Happy Birthday James P. Boyce

December 28, 2008 marks the 120th Birthday of James Petigru Boyce, founder and first president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His legacy continues and we are all indebted to his work, ministry, words, and actions. As a student at SBTS, I am very grateful for all the work he put into helping the seminary survive even through the Civil War.

MacArthur and the Gospel

Here is Dr. John MacArthur laying out the true gospel. While promoting his book, "Hard To Believe," which I have read and highy recommend, MacArthur explained the gospel in clear terms. We need to heed what MacArthur says and preach this gospel.






Hat Tip: Pure Church

I came across this quote from the great Reformer Martin Luther today and I wanted to pass it on:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth 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 Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefields besides, is mere fight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

It is a good reminder that sometimes it is best to debate doctrines that might be less important.

Another Reason For NOT Being A Red Letter Christian

Tony Campolo, though claiming to be orthodox, is anything but orthodox. The term Red Letter Christian is a disguise for liberal Christianity. Despite their claim to holding to the full inspiration of Scripture and the Apostles creed, Red Letter Christians are not orthodox, and here we have another example of this truth.

I find it hypocritical that RLC want to embrace both inspiration, and I assume application and doctrinal, of Scripture and yet at the same time want to pick what they want to believe in. The term Red Letter Christian is a reference to the red letters in a Red Letter Bible (duh). These red letters refer to the words spoken by Christ. There are several problems with this.

First, a proper understnding of the inspiration of Scripture means that Paul's words are just inspired as Jesus'. Therefore, we must take the words of Christ and Moses and David and Jude and Peter and Solomon and every elses equally seriously. Every letter, whether red, black, and now green, are inspired. None trump the others.

Secondly, it is difficult to know which words are Christ's and which aren't. Remember, the Greek New Testament did not have quotation marks. In fact, most of the manuscripts we have are in all capital letters with no spacing. This results in not knowing for sure where the words of Christ begin or end in some instances. For example, it is hard to tell the words of Christ and John's in John 3.

But the major problem I have is how they apply the words of Scripture, including the red letters. And Campolo has yet again proven this point.

He has recently written an article complaining about the removal of Richard Cizik from the National Association of Evangelicals because he supports homosexual marriage entitled, "Another Reason For Being a Red Letter Christian." Wallis sees this as evidence of the grip of the Religious Right on the meaning of Evangelicalism. Therefore, Wallis rejects the term Evangelical and instead embraces the term Red Letter Christian.

The problem with Campolo is that he sees the removal of Cizik from the NAE rather than theological. How one can approval homosexuality and yet hold to the inspiration of Scripture and the apostles creed escapes me. If Campolo was serious about his "doctrine" his practice would represent that. Instead, Wallis wants to have it both ways. Like a true liberal, he strattles the fence. He wants to be accepted as orthodox, therefore claims to believe in the apostles creed, but at the same time, acts and teaches like a liberal by supporting homosexual marriage, abortion reduction, and other issues.

Furthermore, Wallis and other RLC, commit the same sin that they accuse the Religious Right: misplacing politics in our faith. They criticize the Religious Right, and at times rightly so, of putting too much emphasis on politics, but then turns around and writes books, blogs, and gives speeches on all things political. He endorses candidates and is involved with the Democratic party. He is guilty of the same thing that he has accused Evangelicalism. This is hypocrisy.

So here is another reason not to be a RLC: they aren't who they say they are. Oh wait, maybe that's the same reason to reject them in the first place.
__________

I have written an article on the book, "Red Letter Christians: A Citizens Guide To Faith and Politics" by Tony Campolo and I encourage you to read it for more on the RLC movement (which is simply part of the Emerging Church). It should be noted that this book is primarily a book on politics.

A Struggling Economy & Struggling Seminaries

In light of the struggling economy, Southern Baptist seminaries are struggling as well. I am a student at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and one of the largest seminaries in the world. Southern continues to grow every year, and yet despite all of it's successes, it too is struggling. As Baptist, we must realize the importance of our seminaries and do everything we can to help them stay on their feet through this difficult time.

SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

• Freeze on all hiring freeze for non-critical positions
• Reductions in travel and other related expenses
• An immediate halt on future projects that are yet to be contracted and funded
• $1.7 million budget cut
• Might have to raise tuition

SOUTHWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

• $3.5 million budget cut
• Naylor Children’s Center Program suspended
• Oxford Study Program suspended
• For more, read the Baptist Press release

One of my favorite pastors is Dr. James MacDonald. MacDonald serves as senior pastor of Harvist Bible Chapel in Chicago, IL. This year on vacation, my wife and I traveled to Chicago in order to go see MacDonald at his church and experience the worship service. We were grateful that we did.

MacDonald has recently announced that he has prostrate cancer. Please keep MacDonald and his family in your prayers as they go through the trials that come with cancer. To read his response to the disease, click here.

Sola Emergent: The Emerging Church and Revelation - Part 1

I have proposed what I believe is the real problem with the Emerging Church, or at least as I understand the movement. The illustration I like to use is of an angle known as the law of the angle. If you have 2 lines that run over top one another, one representing pure orthodoxy and true Biblical Christianity and the other line representing one's theological perspective, the minute one's theology differs from true Biblical Christianity the two lines will break, creating an angle. That break may begin over something small and insignificant. But as the two lines continue they drift farther and farther apart.

The Emerging Church has drifted away from orthodox Christianity, and I have gone in great detail over the months giving example after example. But I do not see the Emerging Church as starting off wrong, but ending wrong. What do I mean? The Emerging Church looks at the law of the angle and stands on the other end. On the other end of that angle isn't theology, but cultural analysis and missions. They ask questions like, how can we best engage the culture in order to reach the culture? What is culture? What must we do to impact culture? How can I best reach my neighbor? Etc. As a result of chasing after culture they have then compromised on theology. Therefore, rather than begin with theology and end in cultural engagement, as the law of the angle implies, they begin at cultural engagement and end with theology.

In Emergent language, they might say that they care more about being missional than being theological. The problem is one cannot be missional unless we are first theological.

And as the Emerging Church travel back on this angle, we see how they are unorthodox and heretical in much of what they teach. I believe that there are two foundational truths one must believe and have a right understanding in order to be an orthodox Christian: Redemption & Revelation.

I have dealt with the Emerging Church's wrong view of redemption in some detail. In essence, the Emerging Church is becoming more and more a postmodern version of the Social Gospel. We see this in the illustration above. Most theologies begin by looking at redemption and revelation, the Emerging Church begins by looking at culture. Therefore, they begin by looking at issues like postmodernism, Christianity in a postmodern context, and then on to issues like homosexuality, abortion, politics, etc. This has led to their misguided understanding of redemption, thus adopting a social gospel for postmodernist. It involves no sin, no repentance, and really, no belief. Only cheap grace with a water downed message. "Join us and we'll make the world a better place," and nothing more.

The Emerging Church's dive off the orthodox cliff from a redemptive perspective is already set in motion, it is clear now that they are making the same mistake in the area of Revelation. In a next series of posts, I want us to look at the dangers the Emerging Church proposes in this critical area of orthodoxy. Like redemption, if we get this wrong, we get Christianity wrong. And no matter how sincere we become, we miss the message of Christ altogether.

We must begin by looking at what seems to be one of the most important books in Emergent circles by Phyllis Tickle called, "The Great Emergence." The basic premise is that every 500 years, throughout Christian history, there as been a great revolution. For example, Gregory the Great, the Great Reformation, etc. The argument goes that every 500 years, God "reforms," the Church, redefining and redirecting some of it's doctrine and practice. Each of these movements mark a major change in culture and thus a change in doctrine. Tickle seems to see this as an act of Providence, part of God's divine story.

