What I Read Online – 05/22/2012 (a.m.)

• From Theodicy to Theophany: Inscrutability and the Problem of Evil – Reformation21

  • Now whatever we think of Flew’s parable of the Invisible Gardner, we can all relate to the motivation behind the parable. The motivation behind the parable is the sometimes horrendous affliction that comes often to people, and that is obvious to anyone whose eyes are open. And the difficulty with such atrocities is that they continue to happen, and happen with nauseating regularity, in the face of our insistence that God, who is goodness itself, exists.
  • The first thing that needs to be said is that the problem of evil is, perhaps first of all, an intensely pastoral problem.  To have it reside simply on the intellectual level is an evil in and of itself.
  • The problem, however, is that inscrutability is located in the wrong place, initially. It is best, when thinking of this problem, to begin thinking, not of Theodicy, but of Theophany.
  • The initial problem with the problem of evil is that God Himself is inscrutable.
  • Not only has He revealed a sign of concern, He has entered into and identified, in the most excruciating way imaginable, the very problem itself -  because He has come down.  And the One who was in the very form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be held on to, but emptied Himself, taking the very form of a servant, and becoming obedient, even to the point of death on a cross (cf. Phil. 2:5-11).
  • So our response to Flew’s parable, and to others who demand that God bow to their inquisition, is simply this: Whatever God’s ultimate reasons for evil in this world, far from being unconcerned, He came down, and, at the costliest expense imaginable, as the only innocent one who ever lived, was put to death on a cross. Therefore, those who put their trust in Him can say with the apostle Paul, that whatever God’s reasons, in spite of the sheer inscrutability of His ways, “I consider that the suffering of this present age is not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) Because He who knew no evil, came down, and became evil on our behalf. In that way, by way of Theophany, he, personally and painfully, resolved the problem of evil for eternity. Do we really need to know more than that?

• Letter From Cara Meyer | hopeingod.org

  • Oh, God, I don’t know what you are doing and why you are choosing us for this position, but your past grace and evidence gives me strength for this moment and beyond and joy in the work of YOUR hand that so lovingly is leaning into Bethlehem.

• Acceptance of Call to Bethlehem Baptist Church From Jason Meyer | hopeingod.org

  • Finally, I do plan to “pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people” (Psalm 116:13). I can quote these words only because I believe in future grace. I vow to be a faithful pastor. In answering this call, I will always remember that the pastoral office is not my office. It is the office of the people. I am called to serve you as an under-shepherd of the Chief Shepherd. And I will not forget the centrality of his cross. I can only pay my vow to be a pastor because I know the great vow of the gospel: “I, Jesus, take you, sinner, to be my bride, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward … and because I have defeated death, death will never us part.” Let us rejoice together in the vow of the gospel and the centrality of the cross. I am a blood-bought pastor for a blood-bought church. I believe that last night was a blood-bought vote. The glory is his.

• The Purpose of the Sun « Miscellanies.

• No, It’s Not a Tail! | Proslogion

• A Letter from Kabwata: Prophet TB Joshua Does It Again!

• Can Baptists be covenantal? – Reformation21 Blog

• Know Your Evangelicals: Alvin Plantinga – The Gospel Coalition Blog

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What I Read Online – 05/21/2012 (p.m.)

• Don’t Confuse Knowledge and Success with Maturity – The Gospel Coalition Blog

• Catechisms and Creeds, 3 – Pure Church by Thabiti Anyabwile

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What I Read Online – 05/21/2012 (a.m.)

• Building new engines | The Briefing

• Building new engines | The Briefing

  • In this sense, it is not the church that is ‘sent’ on a mission into the world in the New Testament, but disciples who are sent from the gathering into the world, to preach the good news of the kingdom, and to make disciples of all nations. Churches that listen repentantly to Christ’s word will be churches full of outward-looking, evangelistically-motivated believers who long to reach out to the lost of their communities.
  • So even though it is quite right to point out that church is not ‘for’ unbelievers or evangelism as such, as if that is its nature, rationale or focus, yet church gatherings should always be evangelistic occasions for all those who are present, because our assemblies should be filled with the word of Christ.

• Liam’s Story on Vimeo

• How to Thrive in College – Desiring God

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What I Read Online – 05/20/2012 (p.m.)

• Travelling through the Old Testament « VISUAL UNIT

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What I Read Online – 05/19/2012 (p.m.)

• The Facebook-Free Baby – Yahoo! Finance

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What I Read Online – 05/19/2012 (a.m.)

