thoughts from Wayne Grudem
Wayne Grudem on Politics and the Christian from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.
HT to Vitamin Z.
Kevin DeYoung takes a crack at answering the question that tripped up Joel Osteen pretty badly on Larry King Live several years ago.
here is the beginning. be sure to read the rest of it.
“You know, Larry, that’s a huge question. On one level it’s hard to answer because it feels like a trap. ‘Will he or won’t he condemn everyone to hell?’ Well, it’s not my place to give the final evaluation for anyone. And I don’t want to sit here and say that I deserve to go to heaven more than someone else.
“Because the fact of the matter is none of us can merit heaven. God is holy and we are not. No matter how sincere we are or how many good things we do, we can’t begin to approach the purity and perfection of God. So we need a Mediator, a go-between.
Dr. Russell Moore is not a pre-tribber, but loves those who are. Go listen to his lesson on the topic at the link. It is an excellent approach to a secondary topic in the church. Great lesson in how to deal with less than foundational theological differences. I love the part where he would be very glad to be wrong on this point.
Here is my post on the “four things” that we do know for certain about the Second Coming of Christ.
I decided several years ago that there are four things we know for sure about eschatology (the study of the end times). The rest is debatable.
From scripture we know without any doubt that:
1. Jesus is coming back
2. He could come back at any moment
3. When He comes, the Judgment happens
4. Right now is the only time that we for sure have to get ready to face that judgment.I certainly have my opinions on pre-trib, mid-trib or post-trib rapture. I have my opinions on dispensations, premillenialism, postmillenialism and amillenialism. I have opinions on preterism and partial preterism. but I have found that these are all secondary things that we can debate with a more or less loose hand. The four things above are nonnegotiable. Those four things will change your life.
Don’t get caught up in prophecy in the news. So many people waste so much time and money on something that ultimately has no value.
Do work as though the night is soon coming when no one can work any longer. Do be faithful, so that if the return of the King is today, you will not be ashamed.
Neil Cole takes a look at the possibility/probability of heresy in small groups and how to avoid it. He hit the same subject in the Verge 2010 conference.
We have an excellent antibody system in the organic church movement. In fact, I believe it to be better than the solution in the traditional church system.
Heresy usually emerges because of three things:
- A strong, opinionated leader who wants the most followers he can rally.
- A biblically illiterate group of Christians who will follow him.
- Scriptures are used out of context to construct a false doctrine.
see also:
The best solution to heresy in the church is not to have better-trained leaders in the pulpits, but better-trained people in the pews. While many will say that the key to better-trained people are leaders who equip them, this unfortunately is most often not the reality. It is true that we need better leaders who empower and equip common Christians to know the truth, spread the Word, and do the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11), but that is very different than the sort of leaders who screen all beliefs and are the gatekeepers of God’s Word. As long as our leaders are considered the gatekeepers of truth, we leave the majority of God’s people in the dark—which makes them susceptible to leaders who do the thinking for them, because that is what they have been trained to do. It is ironic that the very thing we think will prevent heresy actually feeds the problem.
what do you think? is anyone in a small group? how do you make sure that you are doctrinally on track.
yes. Isaiah 45:7:
I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the Lord, who does all these things.
We had a great home group meeting last night and ended up wrestling fairly intensely with this very question. John Piper’s answer posted just today is here
These things have driven people mad. But it won’t drive you mad if you say, “He loves me. And he governed the most wicked thing that ever happened in the world, the crucifixion of my Savior and my God.” If you stay right there and then just work out from there as far as your mind can handle, then you’ll be safe. Your mind will be safe and your heart will be safe, because you’ll be kept humble.
merle haggard has a new album out. That is all. (oh. and it sounds really good)
I have been using the film cameras much more than digital recently. On April 15, I went out to take pictures of the Tea Party Rally on the south steps of the Capitol and didn’t even take a digital camera.
This is my first roll of the Ilford HP5 plus film. I really like its contrast and texture.
here is a real photographer at work
and of course the Fuji Velvia colors just make me smile. Here is a reporter at work
the pro life movement is skewing younger. be sure to read all of the linked post for the self description and the observation by Nancy Keenan from NARAL.