And we are in one of those transitional moments in history, she argues. The "Great" this time is, according to Tickle, the Great Emergence. Tickle sees the Emerging Church as the movement that will redefine history and reshape the Church.

And one of those issues that will be redefined deals with revelation. We must go back to the Great Reformation where the battle cry was "Sola Scriptura" (Scripture alone). This anthem was in reaction to the abuses of the Catholic Church who held tradition as authoritative as God's revealed Word. Therefore, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox, John Craig, Minno Simmons, Philip Melanthon, and the other Reformers declared that Scripture was God's only revealed Word, and we must let is shape our theology and ecclesialogy alone. Nothing else.

Tickle argues:

Orthonomy may be defined then as a kind of “correct harmoniousness” or beauty. In effect, when it is used as here [in regard to Sola Scriptura], it means the employment of aesthetic or harmonic purity as a tool for discerning truth—and therefore the intent and authority—of anything, be that thing doctrine or practice. Thus it is very common to find that many emergent Christians are genuinely confused and befuddled by the Reformation Protestants’ constant wrestling with modernist questions of historicity.

An emergent, in observing heated debates or impassioned conversations about the factualness of the Virgin Birth, for example, can be truly puzzled. For him or her, the whole “problem” is just not “there” in any distinguishable or real sense. For the emergent, as he or she will be quick to say, the Virgin Birth is so beautiful that it has to be true, whether it happened or not…

The new Christianity of the Great Emergence must discover some authority base or delivery system and/or governing agency of its own. It must formulate—and soon—something other than Luther’s sola scriptura which, although used so well by the Great Reformation originally, is now seen as hopelessly outmoded or insufficient,… (The Great Emergence, 149, 150, 151)

You can see where this is going. As this Great Emergence takes place, we must reevaluate everything it means to be a Christian. Not only must we reevaluate redemption, we must also reevaluate revelation.

Notice how Tickle describes Sola Scriptura: "hopelessly outmoded," & "insufficient." Why? Because we are no longer living in the world of the Reformers. By this, the Emerging Church is not referring to cars and planes, but to modernity vs. postmodernity. The Reformers lived in a propositional world where concepts like the Virgin Birth could be defended solely on revelation and proposition. But we don't live in such a world anymore. We now live in a postmodern world where story and dialogue rule the day. And if propositions are outmoded and insufficient, so are the things that drive them: i.e., Sola Scriptura. Therefore, it is not necessary to believe in a literal Virgin Birth, rather we must find ourselves in the story and see what the writer intended for us to understand. There is mystery here. Truth is overrated, mystery is the wave of the future.

Story is the name, mystery is the game. The goal is not to have all the right answers, but to ask all the right questions. Concepts like the Virgin Birth distract from what God is saying. The Virgin Birth, the resurrection from the dead, heterosexual marriage only, are propositions. These are inadequate and no longer relevant, therefore, they must be reevaluated.

Here, we must return where we began; the law of the angle. The Emerging Church has been around for over a decade and it seems that they are just now seriously beginning to deal with the issue of revelation. Why so long especially whenever it was the first and foremost issue, along with redemption, with the Reformers and other Christians (such as Augustine, etc.)? The answer is because their starting point is not theology, but culture and missions. Because culture has changed, so must the faith, so must theology. One can only understand the Emerging Church only whenever one understands the culture because it is the culture that drives and moves the Emerging Church.

Therefore, if culture has redefined Christ, so will the Emerging Church. If the culture has redefined Christianity, so will the Emerging Church. If the culture has redefined redemption, so will the Emerging church. If the culture redefines revelation, so will the Emerging Church. And since the culture is postChristian, so is the Emerging Church.

We see this trend in Tickle's recent work. She points out:

The next assault in this progression of assaults [upon Sola Scriptura] was the ordination of women to the Protestant clergy… The ordination of women was followed, of course, by their elevation to the episcopacy in the Episcopal Church in the United States. Clearly the battle of “Scripture only” was being lost. Now there was only one more tool left in sola scriptura’s war chest… Enter “the gay issue.”