• J.I. Packer Interview on Vimeo

• The PCA Study Committee Report on Translating “Son of God” in Muslim Contexts – Justin Taylor

• The Devil’s Delusion | Proslogion

• Classical School Reading List: Grades 1-8 – Justin Taylor

• An Interview with Dr. Packer – Reformation21 Blog

• Brothers, We Are Not Rock Stars

  • It’s not that Paul was unconcerned about results. In fact, he was so concerned about results that he chose to subvert cultural expectations. He didn’t give the people what they wanted; instead, he gave them what they needed—a faithful proclamation of the gospel message. Paul proclaimed “the testimony of God” to the Corinthians, determining “to know nothing among [them] except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (2:1, 2). He wanted to get himself out of the way, to give the Corinthians a “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” in the clear, plain proclamation of the gospel, so their “faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (vv. 4, 5).

• Alan Jacobs on How to Read a Book – Justin Taylor

  • Some books are to be tasted,
     others to be swallowed,
     and some few to be chewed and digested;

     

    that is, some books are to be read only in parts;
     others to be read, but not curiously;
     and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

     

• Confessions and Catechisms, 2 – Pure Church by Thabiti Anyabwile

• A Major New Defense of a More Biblical Way than Dispensationalism or Covenant Theology – Justin Taylor

• Preacher, Be Yourself – Kevin DeYoung

  • God uses the skills, gifts, and abilities of the preacher to accomplish his purposes. Which means two things: God would have us learn to improve our abilities as preachers, and he would have us learn to be ourselves. Look to your favorite preachers for inspiration, not for imitation. It’s okay to have a little personality in the pulpit, as long as it’s your own

• From father to son – Reformation21 Blog

  • From a pious aged father to his son a minister newly married
  • All are born once to trouble, but saints twice,
    And as experience shews Min[iste]rs thrice,
    But if you suffer with and for your Lord,
    You’l reign with him according to his Word.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What I Read Online – 05/18/2012 (p.m.)

• A Classical Christian School’s Reading List: 6th-8th Grades – Justin Taylor

  • It’s taken me a lot longer than I could have imagined, but I’ve now published a reading list for grades 1-3, a reading list for grades 4-5, and now here below is a reading list for grades 6-8. These are from the lists provided by Calvary Classical School—a classical Christian school in Hampton, VA.

• Learn the Bible to Teach the Bible – The Gospel Coalition Blog

  • I eventually went to Oxford and studied there for three years, thinking that I would return to teaching in a high school afterward. Needless to say, the Lord had other plans and for the last 20 years has opened up various opportunities for me to teach the Bible to women of different ages and stages—mostly in local church contexts.

• Come Help Build the Church on the Arabian Peninsula – The Gospel Coalition Blog

  • The Grand Mufti, Saudi’s highest Islamic authority, was in nearby Kuwait, supporting legislative attempts to eliminate the churches there. He invoked an ancient hadith, an official Islamic teaching, that “there are not to be two religions in the Peninsula” and concluded, “Kuwait is a part of the Arabian Peninsula and therefore it is necessary to destroy all the churches in it.”
  • But the best way to reach the nations is to build healthy churches where Christians are growing and increasingly motivated to reach out with the good news.
  • Church buildings are indeed “soft targets” in this part of the world. They stand out like a sore thumb. But that’s the idea—a city set on a hill, a visible community of people who know Christ and live in countercultural obedience, serving the people and investing in relationships for the long run. The local people here typically appreciate genuine Christians, and many of them are interested in learning more about Christ. We want to be as public as we can be.
  • The opportunities for gospel advancement afforded by vibrant church life in unreached areas far outweigh any risk. Realistically, Western believers who affect the local people with the gospel will probably face only threats or deportation, though some, like Joel Shrum in Yemen, will be murdered. The indigenous people who follow Christ will suffer more. But even if Arabia gets more hostile, even if believers begin shedding more blood for the sake of the kingdom, Christ is worthy of being proclaimed—especially to people who have not yet responded to him.
  • The church is the ordained instrument for reaching the nations, and any missions strategy that forsakes the existing church is misguided. Don’t think of frontier missions as only one-on-one, cloak-and-dagger evangelism. The church is already here, publicly making inroads among the local people.
  • When Samuel Zwemer came to Bahrain in 1890, what was the first thing he did? He established a church—consisting of the believers on his team—and began reaching out to the locals with the good news.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What I Read Online – 05/18/2012 (a.m.)

