Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Logic must be to the glory of God

If you ever wanted a comprehensive read on logic from a Christian worldview, here is the book for you

LogicBook Description
For Christians looking to improve critical thinking skills, here is an accessible introduction to the study of logic as well as an in-depth treatment of the discipline from a professor with six academic degrees and over 30 years experience teaching. Questions for further reflection are included at the end of each chapter as well as helpful diagrams and charts for use in college and graduate-level classrooms.
--Vern Poythress has undertaken a radical recasting of the study of logic in this revolutionary work from a Christian worldview.

Read the first 53 pages by clicking here, or priview the entire book with some pages limited at Google Books.  

One Reviewer writes: Most writers of logic books seem to go out of their way to make their writing and explanations as difficult as possible. I have always wondered how most writers of logic are so ill-logical in their sentence structure and descriptions. Poythress makes logic about as easy as one can be in writing logic. Because of the words "A God-Centered Approach" in the book's title, most non-religious universities are unlikely to widely adopt the book. That is a shame. Most of life is not difficult to understand; most people only make it sound that way for ill-logical reasons.
For a thorough review please read: Logic by Gabriel Fluhrer

Monday, May 13, 2013

HP#4: MP3s - Historic Premillennialism: A Biblical Alternative to "Left Behind" Eschatology

Here are some mp3s you can download and listen to in the car as you drive.
Historic Premillennialism: A Biblical Alternative to "Left Behind" Eschatology  
This conference was graciously underwritten by a friend of the Seminary. It was April 23-25, 2009 on Denver Seminary's campus.
Recordings of the sessions are available in streaming and downloadble (mp3) format below. Just click the appropriate link to listen or download.

Sessions

Plenary Speech 1
Dr. Craig Blomberg
"Why We Don't Have to Wait for the Great Commission to Be Fulfilled Before Christ Returns: The Problems with Postmillennialism"
stream | download
Session 1
Dr. Sung Wook Chung
"Who are the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11: An Integration of Western and Asian Proposals"
stream | download
Session 2
Dr. Bruce Demarest
"What Did the Early Church Believe about the Tribulation?"
stream | download
Session 3
Dr. Rick Hess
"The Seventy Sevens of Daniel 9: A Timetable for the Future?"
stream | download
Session 4
Dr. Andrew Dearman
"Transformations of Jerusalem in the Bible"
stream | download
Plenary Speech 2
Dr. Craig Blomberg
"The Need for a Millennium Beyond This Present Age: The Anticlimax of Amillennialism"
stream | download
Plenary Speech 3
Gary Hoag for Dr. Craig Blomberg
"Inappropriately Privileging Israel: Why Historic Premillinnialism Trumps Dispensationalism"
stream | download

Resources

A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to "Left Behind" Eschatology
By Craig Blomberg and Sung Wook Chung (Baker, 2009)
The Presence of the Future
G.E. Ladd (Eerdmans, 1974)
For the Supremacy of God, Gospel Growth, and the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ,
Glenn Leatherman
Pastor 
Middle River Baptist Church
...to treasure God's glory in the growth of the Gospel by changing everyday people into a community of passionate Christ-Followers.
Be One, Bring One, Build One, Bless One
"Him [Christ] we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.  For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me." (Colossians 1:28-29)


Dave McClellan on Preaching by Ear


"...A preacher can preach from notes or manuscripts, or they can draw upon something more internal that has been composed in the soul.  I found that when I spoke about content that I had internalized and was very close to my heart, I felt more natural and comfortable and communicated better as well.  But I also found that my literary homiletic background didn’t prepare me to “preach by ear.”  I was taught to prepare sermons on paper and in private, and I didn’t realize there were any other options. Lately I’ve been exploring a more oral approach to preparation and delivery of sermons.  This approach is more consistent with Jesus’ command not to “be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour” (Matt. 10:19). ..."


Read the entire artticle at Dave McClellan on Preaching by Ear:

The Essential and Prominent Place of Preaching in Worship on Vimeo

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Irenic Complementarianism is how it should be

Whether you’re an egalitarian or a complementarian, I appreciate Darrin Patrick's irenic (peaceable) spirit that he has about this issue.  