Anyone who attends the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. can’t help but see the plain fact that the pro-life movement is young, enthusiastic, and as varied in social makeup as any group that marches on Washington. Perhaps this is the reason the nation’s media perennially fail to show up to the event; It’s just not possible to put credible spin on a tranquil but energetic crowd of 400,000 assembled on a rainy day in January—only to acknowledge their belief that abortion is the greatest moral tragedy of our generation.
Some things said are calculated to stop an argument. When one side delegitimizes the opposition, then the argument is over. That is why Godwin’s law matters. The first person who calls the other team nazis should be declared the losers, because they are no longer engaging on substance and have moved over to ad hominem.
a recent example of this type of fallacy is the argument by a Professor Bruce Waltke that young earth creationist Christians are a cult. Here is what he said:
Dr. Waltke said, “If the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult . . . some odd group that is not really interacting with the world. And rightly so, because we are not using our gifts and trusting God’s Providence that brought us to this point of our awareness. . . . To deny the reality would be to deny the truth of God in the world and would be to deny truth. So I think it would be our spiritual death if we stopped loving God with all of our minds and thinking about it, I think it’s our spiritual death.”
Thus there is no legitimate basis for disagreeing with the professor. Any argument on the merits does not have to be considered.
Carl Trueman has an interesting take on this controversy talking about life on the “cultic fringe.” Give it a read when you get a chance.
a taste:
In addition, I would also exclude belief in silly ideas as making one into a cult member. True, those who believe that the earth is flat, that the moon is made of green cheese, and that Sarah Palin’s speeches are models of substance, logic and insight are clearly somewhat out of touch with reality, but the holding of such views, and even the tenacious and militant propagation of the same, do not indicate the existence of a cult. The free world is a whacky place; and one can be whacky without necessarily engaging in organized mind-control, brainwashing, and violent manipulation. Stupidity and gullibility are often quite sufficient as explanations; and being stupid and gullible do not make you a cult member.
UPDATE:
more pictures from our day trip out to the Hill Country for flower shots. These from the Nikon F5 loaded with Fuji Velvia 50 film.
and here is one from the side of the road at a stoplight on the way to work.
John Piper’s message at Together for the Gospel 2010 is one for the ages. If you don’t have time to listen to the whole 65 minutes, skip to 30 minutes in and give it a listen.
T4G 2010 — Session 6 — John Piper from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
the questions are several. how do you love someone without giving them the impression that their activity is ok? How do you accept someone without accepting their actions? How do you insure that someone knows that God loves us all as the sinners that we are but that He loves us too much to leave us in that condition? How do you point out that someone is being disobedient to God without coming across as judgmental?
These are serious real life questions that we all have to face at some point in our lives. Probably many times. Jennifer Knapp’s announcement is one such occasion for coming up with answers.
Well……?
Here is Congressman Paul Ryan on Glenn Beck’s radio show setting the record straight with regard to his views of progressives and progressivism as well as his speech in Oklahoma City. What a great well spoken performance and explanation of the danger of our current political climate.
I talked about another bravura performance of Paul Ryan here.
Hat tip to Allahpundit on Hot Air who adds:
“In fact, with just this one phone call, it seems like Beck’s found himself a new favorite Republican. Watch your back, Sarah!”
here from Michael Knox Beran is a beautiful educational paper on the descent of liberalism in the United States from the classical liberalism of Jefferson and Jackson to the social liberalism of Comte and other 19th Century philosophers.
