fundamentalism by blunt instrument
Kevin Bauder has come out with another disappointing broadside against fundamentalism. He fills a recent article of Central Seminaries online publication, In the Nick of Time, with a series of scandalous charges against Fundamentalism.
I have summarized the charges as they appear in the article. I attempt to represent them accurately, working my way through the article paragraph by paragraph. If my summaries are inaccurate in any way, I invite correction where I may have erred.
In this message we consider what it is the law does – it hems us in so we must turn to God. We are working on this proposition as the central idea of the message: The Law brings the individual to the crisis of conviction from which there is no way of escape except the grace of God.
In this lesson we conclude our look at the words used in the Bible for sin. From this we discuss a working definition of sin with a few additional comments worked in.
Dan 4
Our pastor’s son concludes his sermons for this summer with a biographical sermon on Nebuchadnezzar and his progress in knowing and submitting to God. All men must yield to the majesty and holiness of God. We should learn from Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation if we would escape similar lessons ourselves.
We’ve been a little busy lately. Our church building is badly in need of paint and new gutters. So…
We have decided to attempt the work ourselves. It will save cash. The wear and tear on our inexpert bodies is free!
Here’s a look from the front of our building:
And me running my saw:
Our men installing the gutter brackets:
The beginnings of a new colour scheme:
We’ve been putting in many hours each day. Not my normal sort of activity so I am pretty weary. No energy for arguing on blogs!
That’s probably a good thing!
My morning sermon this Sunday (8/14) was based on an outline I found in a footnote to William R. Newell’s commentary on Romans 4.14. The footnote was so profound that I thought it shouldn’t lie dormant in the commentary but be fleshed out in a whole sermon.
I thought I’d share the entire footnote with you as well. I’d encourage the preachers in the audience to steal it too. It is well worth preaching.
Today we take a bit of digression from our exposition to consider a topic suggested by a footnote in William R. Newell’s commentary on Romans. Our verse says that if law-works were able to save, faith would be emptied of value and the promise of God ‘put out of work’. Newell comments that God hates works and calls on us to consider instead the work of Christ on our behalf.
Our message today compares the works men offer with the work Christ has done and yet will do. All that men offer … ritual, church attendance, offerings, good deeds to other men … compared to what Christ offers … incarnation, vicarious atonement, exaltation and post-resurrection ministry of intercession, redemption and more, and the yet future consummation of all things … which do you think is more effective at eternally redeeming souls?
In this session we turn from the doctrine of men to the doctrine of sin. We begin with a look at the biblical words used to describe sin. We covered the vocabulary of the Old Testament for sin and half of the New Testament vocabulary. The many words used to describe sin in the Bible give us a clear picture of what sort of corruption all men suffer under.
Rory Johnson
Pr 3.1-12
Our pastor’s son preached a message on how to treat the Bible as more than a book of religious information. We need to remember the Word in our hearts, trust the Word in our daily lives and respond to the Word by living it out by acting on its precepts and commandments.
A common line given by the pro-alcohol crowd is “well, gluttony is a sin too, why don’t you preach on that?”
Well, what is the Biblical foundation for this statement?
Search and you will find exactly 4 verses that use the words ‘gluttonous’ or ‘glutton’ in the KJV. The NAU adds three more references.
Paul continues his proof of justification by faith by showing how law completely empties faith of any meaning and promise of any usefulness. Even more than that, if the inheritance of the world (the fullness of the promise to Abraham) can be attained by law, no one can attain it because the law only works wrath against such as us. Thank God salvation is by faith, that it might be all of grace and a sure guarantee for any one who believes in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Tim 1.12-17
Our pastor’s son, Rory, is home for a few weeks after spending the summer as an intern at a church in Kansas. He is preaching the afternoon messages the Sundays he is home.
In this message, Rory looks at the testimony of the apostle Paul who experienced God’s mercy to be put in the ministry and in fact to be saved at all. The conclusion of the matter is all glory to God for his saving mercy and grace. His testimony is our example.
An assertion was made on a post at SI, in a thread entitled “Some thoughts on beverage alcohol” that I think is just not true:
From what I have observed over the years, the liquor industry and culture Sunday, Jones, et al. faced bares little resemblance to the same industry we face today. If we were to look for a modern parallel, the modern equivalent might be the hard drug market. It was in this milieu the evangelists of old thundered forth against liquor for close to a hundred years and continued on after the repeal of Prohibition.
The first sentence is true enough as far as it goes. Things are different now. But that’s where the accuracy of the statement ends.
I’d like to call your attention to a series of sermons I ran across on SermonAudio. The series is in five parts, apparently just recently completed, preached at the First Baptist Church of Parker, TX by pastor Hal Brunson, Ph.D.
I have never heard of this church or this pastor heretofore. I don’t know how the pastor or church would classify themselves in the ecclesiastical spectrum.
Here is the blurb that accompanies the first message:
If ever there were a jewel of gold in a pig’s snout, charismatic Calvinism is it. What should be a humorous and ridiculous oxymoron, “charismatic Calvinist,” is now a nauseating and repugnant reality. Charismatic Calvinists open the door for false teaching in the Calvinist church; they blemish the reputation of orthodox Calvinists; they expect legitimacy, thinking that their claim to be Calvinists insulates them from the charge of heterodoxy; they denigrate the primary work of the Spirit in regeneration and sanctification, ultimately denying the scripture that affirms “of His fulness have we all received”; they inherently and unavoidably align themselves with the most despicable charletains of contemporary fundamentalism; they create a false expectation of sensational spiritual experience for young and naive believers; they are apparently unsatisfied and unsatiated with the primary work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and sanctification; they have pirated and defamed the phrase “sovereign grace”; and they are an embarrassment and an annoyance.
I have listened to the first message. I heartily recommend it. I plan to listen to the rest. I hope you will take them in as well.
Pastor Brunson shows more clarity and courage than many wishy-washy Calvinists who talk nice about the Charismatic Calvinist false teachers.
Charismatic Calvinists, Part 1
Charismatic Calvinists, Part 2
Charismatic Calvinists, Part 3
The Most Dangerous Verses in the Bible
Charismatic Calvinists, Part 5
~~~
We pause today for a look at one phrase, ‘heir of the world’. The phrase defines the content of the promise made to Abraham and his seed. But what exactly is this inheritance of the world? No explicit promise like this was ever given to Abraham. We trace through the Scriptures the development of the Abrahamic covenant in order to discover the nature of our inheritance and the motive of our current life in this world, where we eschew the world for reasons of a better world we will inherit by and by.
In this session we discuss the process of man’s fall from his original state into sin and death.We consider the craftiness of the serpent, the deception of Eve, and the rebellion of Adam.
Lev 19
Our chapter has four notable features including the theme verse of Leviticus, “Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.” The other features are a repetition or allusion to each of the ten commandments, the revelation of the second great commandment and the constant repetition of the phrase “I am the Lord (your God).” All of this emphasizes a deeper understanding of God’s law and nature and the demands it places on us in all of life for absolute holiness in imitation of our God.
We are conscious, still, of our inadequacy in this chapter. We need more. We can’t meet the standard. Thus, such a chapter about the holiness of God applied to life calls forth a memory of the holy condescension of our holy God in becoming a man, keeping the law even unto death on our behalf.
The latest audio from the GBCvic
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