Fear and Trembling

"If there is no bad news there cannot be any good news. The good news is deliverance from the bad news. We are all born on the road to destruction. The good news is that we can be delivered from it. If you do not believe you are on the way to hell, how can you be interested in the good news of deliverance from it? Look at “salvation” today. It is freedom from life’s frustrations. We are saved from our narrowness and anxieties. We learn to live with doubts and fears. We take pills to relieve our pressures. That’s our gospel.” - John H. Gerstner Gerstner has been helpful to me because of his direct, hard to miss-understand, way of speaking. I wish he was still around to rub our noses in the truth. See his work on inerrancy , justification by faith alone , dispensationalism , and Jonathan Edwards .

Thanks to Extreme Theology for linking to a quiz. This quiz uses your responses to a few short questions to determine which theologian you most identify with. It is certainly not a perfect instrument, but I am rather proud of my results. You scored as Martin Luther , The daddy of the Reformation. You are opposed to any Catholic ideas of works-salvation and see the scriptures as being primarily authoritative. Martin Luther 100% Anselm 100% Karl Barth 87% John Calvin 67% Jonathan Edwards 67% Friedrich Schleiermacher 53% Paul Tillich 7% Augustine 0% Jürgen Moltmann 0% Charles Finney 0% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com I do wish I had scored higher with respect to Augustine. I am very surprised at the percentages for Barth and Schleiermacher because I generally don’t like what those guys stand for. I guess in the case of those two the old adage fits: “Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”

“Many seem to have lost confidence in [the] gospel. It is easier to tell people to come to church and live a good life, but that is not the gospel … To share Christ, we have to go beyond formulas that fit on napkins … People are searching—but they are searching for something more than fire insurance or "five steps to financial freedom." … Today, the church is like a bear fed by tourists. It's lost its natural ability … let's get that back by starting where people are, listening to them, building a relationship, telling them about Jesus, sharing with them the story of redemption, and bringing them to a bloody cross and an empty tomb.” - Ed Stetzer Is it true? Have we lost faith in the gospel? I often do. I concentrate on God’s solutions to the problems I perceive I have instead of His solution to the problems of my sin. I turn ever so slightly from Christ to look at my own good works. I begin to think that even thought I am saved by grace, my fellowship with God depend...

Discussion over at Extra Nos resulted in a long comment from me. I would like to enhance that comment and post it here. The topic is very relevant to my denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention (See here and here .). I have often struggled with the relationship between faith and works. I read the Bible often, and I try to conform my thinking to what it says. I also read many books by knowledgeable Christians to help . I find this collection and a book by Jerry Bridges to be very helpful. I tend to look within myself to see if I have done enough to prove my salvation. I look at my choice of language, my anger, and my love of alcohol, and I have no hope for heaven. It’s an introspective approach some have rightly called “navel-gazing.” Some of this introspection has been brought about by otherwise good teachers like John Gerstner, whose teaching is summarized in “A Primer on Roman Catholicism,” a short 44-page introduction to the topic. Gerstner is very helpful in stating the d...

Thanks to the guys over at Extreme Theology for the hilarious video posting . It’s a satire on the modern church’s propensity for trying to please everyone. It’s a great laugh, but after thinking about it for a few minutes I had to ask myself: is this the way our culture views us from the outside? Is this what we have to offer? I hope not ( 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ).

A great post over at Desiring God gives links to video and audio messages. Here’s a sample from the text: The Gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy… You never, never, never outgrow your need for it. Don’t ever think of the gospel as, “That’s the way you get saved, and then you get strong by leaving it and doing something else.” No! We are strengthened by God through the gospel every day, till the day we drop. You never outgrow the need to preach to yourself the gospel…

I hope that you have found this series of posts helpful. I have outlined the reasons that I have chosen to be a Christian and to remain in the faith. I have shared much of my own personal intellectual and emotional journey. The reasons given are not persuasive arguments for everyone. I pray that if you are a person who does not find them convincing that you will at least be motivated to explore other arguments and approaches . The ultimate aim has been to point others to Christ as the great Lord and Savior. He is the one Person who has walked the earth who is worthy of worship and praise . May His glory be over all the earth .

I was raised in a Baptist church in a small, West Tennessee town. Many times, I have heard the “wonderful testimony” of a person who has been radically and completely delivered from the awful, evil sins they once committed. I have often questioned the miraculous deliverances purported in these testimonies, especially when the speaker implies that my life must assuredly be changed in the same way if I truly repent of my sins and come to Christ. I do not intend to post a long, rambling account of my personal sins and the way I have set them aside. I have found in my own experience that my besetting sins have persisted, or even begun, after I became a Christian. The difference in my life is not a dramatic reversal of my behavior. The Holy Spirit has helped me to get better over time, but no power has been available to make me perfect or to radically and instantly deliver me from particular sins. Perfection and/ or instant deliverance are not promised in the Bible. The change in my l...

Psychology, the way people think, has always been a fascination of mine. I took enough psychology classes in college to have been awarded a minor, but the engineering department did not want to award it (some things hard-core engineers will not “sink” to do). Great care must be used by a Christian in this area (especially if we are tempted to supplant the gospel ), but the concepts can often be redeemed . Temperament theory has roots in the psychology of Carl Jung , but can be traced back to Hippocrates . It is undeniably imperfect, and some have even rejected the theories altogether. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has probably been the most successful application of these theories. (Note: be wary of some of the information on web sites that talk about Myers-Briggs. Good guidelines are located here .) I am an INJT (see here and here ). I am not unique in this . By type, I keep my feelings “close to my vest.” One INTJ put it like this, “I have deep feelings; they are just none of y...

Evangelism Explosion International’s founder and president, Dr. D. James Kennedy passed away peacefully in his sleep at approximately 2:15 a.m. at his home with his wife and daughter by his bedside, following complications from a cardiac event last December. He was 76…

I was very ill as a young child. I had a lung disease that left me breathless after walking a few feet, much more out of breath when trying to run, climb, or jump. I was thirteen before I began to grow out of it, but I had been through a lot before then. My illness always hit me hard when it came time for PE, physical education, class. That was when we divided up into teams to play sports. I was never the first one chosen for the team. I was usually chosen last. Everyone knew I would have little to contribute. My best contribution would be just to stay out of the way. Little League Baseball was more than a sport in my hometown. It was more like a religion. Parents had a lot to say about the make-up of the teams, and they organized try-outs. I tried hard, but I was never picked to be part of the best team. I always wanted to be part of the winning team. Christianity offered me the chance to be a part of the winning team , to be part of the group that will make a real difference ...

I have mentioned before that the ideas Christianity holds make intuitive sense to me. This is true, in a backward way, of the central message of the Christian faith: what most call “the gospel,” or the good news. The gospel is intuitive in that, once I was made aware of it; I knew “in my gut” that it explained much of my experience. It is not intuitive in that I would never have thought this up without someone telling me. The gospel is the fact that God offers eternal life as a free gift. Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” As a gift, eternal life is not earned or deserved. I will return to this idea latter. The law requires perfection. Jesus Himself said, “Be ye perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect.” I cannot avoid the knowledge that I have fallen short of this obviously true ideal. This leaves us all under condemnation. No one obeys the law perfectly or obeys the law with perfect motives: ...

R. C. Sproul has a new book out that I just had the chance to read. It’s called The Truth of The Cross . Dr. Sproul is at his best when he writes or speaks on Christ’s life and sacrifice for the sins of the church. This book is no expectation. I hardily recommend it to anyone who has questions about the reasons behind the cross and it’s necessity.