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Beginning to Study the Whole Purpose of God A Christo-Presuppositional Approach to the Entire Scriptures



Guiding Principles:
  1. Find the preliminary meaning of the text as it was understood by the original recipients.
    1. Seek to understand the message as it was first delivered to
      the people of God. (Kaiser)
    2. This involves the structure of the text, immediate context,
      author and audience relationship, the speech and the act that takes place.
    3. We begin to take note of the themes, repetitions, allusions,
      genre, and typology.
    4. This involves exegesis and the historical-grammatico method
    5. Immediate context is vital; however this is a starting point and not
      an end.
    6. From the immediate context begin to think of the wider
      contextual range (Sentence, Paragraph, book, whole Bible).
    7. At this time, resist the temptation to utilize subsequent passages
      to validate the meaning or to move out from the immediate context. 
    8. Remembering that all exegesis must finally be a Christocentric exegesis.
  2. Allow God’s message of the entire Bible to unfold Christologically.
    1. Allow the Bible’s natural progress of redemption to flow forward and back again in a reciprocal relationship to understand the full significance from Old to New and from New to Old.  (Gerhard Hasel pp 184). 
    2. Let the natural themes, motifs, “bi-directional” longitudinal conceptsthroughout the whole canon set the agenda in order to illuminate the variety of thematic perspectives and textual totality. (Gerhard Hasel pp 188)
  3. Begin to use Biblical Theology to discover the full significance:
    1. Biblical theology makes use of the results of exegesis (Vos)
    2. Biblical Theology is essentially the examination of the individual
      parts to see how they fit into the big picture (Goldsworthy 68).
    3. Ultimate understanding of truth and reality is through Jesus and
      His gospel who is the summation of all revelation and embedded in own Word (Goldsworthy 69).
    4. The Old and New Testaments are intimately connected (Hasel 183)
    5. Recognize the preliminary nature of the OT and the definitive word
      that comes in the NT.
    6. The New Testament interprets the Old Testament, while the Old Testament interprets the New Testament. 
    7. The ultimate boundaries of a text’s interpretation is the full
      Biblical canon, not the text itself (Hasel 183)
    8. Biblical theology deals with texts in the totality of their final form.
    9. Our goal is to unearth the fullest claims of biblical revelation
      within the context of Scripture. (Hasel 183, 194)
    10. The OT and NT live in reciprocal and historical relationship
      (Hasel 184; Goldsworthy 69)
    11. The New Testament elucidates the Old Testament in a
      refractory and reflective way (219).  
    12. The original text is loaded with meaning and that meaning will
      be unpacked when it is opened to the full Biblical context. (Hasel 184)
    13. Revelation is progressive.
    14. Progressive revelation makes clearer the shadowy shapes
      of the Old.
    15. The immediate context is never the end of the Story. 
    16. Scripture interprets scripture, that is to say that God
      determines and controls the meaning of his own words (Bresson)
    17. The whole of the Old Testament scriptures are prophetic
      and they find their fulfillment in the New Testament (Luke 24:44).
    18. The New Testament’s use of the Old testament is a reflection of the progress of revelation in Jesus Christ (Darrell Bock 216)
    19. Think like a Jew and then interpret like a Christian. 
  4. Utilize the Analogy of Faith (Scripture Interprets Scripture)
    1. God’s Word interprets itself.
    2. Jesus is the Word who was the compliant listener and perfect (Grand) interpreter of all His Father said (John 15:15; Goldsworthy 69)
    3. Use antecedent theology to find the immediate context and then use subsequent theology to find its fullest expression in reciprocate fashion (Luke 24:27, 32, 44).
    4. The wider biblical context remains an extrapolation on the
      grammatico-historical plane, not a new projection onto the plane of allegory (Darrel Bock 214)
    5. Look carefully for theological progression, allusions to prior and post events, types, shadows, realities, historical sequences, gradual unfolding, development, growing truth, direct or indirect quotations, and references to covenants in the text that assume a prior knowledge (Vos).
    6. Look for Christ even if He isn’t there directly.  It is better to see Christ
      in a text even if He isn’t, than to miss Him where He is. 
    7. Jesus and the Apostles give us our Hermeneutical Norm and so we interpret the Old Testament the way Jesus and the Apostles did.
    8. Read the Old Testament like a 1st century Jewish Christian with a developed theology of messianic expectation realized in Christ
      (paraphrase of Bock 217).
    9. Fuller sense is not allegorical but derives its meaning from the Scriptures itself. 
  5. Principles of New Testaments use of the Old Testament
    1. Typology is not some open theological sesame to allegory if done under the control of Biblical Theology (countering Kaiser Pp 135). 
    2.   Old Testament passages are interpreted by the NT authors (and Jesus) in light of the Christ Event.
    3. The New Testament uses of the O.T. as interpretive support for its various conclusions (Bresson). 
    4. The New Testament provides definitive interpretation of the Old Testament quotations (Bresson).
    5. The New Testament’s use of the O.T. provides Christians an interpretive pattern (Bresson).
    6. Often the OT quotation is a memory-marker for the larger Old Testament unit (Bresson).  
--------------------------------------------
  1. Kaiser, Walter, (1981), Theological Analysis: Chapter 6 in Towards an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and teaching: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Co; pp 131-147.
  2. Hasel, F. Gerhard.  The Future of Biblical Theology: Chapter 14 pp. 179-194
  3. Bock, L. Darrell, (1985) Evangelicals and the Use of the Old Testament Part 1.  pp. Bibliotheca Sacra, 209-223.
  4. Goldsworthy, Graeme, (2006), Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics; InterVarsity Press, pp. 68-69. 
  5. Vos, Geerhardus, (May 8, 1894), Inaugural Address; Anson D.F. Randolph & Co. New York.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

