6th, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
In 1983 I had an experience that culminated in 1985 in what is called regeneration. Ordained at First Congregational Church, Berkeley, California, after earning a Master of Divinity degree at Pacific School of Religion, I was confronted by the reality of the Bible as I taught the Bethel Series Bible Study Program at a church I was serving in St. Louis, Missouri. I had read and studied the Bible for many years, but the Bethel Series opened it up to me in a new way. It became real, and it changed me.
I began preaching differently from that time forward, as if the Bible was real history about real people. My preaching disturbed some of the people in various liberal churches that I served. Others in those same churches came to life, much as I had. I decided to preserve my preaching for later reflection and evaluation. That effort turned into a two-volume book, The Work at Zion — A Reckoning, which provides a kind of record of my changing theological perspective.
→ continue reading
Mar 12th, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
So, Bernard Madoff pled guilty and will go to jail. Not only do we taxpayers have to pay for his crime, but now we have to pay for his food and rent for the rest of his life. But that’s not the real problem. The problem is that Madoff is a scapegoat who is being publicly scourged and carted off with all the guilt on his head. With Madoff’s conviction, the public is satisfied that justice has been done. Right? I hope not.
How can one guy pull off a $65,000,000,000 ponzi scam BY HIMSELF!? The short answer is that he can’t. There have to be a whole bunch of people who have colluded with him and benefited from their collusion. The only way to make this kind of pyramid scheme work is to have a lot of people on the take. Arent’ they all guilty?
→ continue reading
Feb 12th, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! —2 Corinthians 9:9-15
Paul quoted Psalm 112:9 in order to show how God blesses obedience. Paul had been teaching the Corinthians about the nature of generosity, how generosity is a fruit of obedience, and how obedience and generosity work together to bless the faithful. The Psalmist wrote of the good and faithful person who has scattered (distributed freely or shared) his blessings, his seed, his wealth or resources among the community of saints. As a farmer plants his seed, not all in one place, nor randomly, but in carefully prepared soil in order to produce the maximum yield, so the faithful saints are to plant (share) their wealth, their gifts, their blessings with brothers and sisters in Christ according to the needs of the community and the ability of the giver. Note also that farmers plant their seed where they can tend and harvest it. They do not scatter it promiscuously hither and thither, or on land over which they have no control. → continue reading
Jan 28th, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
I have been reading President Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope. It’s actually well-written, exept for one section–the Faith section. Take this paragraph from page 218:
This brings us to a different point–the manner in which religious views should inform public debate and guide elected officials. Surely secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square; Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr.–indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history–not only were motivated by faith but repeatedly used religious language to argue their causes. To say that men and women should not inject their “personal morality” into public-policy debates is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Obama is correct that it is impossible to keep one’s faith out of public debate. He continues:
What our deliberative, pluralistic democracy does demand is that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals must be subject to argument and amenable to reason. If I am opposed to abortion for religious reasons and seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or invoke God’s will and expect that argument to carry the day. If I want others to listen to me, then I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.
At this point he has said two things: 1) that everyone brings their faith to public debate, and 2) that the only theological position that is allowed in public debate is Universalism. He further posits that only Universalist arguments are “amenable to reason.” Like all Universalists, his god is reason. For Universalists, reason makes the rules, whereas for Christians, God makes the rules. So, Christians can engage in public debate as long as they ignore God’s demand for exclusive religious allegiance (the First Commandment), as he does. President Obama’s position here is fundamentally pagan (regardless of what labels he assigns to his faith) in that it is a denial of God’s exclusive claim on humanity. → continue reading
Jan 23rd, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
Like it or not, Obama won. And as he said, his win is not the end of the struggle, but the beginning.
Like it or not, he created one of the most powerful political organizations in history. He is now moving forward by engaging his machine to continue the work. He says that he wants people of every persuasion to get involved in the process. A couple of days ago he launched “Organizing For America,” which will try to move his agenda forward. Of course, it is a Democratic agenda that he has in mind. But, again, he says that he wants input from the people.
That invitation provides an opportunity for conservative Christians to provide input to that agenda (maybe), its process of development (perhaps) and the grassroots behind it (people). Here’s the deal — if only extremist Democrats participate in this process the outcome will be predictably hard-line Left. But if others join in that process, if others will get inside the Obamachine we might work to effect the agenda, the process and the people. I’m not talking about sabotage, I’m talking about participation. I’m not suggesting that Conservatives becomes mules for the Left’s agenda, but doing the hard work of real evangelism among those who need it most. → continue reading
Jan 21st, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
Watching the inauguration, I couldn’t help but notice that Christian symbolism was everywhere. Given the attempt over the past four decades or so to cleanse the public square of everything remotely Christian–Christmas trees, creches, Bibles, posters, etc., it was quite refreshing to hear so many prayers and so many people mentioning God.
A lot of it was from the Civil Rights oldsters who turned out. People forget that the Civil Rights Movement was begun and nurtured by Christians. More than anything it was in the way events were framed and discussed.
Jan 7th, 2009 | Christianity, Culture | No Comments
Something is very wrong, and the “authorities” are unlikely to fix it. Ostensibly, it is a financial crisis, and the financial world is surely a wreck. But the question we haven’t dealt with yet pertains to the kind of crisis we are in. If it is a financial crisis, then a financial fix will do the trick. If it is not essentially a financial crisis, then tinkering with finances may be more like rearranging the furniture on the Titanic, hoping that a better arrangement will keep the boat afloat.
According to a recent NYTimes article:
Preserving confidence, even when that confidence is false, has been near the top of the S.E.C.’s (Security and Exchange Commission) agenda.
IT’S not hard to see why the S.E.C. behaves as it does. If you work for the enforcement division of the S.E.C. you probably know in the back of your mind, and in the front too, that if you maintain good relations with Wall Street you might soon be paid huge sums of money to be employed by it. → continue reading
