War.

I recently read a neat little book on evangelism. When I say 'little', I really mean it. Its very short. Its called "Principles of War: thoughts on strategic evangelism" by Jim Wilson (father to Douglas Wilson, grandfather ND Wilson). Here are a few good one-liners:

Physical warfare is a result of being defeated in the spiritual war.

The Christian life is not likened to war: it is war.

Jesus Christ delivered the decisive blow at the decisive point at the decisive time. The blow was death for sin and sinners. The point was a cross outside the city of Jerusalem and the time was the feast of the Passover about A.D. 30.

I found it rich with practical help in the reasons and preparations of evangelism. Like I said, its short. And cheap. One cent? Come on!

Does this thing still work?

James White in Kansas!

I don't recommend going to the Sunday morning service because your presence at your local church is far more important than any speaker who's in the area, but I WILL be going Monday and Tuesday.

No, Mr. President!

A Good Day

I went to a funeral today. And it was a good day. At the funeral, we celebrated a saint who has entered into glory and a life simply lived for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a somewhat unusual detail to this woman's death. She committed suicide. The rich grace of God was preached by the pastor who spoke. He used a great example of why we should expect to see this saint again. His reasoning was that if he were to drive out of the funeral home and get hit by a car and die while having a sinful thought, he would not lose his salvation because his salvation was not based on his actions in the first place. The gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life based on Christ's performance in a sinless life and His sacrificial substitutionary atonement. It was so good to hear this truth preached in front of an open casket. We will see her again. Praise be to God for his grace given to sinful men and woman.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10

An Active Rebellion

I've recently been musing (that's an old word for 'thinking', the opposite of amusement) on the size of our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and the whole universe in general. All the time, I cannot get the words of David out of my head:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Palsm 8:3,4)

I heard an astronomer say something very insightful. What he said was an example of a creature passionately hating the Creator. A pot shaking his fist at the Potter. Astronomer Robert Jastrow sais this:

Just as I can't believe that there was a creator, I can't believe this all happened by chance, which implies there was a creator. So, you see, I'm in a completely hopeless bind, and I stay there. It makes me uneasy. I feel I'm missing something but I will not find out what I'm missing within my lifetime.

This man is not dumb, he is in rebellion. He is not ignorant of God, he hates God. When he looks through the telescopes to see the heavens, he suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. What can be known about God is plain to him. In the very objects Mr. Jastrow sees through the lenses, God has made his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, clear to this mans perception. He is without excuse. He neither honors God as just that, God, nor does he give God thanks. Claiming to be wise, Robert Jastrow has become a fool and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the glory of magnified balls of gas. He worships and and serves the creature rather than the Creator. And through all of this, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against his ungodliness and unrighteousness.

So, I give thanks to God, through Christ, for making the riches of his glory known to me, a speck in space. There is only one difference between me and Robert Jastrow and it's not a moral decision to follow Jesus, it is a five letter word called GRACE. And it's by grace alone, through faith alone, by Christ alone, in Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone, that the Gospel of God's free grace has saved me, a wretched sinner on a very small planet in a extremely small galaxy in an exceedingly tiny universe, all created by a triune God, who is blessed forever! Amen.

The Prince on Infallibility

"Everybody believes in infallibility somewhere. A Romanist believes in an infallible
Pope, and a great philosopher believes in his infallible self; he knows that he is right. I believe in this infallible Book, and in the infallible God; and I ask any of you, who are troubled, and worried, and tossed to and fro because of what some heretic or skeptic has said, to “walk in the light of the Lord,” and to be perfectly satisfied as to the revelation he has given us in his Word."- C.H. Spurgeon

Calvary Chapel Distinctives #1

This is the first of numerous posts blogging through Chuck Smith's book, "Calvary Chapel Distinctives: The Foundational Principles of the Calvary Chapel Movement". In this post I will be going through the first two sections of the book entitled 'Preface' and 'The Call To The Ministry'.

Preface:

The first sentence in the book is as follows:

What is it that makes Calvary Chapel different from other Bible-believing, evangelical Churches?

