an oxgoad, eh?
fundamentalism by blunt instrument
A recent Piper article is eating away at my mind. I really am appalled by it, but have hesitated to post. It is quite easy to be too critical, especially when it comes to eminently critique-able people like Piper.
The article, Gutsy Guilt, was published in the October issue of Christianity Today. In order to understand my criticism, you may have to read the article, but I will do my best to represent the article and what bothers me about it.
In his introduction, Piper expresses a concern that young Christians can lose their 'radical' vision for ministry because of failing to deal with the guilt of sexual failure. [BTW, Piper regularly uses words like 'radical' and 'passion', words that really have no place in a Christian context, but that is another pet peeve and another post.]
By failure, Piper doesn't mean merely the use of pornography. No, he says, "The great tragedy is not masturbation or fornication or pornography." I am assuming that he doesn't mean the adultery kind of fornication, but his article doesn't make that distinction clear.
Piper states that his aim in the article is not primarily to help someone gain victory over sexual sin, but rather to gain victory over being defeated or dissuaded from ministry because of sexual sin. He puts it this way:
I have a passion that you do not waste your life. My aim is not mainly to cure you of sexual misconduct. I would like that to happen. But mostly I want to take out of the Devil's hand the weapon that exploits your sin and makes your life a wasted, worldly success. Satan wants that for you. But you don't!
In fact, Piper assumes failure.
Yes, I want you to have the joyful courage not to do the channel surfing. But sooner or later, whether it's that sin or another, you are going to fall. I want to help you deal with the guilt of failure so that Satan does not use it to produce another wasted life.
The great tragedy that Piper seeks to win victory over is that someone who is guilty of some kind of sexual failure will be tempted by the failure to give up his 'radical' vision of ministry and instead will settle for 'the American dream', i.e., materialism.
Piper rightly warns that on account of these things [immorality and the like, Col 3.5-6] the wrath of God is coming. He points out that the Lord came to bring about forgiveness of sin, including these, and that our debts and legal obligations are cancelled if we believe in Christ. All true, of course!
After showing that our debts are nailed to the cross (Col 2.14) Piper points to Col 2.15 which says: "When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him." Piper claims that the 'rulers and authorities' [i.e., demonic forces] cannot damn us because of the cross [true], then concludes that because of this the believer by faith fights against the accusing convicting sense of failure brought about by sexual misconduct and the accusations of demons. [Never mind that Col 2 is talking about asceticism, Jewish dietary laws, and other rituals, see Col 2.16-17.]
What is this fight Piper speaks of?
This faith will fight anything that gets between it and Christ. The distinguishing mark of saving faith is not perfection. It is not that I never sin sexually. The mark of faith is that I fight. I fight not with fists or knives or guns or bombs, but with the truth of Christ. I fight anything that diminishes the fullness of the lordship of Jesus in my life. I fight anything that threatens to replace Jesus as the supreme treasure of my life.
Ok... but what does this fight look like?
With this passionately embraced theology—the magnificent doctrines of substitutionary atonement and justification by faith (even if you don't remember the names)—you can conquer the Devil tomorrow morning when he lies to you about your hopelessness.
...
When I fall, I shall rise. Yes, I have fallen. I hate what I have done. I grieve at the dishonor I have brought on my King. But hear this, O my enemy, I will rise. I will rise.
When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. Yes, I am sitting in darkness. I feel miserable. I feel guilty. I am guilty. But that is not all that is true about me and my God. The same God who makes my darkness is a sustaining light to me in this very darkness. He will not forsake me.
I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. Oh yes, my enemy, this much truth you say: I have sinned. I am bearing the indignation of the Lord. But that is where your truth stops and my theology begins. He—the very one who is indignant with me—will plead my cause. You say he is against me and that I have no future with him because of my failure. That's what Job's friends said. That is a lie. And you are a liar. My God, whose Son's life is my righteousness and whose Son's death is my punishment, will execute judgment for me. For me! And not against me.
He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. This misery that I now feel because of my failure, I will bear as long as my dear God ordains. And this I know for sure—as sure as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is my punishment and my righteousness—God will bring me out to the light, and I will look upon his righteousness, my Lord and my God. [italics Piper's, underlining mine]
As I consider this suggested approach, I wonder where the fruit of the Spirit is. I wonder where is the humility, repentance, shame, conviction, and true victory. I wonder what to do with the instructions of Eph 4.1-2 where the apostle calls us to walk "with all lowliness and meekness..." Yes, James calls us to 'resist the devil', but how? By humility and submission to God (Jas 4.6-7).
Piper's idea seems to be that if I have my theology right, if I know how to think right about Christ and what he has done, then I can defy Satan. Defiance is different from resistance.
It is important to think right about what Christ has done! But is right theology and defiance of Satan the same as spiritual victory? Is there no need for repentance? No need for actual ... you know ... change?
