Treasuring Christ

Good Conversation on Sermon Preparation

2012-01-30T18:38:00.000-05:00

Here is a Great Discussion on Sermon Preparation:

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Sermon Prep from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

2012-01-02T18:46:00.000-05:00

More and more I believe that it is important that one develop a robust Biblical Theology that can inform one's systematic theology which ultimately informs ones expositions of Scripture

Listen to Mark Dever do this in one exposition from all of scripture:

9Marks at Southeastern 2010 - Biblical Theology: Session 1 from Southeastern Seminary on Vimeo.

Preaching from Genesis through Revelation, Mark Dever unfolds the beautiful plan of God, evident in Scripture from beginning to end.

The Law of Christ

2011-12-03T07:49:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1WspTQ956o

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Chrous vs. Stanza - Difference between C.S. Lewis and Rob Bell

2011-11-19T11:59:00.000-05:00

I appreciate Michael Patton's explanation here because I have always had problems with C.S. Lewis's theology while loving some of his books. His denial of substitutionary atonement and the Biblical doctrine of inerrancy is a problem for me, but to hear Michael differentiate between what was C.S. Lewis' chorus from his stanzas is helpful for me. while I don't know how he can emphasize the Gospel while denying some things like substitutionary atonement. I complete believe that Scripture and Gospel mission is denied by C.S. Lewis' inclusivism or "wider-grace" view of salvation apart from the knowledge of Christ. As a pastor these views would probably make me deny a person the opportunity to teach in a local church community.

Michael describes C.S. Lewis' aberrant theology in the following quote:

... he had some non-”evangelical” leanings. Besides not believing in inerrancy, he also believed in the theory of evolution, denied substitutionary atonement in favor of a “ransom to Satan” view, bordered on a Pelagian idea of human freedom, seemed to advocate baptismal regeneration, and regularly prayed for the dead. To top it all off, he held out hope for the destiny of the unevangelized, believing that Christ might save them outside of direct knowledge of him (inclusivism).

Should we accept Michael's analysis that the difference between C.S. Lewis and Rob Bell is one of focus or emphasis in that one publicly focuses on defending Christianity and the other focuses on question Christianity. He states that he fully embraces and endorses the ministry of C.S. Lewis, but he does not endorse or embrace the ministry of Rob Bell. Here is his reasoning for his support for C.S. Lewis and rejection of Rob Bell's work:

You see, while C.S. Lewis has a great deal of theological foibles, his ministry is defined by a defense of the essence of the Gospel. The essence of who Christ is and what he did are ardently defended by Lewis, saturating every page of his book. His purpose was clear: to defend the reality of God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. . . . However, with Rob Bell, the essence of who Christ is and what he did seem to be secondary. One has to look for them as they weed through his defense of non-traditional Christianity. Whereas Lewis’ ultimate purpose is to define and defend “mere” Christianity, Bell’s “mere” Christianity is but a footnote to a redefined Christianity.

Again, should we make a distinction between a chorus and stanza as one of emphasis? Here is his this framework in one paragraph that I am questioning:

Another way to put this is to say that in the ministry of C.S. Lewis the central truths of the Christian faith are the chorus of his song with an occasional problem in the stanza. However, with Bell, the chorus of his song is filled with challenges to tradition Christianity and if you listen really close to the stanza, you might get an occasional line of orthodoxy.

I believe that one's theology and worldview is holistic, complete, or comprehensive and wrong beliefs will affect and change Biblical beliefs one holds to over time. Of course God uses people with imperfect theology - God uses crooked sticks to draw a straight line. The question is it better to have people read more orthodox or Biblical books. We must remember that it takes discernment to read anything by a man or woman. So for growth, I believe that this paradigm is helpful to see the core of anyone's worldview and theology. I think it is generally helpful to read people who have a Gospel centered focus, but know that some of the Stanzas may be a point of departure from the truth of Gospel and Scriptural emphasis and truth. In the end I would have people read C.S. Lewis (but not Rob Bell - except for a understanding of false teaching), and could teach from one of his books because I could frame it well, and it would help people understand the central tenants of Christianity.

Read Michael Patton's article at:

Why Do We Love C.S. Lewis and Hate Rob Bell ? | Parchment and Pen

What do you think? How would you handle a book or someone who may have some problematic doctrines or beliefs that you consider unscriptural or unhelpful? Where do you draw the line of what books, videos, etc. that you would use in training others in the Christian faith?

John Frame - Five Views of Apologetics (Part 1 of 6)

2011-10-28T17:00:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHjUiQt9U8Q

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Good Resources on Biblical Worship

2011-10-26T19:56:00.000-04:00

Good Resources on Biblical Worship:

Over at his blog, Between Two Worlds, my friend Justin Taylor has posted links to a number of messages on worship that were given at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Speakers include David Peterson, John Frame, Kevin Twit, Harold Best, Keith and Kristyn Getty, Michael Card, Jason Harms, and yours truly. Over 50 messages, all with links.

Check out the lectures here.

How to Think on Your Feet

2011-10-25T14:40:00.000-04:00

You will not be able to extemporize good thinking unless you have been in the habit of thinking and feeding your mind with abundant and nourishing food. Work hard at every available moment. Store your minds very richly, and then, like merchants with crowded warehouses, you will have goods ready for your customers, and having arranged your good things upon the shelves of your mind, you will be able to hand them down at any time without the laborious process of going to market, sorting, folding, and preparing. . . . Take it as a rule without exception, that to be able to overflow spontaneously you must be full.

How to Think on Your Feet:
Charles Spurgeon:

The Formula Problem

2011-10-24T13:16:00.000-04:00

Here is a good article that demonstrate why formulas don't work in ministry. It replaces form for function. It trades purpose for a vehicle which one is unable to adapt to ministry changes. Here are some questions I think we all need to ponder:

How have we left the Gospel when require a certain formula in our evangelism because it brings about some results that we want?
Is having a 'common language,' a 'common experience', a "common ritual,' necessary or should it be a desired result of our evangelism?
Where is our tradition anti-scriptural or anti-Christ?
Do we trust in our ritualistic services rather than our Risen Savior? If so, why?
How do we diminish the power of the Cross when we trust in our own means in ministry?

How to Evaluate a Church by Jeff Keeney

2011-10-22T13:04:00.000-04:00

How to Evaluate a Church:

by Jeff Keeney of

Gospel Centric

With a church on just about every corner in many parts of the U. S. and very few churches in other parts of the country, how do you know which church to attend? Why do people go to a specific church? Is it because of the building, or the programs or people? Is it because of correct doctrine, or solid gospel-centered preaching? Or maybe its just convenient? Maybe some of these questions seem silly, but what do people that are looking for a church to call home look for in a church? How do you evaluate a church?
While there are some great resources that are now available to help people find a Bible preaching, teaching and believing church, a quick evaluation can frequently be made based on the philosophy of ministry. What is a philosophy of ministry? This is the guiding principle that will influence and ultimately shape how the church – does church. It will guide the church in their preaching, teaching, worship, service and outreach – even the design of the building and parking lot.
A comparison of foundational philosophies of ministry:

Attractional vs. IncarnationalAttractional approaches to ministry are very popular today. Mega churches like Saddleback and its pastor – Rick Warren, and Willow Creek and its pastor – Bill Hybels, have exerted a tremendous influence on the Evangelical landscape in America. These churches, while differing in many ways, frequently take the basic approach that if we make our building, preaching and programs attractive – then people will come. The idea that drives this approach is that if you can just get the people in the doors, you can keep them there. However, this frequently leads to many problems – how do you preach and teach on sin, hell and the wrath of God? How do you practice church discipline? How do you handle church membership? The attractional model leads to a slippery slope where the clear teaching and application of Scripture must be either ignored or modified in order for this model of church to continue and flourish.

Many churches prefer to view things not from an attractional, but incarnational perspective. Instead of having the church focused on attracting people, many of which are unchurched or non-believers, this approach takes the ministry to the people. Like the Son of God condescending to leave His heavenly home and dwell among those whom He loved, this church wants to be known for their willingness to take the gospel from within the walls of their building to affect the lives of those they come into contact. The focus is on keeping Jesus high and lifted up, in the preaching, teaching, and worship, as well as in the application of members living gospel-centered lives in the community and work place.

Width vs. DepthIn polling various churches, the vast majority cite numeric growth as their driving evidence of success. Success is measured by quantifiable numbers of weekly attendance, small group attendance, Sunday school attendance, etc. Achievement is determined by the number of people with whom the message is shared. The Bible understands a primary purpose of the local church is to make disciples. Not mere attendees or even converts, but disciples – mature followers of Jesus Christ. In the end, the “Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be [Christ’s] disciples.”

Marketing vs. MissionSome churches exercise a marketing approach to ministry in which they hope to create a brand name to fit in a certain niche. Perhaps they are the church with good music, or a great drama team or a really excellent children’s ministry. Like the attractional approach, the hope is to market the church to bring people in. The problem that we see with this approach is that it is generally true that “what you win them with is what you keep them with.” If you win people with lights and smoke, then next year you need more lights and more smoke. You are always forced to better your resources and marketing of those resources to distinguish yourself. The challenge is that the culture is always changing and when you market a specific segment or ministry, then you inevitably teach that your church is not for everyone.

The missional church hopes to win people by the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they can do this, then all they have to do to keep them is continue to preach the gospel — what they should be doing anyway. They hope to accomplish this through challenging their people to have a missional perspective as they live a gospel-centered life. So, the church will experience growth because of mission rather than marketing.

Entitlement vs. Sacrifice
A deep and pervasive sense of entitlement exists in much of the evangelical community. Those who have such an attitude, though they might not articulate it, assume that the church exists merely to meet one’s own felt needs. Therefore, the church that caters to such an ideology is forced to create thousands of different programs to meet those ever-changing desires.

The Bible teaches not that the church exists to meet your needs, but rather that you exist to meet the needs of others. A heart of humility does not say “meet my needs,” but instead “do not cater to me. I am here to serve.” In the end, the greatest need, felt or not, is for the gospel. If we spend our time meeting peripheral issues, all we have done is dealt with symptoms without addressing the disease. Certainly we recognize the legitimacy of needs and are here to serve those in need, but an attitude of entitlement and true service are at odds.

Theology influences philosophy which in turn determines practice. The hope and expectation is that the church’s practice lines up with those beliefs.

- thanks to the Village Church for many of these points

Additional Resources:
IX Marks of Healthy Church

How Not to Grow a Healthy Church

Gospel Polemics, Part 1 – The Gospel Coalition Blog

2011-10-04T13:32:00.000-04:00

Gospel Polemics, Part 1 – The Gospel Coalition Blog:

Archibald Alexander, the first faculty member at Princeton Theological Seminary, was given the title “professor of didactic and polemic theology.” That seems a bit startling to us, because the term polemical in our day has an almost purely negative connotation. However, in the original plan of Princeton seminary, polemical theology was seen as a discipline separate from the positive exposition of systematic theology.

Alexander taught this as a distinct course that distinguished orthodoxy from all opposing views. If you look at the list of the subjects he covers, it is striking how much effort was given to help students discern and refute theological error. It is also striking that Alexander included in his course a lecture on “the evils of theological controversy.” In other words, he was concerned about two opposite errors—either refraining from polemics altogether or conducting it in an ungodly manner.

George Gillespie was a Scottish minister, a member of the Westminster Assembly, and a prominent controversialist, contending for Presbyterianism as the biblical model for church government. And yet in the forward to The Presbyterian’s Armoury he wrote, “I have often and heartily wished that I might not be engaged into polemic writings, of which the world is too full already.” Again we see neither a shrinking from polemics nor any relish in it. Indeed, Alexander and Gillespie indicated that anyone who enjoys theological controversy, who makes it their main purpose and who feels virtuous as they do it, is in a bad spiritual state.

Trouble in Your Soul

D. M. Lloyd-Jones once had a memorable encounter with T. T. Shields, the pastor of Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, and a leading defender of orthodoxy against the growing liberal theology of the churches in Canada. Shields regularly attacked other church leaders in both his preaching and his writings. Lloyd-Jones shared virtually identical theological positions with Shields, but he believed “that the Baptist leader was sometimes too controversial, too denunciatory, and too censorious. Rather than helping young Christians by the strength of his polemics against liberal Protestants and Roman Catholics, Lloyd-Jones believed that Shields was losing the opportunity to influence those whose first need is positive teaching.” (I. Murray, D. M. Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, p. 271). We should recall that Lloyd-Jones was quite willing to engage in polemics himself. He and John Stott clashed publicly over whether evangelicals should remain in the Church of England. (Lloyd-Jones said they should not.) And yet Lloyd-Jones opposed making polemics a major part of one’s ministry, and challenged Shields.

In their meeting, Shields asked Lloyd-Jones if he enjoyed reading the works of another contemporary defender of orthodoxy. Lloyd-Jones said that he seldom read the author, because “he doesn’t help me spiritually.” Shields asked, “Surely you are helped by the way he makes mincemeat of the liberals?” Lloyd-Jones responded, “You can make mincemeat of the liberals and still be in trouble in your own soul.”

This touched off an extended debate. At one point Shields said that he was only doing what Paul did to Peter—contradicting and opposing him. Lloyd-Jones responded, “The effect of what Paul did was to win Peter round to his position and make him call him ‘our beloved brother Paul’ [2 Peter 3:15]. Can you say the same about the people whom you attack?” For this Shields had no answer. The simple fact was that his polemics were really designed simply to stigmatize and marginalize his opponents, not persuade them. Suddenly the younger Lloyd-Jones appealed to Shields in a bold way. In the 1920s, Shields had expected an appointment to McMaster University, but theological liberals blocked it. Lloyd-Jones pointed out that from that time it had changed the tone of his ministry.

