Treasuring Christ

Hi, Glenn! God bless you for faithfully expositin...

2012-01-12T21:37:11.817-05:00

Hi, Glenn! God bless you for faithfully expositing His word! My new book, "the Lap", challenges us to find our place on His Lap (see Matt. 18:3). Wd you please review my book? It's fast reading--only 110 pages. Go to: http://outskirtspress.com/theLap I've tweeted (ruonHislap) Rob Bell challenging him to a debate--am waiting to hear back from him.

Hi Glenn! God bless you for your balanced approac...

2012-01-12T21:32:33.741-05:00

Hi Glenn! God bless you for your balanced approach to His word. We need the whole counsel of Scripture. Wd you pls check out my new book, "the Lap"? I've challenged Rob Bell to a debate which I hope he will accept. Go to: http://outskirtspress.com/theLap (110 pages) I need Bible expositors like you to endorse my book which I expect you wd do if you just took a little time to review it. Thank you so much! I've been a single dad for nearly 10 yrs--this book was hard to write!

Some tough issues here! I see a similar phenomenon...

2011-11-21T12:03:00.315-05:00

Some tough issues here! I see a similar phenomenon in my own appreciation for Tim Keller (a Gospel-centered stalwart who has sadly compromised with evolution) and my utter lack of appreciation for the work of Pete Enns (who has not only compromised with evolution, but also seems to have also fallen off the horse cart of orthodoxy). One might also mention Warfield, who embraced evolution. For him and Keller - and perhaps C.S. Lewis - those errors haven't become the defining feature of their work. With Bell and Enns, the errors seem to have taken over like a cancer and become a corrupting theme. Interestingly, both are completely blind to this and believe they are perfectly orthodox and Biblical.

Every believer will have some false beliefs and blind spots, just as I am told every human body has benign cancer cells in it. However, when an educated believer allows the errors to become malignant he needs correction, discipline and pastoral care. The only hope for Bell and Enns is to repent of their bold heterodoxy. Until they do that, orthodox believers ought to sharply rebuke them for their own good.

Blessings,
Derek

I really enjoyed reading the posts on your blog. ...

2011-11-20T10:59:40.519-05:00

I really enjoyed reading the posts on your blog. I would like to invite you to come on over to my blog and check it out. God bless, Lloyd

A thought provoking video. Thanks for sharing

2011-08-09T14:23:47.222-04:00

A thought provoking video. Thanks for sharing

Great song! Thanks for posting.

2011-07-12T09:30:34.706-04:00

Great song! Thanks for posting.

Glenn, Thanks for posting this great resource. A...

2011-03-21T13:00:58.343-04:00

Glenn,

Thanks for posting this great resource.

At around 38:50, in an ironic slip of the tongue Dr. Mohler accidently calls God a "creature." Oops!

Blessings,
Derek

Very thought provoking article. Thanks for sharing...

2011-03-16T08:43:29.953-04:00

Very thought provoking article. Thanks for sharing this.

Perhaps the plan was to sell a lot of books. Contr...

2011-03-04T10:42:12.912-05:00

Perhaps the plan was to sell a lot of books. Controversy sells books. The plan is working!

Agreed that we need a Biblical response to the challenges of universalism. It's not surprising when unbelievers say eternal torment seems unjust. They don't understand how sinful humans are, how glorious God is, how righteous His wrath is, or how justly we all deserve to perish. But when people who claim to be believers - and especially teachers - come out with this kind of elenchus against Biblical teaching, it is revealing of something very distorted. Either the teacher is an unbeliever who shouldn't be teaching Christians, or he is a very confused believer who shouldn't be teaching Christians. But Rob Bell has been on the path away from Biblical orthodoxy for a long time, so who is surprised by this?

Thanks for the helpful collection of links.

KL, Thanks for your post. I agree with your atti...

2011-02-25T15:05:56.527-05:00

KL, Thanks for your post.

I agree with your attitude because much of what I have written is a about a process (NOT that God is in process) of sanctification or growth in my life.

The reason the Bible must take center stage on our stage of truth is that we sinful humans do not have sufficient understanding from General Revelation to come to the truth (because we all have already rejected that God - the true God). Special Revelation found in Scripture helps us (by grace) to avoid the the humanism you are asking about by not starting our thinking about God, Christ, man, etc. with human emotion, human tradition, human reason, or Human experience. I always remember that the palatability of a doctrine doesn't determine it veracity. If we start with ourselves we end up making God in our image.

Now I do believe that we use experience, tradition, reason and experience in our interpretations, but that is where a believer starts his thinking about the world and God. Believers start with God's self-revelation: the Scripture. How do we know what is authoritative about Jesus? Through the Scriptures today. I don't want to pit Jesus vs. the Bible. Both are essential, both are God's word (the Living Word and the Written Word).

Now we don't want to end up worshiping the Bible either, but we want to worship Christ alone. Yes, Jesus is the revelation of God, but the only standard of knowing Christ is the Scriptures themselves.