Here is Piper's conclusion:
When you learn to deal with the guilt of sexual failure by this kind brokenhearted boldness, this kind of theology, this kind of justification by faith, this kind of substitutionary atonement, this kind of gutsy guilt, you will fall less often. Why is this so? Because Christ will become increasingly precious to you.
Best of all, Satan will not be able to destroy your dream of a life of radical obedience to Christ. By this Christ-exalting gutsy guilt, thousands of you will give your lives to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
Wow... I will fall less often. There's a victory worth pursuing! Isn't it possible to get to 'such were some of you'? (1 Cor 6.11) Isn't it possible to put sinful habits behind us? Must we settle for 'good enough'? Is our only victory the victory of right theology that can snarl in the face of Satan [while falling less often]?
I am all for forgiveness and restoration of the repentant. I don't expect we men in the ministry will have perfectly unblemished lives, especially in our earlier years. But I do expect that we must maintain victory over sin. And there does come a point where persistent failure disqualifies permanently, does it not?
The Piperites will be only too ready to defend their hero. If any of them should read this, they will likely claim I misunderstand. But their hedonistic hero is the one who misunderstands. The great tragedy is that so many lap up this man's writing as if it were holy writ itself.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
This Sunday we had the privilege of having my son's father-in-law, Brad Calhoun with us for our services. I searched the vast reaches of the internet to find a term to describe the relationship between parents of two people married to one another. Alas, I found none, hence my own 'smart-alecky' term, 'outlaws'. We are delighted to expand the circle of our family to include these outlaws.
Brad and his wife Sarah have been Baptist Mid-Missions missionaries in Quebec for many years. They led their church in Matane, Quebec to the stage where the church has its own building and was able to call its own Quebecois pastor. We thank God for this, but for the Calhoun's, it means leaving behind dear friends and disciples and moving to a new place of ministry. For them that means a move to the pastorate of a church in the mountains of western North Carolina, the place where Brad grew up. We ask the Lord to prosper them in this new ministry.
Rather than attempt to give you summaries, I will link you to the audio for each message. First, the morning message, After Darkness Light, a message in keeping with our Christ and the Nations series and giving some of the background information concerning the work in Quebec.
Next, Brad gave us his slide presentation, narrating the history of the work in Matane. Our church has been supporting the Calhoun's in this work for a number of years, so we were very pleased to hear this report on The Ministry in Matane.
Last, we had our afternoon message on Living like Jesus, a message about following the light that we have and questioning the impulses of darkness around us and in us.
All in all, a good day. We had 67 in the service this week with a couple of interesting visitors (besides our own family visitors). It was one of those weeks where almost everyone connected with our church all showed up on the same day. Even with that there were a couple of people away. Nevertheless, we were blessed to see all those who did come. We also saw some pretty significant spiritual steps taken in a couple of lives, so we are grateful for that.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
The Jewish nation cycled back and forth from apostasy and revival several times in its long history. One of the most significant revivals is that under King Hezekiah.
A couple of years ago, I led our church through a chronological study of the Bible. In the study, I was so busy preparing study guides and sermons that I think I missed some of the really significant insights my study was supposed to uncover! This year, we are reading the Bible through on the same chronological schedule. For me, it is the first time reading the schedule devotionally rather than academically.
I was singularly impressed this time with Hezekiah. It is noteworthy that the Lord led the writers of Scripture to record Hezekiah's revival in three different books of the Bible, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah. The repetition heightens the significance. The Lord wants us to learn something here.
The 'Hezekiahan' revival involved a deep purging of idolatry led by the king, then faced a traumatic challenge to faith by the Assyrian invasion of Judah by Sennacherib. Hezekiah's prayer, spreading the blasphemous letter of Sennacherib before the Lord, is an example to us of what real revival faith and Spirit-filled praying is all about.
In particular, the book of Isaiah plays a prominent role in the revival. If you consider the chapters prior to the record of Hezekiah's stand against Sennacherib (36-39), you will find Isaiah's oracles against the nations and against the people of God. I presume most of this preaching occurred in Ahaz' reign. Ahaz is Hezekiah's father and was a wicked apostate king. It is remarkable that Hezekiah became the man that he was, given the father that he had. Following the record of Hezekiah's life, Isaiah's message becomes much more uplifting and hopeful. There are still some oracles of denunciation, but there are also all the Servant songs and other passages of hope and revival. They look well beyond Hezekiah's day to the final, glorious, permanent revival that is to come when the King reigns. [I think the contrast between Isaiah's ministry under Ahaz and under Hezekiah explain the differences between the first and second parts of the book far better than the unbelieving theories of intellectuals who propose "Isaiah" and "Deutero-Isaiah".]
