777 BIBLE.COM
SERMON, COMMENTARY, ARTICLE THEOLOGY, CHRISTIAN BOOK
-
No Comments
These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves… (Jude 12)Christians Who Don’t Believe What Christians Believe
Apprising Ministries has told you before that the sinfully ecumenical Emerging Church, which has now blossomed into a full-blown neo-liberal cult that’s operating within mainstream evangelicalism itself, would prove to be a Trojan Horse unloading critical-thinking skills numbing Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism under the guise of so-called Spiritual Formation ala Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster and his spiritual twin Dallas Willard.
Online apologetics and discernment ministries tried to warn you that the primary goal of the Emergent Church has been to attack the Protestant Reformation—specifically Sola Scriptura—but, unfortunately, the warnings went unheeded. Instead mainstream evangelical churches made the horrible decision to use their Young Adult and Youth ministries as spiritual guinea pigs feeding them on materials from apostate EC leaders.
Two of the most notorious of these would be the heretical quasi-universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt, who heads the Emergent Solomon’s Porch, along with his equally heretical “theologian in residence” Tony Jones; two-thirds of the unholy trinity of the Emerging Church, with the other being guru Brian McLaren. Sadly, these men will have much to answer for having caused so many to make shipwreck of their faith (see—1 Timothy 1:19).
I’ll tell you again that you listen to such fools to your own demise. In The New Christians With Christianity Worth Believing—No Sola Scriptura: Yes, Women Pastors And Queer Christians I showed some of what their spiritually libertine legacy comprises as well as mentioned that among the books authored by DougPagitt is one called A Christianity Worth Believing.
Now courtesy of A Simple Review of “A Christianity Worth Believing” we ask the question: What kind of Christianity does Doug Pagitt offer?
Emergent leaders use the same tactics in their books and lessons: a personal life story followed by an applicable theological lesson; very little use of scripture, and if any is used most commonly out of context; most of all, they commonly say, “Oh, we’re not teaching that! Let me explain…” followed by an exact definition of what they claimed they weren’t teaching. The obviousness of this latter point is sometimes so unintentionally humorous that I’m suddenly reminded of the end of An American Tail, where the villain is revealed to be a cat in disguise but says to the mice: “C’mon, who are you gonna trust? Me, or your own eyes?”
What Christianity has Pagitt presented us? We are taught that sin isn’t a serious issue, that Jesus was simply an example of what we’re meant to do, that the crucifixion wasn’t necessary in the long run, that the afterlife isn’t important, and that we can learn a lot more from holistic medicine than we can the Bible. At what point does this become Christianity? How can this be Christianity? The role of Christ is diminished and our role with God is simply played out in a post-modern ideal that borders along pantheism. You can call it spirituality, but you can’t call it Christianity.
So what is a Christianity worth believing? I would move the Christianity we are taught in the word of God by the Eternal Word of God and His blessed apostles. The Christianity that promises eternal life through faith in Christ, so that we may be justified before the Father on the day of judgment, when the real “renewal” – not in holistic nature but in the body of believers who will be purified and sanctified forever – takes place. Upon no other form of Christianity should we take our stand. Amen. (Online source)
See also:
DOUG PAGITT, THE EMERGING CHURCH, AND AFFIRMING HOMOSEXUALITY
DOUG PAGITT AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM
DOUG PAGITT EXCITED ABOUT EVENTS THROUGH THE LENS OF THE ENNEAGRAM
DOUG PAGITT, JOHN PIPER, AND KARMA KICK-BACK
DOUG PAGITT AND ARROGANCE OF LIBERAL/PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANS
-
No Comments
It is common to say that hell is the absence of God. Such statements are motivated in large part by the dread of even contemplating what hell is like. We try often to soften that blow and find a euphemism to skirt around it.
We need to realize that those who are in hell desire nothing more than the absence of God. They didn’t want to be in God’s presence during their earthly lives, and they certainly don’t want Him near when they’re in hell. The worst thing about hell is the presence of God there.
