for His renown

Trinitarian Expository Exultation

2006-04-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

Dr. Bruce Ware is one of the leading theologians of our generation. He is one of the most loving people I have ever met, and he enthusiastically proclaims the greatness of the God he loves.

As soon as possible you should download Dr. Ware's sermon on the Trinity in Ephesians 1 and relish this joyful exposition and exhortation to marvel at the Triune God.

Michael Haykin on William Fraser

2006-04-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a snippet:

Fraser died in 1883 after he had gone out to Manitoba to evangelize a community of Gaelic-speaking Highlanders. The trip proved too much for the old man. To his last breath the kingdom of Christ and its extension were his passion.

The whole thing is worth reading.

Two Baptist Press Stories

2006-04-17T15:51:00.000-07:00

Statements from this weblog have found their way into two Baptist Press stories. Comments on the Gospel of Judas were cited here, and an adaptation of the reflections on ABC's "The Ten Commandments" appear here.

SOLI DEO GLORIA

Darfur: Will We Act to Stop the Genocide?

2006-04-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

Everyone should see Hotel Rwanda. I checked it out from the public library, so if there's a library near you it won't cost you financially. I hope it will cost you some peace of mind, however, and we should all lift our voices to decry what is now apparently taking place in Darfur. World Magazine has a piece on it, as does the New York Times.

You can see some photos here, and you can visit www.savedarfur.org for some more information.

Is it true of us evangelicals that we are beholden to the republical party, or do we have a prophetic voice in this culture?

Let's do unto those in Darfur what we would want done for us.

Shakespearean Chapel: A Liturgical Southern Baptist Worship Service

2006-04-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

That’s not an oxymoron in the subtitle, it really does happen—Liturgical Southern Baptist Worship, that is. Drs. Autrey and Wood have given me permission to set the order of worship in chapel this coming Monday, so on Monday at SWBTS Houston we will have a chapel that will, I hope, be something like what the ancient church did when it met for worship. At least, I’m told that the order of worship that we’ve adapted (Richard Fields did most of the work) “bears resemblance to the Western Rite Liturgy.”

I’ve tried to describe what I refer to as Shakespearean Worship here, and if you want to read the process of planning such a worship service, you can do so here. I’ve suggested that this can be a healthy response to the impulse that has produced the Emergent Church here. We actually do this every Sunday at Baptist Church of the Redeemer, and you can see an example of our order of worship here.

If you're in the Houston area, I hope you’ll join us for worship on Monday, and if you want to read over and pray through the sermon text beforehand, asking God to prepare your heart (always a good thing to do), I’ll be preaching the book of Nahum.

So if you come to chapel on Monday, perhaps you’ll encounter two things that Southern Baptists don’t normally experience: (1) a sermon on Nahum, and (2) liturgical worship. Don’t misunderstand me, though, I’m not doing this to be cute. My hope and prayer is that everything about the worship service will be God focused, Christ exalting, and soul nourishing. After all, we’re preparing people to go out and die for the gospel, whether it be the death of a martyr or the long slow obedience of laying down one's life for the people of God. I hope you’ll come ready to worship the risen and reigning King.

Is God Worthy of This?

2006-04-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

I just watched the second installment of ABC’s “The Ten Commandments,” and I’m grateful that the movie prompted me to think about some things the Bible says. For instance, there was a scene in which the faithful Israelites killed the idolatrous Israelites who refused to worship Yahweh after the golden calf incident (see Exod 32:26–29). As I watched these scenes, what came to my mind was the fact that not only do those who refuse to worship Yahweh meet with misery and death in this life, they face an eternal conscious torment.

Why?

Why do people go to hell forever?

Has this landed on you? Is it real to you that those who do not know God as he is will face his wrath forever? Have you thought about whether you think people deserve to suffer forever for not worshiping God? Can you think of any reason that would justify eternal conscious torment for a human being?

It can only be because this God whom they have refused to honor and thank as God is of infinite worth. Do we know God in this way?

If we don’t know God in this way, we probably won’t take worshiping him very seriously, which probably explains why so many churches don’t seem very serious about knowing and worshiping God.

When we think of God, do we think of him as being this worthy?

When we speak of God, do we speak of him in a way that reflects that he is this serious about his rights as God?

When we sing to God, do we do so in a way that corresponds with the gravity with which he regards himself?

To know God as he is means that we hold him so highly that we regard eternal conscious torment as what is justly due to those who neither honor him as God nor give thanks to him.

To understand mercy is to perceive that the only difference between those who will be saved and those who will face his wrath forever is that God was pleased to show mercy to the saved and justice to the damned.

Do you worship God in a way that reflects the awful weight of a mercy that freely pardons those who trust Jesus—forgiving us of sins for which we rightly deserve to suffer forever?

Is the God you worship so important that those who spurn him deserve hell? If not, your concept of God is not biblical.

You are hereby invited to trust this God. Call on the name of the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved (Rom 10:13).

The Ten Commandments and the Justice of God

2006-04-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

My sweet wife and I just watched the first installment of ABC’s production of The Ten Commandments. I think that the fact that we are now the parents of one especially precious 2 year old boy (our first born) made the death of the first born of Egypt especially poignant to us.

The Bible is clear—and the movie gets this part right—that God put to death the firstborn sons of Egypt (Exod 4:23). In the movie, viewers are presented with a sympathetic Egyptian, Moses’ brother Minnereth (this character doesn’t come from the Bible), who protests that he and his son were not present when the Egyptians of a previous generation killed the Hebrew children. This naturally raises the question of how God can be just in slaying seemingly innocent first born children of decent Egyptian parents like Minnereth.

The truth is that far more upsetting to us than the death of these seemingly innocent children should be the fact that God is not glorified as God or thanked for his merciful kindness (Rom 1:21). We must pray that God will give us such an all encompassing understanding of his infinite worth that we are more emotionally troubled when he is denied the glory and thanks he is due than we are when little ones die. Do we believe that God is this great, this worthy of glory and gratitude?

The great problem in the universe for us should not be why bad things happen to people, rather, we should be provoked when God is not given the thanks and praise he is due. God must enable us to perceive his own incomprehensible wealth of magnificence and mercy so that we can see beyond the apparent decency of people and stare into the truth that they owe God heartfelt, constant thanks and praise. And the fact that they do not render to him the worship that he deserves must become for us the greatest ugliness in all creation.

Only when our minds are fixed on the infinite worth of the one by whom and for whom all things exist will we be able to say by faith that when all the evidence is presented on the last day, no one will question what God has done. All will say that everything he did was right.

If in our minds the worth of God is not this great, or if we are not confident that he will be justified in all he has done when all the evidence is brought forth, let us pray for grace to search the Scriptures and see there that the one from whom, through whom, and to whom all things are is indeed worthy of all the glory (Rom 11:36).

Gospel of Judas Radio Interview

2006-04-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

I am very grateful to the many of you who communicated to me that you prayed for me during the interview last Friday.

My friend Denny Burk has posted the show. I'm on with Denny for about the last ten minutes or so discussing the Gospel of Judas.

Creed of Athanasius with Subtitles

2006-04-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I mentioned in a post that I often read the Creed of Athanasius to my 2 year old before I put him down for a nap. I had occasion to type it up for something else, and I decided to add subtitles. So I'm posting the Creed below with my subtitles. If you have better suggestions, I would love to hear them. I think what I have reflects the movement of thought in the Creed, but there might be better places to divide it up, and there might be better titles for the sections. I welcome your suggestions.

It is important to note that the word “Catholick” here does not mean “Roman Catholic” but “Universal.” That is, this is what all Christians believe. And the truth is that those who believe these truths, as well as other biblical doctrines such as justification by faith alone, are more catholic than the Roman Catholics.

One other note before the Creed. I thought about dropping the line about Jesus descending into hell, since I don't think the Bible teaches that Jesus descended into hell. I decided to leave it and make a point about the nature of Creeds. We use these great statements of faith to summarize what the Bible says and the church believes. But these Creeds are not inspired and they are not authoritative in the way Scripture is. Thus, I think that whereas Christians are bound to believe everything Scripture teaches, Christians must evaluate everything that is not Scripture by Scripture. So I think I'm being perfectly consistent to believe everything the Creed says except the part I think is unbiblical (see Wayne Grudem's essay, "He Did Not Descend Into Hell: A Plea For Following Scripture Instead Of The Apostles' Creed," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 34.1 (1991): 103-113.).

So without further ado, here's the Creed of Athanasius plus my subtitles:

THE CREED OF ATHANASIUS
Introductory Preface
Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith.
Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled: without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
Trinity in Unity
And the Catholick Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
Neither confounding the Persons: nor dividing the Substance.
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son: and another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one: the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son: and such is the Holy Ghost.
Uncreated, Incomprehensible, Eternal, and Almighty
The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate: and the Holy Ghost uncreate.
The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible: and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal: and the Holy Ghost eternal.
And yet they are not three eternals: but one eternal.
As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated: but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty: and the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet they are not three Almighties: but one Almighty.
Three Persons, One God, and One Lord
So the Father is God, the Son is God: and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods: but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord: and the Holy Ghost Lord.
And yet not three Lords: but one Lord.
For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity: to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
So are we forbidden by the Catholick Religion: to say there be three Gods, or three Lords.
Of None, Begotten, Proceeding
The Father is made of none: neither created, nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone: not made, nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons: one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
Equality of Essence and Worth
And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other: none is greater, or less than another;
But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together: and co-equal.
So that in all things, as is aforesaid: the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
Necessary Christian Belief
He therefore that will be saved: must thus think of the Trinity.
The Two Natures of Jesus
Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation: that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the right Faith is that we believe and confess: that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;
God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds: and Man, of the Substance of his Mother, born in the world;
Perfect God, and Perfect Man: Of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting;
Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead: and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood.
Who although he be God and Man: yet he is not two, but one Christ;
One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh: but by taking of the Manhood into God;
One altogether, not by confusion of Substance: but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man: so God and Man is one Christ.
Who suffered for our salvation: descended into hell, rose again on the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty: from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
The Second Coming
At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies: and shall give account for their own works.
And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting: and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
Closing Significance
This is the Catholick Faith: which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.

Michael Haykin on Francis Wayland

2006-04-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

We Baptists would do well to know more of our heritage, and Michael Haykin, principal of Toronto Baptist Seminary, is one from whom we have much to learn. Read his post on Francis Wayland, president of Brown University (which was a Baptist school) here.

Students of history will also want to check out Dr. Haykin’s website, where you can read his writings, hear his lectures, and be blessed by his fascinating “favorite quotes.” I was especially interested in the project he is participating in to produce the Works of Andrew Fuller. Andrew Fuller was a five point Calvinist who argued, with William Carey, that the Gospel should be indiscriminately proclaimed to all. He “held the rope” when Carey “went into the pit.” Let’s hope the works of Fuller are more affordable than the works of Jonathan Edwards (!), and let’s hope that the combination of theological acumen and missionary fervor that characterized Carey and Fuller will fill the hearts and minds of Baptists.

I hope to download and listen to some of Dr. Haykin’s lectures in the near future. There are 12 historical lectures on everyone from Irenaeus to William Cowper. Enjoy!

Theowonk: Aspiring Theologian of the Cross

2006-04-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

An anonymous blog has been brought to my attention. The opening post explains the clever pseudonym under which the blogger posts and concerns the pursuit of wisdom--knowing God and walking before him. It looks like this blogger likes the theology of Martin Luther, as reflected in the name of the blog, Theologia Crucis.

Gospel of Judas Radio Interview

2006-04-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with tonight's guest host of the Jerry Johnson Live radio program, Dr. Denny Burk.

It looks like Dr. Burk will interview me live about the Gospel of Judas on the radio program, which airs from 5 to 6pm on KCBI, FM 90.9 in the Dallas area. You can also listen online here. I'll probably be on during the second half of the show. Please pray that I'll be calm and clear headed. I've found myself very nervous when I've called into the show in the past.

The first half of the show looks really interesting, and I plan to listen. Dr. Burk is going to kick off the show by interviewing Scot McKnight on the Emergent Church. McKnight is a first rate NT scholar, and he has followed the emergent stuff closely. This should be good.

After that, Dr. Burk hopes to have either Dr. Russell Moore or Mark Driscoll. What a lineup!

May the Name of the Lord be honored and magnified!

The Gospel of Judas

2006-04-07T05:40:00.000-07:00

How would historians of the American Revolution respond if a new document were found? Let's say the document was written by someone loyal to Great Britain, and let's say that it suggested that George Washington asked Benedict Arnold to betray the American cause. Given that the facts are well established, and given that the sympathies of the author of this document are clear for everyone to see, would this document change our understanding of American history?

I think not, and I think the same is true of the Gospel of Judas. The finding of the manuscript is important because we now have a manuscript that we didn't have for 1700 years, but this manuscript will not change what Christians believe. I have two volumes of "New Testament Apocrypha" on my shelf that we have had for a long time now, and the fact is that only scholars read this stuff. The canon has long been decided, and the discovery of a gnostic book is not going to re-open the question.

Yesterday I spoke with a reporter from the Houston Chronicle, and he was kind enough to quote something I said here.

May the discovery of the Gospel of Judas cause all of us to praise God for preserving the books of the Bible he wanted us to have, and may we exult in the sufficiency of the Scripture--God has given us everything we need for salvation and a life that is pleasing to him. To him be the glory, forever and ever, Amen.

Free Will?