As far as the issue of a Biblical worldview, I would not desire to place one culture's view of things upon another's. The African and the American both need to build their worldview by placing the Scriptures as preeminent on the "stage of truth" while recognizing other lesser authorities do give insite into how the implementation of a particular truth or command may be carried out based on the contextualization in a particular environment and conceptualization of a particular truth.

I agree that how this is implemented across cultures and time is contextualized. But God's Word is found not in starting with man but with God and what he has said in the Bible alone. We should not reject the a whole cultural system because our cultural system is also tainted with sin and needs correcting, but it does require a willingness to reject all idolatry and trust Christ.

The gospel Call to salvation is a call to trust in Christ alone for eternal life and not just to add him to the set of gods we worship. All of this is done by God's gracious aid and not by our meritorious ability.

Blessing to you as well.
Glenn

I love this metaphor of the trellis and the Bible....

2011-02-21T15:57:42.850-05:00

I love this metaphor of the trellis and the Bible.

How is the revelation found in the Bible able to a...

2011-02-19T16:29:16.496-05:00

How is the revelation found in the Bible able to avoid human tradition, reason, experience and emotion? You say:
"This special revelation is found in the Bible alone which makes it the preeminent authority on the stage of truth."
This is a very difficult statement because the Bible was not a heavenly document that floated from God to humanity, but came about through tradition, reason, experience, emotion and many years of different forms of human interpretation. For myself, the "special" revelation was Jesus, not the Bible.
We have to be very careful when we start to say that there is "a" Biblical Worldview that all people must accept in rejection of their own. Who gets to pronounce what the specifics of that worldview are outside of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord? It seems to me that those with power tend to describe "the" Biblical Worldview in ways that somehow fit a little too nicely with their own security and way of living that has had very little theological reflection. How is it possible that Christians in Africa would define a "Biblical Worldview" that emphasizes community, relationships, corporate Bible reading and worship and suffering under the Lordship of Jesus, while an "evangelical" North American would emphasize individual commitment to God, personal daily Bible reading, and the blessings to be found in the Lordship of Jesus? Which of these "Biblical Worldviews" is the correct one? It could be that both of them need to continue to be readjusted and that no one ever has it completely correct. In that case, it would be difficult for one person to ever say authoritatively, "this is THE Biblical Worldview." Or, could it be that different people, in different times and contexts, respond to the same God in different ways... that God is providing a way for people to know and follow him, through Jesus, in different ways in different contexts? To think that our form of Christian "religion" in America is the ultimate form of what God intends as the Biblical Worldview seems very arrogant to me. I believe Christians in other contexts might have just as valid interpretations of what the Christian worldview should look like as we do. I'm not willing to say they are superior, but certainly not inferior. We're all trying to figure out what faith in Jesus Christ looks like in our context.
In a world today in which the typical Christian (demographically) is an African woman, I doubt our intertwined American/Christian value system that defines "the" Biblical Worldview will be very relevant that woman, or a Hindu background believer in Jesus, or a Muslim background believer in Jesus.
And so, I must say that God has not worked only among my ancestors just because we have a text that we have canonized. God has been working among all peoples at all times, preparing people for the good news of Jesus, even through their "scriptures", prophets and poets (think Paul in Athens). In this sense the Gods of other religions are only glimpses of the true God. To follow Jesus does not require rejection of a whole cultural system (which most religions are inextricably intertwined with), but a modification under the new reality that Jesus is Lord. And this modification needs to be continually evaluated (based on Spirit-led contextual interpretations of the Scriptures).
I am worried that too often what we mean when we ask people to adopt a Biblical Worldview is that they should think and do things the way we do them, not realising ourselves how much of what we do and think is defined by our human culture and not by the Lordship of Jesus.
Blessings,
KL

This is great news! I pray the next generation of ...

2011-02-16T09:33:44.023-05:00

This is great news! I pray the next generation of Reformed Bible scholars will hold fast to the Truth in the same way.

Howdy KL -- The main issues are that the god of ot...

2011-01-31T13:04:02.480-05:00

Howdy KL --
The main issues are that the god of other faiths (and even religious Judaism) are different gods (because they deny the deity of Christ, the doctrine of the trinity, etc.) than the one revealed in the Scriptures, and the promises are specifically given to Abraham and his seed and not other world religions. The Gospel of Christ as presented throughout the Bible requires a repentance from people's man-made religion system (and that includes even atheism) that someone affirms to the God-revealed truths of Christianity (category 1 beliefs - see http://www.crosswalk.com/1263841/ for explanation of Category 1 beliefs).

This special revelation is found in the Bible alone which makes it the preeminent authority on the stage of truth. Other authorities such as tradition, reason, experience, emotion (which all start in man) are authorities, but must submit their discoveries to the one and preeminent authority - the Bible. All people and other religions have to borrow from a Christian worldview in order to live in this world, and make up their own religions systems and/or worldview.

