“I think Edwards would regard it as a massive abdication of scholarship that so many Christians do academic work with so little reference to God. If all the universe and everything in it exists by the design of an infinite, personal God, to make his manifold glory known and loved, then to treat any subject without reference to God’s glory is not scholarship but insurrection. Moreover, the demand is even higher: Christian scholarship must be permeated by spiritual affections for the glory of God in all things. Most scholars know that without the support of truth, affections degenerate into groundless emotionalism. But not as many scholars recognize the converse: that without the awakening of true spiritual affections, seeing the fullness of truth in all things is impossible. Thus Edwards says: “Where there is a kind of light without heat, a head stored with notions and speculations, with a cold and unaffected heart, there can be nothing divine in that light, that knowledge is no true spiritual knowledge of divine things.”
“Tony Campalo’s book “Who Switched the Price Tags?” (quoted in the book I am currently reading) recorded the results of a sociology study involving fifty people, age ninety-five and older. Researchers asked the participants one question: “If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently?” Three answers dominated the results:
“I would reflect more.”
“I would risk more.”
“I would do more things that would live on after I am dead.”How can you increase your impact? Take more risks! God takes pleasure in our willingness to assume risk to grow His influence in the world.”
“I advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the word of God must become corrupt… I am very much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labour in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth.”
- The Nicene Creed
- I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
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Posted: July 16, 2012 in Church History
- THE APOSTLES’ CREED:
- I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen
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Posted: July 12, 2012 in Church History
When our first parents sinned, a pattern of responsibility and consequence-bearing was set in motion for the history of humanity.
You will recall the tragic story I am sure. The serpent tempted Eve. She took the fruit and ate it. Adam stood there as a passive observer of the interaction (Genesis 3:6). Our first father, Adam, should have crushed the head of the serpent there and then. But God, in His foreordination, determined that another Adam was to come who would do that job (more on that later).
Nevertheless, because our Federal Head[1] did not take responsibility in protecting and guarding our first mother, death and sin passed on to us all (Romans 5:12).
Our response to this story is not to whine and complain that we were not there when it happened, “Hey!?! How can God hold me responsible for it?” Rather, our response is to understand this and accept the world as we have received it. Death and sin are unfortunate realities! This is part of God’s preordained design for our humanity. We experience death and sin and suffering because of what happened that fateful day some 1656 years before the Flood in that garden, east of Eden (Genesis 2:8).
You will recall that when the time of God’s visit came, God did not furiously stomp out of heaven to read Eve the riot act. What did Adam and Eve hear when God came to visit?[2] “Adam, where are you?”
God did not face Eve first did He? He confronted Adam! But Adam didn’t pick the fruit first. This is not fair. It wasn’t his fault that Eve picked the fruit! She did it! She should’ve been punished first! He was just standing there as an “innocent” bystander. This was like a drive-by fruit-picking!
Yet, God called out to Adam first, “Adam, where are you?”
I have listened to Mark Driscoll’s Real Marriage[3] sermon series and the point was made over and over for the men, “It may not be your fault, but it is your responsibility!” Us men like authority! But authority only flows to those who take responsibility[4]!
The purpose of my article is to call out our men. “Adam(s), where are you?” Are you present and active in the nurture and care of your wife’s soul? Adam, where are you? Are you present and active in the nurture and education of your children? Adam, where are you? Are you standing by watching your wife pick the fruit and then waiting for her to assess its goodness and health for you and your family? Adam, where are you? Are you actively grabbing yourself and getting up from your chair to discipline the children or are you leaving your wife to do it? Adam, where are you? Are you turning off the TV or computer when sinful smut or inappropriate content is streamed into your home? Adam, where are you? Brothers, pray for me as I pray for you?
I confess that I want to gently move my Eve away from the tree. Lord, help me to lead her in the garden? I want to pay more careful attention to the kind of fruit that I am allowing us to eat? Lord, help me to be active in what shapes my wife and children’s worldview? I want to decide which trees ought to be chopped down and which serpentine influences ought to be crushed! Lord, give me courage to stand against temptation as I guard my home?
Imagine if Adam decided to serve Eve that day instead of standing by, waiting for her to literally “fruit-feed” him. Imagine if Adam was keenly observant as to which tree they were walking too closely to. Imagine if Adam was leading Eve to get themselves ready to meet with God in the cool of the day instead of idly accompanying her.
Men, fathers, husbands and grandfathers: please, let us be intentionally active in serving our wives and children and grandchildren. Let us be the responsibility-bearers for our families.
I am so thankful that 1979 years ago, in another garden, Jesus wrestled in prayer as He submitted to His Father’s will to take responsibility for my sin even though none of my sin was His fault. He drank the wine of the fruit that was trampled out in God’s fury, He literally took that tree that brought our curse and carried it on His back and was nailed to it so that the head of the serpent would be crushed as He became my new Federal Head.
May we follow our second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) and not the first. The fruit of the passive first is hard to swallow and brings death. The fruit of the active second is sweet and life-giving to ourselves and those around us!
Adam, where are YOU?
[1] Federal headship refers to the representation of a group united under a federation or covenant. For example, a country’s president may be seen as the federal head of his nation, representing and speaking on its behalf before the rest of the world (Sproul, R.C., Adam’s Fall and Mine, “Just as a federal government has a chief spokesman who is the head of the nation, so Adam was the federal head of mankind.”)
[2] They heard “the voice of the LORD God walking” (Genesis 3:8 KJV). How can a voice walk? I wonder if the “voice of God” walking was not in fact the same “word of God” that became flesh and walked among us?
A short 12 minute introduction to Church History given by Douglas Wilson at the Canon History Conference in 2003 speaking on Gregory!
Click this link: Church History (it will ask you to open the powerpoint file and then you’ll need to double click on the blank page in order for it to open…I am trying to figure out how to get it to play automatically. I am sure that you’ll find all of this worth it!)
Dad,
You raised me
And provided for me
And taught me
And wrestled with me
And supported me in my sports
And encouraged me in my giftings
And loved my mom and my sister
And educated me in character
And sacrificed for me
And showed me how to be a
Dad!
Happy Father’s Day!
Theological precision is necessary in a day where people use the same vocabulary but use different dictionaries.
However, I had a strange navel-examining moment just now as I considered what I publically shared at the Lord’s Table earlier tonight.
God – the Creator of all things that exist – desires to have fellowship with His people!
That is an amazing reality! I am deeply encouraged by that.
But here’s the navel bit. It could be heard from the above statement, that God looks upon me and sees some value in me that provokes in Him a desire to fellowship with me. That is man-centered, self-esteem, unbiblical, mumbo-jumbo!
When God looks at me, He sees NOTHING in me worthy of His pleasure! In fact, He sees an unprofitable wretch.
The amazing nature of God’s desire for fellowship is that, despite who I am, God purpose[s/ed] to set His love on an unworthy hell-deserving sinner just because He had determined that this is how best He will get the glory. God is glorified in me, when He pours out the riches of His forbearance and longsuffering on a perverted, foolish, arrogant, proud, boastful, bombastic (etc, etc) sinner such as me.
To that great truth I can add nothing – Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners! I am one of them (and probably a contender for the foremost of them).
This satisfies me and rejoices my heart!
What is [this] man that You are mindful of Him; or [this] son of [a] man that You would visit him?
Thank you Father for Your condescending love!
Vertical Vision 