The Bible doesn't tell us how Hezekiah was influenced to be faithful to the Lord. I suspect that Hezekiah was converted to faith by the ministry of Isaiah. Isaiah certainly figures prominently in the life of Hezekiah as a trusted spiritual advisor.
The record of this revival gives encouragement to me. Faithful preaching of a negative word like Isa 1-35 can bear fruit that deserves the postive word like Isa 40-66.
Isaiah 54:1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.
Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
The busy season is upon us! I suppose this is not a good time to be trying to set up my new web venture, but we want to be ready to use it not only as a resource for our sermons but as an evangelistic tool by the time January rolls around. Much is yet to be done, but we are stepping forward bit by bit.
I am going to adapt our sermon summaries in this space a bit since I am now providing both audio and outline on the web site. I will do less summarizing and try to sum up the appeal the main idea of the message had to me as I prepared and delivered it.
Here are the latest instalments:
Have you ever considered the difference between Judea and Galilee? Galilee is part of the old northern kingdom of Israel, and as far back as the judges was only tenuously held by the Israelites. Galilee always had a Gentile influence. During the time of Christ, Galilee held a mixed population of Jews and Gentiles. Why did Jesus spend the bulk of his ministry there?
Isaiah spoke of a light that would come to lighten the Gentiles. Think about what it meant for the Gentiles of Galilee who saw the light of Christ right in their presence? And think now of the light of Christ in our Gentile world? And think about the many many nations immigrating to our shores - Christ is a brilliant light for them as well.
All of this light is wrapped up in the name 'Galilee of the Gentiles'. What grace God brought down to man!
Do you ever get discouraged in prayer? Do you faint along the way? Do you know that the Lord doesn't want you to feel that way?
The parable of the friend at midnight is a picturesque promise (and kind of a backhanded one at that) that the Lord answers prayer. You can count on it. And you can always count on the Lord's answer being good, better than you could ask or think.
But it does seem that the answers start with the asking. The Lord wants you to ask. Do you feel your prayers lack? Then ask. Do you feel the Lord is far away? Then ask. Just ask and keep on asking.
A good deal of our spiritual life is simply missed because we do not pray.
~~~
BTW, for our afternoon service, the message on prayer, we had a couple from Singapore show up for a visit. We are kind of excited about that, after I just finished preaching about the Lord being a light to the Gentiles, and the nations moving to Canada. May the Lord shed his light into the hearts of many nations from right here in Victoria!
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
A lengthy discussion on Frank's site prompts this post.
A familiar charge by the sophisticated non-fundamentalist is that fundamentalism is essentially anti-intellectual. The sneering inference of the slur is that fundamentalists are nothing but backwoods hayseeds, barely capable of tying their shoes or of walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time. Fundamentalists are rubes, you see, they lack scholarship. They don't write important books. In fact, they barely write. They do colour, though, and in some of their books they even colour in between the lines.
Well... that is hyperbole, of course. Nevertheless the charge of anti-intellectualism is frequently made and often said to be with some merit. See here:
And while a writer may legitimately quote an author with which he disagrees, it should be recognized that no fundamentalist is called upon in this chapter - an indication at least that the charge of anti-intellectualism against American fundamentalism does contain enough adhesive power to call any critic of neo-evangelicalism to a little self-examination once in a while.
Fundamentalists often leap to their own defense and point to the scholarship of various pastors, college professors, etc.
Too often these kinds of discussions are centred around an emotional imprecision in the use of terms. Anti-intellectual is code for someone who won't join the club. Scholar is code for someone 'who agrees with me,' as one of my former professors once said.
Well what of it? What do these terms mean? Let's try intellectualism first.
1. devotion to intellectual pursuits.
2. the exercise of the intellect.
3. excessive emphasis on abstract or intellectual matters, esp. with a lack of proper consideration for emotions.
4. Philosophy.
a. the doctrine that knowledge is wholly or chiefly derived from pure reason.
b. the belief that reason is the final principle of reality.intellectualism. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intellectualism (accessed: December 07, 2007).
Let's consider these one at a time. Given these definitions, am I an anti-intellectual? [edit note: change "intellectual" to "anti-intellectual"]
1. No
2. No
3. Yes
4a. Yes
4b. Yes
Now let's look at anti-intellectualism:
1. a person opposed to or hostile toward intellectuals and the modern academic, artistic, social, religious, and other theories associated with them.
2. a person who believes that intellect and reason are less important than actions and emotions in solving practical problems and understanding reality.
–adjective
3. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of anti-intellectuals or their beliefs.anti-intellectualism. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anti-intellectualism (accessed: December 07, 2007).
Am I an anti-intellectual according to these definitions?
1. Yes
2. No
3. Possibly
In a moment I want to look at the definition of scholarship, but what are we to make of these definitions so far?
