For the Gospel

For those of you who received my e-mail I appreciate you taking the time to come and read my thoughts. For those of you who did not receive my e-mail I would greatly appreciate and you would greatly benefit from listening to Ed Stetzer’s message Toward a Missional Convention. This was delivered at the Baptist Identity II Conference for those of you listening to the other messages. If you want to know more about Ed Stetzer I would recommend going to his blog (click here). Above all listen to Ed Stetzer’s message and I have listed suggestions of similar messages at the end of this post.

If you want to know my thoughts here, they are. While taking church history over the past two semesters and talking to others one of the things that has really stood out. Has been how the church has, during different periods in time, banded together to stand for Truth and combat error. The most obvious is when the Reformers, who disagreed on numerous aspects of theology, banded together to combat the works-based message of the Catholic Church. Even before that, the Nicene Creed and many other creeds served to affirm truth and refute error. In recent times, one can look to the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, where numerous Protestants across a wide range of denominations gathered to defend the validity of Scripture itself. While we may look to these as triumphs in church history I have began to see them as our most visible failures. The Reformation fell short of a true reform due to the Reformers inability to come to a consensus on various issues, and they inevitably committed some of the same atrocities that the Catholic Church committed, they just did so with a more Biblical Soteriology. While they gained an initial triumph, they were unable to bring about complete reform. In early Puritan America, religious freedom quickly became a freedom to practice Puritanism; however, thanks to Baptist ministers such as Roger Williams and John Clarke, who was arrested and whipped for preaching in a home, this is not still the case.

Do not miss understand me I am not one to shy away from controversy, just look at my previous posts or ask for my honest opinion on something, but I think over the past year I have grown frustrated with the lack of progress I see coming out of controversy (Ironically that statement may be controversial.). If you wanted me to, I could list off every “theological heritage” which I feel apart and if you want to challenge the Biblical validity of any of my views, I would quickly respond. However, I think I have grown to the point now where I realize that that is not the point. Perpetual theological debate is not the aim of theology, the glory of God is, and I do not think we glorify God when we ignore God’s commands to engage the culture so that we can retreat from culture and fight amongst ourselves. There are aspects of theology that we must contend for, others that we can agree to disagree on, and there are culturally contrived convictions that we must completely rid ourselves of. But are we willing to do that for the Gospel?

For more sermons addressing this topic, I would recommend:
The Supremacy of Christ and the Church in a Postmodern World by Mark Driscoll
The Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel in a Postmodern World by Tim Keller

2007-02-20 The Brief

Anglicanism and Catholicism to Reunite?

Here is the interesting story from The Times on the subject.

A Book to Watch

After the success of Richard Dawkins’ book, The God Delusion, Victor J. Stenger’s provocatively titled God: The Failed Hypothesis How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist by is sure to make waves.

Question of the Day: Is Morality Nonsense?

The Puritans thought so.[1] “Civility is not purity, a man may be clothed with moral virtues — justice, prudence, temperance — and yet go to hell. If we want to be pure in heart, then we must not rest in outward purity.[2]” “Civility does but wash a man, grace changes him. . . . Civility is but strewing flowers on a dead corpse. A man may be wonderfully moralized, yet but a tame devil.[3]” “Nor indeed do I know of anything which doth more threaten the undermining of true Christianity . . . than the putting of moral virtues into legal dress.[4]”What do you think?

[1] I do acknowledge that there is a slight discrepancy between what the Puritans said and what they did, but their opinion on this subject stands nevertheless.
[2] Watson, Thomas. The Beatitudes
[3] Ibid.
[3] Willard, Samuel. Morality Not to Be Relied on for Life

2007-02-08 The Brief

Jesus in the Morning, Voodoo in the Evening
This is a short informatory article on the blending of Christianity or Islam with voodoo in Africa. This paradox is one that I have witnessed during oversees travel.

Islam and the West
This lengthy article looks at the political and ideological interaction between the West, the Middle East, Islam, and Christianity. What I found particularly interesting has little to do with the article. In the 6th paragraph the writer makes this comment: “Yet, given the current European propensity for viewing reason as a Christian legacy and themselves as sole heirs to the Enlightenment, it ill befits Europe's residents to cast reason aside whenever their relationship with Islam and Muslims is at issue.” Most American “Christians” view Europe as a secularized and pagan society, but flowing out of the natural religion of liberal theology Europe, or at least this writer, views itself in line with a “Christian” tradition. While America lies in the Fundamentalist tradition, Europe lies in the Liberal tradition. This provides a vivid example that should serve as a word of caution toward over contextualization. While many would consider the rise of natural theology and emphasis on reason as a secular development, it was not. At its heart, it was a religious development. With the rise of modernity individuals sought to develop a “Christian” theology that had meaning and relevance within this newly emerging cultural context and what resulted was distinctly not Christian, namely philosophical naturalism. I frequently mention contextualization and this serves to illustrate the immanent danger that faces us all.

2007-02-06 The Brief

Inspired by Justin Sok and the Foreign Policy Passport I have decided to do a bi-weekly brief to share interesting/pertinent articles that I read online. I hope this proves worthwhile and educational.

A Calvinist Faces Death
David Van Biema, of Time Magazine, interviews Dr. Albert Mohler concerning his recent health crisis. This article is brief and encouraging, especially for those who have or are going through similar circumstances. Although in our Biblically illiterate culture the title did surprise me.

Has Globalization Passed Its Peak?
Foreign Affairs examines the future global economic landscape, as it pertains to globalization and free trade, in light of rising economic nationalism. This is important because globalization has as much to do with the free trade of commodities as it does with the free exchange of information and ideas; its ramifications are both economical and ideological.

The Power of Faith
Der Spiegel has a series of interesting and thought provoking articles on religion; I appreciate reading about religion from a different perspective. The Atlas of the World’s Great Religions is especially interesting