When we use the imagery of the Old Testament in an attempt to understand the forsakenness of the lost, we are not speaking of the idea of the departure of God or the absence of God in the sense that He ceases to be omnipresent. Rather, it’s a way of describing the withdrawal of God in terms of His redemptive blessing.
It is the absence of the light of His countenance. It is the presence of the frown of His countenance.
It is the absence of the blessedness of His unveiled glory that is a delight to the souls of those who love Him, but it is the presence of the darkness of judgment.
Hell reflects the presence of God in His mode of judgment, in His exercise of wrath, and that’s what everyone would like to escape.
I think that’s why we get confused. There is withdrawal in terms of the blessing of the radical nearness of God. His benefits can be removed far from us, and that’s what this language is calling attention to.
Dr. R.C. Sproul [1]
________________________________________________________________________________
End notes:
[1] R. C. Sproul, The Truth of the Cross (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2007), pp. 157-158.
HT: Justin Taylor
See also:
-
No Comments
Here is Ron Choong’s Reply to Daniel Mann:
Hello Daniel,I have long since stopped using this email address and happened to just spot this as I cleared old emails.
Thank you for your response. I remember answering your questions with reasons for my conclusions but again, your ‘response’ here did not engage with my thoughts. I can only conclude that you are not really serious about an intelligent and mutually respectful engagement among fellow believers but rather, seek a name-calling polemic. Unfortunately, as a missionary, I have to be accountable to the time I spend on such encounters.
You have followed my seminars for years now with the same questions to which I have always answered in a civil fashion. This is then followed by public writings denouncing my conclusions. If by copying Tim Keller and Terry Gyger, you hope to draw their attention to my views, I can save you a lot of trouble. All my views about Adam and Eve have been published for more than 10 years and Redeemer as a church as well as Dr Keller as a minister have never had any objections to my non-doctrinal interpretations. This means that while I hold to a certain view of who Adam might mean, no church doctrine in the history of the church has ever made this a litmus test of faith. No one should get their knickers in a twist over whether Adam was a collective or a singularity. We simply have no idea, so we go with evidence from as broad a compass as possible. To cite ‘biblical evidence’ is naive. The Bible does not offer evidence. It offers trustworthy ‘accounts’ by those who believe and should not be degenerated to become ‘evidence. This cheapens the high view of scriptures that we ought to hold. Ironically, to make the bible proof of God is to reduce its status to that of mere historical or scientific values.
This is an unworthy and feeble attempt at apologetics. Both historical analyses and scientific inferences are second-order cognitive operations that we are learning to use as we decipher God’s general revelation to us. Spiritual accounts need not bow down to any adjudication by either history or the sciences. Rather, these fields of inquiry are useful in helping us weed our our false premises and biased judgments.
For me, that Adam is a collective name is so satisfying because it explains a great deal about the loving God whose mightiness science is only just beginning to appreciate. I hope one day, you too will marvel at the greatness and goodness of God.
Indeed, anyone who has attended any seminary will soon learn that no creedal statements about the specific identity of Adam exists. The name is not mentioned in any ancient creed and Paul uses the word metaphorically (it is a good idea to do some real, reputable reading of the NT commentaries).
Since you have already made this a public statement in your copies to others, I can only assume that it is not in fact, a pre-publication invitation to respond.
Let me close by assuring you that the reason I remain a very committed biblical christian because – science in itself is merely an explanatory evidence of data, it has no competence to adjudicate the existence of God. The Bible, on the other hand, is a marvelous account of God’s encounter with human ancestors and gives us so much data that it draws us to the sciences to explain much of that data. Science cannot add data. It only explains data we receive from our 5 senses.
E.g., the telescope did not invent the size of the universe to undermine our early beliefs that the stars are attached to a fixed cloth ‘above’ a flat Earth and the microscope did not invent germs to undermine many of our beliefs that all illnesses were caused by demons. They change our understanding of what we already observe with our eyes. So evolutionary by natural selection did not create the specific shapes of the tortoise shells on the Galapagos Islands. The animals were already there long before Darwin saw and measured them.
Like philosophy, Christians should not avoid science, but rather do good science because there is so much bad science around – as when Richard Dawkins use his incredible talents to force biology to make a theological statement.