I am definitely hostile to the so-called achievements of much of our society's so-called intellectuals. Consider those who are lauded as artists, poets, notable Drs. of philosophy and so on in the vast majority of our most prestigious universities. Are these people whose thoughts should impress any believer in Christ? Should we care that we are not considered among their number? Their minds are darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they are altogether become fools.
When it comes to the noted Doctors of Religion in so many seminaries, are they significantly better than the secular intelligentsia? Hardly.
So I am an anti-intellectual and proud of it. Let the evangelicals pursue their intellectualism. They will find that they are numbered among the company of Proverb's fools, chasing after the wind and vanity of Ecclesiastes. Do they think that they make any impressive statement in accusing me of anti-intellectualism? It is just propaganda, plain and simple. Name-calling. What does it gain, and what argument does it advance?
Besides, I embrace the term. Let's hear it, as I said on Frank's page, for anti-intellectualism.
One last "word game". Let's look at scholarship:
1. learning; knowledge acquired by study; the academic attainments of a scholar.
2. a sum of money or other aid granted to a student, because of merit, need, etc., to pursue his or her studies.
3. the position or status of such a student.
4. a foundation to provide financial assistance to students.scholarship. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scholarship (accessed: December 07, 2007).
The first definition is what should concern us here. In the discussion at Frank's site, much was made of the fact that there aren't many fundamentalist's whom poor, benighted Dr. McCune could actually cite in his book. Scholarship, it was maintained, is evidenced by leaving a trail of published works behind one's self. According to dictionary.com, this just isn't so.
Furthermore, the facts prove otherwise. The men and women who populate the faculties of fundamentalist colleges and seminaries are devoted scholars themselves. Their attainments are well known and some of them do write occasionally. I maintain that market forces prohibit much publishing, but be that as it may, the presence or absence of published works are no proof or disproof of scholarship.
I am all for scholarship. I am all for study, diligence, hard work and educational attainment.
And I am unabashedly anti-intellectual.
And proud of it. Y'hear?
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Yes, boys and girls, that last bit is true. We now have a website for Grace Baptist Church of Victoria. You can find it at gbcvic.org.
My delay in posting our sermon summaries is mostly due to the usual headaches in starting something about which I know next to nothing, i.e., setting up a website. Thankfully, tools are available and I had done some work on a proposed site some years ago. So what you see is our quick temporary site. We have plans for more later, including an experiment at using it as an evangelistic tool. This blog may also migrate over there also, but time will tell on that.
Now for Sunday's sermons. We began our annual Christmas series this last Sunday. Our theme this month is the missionary theme, Christ and the Nations.
What is a nation? The UN has 192 members, FIFA has 205 members. The World Christian Database says there are over 13,000 people groups in the world. These groups comprise 'nations' by some definitions. How did they all begin? For what purpose did they all begin?
The idea inherent in the notion of nations, nationalism, and nationality is division. This is the theme of Gen 10. You see God repeatedly noting 'their nations' and emphasizing 'division' in this chapter. The immediate cause of the division is revealed in Gen 11: Babel. But the story of the cursing of Canaan in Gen 9 is also linked - a prophecy of imminent division. The ultimate cause is the sin of mankind.
Cause, however, is not purpose. Why division? What purpose does it serve? Is it merely judgement? The division of Babel is a curse, but it is intended to drive men to God. See Ac 17.26-27 and Ac 15.16-17.
What should the nations do with all the frustrations of language, culture, race, ambition, etc.?
- Turn to God.
What should they do in Sudan over the school teacher who ‘insulted the prophet’ over the teddy bear she allowed her students to name ‘Mohammed’? What should the teacher do?
- Turn to God.
What should Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, and, yes, even Israel do with the frustrations they have with one another?
- Turn to God.
What should you do with the misunderstandings, frustrations, divisions, conflicts you have with your family members and church brethren?
- Turn to God.
God is the answer to the divisions of this world. And when we turn the page from the division of the nations, we see these words: "These are the generations of Shem..." God also formed the nations to form a nation from whom would come the One Man who would bring to an end all the divisions of the world.
Leviticus 3 discusses an offering called the 'peace offering'. It was a voluntary offering made with fire as a sweet savour to the Lord. It would be offered in the case of a vow, or as a matter of confession, or as a matter of freewill thanksgiving. The offerer may also have to offer a guilt offering or sin offering in order to purify himself before participating in a peace offering. The 'fat portion' of the offering belonged to God and was burned on the altar. A portion of that which remained belonged to the priest, but the rest belonged to the offerer and was consumed on the spot in a meal of fellowship with God.
The NT parallel is our communion feast. If we have been purified by the blood of Christ, and if our manner and walk is pure, we may freely eat. We eat the offering of Christ himself, in communion with himself. We drink the blood of the new covenant, being made one spiritual blood in the family of God.
