persecution = preservation for the Christian

I might as well publish these thoughts while I’m here meditating on God’s Word.  Micah has stirred me up to continuing this process by reminding me of salts preservative quality.  This has led me to think about faith, grace, and testing through persecution as having preserving effects as well.  Not only for the believer but also for the moral values of the culture in which we live as well.  Not only does God’s grace give us the hope that makes up our faith but it also creates in us the kind of life that produces the works that shine like a light in a dark place. 

So now I have worked into a system of thought that places radical faith in the face of suffering as a necessity for being saved (in the end) because it is the salt of grace through faith that produces works.  James agrees that trials aren’t strange for the Christian and that the purpose and outcome for them is the crown of life.

James 1:2-4,12

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, [2] when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Now I am left wondering how does one who lives in post-modern, relative, subjective, believe what you wanna believe and leave me alone America preserve and shine?  I see the outcome of Stephens persecution and the effects brought about by the death of many in the mission field and I desire that for my country, for my state, for my city.  I want the Sav’h Morn News writing an article about some radical Christian whack job who trusted God enough to stand up for the truth and made some waves doing it.  But it must be done in a way that is radical yet glorifying to God.

Titus 2:7-8

7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

1 pet 3:13-17

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

I’m tired of just thinking about it and talking about it, I want to do something, but what?

dispensationalism: why I have begun to disagree

I have been taught dispensationalism for most of my life growing up in Southern Baptist Churches but more recently have been finding biblical texts that seem to contradict what I have been taught. This is an excerpt from a publication that I found on another message board. I have taken a few of the points out of the 95 they stated to establish some of the reasons why I am no longer considering myself as a dispensationalist.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 95 thesis against dispensationalism 58. Despite the dispensationalists’ widespread belief that we have been living in the “last days” only since the founding of Israel as a nation in 1948, the New Testament clearly and repeatedly teach that the “last days” began in the first century and cover the whole period of the Christian Church (Acts 2:16-17; 1 Cor 10:11; Heb 1:1-2; 9:26) 59. Despite the dispensationalists’ claim that the expectation of the imminent Rapture and other eschatological matters are important tools for godly living, dispensationalism’s founders were often at odds with each other and divisive regarding other believers, so that, for instance, of the Plymouth Brethren it could be said that “never has one body of Christians split so often, in such a short period of time, over such minute points” (John Gerstner) and that “this was but the first of several ruptures arising from [Darby’s] teachings” (Dictionary of Evangelical Biography). 60. Contrary to the dispensationalists’ creation of a unique double coming of Christ—the Rapture being separated from the Second Advent—which are so different that it makes “any harmony of these two events an impossibility” (Walvoord), the Bible mentions only one future coming of Christ, the parousia, or epiphany, or revelation (Matt. 24:3; 1 Cor. 15:23; 1 Thess. 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:1, 8; Jas. 5:7; 2 Pet. 3:4; 1 Jn. 2:28), and states that He “shall appear a second time” (Heb 9:28a), not that He shall appear “again and again” or for a third time. 61. Despite the dispensationalists’ teaching that “Jesus will come in the air secretly to rapture His Church” (Tim LaHaye), their key proof-text for this “secret” coming, 1 Thess 4:16, makes the event as publicly verifiable as can be, declaring that he will come “with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God.” 62. Contrary to dispensationalism’s doctrine of two resurrections, the first one being of believers at the Rapture and the second one of unbelievers at the end of the millennium 1007 years after the Rapture, the Bible presents the resurrection of believers as occurring on “the last day” (John 6:39-40, 44, 54; 11:24), not centuries before the last day. 63. Contrary to dispensationalism’s doctrine of two resurrections, the first one being of believers at the Rapture and the second one of unbelievers at the end of the millennium 1007 years after the Rapture, the Bible speaks of the resurrection of unbelievers as occurring before that of believers (though as a part of the same complex of events), when the angels “first gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up” at the end of the age (Matt 13:30b).

radical faith = salt and light?

