Truth from Bertrand

From the “Together for the Gospel” blog, a post by Mark Dever:

Bertrand Russell, the late, well-known, British philosopher wrote in 1950 that “The essence of the liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment. This is the way opinions are held in science, as opposed to the way in which they are held in theology,” (in “Philosophy and Politics,” in Unpopular Essays, [1950] p. 15). These days, I guess many are holding theological conclusions in such a “scientific” manner. But such hestitancy is not humility. The humility we want in our churches is to read the Bible and believe it–everything God has said, dogmatically, and humbly! It is not humble to be hesitant where God has been clear and plain.

Slice Hymn

This is a hymn posted on the Slice of Laodicea site today.

1. Salvation unto us has come
By God’s free grace and favor;
Good works cannot avert our doom,
They help and save us never.
Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone,
Who did for all the world atone;
He is our one Redeemer.

2. What God did in His Law demand
And none to Him could render
Caused wrath and woe on every hand
For man, the vile offender.
Our flesh has not those pure desires
The spirit of the Law requires,
And lost is our condition.

3. It was a false, misleading dream
That God His Law had given
That sinners should themselves redeem
And by their works gain heaven.
The Law is but a mirror bright
To bring the inbred sin to light
That lurks within our nature.

4. From sin our flesh could not abstain,
Sin held its sway unceasing;
The task was useless and in vain,
Our gilt was e’er increasing.
None can remove sin’s poisoned dart
Or purify our guileful heart,
So deep is our corruption.

5. Yet as the Law must be fulfilled
Or we must die despairing,
Christ came and hath God’s anger stilled,
Our human nature sharing.
He hath for us the Law obeyed
And thus the Father’s vengeance stayed
Which over us impended.

6. Since Christ hath full atonement made
And brought to us salvation,
Each Christian therefore may be glad
And build on this foundation.
Thy grace alone, dear Lord, I plead,
Thy death is now my life indeed,
For Thou hast paid my ransom.

7. Let me not doubt, but trust in Thee,
Thy Word cannot be broken;
Thy call rings out, “Come unto Me!”
No falsehood hast Thou spoken.
Baptized into Thy precious name,
My faith cannot be put to shame,
And I shall never perish.

8. The Law reveals the guilt of sin
And makes men conscience-stricken;
The Gospel then doth enter in
The sinful soul to quicken.
Come to the cross, trust Christ, and live;
The Law no peace can ever give,
No comfort and no blessing.

9. Faith clings to Jesus’ cross alone
And rests in Him unceasing;
And by its fruits true faith is known,
With love and hope increasing.
Yet faith alone doth justify,
Works serve thy neighbor and supply
The proof that faith is living.

10. All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise
To Father, Son, and Spirit,
The God that saved us by His grace,
All glory to His merit!
O Triune God in heaven above,
Who hast revealed Thy saving love,
Thy blessed name be hallowed.

Notes:
Hymn 377 from The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Rom. 3: 5
Author: Paul Speratus, 1523, cento
Translated by: composite
Titled: “Es ist das Heil uns kommen her”
Tune: “Es ist das Heil”
German melody, c. 1400

Market-Driven Church

On July 31st, Todd Wilken over at Issues, Etc. interviewed an Orthodox priest (Father John Parker) on the subject of the market-driven church. Here are some paraphrases and quotes I thought were poignant.

• The motivation for pastors in American Evangelicalism to give church members a choice of worship styles/options on Sunday morning stems from 1) the noble goal of fulfilling the Great Commission and bringing/attracting as many people as possible to church and 2) out of a fear of being exclusive and saying there is one way of worshipping that is biblical.
• The essence of Christianity is the laying aside of my wants, preferences, desires, my wants, and being conformed to the image of God. If we are demanding choice, we have not yet laid our will aside.
  The church is not capitalistic, the church is not democratic; the church is Christ.
• The time and place for being “relevant to the people” is not at the chief worship service for Christians. That’s perfect for Wednesday night, for Tuesday morning Bible study, for an all-day Saturday program. Christians for centuries have gathered on Sunday morning to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, not to be convinced that He is Lord.
• As a Christian, I have to compare myself, so to speak, to Jesus Christ and the Word of God, which is the mirror into which I’m to look. And where I don’t match, I have to change.
• The more choice you give people, the more choice they demand. Our sinful nature almost obliges us to desire to do it my way.

The following quote from Parker’s recent article in Touchstone magazine summarizes what the market-drivin church looks like:

The marketed church offers just what everyone wants: the music I want (or don’t), the time I want, the length of service I want, the type of language I want, the style of music I want, the amount of intimacy and responsibility I want, and in some cases, even the pastor I want. But is the gospel a message about the satisfaction of wants?

Need of Grace – Valley of Vision

O Lord,

Thou knowest my great unfitness for service,

my present deadness,

my inability to do anything for thy glory,

my distressing coldness of heart.

I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable,

and loathe and abhor myself.

I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest

have me do,

for I feel amazingly deserted by thee,

and sense thy presence so little;

Thou makest me possess the sins of my youth,

and the dreadful sin of my nature,

so that I feel all sin,

I cannot think or act but every motion is sin.

Return again with showers of converting grace

to a poor gospel-abusing sinner.

Help my soul to breathe after holiness,

after a constant devotedness to thee,

after growth in grace more abundantly every day.