Dr. Shields, you used to be known as the Canadian Spurgeon, and you were . . . but over this McMaster University business in the early twenties you suddenly changed and became negative and denunciatory. I feel it has ruined your ministry. Why don’t you come back! Drop all this, preach the gospel to people positively and win them! (Murray, p.273)

Part of Every Curriculum

On the lips of someone else, this could be seen as an appeal to “just preach Jesus” and not care about sound doctrine. But it is hard to accuse Lloyd-Jones of that. Rather, Lloyd-Jones was standing in the tradition of Gillespie and Alexander. Polemics is medicine, not food. Without medicine we will surely die—we can’t live without it. This is why polemical theology must be a required part of every theological curriculum. Yet we cannot live on medicine. If you engage in polemics with relish and joy—if polemics takes up a significant percentage or even a majority of your time and energy—it is like trying to live on medicine alone. It won’t work for the church or for you. That was Lloyd-Jones’s message.

I fear that we are in a period in which many in the Christian church are dividing into extreme positions over the very conduct of polemics. On the one side there are seemingly more people than ever, especially through the internet, engaging in polemics, and yet it looks to me like there is a large number of younger Christians leaders who are reacting to this as if polemics is a pure evil. We want “conversation,” never argument or apologetics.

In the next post I’ll give some ideas for a way that I hope could help some avoid the polarization that is occurring.

Editor’s Note: This is a cross-post from Tim Keller’s blog at Redeemer City to City.

Tim Keller is the senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Manhattan, New York. He is also co-founder and vice president of The Gospel Coalition. For more resources by Tim Keller visit Redeemer City to City.

News Conference on Changing the Name of the Southern Baptist Convention

2011-09-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

The audio from Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright's news conference concerning a possible convention name change has been posted online.

http://vimeo.com/29436657

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Bryant Wright news conference (mobile compatible) from Baptist Press on Vimeo.

Southern Baptist Convention President Bryant Wright held a press conference immediately after announcing the appointment of a presidential task force to study the prospect of changing the 166-year-old convention's name, saying the name's regional nature has become a barrier in some parts of the United States.

After the meeting, Wright held a news conference that lasted about 20 minutes. The audio of that press conference is available athttp://vimeo.com/29380529.

Suggestions regarding a name change can be posted at http://Pray4SBC.com.

Other Articles to read on the Name Change Task Force of the SBC:

SBC name change study sparks lively debate

SBC president announces task force to study possible convention name change

Patterson, Mohler discuss name change

SBC: Lots to consider in a name change

Southern Baptists Start Debate on Name Change

Southern Baptist Convention considers name change

Christianity Explored - Interview with Rico Tice

2011-09-29T11:58:00.000-04:00

I would encourge everyone to listen to this conversation with the Rico Tice, pastor and founder of Christianity Explored.

Christianity Explored - Interview with Rico Tice

Rico Tice is Associate Minister of Evangelism at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London. He is also Founder of Christianity Explored, the evangelistic introductory course to Christianity. This week on the Connected Kingdom podcast, Rico talks about the impact of John Stott upon his life and ministry, how his previous singleness made Christianity Explored possible, and how he keeps his own evangelistic fervor alive. US listeners can find Christianity Explored resources here.

Christianity Explored is in 20 languages and in 60 countries.

He explains the truth that "how people come to faith is now they stay" is important and how the small group method of evangelism is beneficial to the church today. He talks about the necessity of theology and the focus on the Gospel in ministry. The difference between Alpha and CE is that Alpha is a helicopter ride around the christian faith where CE is a walk through the Gospel of Mark. CE take more time explaining grace and sin, judgement wrath, and hell.

Defining an Evangelical!

2011-09-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

What Makes Evangelicalism Evangelical? A New Book Joins the Argument:

Dr. Mohler delineates that there is a new position what is Evangelicalism which in the end is liberalism by another name - Reformist or Revisionist Evangelicals.

The evangelical movement in America emerged in the twentieth century as conservative Protestants sought to perpetuate an intentional continuity with biblical Christianity. While the roots of the movement can be traced through centuries prior to its emergence in twentieth century America, its organizational shape appeared mainly in the years after World War II. And, as anyone who considers the movement with a careful eye understands, evangelical definition has been a central preoccupation of the movement from the moment of its inception.

The word “evangelical” long predates the coalescence of the evangelical coalition of the last century. The word has been applied to Methodism in the eighteenth century, to nonconformists and low church Protestants in Great Britain in the nineteenth century, and to a host of groups, churches, and movements ever since. As early as the nineteenth century, frustration and confusion arose over the use and misuse of the term. The seventh Earl of Shaftesbury expressed the late-nineteenth century frustration when he declared, “I know what constituted an evangelical in former times . . . I have no clear notion what constitutes one now.”
In this light, one is tempted to identify with the late Justice Potter Stewart, who during deliberations of the U. S. Supreme Court in a 1964 case concerning pornography, simply declared: “I know it when I see it.” Keep Reading

Dr. Mohler looks at a definition of Evangelicalism in three senses:

historical,
phenomenological, and
normative

In another article Mohler defines some of the essential evangelical frame work in saying:

But the founders of the evangelical movement sought only to defend the crucial doctrines of biblical inerrancy and infallibility, the plenary verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, the Nicaean and Chalcedonian consensus on Christology, the substitutionary character of Christ’s atonement, and the entire structure of the classical Christian tradition. They saw themselves as protecting this doctrinal inheritance from marginalization on the right and from accommodation on the left. They feared that fundamentalism was fighting over many of the wrong issues even as the liberals were tearing down the house.

In this 2nd article - A New Third Way? Reformist Evangelicals and the Evangelical future - Mohler describes these reformist Evangelicals (not to be confused in any way with Reformed Christianity) as those who are raising the questions of evangelical identity anew in a form of Protestant Liberalism or at least sub-evangelical. Men such as Clark Pennock, Stanley Grentz, and Rodger Olson have and/or are calling for forming a new center for evangelical theology.

It is helpful to always define our terms and I pray as I read this book (see above) it will be beneficial in defining Evangelism today! It will be helpful to read directly from opposing viewpoints in this important debate.

Trellis & Vine Talk 1 – not about small groups

2011-09-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

In this first episode of Trellis & Vine Talk. Tony and Col discuss—amongst other things— why the ideas in The Trellis and the Vine are not about small groups and one-to-one. Listen to it here, or download the file to catch up on it later (MP3 | M4A). (more…)

Trellis & Vine Talk 1 – not about small groups:

An honest look at the Prusit of Joy

2011-09-26T10:27:00.000-04:00

From: John Piper on happiness, Christianity in America and fasting from preaching

Here are 2 quotes of John's in this article that are especially encouraging to me:

“Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering”

...[Christians] should not define happiness as the kind of breezy, light, superficial, smiley-faced, praise-God-anyhow, that gives the impression to others that they don’t know suffering, and that they are hypocritical and superficial. That is the danger I fear when you ask it, should they be a happy person. I would want to say they should be the person who looked like they maintain a sweet contented disposition when the stock market is high—and when it is low. When the hurricane is blowing the city away or hasn’t blown the city away. When their health is good, and when their health is bad. The beautiful thing in the marketplace would be a person whose profound contentedness in God doesn’t spike and plummet with circumstances. That is what will testify to the rock-solid reality of God as their joy.

The interview is very encouraging about the reality that everyone is still striving after the Goal of Christ.

Explaining Islam in a minute - COL. West

2011-09-25T09:58:00.000-04:00

COL. West was just elected in November 2010 to Congress from Florida. During the elections he was part of a panel on how to handle or how to relate to Muslims. You will see his answer here explaining in just over a minute the truth about Islam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYbaln3Uqfc

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The Real Scandle of Christian Mind

2011-09-24T09:00:00.000-04:00

eJournal : The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind | 9Marks

It is refreshing to see how what we believe affects our commitments and now believe. Carl Trueman sows how slippery Theology and the craving of worldly acceptance go hand in hand. He states:

We live in strange times. Hardly a year goes by without some conference on the future of the evangelical church somewhere having at least one speaker, or sometimes even a slate of speakers, who arguably represent precisely the kind of theology that has emptied pews, castrated preaching, and disemboweled commitment to the gospel.

He goes on to give several reasons for this relationship between slippery theology and worldly acceptance, including that, "If a movement, or church doesn't understand what it is, then in cannot make any real and satisfactory determination who who belongs and who doesn't."

Mark Dever

2011-09-11T09:00:00.000-04:00

I cannot recomend highly enough the book: The Trellis and The Vine" if you are interested in seeing your church turned around into a true Disciplemaking Church, where people are mentoring others in their Christian life and service. Please watch this video recommendation from Pastor Mark Dever of Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfg9z7jsbKw

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God's Ultimate Motivation

2011-09-10T09:00:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed meditating on God's ultimate motivation this morning from Justin Taylor's blog.

For my name’s sake I defer my anger,

for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
that I may not cut you off.

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.

—Isaiah 48:9-11

God's Will

2011-09-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

Can You Miss God’s Will For Your Life? Written by Stephen Altrogge

Quote from Article:

The Bible doesn’t tell us what we’re supposed to feel about our decisions. Instead, it tells us how to make biblical, God-honoring decisions. So if you have a big decision to make, don’t freak out. Instead, go to the Word, ask for wisdom, and get others involved.

Speaking the Word Freely

2011-09-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

I keep looking for ways to let the Holy Spirit lead in my preaching. For me it is in the discipline of Extemporaneous Preaching. here is a book that will help anyone along this journey.

Speaking the Word Freely by Jerry Larson

New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Series by Michael Vlach

2011-09-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

Make eBulletins for your Church

2011-09-06T09:00:00.001-04:00

*|vimeo:27791414|*

demo video from PixelArk on Vimeo.

"Memorize Scripture" John Piper Sermon Jam

2011-09-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

This video is such a great encouragement to memorize Scripture and why is is sooooooo necessary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7zPrKo4Tsg
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New Covenant Theology Distinctives by Gary Long, www.SoloChristo.com

2011-09-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

New Covenant Theology Distinctives
by Gary Long

New Covenant Theology Distinctives by Gary Long, www.SoloChristo.com

WHAT IS NCT AND WHAT ARE SOME OF ITS MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS?

A. Presuppositions

The Existence of God is a first truth, “for he who comes to God must believe that He is” (Heb. 11:6).
The Scriptures are inspired, infallible, relevant, authoritative revelation from the triune God; therefore, the Bible as His written “word is truth” (John 17:17).
The final revelation of God the Father is in the eternal Son of God (Heb. 1:2), Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God, full of grace and truth (John 1:1, 14, 17); therefore, no one can “know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him (Matt. 11:27).
There is no authentic leading of the Holy Spirit that is not contextually wedded to the words of the Bible (Acts 17:11; Rom. 8:14; I Cor. 2:10-11; I Thess. 1:5; II Tim. 2:15; see II Pet. 1:20-21).

B. The Need
There is a need for New Covenant Theology (NCT) in proclaiming the gospel of Christ. Its principles of interpretation (its hermeneutic) are as old as the New Testament (NT) itself. The way it interprets Scripture is based upon how Christ and the writers of the NT understand and use the Old Testament Scriptures in explaining the coming to pass of God’s will on earth (Matthew 6:10). But as a theological system in America it is a recent development having different explanations. The time has come for those who hold to the need for NCT to unify and explain what it is. It is in agreement with much that is taught in the theological system of Reformed or Covenant Theology (CT), especially with its teaching on the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, the doctrine of God and creation, the doctrine of man, and the doctrine of the person and work of Christ. It agrees with much that is taught in the theological system of Dispensational Theology (DT), especially its teaching on the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, the doctrine of God and creation, the person of Christ, and the understanding of Pentecost as the formation of the Church as the body of Christ. However, there are significant differences with the theological systems of both CT and DT to warrant the development of NCT as a distinct theological system. The following provides a brief description and listing of some of the major characteristics of NCT as understood by this writer.

C. NCT Described
New Covenant Theology is a developing system of theology that provides a more biblical way to interpret the Scriptures by questioning key theological presuppositions which undergird the hermeneutics (principles of interpretation) of CT and DT. NCT is based upon a redemptive history approach to understanding the fulfillment of God’s eternal kingdom purpose on earth. Its principles of interpretation are based upon a biblical theology that stresses the theology of the Bible itself, especially upon the NT understanding of the OT. NCT challenges the basic theological presuppositions of the one Covenant of Grace system of Covenant Theology, including its understanding of the “moral law” of God and the nature of the Church. NCT also challenges the two redemptive purposes of Dispensational Theology, one for the Church and one for Israel, and it challenges some of DT’s presuppositions and literal hermeneutic for understanding key elements of Bible prophecy. The driving motive of NCT is “back to the Bible.” NCT emphasizes the inductive study of the Bible. A major objective of NCT is that its hermeneutic will help bring doctrinal unity in this sin-wrecked world by breaking down the middle walls of doctrinal partition that exist within the theological systems of Covenant Theology and Dispensational Theology.