For the believer whose heart is not right with God at this table, the Lord offers Rev 3.20:
NAU Revelation 3:20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
~~~
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
It was real! [To quote Gomer: Surprise, surprise, surprise!!] Check out this article describing the find.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
I sort of agree with the complaints voiced over at My Two Cents in critique of an article entitled "Fundamentalism's Great Softness". I have wanted to jump in and add my voice to the comments, but have restrained myself! (Amazing but true!)
Of course, that restraint is only "so far" and "until now".
I want to add some 'wait a minute' statements:
I cannot speak for the writer of The Projector article, but these last two points may be the kind of thing he was aiming at.
It is undeniable that fundamentalism has softened in many respects. I have offered examples of softening at two ends of the spectrum, so to speak. I think that the reader can supply plenty of evidence of softening in between the 'lower level' of softening exhibited by individuals and the 'higher level' of softening at some (all?) of our fundamentalist institutions. Many many churches with fundamentalist heritages are softening. Some are softening right out of fundamentalism altogether.
Some softening may be warranted. Is all of it? We don't know the answer to that question yet.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
My Number One Son sent me a link to an article written by a friend of his. I guess since they are both young and fundamentalists, that makes them 'young fundamentalists'.
But...
Not of the usual sort. That is, not of the usual sort of mindset you think of when that term is used. The article is entitled The Errors of "Recovering Fundamentalists" by Lincoln Mullen.
If you haven't seen this article, I encourage you to read it. It is refreshing to read a young man with an unapologetic approach to fundamentalism.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
I see I have posted nothing since our last sermon summaries. It has been a busy week with a few of my men as they helped me repair my deck. I thought it would be a two day job. I should know by now to multiply my time estimates by at least 2 and a half. At least the job is pretty much done, just a few finishing touches left this week if the weather cooperates. Now for this week's sermons:
I told our people today that my aim was to make the message of Romans personal, as if the letter was written personally to them. After all, as Paul addresses the letter, it is to a local church, made up of real believers - and only believers. These believers are seen in the three terms describing the church in Rome in 1.6-7: called of Jesus Christ [belonging to Christ]; beloved of God [just as Christ is God's beloved, so we, in Christ, are beloved], called saints [named as holy ones, by virtue of the new birth].
The people addressed by 'to all that be in Rome' have these three characteristics, clearly and distinctly they are Christians. This is a Baptist idea. The local church should attempt to maintain an exclusively regenerate membership by careful examination of applicants and purging of false professors who may accidentally be admitted.
But the infinite blessing of the passage is that which is offered the local church of Rome by God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace & peace. For grace, I like this line I found in Donald Grey Barnhouse: "Love that goes upward is worship; love that goes outward is affection; love that stoops is grace." [Donald Grey Barnhouse, Romans, Vol.1, p. 72.] Peace is the Hebrew part of Paul's formulaic greeting - it is a regular formula, but full of meaning. The Hebrew concept is shalom, wholeness, well-being in the whole person. This is the blessing offered to the local church at Rome, and I believe, to every local church through time since then. This is what makes the letter to Romans personal. I closed with this application:
1. Does God have any less care for you or for this local church than he does for the ‘Grace Baptist Church of Rome’ in ad 57?
I have prayed with some of you when you made things right with God. At that moment, I believe God our Father stooped down from heaven and spoke grace to you and our Lord Jesus Christ gave you peace.
I have sat by your bedsides in the hospital, offering prayers for your physical well-being. At that moment, I believe God our Father stooped down from heaven and spoke grace to you and our Lord Jesus Christ gave you peace.
I have walked to graves with some of you, and will probably do so again… At those moments, I believe God our Father stooped down from heaven and spoke grace to you and our Lord Jesus Christ gave you peace.
2. Our union as a local church is created in the love of God and the grace and peace offered personally to you in Jesus Christ.
Our conclusion invited anyone who is outside the beloved to repent of their sins and enter the household of God.
We continue our series on prayer, begun last week. The Lord's answer to the disciple's prayer, "Lord, teach us to pray" is first of all to give us the prayer we call "The Lord's Prayer". This is similar to the record given us in Matthew 6, but the differences in the passages make it clear that the same teaching was given on two separate occasions. The fact that the Lord taught the same thing twice indicates that it was a regular feature of his teaching and highlights the importance placed on it by the Holy Spirit. Understanding and practicing the concepts in this prayer is vital to our spiritual lives.
There are essentially five petitions in this model prayer as given in Luke:
There is much more that could be said about the Lord's prayer and these petitions. May God bless our study and meditation on these Scriptures.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
We continue with our Romans series today and begin a new series on prayer.
Last week we completed Paul's summary of the gospel. This week we move from doctrine to impact in human lives. The gospel is more than just intellectual theorizing; the gospel is the life-changing transformation from death to life. Paul speaks first of the gospel impact on his own life, and the lives of the apostles. God's work is first and primarily through God-called Men. Men called by grace and sent by God carry the Message of 'obedience of faith', the obedience which is faith. The result is an impact on the Multitudes, those who are among the nations called by the gospel to bring glory to Christ.
