Think Theology

Michael Patton, who is neither a Charismatic nor a traditional Cessationist, has written an interesting piece at Reclaiming the Mind – “If there are Modern Day Prophets, then the Canon is Still Open,” which is part of his “stupid statements” series. Patton more or less points out that a statement like that misunderstands both the nature of prophecy and the nature of the canon. I found it pretty interesting.

I enjoyed Grudem’s response to this statement in an appendix to his The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, which is still, in my mind, the best book written on the subject of NT prophecy.

“What do you do when you don’t desire the Word of God? Or when you read it and don’t see anything that gives you joy? Or when your joy is weak and disintegrates before the allurements of the world? What do you do if you are not satisfied in the God of the Bible, but prefer the pleasures of the world? Did Paul or the psalmists or the celebrated saints of history ever struggle with this? Yes, they did. And we should take heart. We all struggle with seasons of lukewarmness and spiritual numbness of heart. There are times in the lives of the most godly people when spiritual hunger becomes weak, and darkness threatens to consume the light, and everything but the vaguely remembered taste of joy evaporates.” – Piper, When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy, 137

Imagine, you are not alone in your season of feeling barren and dry. Your lack of joyful pleasure in God and Scripture and prayer is not a feeling that you alone must bear! So Piper reminds us that not only can we face encouragement and exhortation from the celebrated saints of history, but we find encouragement from authors of the very book that we sometimes struggle to joyfully read! To think that the very psalmists often struggled in the same ways that we do and they still “made it” into the Bible is extremely encouraging! Apparently God is a bit more understanding and merciful and compassionate about the struggles that we often face. Once again, God’s grace is remarkable!

Thank you, Piper. Thank you for reminding us that normal people don’t always desire God in the ways that we should and that we must fight for joy!

Yesterday morning I preached through 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5 and spent a lot of time expounding upon my love for the grace of God (audio found here). The first part of our text is as follows:

” But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” – 2 Thess. 2:13-17

This passage is so grace soaked and gospel saturated that I tend to think Paul is intentionally calling the Thessalonians to recognize how extremely important it is to never take the gospel for granted. I felt specifically led to point this out yesterday. The gospel is excellent in so many ways. To realize that our salvation is not based off of our own works but is based sole on the work of Christ on the cross is life-altering. There is no neutral ground when it comes to the gospel or our response to Jesus Christ (cf. Luke 11:23).
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Justin Taylor points out an interesting discussion by Doug Wilson – Sproul and Wright: Judging by the Paperwork vs. Judging by the Heart. Taylor quotes the following gem from Wilson:

The irony is that the mistake Wright makes about first century Jews, R.C. makes about the Reformed, and the valuable insight that Wright offers pastorally about some of the tight-shoed Reformed, he declines to apply to first century Jews.

In short, R.C. judges the Reformed tradition by the paperwork, and first century Jews by the heart.

Wright judges the Reformed by the heart, and judges the first century Jews by the paperwork.

Fascinating. I wonder what Sproul thinks.

Visit Churches Helping Churches for some prayer-stirring videos of the Haiti earthquake.

The Gospel of John is full of penetratingly insightful material to help us form a robust and exciting Pneumatology! I’m surprised so many Christian pastors and scholars overlook how deeply John writes about the work of the Spirit. In fact, the past 20 years of Johannine scholarship has provided some remarkable insight into John’s understanding of the Holy Spirit and His work for those interested in developing a strong biblical understanding.

From the beginning of the Gospel to its end, we find such in depth perspective on the person of the Holy Spirit. John writes of Jesus’ baptism and how the Holy Spirit descended upon Him (John 1:32-33). Later, John records Jesus’ words to Nicodemus – “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Still further Jesus is quoted as saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit…” (John 7:37-39). John also makes sure to note that Jesus prepared His disciples for His departure by promising them that they would have the Spirit (cf. John 14:26; 16:7-15). Make no mistake, John’s gospel is a great place to study the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
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“Eternal, incomprehensible, and invisible God, infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness, dwelling in the light which no man can approach, where thousand thousands minister unto thee, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before thee, yet dwelling with the humble and contrite, and taking pleasure in thy people…”

So goes the introductory prayer found in Richard Baxter’s section on the Reformed Liturgy in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, Volume I. Reading these words brought a unique freshness to me this morning. I often enjoy reading liturgy for the simple fact that many of the liturgical prayers were written hundreds of years ago, and yet they are still just as true and applicable today!

I think I’m going to include this prayer this Sunday.

To think, liturgy used to bore me; and now I love it.

Shai Linne with “Spread His Fame.” from Grace EV Free on Vimeo.

