fundamentalism by blunt instrument
25 Surprising Marriages, by William J. Petersen, Timothy Press, 1997, 2006 rpt.
This book, subtitled How Great Christians Struggled to Make Their Marriages Work, is one that my brother describes as being helpful for its cumulative effect rather than any one of the particular biographies it sketches for you.
As Paul draws to the conclusion of his lengthy discussion of Abraham as the model of justifying faith, he underscores the fact that Christian faith corresponds exactly to Abraham’s faith in its effect (imputation) and its object (life from death). If we believe like Abraham, we will be justified like Abraham.
In this lesson we continue our look at our Lord’s teaching concerning sin. Our object in this chapter is to show Christ’s view of sin and to encourage the hearer to adopt the same view.
1 Tim 1.3-4
Our second message in the Pastoral epistles looks at Paul’s first instructions to Timothy. In these instructions, Paul authorizes Timothy to command the teachers of the church concerning both ‘other-doctrine’ and ‘foolish doctrine’. These prohibited activities are at best distractions of the Christian faith and at worst distortions of the Christian faith. Their presence can utterly debilitate a local church.
In a comment in an earlier thread, Dan offers these observations and questions:
My question has to do with the definitions (as are popularly understood or employed) of authority, leadership, and decision-making. You stated in your example that “someone who is an expert has more authority in the area he has gained expertise.” Then you state that the theologian presumably has more knowledge and that should “carry weight,” but you backed off from authority. The congregation, you say, should make the decisions. But certain people have “spiritual leadership.” I’m probably pretty much on board with your ideas, but I think a little more definitive explanation should accompany words like authority, leadership, and decision-making if we are using them to distinguish activity or degree of control. Okay, I guess I have not yet formed a question. My question is how do you definitively distinguish between authority and leadership in the above areas. More precisely, what does it mean for a pastor, for example, to have responsibility of spiritual leadership, but not of a decision-making form? (especially in view of some verses that mention obeying your leaders.) Expound, if you will.
As I said in my initial response, this is an excellent question. It gets at the heart of church life and government.
The popular crowd is missing the point about elitism! Maybe Bauder is right, after all. See the discussion at SI regarding Bauder’s article #4. You have to start about here for the pertinent discussion.
And in the discussion from my revised article, it appears that at least one of my readers is missing the point also. (I am going to use some material from one of my comments on that post for the content of this one.)
What is NOT elitism?
Elitism isn’t about the possession of fine art, fine clothes, fine cars, fine educations, or even a fine vocabulary. Elitism isn’t about having expertise. Elitism isn’t about one’s opinions carrying extra weight in an area where you have expertise.
OF COURSE someone who is an expert has more authority in the area he has gained expertise! A doctor simply knows more about medicine, a trained musician simply knows more about music, a theologian (in theory) simply knows more about theology. That knowledge tends to carry weight, and it should.
I am not arguing against differences in authority, expertise, taste, what have you, when I am arguing against elitism.
I woke up this morning to the realization I didn’t have to get up and spend all day at the church building painting! Praise the Lord!
Here is the finished product:
What a blessing to be done!
Our passage describes in very careful detail what made up Abraham’s faith, both in how it looked beyond the reality of Abraham’s physical circumstance and how it relied unwaveringly on the promise and word of the Living God. Saving faith parallels Abraham’s faith exactly, and it is this faith that is counted as righteousness by the One who Judges all souls.
Our lesson today continues our look at our Lord’s teaching concerning sin. In this section, we are going passage by passage through examples of specific sins our Lord condemns.
1 Tim 1.1-2
This afternoon we begin a look at the Pastoral Epistles with a biographical message about Timothy, Paul’s son in the faith. We consider the apostolic concern for the coming generation and apply it to our need to be concerned about the growth of our coming generations in the local church.
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We had a good day in the services, but I was visited by a man before anyone else got there. He is going through some very deep waters and is a new believer. If you think of it, I would appreciate your prayers for him. He didn’t stay for the services and didn’t answer the door when I called after our afternoon service. I’ll be going back for another try later today.
Mark Snoeberger is working on a series of articles called “A Fundamentalist raison d’etre” (except he knows how to put the fancy accent mark over the first ‘e’ in etre). In part 4 of his series, he highlights two issues that he believes are significant areas of concern in the conservative evangelical camp:
I am convinced that at least two doctrines deemed non-essential by the conservative evangelical majority are more essential than at first meets the eye, viz., cessationism and young earth creationism, which will be the topics of my next two posts. Ambivalence to these blind spots, in my mind, does not serve Christian unity, but rather functions to erode biblical authority. And that is something fundamentalism most definitely stands for.
I agree with him on these points.
Christianity Today publishes a lengthy article on Liberty University, now led by Jerry Falwell’s sons, Jerry, Jr., and Jonathan.
An interesting quote (taken from a book about Liberty) from near the end of the article addresses the generational shift.
"Under Dr. Falwell’s guidance, Liberty was frozen in place by a half-century of ideological inertia, and his passing has freed the school from its bindings," Roose writes. "But the younger Falwells belong to a different generation of evangelicals, and the difference on campus is palpable. For one, seeds of ideological diversity are sprouting."
The article notes that Falwell’s sons follow a somewhat different philosophy from their father. Some of the changes are clearly for the better, others will show their quality (or lack thereof) over time.
I mentioned our work project at our church a few weeks ago. The project has occupied all my free time. We have been installing new gutters and painting the exterior of our church. I am exhausted after four weeks of labour. Just a little more work tomorrow and everything should be finished. The church looks great.
I’ll have some final pics in a few days, but I thought I’d give a couple of ‘in progress’ pictures for you to see.
What I want to know is why am I at the highest point in both of these photos?
It’s been a great experience for all our men (and some of our ladies helped, too). And in the middle of our four weeks of work, we had a half week of evangelistic meetings as well! Some excellent new contacts were made through those meetings.
We’ve been just a little busy around here.
One of the themes of Romans 4 is Abraham as the father of the faithful. Today we embark on a section of the chapter that highlights the fatherhood of Abraham as the head of a column relying on the sure promise of God. Abraham viewed God as one who could bring life from the dead and the NT believer does also. Abraham viewed God as one who could call things that are not in existence as though they are in existence. In that number, all the believers in God’s promise stand. In point of Abraham’s time, they are yet to be. In the eternal mind of God, they are.
In this lesson, we look at some of Christ’s specific and pointed teaching concerning sin. Most of our time involved a look at the Lord’s rebuke of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in Mt 23. We also considered the Lord’s rebuke of sacrilege in the second cleansing of the temple in Mk 11.
Lev 20
Today we look at Leviticus 20, a compendium of laws against idolatry and immorality where the dominant theme is the death penalty. As we consider these laws and God’s view of sin, we realize that Christ and his death on the cross become the death of all sin and open the door for even sinners such as those condemned by Lev 20 to find cleansing, sanctification, and justification in Christ (see 1 Cor 6.9-11).
The latest audio from the GBCvic
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