Smith goes on to explain that there are indeed important enough differences to not merge with the church across the street. So, he sets the book up as a confession of faith, a "what we believe" of sorts, of which I am all for. I think it is a very good thing that this book was written for the purpose it was written for. A lot of churches, mostly congregations who are not affiliated with any particular denomination, do not have a standard, a starting point for pastors and members to adhere to. So again, I am glad Calvary Chapel has separated itself from other denominations.

The Call To The Ministry:

To start out the section, Chuck Smith makes it clear as to whom he is addressing this book to. He often uses pronouns like 'our', 'we', and 'us'. This whole section is dedicated to "the vital subject of our calling and commitment to the ministry". So this book is written to/for Calvary Chapel ministers.

Smith writes,

If there is one characteristic that is absolutely essential for effective ministry, it's that we must first have a sense of calling- the conviction in our hearts that God has chosen and called us to serve Him. The Bible tells us to make our calling and election sure. Are you convinced that God has called you into the ministry? (Italics mine)

Here is the books first exegetical error. He references 2 Peter 1 when he speaks of us making our calling and election sure. There is just one problem, the 'calling' that Peter speaks of, has nothing to do with a "conviction in our hearts that God has chosen and called us to serve Him" in pastoral ministry. Smith takes this verse (2 Peter 1:10) out of context and uses it for his purpose in this chapter. This is not to be taken lightly. Peter had an intention for the words he used in his letter. We, 2000 years later, should not take the words he used and make them mean what we want then to mean.

Smith moves on to give some practical examples of how ministering/serving God's people works out. He tells of how he hates picking up peoples cigarette butts off the ground. Every time he would pick one up outside of the church building, he would grumble in his heart and think unloving thoughts about the person dropping them. Then Smith says something odd,

Then the Lord spoke to my heart. He simply said, "Who are you serving?" I said, "I am serving You, Lord." And He replied, "Then quit your gripping."

Now, I don't actually think he heard the very voice of God saying these things to him. At least I hope not. I get the point hes trying to make. But why not use God's actual voice, His word? Why not use scripture to make the point? What does "the Lord spoke to my heart" even mean? This lingo of conversations with God is popular in evangelicalism. People claim to have heard a still, small voice. They claim they have dreams and visions from God. My question is this: If Chuck actually hears God speak to him, shouldn't we be typing this stuff out and stapling it in our Bibles just after Revelation?

He goes on to explain the right attitude and commitment ministers should have in ministry work. He says,

We must not only maintain a commitment to Jesus and to serving His people, but there must also be a commitment to the Word of God. I believe that anyone who doesn't believe that the Bible is the inspired, innerant Word of God has no business being in the ministry. And if you do believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and that it's your duty to preach it, then, by all means, know it. Be committed to it.

Here is a clear affirmation to the innarency and total inspiration of the Bible. Smith takes a firm stance in his position against ministers who downgrade the Word of God. On this issue, he stands on the shoulders of giants of the Christian faith. I am extremely grateful for his insistence on this subject. I know, and am thankful to God, that Chuck Smith would wholeheartedly say with the prince of preachers, C.H. Spurgeon:

We care little for any theory of inspiration: in fact, we have none. To us the plenary verbal inspiration of Holy Scripture is a fact, and not hypothesis. It is a pity to theorize upon a subject which is deeply mysterious, and makes a demand upon faith rather than fancy. The coin of inspiration comes from the mint of infallibility.

What does Light Beer and American Evangelicalism have in common?

This comes from the Irish Calvinist. Check out his blog on the blog-roll. It's a good one.




People have described some of the contemporary practices within evangelicalism as being driven by consumerism. We can see evidences of this with many of the popular devices that are employed, whether it be in the altering of vocabulary, the transition from preaching to conversations, the emphasis upon felt needs rather than spiritual needs, the polling of unbelievers as to how church should be conducted, a deemphasis upon doctrine, a redefinition of Jesus as weak and effeminate, and an idolatrous portrayal of a God who’s love is able to trump his righteousness. Regrettably, all of these things are common today.