All praise to the name of the savior who reigns.
He’s taken our blame, embraced all our shame,
He’s raised from the grave so his fame we proclaim.
Salvation by grace through faith in his name.

All praise to the name of the savior who reigns.
He’s taken our blame, embraced all our shame,
He’s raised from the grave so his fame we proclaim.
Salvation by grace through faith in his name.

Jesus, the beautiful and blessed Son,
Immutable, majestic one
Who was resurrected from the grave
for the depraved.
He paved the path for some
Place faith in His passion, son
Be saved from the wrath to come.

He’s fabulous, His status is immaculate
I’m lacking the vernacular to adequately capture His glory.
Incomparable, unconquerable, all powerful, unstoppable
Absolutely phenomenal.

No obstacle He can’t navigate.
He’s God and so He fascinates.
With Him it’s impossible to exaggerate.

Lord of all continents,
Source of all consciousness,
His compliments are the consequence of His accomplishments
Every sphere of life, He’s the Lord of it
And every other power is either fraudulent or subordinate.

At first we snubbed Him,
Now His vessels of mercy love Him.
Your highest thought is infinitely unworthy of Him.
Beyond vocabulary His actions vary,
His wrath is scary
All His adversaries are imaginary.

He has no competitors.
Ask Nebuchadnezzar, bro
He’ll mess you up, have you eating grass,
You can bet He’s amazing.

He takes in blatant, flagrant vagrants, breaks them, remakes them, and shapes them
to hate sin.

Jesus!
There’s no better name!
That’ll never change and He’ll forever reign while we spread His fame.

So all praise to the name of the Savior who reigns
He’s taken our blame
Embraced all our shame
He’s raised from the grave so His fame we proclaim
Salvation by grace through faith in His name!

All praise to the name of the Savior who reigns
He’s taken our blame
Embraced all our shame
He’s raised from the grave so His fame we proclaim
Salvation by grace through faith in His name!

HT: Justin Taylor

“Ask Mary and Joseph, the Magi and the Shepherds [what they thought of the Child]. They will tell you that they found in this extreme poverty an indescribable tenderness, and an infinite dignity worth of the majesty of God.” – Jean-Pierre De Caussade (1675-1751)

Mark Dever – Study Video from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Generally I think drama can be either fantastic or, stupid. But, in this case, I love this drama and the students in the congregation that I’m a part of, recently did it. Here goes…

Happy Holidays Merry Christmas. I’ve been extremely busy the last couple of days, but I wanted to wish all you readers a wonderful time of year that would extend beyond this season and would continue for the rest of your lives. The Incarnation is to be celebrated far beyond a few weeks in December!

Some interesting links to check out:

How to Prepare a Christmas Sermon – While some of you may not be preachers or teachers, you can apply some of these insights in your family devotions and in your discussion with family members.

Why is X Used when it Replaces Christ in Christmas? – R.C. Sproul schools us on the fact that “replacing” the “Christ” in Christmas with an “X” wasn’t originally used to minimize the magnitude of the centrality of Christ. Read this and refrain from selling propaganda.

Vital Virginity – Kevin DeYoung reflects on the importance of the Virigin birth. Excellent defense for the historic belief and biblical teaching of this miraculous event!

Wayne Grudem has a video of Christian Beliefs – I think I’m going to attempt to get this resource and teach it at TCF in the near future. It looks fantastic. Use the video, and then have a small group discussion. Looks to be excellent. Check out this review (and a follow up).

Hypnotizing Handbell Choir Christmas Eve – Wow. This is neat. Christmas Eve Handbells? Awesomesauce.

On Friday morning, at 12am, I had the opportunity to view the movie Avatar at its first public showing. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for awhile due to the speculation floating around the Internet and through various media sources. The wait was worth it in more ways that I can even begin to describe. I am going to avoid giving spoilers here because I want the movie to be as fantastic for you as it was for me. But I must mention that the story and visual appeal blew me away. Though it may seem blasphemous to some, I would venture to suggest that it has become my favorite movie of all time and has surpassed even Star Wars. Of course, these are simply my own opinions, but I found it breath-taking. In fact, I was left in awe.