2006-04-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

Some time back I linked to this interview with Bruce Ware on the nature of human freedom.

Another excellent treatment of the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility was brought to my attention today by Justin Taylor, and this one is by Douglas Wilson.

If you're interested in wrestling with the Bible, I commend this post to you.

The Inside Scoop: Mark Overstreet's New Blog

2006-04-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

When I finished up my schooling at SBTS, in God's great mercy, I was blessed with a job here at SWBTS Houston. I am so thankful to be where I am, and I praise God for blessing me with this place of service. I say that because of what I am about to say: most people blessed with places of service upon completion of their Ph.D. programs become lowly Assistant Professors like me. Assistant Professor doesn't mean I'm an assistant to some other professor, they really do let me teach, but it does mean that in the academic world, I'm the low man on the totem pole.

Other people, by contrast, before they even finish their Ph.D. programs, become Vice Presidents! Well, okay, so I only know one person who became a Vice President of a college before he even finished his dissertation: Mark Overstreet. Dr. Overstreet has a new blog, and as he is one of the most knowledgeable people I know, I'll be checking this page often. I'm sure you'll want to mark this page as well.

Augustine on Suffering

2006-04-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

Arguing that Christianity is not to be blamed for the sack of Rome by the Goths, Augustine explains in The City of God that both good and bad men suffer. He writes:

But as for the good things of this life, and its ills, God has willed that these should be common to both [good and wicked men]; that we might not too eagerly covet the things which wicked men are seen equally to enjoy, nor shrink with an unseemly fear from the ills which even good men often suffer. . .

. . . the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked. And thus it is that in the same affliction the wicked detest God and blaspheme, while the good pray and praise. So material a difference does it make, not what ills are suffered, but what kind of man suffers them. For, stirred up with the same movement, mud exhales a horrible stench, and ointment emits a fragrant odor. . .

He then enumerates three benefits from the suffering Christians endure:

First of all, they must humbly consider those very sins which have provoked God to fill the world with such terrible disasters . . . . For every man, however laudably he lives, yet yields in some points to the lust of the flesh. Though he do not fall into gross enormity of wickedness, and abandoned viciousness, and abominable profanity, yet he slips into some sins . . .

[Second], . . . the good are chastised along with the wicked . . . not because they have spent an equally corrupt life, but because the good as well as the wicked, though not equally with them, love this present life; while they ought to hold it cheap . . .

Then, lastly, . . . that the human spirit may be proved, and that it may be manifested with what fortitude of pious trust, and with how unmercenary a love, it cleaves to God.

City of God, 1.8-9

Dever on the Apparent Piety of Numerical Goals

2006-04-02T12:55:00.000-07:00

Please read Mark Dever's post on the Together for the Gospel blog.

HT JT

Hamilton Family Worship

2006-03-31T10:05:00.000-08:00

Recently I’ve been exposed to a number of families who do “Family Worship.” When I first heard of this, I was both intimidated and uninterested. I had little desire to try to replicate what I think of as a worship service (prayers, hymns, sermon, etc.) on a nightly basis at home with my family. Don’t get me wrong, I love prayers, hymns, and sermons, but it seems like an awful lot to pull together on a nightly basis.

As I’ve reflected on this, however, I think this is probably not what my friends mean when they speak of “Family Worship.” Actually, I’m not sure what they mean, but I thought I would describe what we do at our house. This is intended to be suggestive for anyone interested in this type of thing (in other words, I’m not being prescriptive), and if you have something that you do differently with your family or that you think we would benefit from I would love to know about it.

Disclaimer: We are new at parenting, and we make no claim to having it all figured out. We have a 2 year old and a 3 week old, and I pray that the Lord will give them mercy and overcome the errors and deficiencies of their Dad (their Mom doesn’t have any errors and deficiencies). Also, these things don’t happen every day. Sometimes I leave in the morning before the kids get out of bed. Sometimes we're lazy. Sometimes I’m not home for dinner. Sometimes we have family in town or friends over. Sometimes I’m out of town, etc.

When we rise up:
We sometimes read a collect (i.e., a prayer) from either the Book of Common Prayer or a book called The Collects of Thomas Cranmer, which is a compilation of the prayers Thomas Cranmer wrote for the Book of Common Prayer. The third collect for morning prayer is the one we use when we do this, and it reads as follows:

O Lord our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(This basically hasn’t happened since the new baby was born).

As we walk by the way:
Our 2 year old has the answers to the first two questions of The Baptist Catechism memorized, and we’re working on the answer to the third. He doesn’t know what the words mean, but he can memorize them now and one day he’ll understand. I copied the text of the catechism with the Scripture references, pasted it into a word document, and as we move to the next question I paste the text of the Scripture references that go along with the question onto a word document so we can print that question and answer with its verses and hopefully learn the verses too. We have 18 years or so to work on it, and I’m pleased with our progress so far.

At the Lunch Table:
My wife has a stack of pictures of family and friends, and after the meal, she and Jake take up the next photo and pray for the people in the picture (I’m often not around for lunch).

At naptime:
Our two year old loves hymns. If we’re singing one, he can usually surprise us with how much of it he can sing along with us. His favorite song is “How Firm a Foundation,” and he knows almost all the words to it. He also loves “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and many others. So at naptime we often sing several hymns from the hymnal by the rocking chair next to his bed (he loves to “sing from the red hymdal,” as he calls it).

When I get to put Jake down for his nap I sometimes read the Creed of Athanasius to him. I’m hoping this great Trinitarian Confession will become part of the fabric of his brain, and it’s blessing me as I read it over and over too!

After Dinner:
At then end of our meal I read a portion of the Bible. We’ve read the whole book of Psalms after meals, and soon we’ll finish Hebrews. I usually read 10 to 15 verses. This is a good time for a Bible reading since we’re already all gathered together. Our two year old is used to it now, and so when we finish the meal he says, “Daddy read Bible!”

At Bedtime:
Every night we sing at least one hymn, and when I’m organized and have one picked out, we have a “hymn of the week.” Singing the same hymn every night helps us all memorize the words.

Sometimes if we have time we’ll read the Big Picture Story Bible before we sing.

Every night when we finish everything else we pray the Lord’s Prayer together. Jake knows all the words to this, but he doesn’t always say them all. He loves these routines, and I pray God gives us grace to continue in them. How I hope that my children will bleed Bible, that they will trust the Lord with their whole hearts, and that God will make me faithful to those entrusted to my charge, especially those most dearly and closely entrusted to me, my sweet wife and our boys.

Criswell College and Criswell Theological Review on the Emerging Church

2006-03-30T10:25:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, one of the most exciting developments in evangelicalism in recent years has been the presidency of Jerry Johnson at Criswell College. Dr. Johnson seems to have Criswell going in a very positive direction, and I pray that the College will be used powerfully in the reformation that I hope the Lord will bring. May this school train many who are ready to give their lives to and for the Gospel.

One of the main reasons I’m so high on Criswell is that they have one of the clearest thinking scholars in all of evangelicalism in Dr. Denny Burk. Dr. Burk is a dear friend whose insight into both the Bible and the culture I deeply appreciate. If I were a parent sending a child off to college, I would be so happy to have my kid taught by the likes of this man.

Another aspect of the turnaround at Criswell resulting from the Johnson presidency has been the resurrection of the Criswell Theological Review. They have produced timely journals on the Kingdom and the New Perspective, and the most recent issue focuses on the Emerging Church.

May God continue to bless Dr. Johnson and amplify his voice and his ministry, and may Criswell and its ministries indeed play a major part in an awakening in the Dallas area. May many trust Jesus to the glory of God!

President of ETS Denied Tenure at Baylor

2006-03-29T11:50:00.000-08:00

Justin Taylor summarizes Francis Beckwith's accomplishments, and First Things has an extensive reflection by Joseph Bottom. Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News suspects that Beckwith's openly conservative stance "is what did him in."

I guess the president of the Evangelical Theological Society has no place at Baylor. I guess Baylor has pretty well staked out its territory, and with Roger Olson's recent blast against inerrancy, it doesn't look like evangelical ground.

American, This Man Gave His Life for Your Freedom

2006-03-29T08:14:00.000-08:00

Jesus died to justify those who would trust him, and Paul Smith died to preserve freedom in this land. Jesus deserves our worship and our lifelong obedience. Paul Smith deserves our honor, and we should pray for his wife, who is now a widow, and his kids, who will never again feel their earthly father's embrace. You will want to read the Wall Street Journal’s account of how Paul Smith gave his life for you here, and may we praise God, trust Jesus, and live in a way that makes this man’s death worthwhile.

Why is the church in America Dying?

2006-03-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

Thom Rainer gives a summary of his findings here. The gist of it is that the church in the USA is not reproducing itself, and, if things continue as they are, Christianity in America will go the way of Christianity in Europe, where it’s all but gone.

Here’s a summary:

1. Churches are doctrinally ineffective.
2. Church leaders are less evangelistic—half the pastors Rainer surveyed had made no evangelistic efforts for 6 months.
3. The minor distractions (such as budgets and furniture) are effective in distracting us from major tasks, like evangelism and discipleship.

Read the whole thing here.

What we need is another great awakening. We need a move of God’s Spirit like what we see in the book of Jonah, where in spite of his sinfulness the man of God is forced to minister to the Ninevites. May God use many of us like Jonah, who in spite of his disobedience was heard first by the sailors, who feared Yahweh and sacrificed to him in response to Jonah’s message (Jon 1:16). And then on his arrival in Nineveh, Jonah’s proclamation results in everyone repenting (3:5), and the king and his great ones even proclaim a fast (3:6–9): “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish” (3:9).

O God, please do again in our day what you did in Jonah’s: force the one who speaks your word to proclaim it! And please, Lord, let not the word fall on deaf ears, let not those who speak your word meet the response found by Jeremiah. O God, in mercy, send your Spirit and kindly lead many to repentance, for the glory of your name and the good of these people. O God, please pity Houston like you pitied Nineveh (Jon 4:11), for like them, we don’t know our right hand from our left and there is much cattle!.

A Tribute to John Hannah, and where to find him on the web

2006-03-28T06:24:00.000-08:00

There was a time in my life when I had doubts about whether orthodox Christianity was derived exegetically from the Bible or illegitimately forced on a Bible that meant to communicate no such system. I had spent too much time around some “exegetes” who claimed that they were “just interpreting the Bible.” As they went about “just interpreting the Bible,” they scorned Systematic Theology, and some of them even flirted with open theism. God mightily used two men named John at that time of my life—one John is a first class exegete who also loves theology (John Piper); and the other John is a church historian whose love for Christ rings all through the profound thoughts expressed as he teaches. Walking into Dr. John Hannah’s classroom in those days when the doubts of some were giving me pause was like stepping out of shifting sand onto solid rock, and the rock was Christ.

If you’ve never met Dr. Hannah, you can get a taste of his ministry online here (http://djchuang.com/hannah/), where you can read snippets of transcribed lectures and listen to some sermons.

I must also mention that the semester in which Dr. Hannah so profoundly helped me was not a semester in which I was actually enrolled in one of his courses. I had taken all the Church History classes I needed, but because of the lingering questions in my mind I decided to audit Dr. Hannah’s course on the History of Doctrine. The class, however, was full. All the seats were taken. So I went to the administration and asked if the class could be moved to a bigger room. No. So I went to Dr. Hannah and asked if I could sit on the floor, and, don’t tell the fire department, he gave me permission. So for half the semester I showed up for a class I didn’t need for a degree to hear lectures I needed for my soul. I didn’t stop going half-way through the semester, but enough other students either dropped the class or stopped attending to allow me to have an actual chair to sit on.

Praise God for John Hannah.

The Future of Baptist Theology according to Timothy George

2006-03-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

Timothy George ranks with Al Mohler as one of the SBC’s leading intellectuals. In a volume co-edited with David Dockery titled, Theologians of the Baptist Tradition, George writes the opening essay entitled “The Future of Baptist Theology.” The whole thing is worth reading, and I give you these snippets to whet your appetite:

“What are the benchmarks for shaping Baptist theological identity in the new world of the third millennium? Rather than put forth subtle speculations or a new methodology, I propose that we look again at five classic principles drawn from the wider Baptist heritage. These five affirmations form a cluster of convictions that have seen us through turbulent storms in the past. They are worthy anchors for us to cast into the sea of postmodernity as we seek not merely to weather the storm but to sail with confidence into the future God has prepared for us” (p. 5).

The “Identity Markers” George then identifies are as follows (he writes more on each of these points than I will quote—what I transcribe is just to give the flavor, from pp. 5–10):

1. Orthodox Convictions. “Baptists are orthodox Christians who stand in continuity with the dogmatic consensus of the early church on matters such as the scope of Holy Scripture (canon), the doctrine of God (Trinity), and the person and work of Jesus Christ (Christology).”

2. Evangelical Heritage. “Baptists are evangelical Christians who affirm with Martin Luther and John Calvin both the formal and material principles of the Reformation: Scripture alone and justification by faith alone.”

3. Reformed Perspective. “Despite a persistent Arminian strain within Baptist life, for much of our history most Baptists adhered faithfully to the doctrines of grace as set forth in Pauline-Augustinian-Reformed theology. . . . Baptists would do well to connect again with the ideas that inform the theology of such great heroes of the past as John Bunyan, Roger Williams, Andrew Fuller, Adoniram Judson, Luther Rice, and Charles Haddon Spurgeon.”