• Far Too Easily Pleased – Desiring God

  • Americans “expect the contradictory and the impossible. We expect compact cars which are spacious; luxurious cars which are economical. We expect to be rich and charitable, powerful and merciful, active and reflective, kind and competitive. . . . We expect to eat and stay thin, to be constantly on the move and ever more neighborly, to go to a ‘church of our choice’ and yet feel its guiding power over us, to revere God and to be God.”
  • “ever enlarging our extravagant expectations we create the demand for the illusions with which we deceive ourselves. And which we pay others to make to deceive us.”
  • I wonder if we actually have been conditioned to expect too little from life, not too much. In the exhausting pursuit of happiness acquired, we miss the greater possibility of happiness of being. Living in a culture which insists that something we do will finally fulfill us, we are distracted from the truth that what we are (as created and redeemed) matters much more. We may reject belief in works-righteousness while unknowingly we have embraced a sad sort of works-happiness.
  • Surely one of the reasons that deep, abiding Christian joy is such a rarity is because we haven’t progressed from taking delight in what God has done to taking delight in who God is. Our culture stresses doing more than being, and the church follows its lead. Sermons typically stress what God can do for us, instead of preaching about who God is. This is often done with the good intention of making preaching “practical.” Of course, we need to put the Word into practice. But surely we need practice in being still and knowing that God is God. Without this discipline, we will almost certainly be tempted to use God.

• Should Elders Ever Walk Away? | 9Marks

  • A fool, according to Proverbs, is unwilling to recognize his or her folly. Or, even if he or she verbally acknowledges it, he/she is unwilling to change: “A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool” (Prov. 17:10).
  • m I saying that pastors/elders should not be long suffering with fools? No, I am not saying that. I am saying that pastors/elders (and Christians) need to realize that this is one of their options.
  • Ultimately, humility recognizes that people are not ours to fix, which in turn means that there is not a one-size-fits-all answer. There is nothing we can do to guarantee a certain outcome. Instead, we need the wisdom to know when to stay, when to move on. 

• Confessions and Catechisms – Pure Church by Thabiti Anyabwile

  • Q: What is the only comfort in life and death?

     

    A: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with His precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto Him.

• Ross Douthat on the Character of Christianity’s Decline, Part 2

• Ross Douthat on the Character of Christianity’s Decline, Part 1

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What I Read Online – 05/17/2012 (p.m.)

• Why Hunger Games is Flawed to Its Core – Trevin Wax

• Questions and Biblical Guidelines for Missionaries among Muslim Peoples – The Gospel Coalition Blog

  • The Muslim students came away from the missionary’s Easter message excited. In small group discussion afterward, one missionary asked his group, “What did you like about that message?” He was not prepared for the answer. One of the Muslim participants said, “We are happy to hear that the teacher is so close to becoming a Muslim!” They were impressed that he had such knowledge, respect, and interest in the Qur’an. It seemed to boost their confidence in the power of their holy book and in their Muslim faith. This was not the message the missionaries hoped to communicate.
  • We now ask all of our missionary candidates seeking to reach Muslims for Christ to answer these questions and to offer their biblical rationale for their answers. We find that this allows the missionary candidates to think through the issues before accepting (uncritically) a packaged training on Muslim evangelism with claims of amazing results.
  • At the same time, we also recognize the potential for dangerous misunderstandings as a result of certain contextualization strategies. Therefore, we believe that it is of strategic importance for our missionaries to articulate the biblical values that guide their missiological practices, particularly as it relates to gospel contextualization among Muslims.
  • We believe that some level of contextualization is necessary for the gospel to be effectively proclaimed and understood across ethno-linguistic cultural barriers
  • How will you help a new believer express his identity in Christ within his community?
  • In your ministry context, what aspects of the local culture may be retained, and which aspects must be rejected?
  • As a minister of the gospel, how will you communicate your identity in Christ to those whom you seek to minister among?
  • How will you communicate the identity of Jesus in the language and culture of the context in which you minister?
  • The identity of Jesus is at the center of the gospel
  • The confession that Jesus is the Christ, Son of the living God, first ventured by Peter at Caesarea Philippi (Mt 16:16), is the heart of the Christian faith. This confession makes one a Christian, and all Christian theology is thinking in the light of this confession. The first major theological decision of the church resulting from such believing thought was the affirmation of the essential deity of Jesus as the Son of God. As such he was declared to be of one essence with the Father and the Spirit (the dogma of the Trinity promulgated at Nicaea, AD 325).
  • What will cross-bearing look like for new believers in your context? And in what ways are the new believers to be “salt and light” in their communities? Are new believers truly ready to suffer for Christ? How will you prepare them?
  • How will you present the gospel in such a way that Jesus is the stumbling block (not cultural practices, leadership style, dress, customs, habits)?
  • How will you proclaim the gospel with gentleness, respect, and with all boldness in your host context (especially in highly restricted areas)?
  • What role will the predominant holy books of the people (like the Qur’an) have in your ministry? How will you demonstrate the supreme and exclusive authority of the Bible among peoples whom revere other so-called sacred texts as the supreme authority?
  • How will you instruct the new believer in Christ regarding his/her involvement in former institutions of worship (like the mosque)?