D. NCT Characteristics
The following lists some of the major NCT characteristics.
NCT teaches that:

The discernment of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for accurately handling the Word of God (I Cor. 2:13-14; II Tim. 2:15) and that the most important principle of interpretation is “contextual exegesis.” Contextual biblical exegesis demands grammatical/historical/theological principles of interpretation.
The imputation of Adam’s first sin to all mankind (Rom. 5:12d, 18a-19a), the elects’ sins to Christ (II Cor. 5:21), and Christ’s righteousness to the elect (Rom. 5:18b-19b) are vital for the Christian faith. Without the doctrine of imputation the whole doctrine of the substitutionary atonement and justification by faith alone in Christ alone are undermined (Rom. 5:12-19).
God’s plan of salvation is revealed and administered through the unfolding of biblical covenants in the flow of redemptive history, not through the theologically deduced system of CT’s Covenant of Works/Covenant of Grace/Covenant of Redemption schema.
The Law of God is both absolute and covenantal (Matt. 5:17-20). God’s “absolute law” is innate, written on the heart of man created in the image of God. It is God’s unchanging standard of righteousness. God’s “covenantal law,” however, is written and changeable according to the covenant being administered.
The love of God and the love of neighbor are the two greatest commandments (Matt. 22:36-40) upon which the whole Law and the Prophets hang. This means that the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, hang upon these two greatest commandments, not the reverse as CT teaches.
6. The Ten Commandments are a covenantal outworking of the two greatest commandments in redemptive history not the reverse. They were given through the hand of Moses to the nation of Israel first at Mount Sinai (Exod. 20).
The Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath commandment, being the sign of the Mosaic Covenant (Exod. 31:15-17), is not a creation ordinance as taught by CT.
The Ten Commandments are not eternal moral law first written in the heart of man at creation and forever binding upon all mankind as CT teaches in its confessions of faith e.g., the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647-1649) and the Second London Baptist Confession (1689). In fact, the term “moral law” does not occur in the Bible. Although under any given covenantal administration, man is morally obligated to obey all of God’s commandments, yet the Bible does not separate God’s law into three parts: moral, ceremonial and civil. Historically, this threefold separation was not substantially taught until the time of Thomas Aquinas in the 13 th century and in the 16 th century by Calvin.
The Decalogue is not “transcovenantal” and, therefore, does not function outside the Old Covenant as a unit as much of CT teaches.
Christ came not to destroy the OT Scriptures but to fulfill them, which includes the Decalogue. The New Covenant law is called the law of Christ which is distinguished from Mosaic law and from the Gentiles who do not have a written revelation of God’s law (I Cor. 9:20-21).
The law of Christ is not to be equated with the Decalogue. Although the law of Christ, the law of the NC people of God, is related to the Decalogue in that it incorporates nine of the Ten Commandments. The law of Christ is a better law than the law of Moses (Matt. 5:21-48; Heb. 7:19) in the sense that (1) it is a higher revelation of the righteousness of God (Matt: 5:20); (2) it is based upon a higher standard of love (Matt. 5:44); and, (3) Christ’s inauguration of the New Covenant brings in things that are qualitatively “newer,” expressed in developing the theological significance of such basic concepts as new wineskins, new teaching, new commandment, new creation, new man, new name, new song, new Jerusalem and all things new (Rev. 21:5).
The OC Sabbath commandment is typologically fulfilled by Christ for the people of God who rest in Him by faith (Heb. 4:9-10).
New Covenant believers are in-lawed to Christ; they are not under the OC law of Moses but under the grace of the NC (Rom. 6:14). NCT does not equate the law of Christ with the Decalogue as do many holding to CT.
The indwelling Holy Spirit is the norm for Christian living. NCT does not teach that the Ten Commandments are the only objective standard for evaluating the Christian life. Rather, NCT emphasizes that it is the Spirit who enables the Christian to have a godly walk (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16-18).
Christ merited righteousness for the elect only and that it is imputed to them based upon His total obedience to the will of the Father in His life and death (Matt. 3:15; Rom. 5:19).
The Church, which is the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18), was first formed in history when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost not in past history under the OC. Most holding to CT see the Church existing in the OT before Pentecost. NCT does not. Contrary to DT, NCT sees only one redemptive purpose for the people of God, which is the Church, the good olive tree (Rom. 11), the body of Christ (Eph. 2:13-22; 3:1-12).
The ordinance of water baptism is the pledge of membership in the New Covenant for believers alone and the sign of the New Covenant is not baptism, rather the sign is the cup, which memorializes the New Covenant in Christ’s blood (Luke 22:20; I Cor. 11:25).
The “now-not yet” principle of interpretation is essential to understand the teaching of the NT. The Christian experiences the commencement of “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3), yet he stills awaits the consummation of these blessings at Christ’s return. The End has come! The End has not come! The whole theology of the NT is qualified by this tension: between the “already” or “now” and the “not yet” (I John 3:2).
The “recapitulation” principle is essential to understand the NT prophetic Scriptures (Matt. 24:4-14 and 24:15-31; Rev. 11:15—12).
The “blessed hope” will occur when Christ returns (Titus 2:13) to earth bodily and visibly (Acts 1:11) at the Second Advent to resurrect, judge and consign the saved to heaven and the lost to a Christless eternity (John 5:28-29).

__________

Gary D. Long is the Faculty President of Providence Theological Institute located in Belton, Texas.

The Providence of God: Ten-Part Course from John Piper

2011-09-04T09:19:00.000-04:00

The Providence of God: Ten-Part Course from John Piper:

"Providence" is not a word we commonly use.
This is true today and it was true in 1995 when John Piper introduced a ten-part course at Bethlehem Baptist Church on "The Providence of God."
The ten messages were recorded on cassettes that we have recently discovered and converted to MP3s. Apart from some delays in pressing the "Record" button back in '95, the entire audio has been pieced together and is now available for free download.
Stream or download the course, The Providence of God:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment

2011-09-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some edifying sermons on Hell and our concept of grace.

Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment:
These 1990 messages from Sinclair Ferguson are sobering and stirring, and still worth listening to:

Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment: Contemporary Preaching

Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment: The Justice and Mercy of God

Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment, Panel Discussion

I also recommend Ferguson’s chapter, “Pastoral Theology: The Preacher and Hell” from Hell Under Fire, ed. Peterson and Morgan (Zondervan, 2004), 220-237. Here is an excerpt:

. . . We have the words of Anselm of Canterbury to Boso: “You have not yet considered how great the weight of sin is.” In fact, here lies the nub of the problem: A truncated view of who God is, combined with a minimalist view of what we have become in our sinfulness, inevitably leads to a myopic view of the Last Judgment. Until I sense how great, glorious, and holy God is and therefore how horrific my sins is, the absolute justice of God’s condemnation will remain a mystery.

The implication of this for our ministry is important. For it becomes clear, therefore, that narrowly focused preaching on the theme of hell is inadequate. Rather, it must be done in tandem with preaching on the character of God, his loving creation of man, the radical character of the Fall, and consequent nature of sin. Then the judgment that leads to hell can be expounded coherently, rightly, and ultimately even compassionately. (pp. 225-226)

And note this one as well:

When Robert M’Cheyne met his dearest friend Andrew Bonar one Monday and inquired what Bonar had preached on the previous day, only to receive the answer “Hell,” he asked: “Did you preach it with tears?” That we cannot do until we have come to recognize our own great need of grace to save us from the wrath to come, the terrible nature of that judgment, the provision that God has made for us in Christ, and the calling he has given us to take the gospel to every creature in the name of the One who did not come into the world to condemn it but to save it.

So we are called to preach as his representatives: with biblical balanced, with a Christocentric focus, with the humility of those who realize their own need of grace before the judgment seat of Christ, with a willingness to suffer in the light of the coming glory, with love and compassion in our hearts, and in a way that commends and adorns the doctrine of God our Savior. (p. 234)

Train the Untrained to Reach the Unreached

2011-09-01T09:00:00.000-04:00

here is why multiplication trough training is essential for missions:

Train the Untrained to Reach the Unreached

The Ultimate Aim of All Christian Preaching

2011-08-31T09:00:00.000-04:00

I love this because it is missing in much of our churches today. The church is anemic today because we don't do gospel preaching. Christ is the focus of our preaching and the point of our affection.

The Ultimate Aim of All Christian Preaching by John Piper

Or: How Is All Preaching Gospel Preaching?

Or: How Is All Preaching the Proclamation of Christ Crucified?

Ten Theses:

1. Whatever lasting good God ever does or ever did or ever will do for any individual person, he does and did and will do because of his free, utterly undeserved grace.
What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (1 Corinthians 4:7).

He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy (Romans 9:15–16).

We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:9–10).

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared (Psalms 130:3–4).
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4–5).
God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace,which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began (2 Timothy 1:9).

2. This free grace, that gives every lasting good to people, can benefit us justly only because of Jesus’ wrath-absorbing, righteousness-providing, sin-atoning, guilt removing, substitutionary death for us.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:23–26).
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32).
All the promises of God find their Yes in him (2 Corinthians 1:20).

3. Without this kind of atoning death of Christ, God’s grace would not save us, but only increase our condemnation because of the hardness of our hearts.
Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed (Romans 2:4–5).

4. But by the blood of Christ, God really purchased us for himself and secured not only every lasting good that we receive, but also the gift of repentance and faith through which we receive everything else.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men (1 Corinthians 7:23).
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood (Acts 20:28).
It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake (Philippians 1:29).
By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8–9).

5. Therefore every sermon that holds out any lasting good to any person (as every Christian sermon must) should be based on, and interwoven with, the gospel of the living Christ’s substitutionary death.
I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).
Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).
I take Paul to mean not that he has joy in nothing but the cross, but that he has joy in anything only because of the cross, and he wants to make that clear.
But for the Christian, all other boasting should also be a boasting in the cross. All exultation in anything else should be exultation in the cross. Because, for redeemed sinners, every good thing—indeed every bad thing that God turns for good—was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from the death of Christ, sinners get nothing but judgment. Apart from the cross of Christ, there is only condemnation. Therefore everything that you enjoy in Christ—as a Christian, as a person who trusts Christ—is owing to the death of Christ. And all your rejoicing in all things should therefore be a rejoicing in the cross where all your blessings were purchased for you at the cost of the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

6. This gospel basis and gospel interweaving of our sermons should be clear enough so that gospel-deniers (like Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, legalists, libertines, etc) will not approve of our sermons. There should be enough of Christ and of his cross that those who deny the gospel don’t approve the sermon.

7. This gospel basis and gospel interweaving of our sermons should be clear enough so that the living Jesus will be honored as the ground and goal of the message because of his grace-securing sacrifice for us.

8. This gospel basis and gospel interweaving of our sermons should be clear enough so that the imperative that flows from the message is, first and foremost, faith in the blood-bought reality that God is 100% for us in Christ (that is, faith in the justifying work of Christ), and then, secondly, the obedience that comes from this faith (that is, the fruit of the sanctifying work of the Spirit).

9. In this sense then every sermon proclaims Christ. His atoning work is the ground of all it offers. His glory is the ultimate goal of all it aims to achieve. And the written revelation of Christ’s unfolding ways in history (that is, Scripture) is the only authoritative source from which we bring this work and ground and this glory to light (expository exultation).
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27).
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8).
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28).

10. Thus with Christ-crucified as the ground and goal and matter of every sermon (and all of life) the ultimate aim of God in creation is advanced: the praise of the glory of God’s grace, through the joy of his people in him.
God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:4–6).
The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4).

- from the Pastor as Prophet by John Piper

Use Memverse and Memorize the Scripture

2011-08-30T09:00:00.001-04:00

Memverse.com

Have you experienced the joy of memorizing Scripture? Whether your answer is yes or no, God desires all

of His children to experience the great and many benefits His Word gives to those who diligently study and memorize It.

Memverse.com makes it easy for the student of God’s Word to do both with free, yet simple and easy to use software that is 100% online! This means there is no software to download, no flashcards to carry around, and no need to keep an organized list of your verses. Memverse takes care of this for you, and allows you to spend less time looking for lost note cards, and more time in God’s Word! Some other cool features include:

Church, State, Individual, and Country leaderboards for those who enjoy a little friendly competition
A Popular Verses section so you can see what your friends are memorizing
Reports that allow you to track your progress over weeks, months, and even years
Accuracy tests to see how well you really know your verses, and more!

Whether you’re just starting out or have been memorizing faithfully for many years now, Memverse.com is the site for you. It just takes a few minutes to sign up, but the benefits last a lifetime.

If you sign up, please join my Disciplemaking Ministries group at http://www.memverse.com/?referrer=gleatherman so we can encourage each other in this discipline.