We should also beware not to do this ourselves, i.e., by using theology to make scientific statements.
Daniel, my brother in the Lord, I wish you well in your endeavors for the Lord.
God bless,
Ron
-
No CommentsHerman Witsius (1636-1708) was without question one of the greatest of
the Reformed theologians in the latter half of the 17th century. He taught theology successively at Franeker, Utrecht, and then Leyden. He wrote many books on theological and philological matters. In addition, he was a pious man who wrote several shorter works of piety.
One of those works is entitled The Practice of Christianity. It was written originally in Dutch in 1665. It was translated and then published in French at Lausanna in 1731 by a Mr. A. Ruchat who had apparently studied under Witsius at Leyden. Mr. Ruchat describes it well as a book that teaches us not only how we are “to be saved, but also how we can live in that consolation and assurance that we are actually in a state of salvation” (from the Preface).I have decided to present to the public on my blog an English translation of the French translation of this work. Though translating from a translation is not the most scholarly thing to do, I think the work is sufficiently valuable and helpful to make this a worthwhile attempt. I plan to publish it piece by piece over the next few months and then make it available for free download in .pdf format when I am finished.The first chapter is on Holy Scripture. I have published it in three parts. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. The second chapter is on the true religion. I will publish this in two parts. The first part is here.Chapter 2 – On the True Religion
1. What is the principal thing that we learn in Holy Scripture? We learn the true religion or service of God.
2. What do you mean by religion? It is the proper way to know God and glorify Him as He has revealed Himself to us in His Word with a sure hope of divine reward.
3. Why do you speak of the true religion? Because men by the craftiness of the devil and the fickleness of their own reason have forged an infinite number of ways to serve God such that almost everyone makes for himself a god and religion according to his taste. On the contrary, since there is only one God, there can also only be one proper way to serve Him. “There is only one Lord and one faith” (Eph. 4:5) from which all others defect, some more and others less.
4. What are the general marks by which someone can distinguish the true religion from all false ones? The marks of the true religion are three in particular. The first mark is that it leads us and our service of God to the true God and to submit our consciences to Him alone. The second mark is that it shows us a way of serving God that God alone has prescribed and that He has never revoked. The third mark is that it shows us the proper way to satisfy the justice of God, reunite the sinner with a God whom he has offended, and lead him to eternal salvation.
5. Do all these marks agree with the Christian religion? Yes, and they only agree with the Christian religion to the exclusion of all others.
6. How can you demonstrate this in regard to the first mark? Because the Christian religion teaches us to know the true God, Creator of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, one only divine essence in three persons, who has magnificently shown His divinity in His miracles, prophecies, and marvelous protection of His people. This religion teaches us to be submitted to this God alone, to glorify by religious homage God alone, and even to only fulfill the duties to which we are obligated toward our neighbors by principle of conscience, according to God’s will, and for His glory.
7. How can you demonstrate that the second mark agrees with the Christian religion? Because the Son of God Himself has descended from heaven in the form of a man (Jn. 3:13) and has taught us this religion (Phil. 2:7). The Father announced the coming of his Son thousands of years in advance (Gen. 3:15) and testified from heaven in the presence of many witnesses that this was His beloved Son with orders that they should obey Him in everything and without reservation (Mt. 3:17, 17:5). Further, He confirmed this religion by so many astonishing miracles that He performed before the eyes of everyone, both by Jesus Christ Himself as well as His first ministers, that the mere announcement and proclamation that they made without any ornament of worldly wisdom and without any use of compulsion, caused the name of Christ to be known, believed in, and worshipped by all. The Holy Spirit also has so powerfully assured hearts of the divinity of this religion that not only the apostles and the first disciples of Jesus Christ but also those in the following centuries, people of every sex and condition have embraced it with joy and suffered for it with joy the cruelest punishments and types of death on account of the expectation of a glory to come.