• What Hath Cambridge to Do with Sunday Morning? – The Gospel Coalition Blog

  • Does the academy pose a threat to the faith?

• Piper Responds to the Insider Movement – The Gospel Coalition Blog

  • One way or another, every church leader who support missions among Muslims needs to answer this question with regard to contextualization: how far is too far?
  • Piper also raises an important problem with the Insider Movement not always appreciated by its proponents: the staunch opposition of many Muslim-background believers who have sacrificed so much to follow Christ and reach their friends, family, and neighbors with the gospel.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Marriage is to be between one man and one woman

It is amazing how something rather simple can be made messy and complicated. Take one’s desktop (the literal one in your office, or the pixelated one on your computer). This is a rather simple devise, yet for many it can easily and quickly become a complete mess.

Kind of like defining marriage.

All across the Western world for the past week numerous persons claiming to speak for Christians are trying to tell us that the definition of marriage has changed, that the Bible doesn’t actually mean what it seems to mean, and that two people of the same sex can be married in the same sense as two people of the opposite sex.

At the same time there are many who are speaking against traditional Christianity and claiming that to define marriage in any way that excludes same-sex marriage is homophobic. (In the US this is especially potent since classifying something/someone as homophobic makes one potentially liable for “hate crime.”)

We have the making of a messy, confused, and unnecessarily complicated scene.

It possible that the Bible defines marriage in such a way to exclude a same-sex union and yet at the same time prescribes an antidote to homophobia? I think so…

Firstly the Bible is quite clear that marriage was created, designed and instituted by God, as such He has the prerogative to determine who qualifies to participate in this institution.

Genesis 1:26-31 & 2:18-15 provide for us the clear account of God’s creation of man and woman and his uniting them together in marriage for the purpose of companionship, procreation, and creational stewardship.

Matthew 19:4-6 provides us with Jesus’ clear affirmation of this creational design for marriage. They were created in the beginning male and female.

Ephesians 5:22-33 provides us with the Apostle Paul’s pattern for how this male/female marriage is to function as an outworking of a man and woman’s mutual confession of their sin and faith in Christ which forms the glue to their convental commitment with one another in marriage.

God has created marriage to be between one man and one woman. I am not misreading my Bible here. It is the plain, simple understanding of the text. Even those who support gay marriage agree with this:

I have little patience with efforts to make Scripture say something other than what it says, through appeals to linguistic or cultural subtleties. The exegetical situation is straightforward: we know what the text says…I think it important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to another authority when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good. And what exactly is that authority? We appeal explicitly to the weight of our own experience and the experience thousands of others have witnessed to, which tells us that to claim our own sexual orientation is in fact to accept the way in which God has created us. By so doing, we explicitly reject as well the premises of the scriptural statements condemning homosexuality-namely, that it is a vice freely chosen, a symptom of human corruption, and disobedience to God’s created order. (Luke Timothy Johnson, https://commonwealmagazine.org/homosexuality-church-1)

But to state this view, doesn’t that make the Bible, me and any other Christian who says such homophobic? No.  No more than stating marriage should not be redefined to allow 10 year olds to marry demonstrates a phobia toward 10 year olds.

One will say, OK, but the Bible also states homosexual practice is a sin, now that is surely homophobia. No…

Homophobia is “antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, or irrational fear” toward someone who identifies themselves as “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.”

To call something sin or to define marriage in such a way as to exclude certain participants is not a phobia.

The same Bible that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, the same Bible that states clearly (in both the Old and New Testaments) that homosexual practice is sin, also states that for me to hold “antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, or irrational fear” toward another person created in the image of God is sin.

I am called by God to love my neighbour (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:36-40; Rom. 13:9-10), I am told in the Bible that “perfect love casts our fear” (1 John 4:18), I am instructed by Jesus to tangibly and practically show care for those who are different than me (Luke 10:27-37).

Fellow Christian, are you clearly and unashamedly holding fast to the truths of Scripture when defining and discussing marriage?

Fellow Christian, are you homophobic? Not because you hold fast to the truths of Scripture, but because you do not love your homosexual neighbour?

What’s the antidote, what can give us the clarity to hold fast to the truth of Scripture while at the same time love those who deny those truths?

The Gospel…

The gospel reminds me that I am a sinner saved by grace. I am no better than anyone else. I, like all mankind, deserved the wrath of God in judgement due to my sin, yet He poured out His wrath on His Son, Jesus Christ in my place as He died for my sins and rose again to victorious life, conquering sin and death. I did nothing to deserve this. I simply called out to God confessing my sins, trusting in Christ alone for the forgiveness made possible through His death and resurrection, thereby receiving this free gift of grace.

And this free gift is available to all those who will believe! (Romans 3:23; 6:23; 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:1-10).