The Priority of the Word of God in Worship

2011-08-29T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here are several quotes that show how revelation of God's word must come first in our worship. Worship then becomes a correct passionate response to biblical truth:

“True worship does not come from people whose feelings are like air ferns with no root in the solid ground of biblical doctrine. The only affections that honor God are those rooted in the rock of biblical truth. . . . True worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship.”
John Piper, Desiring God , 90, 76

No worship leader, pastor, band, or song will ever bring us close to God. . . . Worship itself cannot lead us into God’s presence. Only Jesus himself can bring us into God’s presence.”
Bob Kauflin

When such things as the arts and music are used to lead God’s people into worship . . . we have supplanted the leading of the Holy Spirit with music and the arts. Such a move is pagan because music becomes mediatorial in a way that only Jesus Christ is supposed to be. [1 Tim 2:5] This kind of pagan thinking is commonly articulated following corporate worship services when people say things like, “The music really led me into God’s presence,” or “I could not worship well because of the music.
(Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe, p. 354)

“Worship is our response to what God has revealed about himself. The Scriptures are the written record here we receive God’s special revelation. Through the Scriptures, we learn about God; we learn about his love for is people; and we discover his redemptive plan. Worship is our response to this foundational truth.
Kevin J. Navarro, The Complete Worship Leader, 41

“Knowledge of God is the result of the divine initiative, to which man responds by selfcommittal to God, entering through Christ into a holy fellowship. ‘We love, because He first loved us.’ That is the sequence of this worship: the revelation of God in holy Scripture, and the response of His children in the fellowship of the great prayer.”
William D. Maxwell, Concerning Worship, 38

“Worship is the human response to the self revelation of the triune God, which involves: (1) divine initiation in which God graciously reveals himself, his purposes, and will; (2) a spiritual and personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ enabled by the ministry of the Holy Spirit; and (3) a response by the worshiper of joyful
adoration, reverence, humility, submission and obedience.”
David Nelson, from “Voicing God’s Praise: The Use of Music in Worship, in Authentic Worship: Hearing Scripture’s Voice, Applying Its Truth, 149

“Worship depends upon revelation, and Christian worship depends upon the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Worship, that is to say, begins not from our end but from God’s; it springs from the divine initiative in redemption. We come to God because God, in Jesus Christ, has come to us: we love Him because He first loved us: we ascribe to Him supreme worth because He has showed Himself to be worthy of our complete homage, gratitude and trust. Worship is essentially a response, man’s response to God’s Word of grace, to what He has done for us men and for our salvation.”
Raymond Abba, Principles of Christian Worship, 5

The Cost of Discipleship

2011-08-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here is a great article to help you consider what it costs to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Answer the convicting questions below to to see if you love this world or Christ more.

The Cost of Discipleship: by Jeff Keeney

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:25-27

I imagine that if you heard a leader, pastor or teacher make such an absurd and radical statement, you would either laugh and run away or seek to have him banned from ever speaking at your church again. How do you think the crowds in the first century received this statement? We know from other texts that most of the crowd left Jesus including many of his disciples after other similar “hard” sayings. (cf. Jn 6:66) This stands in extreme contradistinction to how churches, evangelism and even discipleship programs look today! Should we re-evaluate our understanding of what Jesus expects from His followers? What is it exactly that Jesus expects?

David Platt in his book Radical makes the following observation:

‘He was simply and boldly making it clear from the start that if you follow him, you abandon everything – your needs, your desires, even your family.”

Was Jesus really telling us to abandon and hate our families? But I thought that we are to be “salt and light” and that the mark of Jesus’ followers was to love – not hate! As a matter of fact, didn’t Jesus tell us that the second greatest is to love our neighbors, even our family (yes – this means even uncle Fester), as ourselves? So what is Jesus talking about?

Platt continues his observation:

Even his simple call in Matthew 4 to his disciples – “Follow me” – contained radical implications for their lives. Jesus was calling them to abandon their comforts, all that was familiar to them and natural for them.

He was calling them to abandon their careers. They were reorienting their entire life’s work around discipleship to Jesus. Their plans and dreams were now being swallowed up in his.

Jesus was calling them to abandon their possessions. “Drop your nets and your trades as successful fishermen,” he was saying in effect.

Jesus was calling them to abandon their family and their friends. When James and John left their father, we see Jesus’ words in Luke 14 coming alive.

Ultimately, Jesus was calling them to abandon themselves. They were leaving certainty for uncertainty, safety for danger, self-preservation for self-denunciation. In a world that prizes promoting oneself, they were following a teacher who told them to crucify themselves. And history tells us the result. Almost all of them would lose their lives because they responded to his invitation.

Does Jesus want to keep you from any good thing, or separate you from your family? I don’t think this is what we are to learn from these passages. He simply wants us to know that we do have to give up everything and live for Him and love Him in such a radical way that it would make our devotion to our families look like hate. He commands this knowing that our hearts are “ever prone to wander” and knows that there are many things – many good in and of themselves that will pull us away from devotion to Him. He calls for a radical reordering of our priorities, commitments, desires and affections – all as a loving Shepherd.

Application questions:

1. How has your life as a disciple of Jesus looked compared to His expectations of His disciples?

2. What areas of your life do you find yourself being pulled away from Christ?

3. What do you treasure most in life?

4. What do you think that you could not live without, and if it was gone – your life would lose its value and significance?

5. What areas of your life do you think need to be “radically reordered” as a disciple of Jesus?

6. What do you think would happen if you, your family, and your church made radical changes in life as disciples of Jesus?

A Good Way To Take Sermon Notes

2011-08-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

If You Must Take Notes
This article is beneficial in understanding how one would take notes that is helpful. I don't find extensive sermon note taking beneficial for me because I miss the point of the sermon if I just concentrate on filling in the blanks or taking extensive notes. Note taking (like extensive use of PowerPoint) tends to make the worship gathering into a class more than a worship gathering. Most disciples are betters served to try to use their imaginations and brains to remember the passage, theme, and point of the sermon, and then write it out at home or in one's quiet time.

This article may be beneficial in that it keeps you notes short and allows you to focus on the character God, on Christ's promises and commands, and the Gospel that the preacher message contains.

Trellis and The Vine WORKSHOP in Norco, CANORCO

2011-08-24T15:41:00.000-04:00

If you are interested in a developing Disciplemaking Philosophy of Ministry for the entire church make plans now to attend the Trellis and the Vine Workshop in Norco on Friday (October 21) and Saturday (October 22).

The Trellis and the Vine WORKSHOP in NORCo information

SPEAKERS Colin Marshall Marty Sweeney

LOCATION
First Baptist Church (Norco)
1417 Sixth Street
Norco, CA 92860
(951) 254-3587 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (951) 254-3587 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
www.fbcnorco.com


		SCHEDULE
		FRIDAY (OCTOBER 21)	SATURDAY (OCTOBER 22)
		4pm - Registration	9am - Session 3
		5:15pm - Session 1	10:30am - Break
		6:45pm - Dinner Break	10:45am - Session 4
		8pm - Session 2	12pm - Lunch Break
		9:30pm - End	1:15pm - Session 5
			2:30pm - Break
			2:45pm - Session 6
			3:30pm - End

A Charismatic is What?

2011-08-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

Michael Patton does a great job explaining different perspectives of Charismatic gifts with the following framework:

Cessationist - believes that particular gifts, such as tongues, prophecy, miracles, healings, and the like, necessarily ceased in the first century due to an exhaustion in purpose.
Soft Cessationist - believes that and are open to God’s use of the sign gifts in areas that are unevangelized.
Continuationist - believes that while many of these gifts would have indeed served as signs to the outside world, their primary function is not to evangelize of the lost, but to ensure the health of the church.
Charismatic - one who believes that all of the gifts of the Spirit have continued, are normative, and should be sought out by the church

He also distinguishes between unhealthy/unorthodox belief range of Charismatic gifts and healthy/orthodox belief range of charismatic gifts. Read more at:

Why I Am/Not Charismatic: What Does it Mean to Be Charismatic? – C Michael Patton

Wesleyan Sermons » With or Without Notes

2011-08-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here is a good website to learn to preach without notes.

Wesleyan Sermons » With or Without Notes

He uses a mapping process to create sermons, which I think is very helpful.

Quote; On being an 'evangelical'

2011-08-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

On being an 'evangelical': "
I feel like right now among evangelicals -- including authors, musicians, speakers, professors, and pastors -- there's a runaway train of unbiblical and unclear thinking.
"

Perspectives on the Sabbath

2011-08-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here is a way you can study the Sabbath issue in Scripture:

Perspectives on the Sabbath:
Chris Donato joins the panel to speak about various views on the Sabbath. Mr. Donato has editing the book Perspectives on the Sabbath: 4 Views published by Broadman and Holman Publishers. Skip MacCarty (Andrews University) defends the Seventh-day view which argues the fourth commandment is a moral law of God requiring us to keep the seventh day (Saturday) holy. Jospeh A Pipa (Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary) backs the Christian Sabbath view which reasons that ever since the resurrection of Christ, the one day in seven to be kept holy is the first day of the week. Craig L. Blomberg (Denver Seminary) supports the Fulfillment view which says that since Christ has brought the true Sabbath rest into the present, the Sabbath commands of the Old Testament are no longer binding on believers. Charles P. Arand (Concordia Seminary) upholds the Lutheran view that the Sabbath commandment was given to Jews alone and does not concern Christians. Rest and worship are still required but not tied to a particular day.

see http://andynaselli.com/four-views-on-the-sabbath for a quick review of the book.

Why Self-esteme does not work...

2011-08-19T14:42:00.000-04:00

I always believed that learning to fail well is a key to living a life of trust in God. This article is a great example when we think that all of life should be easy and successful in our eyes.

Failure Is Not an Option

from The Gospel Coalition Blog by Collin Hansen

Your kids will fail. This is both inevitable and also necessary. Apparently not many parents today want to hear this uncomfortable fact. And they certainly don’t want to implement it in how they discipline their children. Writing the cover story for The Atlantic’s July/August issue, therapist Lori Gottlieb alerts us that the cult of self-esteem is ruining our kids. Convinced they are the center of the universe and capable of anything, our children have become insufferable narcissists. Then, when these kids grow up and fail, as they must, they head for the nearest therapist, worried their lives have gone horribly wrong. Gottlieb writes:

[R]ates of anxiety and depression have also risen in tandem with self-esteem. Why is this? “Narcissists are happy when they’re younger, because they’re the center of the universe,” [psychology professor Jean] Twenge explains. “Their parents act like their servants, shuttling them to any activity they choose and catering to their every desire. Parents are constantly telling their children how special and talented they are. This gives them an inflated view of their specialness compared to other human beings. Instead of feeling good about themselves, they feel better than everyone else.”

As you might expect, this attitude wreaks havoc in the real world of adulthood. Try giving one of these college students a B, let alone a C. You better be prepared for a visit from the student and maybe even a phone call from a parent. Or try telling young adults in their first job that their work doesn’t cut it. You just might be looking for a new employee when the offended party looks for a workplace where his creativity and brilliance will be “appreciated.”

Whatsoever Does Not Please

It’s not hard to see, then, why “moralistic therapeutic deism” (to borrow Christian Smith’s famous descriptor) plagues our churches. This god wants what’s best for us—chiefly, our happiness in all circumstances. He aims to please. Whatever does not please, then, must not come from god. Consider the latest findings of Smith and his colleagues, revealed in their forthcoming book, Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood. They asked young adults age 18 to 23, “If you were unsure of what was right or wrong in a particular situation, how would you decide what to do?” The most popular answer (39 percent): “doing what would make you feel happy.”

As you can hopefully see, this is a perfect recipe for discipleship disaster. Happiness is neither assured nor even God’s ultimate aim for us. Sometimes, for example, he demonstrates the grace of his fatherly concern by disciplining those he loves (Prov. 3:11-12; Heb: 12:5-11). When we aim primarily for happiness in our parenting and discipleship, we actually set up these young adults for needless failure. They will be surprised and hopelessly discouraged when their faith is eventually challenged, whether by skeptical professors and classmates or the inevitable disappointment of life.

Searching Scripture in Vain

The God of the Bible does not seem so concerned to protect us from all failure. In fact, you’ll search Scripture in vain for anyone but Jesus who avoids failure altogether. Abraham, the man of faith, displays his lack of faith when he lies about his wife to protect himself (Gen. 12:13). Moses, the man of bold and steadfast conviction in God’s power to deliver his people, takes matters into his own hands to control a rebellious people (Num. 20:11-12). David, a man after God’s own heart, indulges the lust of his flesh and takes another man’s wife (2 Sam. 11:2-4). If these men failed, so will we.

Indeed, the whole Gospel of Mark seems to highlight the failure of the disciples. With hardened hearts, the disciples failed to understand the miracle Jesus performed by multiplying the loaves (Mark 6:40, 52). After Jesus explains that he will be delivered up to die, the disciples can think only of themselves (Mark 9:30, 34). And when Jesus needs them most, while preparing to offer himself on the cross, his best friends abandon him and scatter (Mark 14:27). Yet even then, Jesus promises to return to them after his resurrection (Mark 14:28).
In every case Mark juxtaposes the faithless disciples with Jesus, making an essential point: Jesus is Lord, and we are not. Get this wrong and you will not grow spiritually. You will be a sheep who does not recognize his need for a shepherd.

Failure is a vital means employed by God to reveal this spiritual reality. So if we want to help our loved ones grow in Christ, we need to account for failure—forgiving them when necessary, persevering with them through trials, and affording them freedom to learn life’s painful lessons in their own timing.

Truth the Hard Way

This last part strikes me as most difficult for Christian parents. We rightly want to shield our children from the pain of sin, especially the sort we have shamefully and regrettably indulged in. To be clear, this is a good thing. Responsible parents keep pornography out of the home, take interest in education, and warn their children against bad influences.

At the same time, we must avoid leaving the impression that failure can be avoided altogether. How do we make this mistake? We might create false expectations by preventing our children from befriending any unbelievers. Or packing their schedules only with esteem-boosting, organized activities. Or letting them off the hook from doing household chores. Or teaching the moral lessons of Scripture and ignoring the litany of failures pointing toward our need for a Savior who never fails us.

And what if you don’t teach your children how to overcome by the grace of God and power of the Holy Spirit by patiently enduring their failures? They’ll find out the truth anyway, the hard way. They’ll see failure in church with the backbiting, gossip, power plays, and judgmentalism. They’ll see it in themselves when they struggle with doubts and no one will listen. They’ll see it in you and wonder why you can’t just admit it.