8. You said that it was not only necessary for the true religion to have been established by God but also that it never have been abolished. Why did you add that? That is because of the Jewish religion, which was established in past times by Moses. For that religion was also established by God and in its time was the true religion. But since this religion contained certain things that were only ordained until the time of reformation (Heb. 9:10), that bound to the nation of the Jews (Dt. 11:31-32, 13:1) and to their political state in their country, that by their coarseness held them under discipline like difficult children (Gal. 3:24), and finally that prefigured the Messiah who was to come (Col. 2:17), God wisely later because of His goodness abolished all these things. In their place, He announced Christian liberty under which the Church would live until the end of the world. That’s why the time of the coming of Jesus Christ is constantly called the last days (Acts 2:17, Heb. 1:1), because we are not expecting any further change in religion.
9. How do you prove that the third mark agrees with the Christian religion? Because the Christian religion is the only one that clearly sets forth the great mystery of godliness that God was manifested in the flesh (2 Tim. 3:16) in that it teaches that the Son of God who is God and remains God became human so that He might be able to suffer in His human nature the punishments that man had merited and by His divinity sustain His human nature through it and give to those sufferings an infinite value. It teaches at the same time that we are so united to the to Jesus Christ by faith that we become as one body with Him such that all He had suffered and merited is all ours just as much as if we had done, suffered, and merited ourselves in our person. And this way is the only way to establish peace between a just God and a sinful man and to calm the anguished conscience. And the less such a means could have been imagined by man, the more it is worthy to be received (1 Tim. 1:15) because God Himself has discovered it and made it known to us.
-
No Comments
Alan Kurschner
If you live in the Twin Cities area, sign up for Introduction to Apologetics that will be taught by Justin John Daeley. It will begin October 7th, meeting on Thursdays for eight weeks, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Click here for more information.
Also, this fall, I am teaching Biblical Interpretation. And starting in January, I will be teaching Basics of Biblical Greek and Intermediate Greek. Click here to be alerted to their announcements.
-
No Comments
She had it all — beauty, money, children, and an important husband. Then last Thanksgiving, it all began to fall apart. The cracks in their relationship became a chasm too deep for them to enter and too wide for any amount of money to build a bridge for them to cross and return safely back to their home.Their story can be repeated a thousand times over. I’ve had similar stories told to me today from literally all over the world. And I’ve heard them before — a church leader whose wife survives cancer but who gets caught up in a devastating leadership conflict, the young engaged woman who calls after the rehearsal dinner to say the wedding is off the next day, and the man who has given everything to his job for over 25 years to only find he is let go with still another kid to get through college.
Little cracks become chasms. Little problems become crises. Little wounds fester and become life threatening abscesses. Each of these stories — these problems, the wounds, these crises, these conflicts — remind us of the original one. They remind us of the broken world we have inherited because of the original chasm carved so many years ago. We find that story in the early chapters of the Bible (Genesis 3:1-15).
After Adam and Eve sin and rebel against God’s gracious provision for them, doubting the motives for his generous grace, our world is marred and forever broken. Notice the original progression from crack to chasm:
- Hiding and Ashamed — the chasm between us and God
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Genesis 3:9-10 TNIV).
- Blaming the Other — the chasm separating relationships
The man said, “The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Genesis 3:12).
- Blaming Creation — the chasm with our universe
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:13).
Notice that once humans had rebelled against God, the separation was not just with God. The crack in that relationship became a chasm in every area of life and resulted in death. Their relationship with each other was marred by blame and pain. This break in relationship was fully realized when one child killed the other over their worship of God. The creation, once benevolent and beautifully created just for them, now became a source of pain, destruction and death. The cracks became chasms. Perfection gave way to brokenness. And we are caught up in the awful effects of each chasm!
Yet buried in this story of enveloping darkness, God whispers his promise of a way across the chasm. He gives a little hint about the bridge that he would build to bring us back to himself in Jesus:
And I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your offspring [demonic realm] and hers [promised Messiah]; he will crush your head [deadly blow], and you will strike his heel [hurtful blow]“ (Genesis 3:15, notes added).
We see this promise played out in the story of Jesus. The early believers believed that in Jesus, God built a bridge across that chasm, paying the price to close the gap, heal the wound, and bring us back to himself. The price was high — the death of Jesus on the Cross. But the distance was closed and reconciliation and restoration won!
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship (Galatians 4:4-5).
