Fear and Trembling

I have taken several months off from blogging.  I have used the time to prepare a series of Sunday School Lessons on J. I. Packer’s wonderful little book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God .  I will lead a discussion of this book at my little church in Troy, TN .  I want to put in a plug for this book. One of the things that put me off of Calvinism when I was first introduced to the doctrines of grace was the idea that Calvinism destroyed the motive for evangelism and missions.  It took a long time for me to come around.  There are many others who reject Calvinism for the same reasons. Packer is clear in his book that the “antinomy” between God’s sovereignty (God’s control of all things) and man’s free will (man’s freedom of choice) is a mystery that will not be completely sorted out in this life.  Along with others, (see John Piper’s short article here , and a discussion by R. C. Sproul in Chosen by God ), I am somewhat troubled with the use o...

My favorite Christmas Carol this year is Joy to the World.  (Please note that this changes each year.)   This hymn stands out to me as the one song we sing at Christmas time that has a missions focus and a focus on end-times.  The lyrics, with commentary inserted, are below. Joy to the world! The Lord is come. Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing, And heaven, and heaven and nature sing. This is a straight-forward request for us to receive the living Christ into our hearts by faith and repentance.  Every heart should prepare Him room. Joy to the world! The Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ. While fields and floods, Rocks, hills and plains, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. This is a call to unashamed praise to the Christ, the Savior of the world. No more let sin and sorrow grow, Nor thorns infest ...

Christian mission work involves the sharing of the gospel in places where it has not been shared before, or at least where most people do not understand it.  We can get guidance for Christian Missions from what some would consider an unlikely source: The Canons of the Synod of Dort. The Canons of Dort came out of the Synod of Dort, held from 1618-1619 in the Netherlands. Theologians wrote them in order to counter the teaching of James Arminius, and they outline the system of theology known by many today as the “five points of Calvinism.”  However, the Canons of Dort contain much more than five simple points (sometimes summarized by the acronym TULIP, or total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints). Turning to the Canons: This death of God's Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the...

It is well known that the great pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards spent 1751-1758 in the position of a missionary to the Indians in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. I have always heard that either this was a time Edwards arranged to work on his writing, or else a period of exile after a bitter conflict cause Edwards to lose the pastorate of his church of twenty-two years . An article by Jonathan Gibson, a PhD candidate in Hebrew Studies at Girton College, Cambridge, puts together a convincing case that Edwards was a missionary who took his role quite seriously. The well-written and convincing article can be found at this link .

I believe that the Canons of Dort are true. This is a statement that came out the Synod of Dort, held from 1618-1619. The Canons of Dort outline the system of theology known today as the “five points of Calvinism.” The problem I have with most “five-point Calvinists” is that the Canons of Dort contain much more than five points. Many explanations of the TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints) are gross simplifications of the Canons of Dort. [This is especially true of explanations given by those who oppose Calvinism. It is easier to knock down a straw man than it is to knock down a real man, and so it is easier to criticize an oversimplified Calvinism that the more robust form.] Some of those who teach the “five points” leave out some of the quotes below: This death of God's Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than ...

Osama Bin laden is dead. Since the rest of the internet is buzzing with opinions on that death, I thought I would weigh in. First, this is not the end of global terrorism. Like the Hydra of old, when one head is chopped off, two more take its place. We still need diligence in our fight against global terror. U. S. and allied Armed Forces still need our prayers. We still need a strong military and intelligence community. We have not yet cut off the Hydra’s immortal head. Second, the way to get to the ‘heart of the matter’ is with Christian missionary efforts. We must reach the people who make up those societies and population segments that produce terrorists . To tell a story I have told here before : Early in the twentieth century, Baptist evangelists preached through rural Mississippi and Alabama with such effectiveness that moonshiners could no longer sell their whiskey: All their customers were getting converted! In desperation, the whiskey sellers hired two men to murder on...

Please see the post and links here .

I had occasion last night to read through parts of the Cannons of Dort for a Bible study class at my church. The Cannons of Dort were written by the Synod of Dort in 1618-19. They lay out the system of doctrine that has been known as ‘Five-point Calvinism’ ever since. We are doing the Amazing Grace study, and one of the sections is Calvinism vs. Arminianism, which concentrates on the Synod of Dort (see here , here and here for information on this synod). I was once again struck by the way in which Dort defined the issues. One of the bitterest criticisms of Five-point Calvinism that has been leveled has been the idea that it undermines evangelism. I find this criticism hard to justify in view of these statements: Cannons of the Synod of Dort: The First Main Point of Doctrine, Article 3: The Preaching of the Gospel In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends proclaimers of this very joyful message to the people he wishes and at the time he wishes...

See his comments here . For additional information, see here and here .

Thanks to In Light of the Gospel for a link to Redeemer Presbyterian’s new Church Planting Blog . I just wish I could add it to my Google Reader account. Bummer. Interesting that Keller spoke at a Willow Creek conference this past summer (see here for more). I missed that one. I didn’t know Presbyterians had it in them.

John Calvin, a Sixteenth Century leader of the Protestant Reformation, is a well-known theologian. Calvin is well known for his teaching on divine election, the idea that God sovereignty chooses who will have faith in Christ. In many churches, Calvin is an arch villain who tried to stop evangelism. After all, if God chooses, why should we witness? That is John Calvin as many know him: the stern teacher of election. But what they probably do not know is that Calvin was the leader of one of the largest, most successful church-planting movements in history. Calvin became a Protestant in 1531 at age 22. He soon left his native Paris, France, because of persecution. Most of Calvin’s work was performed in his new home of Geneva, Switzerland. Calvin and The City Council of Geneva had many conflicts. At one point, Calvin was even run out of town. He was asked to return, and after a few years most of his reforms were accepted by The City Council in about 1554. Protestants from all over Europe f...