If you don’t teach them that Christians sometimes fail, then they’ll conclude Christianity has failed. But by the grace of God they’ll add to the numbers of bitter adults who grew up in the church and rail against its destructive influence. Yet when they see us fail, repent, and ask God’s forgiveness, they’ll see in action the most glorious truth of all, that God himself took on flesh and walked among us, failures all, so we might walk with him in heaven forevermore. They’ll know that when they fail, too, God’s grace abounds to even the chief of sinners.

Texas A&M Football 2011 Promo - Prepare to Stand

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTQWGN4bDC4

Theology of different Christian groups

2011-08-14T07:48:00.000-04:00

Evangelicalism vs. Fundamentalism vs. Liberalism

The Various Branches of New Covenant Theology

2011-08-13T09:30:00.000-04:00

The Various Branches of New Covenant Theology

via Christ, Our Covenant by Steve Fuchs on 2/28/09

Like other systems of theology, there are various branches of New Covenant Theology (NCT). Although all proponents of each branch believe Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant (OC) Laws perfectly in his person, and insist on faith in his work and person for salvation, there are at least 4 branches of NCT that can be distinguished from one another.

This analysis is relatively brief in its attempt to give an overview of the current strains of NCT, some of which you may already be familiar with, and some you may not. In particular, its purpose is to identify this blog's strain -Picture-Fulfillment NCT- within the overall NCT dialogue, along with some of the names associated with each branch. It is *not* an exhaustive description of NCT nor of the individual branches, but in 'Cliff Notes' fashion attempts to highlight meaningful distinctions between them as a service to those outside (and in) who may be confused when they hear about New Covenant Theology.

It should be noted that although it was unintended, the order they appear below happens to reflect a relative ordering (at least in the traditional sense) from least continuity to greatest.
In addition, the descriptors in bold italics are not officially embraced by the NCT community, but are used here for clarification.

Statutes NCT (Greg Gibson)

…is a kind of Abolish/Replace hermeneutic in which the commands in the NT are seen to be The Law of Christ which totally replace the Decalogue and all OT statutes. The nature of Law as a list of codified statutes remains identical, while the statutes themselves change and are not as binding because of Christ. This is not unlike Covenant Theology in that it clings to statutes for a rule of life, albeit focuses on an entirely different set of statutes - a radical discontinuity.
The basic message is "Obey the NT commands; they totally replace the OT commands."

Subset NCT (Steve Lehrer)

…as portrayed in his book, this branch emphasizes that only those statutes repeated in the NT still carry weight for the NC child of God. Those not repeated are ignored unless covered by another principle that is repeated.
For instance, marrying one's sister is ok provided it's not illegal, since it is not repeated in the NT texts.

The basic message is: "The NT alone determines NC righteousness primarily as a subset of the OT definitions."

Classic NCT / New Law Giver NCT (John Reisinger, Jon Zens, Gary Long, Tom Wells, & Fred Zaspel)

… NCT is a term originally coined by Jon Zens, who along with Reisinger, Long, Wells and Zaspel laid the recent foundations of New Covenant Theology through their respective books and Reisinger's Sound of Grace online ministry. There may be subtle differences in the perspectives of these 'fathers' of the NCT movement, but most are not significant. Reisinger's book 'In Defense of Jesus – The New Law Giver' offers the most direct defense against the idea that NCT is antinomian. In it he emphasizes Jesus as the New -and ultimate- Lawgiver who replaces Moses in both position and authority because He is God. Jesus is not just another Administrator; he is not just another Moses. He is God, and thus has power to author righteousness in his covenant, whereas Moses was only a messenger.
In this branch of NCT, some characteristics of righteousness (ie Polygamy) may be unique to each particular covenant because Jesus has the authority to add or remove them. Thus, in the NC some elements are added, some are subtracted, though many are preserved. The focus is on the New Law Giver rather than statutes, and the Law of Christ as a rule of life is not precisely codified beyond Love God and Love neighbor.

The basic message is: "Obey Christ, not Moses – Christ is the ultimate Law Giver and the Law has been authored by Him for this Covenant in which He has full authority."

Picture-Fulfillment New Covenant Theology (see below for list of proponents)

…This branch grew out of the genesis of Zens', Reisinger's, Long's, Wells' and Zaspel's Classic NCT and is spreading within the larger community primarily via the Sound of Grace.

More-so than any other branch, Picture-Fulfillment NCT maintains a clear appreciation for what the confession framers were grasping at in regards to an everlasting moral aspect of God's righteousness. However, unlike their CT brethren, advocates of Picture-Fulfillment NCT do not see the codified Decalogue as the fullest expression of that righteousness to man, nor the standard to which Christ is conforming His own. Rather, this branch sees God's inherent (& unchanging) righteousness now fully revealed through a NEW SORT of Covenant/Law.
Whereas the OC/Law was a type or shadow of His righteousness pictured in words and letters, the NC is the antitype or substance of His righteousness reflected by the former. The NC is the fulfillment of the OC picture - the antitype of the OC types.

Noting in Isaiah 42:6, 49:8, & 55:3-4 that the New Covenant was not promised as another tablet or code of statutes, but a person - the Suffering Servant, the question became – 'What does it mean for the incarnate Son to be THE New Covenant/Law of Christ?'

To answer, one has to acknowledge that it is common for God to anthropomorphize abstracts such as the WAY, the TRUTH, the LIFE, the LIGHT of men, etc. in the person of Christ, and most shockingly it tells us He was the WORD of God incarnated! (John 1). Further, we learn from scripture that this living WORD is now indwelling His people as the Spirit of Christ written on their hearts (Ezek 36:26-7) who causes them (like a King who is the Law) to walk in His ways and obey God's righteousness. This is achieved by giving them a new spirit – a new self – a new nature, bound up in union with Himself.

With this incarnation of God's New AND Everlasting Covenant, the entire OT in all of its covenants and statutes; the whole of the Law and Prophets; including but not limited to the Decalogue become types and shadows of Him, for He is the substance they reflect. His Righteousness is not a Standard by which God lives. Righteousness is a description of His perfect nature. HE himself is the Standard, not the codes. The codes were mere shadows of the things to come, but Christ is the substance of God's nature revealed in human life – God's Righteousness fully expressed in living flesh.

Col 2:9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; ... 16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (NASB)
There is much that could be said about this, but the emphasis is on OC types being pictures of Christ rather than themselves being the substance of God's Righteousness, because Christ IS that Substance (Col 2:16-17). As such, all is fulfilled in and by Christ in two distinct but necessary ways:

The OC types/pictures of righteousness (all the OT law and prophets and covenants), including the reality behind them were fulfilled in and suffered by christ on behalf of His own, but that's not the full extent of it…

The NC Substance of perfection (which the OC merely shadowed) is fulfilled/and being fulfilled (already/not yet) within God's people by virtue of their union with Christ and by way of His indwelling them. God's children will not be made perfect in the likeness of a code like the Pharisees. They are not being conformed to the image of a Law of Letters, but to the image of Christ himself, the Law of the Spirit. This transformation into His very image comes by way of His indwelling and becoming ONE with them in spirit. Through that intimate union they are not only counted as perfect, but are being made to be perfect as their Heavenly Father is perfect. This is an often overlooked part of fulfillment as communicated by 'I did not come to abolish the Law, but to FULFILL it'.
The very SUBSTANCE of God's Righteousness must be fulfilled in them by Him. He fulfilled the substance of God's Righteousness FOR them in His incarnate body and suffering, but He is also fulfilling the substance of His Righteousness IN them by way of indwelling union – this Spirit of Christ indwelling them as a down payment in the 'already' functions as the law of the Spirit effectively transforming them for the 'not-yet.'

So then, what's NEW is the nature of covenant/law. The New and Everlasting Covenant is a person (Isa 42:6,49:8), Jesus Christ, rather than a new or modified document. He is a new administrator, but the covenant he administers is not of the same sort as the one Moses administered. It's no longer a shadow in the form of codes. He is now the substance of perfect righteousness becoming one with them to give them a new nature/spirit identical to His own.

While the OC reflected God's Righteousness to them in the shadows of words and letters...

Christ revealed the substance of His Righteousness in the flesh and suffered its consequences on their behalf, so that...

Now Christ's Spirit is transforming them into the very image of His righteousness making them perfect by nature. Fulfilling the substance of God's righteous nature in His people's hearts. "I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill" begins with living it in His own flesh even to the cross, but this fulfillment includes bringing the substance of God's Righteousness to reality in them as well. Something codes could never do. He fulfills it both for them unto forgiveness, and in them unto perfection.

How then do we know what we are to behave like and what is sin? What is the rule of life?The NT calls for obedience, but it is more indicative than imperative. The Sermon on the Mount, the upper room discourse, the exhortations in the epistles -- especially Pauline -- on walking in the Spirit, fruits of the Spirit, and other teachings of Christ and the Apostles show us what the Spirit is doing in us as shadowed by the entire Law and Prophets and made substantive in Christ. The NT expresses how we Joyfully walk with assurance toward one day being perfectly transformed into His likeness – a likeness brought about by way of an indwelling oneness to be fully consummated on the wedding day.

The basic message of Picture-Fulfillment NCT is: "Joyfully be what you ARE and walk – better yet run - like Christ toward the substance He is transforming you into. You are being conformed into HIS image, not the image of a Decalogue."

Steve Fuchs – 2008
(Below is a list of persons who, as of this posting, recognize Picture-Fulfillment NCT as a part of the broader NCT community. They have added their names here as part of a growing list who agree with Picture-Fulfillment NCT in many, if not all regards, most particularly that Christ is the New and Everlasting Covenant promised by our Father in heaven.)

Moe Bergeron – SOG moderator; Pastor at Sovereign Grace Fellowship, Boscawen NH - http://www.sovgracenh.com/ ; Originator of Piper's Notes online, Sound of Grace list (SOG), and SOG Online for John Reisinger

Neil Whitcombe - SOG moderator UK

Joseph Krygier - SOG moderator; Pastor at New Covenant Baptist Fellowship, Evans, NY - http://www.fbceny.org/ ; NCT think-tank conference organizer

John T. Jeffery - SOG moderator & Pastor at Wayside Gospel Chapel, Greentown, PA - http://www.waysidegospelchapel.blogspot.com/

Chad Richard Bresson – SOG contributor; Pastor for Spiritual Development at Clearcreek Chapel, Springboro, OH - http://www.clearcreekchapel.org/ ; & The Vossed World blogger

Ed Trefzger - SOG contributor, Missional+Reformed & Of Whom I am the Foremost blogger

Kerry Kinchen - SOG contributor; Pastor at Bridgeway Bible Church, Bulverde, TX - http://www.bridgewaybiblechurch.org/ ; & Author of the book 'Biblically Defending Salvation'

Matthew Morizio - SOG contributor & The Gospel Muse blogger

Josh Wood - SOG contributor

Dustin Segers – SOG contributor & Pastor at Shepherd's Fellowship Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC - http://www.graceinthetriad.com/; & http://www.graceinthetriad.blogspot.com/ blogger

David Painter – SOG contributor & Pastor at Covenant Baptist Church, Uniontown, PA

Shane Becker – SOG contributor, owner of http://www.solochristo.com/ & http://www.newcovenanttheology.org/, & LiftedVeil blogger

Serving to Master Two? — Historical Background and the Bible

2011-08-12T09:30:00.000-04:00

Serving to Master Two? — Historical Background and the Bible: "
How much historical background must a pastor know in order to preach the Bible with authority?
In this video, D. A. Carson and John Piper discuss the role of extrabiblical sources in biblical interpretation:
Watch the video at The Gospel Coalition.

Build Your Own Productivity Style by Remixing the Best [Productivity]

2011-08-11T09:30:00.000-04:00

Build Your Own Productivity Style by Remixing the Best [Productivity]: "

You've tried everything: asked around, played with a few theories about 'how you work best', and downloaded app after app promising to make you more efficient. If you feel like nothing's working, this crash course examines some of the most lauded productivity systems, then walks you through how to can cherry pick the methods that work for you to create your own productivity style. More »

Francis Chan’s Erasing Hell: a response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins - Blog - Eternal Perspective Ministries

2011-08-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

May I recommend that you read the review of Francis Chan’s Erasing Hell: a response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins - Blog by Eternal Perspective Ministries. It is a good review and very helpful when he compares this book to "God Wins" by Mark Galli.

Grace in the Triad: NCT ThinkTank 2011 Conference Videos

2011-08-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

Grace in the Triad: NCT ThinkTank 2011 Conference Videos

Session 1 John “Jack” Jeffery
Severino Pancaro: The Law in the Fourth Gospel – The Metamorphosis of “Nomistic Termini” and The Law in the Fourth Gospel – The Transferal of Symbols for the Law to Jesus in the Fourth Gospel.

Session 2 John Jack Jeffery
Carl F. H. Henry, “The Holy Spirit and Christian Ethics”.

Session 3 Dustin Segers
NCT and Apologetics

Session 4 Joseph Krygier
God’s Glorious Mission – Toward a Biblical Theology view of Mission(s) Rooted in the Attributes of God

Session 5 Ed Trefzger
Apart from us they should not be made perfect: A survey of views on Church and Israel (including a surprising NCT view)

Session 6 Ed Trefzger
Apart from us they should not b perfect – my thoughts on an NCT-informed view of OT/NT saints and the Church.