How my preaching of the Old Testament has changed

 Oh how I can resonate with the following quote:

When I first started preaching 14 years ago, most of my sermons showed a severe disregard for the Old Testament. And even when I crafted a message from one of those books, I was not trying to see the passage post-Easter. I handled the Old Testament as if Jesus hadn't come.
Don't read the Old Testament pretending Jesus didn't happen. After Jesus died and rose from the dead, his disciples saw the ancient promises differently. Those promises were no longer suspended in mid-air but became yes in Jesus. The types had found their antitype, the arrows their target, the shadows their Light.



Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Amazon.com: The Truth of the Cross eBook: R C Sproul: Kindle Store

Reformation Trust is giving away the eBook edition of R.C. Sproul’s The Truth of the Cross.  This book is a reminder that the atonement of Christ is an absolutely essential doctrine of the Christian faith, one that should be studied and understood by all believers.
R.C. Sproul blows the fog away in this wonderfully clear, theologically profound, and pastorally rich work. Learn afresh or anew what God has accomplished in the cross, so that you will boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ.”
Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner, Professor
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
All download options:

Good Article: Molinism 101

"In recent months and years, an old controversy about the nature of God’s knowledge has been re-ignited in certain Christian circles. The doctrine at the center of this controversy is called “middle knowledge” (also known as Molinism). In an effort to better understand the issues at stake, I found the following introduction to the subject by Dr. Paul Helm very helpful.


Read more about this at:

Monday, April 22, 2013

A faithful minister will always exalt Christ


A faithful minister will always exalt Christ. We read that when John saw the state of mind in which his hearers were, he told them of a coming One far mightier than himself. He refused the honor which he saw the people ready to give him, and referred them to Him who had the “winnowing fork in his hand,”–the Lamb of God, the Messiah.

Conduct like this will always be the characteristic of a true “man of God.” He will never allow anything to be credited to him, or his office, which belongs to his divine Master. He will say like Paul, “we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Cor. 4:5.) To commend Christ dying, and rising again for the ungodly–to make known Christ’s love and power to save sinners, this will be the main object of his ministry. “He must increase but I must decrease,” will be a ruling principle in all his preaching. He will be content that his own name be forgotten, so long as Christ crucified is exalted.

Would we know whether a minister is sound in the faith, and deserving of our confidence as a teacher? We have only to ask a simple question, Where is Christ in his teaching? Would we know whether we ourselves are receiving benefit from the preaching we attend? Let us ask whether its effect is to magnify Christ in our esteem? A minister who is really doing us good will make us think more of Jesus every year we live.

--J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. Luke.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Ways to Change to reach Your Community



  • Focus on what your church does well.  
  • Add a worship service.
  • Plant a church
  • Reinvent your Congregation.
Read more at: 4 Options When Your Church Doesn’t Match the Community:

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Resurrection Books

Here are a couple of books on the Resurrection of Christ: 

Who Moved the Stone?Who Moved the Stone?: A Skeptic Looks at the Death and Resurrection of Christ by Frank Morrison




Seeing Affliction in the Right Light

The Lord afflicts us at times; but it is always a thousand times less than we deserve, and much less than many of our fellow-creatures are suffering around us. Let us therefore pray for grace to be humble, thankful, and patient.
--John Newton

Affliction and suffering have been appointed by God as instruments He uses to make us more holy, to make us more like Jesus. They remind us that we are weak and we must rely not on ourselves, but on Jesus. They remind us that this world is not our home but that we are only passing through toward our real home in heaven with our Father, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
--Michael Beates, Tabletalk, p. 55, v. 28, n. 9, Ligonier Ministries.

Afflictions are light when compared with what we really deserve. They are light when compared with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. But perhaps their real lightness is best seen by comparing them with the weight of glory which is awaiting us.
--A.W. Pink

The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, but when we see them in the wrong light; when we see them in the hand of God, who dispenses them; when we know that it is our loving Father who abases and distresses us; our sufferings will lose their bitterness and become even a matter of consolation.
--Brother Lawrence

God never allows pain without a purpose in the lives of His children. He never allows Satan, nor circumstances, nor any ill-intending person to afflict us unless He uses that affliction for our good. God never wastes pain. He always causes it to work together for our ultimate good, the good of conforming us more to the likeness of His Son (see Romans 8:28-29).
--Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, NavPress, 1991, p. 139

Afflictions make the heart more deep, more experimental, more knowing and profound, and so, more able to hold, to contain, and beat more.
--John Bunyan