As I have been thinking about radical faith in the face of suffering and persecution I have noticed a pattern in scripture before that I had never before noticed or had called to my attention. I’ll lay my deductions out there and any who read this can decide for themselves whether it is true or not and comment back as the Spirit leads.

Here is what I noticed: In the gospels where Jesus spoke of salt and light or being salty it immediately followed his encouragements and promises for the persecutions of those who follow Him. Is Jesus telling us that we shine brighter for Him and salt the world by standing firm in our faith during trials and persecution? Take this passage in the gospel of Matthew for instance:

Matthew 5:10-16
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Salt and Light

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Those who are persecuted for righteousness are happy because we can look forward to the kingdom of heaven and our reward is great there. We are very familiar with this, but what follows next, and its placement in the Lord’s sermon is something I never noticed or thought about before. There is usually a new paragraph starting here or a heading as you see above (from the ESV)and that tends to cause us to close the last thought and start a new. But should we? Or is Jesus finishing the previous statement about persecution by telling us that if we aren’t living radically for Him, then we are good for nothing? If we get in the habit of not being “salty” (or radically faithful), how can we get back our zeal again. Many should ask if they have ever had the kind of zeal for Christ that comes with a regenerate heart and pray accordingly.

 

Now, the following passage is not pertaining to persecution or suffering for the cause of Christ which leads me to believe that the saltiness of our lives depends not on suffering or persecution alone (although faith through persecution is a very bright light for unbelievers). Rather this passage immediately follows the passage where Jesus tells us to pluck out our eye and chop off our arm rather than to be cast into hell. So I think that salt in this passage is relating to sacrifice. Some are salted with fire in this age as the Lord disciplines His children. Others are salted in the age to come in a perpetually burning lake of fire. We are to be living sacrifices and according to OT laws, all sacrifices were to be salted. We are living sacrifices that are salted with grace … past grace that brings us to trusting in future grace through the experience of present grace.

 

Mark 9:49-50
49 For everyone will be salted with fire. [1] [Some manuscripts add and every sacrifice will be salted with salt]

 

50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

In the gospel of Luke Jesus tells us about useless salt again after telling us to count the cost of following Him. To hate our own life and all the things of the world in order to bear our cross and follow Him is what is required to be His disciple. Then He says that salt that is not salty is no good. He who has ears let him hear.

Luke 14:26-28,33-35
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Salt Without Taste Is Worthless

34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 

So here is where I am now: I believe that to be salty is to be full of grace and that grace causes us to live for Christ as we know He has purchased for us an inheritance that will not fade or go away. This Christ centered living by faith allows us to live in a way that the world hates and they are either changed or we are persecuted.

…or maybe being salty is to have faith and our faith if it is not bearing fruit is good for nothing. Like James says that faith produces works. We also know that a tree that bears no fruit is good for nothing but to be chopped down and thrown into the fire. Faith comes by grace so they can both be correct, I suppose.

If you read this far and were able to make sence of my feeble attempt to capture my thoughts as they unfolded I hope you were blessed. I started out to share a discovery and as I wrote through it and looked up a few sources to check my accuracy of thought I grew all the more. I wish I could organize all my thoughts and share them. My brain is like the highest Tetris level sometimes. Blocks fall fast and sometimes they fit by other times they just stack up to nothing.