The gospel of God … the gospel from God … the whole mission of Christ, extended through the apostles and God-called men of every generation is all about this: ‘among whom are ye’.
When it comes to prayer, what sincere Christian is satisfied? An unnamed disciple asked the Lord, 'teach us to pray', after observing the Lord at prayer. The true disciple longs for vital communion with God in prayer. As we begin to consider the topic, we observe first of all our Lord Jesus Christ, our exemplar in prayer. Luke's gospel records many situations in which the Lord is found praying - at his baptism, choosing the disciples, in private times alone, in public, in intercession, and on the cross. Our Lord's dependence on the Father and his communion with the Father is our great example in prayer. We observe also our longing for prayer in the prayer of the disciple. Have you ever thought about this request made of the Lord? It is a prayer itself, one in keeping with the Father's will, and one that is immediately answered (read Lk 11.1-13). The first lesson the disciple learns is learned unconsciously and spontaneously: he asks something of the Lord in the Father's will, "teach us to pray". Last, we observe our predecessor in prayer, John the Baptist. The Lord is our example, fully man, fully dependent on the Father, but John is our predecessor, only man, and as fully dependent on the Father. J. Vernon McGee observed that this passage is the last mention of John the Baptist in the Gospels, and it marks John as a man of prayer. Prayer ought to mark our lives as well.
We closed this message with an illustration out of E. M. Bounds book, The Necessity of Prayer and a hymn by William Cowper out of the Olney Hymnal:
“A dear friend of mine who was quite a lover of the chase, told me the following story: ‘Rising early one morning,’ he said, ‘I heard the baying of a score of deerhounds in pursuit of their quarry. Looking away to a broad, open field in front of me, I saw a young fawn making its way across, and giving signs, moreover, that its race was well-nigh run. Reaching the rails of the enclosure, it leaped over and crouched within ten feet from where I stood. A moment later two of the hounds came over, when the fawn ran in my direction and pushed its head between my legs. I lifted the little thing to my breast, and, swinging round and round, fought off the dogs. I felt, just then, that all the dogs in the West could not, and should not capture that fawn after its weakness had appealed to my strength.’ So is it, when human helplessness appeals to Almighty God. Well do I remember when the hounds of sin were after my soul, until, at last, I ran into the arms of Almighty God.” — A. C. DIXON.[1]
Exhortation to Prayer by William Cowper
What various hindrances we meet
In coming to a mercy–seat?
Yet who that knows the worth of prayer,
But wishes to be often there.Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw,
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love,
Brings every blessing from above.Restraining prayer, we cease to fight;
Prayer makes the Christian’s armor bright;
And Satan trembles, when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.While Moses stood with arms spread wide,
Success was found on Israel’s side;
But when through weariness they failed,
That moment Amalek prevailed.Have you no words? ah, think again,
Words flow apace when you complain;
And fill your fellow–creature’s ear
With the sad tale of all your care.Were half the breath thus vainly spent,
To heav’n in supplication sent;
Your cheerful song would oft’ner be,
Hear what the LORD has done for me. [2]
~~~
Today was a blessed day in our services with 50 in attendance. We have been a bit up and down for the last couple of months with various people away, but today almost everyone who regularly attends was there. We also had a visit from a couple who are friends of another couple in the church. Today was an encouraging day. The Lord has done great things for us this year and we look forward to whatever is in store in the coming year.
[1] Quoted in E. M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer, Ch. 1, from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bounds/necessity.i.ii.html (Accessed 11.17.07).
[2] William Cowper “Exhortation to prayer.” Olney Hymnal, Hymn 60.
Recent events at the ETS meetings again call into question fundamentalist participation. The Christianity Today LiveBlog reports on a session by J. P. Moreland of Talbot Seminary. The session had this arresting title: "How Evangelicals Became Over-Committed to the Bible and What Can Be Done About It"
Consider this statement as reported by LiveBlog:
“In the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America, there is an over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is false, irrational, and harmful to the cause of Christ,” he said. “And it has produced a mean-spiritedness among the over-committed that is a grotesque and often ignorant distortion of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.”
The problem, he said, is “the idea that the Bible is the sole source of knowledge of God, morality, and a host of related important items. Accordingly, the Bible is taken to be the sole authority for faith and practice.”
or here's another treat:
Likewise, Moreland argued, “because the human soul/spirit and demons/angels are real, it is possible, and, in fact, actual that extra-biblical knowledge can be gained about these spiritual entities. … Demons do not exist in the Bible. They exist in reality.”