Session 7 Chad Bresson
The Incarnation of the Abstract: New Covenant Theology and the Enfleshment of the Law

Session 8 Dustin Segers
NCT and Social Justice – Is the Tim Keller model biblical?

Session 9 Shane Becker and Joseph Krygier
God’s Glorious Mission – Toward a Biblical Theology view of Mission(s) looking at The People on Mission

Session 10 John Dunn
A Look at OT parallels, couplets, and typology of the redemptive historical theme from the Garden through the Nation of Israel

Session 11 Moe Bergeron
The Promise and the Necessity of The Spirit

2011-08-08T18:51:00.000-04:00

Great message for church leaders who try to lure people through carnal means. I have always believe that the way you reach people for Christ is the way you keep them. If you use entertainment to win people you will have to keep entertaining people. But if you you the exposition of scripture in various groups then it is thorugh the scriptures that your ministry will be built.

http://vimeo.com/26100841

Church Leaders Who Permit Carnality from NCFIC on Vimeo.

Gospel Centric Quote of the Day

2011-08-05T14:48:00.000-04:00

Gospel Centric Quote of the Day: "

On what this generation is looking for that has been missing in church:

Transcendence. My generation was raised on a religion of moral control. Do this. Don’t do that. And a lot of self-help religion. Feel better. Get out of debt. Six ways to overcome your fears. Seven ways not to lust. Ultimately that message didn’t work. It was empty. There was no transcendence. The omniscient, omnipresent, all-powerful God of the universe wasn’t the focus. I think that’s why we are seeing the resurgence of Reformed theology.- Matt Chandler

What the church needs to be reminded of today:

The ultimate gift of the Gospel is NOT the new heavens and new earth, the ultimate good of the Gospel is NOT the redeemed body, the ultimate good of the Gospel is NOT forgiveness of sins, NOT redemption, NOT propitiation, NOT justification…these are all means!! The ultimate good of the Gospel is God Himself beheld in the Glory of His crucified and risen Son, enjoyed because of His infinite beauty, treasured because of His infinite worth, and reflected because we’re being conformed to the image of his son. Christ suffered once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God…there is no end after that…everything before that is means” – John Piper

Obama, Pentagon certify DADT repeal

2011-07-23T09:29:00.000-04:00

Obama, Pentagon certify DADT repeal: "WASHINGTON (BP)--President Obama and Pentagon leaders announced Friday they have certified the United States military is prepared for open homosexuals to serve in the armed services. The certification by the president, plus new Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen, means only a 60-day waiting period remains before final repeal of a longstanding policy that bars open homosexuals from serving openly in the Armed Forces."

The most concerning thing to me is the freedom to preach the gospel and call people to repent from their sin including homosexuality. What the US Military is doing may actually be a infringement on the freedom of Religion and attempt to squash open dialogue and thinking in the market place of ideas. This ideas are expressed in an excellent quote from more than 60 retired chaplains in a letter sent to Obama and then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates:

... repeal would marginalize "deeply held" religious beliefs of military personnel and present a conflict when some chaplains, while preaching, "present religious teachings that identify homosexual behavior as immoral." They warned changing the policy could influence chaplains not only in what they could preach but in what they could say in a counseling session. A repeal, the letter further said, would harm morale because it would be casting "the sincerely held religious beliefs of many chaplains and Service members as rank bigotry comparable to racism."

I pray that truth is not the causality in this action by the White House, and that a continue free exchange of ideas can genuinely be maintained without censorship or false name calling when people cannot or will not argue their positions. We all should love all sinners in our ministries, but we should never excuse sin in others or in our own lives in proclaiming the Word of God. Eternity is at stake in our preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and heaven and hell (eternal punishment) are realities that all men and women need to hear about that are the result of either the Grace of God alone (for entrance into Heaven) or the sinful rebellion of men and women (with the just punishment of an eternal Hell). I pray that the Christian chaplains will continue preaching and counsel military personnel in a Biblical manner about the Gospel of good news of justification before God and repentance from sin (and yes repentance from the sin of homosexuality) out of a genuine love for all peoples regardless of the cost to themselves.

How to Study the Bible

2011-07-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IfEMzcQFM4&hd=1

David Platt & John Piper SBC 2011 Annual Meeting

2011-07-21T16:25:00.000-04:00

http://vimeo.com/26530321

David Platt & John Piper SBC 2011 Annual Meeting from Rodica on Vimeo.

www.rodiagnusdei.wordpress.com

materialism of our hearts

Christ Has Conquered All - Gospel Centered Worship

2011-07-11T17:31:00.000-04:00

http://youtu.be/WXb97Zd7UmM

Good Biblical dialogue

2011-07-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

Many dialogues today are very immature from my perspective. I love it when believers can talk about Scripture and their beliefs in a winsome and humble way in an effort to learn from each other and not just talking past each other. I love it when other brothers and sisters in Christ can dialog in a agreeable way over their different perspectives in an effort to learn and grow to know Christ more fully.

http://vimeo.com/24828722

Chandler, Horton, Keller on How to Disagree from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.
The terms of theological have changed rapidly and dramatically with the spread of the internet. So how ought Christians to disagree with one another and with other theological opponents?

In this video: Matt Chandler, Michael Horton, Tim Keller

Permalink: http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/chandler_horton_keller_on_how_to_disagree

Questions from a Ministry Student i received

2011-07-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

The following Questions are from a interview I did with a student at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

1)What is the most important thing for a pastor to know?

Genuinely Knowing Christ (not a false convert) and that God is the goal of the Gospel (not life enhancements). Thus pastor's ministry must be based on expositional preaching of the Word and Gospel (Eph. 4:1-4. One could say the same thing by stating “please or love God first, not men” in all you do. (Hebrews 11:6, Revelation 2:4-6)).

2)What has kept you going when things are going hard in the ministry?

Knowing that God has called me to be a disciplemaking pastor. There is nothing else I can do in life. Also the purse joy of having a vision to fulfill the Great Commission. There is no greater think to live and die for than what is going to last for ever (God, the Word of God and the souls of men). To the degree you don't have an eternal perspective like that, you will tend to quit ministry. (Colossians 2:23-29)

3)What have you found most helpful to know Christ more?

The pure joy of knowing God through Christ is best enhanced by being filled with God's Word (and Spirit) (reading, memorizing, praying), and proclaiming His Gospel (evangelism/preaching/teaching) as a way of life. How can a Christian live in a world of sin and be continually happy without pursuing and proclaiming Christ, their Lord? If I don't pursue and proclaim the Lordship of Christ, I would just exist to amas stuff and things and then die. Life would be meaningless. My ultimate pursuit of Christ comes through pursuing a Biblical theology. You cannot say you love God and live for God without having right belief or loving the truth (Psalm 27:1-4), and right belief comes through emercing oneself in the Word of God. Proclaiming (Evangelism/teaching) and memorizing Scripture are some of the most profitable disciplines that create a love for Christ in knowing Him better.

4) Is evangelism or discipleship most important in building a church?

Yes. You cannot separate them. Evangelism is part of the subset of Discipleship (or I rather call it Disciplemaking) and the call in Evangelism to salvation is a call to be a disciple of Christ. The stewardship of the Gospel in disciplemaking must be multiplied through evangelism as well as training. Evangelism with out Discipleship makes spiritual welfare babies - who are immature and will not reproductive. Discipleship without evangelism results in spiritual still-born babies - who are unregenerate and cannot reproduce. In the end everything the church does is discipleship (or disciplemaking) because they all serve the Great Commission and since all Christians are disciples. Second, it is not the job of the pastor to build the church, that is God's responsibility. It is the calling of a pastor to proclaim the word in whatever context he can – church gatherings, worship services, bible studies, street preaching, visitation, one on one disciplining relationships, Sunday School, small groups, etc., and leave the result with God - as God's means of building His Church. In other words Evangelism, teaching, discipling, and preaching always work when they are used faithfully, because God will not let his word come back to Him void. Isaiah 55:11 says,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Both Evangelism and Discipleship (Disciplemaking) are successful because God is working in this world and in the lives of believers. Even as trust God's word in Jonah 2:9, which says that “Salvation belongs to the Lord,” we must also take our responsibility to initiate Evangelism and Discipleship as a way of life. We must take serious Paul's conclusion in Romans 10:14:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

We cannot fail in this endever because God is the resource. The only way to fail in evangelism/disciplemaking is to fail to evangelize/disciple. The church produces disciples not widgets. And god uses means such as pastors and leaders and ordinary people to engage in gospeling the word into the lives of people who will reproduce themselves in others. (Ephesians 4:15-16). Evangelism and Disciplemaking is a lifestyle that all Christians must develop as a way of life.

5)How do you find good staff and or good leaders?

The best way is to raise them up within the congregation. You have to look for men who have persevered in trials, exhibited patience with people, shown a passion for God and his glory, been commited to the centrality of the Gospel, loved proclaiming God's word, deep convictions about their biblical theology, and involved in ministry to people, and faithful in what is asked to do. They need to be observed as mature disciples that meeting the character traits of an of an elder (1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9). I look for people who are already feeding God’s sheep God’s word (Jn. 21:15-17), guiding the sheep (1 Tim. 4:16; 1 Pet. 5:3, Heb. 13:7), and protecting the sheep from attackers (Acts 20:27-29; 2 Tim. 4:3-4; Tit. 1:9), while protecting both themselves and the church through the wisdom (Prov. 11:14; 24:6).

If you must go outside the local church where you serve, then the best way would be to develop a disciplemaking relationship with a person that you want on your team first in order to see if he is faithful in what you ask him to do. Luke 22:26. If you call staff members from outside the church, you want to see that they are evaluated based on character and then giftedness in that order.

You must make sure that your staff affirm (or are not contrary or in aggressive conflict with) your essential beliefs and philosophy of ministry. If there is not some purity at the top leadership level of the church in theology and philosophy of ministry, the church will experience unneeded conflict and separation. The higher the position in ministry leadership in the church that a person holds, the higher standards of theological and philosophical unity is required. This doesn't mean that you have to be uniformed in everything, but that the top leaders must willing to walk with each other in a single direction as they continue to grow in their relationship with God through Christ. I would say that there needs to be a humble orthodoxy that creates a warmth in the leadership community of the church.

6)What do you find that brings you most Joy in your Pastor-ship?

After knowing Christ it is People. Being with people and teaching people and discipling people and multiplying people or disciples of Christ. If people who you are to disciple don't bring you joy then get out of the pastorate. (John 13:34-35)

7)Any finale thoughts you would like to add?

A pastor must be a disciple himself or he will not reproduce himself in others through Christ. Thus he must protect his time alone with God and with his family. In doing this we will watch over his life and doctrine (2 Tim. 4:16).

Evangelism is necessary but multiplication through disciplemaking is the command in Matthew 28:19-20. Pastors are to to work of an evangelist in context of making and multiplying disciples. (2 Timothy 2:1-2)

Don't be driven by a single ministry model or fad (whether it is purpose driven, emergent driven, social driven, method driven, program driven, relationship driven, etc), but keep displaying the greatness, goodness, and supremacy of God in your proclamation of the Gospel through exposition of Scripture. Always be willing to change your methods and adapt your philosophy of ministry in order to obey the commands of Scripture in the specific context of your ministry

Remember that God is the author of Salvation and not man. So ministry is not about blasting off the right technique(s), but being faithful to aggressively proclaim the Gospel through the God given means of His Word. Don't buy into the pragmatism that is destroying much of American Christianity today. (Hebrews 12:2). Have faith that God is working in his creation and in the men and women you are evangelizing and discipling.

What is your church measuring? What does that say about your mission?

2011-07-07T20:41:00.000-04:00

I have always said that what you measure drives your behavior. I have found more conformation fo this in an article from Vanguard Church by Bob Robinson.

He says:

What is your church measuring? What does that say about your mission?: "

Edgar Schein, Professor of Management at MIT, says that whatever an organization measures becomes its de facto culture.

Churches and ministry organizations write mission statements that are great, but they are only wishful thinking if they have put in place mechanisms to measure their success that are contrary to those lofty mission statements.

For instance,a random mission statement I grabbed from a church on the internet reads,

“Our church seeks to make disciples for our Lord Jesus Christ through Christ-centered worship, Bible-centered spiritual growth, and evangelistic service.”

Okay. That sounds pretty good to me.

How do you measure that?

Here is most pastors’ default measuring tool: Sunday Morning Attendance.

However, if attendance is our primary measuring tool, our mission should actually be changed to this:

“Our church seeks to get as many people to commit to attending on Sunday mornings as possible.”

Period.

Is that a good mission statement? How does that align with God’s mission in the world?

As I’ve said before, The mission God has sent us on is not to attract people into the church. No, the goal is to send people into the culture as incarnational “little versions of Jesus” invading every institution and sphere as God’s instrument for bringing all things under the Lordship of Christ and His Kingdom.

How do you measure that?

A church as a Teaching Hospital

2011-07-07T15:08:00.000-04:00

Here is a great post on how we should view a church if we are going to multiply or plant other churches called: Planting a Church? Plant a Teaching Hospital by Brandon Cox. See if this kind of multiplication resonates with you.

Brandon Cox writes:

That phrase – “teaching hospital” – jumped out at me during a recent conversation with Geoff Surratt, Pastor of Church Planting at Saddleback Church. As we discussed the vision of Grace Hills Church over lunch, Geoff helped me put words to the burden I kept feeling to plant more than a church – to plant a multiplying movement of reproducing churches.

