Interesting quote

I came across this quote from an entry on Dave Black's blog on Monday, June 29th. It is a quote from the autobiography of George Muller, a Christian from the 1800's who cared for some 10,000 orphans in his lifetime and was one of the founders of the Open Brethren movement of the Plymouth Brethren.

The renting of pews is also a snare to the servant of God. Fear of offending those who pay his salary has kept many ministers from preaching the uncompromising Word of God.

For these reasons, I told the brethren that at the end of October, 1830, I would give up my regular salary. After I had given my reasons for doing so, I read Philippians 4. If the saints wanted to give something toward my support by voluntary gifts, I had no objection to receiving it either in money or provisions....

My wife and I had the grace to take the Lord's commandment literally, "Sell that ye have, and give alms." We never regretted taking that step. God blessed us abundantly as He taught us to trust in Him alone. When we were down to our last few shillings, we told Him about our needs and depended on Him to provide. He never failed us.

This is not some crackpot but a man who by word and deed showed a deep and abiding love of Christ. What a powerful testimony of faith to freely preach what we have freely received!

I put the autobiography of George Muller in my cart at Amazon, I am almost at enough reward points to get another gift card.

Who says denominations are unbiblical and irrelevant?

The Southern Baptist Convention recently passed The Great Commission Task Force resolution. The goal is to appoint a committee to look at how to more effectively carry out the Great Commission. But that was not the only resolution put forth. Check out these other resolutions presented at the 2009 Southern Baptist Convention (none of these passed):

-- William Blosch, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Thomasville, Ga. requested that pictures of all individuals running for an SBC office be made available to messengers during the annual meeting.

-- that SBC entities avoid "the use of secular music in their promotional materials," submitted by Jeff Moats, pastor, Logan Elm Baptist Church in Circleville, Ohio.

-- that messengers "send a strong message of disapproval" to President Barack Obama "for his presidential proclamation ... that proclaims June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Month," submitted by John Rushing, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Columbia, Tenn. (that will get him shaking in his boots, a strong message of disapproval!)

-- that a "special committee be formed" to address claims by "some Bible teachers that the world will come to an end on May 21, 2011," submitted by Ben Brazal, pastor, King of Kings Christian Fellowship in Middletown, N.Y.

-- that the Holman Christian Standard Bible "and any translation that questions the validity of any Scripture" be banned from convention literature and from the annual SBC meeting, submitted by Eric K. Williams, pastor, Long Prairie Missionary Baptist Church, Belle Rive, Ill. (ironic since the HCSB was funded by LifeWay)

-- that LifeWay develop and use "American-made" resources in Vacation Bible School materials each year, submitted by Patrick Fuller, senior pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C.

-- that the SBC president "appoint or work through the appropriate entity" to highlight the 400th anniversary in 2011 of the King James Version of the Bible, submitted by Rick Reeder, a messenger from Southside Baptist Church in Princeton, Ky.

-- that Southern Baptists call "on the Pepsi-Cola Company to remain neutral in the cultural war by refraining from promoting the gay/lesbian lifestyle and agenda" through its advertising and that a boycott be undertaken if the company fails to "halt its current direction," submitted by Joe P. Samples, pastor, Salem Baptist Church, Sneads Ferry, N.C.

-- that the SBC designate a "Sanctity of Life" year in the near future," submitted by Joseph N. Giles Jr., a messenger from James Square Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Va.

and my favorite motion...

-- that the SBC adopt the "United States Christian Flag ... as our banner flag of encouragement," submitted by Harold Michael Phillips, senior pastor, Pleasant View Baptist Church in Port Deposit, Md.

Plus several motions directed at Mark Driscoll.

(from Baptist Press)

With serious business like this being brought forth, I can certainly see the need for denominations. What would the Gospel ministry do without a "banner flag of encouragement"?