Today’s BreakPoint commentary by Prison Fellowship Mark Early tells a story that speaks clearly to the best answer to our crime problem. Here’s the conclusion: And as we go about doing what God commanded—visiting those in prison and sharing the good news—it won’t just make a difference in private attitudes, but in public safety. So that the next time [criminals and victims] meet, it can be across the pew instead of across the barrel of a pistol. BreakPoint links to related news stories here and here . It sounds trite, but we must share the gospel, or they may kill us .

The Resurgence has an article on a church planted by a man who is quickly becoming one of my heroes: Tim Keller. He planted Redeemer Presbyterian Church , a body of believers in the heart of New York. His address to the Desiring God conference on The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World is an good treatment of the controversial subject of contextualization. You can find a good summary of his approach here . Some Tim Keller quotes to inspire discussion: Contextualization is not giving people what they want. It is giving God’s answers (which they probably do not want) to the questions they are asking and in forms they can comprehend. 'Contextualization' is unavoidable. You yourself have 'incarnated' Christianity into a culture. As soon as you choose a language to preach in and illustrations and humor--you've contextualized. You are 'closer' to some people and 'farther' from others. And it is also right to have a heart for a certain p...

The quotes below are from Dalia Mogahed in an interview with Warren Larson (“Islam According to Gallup: Analyst Dalia Mogahed says it's time to rethink what we think we know about Muslims.” posted 11/14/2008 09:04AM at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/november/26.38.html?start=1 ). Dalia Mogahed is a “senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies,” and her comments are based on a standard scientific survey that covered “90 percent of the global Muslim population.” How do you respond to conventional wisdom that says the Qur'an espouses violence? First, [violent] verses have a historical context and must be understood and interpreted in a specific way. Second, if the Qur'an espouses violence, then we should have a greater percentage of Muslims involved in violence. Violence is usually politically, not religiously, motivated. Third, terrorist sympathizers or the "cheering section"—the 7 percent who are politically radicalized—...

Best u-tube video I’ve seen in a long time is linked to here .

Nine Marks Ministries Gives a strong list of books for church planters to read here.

A recent Christianity Today interview, “After the Aloha Shirts” (Interview by Timothy C. Morgan posted 10/01/2008 07:28AM.) Here’s an interesting section: Is the career missionary obsolete? We need far more missionaries than we have right now. What we need is in addition to that. We need an amateur movement out of love. We have to remember that in the first 300 years of the church, it was pretty much all amateurs. Paul and Barnabas were sent out by a church. It was local churches sending out their people to go around the world. My prayer is that we will work hand in hand. The expertise of missionaries can be used and multiplied. I put Rick Warren’s PEACE plan on my prayer list a few months back. The movement could do much good. It intends to mobilize local churches in partnership with oversees groups and churches to advance the gospel. It can conceivably create a mob of short-term missions volunteers. There are some drawbacks to short-term missionaries. Most notably the tendencies of...

I found a very interesting article in this month’s edition of Mission Frontiers Magazine (September-October 2008 – The U. S. Center for World Missions – 30:5). “Today’s Iranian Revolution: How the Mullahs Are Leading the Nation to Jesus” by Krikor Markarian reports that a cultural revolution is underway in Iran that could re-shape the Muslim world. This cultural revolution is sparked by the breakdown of government under the Shiite sociopolitical system. Here’s a section of the article: … In the year 2000, Christian satellite broadcasting began beaming the gospel to almost every home in Iran. This was made possible by the fact that millions of satellite dishes had been illegally smuggled into Iran by corrupt members of the same government that had outlawed them. The Christian satellite programs became a lifeline for the church in Iran. Much more, when the Iranian people learned that the government was trying to scramble the broadcasts, they became an overnight sensation. Recent nationwi...

Several posts and articles on Christianity in China have recently caught my attention. See the posts here and here and follow their links. It seems Christianity is no longer just a Western phenomenon. (Not that it ever was to begin with.)

I am reading a book by Max Lucado called 3:16: The Numbers Of Hope . Well, really I am listening to it on tape. I am finding this to be encouraging devotional listening. I especially like his discussion of the “whosoever” and “whoever” passages of the Bible, including John 3:16 , the focus of the book. He references Mt. 10:32 , Mt. 10:39 , Mk. 3:35 , Mk. 16:16 , Jn. 3:36 , Jn. 4:14 , Jn. 6:37 , Jn. 11:26 , and Rev. 22:17 . To which I would add Isaiah 1:18-20 , Isaiah 55:1, 6-7 ; Hosea 6:1 , Mt. 11:28 , and Rev. 3:20 (Note that Rev. 3:20 refers to Christians; they can come too.). Lucado is expansive: Whoever unfurls 3:16 as a banner for the ages. Whoever unrolls the welcome mat of heaven to humanity. Whoever invites the world to God. Jesus could have so easily narrowed the scope … but he used no qualifier. The pronoun is wonderfully indefinite. After all, who isn’t a whoever . Whoever makes it clear: God exports his grace worldwide. For those who attempt to restrict it, Jesus has a...