There is no doubt that God has sufficiently revealed himself in different contexts in general revelation (of conscience and creation - see Rom. 1:18ff) but man because of sin suppresses the truth that they know in their heart of hearts for other gods of their own creation. So missiologically, the Bible does not give any room to say that Christ is fulfillment of other religious systems, though he is the fulfillment of all their longings and the real God that their false religious system have rejected for idols. This is why, when presenting the Gospel, we should always realize that the Gospel of Christ is asking people to give up their god(s), relgious system(s) and worldview (repentance) and believe in the true God as he has been revealed in the Scriptures (the Bible) alone (faith).
Treasuring Christ for the joy of all peoples,
Glenn

Good... now go the next step and reflect on how th...

2011-01-29T14:50:07.157-05:00

Good... now go the next step and reflect on how this applies missiologically to those of other faiths. Is Christ the fulfillment of Judaism alone, or is he also the fulfillment of of other religious systems and traditional religions? Did God also plant "the promise" that you see so clearly in the OT in other religions? Can the expansion that you speak of in regard to who can be the people of God also be an "ontic" expansion, an expansion of the truth of God as he has revealed himself in infinite contexts, in which Christ is the fulfillment? This would be an expansion/fulfillment theology I could get excited about-- one that actually deals with other religions.
Peace of Christ,
KL

Sometimes it is hard being in the middle and not l...

2011-01-20T11:51:38.966-05:00

Sometimes it is hard being in the middle and not liking the positions of the extremes. It is like standing in the middle of the street and getting hit by cars going both ways.

Good chart and good explanation. Like you, I see t...

2011-01-20T11:42:12.665-05:00

Good chart and good explanation. Like you, I see that in some ways the Church equals Israel, and yet in other ways the Church does not equal Israel. I think of it as a paradox, with Covenant Theology emphasizing one side and Dispensational Theology emphasizing the other. My studies have led me to the same eschatological position you mentioned: Historic Premillennial with Amillennial sympathies. I don't feel so lonely now. :)

Blessings,
Derek

Other good free apps on the Android Market: Cross...

2011-01-20T10:36:11.900-05:00

Other good free apps on the Android Market:

CrossConnect (included ESV Audio)
CadreBible (includes Greek NT)
Christian Patriot (major creeds and confessions, plus America's foundational political documents like the Bill of Rights, Mayflower Compact, and Federalist Papers)

Wow, that was quite a read. He makes some great po...

2011-01-11T08:51:34.618-05:00

Wow, that was quite a read. He makes some great points.

Glenn, Thanks for re-posting this article. The ma...

2011-01-10T13:25:01.841-05:00

Glenn,

Thanks for re-posting this article. The main difference between what I term "moderate determinism" and "compatibilism" is this: moderate determinism (as I define it) removes a little bit of God's sovereignty in order to affirm human freedom/responsibility, or vice versa (or both). Compatibilism insists that both must be upheld fully, without allowing one concept to remove anything from the other. It's important to remember that this is really just an attempt to describe Adam's freedom and explain how God permitted the fall. All of Adam's descendants retain full responsibility, but have lost the freedom he exercised (hence, total depravity or total inability).

I may, in fact, be mistaken when I attribute moderate determinism to Calvin. Further study keeps pointing toward the idea that Augustine, Calvin, and most of the other so-called determinists were really compatibilists. The term "determinist" seems almost to be a pejorative label applied by advocates of free will, who misunderstand the intentions of Calvinists/Augustinians.

Of course, the philosophical terms are subject to much debate. We use them to try to articulate a viewpoint that is faithful to Scripture, but the effort is never perfect and there are always unanswered questions. Unanswered for us, but not for God.

Anyway, I'm glad to discover your blog!

Soli Deo Gloria.

Grace & peace,
Derek Ashton

Happy New Year!! New Year's 2011 Fireworks Cel...

2010-12-29T09:41:47.540-05:00

Happy New Year!!
New Year's 2011 Fireworks Celebrations Around the World
http://fireworks2011.blogspot.com/
Demo on YouTube
http://youtu.be/QlQ3b0TfiFM

Wow. This is great stuff. I'm really going to...

2010-12-27T15:22:42.789-05:00

Wow. This is great stuff. I'm really going to take some time and seriously think through this sermon after I listen to Carrick's lecture. Thank you for putting up all the summary on your blog!

You might find the following blogs of interest abo...

2010-12-19T08:04:44.821-05:00

You might find the following blogs of interest about C.J. Mahaney and the group he leads, Sovereign Grace Ministries:

www.sgmsurvivors.com
www.sgmrefuge.com

They tell another side. Hope this helps.

Affirm

2010-11-11T09:16:46.747-05:00

Affirm

I agree. If you cannot find Christ in every book ...

2010-11-10T22:30:24.421-05:00

I agree. If you cannot find Christ in every book of the OT, you need to read it again.