4. Baptist Distinctives. “One of the most important contributions that Baptists have made to the wider life of the church is the recovery of the early church practice of baptism as an adult rite of initiation signifying a committed participation in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In many contemporary Baptist settings, however, baptism is in danger of being divorced from the context of a decisive life commitment. . . . We must also guard against a minimalist understanding of the Lord’s Supper. . .”

5. Confessional Context. “Baptists have historically approved and circulated confessions of faith for a threefold purpose: as an expression of our religious liberty, as a statement of our theological convictions, and as a witness of the truths we hold in sacred trust.”

Timothy George and the SBC

2006-03-26T18:33:00.000-08:00

Would that Timothy George’s voice would be heard loud and clear in these days. His recent piece in First Things titled “Evangelicals and Others” is a must read for any Southern Baptist in these troubled days. Can we hold tenaciously to our theological positions while maintaining a cooperative ecumenism? George suggests that we can learn how to do just this from our Southern Baptist forbears such as Carl F. H. Henry and W. A. Criswell. Warning us against those who follow the father of Landmarkism, J. R. Graves, George writes,

“But I suggest that ecumenism is a central portion—a core concern—of the evangelical faith and the evangelical church. Such a vision is rooted in the holy scriptures, in the great tradition, in the deepest insights of the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century, in the renewal impulses of the Spirit-anointed awakenings, and, yes, even the sectarian roots of the movement shaped by the likes of Carl McIntyre, Carl F.H. Henry, and W.A. Criswell.”

The whole piece is worth reading. May the tribe of Timothy George increase, and may we pursue the unity for which Jesus prayed.

The OT in Light of Progressive Revelation: The Epistle of Barnabas

2006-03-24T10:51:00.000-08:00

The Epistle of Barnabas is not part of the New Testament canon, though it was included in Codex Sinaiticus and Origen referred to it as a catholic epistle! Eusebius and Jerome, however, categorized it as a disputed writing and it was classed with the apocrypha.

Modern scholars label it “anonymous,” even though early church tradition (Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Jerome, Serapion of Thmuys, Codex Sinaiticus) attributes it to “Barnabas.” This attribution, along with its inclusion in Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Hierosolymitanus, and Codex Corbeiensis, appears to point to a belief that the Barnabas described in the book of Acts is the Barnabas in view. Modern scholars cite internal evidence against the view that Barnabas wrote the epistle, but it seems to me that this internal evidence is not altogether conclusive. As for it being “anonymous,” it is “anonymous” in the same way that the Gospels are “anonymous,” and I think Martin Hengel has shown pretty conclusively that these Gospels never would have been circulated without a title, nor would the titles of the Gospels be so uniform if they were not original (or at least practically original) to the first production of the respective Gospels. So, I think it is as plausible as not that the document we know as The Epistle of Barnabas was written by the sometime companion of Paul in Acts.

All these prefatory comments prepare the way for what I am about to say about the way that Barnabas cites the “Let us make man in our image” statement in Genesis 1:26–28. Twice in the Epistle of Barnabas, at 5:5 and at 6:12, the “let us” statements are cited as words spoken by the Father to the Son.

Barnabas 5:5
There is yet this also, my brethren; if the Lord endured to suffer
for our souls, though He was Lord of the whole world, unto whom God
said from the foundation of the world, Let us make man after our
image and likeness, how then did He endure to suffer at the hand
of men?

Barnabas 6:12
For the scripture saith concerning us, how He saith to the Son; Let
us make man after our image and after our likeness, and let them
rule over the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the heaven and
the fishes of the sea. And the Lord said when He saw the fair
creation of us men; Increase and multiply and fill the earth.
These words refer to the Son.

I have heard people I love and respect describe the first person plurals here as “plurals of majesty,” and this is a valid category in Hebrew grammar (at least it’s in GKC). But I wonder if what we have in Barnabas 5:5 and 6:12 doesn’t fall nicely in line with early Christian “wisdom Christology”—“wisdom” pointing to God’s work in creation (cf. Prov 8:22–31), and “wisdom Christology” pointing to the consistent teaching of the NT that God created through the Son (see, e.g., John 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2).

If this is correct, then just as John, Paul, and the author of Hebrews speak of Jesus as the agent of creation, the Epistle of Barnabas speaks of Jesus as active in creation and reads Genesis 1 in a way that comports with early Christian wisdom Christology.

In the light of progressive revelation, this early Christian writing, perhaps written in the first century (but probably no later than AD 135), perhaps written by a companion of Paul, reads the words of Genesis, “Let us make man in our image,” as words spoken by the Father to the Son. I have no quarrel with such a reading.

Spurgeon on Elders

2006-03-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

I recently bought Spurgeon's Autobiography and hope to read it soon, and that prompted me to look up this Spurgeon quote from Mark Dever's Baptists and Elders:

“To our minds, the Scripture seems very explicit as to how this Church should be ordered. We believe that every Church member should have equal rights and privileges; that there is no power in Church officers to execute anything unless they have the full authorization of the members of the Church. We believe, however, that the Church should choose its pastor, and having chosen him, that they should love him and respect him for his work’s sake; that with him should be associated the deacons of the Church to take the oversight of pecuniary matters; and the elders of the Church to assist in all the works of the pastorate in the fear of God, being overseers of the flock. Such a Church we believe to be scripturally ordered; and if it abide in the faith, rooted, and grounded, and settled, such a Church may expect the benediction of heaven, and so it shall become the pillar and ground of the truth.” Spurgeon, “The Church Conservative and Aggressive” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 7, pp. 658-659.

Yeah! What he said!

The Old Testament in the New

2006-03-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

Justin Taylor recently posted on Greg Beale’s question, Did the Apostles Preach the Right Doctrine from the Wrong Text?, and that prompted me to ruminate on the progress of my thinking about the use of the OT in the NT.

When I was introduced to the academic study of the Bible, the focus of those who taught me the Old Testament was definitely on the meaning of OT texts in their original, ancient near Eastern context. From time to time one of my profs would acknowledge that our interpretation can’t stop there: we have to trace things through the New Testament. The problem was that we never got around to actually doing that. We always stopped in the ancient near Eastern context of the OT. Not only did we always stop there, on plenty of occasions it was communicated in various ways that the authors of the NT were not doing the kind of exegesis that would earn “A’s” at most institutions of higher learning!

The standard line was, “The apostles did what they did with the OT because they were inspired. You are not inspired, so you are not in a position to interpret the OT the way they do.”

I’ll never forget the Sunday morning I visited a church pastored by Joe Blankenship. I don’t remember if he was preaching Luke 24 or if he just read the whole chapter (a very good thing for pastors to do in church, see 1 Tim 4:13), but when he got to Luke 24:25–27 I felt like I had been slapped! Then I got slapped again when he got to 24:44–46. I was stunned. The question ringing in my ears was, “Do my OT profs know these verses are in the Bible!?”

Why did these verses take me by surprise? Hadn’t I read them recently? Well, seminary is a very busy time. Between class and work and a new wife, I didn’t always have time to sit still and read the Bible slowly and compare what I was hearing in class to what the text said.

So I started to question the standard “the apostles were inspired but you’re not” line, but I really didn’t know of any alternative ways of approaching the issue.

Then, in the mercy of God, I went to Southern Seminary to do a Ph.D. under Tom Schreiner. I took a course from Dr. Schreiner on 1 Peter, and when we came to 1 Peter 1:10–12, something happened that was very much like the Sunday morning slap from Luke 24. There we were in class, diagramming the Greek text and tracing its argument, and Dr. Schreiner said something like, “The apostles set an example for us as to how we should interpret the OT. We should pattern our reading of the OT after theirs,” and as he went on to his next thought, I almost fell off my chair! He saw my surprise and asked me why I looked so astonished. I blubbered out something to the effect of, “Well, I guess I’ve never heard anyone legitimate say something like what you just said about how we should interpret the OT!” Dr. Schreiner is so humble, he replied, “Maybe I’m not legitimate!” We all laughed, but that incident fired my interest in this topic once again.

Thankfully, the Ph.D. program at SBTS was unlike my masters program in that I was not running from assignment to assignment, class to class, meeting to meeting. I had time to explore topics that were not assigned, time to sit still and read the Bible and meditate on it. I also read about the OT, about the OT in the New, and about the NT.

I have come to the conclusion that people who question the way that the apostles interpret the OT, for all their protestation about reading it “on its own terms” and “in its own context,” have actually failed to understand the OT itself! I agree with John Sailhamer’s argument that the OT is not the national literature of Israel, rather, it was written to sustain the messianic hopes of the messianic remnant in Israel. The whole of the OT, I would argue (following Sailhamer), is messianic.

Showing the plausibility of such a claim, to say nothing of substantiating it, will require at least a whole volume. I hope the Lord grants me time and energy and insight to eventually pull that off, but for now I can offer some initial forays into the question.

Can the thesis that the OT is messianic be sustained without recourse to “allegorical” methods of interpretation? Can we come to a book like the Song of Solomon and read it messianically without allegorizing it? A few years ago at SBL I presented a paper titled, “The Messianic Music of the Song of Songs: A Non-Allegorical Interpretation.” This essay should be published in the fall 2006 issue of the Westminster Theological Journal.

What about a text like Isaiah 7:14, which is cited in Matthew 1 as being fulfilled in the birth of Jesus? The difficulty with this is that in the context of Isaiah 7, this looks like a prophecy that applies to Ahaz’s lifetime (see esp. 7:16). Last summer at the Biblical Theology Study Group of the Tyndale Fellowship in Cambridge, I presented an essay called “The Virgin Will Conceive: Typology in Isaiah and Fulfillment in Matthew.” This essay is due to be published in a volume forthcoming from Eerdmans called Built upon the Rock: Studies in the Gospel of Matthew, edited by Dan Gurtner and John Nolland.

The thesis that the OT is messianic through and through depends, of course, on the existence of a promised deliverer from the very beginning. In other words, this thesis depends on a messianic reading of Genesis 3:15. Many conclude that the so called protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15 cannot, in fact, be a protoevangelium because they do not see it exercising wide influence in the rest of the OT, nor do they see it cited in the NT. In an essay called, “The Skull Crushing Seed of the Woman: Inner-Biblical Interpretation of Genesis 3:15,” I try to show that while there might not be explicit quotations of Genesis 3:15, imagery from Genesis 3 is used across both testaments. This essay will be published in the Summer 2006 issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.

In another attempt to demonstrate the wide influence of Genesis 3:15 on the rest of the Bible, I argue that the blessings of Abraham in Genesis 12 is a direct answer to the curses of Genesis 3. This essay, “The Seed of the Woman and the Blessing of Abraham,” was presented to the Southwest Regional meeting of the Institute for Biblical Research in March 2006.

May the Lord open our eyes to see wonderful things in his law, and may we search these Scriptures that testify to Jesus (cf. John 5:39).

Thomas Cranmer and Blue Like a Passing Purple Fad

2006-03-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

I recently finished reading Diarmaid MacCulloch's stellar biography of Thomas Cranmer. Anyone interested in the life of a great man who pushed forward the reformation in England should read this book. Cranmer is presented sympathetically in all the complexity of one who recanted under great distress only to heroically withdraw his recantations in the hour of his greatest trial. Cranmer persevered to the end. He kept the faith. He was burned at the stake, and that didn't separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Cranmer is a true hero.

I love the way that MacCulloch describes Cranmer's work in his great legacy for English speaking people, the Book of Common Prayer. MacCulloch writes: "How fortunate that Cranmer did not seek to scintillate. Liturgy does not demand jokes or punchlines: purple passages which sound exciting once and then become embarrassing. The need is for words which can be polished as smooth as a pebble on a beach by repetition, to become part of the fabric of individual people in the middle of a communal act."

What MacCulloch is saying is that the Book of Common Prayer has staying power, and so does MacCulloch's biography of Cranmer. These are great books that will be read by serious people who are heeding the admonition of the sage: "Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding" (Proverbs 23:23).

If you're not interested in books that have staying power, books that will be read by serious people for years to come, waste your mind and your life on the purple passages of the passing fads of books like Blue Like Jazz. If you don't want to waste your time with such books, check out this review by Mark Coppenger or this one by J. D. Greear.

Fundamentalists and Liberals: What Characterizes Each?

2006-03-17T05:59:00.000-08:00

On his always stimulating blog Euangelion, Mike Bird has posted a nice summary of what characterizes both fundamentalists and liberals. These words get thrown around a lot, and Prof. Dr. Bird insightfully clarifies 12 major characteristics of each tendency. Check out Fundamentalist versus Liberal.

Southern Baptist Ghosts

2006-03-14T14:31:00.000-08:00

Back in 1999 Timothy George wrote an insightful piece on three controversies among Southern Baptists: the Stone-Campbell movement, the Landmarkists, and the hyper-Calvinists. Dr. George gives a fascinating look into the historical development of these three problems that Southern Baptists faced. The issues provoked by these disputes are still with us, and George's essay, Southern Baptist Ghosts, can help us to understand what the issues are, what is at stake, and how we should go about dealing with these disputes. This piece is well worth a read from any Southern Baptist thinking about where the convention is and where it is headed. I agree with the desire George expresses in his concluding words: "My hope is not for the removal of conflict, but for the elevation of dialogue, for the kind of substantive historical and theological engagement that has always been central to the cultivation of a vibrant Christian orthodoxy. This is a distinctive mark of the Baptist tradition at its best."