By not researching how demons work, how to fight them, and other such issues by, for example, working with exorcists, Christian scholars are harming the church, Moreland argued. In a similar vein, he thinks evangelical scholars and the movement as a whole are rejecting “guidance, revelation, and so forth from God through impressions, dreams, visions, prophetic words, words of knowledge and wisdom.”
This session was some kind of 'breakout' session at the meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. I don't know if the transcript will be represented by a formal paper published in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (JETS) or not. Regardless, this kind of thinking is obviously part of the milieu at ETS. I have an electronic copy of JETS and occasionally find some interesting articles there, although I don't find it a "go to" resource because JETS general tenor tends towards this kind of unbelief. That is not to say that such blatantly unbiblical thinking is present in every JETS article, but that JETS tends in that direction.
Which brings me to the issue of fundamentalist participation in the ETS. I have discussed this on another blog somewhere, although I can't remember exactly where or when. Some prominent fundamentalists defend the association. I can't imagine how they can defend their association with such unbelief.
In a related post, LiveBlog reports on an attempt to amend the doctrinal statement of the ETS. At the moment, members of the ETS must adhere to a very simple doctrinal statement. They must affirm belief in the Trinity and in the inerrancy of the Bible. That is all. The attempt to amend the doctrinal statement comes from men who don't think the current statement is sufficient and that it allows for heretics to be members. I recommend that you read the whole thing, but I am struck by how much this sounds like the attempts of the fundamentalists to clarify orthodoxy in the Presbyterian church and in the Northern Baptist Convention back in the 1920s. It's sort of deja vu all over again.
The effort at ETS will likely fail, just as those efforts in the 1920s also ultimately failed.
But again, why are fundamentalists involved in something like this at all? Did we learn anything from the 1920s or not?
Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
November 11 is called Remembrance Day in Canada. From my youth it has been a day of older men in medals, somber speeches, and poppies on lapels. The poppies are a distinctly Canadian memorial, inspired by the poem In Flanders Fields, by Lt. Col. John McCrae, MD, a Canadian military doctor who died of pneumonia during WWI.
Some TV news items on the day pointed us to a new Canadian memorial of our war dead, this time from the battlefields of Afghanistan. When the bodies of our soldiers arrive home in Canada, they are flown first to an air force base in Trenton, ON. From there, they travel in a funeral procession led by police cars up the 401 highway to Toronto for autopsy.
Our Canadian people have taken to lining the overpasses on the highway, waving flags and saluting the fallen heroes as they return home. I can't find the news item I saw, but these links will tell the tale. I found the last one, a video with no sound from within one of the cars in the procession, to be quite moving.
A-Channel article on the highway
Canada AM interview with creator of petition
John McCrae's In Flanders Fields:
I read the blog of an Alberta church-planting pastor whom I have never met. He comes from a quite different background from me and is just a bit younger. But I find his articles quite interesting. His latest is called The Reformed Renewal in which he analyses the backgrounds of various Calvinistic leaders in the Baptist world.
I think you will find his analysis interesting. He is talking primarily about backgrounds, not necessarily current position. However, I can't help but think there is still something of the background in each man's current position. Notice especially what he says about Piper and MacArthur.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
In Canada, Nov 11 is Remembrance Day. We all wear poppies in our lapels to honour our war dead. It is a particularly moving experience these days, especially as our nation is now at war in Afghanistan. Though our casualties are very light compared to the World Wars, the loss of young men to their families and our nation is still tragic.
Our messages this Sunday brought us once again to the book of Romans. I took both morning and afternoon services to advance a bit in our study.
The morning message was from Rm 1.3, The Gospel of the King. The proposition for the message was: "The coming of Jesus Christ to earth brings forward the royal man who fulfills every longing of creation ruined by sin." Mankind, fallen, broken, and insecure looks for the leadership of strong men, heroes, in order to provide peace and security. Every human king fails, but in Christ we have the one King who will not fail. Our passage tells us how the eternal Son became of the seed of David, as far as his human nature is concerned, in order to provide himself for us as the ideal champion all men are really looking for.
In the afternoon, we looked at Rm 1.4, The Gospel of the Resurrection. Proposition: "The resurrection marks out this one man as the only man able to provide dead men their one and only escape from the grave." In v. 4, we see that our Lord is not merely our royal Hero-Messiah, not merely the Hero-King of the seed of David, but he is, as to his divine nature, 'Son of God in power', and that power is especially the power to cause certain men to live forever. Our Lord is declared to be such by the resurrection out of the dead, the first among many brethren. He leads the way and he provides the life.
~~~
What a mighty God we serve. Our focus in these beginning weeks of Romans has been 'the gospel of God.' Words cannot extol our Lord enough as we consider these powerful themes.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
From D. M. Lloyd-Jones, preaching on Rm 1.5, By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith...