(For more info on the U.S. Christian Flag, "America's Great Wave Offering to our Lord" check out their webpage here)

Vatican paper declares John Calvin a Christian

Vatican newspaper praises French Protestant John Calvin

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – The Vatican newspaper Friday praised influential French Protestant John Calvin, a critic of the Roman Catholic Church, hailing him an "extraordinary" figure.

The Osservatore Romano, on the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth, said it recognised the theologian as a Christian who had a major impact on European life.

"Considering the strength of arguments against him, we think it necessary to point out that Calvin is a Christian," the daily paper said of the man who played a major role in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

Well I am sure that is a relief to Calvin! Happy 500th birthday John, you have arrived now!

The real independence day

As Americans we celebrate freedom and set aside this day for special honor. It is self-evident that there is no country on earth, now or in the past, where freedom was more a reality and more cherished than the United States. What rational person would seek to live somewhere else? But July 4, 1776 was but a pale shadow of the day almost 2000 years ago when real freedom was won.

Real freedom for the Christian was not won by sweeping declarations or on the field of battle or the halls of government. Freedom for Christians was won in a moment of seeming defeat as Jesus Christ cried out "it is finished" on the cross. The emblem of our freedom is not men marching to war or fireworks or flags waving in the breeze. The emblems of our freedom are two pieces of blood stained wood and an empty tomb. The freedom He won for His people was not over a king in England but over sin, an enemy that flowery rhetoric and mighty men can never defeat. Our declaration of Independence from sin is not on a parchment in Washington D.C. but is on the pages of every Bible in the world. These are the words of our declaration of Independence:

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Joh 19:30)

Let's celebrate today as Americans our Independence Day and enjoy time with friends and family, but for those of us who call Jesus Christ our Lord let us remember that an even greater freedom was won on our behalf. For us, we are not merely free in this life but for life eternal, made free indeed by Jesus Christ.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom 8:1-4)

Happy Independence Day!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Book Review: The Jesus Paradigm

(Disclosure: I received a free advance copy with the understanding that I would blog a review of it and with no other stipulations attached)

I finally finished David Black's new book, The Jesus Paradigm. It took me way longer than I expected through no fault of the book. Many of the thoughts Dr. Black expressed required some mulling over and honestly more than a few got me riled up, in good ways and in not so good ways!

I appreciate that Dr. Black, in spite of his advanced education and grasp of the Biblical languages, did not fall into the trap that many academics do of "writing to impress". His writing style is very lucid and concise and is at the same time intellectually challenging while remaining accessible. In other words, a person with a theological background and advanced training in Biblical languages is not going to be bored reading this book nor is someone with minimal formal education going to be intimidated in trying to wade through it.

Another thing I appreciated was that Dr. Black is bold and humble in his assertions. He certainly challenged me while I was reading The Jesus Paradigm and yet it never came across as him scolding me for my failings. The church could certainly use a dose of humility, and I put myself first in line for that. The idea of Christian discipleship is a "downward path" as described by Dr. Black. As we carve away the world and the organized religiosity that pervades the church, we find service and self-denial lead to satisfaction and joy. I thought of the words of John the Baptist when I was reading The Jesus Paradigm: He must increase, but I must decrease. (Joh 3:30) I found that as I examined myself in light of the truths Dr. Black was describing that I was wanting in many, many places. Dr. Black exhibits a Christ-centeredness that is refreshing. Lots of people talk about being Christ-centered but often that is a mask for denominational pride, theological particularism or self-exaltation.

I also liked the focus on the Anabaptists. Often forgotten and even more often misrepresented, the Anabaptists can still teach us a lot about the Christian life and about the church. Even in areas where I don't agree with them entirely, we still have much to learn. I enjoyed Dr. Black's comment that being peaceful doesn't equate to being a pacifist but that we should all seek to be peacemakers. There wasn't much mention of the aberrant theology that is often associated as a blanket accusation against Anabaptism. There were lots of perfectly orthodox Anabaptists. There were also a number of men in that camp who taught damnable heresies. However The Jesus Paradigm is not nor does it seek to be a comprehensive history of Anabaptism but he does show us quite persuasively that the Anabaptists are still quite valuable to the church today. I agree with him that we should seek a rediscovery of the writings and beliefs of those misunderstood and oft forgotten saints.