Baptists and Elders

2006-03-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

Someone recently asked me for evidence of a plurality of elders in SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCHES, and I did not have an answer for that person. I can’t remember who asked me, but the evidence is beautifully summarized in a piece by Mark Dever available at the 9 Marks site called Baptists and Elders.

In view of the evidence that Dever cites—evidence that includes an endorsement of the plurality of elders by the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention, William B. Johnson (you really should go read Baptists and Elders)—it is surprising to me that some Southern Baptists are suggesting that having a plurality of elders in a local congregation is “semi-presbyterian.”

Dever also summarizes the biblical evidence for a plurality of elders in every church in Baptists and Elders, so I won’t rehearse what I have said earlier on this blog.

If you’re looking for more on a plurality of elders, you might be interested in a new book called Elders in Congregational Life, which is also reviewed on the 9Marks site. If you do a search on the 9Marks site on elders, you’ll see that Dever has written several short pieces on this issue.

I’ll never forget hearing John Hannah say that we owe two things to everyone with whom we enter into theological dispute. We owe them understanding. We must understand what they are saying. And we owe them fairness. We must treat them as we would want to be treated.

I hope that we Baptists can dialogue about our differences on these matters in a way that reflects that we understand the position taken by those with whom we disagree, and I hope that we’ll be fair to those with whom we disagree (in other words, I think the charge that a plurality of elders is "Presbyterian" is both unfair and fails to understand those of us who take this view).

Counseling and the Authority of Christ

2006-02-19T14:04:00.000-08:00

Praise God for Russell D. Moore. And praise God for the new direction in which he is pointing the Biblical Counseling program at Southern Seminary.

Hallelujah! I am elated to see somebody stand up and call it like it is. Somebody with the guts to "sell the mills" (see Good to Great).

I cannot commend the address Dr. Moore gave at SBTS in the Spring of 2005 on Counseling and the Authority of Christ highly enough.

May many institutions that train servants of the churches follow this path blazed by Southern Seminary. And may God continue to bless Russ Moore. . .

Piper on Pain

2006-02-17T13:38:00.000-08:00

I don't know anybody in the world who thinks about life like John Piper. Right before he had prostate surgery he wrote Don't Waste Your Cancer.

Here's a preview, which will hopefully prompt you to read the whole thing:
1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
2. You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.
3. You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.
4. You will waste your cancer if you refuse to think about death.
5. You will waste your cancer if you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ.
6. You will waste your cancer if you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God.
7. You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.
8. You will waste your cancer if you grieve as those who have no hope.
9. You will waste your cancer if you treat sin as casually as before.
10. You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

HT: JT

Sick of the Smut on Billboards

2006-02-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

I am sick of seeing billboards advertising strip clubs and adult smut shops, and so I wrote a letter that I have sent to a number of advertisers in the Houston area.

What does it say about a company that they are willing to degrade women, invite men to become lascivious beasts, and pervert the impressionable young women and men of our society by selling advertising space to these peddlers of smut, shame, and sorrow?

Do these companies want adolescent boys to see the enticing women on these billboards and conclude that women are objects for the sexual gratification of men? Do they want the young men of our society to be lured into the degrading, enslaving perversion of sexuality offered by the porn industry?

Do these companies want young women to see these billboards and conclude that they are objects for the sexual gratification of men? Or, do they want the young women to conclude that the way for them to gain power over men is through the reduction of those men to drooling, lustful beasts?

Not only am I sick of these billboards, I am realizing that as my 2 year old little boy continues to observe the world around him, he’ll soon see this trash.

I think that any company that sells advertising space to the smut peddlars ought to hear from people who don’t want to have such advertisements imposed upon them.

Unlike commercials on television, billboards can’t be turned off. Nor can you change the channel or make sure that these ads are only seen after the little ones have gone to bed. There the smut is in broad daylight, imposing its call to destructive, degrading, adulterous, home-wrecking immorality on anyone who has to use the roadway.

Why should these companies force these obscenities upon the general public?

One advertiser I contacted gave me the names of several advertisers who, according to this person, sell space to the smut-peddlers in Houston, TX.

Here are their names, phone numbers, website addresses, and emails:

CBS Outdoor (formerly Viacom Outdoor)
– Randy Jackson, VP/General Manager
– 713-868-2284
– http://www.cbsoutdoor.com/
– randy.jackson@cbsoutdoor.com

SignAd
– Wesley Gilbreath, President
– 713-861-6013
– http://www.signad.com/

JGI Outdoor
– Carrie Kirkland VP
– 281-992-2828
– http://www.jgioutdoor.com/
– ckirkland@jgioutdoor.com

I spoke on the phone with representatives of these three companies. The only one who did not deny his culpability was Randy Jackson of CBS Outdoor. He would only say that he had forwarded the email I sent on to the cooperate office and they would contact me.

Here’s the letter I sent to each of these companies and several others (including the Mayor of Houston and the Governor of Texas):

My wife and I moved to Houston in the summer of 2003. We were immediately struck by one very unpleasant aspect of the city. There are smutty billboards everywhere, and in my judgment this is the ugliest aspect of Houston. Billboards advertising strip clubs, signs advertising adult movie stores, and billboards advertising adult smut shops. The drive on 45 South from where I live in the Clear Lake area to where I work at 610 and 45 South is particularly heinous.

To put this in context, we had previously lived in Dallas from 1996 to 2000, and then we lived in Louisville, KY from 2000 to 2003. So it is not as though we are moving to the big city from a rural area. Upon my arrival in Houston, I was shocked at the nasty feel all the smut signs give to the city of Houston.

I am now writing because our first son has recently turned 2 years old, and with our second son on the way it occurs to me that one day they will notice these billboards.

THIS IS NOT THE WAY THAT I WANT MY BOYS TO THINK ABOUT WOMEN! These signs present women as objects of lust, and they portray a false and destructive approach to human sexuality--the message conveyed by these signs is that a man should use whomever and whatever he can to maximize his own pleasure.

So aside from the detrimental affect these signs have on the youth of the city, I ask you to consider the way that all these filthy advertisments present the city to visitors. Neither Dallas nor Louisville, nor Chicago, nor I daresay any other great city in this free land so lewdly invites its people to behave like beasts.

Please do whatever you can to reduce and hopefully rid this fair city of these unclean sirens that lure her citizens into smut, filth, and moral degradation.

Please consider the young boys, the adolescents, and the men seeking to be faithful to their wives, and please act.

Please refuse to sell your advertising space to those peddling smut.

Thank you for your consideration, and may God bless your efforts.

Pleading for the cultivation of nobility and virtue in our city,

Jim Hamilton

James M. Hamilton Jr., Th.M., Ph.D.

I hope you’ll join me in calling for the removal of this smut from the billboards of the land.

Listen to the Greek NT for Free!

2006-01-28T09:21:00.000-08:00

You can listen to the Westcott Hort Greek NT for free here: http://www.ccel.org/a/anonymous/gnt/home.html.

Or, part of the NT is up here: http://www.greeklatinaudio.com/, and note that this greeklatinaudio page also has part of the OT in Hebrew up as well as part of the Latin translation of the NT read aloud posted.

Read, listen, and may God write it on our hearts!

Listen to the Hebrew Bible for Free!

2006-01-28T08:28:00.000-08:00

In response to my last post, someone pointed me to this site: http://ariel.dtison.net/hebrew_old_testament/96k/.

There you can listen to the OT read in Hebrew for free!

Enjoy, and may God bless the reading and the hearing of his word!

Reading and Hearing Biblical Hebrew

2006-01-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

The Central Library for the Blind in Israel has a phenomenal tool for anyone trying to learn Biblical Hebrew. They are offering their recording of the Hebrew Bible, the whole thing, in Hebrew, for $50! Go here: http://www.clfb.org.il/index-e.htm and click on the link near the middle of the page on the right that says, “The Bible Recording Narrated by S. Bertonov.”

While I’m posting on Hebrew, I should mention that the main factors in learning the biblical languages (or any language) are persistence and consistency, not intelligence and good grades in the courses. Anyone can learn this stuff if they never quit. No one should expect to be able to read a sentence full of words and forms and constructions they have never seen before simply because they have taken 2 (or 8!) semesters of the language. Yet we all, and I include myself, get discouraged when we come to something that we can’t quite make out. The key is to go over it and over it and over it again. If we hope for success, we must read Hebrew and Greek every day. Let the discouragement go to the birds, and keep reading and re-reading the text!

This recording of Hebrew is a great tool, and listening to the reader while following along with an open Hebrew Bible can move us through a lot of text quickly. I recommend working through the translation of a chapter, then listening to Sholomo Bertonov read it a time or two.

May God bless the reading and the hearing of his most holy word!

Les Bollinger joins the blogroll!

2006-01-14T06:18:00.000-08:00

While Jill and I were in Louisville studying at Southern, we worshiped at Clifton Baptist Church. It was a joy to be a part of that vibrant body, and it is a joy to see where the Lord has taken the members of that body.

I recently heard from Les Bollinger, with whom we worshiped at Clifton, and I am rejoiced to know that he is now pastoring in Beaver, PA and blogging at http://eutychus.blogspot.com/.

Les is a faithful pastor scholar, who, from what I know of him, loves God, loves God's word, and loves God's people. May his tribe increase!

The Septuagint as Christian Scripture

2006-01-13T05:43:00.000-08:00

As with most everything Martin Hengel writes, this volume contains a treasure-trove of information. He makes some startling proposals here, and his inclusion of an essay by Robert Hanhart makes this almost a "two views" book. If you've ever wondered how the church fathers viewed the LXX, how they regarded the apocrypha, or why most Bible translations rely on the Hebrew rather than the Greek OT, this is a book that might interest you. You can read my review here.

BibleWorks 6

2006-01-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

From time to time I get asked what I think about the various Bible software programs. I use BibleWorks 6, and I my review of the software is here.

The One Who Does Them Shall Live by Them?

2006-01-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

Leviticus 18:5 says, “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.” And Paul quotes this text in Galatians 3:12, “But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’”

So does this mean that salvation was by works in the old covenant? You can read what I think about it here.

Planning the Service of Worship

2005-12-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

This post is mainly in response to Bret's questions in his comments on my last post. He asked: How much does your order of worship change each week and how (and do you always) do you determine the order?

At this point we haven't deviated much from the order that can be seen linked to the last post. As for the determination of the order, here's something of the process.

First I try to determine what I'll be preaching. I've gone through all of Revelation, then we did a series on the church, and this Sunday will be the fifth of five sermons on the Pentateuch. One sermon per book of the Pentateuch. On Christmas Day, Lord willing, we'll start a series on Luke.

I heard Mark Dever talk about the way that he plans things out in advance, determining the text to be covered and a title for the message that is mainly designed to grab attention.

So once I have the text to be preached and a general idea about what the main ideas of that text are, I fill in the blanks of the service with material that relates to the main ideas of the text. This way, hopefully by the Spirit's guidance in my growing understanding biblical theology, the whole service can be themed to the text that will be preached.

The blanks to be filled in are these:
(1) Call to worship
(2) hymn
(3) OT Scripture
(4) hymn
(5) pre and post-confession Scripture
(6) catechism/creed
(7) hymn
(8) NT Scripture
(9) hymn
(10) Sermon Scripture
(11) benediction.

The easiest part is matching the OT and NT readings with the text for the sermon because there are so many connections between the biblical texts. From there I try to put shorter texts that are related in the call to worship, usually from the Psalms. So also--shorter related texts--for the pre and post confession Scripture and the benediction. It's generally easy to find good hymns that go with something in the text to be preached, and sometimes things come together so that what has just been read in the OT reading, for instance, can be echoed in the hymn that follows the reading.

The hardest part for me, or at least the part that generally takes a bit of research, is matching a question from a Baptist Confession of faith or a Baptist Catechism or one of the great Creeds of the faith to what is being preached.

It may look involved, but in 2-3 hours it's really not hard to plan ahead for a month or more. Once the thing is planned and handed off to the person doing the bulletin I don't have to think about it.

I think what I find most beneficial about Shakespearean worship is that it feels like the worship service is full of Bible and robustly God-centered.

May the Lord inhabit the praises of his people!

A Liturgical Southern Baptist Church?

2005-12-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

My last two posts have been on Shakespearean Worship, so I thought I would post Redeemer's order of worship from last Sunday, December 4, 2005 in case you are interested in seeing how we are trying to give this hands and feet. If you want to worship with us, we invite you to visit Baptist Church of the Redeemer (directions at www.bcredeemer.org).

Shakespearean Worship and the Emergent Church

2005-12-09T07:50:00.000-08:00

The Emergent Church’s creative and asthetic attempts to help people worship call us to ask how we can best enjoy God as gathered congregations. If we don’t learn anything else from the Emergent Church, I hope that many churches will be spurred to examine the service of worship that they have cultivated.

Ultimately, the issue is not atmosphere, form, and style. The issue is knowing and experiencing God.

I have been to too many worship services in churches that claim to believe that God is revealed in the Bible, but they barely have any Scripture in the worship service before the sermon (if they have Scripture in the sermon). This seems simple to me, but I’ll spell out the logic anyway:

God reveals himself in the Bible.

Worship is our response to God’s revelation of himself.

Doesn’t a natural deduction from these two premises present itself?

If we want to worship, won’t we seek to exalt God by relating what he has revealed of himself in the Bible?

Let’s use Bible in our call to worship. Let’s read a passage from the OT before we sing, then sing something with vigor that has biblical and theological conten, then read another passage from the NT, then sing some more.