Rulers skilled in the social sciences would translate the new knowledge into codes of behavior that would organize man’s activities in a more efficient and coordinated way than had hitherto been possible. (The classical liberal believes that however much the lawgiver knows of the innumerable factors that create desirable patterns of social order, he never knows enough to undertake an extensive renovation of society with any hope of success.) The new social technic, it was thought, would produce more equitable forms of social order than those created by the “invisible hand” of voluntary, spontaneous cooperation. A new communal life would overcome what Comte called the “perennial Western malady, the revolt of the individual against the species.” Man would be liberated from the biological or class-inspired rapacity that too often made him an “asocial” being. Yet although they dreamt of a more perfect human union, the social reformers made a fetish of the very distinctions they sought to overcome. The wolf will eventually lie down with the lamb, but in the meantime there is enmity between the rich man and the poor man, the white-collar worker and the blue-collar worker, the bourgeois and the proletarian.
This paper is a very important “one stop shop” for the explanation of some very important concepts that animate our current political discourse. Please give it a thorough read. While we are on the topic, have you bought the book yet?
(i am an Amazon partner, so if you buy the book with that link then I get a pittance. However, that isn’t the most important thing. Go buy a used copy from Half Price Books or off of Craigslist. Just get it and read it.)
spring flowers for your viewing pleasure. my favorite time of year to photograph.
Bluebonnets south of Enchanted Rock
Wildflowers close to LBJ’s ranch
another view of same on film
there are some things that are just true. one is that you can’t listen when you are talking. another is that you can’t learn anything if you know everything already. Both of those things came to mind when I read this very interesting story.
a snippet:
But the reporters’ questions weren’t geared toward getting a better understanding of those points. They were narrowly focused on one or two aspects of the story. And from the questions that were being asked, I realized–because I had so much more information on the subject–that the reporters were missing a couple of really important pieces of understanding about the product and its use. And as the event progressed, I also realized that the questions that might have uncovered those pieces weren’t being asked because the reporters already had a story angle in their heads and were focused only on getting the necessary data points to flesh out and back up what they already thought was the story.
go check out the rest of it and see what you think.
Hat tip to Instapundit.
Here is the video that closed the message last Sunday at the Austin Stone.
Let Hope Rise from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.
here is a really cool short film called the Sandpit. It is a day in the life of New York City shot with a Nikon D3 in stop motion using tilt shift effect in post processing. Details on the method here
The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.
HT to Nikon Rumors
black eyed susans in the wind at 300mm
macro roses at night with the Canon Powershot S90
Brother in Law at Torchy’s Tacos last Sunday afternoon
as most of you probably know, John Piper is taking a sabbatical from virtually all of his ministry obligations between now and the end of the year.
This is the part of his letter that caught my eye.
But on the other hand, I see several species of pride in my soul that, while they may not rise to the level of disqualifying me for ministry, grieve me, and have taken a toll on my relationship with Noël and others who are dear to me. How do I apologize to you, not for a specific deed, but for ongoing character flaws, and their effects on everybody? I’ll say it now, and no doubt will say it again, I’m sorry. Since I don’t have just one deed to point to, I simply ask for a spirit of forgiveness; and I give you as much assurance as I can that I am not making peace, but war, with my own sins.
It reminded me of something that happened at the Job conference at Hill Country Bible Church that we attended in October 2008. A questioner at the end of one of the sessions was waxing eloquent about the positive impact that John Piper and his ministry had had on his life when Pastor John cut him off and said somewhat brusquely that “I don’t need very much of that.”
Today Mark Lamprecht pointed back to an old post of his that pointed back to two posts by Kevin DeYoung and John Piper about “celebrity” pastors.
All of which raises some questions.
In this age of mp3’s and mp4’s how do we avoid relying on “celebrity pastors” for spiritual guidance instead of our own pastor who will give an account for us?
How does any mere human being avoid being puffed up with pride when he receives the feedback and adulation that come from the exercise of his gifts in a public platform?
what is the proper balance between self feeding, interacting with other believers at the small group level, submitting to the authority of the local church elders, and taking advantage of the massive amount of very high quality ‘extra church’ material available for edification at the cost of a few clicks and maybe a few dollars?
politics
John Podhoretz takes Barack Obama’s conception of politics to task and points out how the President’s misunderstanding in this area is what is going to get the Democrats thrashed this November. here is a bit to tease you over there, but you have to read it all. John Podhoretz is always a good read.