Fear and Trembling

A new book I’ve started on this past week has this quote: “…the vast majority of ‘Christians’ that I have encountered arbitrarily dismiss this generation as ‘lost’ or, worse, unworthy of their time and attention … From what I see in the Gospels, Jesus preached to society from within the culture of his day, not from above it as the Pharisees did. In my opinion, the majority of churches today are more concerned with converting one cultural image into their own cultural image, with the implication that theirs is ‘Christian’ (where no one drinks alcohol or listens to secular music and everyone dresses in business attire), while those cultures which differ from their view are not ... this is definitely pharisaical. Unfortunately, I find this sums up the majority of the church world all too well.” – Crash, a Christian who owns tattoo parlors, is immersed in the culture of his community; the quote above is from The Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll I have been reading and thoroughly enjo...

This is my final installment on Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis. This time I wanted to address the approach to truth I see hovering in the background of this book. Bell writes: When you hear people say they are just going to tell you what the Bible means, its not true. They are telling you what they think it means. They are giving you their opinions about the Bible … / The problem is, it is not true. / I’m actually giving you my opinion, my interpretation of what it says. And the more I insist that I am giving you the objective truth of what it really says, the less objective I am actually being. It sounds as if Bell has decided that we can no longer find the one true meaning of a passage of Scripture because we all have different perspectives on the passage. We all bring “baggage” and “agendas” with us that cloud our interpretation. This is a massive change in the way we interpret the Bible (hermeneutics). It has debilitating consequences. It is based on a philosophical perspective ...

I recently found a quote from R. C. Sproul that I would like to share and comment on today. I hope some of you know the reputation I have, a bad reputation with some, of being an unreconstructed, Aristotelian logician. I get that criticism all the time. I am told, “Sproul reduces the faith to logic.” Actually, I hope people keep saying that about me. I hope it gets worse. I think we are living in the most anti-intellectual period in the history of the church, and I think the most important thing that has to happen on Sunday mornings is a spiritual awakening of the mind. As downloaded from http://theresurgence.com/r_c_sproul_1993-01_the_recovery_of_worship on 3/21/07. It is no secret to many who know me that I like R. C. I own and have read every book that he has published, including a couple that are out of print. I own much of my interest in theology to him. He was the first theologian that I ever read who did not shy away from philosophy. In medieval times, teachers in the churc...

I’m still reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I wanted to address another comment this week, quoted below. For the next several hundred years, there was a lot of discussion in the Christian community about which books were considered Scripture and which books weren’t. But it wasn’t until the 300s that what we know as the sixty-six books of the Bible were actually agreed upon as the Bible. This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that “Scripture alone” is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true. In reaction to abuses by the church, a group of believers during a time called the Reformation claimed that we only need the authority of the Bible. But the problem is that we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is. So when I affirm the Bible as God’s Word, in the same breath I have to affirm that when those people voted, God was somehow present, guiding them to do what they did. When peop...

Partly out of a new found interest in the Emergent Church Conversation, I have spent much time of late studying, thinking and praying about the relationship of The Bible and church tradition. I find many of the perspectives in the Emergent Conversation to be troubling. The novel ideas and teachings tend toward, or even cross the line into, false teaching. This is done in two primary ways. Tradition is sometimes seen as authoritative above or beyond the Bible. Or, traditional interpretations of the Bible are ignored in favor of new insights developed by a group of believers during a discussion. I select The Bible as the sole authority for faith and life because I believe it contains the teachings of the Apostles. It expresses them in truth, with no mixture of error. It is logical. Christ, the Son of God, promised the Holy Spirit to the Apostle’s to bring His teaching to remembrance (John 14:26). The apostles’ teaching was written down, either by them or by those close to them (Luke 1:1-...

I am reading a new book this week: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I find it an interesting read, with many perspectives I share (more on that later). There are a few aspects of the thoughts expressed that bother me, however. I address the first one in this post. It has to do with what the Bible is about. Rob says: …this is why the Bible loses its power for so many communities. They fall into the trap of thinking that the Bible is just about things that happened a long time ago. / But the Bible is about today. / These stories are our stories. They are alive and active and teaching us about our lives in our world, today. These words express a very dangerous perspective on salvation, our right standing before God. Let me clarify. The Bible is clear on its intent (Luke 1:4, John 21:24, Luke 24:25-26). The intent is for us to know certain facts about things that happened in the past and their bearing on us today. There is a reason for this. Our salvation; our right standing before God, eternal ...

I am reading a good book called Flags of our Fathers . Clint Eastwood and company made a movie out of it. I had the chance to see that movie last week while on the road. I first heard of this book when John Piper quoted from it extensively in Don't Waste Your Life . It's the personal biographies of the five men whose photo was taken while raising an American Flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima during World War II. Interwoven are the stories of many of the U. S. Marines who invaded this island, the first piece of native Japanese soil to fall to the advancing Americans in the pacific. Very inspiring, but might not be popular world-wide. It is a real story of real human beings who did something heroic. Like President Reagan said, "Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem." Piper draws the book into a Christian worldview. In the above mentioned book, he says: The greatest cause in the...

I am looking forward to seeing "Amazing Grace" at our local theatre when it plays. It is part of the story of William Wilberforce, one of my favorite historical figures and my favorite politician of all time to date (Ronald Reagan is a very close second). Wilberforce was a key figure in the abolition of the slave trade in the British colonies. He was also instrumental in the changes to the charter of The British East India Company in 1813 which allowed missionaries to enter India (e. g. William Carey). It also shows John Newton, the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” and some of his critical interactions with Wilberforce. Newton was one of the first Anglican priests to allow blacks, even slaves, into his parish as communicant members. I'll go back to Wilberforce. His book Practical Christianity is a must read for all of those in our time who would promote "deeds not creeds." One of the most prominent leaders of the Evangelical church today has said, "I’m l...