I believe in church planting. I believe that the local church is supposed to multiply itself, birthing daughter churches, and that this is not only biblically mandated, but a highly practical way to expand the kingdom of God in our culture. America has seen well over 1,000 new megachurches spring up the last decade, and our actual transforming impact upon America is often difficult to spot. We need more churches. Why?

People are going to hell without Jesus, and the percentage of our population without a relationship with Christ is on the increase.

Many existing churches are dying, and birthing new babies is usually easier than raising the dead.

God has ordained the local church as His primary vehicle of spiritual and social change in the world.

New churches reach more people, faster. It takes 89 members of an established church (10 years or older) to baptize one new believer in a year. It takes only three members of a new church (5 years or younger) to do the same.

The glory of God has yet to be extended to every people group, and almost no community in America can accurately be described as reached.

God is calling church planters, and blessing church planting. We need to go where God is working.

God didn’t save me so that I could be saved and go straight to heaven. He wants me to reproduce by telling others about Jesus and making disciples. Churches need to do the same. God has promised that “the gates of hell will not prevail against the church” but this great promise wasn’t intended to apply to every single local church or else the seven churches of Asia would still be thriving today. But because churches have life cycles (like people, organizations, and everything else on planet earth), we need more than a single church plant and more than a temporary church planting movement. We need a continuous flow of new churches coming into the world if we will ever catch up with the population and culture around us.

So instead of planting a church, we’re planting a teaching hospital called Grace Hills Church. It will be a laboratory where leaders will learn what works and what doesn’t in leadership. And it will be a launching pad for other teaching hospitals throughout our region. How will that look? To some degree, time will tell. But here are some things we’re pretty intent on seeing…

A Teaching Hospital Is An Atmosphere for Learning
Learning requires listening, experimenting, researching, collaboration, trial and error. Learning requires that we don’t know it all. Whenever a church “masters” its methodology and begins to teach others, it runs the risk of failing to continue to grow and adapt. We want to remain fluid and flexible so that we can be learning continually.

A Teaching Hospital Is Patient With Beginners
We aren’t going to wait until people look “churchy” to re-invest people into the mission of God in the world. Instead we will be patient, realizing that everyone is at a different place of growth, but all are called to serve. Teaching hospitals have to have some experts, but if they only recruit experts, they’re already in danger of extinction.

A Teaching Hospital Allows Hands-on, In-the-trenches Practice
I’ve been in hospital rooms enough to hear patients answer this question: Would you be open to students being involved in your surgical procedure? Most people answer “yes” but if you allow it, the question can really bother you. A student? Giving me an IV? Taking a knife to me? But the Scriptures are clear that you don’t become an expert by hearing but by doing.

As we recruit interns, staff members, and volunteer leaders, we will seek to empower and free those individuals to make decisions and serve hands-on.

A Teaching Hospital Never Loses Sight of the Primary Goal – Healing People
Though we are adamant that we will be a reproducing church, we will keep the emphasis on life transformation. If we aren’t seeing lives changed, we don’t really want to reproduce ourselves. In other words, in a teaching hospital, patient care can’t be compromised under the guise of an educational opportunity. While we teach, while we mentor, and while we reproduce ourselves, the bigger goal remains to see lives transformed and disciples produced. If we’re healthy, reproduction shouldn’t be a problem.

I’m not an expert on church planting, but I plan on becoming one. Not doing so isn’t an option. The vision of filling northwest Arkansas with the glory of God and extending the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth is far too compelling to allow us to settle.

Every church should be involved in a movement of church multiplication. Every church needs to be a teaching hospital for the sake of the healing of the nations. Get involved. Not sure where to start? Why not right here, right now?

Theological Conversations

2011-05-28T15:32:00.000-04:00

On May 1, respected author and speaker John Piper sat down with Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church. Piper quizzed Warren on the doctrine surrounding his book, “Purpose Driven Life.” Piper presents Warren with direct and relevant questions about his influences, why he wrote the book, and how he defends the declarations he makes. Watch as Piper and Pastor Rick discuss topics such as the glory of God, whether negative life circumstances are caused by God, and more. This informative and inspiring interview gives deeper insight in to the author and pastor.http://blog.pastors.com/piperinterview/http://bit.ly/jsZBxf

Four reasons you may be missing deadlines and how to fix these problems | Unclutterer

2011-05-11T12:00:00.000-04:00

Here is a good article on managing yourself and getting out from the clutter that we all deal with.

Four reasons you may be missing deadlines and how to fix these problems | Unclutterer

Neil J. Young: Money, God and Greed: The Tea Party and Capitalism

2011-05-10T14:27:00.000-04:00

A review of a Book that I have started to read and am enjoying on how and why Biblical Christian Theology influences economic philosophy toward Capitalism:

Neil J. Young: Money, God and Greed: The Tea Party and Capitalism

Preaching Without a Net: Delivering Sermons without Notes by Bruce Salmon -SermonCentral.com

2011-05-10T14:25:00.000-04:00

Here is a great illustraton of a pastor who is working out how to preach without notes:

Preaching Without a Net: Delivering Sermons without Notes by Bruce Salmon -SermonCentral.com

The hardest part of learning extemporaneous preaching or preaching without notes is doing it the first time.

Interview with David Allen

2011-05-09T13:06:00.000-04:00

David Allen talks about the importance of getting stuff off your mind in this interview with Mike Sullivan of M.O.

Mike: Let me ask you this. How important is it to follow this system exactly as you’ve outlined? I read the book a few years ago. I’ve implemented the system. I’m probably not using it to its fullest. What’s your perspective on that?

David: Well, you either want nothing on your mind or you want to keep stuff on your mind. If you want nothing on your mind, you absolutely must rigorously download everything that is potentially meaningful, decide the outcome and action steps embedded in those, and park those in some place you trust you’re going to look at, at the right time.

http://youtu.be/6BRL25SN62I

SBC Fault Lines

2011-05-07T19:00:00.000-04:00

This is one of the first articles where a "win-win" or an "in-Christ" option in settleing "fault lines" within the SBC.

I have been reading about cooperation and the pursuit of truth for a long time, and it usually seems that people talk past each other instead of with each other realizing that while they may disagree on secondary or tertiary doctrines, we don't need to elevate them to essential doctrines that would cause us to separate over everything. Nathan Fin wrote a great article on how a church can cooperate:

With Whom Can My Church Cooperate?

In the Article Dr. Steve Lemke wrote that the SBC landscape includes several points of contention that he has helpfully offered an "in-Christ" solution to instead of advocating an "in-Adam" solution.

Baptist Press - SBC DISCUSSION: Will SBC 'fault lines' lead to division or unity? - News with a Christian Perspective

Is God happy that OBL is dead?

2011-05-06T19:12:00.000-04:00

Good article in looking this from both sides - yes and no:
Is God Glad Osama Bin Laden's Dead?

Bell’s Hell and the Destiny of Those Who’ve Never Heard of Jesus

2011-04-12T20:30:00.000-04:00

Bell’s Hell and the Destiny of Those Who’ve Never Heard of Jesus: "
by Sam Storms @ ParchmentandPen.com

In a recent interview with Sally Quinn of The Washington Post, Rob Bell again muddied the waters over the question of the fate of those who’ve never heard about Jesus. In doing so he also greatly misrepresented the evangelical answer to this question. Here are his words:

“If, billions and billions and billions of people, God is going to torture them in hell forever – people who never heard about Jesus are going to suffer in eternal agony because they didn’t believe in the Jesus they never heard of – then at that point we will have far bigger problems than a book from a pastor from Grand Rapids.”

Bell is responding to evangelicals who purportedly believe that people “are going to suffer in eternal agony because they didn’t believe in the Jesus they never heard of.” Let me say this as clearly as I can: No one will ever suffer for any length of time in hell or anywhere else for not believing in the Jesus they never heard of. Should I say that again or is it enough to ask that you go back and read it again?

Bell and others who make this sort of outrageous claim have evidently failed to look closely at Romans 1:18ff. Here we read that the wrath of God revealed from heaven is grounded in the persistent repudiation by mankind of the revelation God has made of himself in the created order. In other words, there is a reason for God’s wrath. It is not capricious. God’s wrath has been deliberately and persistently provoked by man’s willful rejection of God as he has revealed himself.

The revelation is both from God and about God. Therefore, in this case if the pupil does not learn it is not because the teacher did not teach. The phrase “evident to them” (v. 19, NASB), is better rendered either in or among them, probably the latter; i.e., God has made himself known among people (and thus, in a manner of speaking, to them, in their minds and hearts) in his works of creation and providence.

Observe Paul’s paradoxical language in v. 20: he refers to God’s invisible attributes (1 Tim. 1:17) as clearly seen (oxymoron). Paul’s point is that the invisible is made visible via creation or nature. Divine wisdom, power, eternity and goodness, for example, are not in themselves visible, but their reality is undeniably affirmed and apprehended by the effects they produce in nature. That there is a God, supreme, eternal, infinite in power, personal, wise, independent, worthy of glory and gratitude, is clearly evident in the creation.

How are these truths about God made known and where may we see them? Paul’s answer is, “through what has been made” (v. 20). God has left the indelible mark of his fingerprints all across the vast face of the universe.

Theologian Robert Dabney put it this way: “They who have no Bible may still look up to the moon walking in brightness and the stars watching in obedient order; they may see in the joyous sunbeams the smile of God, and in the fruitful shower the manifestation of his bounty; they hear the rending thunder utter his wrath, and the jubilee of the birds sing his praise; the green hills are swelled with his goodness; the trees of the wood rejoice before him with every quiver of their foliage in the summer air.” Herman Bavinck put it succinctly in declaring that “there is not an atom of the universe in which God’s power and divinity are not revealed.”

Paul’s point here in Romans 1 is that this revelation is sufficiently clear and inescapable that it renders all without excuse (see Rom. 1:20). Consequently, there is no such thing as “an innocent native in Africa” any more than there is “an innocent pagan in America.”

What does Paul mean when he says that all humanity is without excuse? “The excuse that is banished,” notes R. C. Sproul, “the excuse every pagan hopes in vain to use, the excuse that is exploded by God’s self-revelation in nature is the pretended, vacuous, dishonest appeal to ignorance. No one will be able to approach the judgment seat of God justly pleading, ‘If only I had known you existed, I would surely have served you.’ That excuse is annihilated. No one can lightly claim ‘insufficient’ evidence for not believing in God” (Classical Apologetics, 46).

The problem is not a lack of evidence. The problem is the innate, natural, moral antipathy of mankind to God. The problem is not that the evidence is not open to mankind. The problem is that mankind is not open to the evidence.

Note well Paul’s words: “For even though they knew God” (v. 21a). Again, “that which is known about God is evident within them” (not hidden, obscure, uncertain, but disclosed, clear, and inescapable). There is no such thing as an honest atheist! All people know God. There is a distinction, of course, between, on the one hand, a cognitive apprehension of God, i.e., knowing that there is a God and that he is worthy of obedience, worship, gratitude, and, on the other, a saving or redemptive knowledge of God. All people experience the former whereas only the redeemed experience the latter. Thus the problem, again, “is not a failure to honor what was not known, but a refusal to honor what was clearly known” (Sproul, 51).

Paul believed the unbeliever’s knowledge of God was “real” though not “saving”. They have more than an “awareness” of God. They know both that he exists and that he is of a certain moral character and that they themselves are accountable to him. In other words, their knowledge of God brings “subjective” understanding, but not “saving” understanding. The God they truly and “really” know, they hate and refuse to honor. Their response, however, is not borne of ignorance but of willful rebellion and self-centered sinfulness.

But Paul is equally clear that all persistently suppress this knowledge (see vv. 21-32). He does not say they began in darkness and futility and are slowly but surely groping their way toward the light. Rather, they began with the clear, inescapable light of the knowledge of God and regressed into darkness. More on this below.

The reference to them as “futile” and “fools” (vv. 21-22) does not mean all pagans are stupid. It is not man’s intelligence that is in view but his disposition. The problem with the unsaved isn’t that he can’t think with his head. The problem is that he refuses to believe with his heart. The unsaved man is a fool not because he is of questionable intelligence. He is a fool because of his immoral refusal to acknowledge and bow to what he knows is true.

What is the response of the human heart to this revelatory activity of God? Paul describes it in vv. 21-23. What he has in mind involves a distortion or deliberate mutation when one substitutes something artificial or counterfeit for that which is genuine. Clearly, then, when man rejects God he does not cease to be religious. Indeed, he becomes religious in order to reject God. He substitutes for God a deity of his own making, often himself.

This leads to three important conclusions.

First, the revelation of God in creation and conscience is sufficient to render all men without excuse, sufficient to lead to their condemnation if they repudiate it, but not sufficient to save. No one will be saved solely because of their acknowledgment of God in nature, but many will be lost because of their refusal of him as revealed there. In other words, general revelation lacks redemptive content. It is epistemically adequate but soteriologically inadequate. It makes known that there is a God who punishes sin but not that he pardons it.

Second, and please note this well, the so-called heathen are not condemned for rejecting Jesus, about whom they have heard nothing, but for rejecting the Father, about whom they have heard and seen much. Whatever about God is included in Paul’s words, “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Rom. 1:20), the knowledge of such is universal and inescapable and renders all mankind without an excuse for their unbelief, without an excuse for their failure to honor God, without an excuse for their refusal to thank God, and without an excuse for turning from the one true God to the worship of idols.

Third, general revelation is the essential prerequisite to special revelation. And special revelation is that which redemptively supplements and interprets general revelation. Therefore, if by God’s gracious and sovereign enablement and enlightenment, any unbeliever responds positively to the revelation of God in nature (and conscience), God will take the necessary steps to reach him or her with the good news of Christ whereby they may be saved.

