Posts Tagged 'Theology Matters'
To Give Away a Car, a Home, a Tithe is a Small Thing
I want to talk to you, [young person]. You've learned doctrines of sovereign grace. You read the puritans, congratulations. I will not lose sleep tonight because people in the world lack self esteem. I will not lose sleep tonight because they're not having their best life now, or they're not being all they can be, or their check book is not balanced. I will lose sleep tonight if I lose sleep tonight because men will stand naked ...
To Give Away a Car, a Home, a Tithe is a Small Thing
I want to talk to you, [young person]. You've learned doctrines of sovereign grace. You read the puritans, congratulations. I will not lose sleep tonight because people in the world lack self esteem. I will not lose sleep tonight because they're not having their best life now, or they're not being all they can be, or their check book is not balanced. I will lose sleep tonight if I lose sleep tonight because men will stand naked ...
Forsaking Biblical Reason in Favor of Feelings
Just as many Christians have abandoned a Christian worldview, many have abandoned the doctrines of Scripture. Many Christians have too low a view of the power and uniqueness of the Bible. They have absorbed the culture’s skepticism and disregard for any person or book that claims authority over them. In the last book he completed before his death in 2000, James Montgomery Boice, considered by many to be among the greatest preachers of the twentieth century, ...
Forsaking Biblical Reason in Favor of Feelings
Just as many Christians have abandoned a Christian worldview, many have abandoned the doctrines of Scripture. Many Christians have too low a view of the power and uniqueness of the Bible. They have absorbed the culture’s skepticism and disregard for any person or book that claims authority over them. In the last book he completed before his death in 2000, James Montgomery Boice, considered by many to be among the greatest preachers of the twentieth century, ...
God is in No Way Obligated to Save You!
Divine grace is the sovereign and saving favour of God exercised in the bestowment of blessings upon those who have no merit in them and for which no compensation is demanded from them. Nay, more; it is the favour of God shown to those who not only have no positive deserts of their own, but who are thoroughly ill-deserving and hell-deserving. It is completely unmerited and unsought, and is altogether unattracted by anything in or from or by the objects ...
God is in No Way Obligated to Save You!
Divine grace is the sovereign and saving favour of God exercised in the bestowment of blessings upon those who have no merit in them and for which no compensation is demanded from them. Nay, more; it is the favour of God shown to those who not only have no positive deserts of their own, but who are thoroughly ill-deserving and hell-deserving. It is completely unmerited and unsought, and is altogether unattracted by anything in or from or by the objects ...
Nothing Less Than the Gospel is at Stake.
The gospel can be spoiled, though not objectively, for it is an objective reality. Yet it can be spoiled by us and to us. We can modify the gospel, either deliberately or inadvertently, stripping it of its power and its glory. We can bring to people a counterfeit gospel that is no gospel at all. It is the discipline of discernment that God has provided us to guard the purity of the gospel. Discernment, then, is ...
Nothing Less Than the Gospel is at Stake.
The gospel can be spoiled, though not objectively, for it is an objective reality. Yet it can be spoiled by us and to us. We can modify the gospel, either deliberately or inadvertently, stripping it of its power and its glory. We can bring to people a counterfeit gospel that is no gospel at all. It is the discipline of discernment that God has provided us to guard the purity of the gospel. Discernment, then, is ...
Theology Must lay the Foundation—in Everything.
And, therefore, I shall presume to tell you, by the way, that it is a grand error, and of dangerous consequence in Christian academies, (pardon the censure from one so unfit to pass it, seeing the necessity of the case commandeth it,) that they study the creature before the Redeemer, and set themselves to physics, and metaphysics, and mathematics, before they set themselves to theology; whereas, no man that hath not the vitals of theology, ...
Theology Must lay the Foundation—in Everything.
And, therefore, I shall presume to tell you, by the way, that it is a grand error, and of dangerous consequence in Christian academies, (pardon the censure from one so unfit to pass it, seeing the necessity of the case commandeth it,) that they study the creature before the Redeemer, and set themselves to physics, and metaphysics, and mathematics, before they set themselves to theology; whereas, no man that hath not the vitals of theology, ...
Theology in Gospel Proclamation?!
Pastor Jim put it so plainly in this clip about the importance of theology in Gospel proclamation. Because in the final analysis of the issue, a Gospel call devoid of theological thought, of true Biblical thought, can not help anyone. Can not save anyone. Should it not be the normative Christian thinking to base all things to the Word of God? But why is it, in preaching the most important message in all of Scripture, preaching ...
Theology in Gospel Proclamation?!
Pastor Jim put it so plainly in this clip about the importance of theology in Gospel proclamation. Because in the final analysis of the issue, a Gospel call devoid of theological thought, of true Biblical thought, can not help anyone. Can not save anyone. Should it not be the normative Christian thinking to base all things to the Word of God? But why is it, in preaching the most important message in all of Scripture, preaching ...
“MY Idea of God.”
All matters of truth and reality, today in our modern society, is said to be subjective rather than objective. Relativism is the name of the game. This epistemology is extended to all facets of life. "They can't do it, but you sure can, 'coz you are you. You matter." This sort of thinking, as it is applauded by the modern age, has, over the movement of years and decades, subtly eaten away, slowly but surely, ...
“MY Idea of God.”
All matters of truth and reality, today in our modern society, is said to be subjective rather than objective. Relativism is the name of the game. This epistemology is extended to all facets of life. "They can't do it, but you sure can, 'coz you are you. You matter." This sort of thinking, as it is applauded by the modern age, has, over the movement of years and decades, subtly eaten away, slowly but surely, ...
Childlike Faith is Not The Same as Childish Faith.
The recipients of the letter to the Hebrews are not new Christians or recent converts, for the author says that by this time they ought to be teachers. This is not to say that they all ought to be ministers or preachers, but that they should all be sufficiently mature so they are able to understand and to teach others the basics of the faith. Sadly, though, they still have not understood the basics themselves. ...
Childlike Faith is Not The Same as Childish Faith.
The recipients of the letter to the Hebrews are not new Christians or recent converts, for the author says that by this time they ought to be teachers. This is not to say that they all ought to be ministers or preachers, but that they should all be sufficiently mature so they are able to understand and to teach others the basics of the faith. Sadly, though, they still have not understood the basics themselves. ...
Mindless Christianity.
What Paul wrote about unbelieving Jews in his day could be said, I fear, of some believing Christians in ours: "I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened." ((Romans 10:2)) Many have zeal without knowledge, enthusiasm without enlightenment. In more modern jargon, they are keen but clueless. Now I thank God for zeal. Heaven forbid that knowledge without zeal should replace zeal without knowledge! God's purpose is both, ...
Mindless Christianity.
What Paul wrote about unbelieving Jews in his day could be said, I fear, of some believing Christians in ours: "I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened." ((Romans 10:2)) Many have zeal without knowledge, enthusiasm without enlightenment. In more modern jargon, they are keen but clueless. Now I thank God for zeal. Heaven forbid that knowledge without zeal should replace zeal without knowledge! God's purpose is both, ...