To approach any of the arguments and questions surrounding homosexuality in the closing years of the twentieth century and the opening ones of the twenty-first is to approach a battle to the death. When it is resolved—and it most surely will be—the Reformation’s understanding of Scripture as it had been taught by Protestantism for almost five centuries will be dead. That is not to say that Scripture as the base of authority is dead. Rather it is to say that what the Protestant tradition has taught about the nature of that authority will either be dead or in mortal need of reconfiguration.

And that kind of summation is agonizing for the surrounding culture in general. In particular, it is agonizing for the individual lives that have been built upon it. Such an ending is to staved off with every means available and resisted with every bit of energy that can be mustered. Of all the fights, the gay one must be—has to be—the bitterest, because once it is lost, there are no more fights to be had. It is finished. Where now is the authority? (The Great Emergence, 100, 101)

Notice again: first comes culture, then comes theology. Since culture has redefined our understanding of what we have traditionally believed about Scripture, we must therefore reevaluate what we believe about Scripture.

There is one major problem with this method of missional theology. They declare that modernism is dead and can no longer reach the culture. Perhaps that's true. But to embrace postmodernism is to make the same mistake they criticize the modern church. Yes, the minute the Church became modern is the minute it began to compromise true Christianity because Christianity is not defined by culture or cultural trends. It is defined by Christ. Likewise, the minute the Church becomes postmodern is the minute it begins to compromise true Christianity. And before long, it too will be outdated. To chase after culture rather chase after Christ means the death of the faith and death of the founder of that Faith.

This is a dangerous trend and one that we will look at more closely in the next few posts. This is an important issue. To compromise on Revelation and Redemption is to cease to be Christian. I believe that the Emerging Church has ceased to be Christian.

Long gone are the words of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms facing certain death:

"Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."

Mohler on the Apostles Creed

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has just completed his series on the Apostles Creed. I encourage everyone to listen to each message as they are important to our understanding of God, Christ, the gospel, and Christianity itself.


Credo: I Believe
God the Father Almighty
Maker of Heaven and Earth
Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord
Conceived of the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary
Suffered Under Pontius Pilate
Was Crucified, Died, and Was Buried
The Third Day He Arose Again from the Dead
He Ascended into Heaven and Sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty
Whence He Shall Come to Judge the Living and the Dead
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Catholic Church and the Communion of the Saints
The Forgiveness of Sins
The Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting

H/T: Between 2 Worlds

Re: A Struggling Team and a Theology of Faith

I want to repost something I wrote a year ago relating how a fan treats their team whenever they struggle and how a Christian treats their faith and God whenever things aren't going their way. I hope this article provides some insight and a different way to approach the faith. Sadly, we enter Christianity thinking that God owes us something and whenever things aren't going our way, we move on. We must be watchful and know that we are slaves of Christ, Christ is not our slave.





I am a Louisville Cardinal fan. I've got the T-shirts, the hats, the mug, everything. I enjoy sitting down with my wife and watching a game together. She is a fan as well, and I really enjoy watching and listening to her reactions during every play in a football game.Anyone who has kept up with collegiate football this year knows how the Cardinals are struggling. Louisville started the season as a top 10 team, and won the Orange Bowl last year. Their coach, Bobby Petrino, left Louisville to become the head coach of te Atlanta Falcons, and so the Cardinals hired Steve Kragthorp.

Well, the honeymoon for the new coach is over, and the Louisville faithful are calling for his head. It was bad enough that the Cardinals lost to their archrivals, the Kentucky Wildcats, it is even worse to loose to the worst team in the Big East who were 0-3 before Saturday's game.

Their offense wasn't great, their defense was terrible, and I don't know what the deal was with their special teams. In short, the Cardinals didn't look like a top 10 team seeking for another BCS bowl. The Cardinals looked aweful. They were continually booed by fans. And no wonder. It was the first lost at home in 20 games! They had the 2nd longest winning streak at home in the the nation (behind USC).