I guess I would say that Dr. Black "gets it". The "it" in question is a proper view of the Christian life, of discipleship. This book and the thoughts he shares are clearly the product of great study and prayer from a man who has the academic chops to be respected. Instead of pumping out popular books that reinforce the status quo, books like this challenge people and make us uncomfortable. In a church that is all too often far too comfortable, that is something we desperately need. We need to be shaken up.

However, no book is perfect and the big issue I had with The Jesus Paradigm had to do with the running political commentary. Right out of the gate I was a little put off by some of the political commentary. I understand, and would agree, that the church in America has far too often been too intertwined in politics. More often than not, the church has been linked to the Republican party, conservative politics, the "Religious Right" which is not healthy for the church or for the Republican party. But for a book that is not about politics, I found the frequent political commentary to be distracting. In condemning political entanglement, Dr. Black became so specific (even naming names like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity) that in his clamor for us to be apolitical I am afraid he did just the opposite. I think the book would have been healthier and more effective if he had skipped the strident political dogma, in large part because I am sure that many people who would benefit from this book will set it aside after a few chapters precisely because of the political undercurrents. I am not even saying he is wrong, although there are some places I would disagree strongly with him. What I am saying is that his argument in some places crosses over into anger (and as a connoisseur of angry rhetoric, I know of what I speak!) and frankly in some places exhibits naivete (for example, on page 122 he speaks approvingly of the view that peace in Iraq is dependent on reconciliation with Tehran, a view which seems somewhat silly given the recent events that demonstrate for us again that Tehran is not a place where good faith negotiations can take place). Again, it is not that he is entirely wrong but the tone and tenor are kind of jarring compared to the humble tone of the rest of the book.

All in all, this is an excellent book. Well written, accessible, challenging, reasonable for the most part. There is no higher compliment that I can give a book than to say it was challenging to me, made me want to read the Scriptures more diligently and that I marked pages and quotes liberally. This book did all three. It is a book that should and will challenge people to look at the assumptions we have about our walk as Christians, our view of the church and our status as redeemed sheep. Most importantly, this is a book that, as Alan Knox puts it, is strictly about discipleship and being a disciple of Christ involves a lot more than Sunday school, membership in a local church and dropping some money in the offering plate. It is a whole-life commitment. I hope that many Christians pick up this book, read it and examine themselves. I think the church will be far healthier if we focus on a life that is mission minded and Gospel centered, a life of discipleship that goes beyond theological camps and doctrinal triumphalism, that sets aside public displays of religious piety for quiet service.

John Piper on Calvin for today

A brief video but it gets to the heart of why Calvin remains so important today, his absolute focus on the majesty of God.

We know how this ends

I've been involved in a discussion on a blog post Paul’s Admonition To Women and it has been instructive to see how easy it can be for people to explain away inconvenient text. I would encourage you to stop over and take a gander, maybe make a comment or two. What I have found is that amidst all of the flowery rhetoric, the scriptures are noticeable by their absence.

It always starts with that old, old question: Did God really mean to say that?

And we know from thousands of years of experience where that old, old question leads...

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Gen 3:1-6)

The Calvinism-Complementarianism Link

DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed: Why Do the New Calvinists Insist on Complementarianism?

Excellent thoughts from Kevin DeYoung on why Calvinists tend to be complementarians.

Does failure in some areas give us license to disobey?

I have noticed a distressing tendency among some brothers and sisters to treat many commandments of the New Testament as an onerous burden to be cast aside.

What is really distressing is the argument I run into periodically where the individual responds to a clear mandate of Scripture with an example of another mandate we are not faithfully keeping. For example, I have run into some brothers in a discussion of women leaders in the church who have responded to Paul’s admonition against women teaching and holding leadership positions by pointing out that we don’t greet each other with a “holy kiss” or that many women wear jewelry to church. The argument apparently is that since we fail in so many ways, it is unnecessary to strive to obey at all or at least we are free to pick and choose at our discretion which commands are important.