I suspect that one reason many “worship services” are not very worshipful is that they don’t have much Bible in them. Too many churches substitute comedy, personality, and warm fuzzy for the revelation of God in the written word of Scripture. The result is that people may feel good about themselves, but they have not encountered God.

You don’t have to be Emergent, and you don’t have to be Shakespearean (see below), but if you are a Christian who wants to worship God, you do have to be biblical.

Shakespearean Worship

2005-12-08T07:50:00.000-08:00

Some churches thrive on a big personality, a trendsetter who draws crowds by sheer magnetic personality. The worship in most churches, however, is led by ordinary people from whose lips profound theology does not spontaneously fall. Is it possible to have a powerful worship experience that is not dependent upon big personality-trendsetting-celebrities? Can we have worship services that are powerfully moving times when the Lord’s presence is real and people’s lives are changed without extremely talented people?

One way for worship leaders to compensate for a lack of talent, style, and pizzazz would be for them to rely on something other than their own ingenuity to make worship meaningful. Worship leaders could tap into the beauties of liturgy. Thomas Cranmer shaped the liturgy of the Anglican church, and Diarmaid MacCulloch has this to say of his efforts: “Cranmer’s prose shows a tremendous sense of how language can work to produce a play: a play performed countless times over centuries by millions on millions of people day by day, week by week, year by year. This is a play which has outperformed every drama by Shakespeare, Marlow, Ben Johnson, any playwright in the English language.”

It seems to me that a lot of contemporary worship services are trying to entertain, like a television program. Many of these churches are trying very hard to be hip, and many have the same feel—like they’re a half step behind the culture minus all the racy stuff. The exceptional churches that pull this off usually have extraordinary people leading them. One big problem with the TV model of church is that if you don’t have a trendsetter you have a flop. The church will be uninspiring, and because it is trying to be like a sitcom, it usually does not give itself to teaching theology and Bible. And it dare not suggest that there is a holy, sovereign God before whom we live.

Some cultural forms elevate our capacities, others drag us down. Some things make us smarter—like reading Shakespeare—and others make us dumber—like watching television. MacCulloch writes of Cranmer, “How fortunate that Cranmer did not seek to scintillate. Liturgy does not demand jokes or punchlines: purple passages which sound exciting once and then become embarrassing. The need is for words which can be polished as smooth as a pebble on a beach by repetition, to become part of the fabric of individual people in the middle of a communal act.”

Liturgy is a prescribed form or set of forms for public worship, and the reality is that even informal churches have an unwritten liturgy. These informal liturgies are not only like sitcoms in their banality, they also, like sitcoms, generally proceed with a minimum of audience participation. Some churches even have the equivalent of a laugh track in the way they pump the praise team’s vocals through the speakers so that one cannot hear oneself or the congregation sing.
Even more problematic is the lack of biblical and theological content in the TV liturgy. It is sometimes said that we must “leave room for the Spirit to move.” There’s nothing wrong with leaving room for the Spirit; the problem is that we have abandoned carefully prepared, theologically full statements for whatever comes to mind at the moment. Expecting the Spirit to move in a biblical and theological vacuum is like expecting a fish to swim where there is no water. If the truths of the Gospel and the words of the Lord are not being announced, will the Spirit move? Sometimes the claim that we are “leaving room for the Spirit” sounds like an excuse for the contemporary allergy toward anything formal. Our unplanned informality fails to produce meaningful worship because for the most part we are theologically and biblically illiterate. There are some among us who know Bible and theology, but even they often fail to come up with something profound to say on the spur of the moment. Thus, so many worship services are bland pap.

Rather than being spontaneously dull week after week, why not draw from the vast body of profound statements that have been prepared for use in the worship of the Triune God? Here’s what I mean by Shakespearean church: establish an intentional pattern that the service of worship will follow, and prune from that pattern anything that distracts the congregation’s attention from the God whom we are responding to in worship. Do the announcements before the service starts so that they don’t interrupt later. Plan the service so that there is a natural flow from song to Scripture reading to song to confessional statement to song to Scripture to sermon. After the Scripture is read, train those who read to say, “The Word of the Lord,” and train the congregation to respond, “Thanks be to God!” Incorporate some kind of congregational affirmation of the faith (Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed, etc.). Develop a rhythm that sweeps from a call to worship to a confession of sin to the celebration of forgiveness through the blood of Christ. Train the pianist or organist (or guitarist!) to begin the first note of the next song as soon as the last word of the reading or confession has been spoken. But most importantly, relentlessly direct the congregation’s attention to the exalted Christ, the image of the Father, whom the Spirit will glorify as the Word is read and the truth of the Gospel is spoken. This pattern, or liturgy, can serve the church the way that the sonnet form and iambic pentameter served Shakespeare.

Some might fear that these forms could stifle creativity. On the contrary, the form is the dress that clothes creativity with significance. It is true that forms can be lamed by uninspiring statements, which raises the question of where we get the content that will make the forms fly. Perhaps responsive readings could be taken from the great confessions and catechisms of the past, or from a resource like The Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennet. Cranmer’s work in the Book of Common Prayer is readily available, and profound quotes from theologians of the church are at our fingertips thanks to Google searches. Why not seek creative ways to incorporate the high theology of theologians past? The Spirit can move through the reading of a prepared quotation, and the Spirit might be more likely to move through a rich theological utterance than through the flippant comments made in so many worship services.

While the TV worship style may be engaging, rarely does it teach theology or cultivate reverent worship. One way to stave off the monotony that does plague liturgical worship is for those leading the congregation to do so with enthusiasm. Paul does speak of exulting in God, and the free tradition is right to cultivate a celebratory atmosphere in worship.

At first read, Shakespeare looks difficult. But the more you read the easier it gets, and the happy things he does to the mind are worth learning 16th century English to experience. The old hymns are also worth learning because they teach sound doctrine and express what we would say if we could put it so well.

Let us pursue a contemporary—stylish but not faddish, historical—orthodox but not dank, theological—deepening but not boring, and, most importantly, God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated way of doing worship. Cranmer’s liturgy can help us in this task, and if we are successful it won’t be because we’re brilliant or because of our celebrity persona. Rather, the moving worship will come because we tapped into something bigger than ourselves—centuries of truth about Almighty God—and he visited us in power, inhabiting the praises of his people and honoring the exposition of his word.

Obadiah: The Kingdom Shall Be the Lord's

2005-12-03T06:01:00.000-08:00

I recently preached on Obadiah, and the sermon is now online.

The Servant King

2005-11-23T13:34:00.000-08:00

T. Desmond Alexander's little book, The Servant King: The Bible's Portrait of the Messiah, deserves far more attention than it has received. This is a fast read that anyone can understand, and more importantly, this slim volume provides a hermeneutically legitimate way of reading the Old Testament as a messianic book. In other words, Alexander convincingly shows how the OT points to Christ, and along the way he avoids the interpretive pitfalls that sometimes make such arguments less than compelling. Take and read!

Salvation History for the Wee Ones

2005-11-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

My friend Rob Lister recommended to me The Big Picture Story Bible by David Helm, illustrated by Gail Schoonmaker. Following Graeme Goldsworthy, this fine volume teaches the Bible’s story to little tots.

What a great thing to read to the children before bed! I found its depiction of the fall particularly moving. Thankfully, unlike presentations such as the Veggie Tales, The Big Picture Story Bible doesn’t censor the Bible but straightforwardly presents the story with all its sin, misery, mercy, and joy.

Thanksgiving Hymn: We Gather Together

2005-11-22T06:27:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal has a great piece on the history of a hymn that has come to be associated with Thanksgiving, We Gather Together. Those of us not blessed to have this melody woven into the fabric of our minds can remedy the deficiency by listening to it at the Cyber Hymnal. And, if you’d like to strum it on a guitar, or improvise with the chords on a piano, you can get the chords here.

Schreiner's Stuff Now Online!

2005-11-13T18:22:00.000-08:00

My Ph.D. mentor, Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner, has done us another invaluable service. He has posted links to many of his articles, presentations, book reviews, and editorials on his faculty web-page on Southern Seminary’s website. Here’s the full address:
http://www.sbts.edu/academics/theology/faculty/SchreinerThomas.php.

I think that Dr. Schreiner’s book reviews are so helpful that they’re one of the main reasons I subscribe to the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, and now past reviews are available online! This is a treasure trove for pastors, students, and scholars too. Enjoy!

Songs for Suffering Saints

2005-11-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

Along with John Piper’s Advent Poems, some of the best poetry being written in our day is by Eric Schumacher, who is offering a great deal ($3.50!) on a collection of his newly written hyms (just in case you want the address, here it is: http://scripturealone.blogspot.com/2005/11/songs-for-suffering-saints.html).

We have employed several of Eric’s hymns in worship at Baptist Church of the Redeemer, and they are among our favorites.

Sermon on Malachi 2:10-4:6: "The Lord Will Come to His Temple"

2005-10-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

Available here.

Sermon on Malachi 1:1-2:9, "Great Is the Lord"

2005-09-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

Available here.

Sermon on Inerrancy

2005-09-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

Available here.

Elders in Baptist Churches

2005-08-07T12:58:00.000-07:00

Two recent books have taken up the question of how churches ought to be led, Who Runs the Church and Perspectives on Church Government. I’m a Baptist, so my main interest is in the arguments in these books as to whether congregational churches ought to be led by a single elder or a plurality of elders.

The best argument for the single elder view is based on the nature of the churches described in the NT. This view holds that, for instance, in Acts 20:17 when Paul summons the elders of the church in Ephesus, what Luke has in view is not a single church in Ephesus that has a plurality of elders but a multitude of house churches, each of which has one elder. In summoning the elders of Ephesus, Paul is summoning all the pastors of these various house churches. This way of understanding the churches in the NT is then used as a grid through which all of the texts referring to multiple elders are read.

I don’t think this view works because I don’t think it does justice to two texts: Acts 14:23 and James 5:14. If the "single elder in each house church making up a plurality in a city" view doesn’t work in these two texts, all the other texts that speak of elders in the plural should probably be read as single churches that have multiple elders—including Acts 20:17 (see also Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 4:14; 5:17; Tit 1:5; 1 Pet 5:1, 5).

In Acts 14:23 we read that as Paul and Barnabas made their way back to Antioch in Syria from their first missionary journey, "they appointed for them elders according to church." I have rendered this very literally to bring out the sense of the text, which is that each church (sg.) had elders (pl.). This is usually translated, "they appointed elders for them in every church," which makes the same point. Luke does not say that they appointed elders in every town, which would support the single-elder position. He says that in each church (sg.) elders (pl.) were appointed.

In James 5:14 we read, "If someone is sick among you, let him call the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." I find it highly unlikely that a sick member of a certain church should summon pastors from different churches in his city. It seems far more plausible that James envisions a particular church having multiple elders who gather to pray over the sick in their own congregation.

On the SWBTS Oxford Study Tour we found some evidence that early English Baptists read the New Testament to indicate that churches should have multiple elders. In Tewksbury we visited the oldest surviving Baptist church structure in England. Baptists began meeting in this little chapel sometime around 1620. While there, we found this old picture:

You will notice a little box in the bottom right of the picture, and a close up of that box looks like this:

Here is the text from this box:

"Messengers" 1655
John Fluck
Thomas Smith
Wm Haines
"Elders" 1663
John Cowell
John Brian
John White
"Minister" 1688
Eleazer Merring
V.D.M.

I don’t know what the first title, "Messengers" refers to. It could be that the three men named were "apostles," since "messenger" is a valid translation of the word "apostle" (apostle is simply a transliteration of its Greek equivalent). Or it could be that these men were "messengers" to associational meetings in the way that current churches send "messengers" to state and national conventions. I take it that the second title, "Elders," refers to men who served as pastors and teachers. The last title in the list, "Minister," could refer to a Deacon—since "minister" is a valid translation of the Greek word for "deacon" (like "apostle," "deacon" is simply a transliteration of the Greek word for "deacon," which means "servant/minister"). It is more likely, however, that "Minister" here is used in the sense of "Pastor," since under the man’s name is the abbreviation "V.D.M.," which stands for Verbi Domini Minister, which means "Minister of the Word of God." If "minister" here means "pastor," then this photo may indicate that in 1663 the church had a plurality of elders, and then in 1688 they had a "single elder" model with one pastor whom they referred to as "minister."

We also visited Bedford, where John Bunyan pastored. In the museum at his church they have a copy of the minutes of the church from when Bunyan was pastor, and the book is open to a page with his signature. He has signed the minute-book after a paragraph detailing an instance when the church disciplined(!) one of its members. Under Bunyan’s name is a list of other men’s names. The tour guide said that those names were the names of the other elders of the church.

Here is a photo of that page:

These historical examples only prove that in Baptist history Baptist churches have been led by multiple elders, even when one of them is as prominent as John Bunyan. The real issue for us as Baptists is what the Bible says, and as noted above and argued here, I think that the most biblical way for Baptists to do church is to have a plurality of elders.

Oxford Study Tour Video

2005-07-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

For the last 19 years Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has taken students on an Oxford Study Tour. This year I was one of the chaperoning faculty. We take SWBTS students to Oxford, teach them there, spend loads of time together at meals and on buses, and tour major Baptist history sites. You can view our itinerary from this year’s trip here. I produced a video of the trip, and you can download a big or small version of it here.

If you have high speed internet access it might work to stream the big version, otherwise it will probably be best to right click and choose "save target as," then save the video to your desktop. Once the whole thing downloads, you can either ok the "open" box that comes up, or double click it on your desktop and it should play.