What we have seen from this brief look at Romans 1 is that God has made his existence and attributes known to all mankind in every age: people of every religion in every nation on earth. These people may never hear the name of Jesus. They may never hear the gospel proclaimed. They may never hear of the cross or the resurrection. They may never hold in their hands a Bible in their own language. But they are totally and justly and righteously “without excuse” before God for their failure to honor him as God and their subsequent idolatrous turn to created things as a substitute for the Creator.

They will not be judged for their rejection of Jesus, of whom they have heard nothing. For Rob Bell or anyone else to suggest that we believe people will suffer eternally in hell for not believing in a Jesus of whom they know nothing is a distortion of what we affirm, and worse still is a distortion of what Paul clearly taught. People will be held accountable and judged on the basis of the revelation that God has made of himself to them. And this revelation is unmistakable, unavoidable, and sufficiently pervasive and clear that the failure to respond as well as the turn to idolatry renders them “without excuse.” They will be righteously judged for rejecting the Father, not for rejecting the Son.
"

The Promise and Peril of Being ‘Gospel-Centered’ – A Conversation with Mitch Chase

2011-04-11T18:07:00.000-04:00

The Promise and Peril of Being ‘Gospel-Centered’ – A Conversation with Mitch Chase

Helping understanding Eschatological Viewpoints

2011-04-11T17:42:00.000-04:00

The Major Views of Eschatology on Revelation 20:1-8

A Brief Intro to The Four Views of the End Times

Millennial Views Chart

Synopsis of end times

Articles on pre-, a-, and post- millennialism, from a postmillennial perspective

Eschatology Q & A: What Are the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Different Millennial Views - amillennial perspective

An Open Letter to Evangelicals and Other Interested Parties: The People of God, the Land of Israel, and the Impartiality of the Gospel

What is Theology?

2011-04-09T16:20:00.000-04:00

http://youtu.be/7Lb7WWNCBpE

Rob Bell is no C.S. Lewis

2011-04-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Rob Bell no C.S. Lewis from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

G.O.S.P.E.L.

2011-04-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

G.O.S.P.E.L. from Humble Beast Records on Vimeo.
Presented by our good friends at www.Dare2Share.org.
You can purchase/download at https://www.dare2share.org/store/content/life-6-words-gospel-0

Download Propaganda's New Album
"Art Ambidextrous" for FREE at
http://humblebeast.com/downloads/

Urgent Recommendation: "Jesus: The Only Way to God" Audio Book

2011-03-24T18:43:00.000-04:00

Description: If the evangelical church at large was ever too confrontational in its evangelism, those days are gone. In our shrinking, pluralistic world, the belief that Jesus is the only way of salvation is increasingly called arrogant and even hateful. In the face of this criticism, many shrink back from affirming the global necessity of knowing and believing in Jesus. In Jesus, the Only Way to God, John Piper offers a timely plea for the evangelical church to consider what is at stake in surrendering the unique, universal place of Jesus in salvation.

Free Audio Book (Till 3/31/2011)

I am listening to this book right now and it is a great one. Even thought it seems to be simple it is very profound and deep. This book is also timely with the advent of Rob Bells denial of eternal hell in his book "Love wins." Here you will find good exegesis and theology defending the orthodox view of Salvation and eternal hell. It will warm your hear with joy and give you some fuel to proclaim the Gospel with your universalist friends.

One readers summary:
“This book deals with one basic question... is Jesus the only way to salvation? Though this is a simple question it has many implications and the question itself can be broken up into three questions.

1) Will anyone experience eternal, conscience, torment under God’s wrath.

Is there such a thing as Hell? Is eternal punishment at stake in the evangelization of the world? Is Jesus the only way to escape from an eternal conscience torment of Hell? Will anyone be eternally cut off from Christ and experience eternal, conscience torment under the wrath of God?

This first question has to address such issues as Universalism and Annihilationism.

2.) Is the work of Christ necessary for salvation or are there other basis?

This deals with the issue of whether all religions are a journey to God and there is not just one way. It even deals with a Wider-Mercy and Inclusivism type view that would say a Buddist is saved by Jesus even though they may never hear His name or gospel.

3) Is conscience faith in Christ necessary for salvation?
A negative response to any of these questions diminishes mission urgency.

In summation John Piper argues that since there is a eternal Hell (ch 2) and the death and resurrection of Christ are essential for rescue from Hell (ch 3) and people need to hear this good news and believe it in order to be rescued (ch 4-7) and none are saved by any other means than hearing and believing in Jesus, then we should obey the Great Commission and spread the good news despite it being rejected and unpopular in our culture.

I'd recommend this book to anyone struggling with these basic, essential Christian truths, or someone who just needs a reminder and encouragement.

Application of an Optical Illusion

2011-03-23T12:02:00.000-04:00

Over at Calvinistic Cartoons that put this up and asked for a way to apply this optical illusion (Believe it or not, even though it appears to be wobbly every line is perfectly parallel) to a bible study or to a theological issue. I want to know the same thing. How would you use this to teach a theological lesson or begin a Bible study?

Atonement Articles

2011-03-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some articles to read that I promised I would give to my Theology Class.

The Nature of the Atonement
Why And For Whom Did Christ Die?
by Phil Johnson

The Love of God and the Intent of the Atonement
by D. A. Carson,
research professor of New Testament at
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.

Theories of the Atonement by Leon Moris

The Doctrine of Atonement by John G. Reisinger
The Doctrine of Atonement - Part 1
The Doctrine of Atonement - Part 2
The Doctrine of Atonement - Part 3
Limited Atonement - An Editorial

OT Believers and their relationship with the Holy Spirit

2011-03-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here are the articles about OT Believers and their relationship with the Holy Spirit that I promised to give you. The first article by Dr. Jim Hamilton is the best in my opinion.

Were OT Beleivers Indwelt by the Holy Spirit
by Dr. Jim Hamilton.

His Conclusion
Were old covenant believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit? No. They did not need to be. God dwelt in the temple. He was thereby with them. How did old covenant believers become and remain faithful? They became faithful by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, which in the OT is described more as ‘circumcision of the heart’ (cf. Jer. 9:25) than as ‘new birth from above’ (cf. John 3:3). They remained faithful not by the Spirit dwelling in them, but by the Spirit dwelling in the temple (Ps. 73:17), where they longed to be (Ps. 116:18–19). Further, the Spirit was active through Israel’s prophets (1 Pet. 1:11). As the prophets proclaimed God’s word, the Spirit instructed and admonished God’s people (Neh. 9:20, 30). Under the old covenant, the Spirit gave life and was with the people as he dwelt in the temple. Under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life and dwells in God’s people; they are his temple

The Old Testament Ministry of the Holy Spirit
Dr. Tim White
Here is a guy who graduated from RTS and gives 3 views of this issue. He concludes He concludes: "I agree with Dr. Stallard’s conclusion: In light of this and the preceding arguments, it seems best to reject the belief that the Holy Spirit indwelt Old Testament believers ."

The Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments

by Reformed answers at Third Millennium Ministries

This is the classic Covenantal view that the Holy Spirit did permanently indwell OT Believers.

Old Testament Believers and New Testament Christians
A comparison of the spiritual condition of the Old Testament believers and New Testament Christians

by James A. Fowler

This guy is neither Covenant Theologian or a Dispensational theologian, but claims to have a Christ-Centered Hermeneutic. But I have questions about his honest scholarship. I have not read him yet

How do Personal Beings Have Free Will?

2011-03-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

The following chart is from Robert J. Dunzweiler which seems to be balanced and beneficial in providing a working definition of "free will."

Love Wins: A Conversation on Rob Bell’s New Book

2011-03-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here is a very important conversation that needs to take place

Love Wins: A Conversation on Rob Bell’s New Book

Wayne Grudem Discipleship Trailer

2011-03-16T20:06:00.000-04:00

What is Discipleship Trailer (Wayne Grudem) Video

MSNBC Host Makes Rob Bell Squirm: "You're Amending The Gospel...

2011-03-16T12:15:00.000-04:00

Oh, how good it is to see that that those who were decrying Justin Taylor for His criticism did not really understand the issue at all. You don't have to read everything to make a comment and discern wether a writer is orthodox in his theology or not. One can, should, and do make educated judgments based on previous experience, understandings, evidences. Those that complained about Taylor and Piper need to become much more discerning rather than trying to sound intelligent.

Justin Taylor Commented on this video:

Martin Bashir is a reporter impatient with evasive answers. He even quotes from Kevin DeYoung’s review and asks Rob Bell to respond. Bashir gives his own take on Bell’s book: “You’re creating a Christian message that’s warm, kind, and popular for contemporary culture. . . . What you’ve done is you’re amending the gospel, the Christian message, so that it’s palatable to contemporary people who find, for example, the idea of hell and heaven very difficult to stomach. So here comes Rob Bell, he’s made a Christian gospel for you, and it’s perfectly palatable, it’s much easier to swallow. That’s what you’ve done, haven’t you?”

MSNBC Host Makes Rob Bell Squirm: Your Amending the Gospel...

So the question has been raging in the blog-sphere: Is Rob Bell a universalist?

The Sola sisters say:

Well, yes and no. And by that I mean, "Yes," Rob Bell is a Universalist, but that "No," he wouldn't call himself that because what he really believes in is a slyer, more "Christianized" version of Universalism called "Universal Reconciliation."

I believe that is a great summary and it is good to use the term "universal reconciliation" to describe his position.

Lisa Miller interviews Rob Bell. Rob Bell just cannot say anything straight out. It shows how deceptive He is.

With Respect to Rob Bell I would suggest listening to Watch out for those who lead you away from the truth

Autofocus System www.MarkForster.net

2011-03-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

Here is an alternative/complement to the GTD system of self managment:

watch the video: Autofocus System Mark Forster

Treasuring Christ

Good Conversation on Sermon Preparation

The Law of Christ

Chrous vs. Stanza - Difference between C.S. Lewis and Rob Bell

John Frame - Five Views of Apologetics (Part 1 of 6)

Good Resources on Biblical Worship

How to Think on Your Feet

The Formula Problem

How to Evaluate a Church by Jeff Keeney

Additional Resources:IX Marks of Healthy Church

Gospel Polemics, Part 1 – The Gospel Coalition Blog

Trouble in Your Soul

Part of Every Curriculum

News Conference on Changing the Name of the Southern Baptist Convention

Christianity Explored - Interview with Rico Tice

Defining an Evangelical!

Trellis & Vine Talk 1 – not about small groups

An honest look at the Prusit of Joy

Explaining Islam in a minute - COL. West

The Real Scandle of Christian Mind

Mark Dever

God's Ultimate Motivation

God's Will

Speaking the Word Freely

New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Series by Michael Vlach

Make eBulletins for your Church

"Memorize Scripture" John Piper Sermon Jam

New Covenant Theology Distinctives by Gary Long, www.SoloChristo.com

The Providence of God: Ten-Part Course from John Piper

Universalism and the Reality of Eternal Punishment

Train the Untrained to Reach the Unreached

The Ultimate Aim of All Christian Preaching

Use Memverse and Memorize the Scripture

The Priority of the Word of God in Worship

The Cost of Discipleship

A Good Way To Take Sermon Notes

Trellis and The Vine WORKSHOP in Norco, CANORCO

A Charismatic is What?

Wesleyan Sermons » With or Without Notes

Quote; On being an 'evangelical'

Perspectives on the Sabbath

Why Self-esteme does not work...

I always believed that learning to fail well is a key to living a life of trust in God. This article is a great example when we think that all of life should be easy and successful in our eyes.

Failure Is Not an Option

Whatsoever Does Not Please

Searching Scripture in Vain

Truth the Hard Way

Texas A&M Football 2011 Promo - Prepare to Stand

Theology of different Christian groups

The Various Branches of New Covenant Theology

Serving to Master Two? — Historical Background and the Bible

Build Your Own Productivity Style by Remixing the Best [Productivity]

Francis Chan’s Erasing Hell: a response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins - Blog - Eternal Perspective Ministries

Grace in the Triad: NCT ThinkTank 2011 Conference Videos

Gospel Centric Quote of the Day

On what this generation is looking for that has been missing in church:

What the church needs to be reminded of today:

Obama, Pentagon certify DADT repeal

How to Study the Bible

David Platt & John Piper SBC 2011 Annual Meeting

Christ Has Conquered All - Gospel Centered Worship

Good Biblical dialogue

Questions from a Ministry Student i received

What is your church measuring? What does that say about your mission?

A church as a Teaching Hospital

Theological Conversations

Four reasons you may be missing deadlines and how to fix these problems | Unclutterer

Neil J. Young: Money, God and Greed: The Tea Party and Capitalism

Preaching Without a Net: Delivering Sermons without Notes by Bruce Salmon -SermonCentral.com

Interview with David Allen

SBC Fault Lines

With Whom Can My Church Cooperate?

Is God happy that OBL is dead?

Bell’s Hell and the Destiny of Those Who’ve Never Heard of Jesus

The Promise and Peril of Being ‘Gospel-Centered’ – A Conversation with Mitch Chase

Helping understanding Eschatological Viewpoints

Eschatology Q & A: What Are the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Different Millennial Views - amillennial perspective

What is Theology?

Rob Bell is no C.S. Lewis

G.O.S.P.E.L.

Additional Resources:
IX Marks of Healthy Church