Even here in Omaha we have seen a confessional evangelical church, with a history of teaching the Bible, hang up pictures of the Pope and encourage believers to be more like him. Proponents of this type of reproachable compromise argue that such things are done to attract the large Catholic community that surrounds the church.

In effort to create something that is universally accepted by all, even unbelievers and heretics, such people are unwittingly making themselves irrelevant. The church is supposed to be different, we are supposed to have distinct contours that reflect our God who has called out us of the world and given us the same message to proclaim to a world who does not know him.

This Is Just Good...

I usually don't really like the music behind preaching on videos like this, but this is too good to pass (the preaching I mean, not the music, well, I like the music too but, you know what I mean).

Richard Dawkins

Behold, a creature in denial of his Creator.

Calvary Chapel

This may be a touchy subject for some, but I think it is very important to talk about because Calvary Chapel may well be the largest non-denominational denomination in Christendom. I am going to be reading through Chuck Smith's book, Calvary Chapel Distinctives, and posting chapter-by-chapter some of my concerns about the content. The subtitle to this book is 'the foundational principles of the Calvary Chapel movement'. In other words, it's the functional Calvary Chapel confession of faith written by the functional Calvary Chapel pope (more on that later).

To give some background, I was a part of this movement for five years (the first being kind of off-and-on) and was converted while attending Calvary Chapel St. Joseph, MO (where my wife attended for ten years). I grew up in the middle of the out-breaking of the movement in Southern California, living five minutes from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta (where my wife attended for a short while). To put it plainly, I was in the bubble.

So, in the next couple of weeks I will be picking on Calvary Chapel as a whole and on Chuck Smith as a man who has been elevated to a teaching and preaching role in the movement.

Bad Church

Are we called to be members of bad churches? I can't find the verse that says if we find ourselves in a bad church, to stay in it. Now, by bad I don't mean you don't like the preachers hair dew or that one dude who always sits on the right side that always blows his nose way too loud and you can't stand it. By bad, I mean bad theology, or a church who doesn't, or isn't willing, to practice church discipline. There are many things that can make a church a bad one. If you are a part of one, get out. Find a biblical church.

I say all this because it's the Lord's day, and I'm about to go to my church and I love it. I love it for being a biblical church.

A few Doug Wilson quotes...

Hitchens:"One of Christianities specifically horrible contributions to human mythology and delusion is the terrifying idea that you could be tortured forever (in hell)"
Wilson:""Horrible" by what standard?"
Hitchens:"Umm, horiblllle byyy, oh, well, good question"
Wilson:"Yeah, I know!"


"The god Christopher (Hitchens) doesn't believe in, I don't believe in that one either".- Doug Wilson

Advent and Hope

During this Advent season, I am trying to keep in mind the hope I have in God. Old Covenant believers hoped in a Christ, a Savor to come in the future. We, as New Covenant believers, have a steadfast anchor for our souls. Our hope is a hope that enters into the most holy place, behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner for us to become a High Priest forever (Heb. 6). This means we have access to God through Jesus Christ by his atoning work on the cross in our stead forever. Believers before Christ looked forward for hope, we look backward for hope. Something that happened in the past, in time and space, gives us a hope of a right standing before the throne of the Most Holy Judge.

So we hope in God, as Christians, to act according to his will. He is a God of his word, his promise, his covenant and we can have certainty that he will be faithful to what he has said.

Praise be to God for swearing to himself, for there is no one greater by whom to swear.

Soli Deo Gloria

Another Quote

Be on your guard, my little children,
For men are wicked, bad, and wild.
As swine and cattle pass the day
And blind to sin, go on their way.
But God's strong hand soon lays then low,
And to the devil they will go.

Beware, and follow not their call,
But think of God who sees it all.
His judgment is no jest to you,
As Holy Scripture tells you, too.

Although a rogue may think indeed:
"For many days there is no need"-
May brush aside what God requires,
Treat with disdain parents desires.
Death may come soon, and he expires.

Therefore, my child and dear son,
Heed thou the words of Solomon.

-Martin Luther