Yes, we will all find ourselves in times of darkness. However, on the dark side of our mountains, God comes again and again to bring us light and lead us across the chasm on the bridge he built to bring us home. This is the story of Jesus (John 14:1-3), but it is also the story told over and over again in the stories of God’s people — those who lived in Bible times and those of us who live today. Let’s look for God’s light on the dark side of our mountains!
© Phil Ware. All rights reserved.
Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.
Website: The Phil Files
- Hiding and Ashamed — the chasm between us and God
-
No Comments
She had it all — beauty, money, children, and an important husband. Then last Thanksgiving, it all began to fall apart. The cracks in their relationship became a chasm too deep for them to enter and too wide for any amount of money to build a bridge for them to cross and return safely back to their home.Their story can be repeated a thousand times over. I’ve had similar stories told to me today from literally all over the world. And I’ve heard them before — a church leader whose wife survives cancer but who gets caught up in a devastating leadership conflict, the young engaged woman who calls after the rehearsal dinner to say the wedding is off the next day, and the man who has given everything to his job for over 25 years to only find he is let go with still another kid to get through college.
Little cracks become chasms. Little problems become crises. Little wounds fester and become life threatening abscesses. Each of these stories — these problems, the wounds, these crises, these conflicts — remind us of the original one. They remind us of the broken world we have inherited because of the original chasm carved so many years ago. We find that story in the early chapters of the Bible (Genesis 3:1-15).
After Adam and Eve sin and rebel against God’s gracious provision for them, doubting the motives for his generous grace, our world is marred and forever broken. Notice the original progression from crack to chasm:
- Hiding and Ashamed — the chasm between us and God
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Genesis 3:9-10 TNIV).
- Blaming the Other — the chasm separating relationships
The man said, “The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it” (Genesis 3:12).
- Blaming Creation — the chasm with our universe
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:13).
Notice that once humans had rebelled against God, the separation was not just with God. The crack in that relationship became a chasm in every area of life and resulted in death. Their relationship with each other was marred by blame and pain. This break in relationship was fully realized when one child killed the other over their worship of God. The creation, once benevolent and beautifully created just for them, now became a source of pain, destruction and death. The cracks became chasms. Perfection gave way to brokenness. And we are caught up in the awful effects of each chasm!
Yet buried in this story of enveloping darkness, God whispers his promise of a way across the chasm. He gives a little hint about the bridge that he would build to bring us back to himself in Jesus:
And I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your offspring [demonic realm] and hers [promised Messiah]; he will crush your head [deadly blow], and you will strike his heel [hurtful blow]“ (Genesis 3:15, notes added).
We see this promise played out in the story of Jesus. The early believers believed that in Jesus, God built a bridge across that chasm, paying the price to close the gap, heal the wound, and bring us back to himself. The price was high — the death of Jesus on the Cross. But the distance was closed and reconciliation and restoration won!
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship (Galatians 4:4-5).
Yes, we will all find ourselves in times of darkness. However, on the dark side of our mountains, God comes again and again to bring us light and lead us across the chasm on the bridge he built to bring us home. This is the story of Jesus (John 14:1-3), but it is also the story told over and over again in the stories of God’s people — those who lived in Bible times and those of us who live today. Let’s look for God’s light on the dark side of our mountains!
© Phil Ware. All rights reserved.
Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click
here.
Website: The Phil Files
- Hiding and Ashamed — the chasm between us and God
-
No Comments
In case you haven’t heard, I’m delighted to report that textweek blog is once again being updated. If you preach from a lectionary, textweek, along with the companion site, The Text This Week, are invaluable resources. Even if you don’t practice lectionary preaching, the sites are still helpful–as long as you preach or teach from the Bible!
-
No Comments
In case you haven’t heard, I’m delighted to report that textweek blog is once again being updated. If you preach from a lectionary, textweek, along with the companion site, The Text This Week, are invaluable resources. Even if you don’t practice lectionary preaching, the sites are still helpful–as long as you preach or teach from the Bible!
-
No Comments
Time has an appointment which it is sure to keep Suddenly it will arrive as steadily it creeps We live our lives within the approaching of its day We laugh,
