So I finally had the time to set up my RSS reader after months of lazi…eherm…busyness. Here are some notable posts that caught my eye from a collection of posts from the span of the past 3 days.
1. Rick Warren sending his Purpose Driven ministry to South East Asia, Philippines.
“I… I’m uh… I’m uh… I need … I’m gonna need help to know why I should feel bad about this decision.”- John Piper defending his decision to invite Rick Warren to Piper’s Desiring God conference.
In 2005, Warren’s Southeast Asia PD node reported on the roll out of PD to Roman Catholic churches in the Philippines…
Does John Piper feel bad about the millions of people trapped in the false religious system known as Roman Catholicism? Does he feel bad that Rick Warren helps Roman Catholics remain trapped in Catholicism?
See the rest at Watcher’s Lamp.
2. Adrian Warnock on Reformed and Charismatic lines. He has a different perspective on the Warren-Piper situation. Unity in Diversity? What do you think, reader?
In fact I happen to think that this decision to invite Warren is a very wise and important one as the rest of this post will explain.
Read the whole thing: Unity in diversity – Rick Warren, John Piper, and New Word Alive
3. Overwhelming evidence for evolution?
If the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult…some odd group that is not really interacting with the world. And rightly so, because we are not using our gifts and trusting God’s Providence that brought us to this point of our awareness.
More at the Triablogue: HT
4. Sola Scriptura and Unity Debate.
The debate below took place April 10, 2010, between William Albrecht (Roman Catholic) and myself, TurretinFan. The resolution was: “Does Sola Scriptura foster disunity and division in the [Christian] body?” This resolution was originally proposed by Steve Ray. Albrecht took the affirmative position and I took the negative position. While the constructive speeches may be of interest, I think both sides will most appreciate the lengthy cross-examination segments, which make up 4/7 of the debate.
Watch it at the aomin.org blog: HT
5. John Piper, Rick Warren and Rick Warren.
Imagine my confusion, as I touched on before in Rick Warren Is Whatever He Needs To Be, when I read in a 2004 interview of Rick Warren by Modern Reformation:
Theologically, I am a monergist and firmly hold to the five solas of the Reformation. (Online source)
Yet a year later I read from a 2005 report on Rick Warren by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“Now I don’t agree with everything in everybody’s denomination, including my own. I don’t agree with everything that Catholics do or Pentecostals do, but what binds us together is so much stronger than what divides us,” he said. “I really do feel that these people are brothers and sisters in God’s family. I am looking to build bridges with the Orthodox Church, looking to build bridges with the Catholic Church,….” (Online source, emphasis mine)
More at Apprising.org: HT
6. MLJ on worldly relief and relief caused by true Christian religion.
True religion was never meant just to produce some general effect. The Bible is a revelation of God’s ways with respect to man. It is meant to give ‘understanding’ … There are many things that we could do that would make us feel better temporarily. There are many ways of forgetting our troubles for a while. Some go to the cinema, others run to the public-house or to the bottle of whisky which they keep at home.
Under its effect and influence they feel much better and happier; their problem does not seem so acute … There are many ways of giving temporary relief, but the question is, Do they give understanding, do they really help us to see through our trouble?…
7. Notes from a Reluctant Calvinist.
I have not always been a Calvinist. As a matter of fact, I was raised in the context of a liberal Methodist church, so long before I ever became a Christian, my mind was poisoned with a blend of liberalism and Wesleyan theology. And after I became a Christian, it was several years before I finally came to the point where I could affirm the biblical doctrine of election without trying to explain away clear statements of Scripture like Ephesians 1:4 (which says that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world). Or Romans 9:15-16, where God says, “‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.’ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”
I resisted those ideas for years. I knew the word election is biblical, but I had a friend who explained it this way: “God voted for you the devil voted against you. You cast the deciding vote.”
That made perfect sense to me.
Read the rest: HT
8. A Spurgeon devotional from Morning and Evening’s April 19 entry.
“Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” – Matthew 27:51
No mean miracle was wrought in the rending of so strong and thick a veil; but it was not intended merely as a display of power-many lessons were herein taught us. The old law of ordinances was put away, and like a worn-out vesture, rent and laid aside. When Jesus died, the sacrifices were all finished, because all fulfilled in him, and therefore the place of their presentation was marked with an evident token of decay. That rent also revealed all the hidden things of the old dispensation: the mercy-seat could now be seen, and the glory of God gleamed forth above it.
By the death of our Lord Jesus we have a clear revelation of God, for he was “not as Moses, who put a veil over his face.” Life and immortality are now brought to light, and things which have been hidden since the foundation of the world are manifest in him. The annual ceremony of atonement was thus abolished. The atoning blood which was once every year sprinkled within the veil, was now offered once for all by the great High Priest, and therefore the place of the symbolical rite was broken up. No blood of bullocks or of lambs is needed now, for Jesus has entered within the veil with his own blood. Hence access to God is now permitted, and is the privilege of every believer in Christ Jesus.
There is no small space laid open through which we may peer at the mercy-seat, but the rent reaches from the top to the bottom. We may come with boldness to the throne of the heavenly grace. Shall we err if we say that the opening of the Holy of Holies in this marvellous manner by our Lord’s expiring cry was the type of the opening of the gates of paradise to all the saints by virtue of the Passion? Our bleeding Lord hath the key of heaven; he openeth and no man shutteth; let us enter in with him into the heavenly places, and sit with him there till our common enemies shall be made his footstool.