The importance of pondering the wrath of God

Sin.  Everyone of us at some point in our life have loved to do it.  We ignore God and His providence and His promises and His love shown to us through His law and have done life our way.  We want our best life now when He has promised us our best life then (in Heaven with Him).  God has taken great pleasure in giving us blessings and guidelines to live our life.  God has kept everyone of His promises and has never let anyone down.  God works everything out for our good as we remain in His will, doing what He wants, loving what He loves, desiring the same things He desires.  And He desires to spread the fame of His name around the world and bring the knowledge of His glory to everyone.  This is what He deserves.  This is what we are called to do.  And yet, there are things we would rather do than to remain in His will.  We love so many other fleeting pleasures at the expense of forfeiting eternal pleasures.  Who’s fault is that?  Ours.  How could God be so forgiving?  How could He overlook such foolishness?  Why doesn’t He just destroy us in our own folly?  What we have earned with our sin is death.  And God’s wrath burns against us because of our offenses.  How intense that wrath must be!  The punishment and consequence of an offence is equal to the worth of the One who has been offended.  In the case of all sin, the One who is offended is Almighty God.  The fair punishment for our sin is unending separation from His presence and torment beyond comprehension.  I say beyond comprehension because His greatness and worth is beyond comprehension.  It (His worth) is without end and our offenses deserve a punishment that is as endless.  This is what we deserve, no less.  Yet there is good news.  There is one who never sinned, never made any offence against God, did what He wanted, loved what He loved, and desired what He desired.  He lived and died to spread the fame of God’s name and the knowledge of His glory around the whole world.  He was perfect.  Perfect beyond comprehension.  From the thoughts in his mind to the desires of his heart He was perfectly tuned to the will of God.  In fact He claimed to be God in the flesh.  So He was murdered by men for claiming to be God.  He died a shameful death on a cross and he died to save us from our sins.  God’s wrath was poured out onto Jesus, God’s Son, even though He had done nothing wrong and committed no sin.  Jesus took the wrath that was directed to us upon Himself and gave us His perfection in the sight of God. 

 

Many people since then have accepted Jesus as their Savior and placed their trust in Him for salvation and yet, with the lack of holiness among those who claim to belong to Him, how many people actually pondered what we have been saved from.  I’m afraid there are a lot of believers that have confessed belief in Christ in order to make an okay life a little better.   They say “My life wasn’t the best before I met Jesus but now things are getting better and I’m becoming a better person”.  People think, “Hey, my life could be better maybe I should believe in this Jesus guy too so that things could be better for me, too”.  This is a tragedy!

 

What we have are people who have never pondered the weight of our offenses against a holy and vengeful God and in so doing have never come anywhere close to an understanding of the breadth of the sacrifice that Jesus has made on our behalf.  People that hope to be saved from their quasi-happy lives and given super-happy bliss with no remorse, repentance, guilt, or reflection on our sin and the wrath that it creates toward us.  No thought to being hated by everyone and salvation being given only to those who endure. mark 13:13 And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  No thought to holiness being a requirement to see God. Heb 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. No thought to fear and trembling in obedience before our Almighty God. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, Phil 2:12

I’m afraid these may be the ones whom we read about in Matt 7:

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

I had an up-close and personal example of this with one of my boys.  He had deceptively disobeyed one night and received a spanking for it.  After we embraced for a time and we began to talk about how much God and daddy hates deception and yet we love my little guy, so we don’t want him to practice things that are disobedient and deceptive.  My four-year-old little theologian and philosophy major looked at me in my face and said:  “daddy, I remember when I was deceptive one time before and you didn’t spank me but you forgave me instead”.  Of course I told him that I forgave Him this time as well but that there are ALWAYS consequences for our misbehaviour.  It took some time but eventually it sunk into my head the concept here.  No punishment, no understanding of the weight of the offense.  No understanding of the weight of the offence, no tendency to repent or change our ways. 

 

I pray that God gives us a deeper understanding of the weight of our offences so that we may embrace Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf more fully and glorify God in the abundance of His grace and mercy ever so much more.

Beowulf and Jesus

I haven’t been writing on my blog at all for a while due to a very busy schedule but since I have a few spare moments I would like to share some reflections I had during some movie time spent with my sweet wife last night.  We watched the movie Beowulf together and as usual I looked through the plot of the film to see where I could find biblical elements or at least elements that made me think of biblical themes whether or not they were placed there on purpose by the film makers.