O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness,

And am ready to sink because I fall short

of my desire;

Help me to hold out a little longer,

until the happy hour of deliverance comes,

for I cannot lift my soul to thee

if thou of thy goodness bring me not nigh.

Help me to be diffident, watchful, tender,

lest I offend my blessed Friend

in thought and behaviour;

I confide in thee and lean upon thee,

and need thee at all times to assist and lead me.

O that all my distresses and apprehensions

might prove but Christ’s school

to make me fit for greater service

by teaching me the great lesson of humility.

- from Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers

Come, Thou Almighty King

This was posted at www.sliceoflaodicea.com over the weekend. A great hymn that I’ve missed and forgotten about.

Come, Thou Almighty King,
Help us Thy name to sing,
Help us to praise:
Father, all glorious,
O’er all victorious,
Come, and reign over us,
Ancient of days.

Come, Thou Incarnate Word,
Gird on Thy mighty sword,
Our prayer attend:
Come, and thy people bless,
And give Thy word success,
Spirit of holiness,
On us descend.

Come, Holy Comforter,
Thy sacred witness bear,
In this glad hour:
Thou who almighty art,
now rule in ev’ry heart,
And ne’er from us depart,
Spirit of pow’r.

To the great One in Three,
Eternal praises be,
Hence evermore,
His sov’reign majesty,
May we in glory see,
And to eternity,
Love and adore.

Text unknown 1757
Music Felice de Giardini 1769

Ravi on atheism

The following is a quote from Ravi Zacharias‘ address during the Veritas forum at Harvard University in 1991.

The reason atheism backed away from it’s absolute
negation of god’s existence, is because it is a logical
fallacy to make a negation in the absolute sense…

The moment you affirm atheism in the absolute negative
sense, you are in effect saying this: that there is no
being with infinite knowledge in this world, and I
know that to be infinitely so because, by virtue of my
own infinite knowledge, I posit the nonexistence of an
infinite being.

…An absolute negation is unsustainable.

The Hard Mold of Truth

The following is from a lecture on the “Church Emergent”, delivered by Dr. John MacArthur. He quotes Dr. Donald Barnhouse, writing in a commentary on Romans regarding the intellectually palpable truth of what the Scriptures teach.

Scriptural teaching is not a vague, formless impression of truth. It is a definitive body of teaching. It is a hard mold of truth, into which the Christian is to be melted and poured, until he takes on its shape, whic is the Lord Jesus Christ living in him and controlling him. Because they are part of this divine mold, all the doctrines of the Christian faith are closely related. Therefore if one doctrine be destroyed, the mold is shattered.

A discriminating person

The following is a quote from John MacArthur's series on discernment in the church, part 1 of the transcript – he is discussing how the cultural mileu has contributed to the discombobulation of truth-associated language – in this case, the word "discriminating". 

Now the culture around us doesn't help because we live in a very non‑discriminating culture.  We live in a culture, in fact, that has put a new and unacceptable definition and value on discernment. 

For example, it can be simply noted that it used to be that when someone was a person of discrimination, that was an indication of their nobility, an indication of their wisdom, an indication that they were to be honored and respected, they were desirable.  That was a person of discrimination, one who could discriminate between good and evil, true and false, what is best.  Now a person who discriminates is somebody who is going to get sued by the ACLU.  The word has taken on a completely different meaning.  It isn't even allowable in our vocabulary. 

This is a day that will not tolerate absolutes.  This is a day that will not tolerate discrimination of any kind.  And I'm not talking about racial discrimination which is intolerable to God, I'm talking about discrimination of any kind.  This is not a time that will tolerate convictions.

Along similar lines, GK Chesterton once wrote: "Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions". 

Experience

It seems toothpaste and toothbrush technology is moving faster than PC or ipod evolution. My wife brought home some Aquafresh "Experience" today from the store. Will it explode when I open the box, or do I put some on my five-colored toothbrush and brush the ones I want to keep? I guess "paste" doesn't have the "zing" it once had with American consumers.

In much the same way, the American evangelical is bored with "declaration of truth" and chases after the "experience" of fellowship, community, or "doing what Jesus would do".

John MacArthur has an audio series on discernment that is outstanding. I think it's too old to be in the "oneplace.com" archives where his recent messages are, but it's available through his website, www.gty.org. I commend it highly to you.

Preachers Wanted

Mike Horton and the boys at The White Horse Inn have provided a link to an article written by Horton in 2000 entitled, "Wanted: Ministers Who Preach Not Themselves".

What do churches want in their minister/pastor? He begins with a list of several criteria found in pastor/minister want ads found in evangelical magazines. Here is the list:

Innovative, progressive, change initiating

Team leader/builder

Pastor-coach

People-developer with strong organizational skills

Someone who "can relate well to fast-track commuters" and "design and build infrastructure, envision and create ministry delivery teams"

Approachable, dynamic, catalytic

Relevant

A close walk with the Lord

Able to lead worship through drama, audio-visual technology, banners and dance

Degrees in music or business required, a degree in theology preferred

He then applies each of these to the apostle Paul to see how Paul "stacks up" against today's ministry position applicants who might respond to the ads. What results is a refreshing discussion about what the ministry involves and how scripture should direct our evaluation of those who minister in His name.

The basic difference between Paul’s outlook and the dominant perspective reflected in these ads is quite simple: for Paul, the authority and power rests in the ministry, not the minister. It is the proclamation of Christ, not the skills, personality, charisma, or even personal godliness, that builds Christ’s Church.