9. John Newton on the danger of reading too much.
It is far from my intention to depreciate the value or deny the usefulness of books, without exception: a few well-chosen treatises, carefully perused and thoroughly digested, will deserve and reward our pains; but a multiplicity of reading is seldom attended with a good effect.
Besides the confusion it often brings upon the judgment and memory, it occasions a vast expense of time, indisposes for close thinking, and keeps us poor, in the midst of seeming plenty, by reducing us to live upon a foreign supply, instead of labouring to improve and increase the stock of our own reflections.
- John Newton in his letter “A Plan of a Compendious Christian Library” (Works of John Newton, Volume 1, 236). Paragraphing added.
From: DesiringGod Blog
10. The Gospel-Driven Life.
When I was asked to participate in this column designed for older Christians to share insights and encouragements to younger believers, I had no doubt what issue to address — the Gospel-driven life.
The Gospel of saving grace in Jesus is the foundation, the formation, and the primary motivation for the Christian life.
The Gospel message brings you to Christ as the sure foundation for eternal life. The Gospel message provides direction for the formation of your new life. The Gospel message provides the primary motivation for a maturing life. The importance of living a Gospel-driven life is why Paul reminded the Corinthian church that when he was “with them” he was determined to maintain their focus upon the Gospel, by preaching “Christ and Him crucified.” Adding emphasis, he declared, “I did not come to baptize, but to preach the Gospel” (see 1 Cor. 1:17). He was not demeaning baptism, but rather underscoring that the Gospel is essential to evangelism and disciple-making.
Read the rest at the Ligonier blog
11. Has Your Church Begun to Assume the Gospel?
Was the gospel in the sermon Sunday morning? Could the uninitiated hear that sermon and come to real faith in Christ? Are gospel principles governing organizational decisions? Do you hear the gospel in people’s prayers? Does your fellowship encourage you to say the gospel? And then is it more than just a memorized sketch? Sure, it may follow the form of “God, Man, Christ, Response,” but is it in people’s own words? Furthermore, do you see it in their actions? Is the gospel lived out? Is membership based on a true commitment to the gospel or just because someone wants to join an organization—or maybe write an expose? Read the whole thing: HT
12. Predestination: A Google search story.
The strange but true story of how anyone ever found Reformed Voices.
Watch the vid here: HT
13. For the Apologist types out there: “Is it Possible?”
The original question I looked at was simple: “Is it even possible for God to actually create a being that can make a non-determined choice, or does the brute fact of creation render that impossible?” To shorten it a bit, we can ask: “Is it possible for God to create a being capable of a non-determined yet also non-random choice?” I argued that it is impossible, and in the comments went so far as to say that the only type of being capable of making a non-determined, non-random choice is one that is self-existent (namely, if it is possible, only God can do it).
Read the rest: Triablogue
14. The Bible is it’s own Evangelist.
The Bible is its own evangelist. I came to faith because I was deeply affected by the words of the Bible. The famous British preacher Charles Spurgeon was once asked how he responded to criticisms of the Bible. “Very easy,” he responded. “I defend the Bible the same way I defend a lion. I simply let it out of its cage.” That quote captures our vision for this book and for the growth of ministries that are committed to the passionate, articulate, and powerful reading of Scripture. Isn’t it time to let the Bible out of the cage, or (to borrow from the title of this book) to unleash God’s Word?
When I tell a Bible story, I have a quiet confidence that God is going to do a mighty work by the very act of reading his Word. Therefore, my objective is to engage hearers and draw them into the Word of God. My role is to use my skills and abilities, as best I can, to draw them into an experience with the Word.
From: challies.com
15. Teampyro’s Weekly Dose of Spurgeon…last week.
The church of Christ . . . desires not to be associated with other armies, or to be mistaken for them, for it is not of this world, and its weapons and its warfare are far other than those of the nations.
God forbid that followers of Jesus should be mistaken for political partisans or ambitious adventurers. The church unfurls her ensign to the breeze that all may know whose she is and whom she serves. This is of the utmost importance at this present, when crafty men are endeavoring to palm off their inventions.
Read the rest: HT
16. Teampyro’s Weekly Dose of Spurgeon…this week.
Christian love also embraces the truth. Them that love God and his divine Son, love the truth which he has committed to them. The Church is the trustee of the gospel: she is “the pillar and ground of the truth.” And when men begin to play with the truth, and think that one set of doctrines is as good as another, and that nothing is of any particular importance, evil must come.
Read the rest: HT
I think Warnock, as ever when issues of controversy come up, wants to straddle the fence.
He says: "We have so many enemies we cannot afford to create new ones in our own imagination." That's pragmatism in a nutshell. We don't make decisions based on a numbers game – my folks told me growing up that one person with God is the majority, but Warnock seems to have forgotten that.
He attempts to make this this a "Calvinismus contra mundum" discussion, but it is not. Even non-Calvinists such as Dave Hunt have been quick to point Warren's deficit "gospel".
All in all, not impressed by Mr Warnock…