A succession of kings all had an evil monster of their own that tormented them and their people because of a time of  weakness during their youth that led to a certain curse upon them.  This made me think of how we can carry unconfessed sin along with us and try as we may to hide it, it always comes out and eventually destroys us and sometimes those around us who are closest to us. 

Or how about this:  a land that is being ravaged by an evil presence is in need of a hero because they cannot defeat the foe without help.  Help doesn’t even fully recognize the need here.  What the people needed was for someone to defeat the foe for them.  That is what you and I need from God, our great Hero.   Our adversary the devil is deceiving and defeating many in the spiritual war that we are all engaged in.  Yet, God in His great mercy has not left us alone to die in defeat, He has conquered our enemy for us and empowered us to continue in this fight until He takes us from this place.  Jesus did what was necessary do defeat the devil, that old serpent, and although he (the serpent) still wars with us, Jesus has broken off His fangs.  All he can do us gum on us.  His poison (death) cannot affect us.  His accusations cannot stick.  We who are justified by faith in Jesus Christ can stand firm in the promise of our glorification with Him in Heaven.

Let us stand firm in our faith in the future grace of God.  And like the original book that our movie was based on, live a life worthy of immortality by leaving a legacy that screams the glories of God from the highest mountaintops.  Let us follow the pathway of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave His life and suffered and died in order to glorify His Father in Heaven.  May we count the cost (spouse, children, family, friends, possessions) take up our cross and follow Him for the joy set before us … to glorify the One who made us for His glory, to magnify the name and fame of our Great God and let our names live on in infamy as servants of the the Most High God and His Son Jesus Christ.

Vintage Jesus

It has finally arrived!  The pdf copy of Mark Driscoll’s new book Vintage Jesus just popped up into my e-mail box and I began reading it today.  I have downloaded it and decided to peek at it only to discover that I may finish reading it before the hard copy arrives.  Honestly, it is much different that what I expected.  I expected a side-splitting narration of sorts on the life of Christ presented as only Mark can do, and much to my surprise what I have is a very clearly articulated, easy to understand rendering of doctrinal theology with a solid biblical framework.  I am NOT at all disappointed, in fact I am pleasantly surprised.  Still yet, I am sure that Driscoll has a few comedic surprises and brow-raising depictions of biblical history that would make it relevant to the TV saturated and liberally jaded culture of today. 

 To whet the taste for this new journey, the dedication reads:

This book is dedicated to

anyone who takes Jesus seriously,

but not themselves.

Chapter 1      Is Jesus The Only God

In typical Driscoll fashion Mark writes:

Who exactly is Jesus? Is he a good man or God, the half-brother of Lucifer
or a prophet, liar or truth-teller, therapist or communist, stand-up
comic or just my uber-fly, holy homeboy? So much has been said about
Jesus that it only seems appropriate to let Jesus speak for himself.

then He proceeds to explain in crisp detail ten ways Jesus flatly said that He was God and He does so in a manner that I never saw coming. His plain, in your face, no holds barred, passion for truth comes at us with guns blazing. Some may disagree with his colorfully descriptive style of bringing the biblical culture into the new millennium mindset but they must admit that they dont understand his style any more than they understand the younger generation. Case in point. Furthermore, in this book even the critics will be swept away by Marks integrity in staying true to the scriptures and letting the bible speak for itself in most cases.  The most potentially controversial statements in Chapter one are available on the the Vintage Jesus website.  I just love this guy!

Halloween sale on Reformation Study Bible (ESV)

 Ligonier has given us a reason to celebrate on October 31st.  According to Sproul, no other study bible has the resources contained in this edition of the Reformation Study Bible.  Previously available as the New Geneva Study Bible and the Reformation Study Bible NKJV, it is now available in ESV and available for one day only at this great price.

limited atonement?