Lloyd-Jones notes that the text should read 'obedience of faith', where the word 'faith' describes what kind of 'obedience' the apostles were striving after, an obedience which is faith, i.e., saving faith is a submission of obedience to God. In preaching on this point, Lloyd-Jones gives this definition of sin:
"Sin primarily is disobedience. Sin is not just that which I do that is wrong and which makes me feel miserable afterwards; sin is not just that which spoils my life and makes me feel miserable and unhappy; sin is not just that thing which gets me down, and which I would like to overcome. It is all that, but, my friends, that is not the first thing to say about sin; indeed, that is not the most important thing to say about it. But there are many people who think of sin like that, and they are looking for someone who is going to help to overcome sin. They want happiness; they want peace; they don't want to go on falling to a particular temptation; they want deliverance, and they hear that Christ can do that for them, so they say, I will believe on Him, I will accept Him, if He will help me and make me happy, and deliver me from my problem. We all want to get rid of problems, don't we? And there is a great danger that we shall think of the Lord Jesus Christ simply as someone who helps us to get out of our difficulties.
"Thank God He does that. But before we even begin to think of that we must think of something else. What is sin? Sin is the transgression of the law. Primarily, it is rebellion against God. Sin is refusal to listen to the voice of God. Sin is a turning of your back upon God and doing what you think. That is ultimately what sin is. And you see the importance of realizing that. It comes out in this way. You have all met nice people who say to you, 'You know I really cannot regard myself as a sinner; I have never felt that I am one.' What do they mean when they say this? Well, they mean that they have never got drunk; they have not been guilty of adultery or murder; they have not committed certain sins. I have known nice, respectable people who have been brought up like this, who have said sometimes quite sincerely and genuinely — I almost wish that I had been a drunkard, or something like that, in order that I might have this great experience of salvation. Perhaps some of you have felt like that. Do you know what that is due to? It is due to a wrong definition of sin. This is sin: a refusal to listen to the voice and to the Word of God. So that if you are living your own life in a very respectable manner, and are not listening to God, you are still a terrible sinner. If you are living that little self-contained, self-satisfied life in which you really only think of God now and again, and remember perhaps morning and evenings that there is a God, and you say your prayers; if that is your attitude to God, if you are not waiting upon Him and listening for His Word, and seeking it everywhere, and living to practise it, then you are as much a sinner as the drunkard or the adulterer; you are not listening to God. That is the essence of sin." Lloyd-Jones, Romans 1: The Gospel of God, p. 138-139.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
I'd like to call your attention again to my friend in Mongolia, Scott Dean. We pray for Scott every week. What a blessing to see gospel fruit in his ministry in a world so far and so different from my own.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Our own household is back to 'normal' now, as normal as can be in our current circumstances. Life is about change, so normal is always in a state of flux in any home.
My wife returned to us this week after six weeks assisting in the care of her dying mother. My blogging has been light because I have been pulling double duty (well... maybe only one-and-a-half duty) at home while she has been gone. Precious little time is left for reading, thinking, writing and especially blogging when I am left on my own for an extended period of time! But that is another post.
The whole episode of the last six weeks heightened my regard for my dear wife. She selflessly committed herself to the needs of her mother during this time. Our two youngest and I went to visit with her and grandma for one week at the end of October. I was able to observe my wife's efforts first hand. Her mother is extremely uncomfortable as she grows steadily weaker. She often wakes disoriented and confused. My wife would get up with her mother, assist her to get to the bathroom, sit with her and comfort her fears, pointing her always to her faith in Christ. On many occasions my wife would be up repeatedly through the night as her mom's discomfort would not allow her to get long or restful sleep.
Some days are better than other days in situations like this. Dying seems to come on in waves. Some days those waves are an ebb tide, and the 'old mom' emerges. But, alas, her strength is diminished and those episodes shorten as time goes on.
Caring for the dying exacts a toll on any family. It is the bone-weariness produced by the needs of an increasingly helpless loved one. It is the wearing emotional distress of loss as one sees the life ebbing away. It is the inevitable tension between self and one's own needs (needs?) and the needs of another, one who cannot any longer fully function as they once did.
For now, others in the family are shouldering the responsibility of care. The bone-weariness rests now almost completely on them. Our hearts and minds are still occupied with mom, preoccupied with concern for her comfort and care, but we are many miles away and must commit her to the Lord and the rest of the family for now.
We are not the only ones who have ever experienced this, of course. The loss of one much loved is the normal course of life. It befalls us all. I hope that our experience makes us more like Christ, who is all compassion. I hope that these days increase the 'pure religion quotient' in our lives. May God grant grace to our mom, and may God make us more like His Son.
James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Christianity Today publishes a page with links to a number of its articles on the subject of divorce and remarriage, including a link to its most recent and somewhat controversial offering, What God has Joined, by David Instone-Brewer.
These articles may be unsatisfactory for many, but at least it gives a look at how a number of evangelicals view the subject.
Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