If we fail to keep all of the commandments we see in the Scriptures, should that be an incentive for us to prayerfully ask God to strengthen us to greater obedience or should that be seen as a blank check to ignore the Word? Should our failures not spur us on to seek greater faithfulness?

Do I love the Lord God with all my heart, mind and strength? Unfortunately no. Should I then decide that the commands to evangelize, to pray, to be conformed to the Word, to contend earnestly for the faith are all irrelevant? God forbid that I think that! The truth of the matter is that what was written to the church didn’t not have an expiration date. The truths of the Epistles are as valid for us today as the Gospels are.

Paul was specific and repetitive about many aspects of the church. He wrote those words for a reason, and the reason was not that he was a misogynistic ogre who wanted to keep women in their place. Paul wrote what he wrote under the sovereign inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the words he wrote are not to repress us but to liberate us, not as burdens but as joys. We blithely ignore the explicit commands of Scripture to our peril.

Is the church a family or a corporation?

The Church As A Family:How Church Leadership Is Effected By How You View The Church

This is simply a marvelous post by Lionel Woods. He really hits on the major leadership issues that cripple the church. In all honestly, I have read few blog posts that are more right on than this one, even though it calls out some of our most cherished church traditions. Give it a read, you will be glad you did!

God hates homeschooling?

For a couple of headscratching posts on homeschooling by people who dislike homeschooling, check these two out:

The first one is a poor attempt at satire by a public school English teacher titled: The Case Against Homeschooling. I found out from this pompous diatribe by a public school teacher that homeschool kids are geeks and homeschool families are rich, selfish, intolerant and quite possibly racist . As an added bonus, the author says not once but twice that homeschoolers are arrogant . They back up the assertion that homeschoolers are arrogant to think they can teach their own kids by putting forth a laundry list of their own qualifications to teach. Sorry, but having a couple of degrees in English and education is not filling me with awe and it is always dangerous to tout your own superior abilities and then put forth a poorly written and argued diatribe.

What was most inexplicable was reason number seven:

7. God hates homeschooling. The study, done by the National Center for Education Statistics, notes that the most common reason parents gave as the most important was a desire to provide religious or moral instruction. To the homeschooling Believers out there, didn’t God say “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”? Didn’t he command, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me”? From my side, to take your faithful children out of schools is to miss an opportunity to spread the grace, power and beauty of the Lord to the common people. (Personally I’m agnostic, but I’m just saying…)

I always appreciate an agnostic telling me stuff like this. “I don’t believe in God and I don’t respect the Bible but by the way your God, if He did exist which He doesn’t, would hate homeschooling!” Ah, thanks for clarifying that for me! What is troubling is not this person’s reasoning, I expect that from an unbeliever. What I find troubling is that similar arguments are made against homeschooling by Christians who should know better.

The other blog post is Home School Epidemic and the author Amy Platon is more reasonable but still misses the big picture. Most of us don’t homeschool our kids because we are afraid of the big, bad world out there (even though the environment in public schools should give every parent pause). We home school our kids because God has commanded it of us and it is too important to be subcontracted out to “professionals”. She completely misses that. In fact there is no mention of that aspect of home education in her post at all, which seems odd. Every, I mean every, survey of home schooled families shows the number one reason they homeschool is religious in nature. Ms. Platon is flat out missing the big picture here.

If you click on either link, take a deep breath first. My intent is not to inflame passions and send attack dogs after these individuals. I didn’t post a comment on either one because just a sampling of the mostly great comments already out there and the partial retraction on the first post shows that others have gone before me and showed how intellectually vacuous these arguments are. Just be on notice that opposition to homeschooling is growing more strident and more vocal. Those of us who homeschool need to be on guard against intrusions into our right and obligation to homeschool our kids.