As many of you know, I have a yearning to understand reformed (Calvinistic) theology and have been wrestling with many of the doctrines contained therein for quite some time. Over this period, my understanding of election, free will, sinfulness, grace, justification, sovereignty, and the utter sinfulness of man (among other things) has been changed through expository preaching and searching the scriptures. Of all of the doctrines of grace, the doctrine of limited atonement (the L in TULIP), otherwise known as actual atonement (which I like better even if it messes up the ever so useful acrostic) has been the one I have struggled to understand most. Recently, John MacArthur has published a study on the doctrines of grace and his exposition of this particular doctrine opened my eyes to what the scripture has to say.

Quote:

Originally Posted by John MacArthur If I ask the average Christian for whom did Christ die? The traditional answer would be, “Everybody…everybody, Christ died for the whole world, He died for all sinners.” And most people then in the church believe, and I’m sure many people outside the true church, many people associated with Christianity, believe that on the cross Jesus paid the debt of sin for everyone because He loves everyone and He wants everyone to be saved.” That’s pretty much the common evangelical view. Jesus died for everybody, He paid the price for the sins of everybody. And all we have to do is tell sinners that He loves them so much that He paid the price and He wants them to be saved and all they have to do is respond. Now if that is true, then on the cross Jesus accomplished a potential salvation…not an actual one. That is, sinners have all had their sins atoned for potentially and it’s not actual until they activate it by their faith. So, what we need to do is to tell sinners that they need to pick up the salvation that’s already been purchased for them. Since Christ died for everybody, everybody therefore can be saved, it’s just a matter of them coming to receive that salvation. And so, our responsibility is to convince people to come and take the salvation that’s been provided for them, to convince them to come and accept the gift. This is so deep in the fabric of evangelical theology that the most popular book on the church currently, The Purpose Driven Church, in it the author says, quote, “I can lead anyone to Christ if I find the key to that person’s heart.” The assumption is that if you can just figure out the technique of getting to some emotional point, you can win anybody on the planet to Christ because, after all, He’s died for all of them. That’s the popular idea. And I know many of you are thinking, “Well…well it seems to me that that’s what I’ve always believed in, that’s what I’ve been taught.”

This is a perfect description of my answer not too long ago and only recently have I had the desire to search into these things.  Johnny Mac has put together (as he does so well) a firm foundation of scripture on which this doctrine rests and oppositional opinions are shattered.  Thanks to God for John and his gifts of preaching and exposition.  Without the likes of such gifted servants, I would be lacking in understanding of many things.

Re:Lit Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll and Dr. Garry Breshears

the first book is available for pre-sale in this new line of books and there are incentives for those interested in buying early at Crossway including 35% off, early release PDF for blogging about, and a signed copy for the first 1000 purchases..

“In Vintage Jesus, one of America’s most influential young pastors teams up with a seasoned theologian to lead you on a hilarious theological journey chasing Jesus through Scripture and pop culture. The authors provide timeless answers to twelve timely questions about the most important man who has ever lived. Each chapter concludes with answers to common questions about each subject.  

…questions are answered with insights from people such as Jesus himself, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Luther King Jr., Hugh Hefner, Jack Bauer, Fidel Castro, Oprah, Kanye West, Gandhi, Homer Simpson, Mike Tyson, Gil Grissom, and Madonna, along with some demons and a porn star. There have been seventeen thousand books written about Jesus, but none is like Vintage Jesus.”

I pre-purchased a copy.  I enjoyed both Reformissionary and Confessions of a reformission rev by Mark Driscoll and I have been looking forward to more of his writing.  I will probably be going through the pdf here on the blog when they send it at the end of the year.

self sufficiency in the Trinity

God is fully self-sufficient and does not need us to be who He is.  God is love … with or without man and I wonder how someone who denies the Trinity would deal with the issue of God’s being fully self suffifient before the creation of man.

God is love.  God is just.  God is holy.  God is faithful.

God is these things and He always has been for He is unchanging.  How could God be any of these without existing in a relationship with Himself within the Trinity as these are attributes that only exist in relationship.