The visual effects were stunning. One reviewer has noted that some people have actually become nauseous watching it! The storyline is fantastic because it is so applicable in our culture. Perhaps the storyline was not as deep and intriguing as others, but I couldn’t help but find myself absolutely engrossed in it. I want to travel to the planet Pandora! I want to live among the Na’vi! I want to experience flying on a banshee!
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“In many ways, redemptive-historical interpretation resembles a close reading of ancient and authoritative texts, such as constitutional documents or even dense poetry. Yet there are differences. The redemptive-historical theologian (RHT) is, for this essay, an evangelical who affirms the verbal or plenary inspiration of Scripture. We assert the inerrancy, infallibility, sufficiency, progressive development, and christocentricity of the Bible. Because we believe Scripture has a divine Author who inspires the human author, the discovery of the first Author’s message obligates the ideal reader to believe and do certain things as a result, even if that should prove difficult.” – Daniel M. Doriani, Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology, 76

As some of you know, or can recognize, I’d consider myself an advocate of Redemptive-Historical Interpretation (RHI) when we’re talking about the application of Scripture to the lives of Christians living today. The method just makes so much sense to me. The reason I find this quote so helpful is because Doriani clearly explains the foundations for RHI in this book, which is excellent. The other authors who contribute their methods are equally good (though some better than others), but I love RHI.

But beyond advocating RHI, I really like how Doriani underlies essential points to any Evangelical method: (1) assumed inspiration, (2) inerrancy & infallibility, (3) sufficiency, (4) progressive development, and (5) christocentricity. Each of these should underlie an Evangelical’s approach to the text. In fact, while we Evangelicals do a great job of promoting #’s 1, 2, 3 and often 5, at times we ignore #4, which is essential to hermeneutics! God has chosen to progressively reveal both Himself and His plan of redemption throughout History. We find evidence of this especially in the New Testament, where the promises of the Old Testament find fulfillment. And what’s more is that these promises, which progressively develop through redemptive history, find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, which underlies why we are christocentric!

Recognizing these essential suppositions is what Doriani states should encourage our obligation to dig into the text and determine what God’s message was through the human authors by determining what the human authors’ message was! From there, though it may be “difficult,” our lives are to be changed – both what we believe and how we act. Amen,

I have to be honest here. I’m not a huge fan of George Barna’s books. I own several of them, but just haven’t found them that interesting, insightful, or helpful. It’s not that I dislike the guy, I just haven’t really been profoundly impacted by them. Yet many others have, and some of the authors who have impacted me were impacted by him, so I’m sure in some way he actually has impacted my life! How’s that for confusing?

At any rate, I am interested in the subject of leadership, so his latest book, Master Leaders, was intriguing. I found it to be intriguing, insightful, diverse, and sometimes a little annoying, all at the same time! Let’s start with the positive…
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The deeper I go into the Scriptures & heart of God, which are so intricately connected, the more I see the beauty and grandeur of God’s pleasures. Imagine, if you will, discovering that the “cosmic-kill-joy” that you once considered to be god, became a magnificent and majestic God that had pleasures beyond our wildest dreams! Imagine, once again, that you found out that, not only does He take pleasure in His creation and His plan of redemption, He is actually pleased with His people. The first line of Ps. 149:4 states, “For the Lord takes pleasure in his people.” Words cannot properly convey the widespread misunderstanding that abounds within the Church regarding God’s love for His people. And the practical outworking of that love is that God actually takes pleasure in them. They are not mere additions to creation that bring no emotional affections; rather, God’s people bring Him the utmost pleasure!

Now, it would be wise  to make some clarifications here. God’s pleasure in His people is not because we are so special and unique, nor is it because we complete Him in any way. God was not lonely before Creation. He was infinitely pleased in Himself and sufficient and complete in Himself and without need for companionship apart from Himself, despite what many well meaning people subtly suggest. But such suggestions, regardless of intention, produce a low-view of God, in my opinion. We must see God as complete and sufficient and without our “help” in order to understand how the Bible presents Him. So please resist the temptation to make much of yourself and continue to make much of God and delight yourself in Him and His great love and affections and pleasures!
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Last night I hosted an evening of eschatology at TCF. Two of my friends, Tyler and Holly of the Northwoods YWAM base, came and shared on the topic of the “last days.” We had an excellent turn out and I think we accomplished our goal of fostering interest and clarity of the general eschatological terms (e.g., The Millennium, the Rapture, Post-millennialism, etc.).

Holly provided a fantastic set of outlines for everyone to follow along with. One of them was an eschatology glossary and the other had diagrams. After all, you can’t have a discussion on eschatology without diagrams!

Throughout the discussion I realized how strongly I hold several opinions:
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There is a lot of discussion on the subject of revival within the Church. Depending upon your tradition, your perspective on what revival is and what it produces will be different. I have heard revival expressed in various ways throughout my life. Some suggest that revival will produce really good worship music. Others suggest that revival will cause people to have the same doctrine. Still others seem to see revival as an outpouring of the Spirit in a way that causes shaking, laughing, barking and other physical manifestations.