Special thanks to Richard Fields for his work on getting this video posted on Baptist Church of the Redeemer’s website. I am also very grateful for the artists who gave me permission to use their music for this video: Huck’s Acoustic Revue, Indelible Grace, Derek Webb, Highland Baptist Church’s Worship Ministry, and The Critics. Their music makes the video much better than it would otherwise be. Thanks are also due to Dr. Malcolm Yarnell for telling the story of how Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, and Thomas Cranmer were martyred. Finally, this video is dedicated to Dr. Roy Fish, in gratitude for his 40 years of faithful service to Jesus Christ and Southwestern Seminary.

Where the Battle Rages

2005-07-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

Justin Taylor recently posted this famous quote from Martin Luther:

"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." (Luther's Works. Weimar Edition. Briefwechsel [Correspondence], vol. 3, pp. 81f.)

These words should spur us to think on where the battle is raging in our day, and here are my thoughts on where the fire is hottest (1) in the academy, (2) in the church in the USA, and (3) on the street:

In the Academy:

1. Open Theism: the view that the future choices of free creatures do not exist to be known, therefore not even God knows them. Thankfully the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 added a line to its statement on God to address this issue: "God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures."

2. Inclusivism: the view that people can be saved apart from conscious faith in Jesus Christ. I am in the process of reading Terrance Tiessen’s Who Can Be Saved? Reassessing Salvation in Christ and World Religions. Tiessen is arguing for "accessibilism," which holds that "God does save some of the unevangelized." I will eventually post a review of this book.

3. Justification: The New Perspective on Paul has called for a re-evaluation of the Protestant understanding of Justification by Faith, but the best explanation of all the evidence remains the one provided by the reformers. Justin Taylor links to a series of articles on the topic in a new online magazine called Reformation 21 here.

4. Egalitarianism: A vocal minority argues that the gender roles the Bible gives for the home and the church should be set aside. I think that Bible believing people are going to keep right on reading their Bibles and seeking to live out the gender roles outlined in passages such as Ephesians 5:21-33 and 1 Timothy 2:8-15. You can read my attempt to put these things together in a paper presented at this year’s Wheaton Theology Conference here.

Those of us in the academy must contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). I appeal to those not engaged in these academic discussions to pray that as these battles are fought we will exhibit clear minded, courageous love for Christ and his church, and that we will love the truth of God more than we love our own egos and reputations.

In Church in the USA:

1. Doctrinal Indifference: Many evangelicals seem to think that theology and careful Bible study are just not very relevant. This is frightening, because in essence this is to say that knowing God and understanding what he has revealed is not helpful for life in the world he created. Evangelicals would never put it this way, but it is implicit in the suggestion that something other than theology and Bible study are central for ministry. I am not alone in thinking that evangelicalism needs a reformation (see the new Reformation 21 website). For my view of what a reformation and revival would look like, see my earlier post here. For what I have done so far on A Call to Reformation see this post.

The next three problems are symptoms of the disease of biblical and theological ignorance.

2. Semi-Pelagianism: Pelagius disagreed with Augustine over the extent to which sin affects our ability to respond to God. Augustine thought that humanity had no ability because we are dead in trespasses and sins (cf. Rom 8:7; 1 Cor 2:14; Eph 2:1). Pelagius thought that sin had not produced death in us, but that it did make us very sick. According to Pelagius, we have the ability—apart from divine grace—to take the first steps toward our own salvation. Semi-Pelagianism does not deny divine grace altogether and holds that the first steps toward salvation are made by the human will. The main problems with this view are that it fails to account for the Bible’s many statements regarding human inability (cf. John 3:3, 5; 6:63; Rom 3:10–20) and it demeans the gracious character of salvation. If we are to be thanked for having taken the first steps toward God, then how can Paul exclude all human boasting before God? (cf. Rom 3:27–28; 4:1–5; 1 Cor 1:26–31).

3. Materialism and Worldliness: Only God can judge our hearts, and only he knows where our treasure is, but judging from exteriors it sure looks like we value what the world values. Who do we give awards to and why do we give those awards? Whose opinions do we value and why do we value them? What intimidates us and why? When we think of God’s blessing, do we think of the things that Jesus said were blessed (cf. Matt 5:3–12)?

4. Pragmatism: Far too often we evaluate things on the basis of what we think will work, or on what produces the most visible results. The measure of our "success" is not how many people get baptized, how much money our ministry takes in, how smoothly our "operation" runs, or how pretty our buildings are. The measure of our success is simply this: Have we been faithful to God and his word through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Do we do what we do in ministry because we love Christ and we think that he is calling us to do this or that, or do we do what we think will produce the results we want to see?

May the Lord be pleased to provoke a revival of interest in knowing himself in our churches, and may he thereby drive us to the Bible and clear up all these symptoms of the disease of friendship with the world and disinterest in God.

On the Street:

Others are better at cultural analysis than me (see especially Al Mohler and Russ Moore), but here are my thoughts nonetheless. These thoughts pertain more to the culture at large than they do to the culture of the church.

1. Relativism: We are far too good in our culture at accepting mutually exclusive truth claims.

2. Skepticism: Not only do we allow assertions that contradict one another to stand side by side, our culture is profoundly resistant to any claim to absolute truth. Far too often the culture fails to distinguish between exhaustive knowledge, which we can never hope to possess, and real knowledge of true things, which we can possess. Many people have concluded that if we cannot know something exhaustively, we cannot know it truly. As a result, the culture of the age of information is on the verge of abandoning the very concepts of truth and knowledge.

3. Hedonism: We are fools if we choose momentary pleasure over the deep satisfaction of the pleasures of the long slow climb of faithfulness and obedience. And we are fools.

There is nothing wrong with a worldling that regeneration won’t cure. May the Lord give us a great harvest of souls as we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and returning.

Calvinism and Arminianism: A Debate over First or Third Order Issues?

2005-07-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

Dr. Al Mohler has written a helpful piece on theological triage. Briefly, theological triage is an attempt to "sort" the doctrines of Christianity according to their relative significance to the faith. First order doctrines are things that one must believe to be a Christian—things like the Triunity of God and the two natures of Christ. If you don’t believe Jesus died for your sins, you’re not a Christian, and this is the nature of a first order issue. First order issues divide Christians from non-Christians.

Second order doctrines are important, but believing Christians can and do disagree on them—things like who gets baptized and how we baptize them. Christians divide from each other over these issues.

Third order issues are, in Mohler’s words, "doctrines over which Christians may disagree and remain in close fellowship, even within local congregations." An example of a third order issue is the question of whether or not there will be a millenium. Disagreement over this doesn’t mandate that we not worship together in the same church (it doesn’t affect our view of baptism or the Lord’s supper).

So here’s the big question: Is the dispute between Calvinists and Arminians a first, second, or third order dispute? I would like to suggest that, depending upon one’s view of the relationship between Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility, it is either a first or third order issue. The fact that there have been both general (i.e., Arminian) and particular (i.e., Calvinistic) Baptists, along with the existence of Calvinistic Methodists, keeps this from being a second order issue.

So what determines whether this is an issue of the first or third order? This is probably an oversimplification, but because I think it is helpful I will suggest that if both Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility are affirmed, this is a third order dispute over whether the emphasis should lie more on God’s initiative or humanity’s freedom. But if one denies either Divine Sovereignty or Human Responsibility, this becomes a first order issue.

Some Calvinists assume that all Arminians deny Divine Sovereignty. But it is not fair to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a theological position by its worst representatives. The truth is that there are Arminians who have a high view of God’s sovereignty. After all, Charles Wesley wrote "And Can It Be," and a glance through Grant Osborne’s excellent commentary on Revelation will show that an avowed Arminian can affirm the absolute sovereignty of God (see for example Osborne’s comment on Revelation 17:17, Revelation, 627).

Some Arminians assume that all Calvinists deny human responsibility and as a result think that things like evangelism and prayer are unnecessary. I have often heard people talk about "hyper-calvinists"—people who deny human responsibility and say that evangelism is not necessary. But never in my life have I ever actually met a self-described hyper-calvinist, someone who would affirm this position. If someone denies the necessity of evangelism and prayer, the problem is not that some aspects of their thinking are Calvinistic, the problem is that they are ignoring the clear teaching of the Bible. Some Arminians seem to forget that William Carey, the father of modern missions, was a five point Calvinist, as was Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the "prince of preachers" (and many other evangelistic Calvinists could be cited). To assume that these evangelistic Calvinists are the exceptions that prove the rule is no more fair than the assumption that a biblical Arminian is an exception that proves the rule.

John Hannah often says we owe two things to everyone: (1) to understand their position as they would articulate it; and (2) to interact with that position fairly. Let us think charitably of one another as we contend for biblical and theological precision.

More could no doubt be said, but we must believe that God is sovereign and humans are responsible. If we sacrifice either of these truths we are unbiblical. Errors on both sides affect one’s view of God, and one’s view of God is determinative for one’s world-view. This is why many react to the dispute between Calvinists and Arminians as a first order issue—because one’s view of God determines everything (or should).

We must believe everything the Bible says about God. I maintain that as long as one can affirm that God is sovereign and humans are responsible, this is a third order debate. We should all be in the process of biblical and theological growth, and may the Lord give us grace to live up to the theology we have attained (Phil 3:16).

Typological Fulfillment?

2005-07-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month I presented a paper to the Biblical Theology Study Group of the Tyndale Fellowship arguing that when Matthew claims that the events of Jesus’ birth "fulfill" the words of Isaiah 7:14 he is referring to typological fulfillment. If you’re interested, the essay is posted here. May the Lord help us to understand his Word.

Judgment on the Harlot Babylon: A Sermon on Revelation 17–18

2005-07-23T04:21:00.000-07:00

May the message of Revelation 17–18 keep us from whoring ourselves on the immoral wine of the condemned strumpet. May the Lord keep us from temptation by convincing us that the things that we are drawn to are satanic and destructive. The judgment on these hellish lies is certain. You can listen to my sermon on Revelation 17–18 here.

I’ve been in England for 3 weeks on the SWBTS Oxford Study Tour. I hope to post a highlight video I made of the trip somewhere online, but at present the video is 205MB. Please alert me if you know of a place that will let me post something that big for free.

A Call to Reformation: Chapter 3, Revived to Trinitarianism

2005-06-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

I’m still blogging for revival, and one of the things that we evangelicals need to be revived to is Trinitarianism. If we do not know God as he has revealed himself—as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, ever one, ever three, equal in every perfection—then we do not know God at all.

Let us pray for God to visit us with a great awakening in our day. If he does, Christians will cease to trivialize themselves with the banalities the world loves and give themselves instead to the herculean task of knowing the one true God. A major part of the all-consuming pleasure of knowing God is knowing him as Triune.

In this third chapter of A Call to Reformation, I argue that we need to believe in and live on God. If we don’t believe in the Trinity, we don’t believe in the God of the Bible, so the first half of the chapter briefly looks at biblical and historical evidence on the Trinity. The second half of the chapter deals with living on the Triune God, so I discuss how the knowledge of the Triune God affects worship, church life, prayer, Bible study, evangelism, preaching, marriage, and child-rearing.

My prayer is that this chapter will be one of the ways that God brings about an evangelicalism that is Revived to Trinitarianism. I invite you to read it, and I welcome any feedback you may have for me.

Augustine worked on his book on the Trinity for 19 years! My short treatment here is not the final statement, and it is definitely a work in progress.

If you’re interested in previous installments of this book, you can either click on the title of the project above, or go straight to the Introduction, or to chapter 1, The Nature of the Bible and How to Study It, or to chapter 2, Being the Church the Biblical, Baptist Way.

May the Lord be pleased to consume his people with love for himself as he is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

How the Lord Provided for Me in Seminary

2005-06-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me this morning how I arranged to pay for my seminary studies. I am grateful for this question because it gave me an opportunity to reflect on the steadfast faithfulness of the Lord. The truth is that I didn’t arrange anything, but God did. I moved to Dallas in August of 1996 to attend Dallas Theological Seminary, trusting that God would bring me through, and he did just that. Perhaps I was young and naïve, but God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness are bigger than the foolishness of those who trust him. The Lord provided, and he provided through people like my friend who asked me the question this morning—that friend bought me my first computer and printer when I started at at DTS.

The only money I had when I went to Dallas was what I had earned working at Kanakuk that summer. I think it was about $1600, but I was single and had no debts. I also had no job, but the Lord soon opened a door for me as a youth intern at Northwest Bible Church.

I assumed that my job at Northwest would carry me through, but in early Octobor of 1996, I sat down and calculated expenses and income and saw that I was going to be about $1600 short at the beginning of the spring. That night I went to Northwest and mentioned the financial crisis to the youth staff before we prayed. Kent Lawrence prayed, "Lord, I pray someone will just give Jim the money."

A week later I wasn't given the money, but a guy named Darin approached me and said he was eloping and needed someone to move into his apartment. I told him I was already short on funds and there was no way I could pay rent. He then responded, "There is no rent!" He lived in a backhouse behind the home of a 91 year old lady, Zelva Laird, who liked to have a seminary student live behind her and give her a call every day. That's it. No rent, no work, just a phone call to make sure she was okay.

I contacted the school to see if they would refund the money that I had already paid to live in the dorm. When they refunded the balance of what I had paid for the dorm that fall it was $1660, exactly what I thought the shortfall would be.