I was disappointed, and am concerned for my team. What makes it worse is that my wife and I are the only Cardinal fans at church. They are all Kentucky fans. So needless to say, they had fun after Lousivlles lost to the Wildcats. And after the loss to Syracuse, it continued to get worse (especially since Kentucky beat my other favorite team, the Arkansas Razorbacks).

It is so bad that even our pastor told the congregation that in Louisville, if you get pulled over by a cop, he will give you 2 tickets...to a Louisville Cardinal football game. :o)

I mentioned all of this, not to bore you about my favorite team, or about sports, but because the situation with the Cardinal football team is a great illustration of faith.

No matter who your favorite team is, we all know what it's like to endure a loosing season with your favorite team. The thing that a lot of people learn is whether or not they are true "faithful" fan. Too many people become fans of the best team in the league, and then the next year be a fan of whoever might be the new best team. They essentially "team-hop."

In sports, and fans relationship with their team, is usually abandonment whenever failure is taking place. We get upset, don't watch them, stop attending the games, refuse to support them, etc.

Our own faith is much the same. Oh how easy it is to remain "faithful" to Christ whenever things are going well. If we have a nice job, a great marriage, and obeying children, we are on fire for God. We can't do enough for God. We might try to witness to friends and co-workers, work on personal sanctification, etc.

But what happens whenever hard times come? Too often we abandon God because we feel like He has abandoned us. How do you respond to your struggling marriage, rebellious children, dull church, etc.? Do we give up like we would our loosing team, or do we remain faithful and stay with Christ through thick and thin?

Many too often give up, and no wonder. Look at how the gospel is preached today. We, first of all, have the prosperity heretics on TBN (which I believe stands for "Twisting the Bible Nightly"). There, the speakers tell us that if we aren't rich, healthy, or happy, then we aren't faithful enough. Therefore, faith is defined as being victorious. Faith is a life where your team always win.

This notion has been carried into our churches. To many believe that God owes them something, and that God was obligated to save them. This is a horrific theology that only leads to heresy. God is never obligated. The very fact that He has saved us is reason enough to be thankful and rejoice. Everything else is continual blessing, and we must accept it as that. God is not obligated to give us a well paying job, an easy marriage, or anything else. The very fact that He gives us the priviledge of going through hardtimes without being alone is evidence of His grace and mercy.

Due to our bad theology, we are wanting to fire God as a bad coach because things aren't going our way. We expect that faithfulness to Christ should result in greater benefits. And this is a shameful deception.

The fact is that you will know whether or not your a real fan whenever your team is loosing. Likewise, you will know if you truly have faith in Christ whenever life gets hard. We abandon God when we are disappointed with our current situation like we abandon teams when they aren't performing the way we think they should.

What a shame!

But we are not the first to experience such a thing. The New Testament is full of this sort of deception. The apostle John described such people who have abandon the gospel as:

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had
belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that
none of them belonged to us. -1 John 2:19

For whatever reason, these certain persons certainly played the part of the Christian, but before long, they turned away from the faith. Perhaps hard times came, perhaps persecution came, perhaps heresy came, perhaps all of these thing came. Whatever the reason, they were quick to turn their backs. Like those who will root for a team when they are winning and abandon them when they are loosing, so these persons abandoned the Church and abandoned Christ in their disappointment.

So, how can you know if you are truly saved? Do you remain firm in your faith and convictions in Christ when hard times come, or do you abandon Christ at the first sign of trouble? Are you a faithful fan through thick and thin, or are you simply a watcher of the game who roots for the team predicted by the experts to win it all?

James reminds us to expect such trials and tribulations, and that they are God's method of shaping us for His glory. We therefore should be joyful at such times, and look towards Christ for our hope and comfort in our time of suffering.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many
kinds,because you know that the testing of your faith develops
perseverance.Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and
complete, notlacking anything. -James 1:2-4