I believe Iain H. Murray offers six helpful God-centered and Biblically based ideas on what true revival brings:

1. Revival restores faith in the Word of God
2. Revival restores definiteness to the meaning of ‘Christian’
3. Revival advances the gospel with amazing swiftness
4. Revival always has moral impact upon communities
5. Revival changes understanding of the Christian ministry
6. Revival will change the public worship of the churches

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I’ve been picking up on a trend within the “Missional” movement that is a bit frustrating. In the quest to live misisonally (intentionally focused on the Gospel in our current context), many have began to downplay the role of global missions. In fact, I’ve heard and read some suggest that the Church just needs to be Missional where it is and God will take care of the rest of the world.

Sadly, this is not the point of being Missional! Missional living has never been a replacement for God’s commission for the Church to be globally minded! So please, if you are Missional, remember that there is a much “greater” commission that implores you to consider the need for the world to hear the Gospel!

Ed Stetzer recently offered five reasons that Missional Churches don’t go global. They are as follows:

1. In rediscovering God’s mission, many have only discovered its personal dimensions.
2. In responding to God’s mission, many have wanted to be more mission-shaped and have therefore made everything “mission.”
3. In relating God’s mission, the message increasingly includes the hurting but less frequently includes the global lost.
4. In refocusing on God’s mission, many are focusing on being good news rather than telling good news.
5. In reiterating God’s mission, many lose the context of the church’s global mission and needed global presence.

Stetzer’s reasons are, in my opinion, spot on. I’m inclined to believe that #1 is the most influential here in America due to our “individualistic” way of thinking (i.e., “just me and Jesus), but #4 tends to be overemphasized as well.

For those interested in two excellent sermons that will challenge you to think globally, check out John Piper’s “Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 1″ and “Let the Nations Be Glad, Part 2″ (each from the Advance 09 Conference).

I just picked up Andreas J. Kostenberger’s A Theology of John’s Gospel and Letters and I’m impressed. It, along with Carson’s Pillar commentary, is quickly becoming a must read for anyone interested in Johannine studies. At 656 pages, Kostenberger has provided a very interesting theology of John’s Gospel and three Epistles. I read the following and thought I’d share it with you all…

“… John stresses that apart from divine election, it is impossible for anyone to be saved and receive eternal life. This shows that prior to the human choice to believe, resulting in salvation and eternal life, is the divine choice of election, enabling some, but mysteriously not others, to believe and place their trust in Christ. On a human level, this may be counterintuitive and hard to understand, if not appear to militate against human notions of fairness. Yet this reality is clearly taught in several Johannine passages, most notably Jesus’ pronouncement in 8:47; 10:26; and 14:17 and in the evangelist’s words at the end of the Book of Signs.” (459, emphasis his)

Kostenberger goes on to provide the following Scriptures as supporting evidence (emphasis his):

• 8:47: “Whoever belongs to God hears what God says, The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.“
• 10:25b-26: “The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.“
• 12:37-40: “Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the words of Isaiah the prophet: ‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn – and I would heal them.’”
• 14:17: “The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him…”

Finally, after listing these Scriptures, Kostenberger notes that “people do not belong to God; that is why they do not listen to Jesus” and that “people are not Jesus’ sheep; that is why they do not believe” and that “God blinded people’s eyes and hardened their hearts; that is why they cannot believe.” This leads to the logical conclusion that “places human unbelief ultimately within the sphere of God’s sovereignty, and more specifically his (positive or negative) elective purposes.”

It would seem odd, arrogant, or deceptive if we did not acknowledge how difficult it is to reconcile God’s sovereign actions with our human understanding of “fairness.” Yet Kostenberger clarifies that “John clearly does not condone this kind of reasoning and has no problem affirming both divine sovereignty and human responsibility in proper proportion to one another, with divine sovereignty serving as the comprehensive framework within which human agents are called to make responsible choices – most importantly, believing in Jesus as Messiah” (p. 460).

The horror of abortion is astounding. Jesus, save us.

In grad school I had a professor that taught a class called “Trinitarian Theology” which covered the doctrine of the Trinity. From Genesis to Revelation, our professor walked through the glorious truths that (1) God is three persons, (2) Each person is fully God, and (3) There is one God. Time and time again I found myself in admiration of God. I still cannot suggest that I fully grasp the Trinity, but I see how glorious and practical and clear it is in the Scriptures.