Every semester I would fill out a scholarship request form that had two columns. One column was for expenditures and the other column was for income. Every semester my expenditures amounted to more than my income, but I never went into debt (and I never went without some scholarship help from the school!). There were times when it looked bad. I remember going to the financial aid office one day and picking up a loan application. I started for the door, but then I stopped and took it back to the desk. I handed it back to the lady working there and said, "I’m just going to wait and see what God does."

Late in the semester at DTS the bill for the next semester would arrive. The school's policy was that you either paid the amount in full or paid extra to be on a payment plan. That first fall of 1996 I paid what I owed when I got the bill. A few days later, I went to my box and found a note. The note said that an anonymous donor had called and expressed a desire to pay my tuition. Since I had already paid what I owed after scholarship, the donor had requested that the $750 I had paid be refunded to me.

That very week I had taken my car in because the clutch wasn't working. I needed a new clutch, a new battery, 4 new tires, and a realignment of those tires. The bill on my car came to $715, and the Lord had provided through an anonymous donor. To this day I have no idea who that person was, but I am grateful for them and I praise God for the way he orchestrated my car bill to be less than my tuition!

I hope I never forget how mystified I felt when I got that note in my box. I could not figure out why it had happened. Had God had blessed me in that way because I had done something right? Why did God cause a donor to give to me and not to some DTS student who was more deserving than me? Why didn’t the donor give to some student who was worse off than me financially? Why had God shown such kindness to me? What had I done to deserve this?

Looking back, I did not have a theological category for God's mercy. I had heard the word, and I thought I knew what it meant. But when it happened to me I didn't know what it was. A few years later, when I beheld the free mercy of God as I studied Romans 9 and was helped to understand it by John Piper's book The Justification of God, I realized that the anonymous donor, like so many other things in my life (loving parents, living in a land that has the Bible, growing up hearing the Gospel, etc.) were expressions of God's sovereign, free, almighty mercy and love and grace and goodness to me. I did not deserve them. God shows compassion to whom he wills as an expression of his love. He is not obligated to love all people in the same way all the time, and in his sovereign freedom he has chosen to show special love to me. Only God knows why he chose to be kind to me, and I owe him thanks and praise. I am responsible for my actions and deserve only hell, but he freely gives life and joy and peace in the knowledge of himself. Mercy. Hallelujah!

In late November of that fall of 1996 I got an opportunity to go to England for 6 days with two other DTS students. I was given an almost free plane ticked because one of the guys worked for the airline and was able to get "buddy passes" for us. My parents were going to help with some of the costs as well, but then as I was driving home from DTS one day I stopped behind a truck at a stop sign. The truck pulled forward, I eased up on the brake and moved slightly forward, then the truck suddenly backed up again, denting the front of my hood. When the insurance adjuster came to look at my car, she gave me a check for $950. I asked her if I was obligated to use the money to have the car fixed, and she replied that her client had done that amount of damage to my property and I was entitled to that much in compensation. I could do what I pleased with it. I lived on it!

In my second fall at DTS, the fall of 1997, I met my sweet wife, Jill (September 17, praise God for that day!). I could tell very early that I wanted to give my life to this woman. I went to her home for Christmas that year, and on Christmas morning, while she slept, over coffee with her parents, I asked her father for his blessing. He replied, "You already have it!" That January Jill's mother came to Dallas and we visited a jeweler together and bought a ring. Jill's parents gave me a no-interest loan to buy the ring.

That spring of 1998 I only took 10 hours at DTS. I was working two jobs to pay for school and the ring and then marriage! By God's grace I was able to pay the ring off by our wedding day, July 25, 1998.

After we got married, God's provision came in the form of the generosity of Jill's parents. They had purchased a condominium in a neighborhood near DTS for Jill to live in while she was in school, and after we got married they allowed us to live there rent-free. They also graciously continued to pay for Jill's tuition and books at DTS, and even continued to give her an allowance until we graduated together on April 29, 2000. I praise God that he put it into the hearts of Jill's parents to be so supportive of us.

We moved to Louisville from Dallas in May of 2000, and the Lord continued to bless us and provide for us through my Ph.D. program. We had no kids yet, and sweet Jill graciously worked to put me through school. Jill's parents had given her a car for graduation, and they had allowed me to keep the car Jill had previously. My parents let me keep the money for the sale of my car--even though they had paid for it.

During our time at SBTS, the Lord continued to surprise us in the way that he provided. My sister and brother in law expressed a desire to buy my books while I was doing the Ph.D., so every semester I got a check from Dayna and Clint. Various friends and family members blessed with cash gifts, SBTS once paid me $600 for a study I did for one of the Vice Presidents, and somehow the Lord (and sweet Jill's frugality) kept us afloat and debt free.

God is worthy of trust, and his mercies are new every morning. To him be the glory forever and ever, Amen!

The Resurrection of the Son of God

2005-06-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

Everyone interested in the resurrection of Jesus and careful study of the Bible should read N. T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God. For an entrée, see my review.

My other book reviews, as well as some published articles and presentations, are available on my faculty webpage.

Indelible Grace Worship Music

2005-06-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

Everyone who loves profound theology presented in sublime poetry set to creative new tunes can praise God for the folks at Indelible Grace Music. They are reviving many hymns that lay in the dust of history by setting them to new music (though I would also be an advocate for many of the original tunes!).

They have posted their work at The RUF Hymnbook Online Hymn Resource. I would especially recommend two hymns, "Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand" and "Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted." You can listen to clips of both by clicking on the link that reads "Demo MP3" to the right.

In our day of fluff and foam, may the Lord be pleased to bless us with substantive worship through ministries like this one!

Sex and the Supremacy of Christ

2005-06-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 25:11 states that "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." John Piper and Justin Taylor have edited a volume that speaks apples of gold in a setting of silver to our culture. In the sin and misery we find ourselves in after the fall, it is all too easy for us to look to something other than God to do for us what only God can do for us. The contributors to this volume remind us that God, not sex, is to be worshiped.

Sex and the Supremacy of Christ should be required reading for every Christian. Justin Taylor introduces the volume, making plain the need for just this book and piquing our interest in the pages before us. The book then opens with two contributions from John Piper. In the first, with characteristic insight and profundity, Piper shows how sex was designed to help us know God. Piper’s essays originated as sermons given at a conference that has lent its name to the book, and the second of Piper’s essays, which I downloaded and listened to in my car, may well be the best sermon I have ever heard.

An overview of the book’s contributors and the titles of their essays will show their relevance:

Ben Patterson, "The Goodness of Sex and the Glory of God"
David Powlison, "Making All Things New: Restoring Pure Joy to the Sexually Broken"
R. Albert Mohler, Jr., "Homosexual Marriage as a Challenge to the Church: Biblical and Cultural Reflections
Mark Dever, Michael Lawrence, Matt Schmucker, and Scott Croft, "Sex and the Single Man"
C. J. Mahaney, "Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Husband Needs to Know"
Carolyn McCulley, "Sex and the Single Woman"
Carolyn Mahaney, "Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Wife Needs to Know"
Justin Taylor, "Martin Luther’s Reform of Marriage"
Mark Dever, "Christian Hedonists or Religious Prudes? The Puritans on Sex"

This book can be a powerful tool for purity and joy in our day. Buy it. Read it. Distribute it.

And in the terms of Piper’s metaphor, may God be central in our lives as the sun is central in the universe, with the result that the gravitational force of the weight of his being holds everything else in its appointed orbit.

May the Lord be pleased to use this book mightily for his glory and our joy!

Seeking to Pray like Jesus and Paul: Without Ceasing

2005-06-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

In addition to the daily pattern of reciting a liturgical prayer at regular intervals on a daily basis (see earlier post), Paul and Jesus would have engaged in "continual prayer." This does not mean that they disengaged from life, hid themselves away in a monastery, and gave every conscious thought to prayer. Rather, continual prayer means being always aware of God’s presence and ever interacting with the God before whom we live. We see Jesus doing this in the Gospels, as he addresses God in the natural course of life (e.g., Matt 11:25–26; Luke 22:17, 19; John 11:41–42; 12:27–28), and Paul explicitly commands the Thessalonians to "constantly pray" (1 Thess 5:17). What would this constant prayer have looked like in the life of a first century Jew?

There is good evidence from the rabbinic material on prayers before and after meals (David Instone-Brewer, Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament: Prayer and Agriculture, 72–91). Further, the rabbis instructed people to bless God for all things—good and bad—and to pray when entering and leaving a town (ibid., 91–92). This is certainly reminiscent of Paul’s exhortation that Christians "give thanks in everything" (1 Thess 5:18).

This rabbinic evidence indicates that First Century Jews were well equipped with a fund of memorized blessings and prayers. Paul seems to assume that Christians will also have minds that are well vested with such phrases when he instructs them to speak "to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Eph 5:19; cf. Col 3:16).

We have to know the Psalms in order to speak to one another in psalms. This would seem to be an apostolic mandate to know the Scriptures so that we can pray them and speak them to each other. Similarly, we have to know hymns and spiritual songs in order to speak these things to one another. Many scholars think that Paul incorporates early Christian hymns and spiritual songs into his letters at certain points (e.g., Phil 2:5–11; Col 1:15–20). Given Paul’s poetic genius, we can assume that he was the author of these and many other hymns and songs (his skill with language can be seen in texts such as Rom 8:28–39; 2 Cor 4:8–9, 16–18; 6:3–10; Phil 3:3–14; 1 Thess 5:16–22).

Let us be those who are memorizing Paul’s prayers, memorizing Psalms, memorizing the words of rich hymns like "Thy Mercy, My God," and speaking these things to God and one another. In the process of repeating these words to ourselves over and over until we have them memorized, we will find our brains not only strengthened but also transformed.

May God give us hearts that are aware of his presence, minds that overflow with praise, thanks and petition to him, and the will to stock our minds with words of truth and beauty! (Phil 4:8)

Seeking to Pray like Jesus and Paul: Daily Patterns

2005-06-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

It is no surprise that many pastors are unsatisfied with the way they pray. I think some of this dissatisfaction is due to unrealistic (unbiblical?) expectations, and some more of it is due to a desire to be "pressing on" toward more faithfulness (Phil 3:12). When asked if we are satisfied with our prayer lives, are we going to answer as though we think we have arrived?

When we think of prayer, most of us probably think of an extended period of time before God. Jesus did pray all night on at least one occasion (Luke 6:12), but the night Jesus spent in prayer came before the day on which he chose the 12 apostles (6:13–16), an extraordinary day in Jesus’ life. What did he do on the ordinary days?

It seems that Jesus and Paul lived in a religious culture that was much more liturgical than the world most contemporary protestants inhabit. Given that Jesus was an observant Jew who was welcomed into the local synagogue, David Instone-Brewer observes that Jesus most likely prayed the 18 Benedictions three times a day (Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament: Prayer and Agriculture, 115). The rabbis of Jesus’ day instructed people to pray these 18 benedictions morning, afternoon, and evening (ibid., 52). In addition to this, the Shema was to be recited morning and evening (ibid., 42). It appears that the Shema was not limited to Deuteronomy 6:4 but consisted of Deuteronomy 6:4–9; 11:13–21; and Numbers 15:37–41.

Thus, growing up faithful Jews, Jesus and Paul probably would have recited the Shema twice daily and the 18 Benedictions thrice. Instone-Brewer even argues that the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9–13) is an abstract of the 18 Benedictions. Further, he notes that the Lord’s Prayer was prayed in the early church the way the 18 benedictions were prayed in Judaism—it was used as an outline for longer prayers, it was prayed three times a day, and it was prayed standing (ibid., 55).

On the basis of these observations, one of Martin Luther’s suggestions comes to mind: "In the morning, when you rise . . . . kneeling or standing, say the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. . . . In the evening, when you retire . . . . kneeling or standing, say the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. . . . Then quickly lie down and sleep in peace" (Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, 490–91).

This pattern of praying the Lord’s Prayer thrice daily should not take the form of a thoughtless incantation. We often recite the Lord’s Prayer that way, but Jesus explicitly warns his disciples against falling into the repetition of empty phrases (Matt 6:7–9). Perhaps it would be a good idea to think through the words of the Lord’s Prayer and put them in your own words in an effort to avoid mindless chatter. As for the Apostles’ Creed, in our postmodern age the recitation of this ancient confession strikes me as a healthy way to forge a living connection with Christians throughout the world and across the ages.

Be freed from the false guilt that you don’t spend an hour in prayer each morning. There will be times when you pray for extended periods—watch out for pride on those days! But don’t feel bad that your toddlers (or whatever your responsibilities are) keep you from getting to it every day.

May the Lord help us follow Paul as he followed Jesus (1 Cor 11:1), and may that bear fruit in our day as it did in Luther’s!

God-Centered Evangelism

2005-06-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

Thom Rainer has recently noted that in 2003 the ratio of church members to baptisms in SBC churches was 43 to 1 (see here). Rainer puts this statistic forward to answer the question, "How many members does it take to reach one person for Christ in a year?"

I suspect that the ratio is 43 to 1 mainly because many (most?) of the 43 never share their faith. If you’re not in an SBC church, I bet the ratio is not that different where you are.

Will Metzger has provided a great remedy for this situation in his book, Tell the Truth: A Training Manual on the Message and Methods of God-Centered Witnessing.

Appendix C of this book is a Study Guide for 12 Group or Individual sessions. This means that Metzger’s book is ready made for a reading group that meets once a month (as I hope we’ll start at Baptist Church of the Redeemer on July 31). Alternatively, you could find a younger Christian and go through this book in a discipleship setting, or just read it yourself!

