Archives for March 2007

Daniel Wallace, writing a review of a book by the apostate Bart Ehrman acknowledges the damage that Ehrman’s writings can inflict upon the church with this line:

The intentional dumbing down of the church for the sake of filling more pews will ultimately lead to defection from Christ.

A biblical ministry must make faithful teaching of the whole counsel of God a priority.

[Please note: I don’t agree with all of Wallace’s conclusions in this article, just noting this pithy comment.]

I am almost finished with my renovation project, so I hope to have more regular posts shortly. I thought I would bring a little item to your attention in the meantime.

John Piper is continuing to allow his name to support Mark Driscoll, the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. A conference will be held at Willingdon Church in Burnaby, BC April 18-20, 2007 called reFocus. Some of the other names involved in this conference may also be suspect, but one supposes they are for different reasons.

I find this quite surprising in light of the criticism Piper received after having Driscoll in his own conference last fall, but I am not really surprised on the general ‘broader evangelical’ approach of Piper being involved in such a conference. In spite of the desire of many to make him a different kind of evangelical, I don’t think he really is. He is consistent in the kinds of associations he forms. What mystifies me more is that some supposed fundamentalists seem to think that Piper is moving in a more conservative direction.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Our regional fellowship commenced last night with a message by evangelist Dave Barba on Heb 13.5, warning us against covetousness and reminding us of the all-sufficient presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The service was a good beginning.

The host church for the fellowship meeting is Galilee Baptist Church, Kent, WA, pastored by Tom Nieman. Pastor Nieman energetically provides the leadership for the fellowship in this region of the world. His church, and many others in the area are interested in church planting. In recent years, several churches have been started through the influence of the local FBF pastors. The theme of our conference this year is church planting. We will be hearing from a number of the church planters in the sessions today and tomorrow.

I’ll post some highlights as we go through the conference. It is always a blessing to meet with the good men out here, and I hope that some of what is said might be a blessing to you as I post it here.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

The Biblical Archaeological Society put together a free e-book on the controversy. It is available for anyone who wants to receive the BAS newsletters. You can always unsubscribe later if you don’t want to receive them. The BAS is notoriously not conservative, in fact, it is generally liberal, but they do have good information from time to time. The download of the free e-book is available here:

http://jesustomb.bib-arch.org/

The download itself is 17.3 megabytes, so not a small file

1. What Did Jesus’ Tomb Look Like?
2. Did a Rolling Stone Close Jesus’ Tomb?
3. Does the Holy Sepulchre Mark the Burial of Jesus?
4. The Garden Tomb: Was Jesus Buried Here?
5. The Garden Tomb and the Misfortunes of an Inscription
6. Jerusalem Tombs from the Days of the First Temple
7. All in the Family

This looks like a reasonably interesting resource on what Jewish burial practices were like in the first century, although I haven’t had time to read much of it. Be prepared for cautious statements that sound like scholarship but are really masks for unbelief and doubt.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

MTV Overtaking Whole Bible Generation, Warns Church Head

This article from the site of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada quotes a WCC ecumenist as being concerned about the spiritual decline of the young. They are being absorbed by the culture and are not absorbing the gospel. Here’s a quote:

“Even in the so-called Christian countries, the majority of the youth are biblically illiterate but well-informed about the latest MTV programs,” said Kobia on Wednesday, according to WCC.

“Unless something drastic is done now, the Church will lose a whole generation of leadership” to the infotainment industry, he warned.

Very interesting, especially coming from the LEFT.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3