So I want to be fair here. I realize that the Trinity is an enormous subject that thousands upon thousands of articles, books, and sermons have been written. Thousands of discussions have focused on it, and I’m quite positive that no one human being, other than Jesus, has fully comprehended it. Yet I also want to state that the Bible is fairly clear and that Christians from the beginning have clarified the truths that (1) God is three persons, (2) Each person is fully God, and (3) There is one God. This is an essential and primary doctrine. False beliefs about it undermine the Atonement, worship, Justification, and the clarity and integrity of Scripture. But why, oh why, do people have to “clarify” the Trinity with “unclear” statements that are not only “unclear” but are quite unbiblical. For instance, I have heard people describe the Trinity as being like water because water can take three forms (steam, water, and ice). This is one of many confusing, and ultimately unbiblical, explanations.
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The thankfulness that I have for the Protestant Reformation is great. I’m thankful for men such as John Huss, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and a host of other mighty men that God used to bring about His purposes. I’m specifically thankful that Luther, on Oct. 31st in the year 1517, nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. The Gospel was recovered from the hands of evil men and Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone became the church’s battle cry. Thank you, Father, for your active hand in bringing about a restoration of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God!

I used to think of the stories of the first 12 chapters of Genesis as somehwat indepedent and unrelated except for God and a connected geneaology or two.  However in this study I’ve come to see a unified progressive story of redemption that culminates into the story of Abraham and the covenant God makes with him.  My goal in this post is to point out that unity from a 10000 ft. view .  I am admittedly not that familiar with covenant theology so I may miss some obvious points in my summary as I’m sure this ground is well traveled.

In Genesis chatpers 4 through 11 we see some repeated themes across several stories:

1.  Growing problem of man’s sin and rebellion.

Through Cain, Lamech, all of mankind at the time of Noah, Ham, and unified humanity at Babel, we see the problem of sin perpetuate and worsen.  Even after destroying humanity and starting over with righteous Noah and his family God acknowledges that “the intention of man’s heart is evil from youth” (8:21).  These issues are the continuation and result of the fall and curses recorded in Chapter 3.

2.  God’s judgment of this sin.

Through the banishment of Cain, the horrific flood, the curse on Ham and Canaan, and the dispersion and confusion of mankind at Babel, we see God’s judgment of man’s rebellion and attempt to reach Him on their terms.

3.  God’s provision and grace.

 God provided Seth to Adam and Eve in the loss of Abel, he took Enoch to be with him directly, he saved humanity and animals through Noah, regenerated the earth, and promised to never destroy all of humanity again. 

4.  The lineage of the seed of promise (from 3:15) whom God works through to provide hope.

We trace the line of promise in fulfillment of 3:15 through Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah and Shem.

But where is the provision and line of promised seed within the midst of the judgment of the nations in Genesis 10 and 11?  Remember mankind has attempted to build a tower/temple to heaven…to reach God on their terms and fashion God in their image.  God’ judgment was confusion of language so that mankind dispersed and Moses records many nations, tribes, and languages they have been divided into.  But where is the provision?  Where is the hope of the seed who will crush Satan, sin an death in the head?

Enter Abraham at the end of chatper 11 and beginning of 12.  God calls one man, descendant of Shem, and eventually covenants with him to make him a mighty nation with many descendants, give him a piece of land, and ultimately bless all of the nations previously listed (and all others too) through him.  To own land, multiply, and have a relationship with God remind us of some of the original pupose and blessings God gave man in chatpers 1 and 2.  Now we get a close up of how God is going about bringing his promise in 3:15 to fruition…by choosing, blessing and walking with Abraham.

“Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.” – Is. 40:15-17

Just another drop in the bucket. Drip… drip… drip. This is how the prophet Isaiah reminds us of our smallness in comparison to Yahweh’s biggness. Throughout this section of Isaiah, the prophet is more or less building a case against any nation that would be considered “something special” and being “complete” in and of itself. So the prophets words are startlingly powerful. Drip… drip… drip. Nations come and go. They rise up and they fall down. Drip… drip… drip. Previously, Isaiah phrased it this way, “the grass withers, the flower fades” (v. 8). Just another drop in the bucket. Just another day in the span of eternity past and eternity future. Drip… drip… drip.

However, the nations of the earth do not always agree with God’s assessment of the situation. How many nations and governments and kingdoms and cities have assessed themselves as being superior and complete in and of themselves? Far too many to name. The Assyrians. The Babylonians. The Greeks. The Romans. The Anglo-Saxons. The list goes on.

But Isaiah reminds us that even though the nations of the earth may believe that they are superior and complete and unique and special and powerful and perfect – drip… drip… drip. They are just a drop in the bucket. They are “nothing before him” and are considered “less than nothing and emptiness.” Drip… drip… drip. Just another drop in the bucket.