This ratio of 43 to 1 is not going to bring about another Great Awakening. Metzger observes, "a one-to-one approach initiated by every believer still holds the best promise of evangelizing the earth" (20).

Two more quotes to whet your appetite: "The recovery of a God/grace-centered gospel, or as James Boice has put it, a ‘rediscovery of the doctrines that shook the world,’ is imperative" (11).

"This book is about the scandal of sovereign salvation. In it, I blame God for salvation, in the sense that he is totally responsible. He organized a rescue operation within the Trinity--designing, supplying, accomplishing, and restoring those who are in peril. Our triune God is the Author and Fulfiller, the Originator and Consummator, the Creator and the Redeemer. It's all God's fault--a grace that gives response-ability to the spiritually dead" (13).

May God revive us to what Metzger argues for here: the whole Gospel to the whole person by whole people!

Revelation 8-9, Six Terrifying Trumpets

2005-06-04T11:05:00.000-07:00

The trumpets of Revelation 8–9 put the fear of God in me, so know that in posting this I’m not "blowing my own trumpet."

I recently preached on this text, and the sermon is now on Baptist Church of the Redeemer’s website.

May the Lord prosper His Word.

Poetry of Repentance and Revival

2005-06-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

Eric Schumacher and I went to church together in Louisville while we were both students at SBTS, and he is one of the foremost theological poets of our day. Eric now pastors in Iowa, and he often writes poems that serve exceedingly well as hymns. He sets the meter so that the poetry fits many well-known hymn tunes.

Check out his latest hymn, Come Now, O Lord, Your Church Revive! May the Lord give us the ability to lament our sin, and may he answer the prayers of this poem.

Reading the Bible as an Act of Worship in Church

2005-06-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

Every second of the Christian life is living sacrifice, and all of life is worship (Rom 12:1–2). And yet when the redeemed gather together for the corporate worship of God, our collective energies are focused on seeking a heightened experience of the presence of God and ascribing to him the glory due his name (Ps 29:2).

We do not want to try to artificially manufacture a manipulated response, but we do want to facilitate an atmosphere of reverent celebration: not presumptuous but confident (Heb 4:16), not giddy but joyful (Ps 20:5), not paralyzed with terror but fearful (Exod 20:20), not stuffy but sober (1 Tim 3:2), not depressed but repentant (2 Cor 7:10), not flippant but free (John 8:36).

In order to cultivate these emotions, we should examine everything that happens during the worship service, from the demeanor of the first person who addresses the congregation to the point when the service concludes. Here are some thoughts on how we can strive together to make the public reading of Scripture in worship more worshipful:

Whoever schedules the passages to be read in the service needs to get the text to the readers by Saturday so that the people who will read the text in worship on Sunday morning will have an opportunity to read over it several times.
The purpose of reading over the text several times is so that the reader can get a sense of the flow of thought in the text and pronounce it accordingly. Here's what I mean: pronounce the following sentence first by placing the stress on Jesus Christ--"JESUS CHRIST is Lord." This communicates emphasis. Now pronounce it by placing the emphasis on "is Lord"--"Jesus Christ IS LORD." This is a slightly different emphasis, and by seeking to discern the flow of thought in the text, we're trying to articulate where the emphasis lies as we read over the text. This can add meaning and depth to the reading of God's word. We might interpret the inflections in the text differently, but a reading that attempts to follow the emphases in the text will surely be more worshipful than the alternative. We don’t want to be ostentatious about this, and we certainly don’t want to draw attention to ourselves as we read. But the person who reads the Scripture publicly is, in a sense, leading the people of God in worship. He is worthy of our best efforts, of our cognitive and emotive engagement, and reading the Bible this way helps us render to him the glory due his name.
Prior to the reading of the text during the worship service, when the reader stands in the pulpit, the text to be read should be announced at least twice ("The text to be read is Matthew 5:1–13, Matthew 5:1–13"). Before beginning to read the text, the reader should allow time for the congregation to find the passage.
Why not incorporate a corporate response of worship immediately into the flow of the service? One way to do this is to punctuate the completion of the reading with the reader saying, "The Word of the Lord," and the congregation responding, "Thanks be to God, Amen!" The intonation of the reader’s statement ("The Word of the Lord") will correspond with the mood of the passage just read—if sobering, the words will be spoken softly; if triumphant, exultantly.

Having said all this, it is important that I balance these comments with the recognition that people have different gifts and are at different places. What I mean is that while we want to cultivate an uninterrupted flow of worship, we do not want to put so much pressure on people that they do not want to read or feel uncomfortable. Let us strive for excellence, but let us not bulldoze the people of God we seek to lead in worship.

May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing of his most holy Word.

Prayer and the Knowledge of God

2005-05-31T07:16:00.000-07:00

"When you think about your practice of prayer and, perhaps, some of the problems you experience, do you mainly consider: what you are like as a praying Christian, or what God is like as our heavenly Father who saves us?" (19). Graeme Goldsworthy, the church’s biblical theologian, has written a beautiful little book that I hope will have as much impact as J. I. Packer’s classic Knowing God.

To whet your appetite, here’s another statement like the one quoted above: "Unfortunately, being told that Jesus got up a great while before sunrise in order to pray, or that Martin Luther, John Wesley and C. H. Spurgeon all regarded two hours a day spent in prayer as normal, does not seem to help most of us. On the contrary, it often tends to make us want to give up altogether" (11). Goldsworthy maintains that what will stir us to prayer is not our attempts to work up faith in our own hearts but rather a sustained focus on God, the beholding of whom will summon forth a response of worship and dependence. We must be God-centered rather than man-centered in our thinking about prayer.

In this book Goldsworthy combines deep theological reflections on the nature of the Trinity with acute sensitivity to the Bible’s salvation historical timeline. Anyone who can read can understand this book, which makes it a great book not only to read but to give to others, or to use in a discipleship/reading discussion group.

May the Lord enable us to know him, and may knowing him give us such confidence in him that we pray without ceasing (cf. Eph 1:17).

A Call to Reformation: Chapter 2, The Church

2005-05-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

Much of evangelicalism seems to have a "take it or leave it" attitude to the Church. For some, regular attendance at a parachurch meeting counts as church membership. Is this a legitimate approach to being the bride of Christ? Acknowledging that believing Christians disagree on the nature of the church, I am convinced that there is a way to be and do church that is most biblical. That’s what I try to defend in this chapter, titled, "Being the Church the Biblical, Baptist Way: How and Why Baptists ‘Do Church.’" Here’s an outline of the chapter’s contents:

I. Baptist, Why Bother?

II. Church Leadership in the New Testament

A. A Plurality of Elders Who Are Equals

B. Deacons Who Serve

III. The Two Primary Baptist Distinctives

A. Believer’s Baptism by Immersion

B. Regenerate Church Membership

IV. Trying To "Do Church" Like the New Testament Churches

A. Congregationalism and Elders Who Lead

B. Church Discipline

C. Can Anybody Here Count?

D. Local Church Autonomy

V. Why Bother with the SBC?

May the Lord work in us what pleases him, that his bride might stand unblemished before him!

A Call to Reformation: Chapter 1, The Bible

2005-05-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

The reformation we need (thanks to Mel Feldsbar for noting that this is needed across evangelicalism) will be one that returns us to the great Solas of THE Reformation (for a brief summary go here).

I am posting the first chapter of A Call to Reformation. One of the most insidious dangers in evangelicalism is the temptation to doubt the sufficiency of Scripture. The Battle for the Bible has presumably been won among evangelicals—many people now rally to the flag of inerrancy. But when we examine evangelical ministry, we find a lot of "worship services" that seem to feature a rock band and a comedian. We find a lot of "counseling ministry" that looks a lot like secular psychology done by people that happen to be Christian (see the recent shake-up at SBTS over this issue).

Among those who really believe that the Bible is the tool God uses to change lives by the power of the Spirit, the approach to ministry is substantially different.

So this first chapter is on "The Nature of the Bible and How to Study It." The title describes the content of the chapter. The first 5 pages are on the nature of the Bible as the inerrant word of God written by human beings situated in particular historical contexts and using particular literary conventions. The next 5 pages are on studying the Bible. Most of this is focused on a method called "Tracing the Argument" that I learned from Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner (who learned it from Dr. John Piper, who learned it from Dr. Daniel P. Fuller). At page 10 the diagrams begin—step by step formatting for word docs, layouts of Deuteronomy 4:32–40 and Romans 5:1–11, a chart summarizing possible "relationships between propositions," and finally step by step tracings of Deuteronomy 4:32–40 and Romans 5:1–11.

Let us unleash the mighty sword of the Word of God!

A Call to Reformation: Introduction

2005-05-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to think for a while now about what is needed in the average Southern Baptist Church. I am in the process of trying to write A Call to Reformation: A Plea for Christian Teaching in Southern Baptist Churches. I am posting what I have so far in the way of an Introduction to the project. At the end there are descriptions of what I think each chapter will contain. I have the intro and the first two chapters done. More will be posted soon. . .

Putting the Bible First

2005-05-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

Maybe you’re like me and you often find that at the end of the day you’ve read a lot of stuff but somehow neglected to read the Bible.

Here’s a suggestion: Set the homepage of your Internet Explorer to the ESV’s One Year Bible Reading Plan and don’t go anywhere else on the internet until you’ve read these passages. It looks to me like the average day’s reading is about the length of the average article from drudgereport or some such site. Let’s read the Bible before we browse to anything else, so that everything else won’t keep us from reading the Bible.

Free Will

2005-05-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Justin Taylor for bringing this interview with Dr. Bruce Ware on the nature of free will to my attention. Every student of theology should read this 4 page, easy to understand interview.

Mother’s Day Alphabet Acrostic

2005-05-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

God designed marriage as a mini-drama of the relationship between Christ and the church. This is an important reason for those of us who are husbands to love our wives extravagantly. I am glad for this opportunity to publicly proclaim the virtues of my sweet wife in acrostic form (the first 6 and 1/2 lines begin with successive letters of the alphabet):

Always bold, calmly dynamic
Ever-flowing, grace-hysteric
Increasing joy, kindly lavish
Majestic, novel, original, practiced
Quiet resounding silent tact
Unyielding, valorous, wild xarismatik
Your zealous love for me and Jake
All the words of the alphabet take
To summarize and celebrate
Happy mother’s day from your happy mate!

Mother’s Day, 2005

Revived to What?

2005-05-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

I often hear people speak of a desire for revival and reformation. What I don’t often hear people speak of is exactly what they want revived or reformed. So what exactly are we looking for?

My thoughts on this topic are influenced by Mark Noll’s book, The Rise of Evangelicalism, conversation with my friend Denny Burk , and an article on biblical illiteracy.

Here are some things I think we would experience if the Spirit of God were to revive us again:

1. A deep sense of the holiness and majesty of God resulting in godly sorrow for sin and a firm resolve to turn from it. In a word, repentance.

2. A hunger to know God and make him known, resulting in a desperate rush to be fed biblical truth. This would take shape in Christians reading, studying, and memorizing the Bible for themselves. It would also result in people wanting to have the Bible taught to them—at church, in home Bible studies, and maybe even in a seminary.

3. A fervent reliance upon God in all things, giving rise to ceaseless prayer. This would mark our individual lives as we constantly call upon God for help, and it would mark our corporate lives as we gather to beseech the Lord to make his name great in our midst.

4. A marked increase in new conversions. Here is a helpful summary of some research done on evangelism in the Southern Baptist Convention, and here are some suggestions for improvement. It could be that another part of the explanation as to why we are not seeing more conversions and baptisms is that Christians don’t have a deep reverence for God that produces holy living (number 1 above), they don’t nourish their souls on God’s Word (number 2 above), and they don’t pray much because they don’t feel much need for God (number 3 above). Are these things being cultivated in your church? If not, why not? What is being cultivated? Isn’t the point of church knowing and worshiping God?

5. As lives change, lives change. Work takes on a sacred quality as vocational service becomes a living sacrifice of worship to God. Leisure is no longer lazy lounging with worldly entertainment. That waste of life is replaced by an urgency to redeem the time in relationship building and a zest for numbers 2 – 4 above. There is a place for entertainment, but let us insist on entertainment that is edifying. Conversations with friends would be changed as well. What do you talk about with your friends? We talk about what we like to talk about, and what we like to talk about is a reflection of what matters most to us—or should be. In Jonathan Edwards’ descriptions of the first great awakening, he notes that conversations in Northampton were theological—having to do with God. Imagine that!

6. I am by no means trying to make a list of what piety looks like, but I do think that people whose lives are marked by the things described in numbers 1 – 5 above are revived. The sum total of these things is a pursuit of personal holiness in response to being ravished by the living God. If our churches become influenced by Christians who live this way, our churches might experience reformation.

7. All of this results from God revealing himself powerfully to people such that he evokes from us a response that corresponds with who he is. If we do not see him, know him, love him, and long for more of him, none of this will happen.

May the Lord be pleased to revive our lives and reform our churches!

Blogging for Revival

2005-05-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

Why have I joined the corps of bloggers?

As Mark Noll traces the roots of the first great awakening in The Rise of Evangelicalism he draws attention to the way that the innovative publication of what was happening around the world stimulated revival in other parts of the world.

My hope and prayer is that the blogosphere will be one more way for Christians of like mind to share ideas and learn from each other.

May the Lord Jesus Christ use this blog to further his renown, and may the things expressed here give rise to a revival of truth and a reformation of righteousness.