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by on 8.12.08

another uncertain sound?

Kevin Bauder offers a piece entitled “Dialogue?” in his regular series of articles appearing both on Sharper Iron and at the Central Seminary website as well. You can read the full article at either site to get the full context.

I was tipped to the article by Jason Button over at Theosource, where he posted his initial reaction, then we had a bit of a conversation about it. There is an ongoing discussion over at SI which produced some interesting comments. I wonder if anyone commenting really understands what the article is about. It appears that some are disagreeing with it from opposite sides of the fence. [Or maybe I just don’t understand the comments.]

I think the confusion [perhaps just my confusion] comes because the article itself is vague, barely giving enough details to provide some context and certainly not enough specifics to answer the question, “Now what?”

With this post, I’d like to point out where I think some of the confusion arises…

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Filed Under: Fundamentalism, Issues, Separation
by on 8.11.08

a little eclectica

I am in the midst of rebuilding my lawn after having a new $eptic $y$tem installed, so I am too busy for blogging. But let me note a few things of interest to me lately…

Nasa is Taking Shots at the Moon

There are places on the Moon where the sun hasn’t shined for millions of years [sic]. Dark polar craters too deep for sunlight to penetrate are luna incognita, the realm of the unknown, and in their inky depths, researchers believe, may lie a treasure of great value.

NASA is about to light one up.

For Church History Buffs
  • Christianity Today’s Liveblog provices a list of favorite Church history sites. Two I knew about, but three are new and look promising.
So, what do you think of Video Games?
  • The Canadian Christianity site has an article that raises some concerns about the addiction of many to gaming. A real concern, I think, but a typically too weak response in our child-centered era. (I think every branch of conservative Christianity is too weak on this, including Fundamentalism.)

And last, for now…

What gives with this Muslim-Christian conference?
  • And did the Christians involved give away too much in the process? And what should a prominent Minnesota Baptist pastor say to another prominent Minnesota Baptist pastor this time? [Probably he should say more than he will say, I reckon.]

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Filed Under: Church History, Issues, Separation, Space, Worldliness
by on 8.10.08

8.10.08 – gbcvic sermons

Paul Gets Personal (Rm 2.1)

We move into the second chapter of Romans, a chapter where Paul will ‘kick it up a notch’. Moving from ‘they’ to ‘you’, Paul first of all brings the full weight of Holy Spirit conviction against the pride of the Amen corner, those who listen to Paul’s indictment of mankind in Rm 1 with approval. Do you judge those sinners worthy of God’s condemnation? You have just approved God’s condemnation of yourself since you do the same things.

The Reality of Demons (2)

In which we consider further the Bible’s teaching concerning the origin of the demonic host and the confinement of some demons.

Son of David, Have Mercy (Lk 18.35-43)

In our series looking at prayers to Jesus, prayers of Jesus, or mentions of prayer connected with Jesus, we come now to the prayer of the blind Bartimaeus, calling on the Son of David for mercy. The Lord says that his faith saved him. We connect this with C. H. Spurgeon’s testimony of salvation from his autobiography – a conversion that came when a blind soul finally saw Christ for who he is.

~~~

Attendance was up a bit today. Last week a family visited for the first time and returned today. It is always a blessing to see new folks, but it does take time for them to fully assimilate into the congregation. In addition we had a second visit (after some months) from a single man. He spoke to me after the service and says he is going to try to make it every week. He is a new believer and growing in the faith. Praise the Lord!

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Filed Under: Sermon Summaries
by on 8.7.08

the separatism of Bob Jones Sr.

In some of our recent discussion, Pastor Tracy Pennock asserts that Bob Jones, Sr., was not a separatist but rather followed the pattern of John R. Rice when it came to so-called ‘secondary separation’. I have argued that he is misinformed concerning Bob Jones, Sr.

This evening, I discovered an unlikely ally in making my point: Christianity Today.

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Filed Under: Fundamentalism, Issues, Separation
by on 8.3.08

8.3.08 – gbcvic sermons

Our Sunday sermon summaries. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.

Opposition to ALL Ungodliness (Rm 1.32)

Our concluding message to Romans 1 sums the argument so far concerning the ungodliness of mankind with two final thoughts: First, man’s rebellion is not only against the knowledge of God from general revelation and the knowledge of right and wrong from the nature of things, but man’s rebellion is also against the innate knowledge of the righteous decree of God that sin is worthy of death. Second, man’s rebellion includes the attitude that applauds the sins of others, whether they are participated in or not.

The Reality of Demons

In which we discuss the implicit assumption of the reality of demons in the Scriptures. We also note the Scriptural focus is not on demonology, rather the truth of what we know on this doctrine is incidental to the message of Scripture. We should maintain the same perspective on demons that the Bible does.

Just as the Lord Commanded (2) (Lev 8.1f)

In our last communion service, we looked at the parallels in the ordination of Aaron with the ministry of our high priest, Jesus Christ. But there is more to this chapter than Aaron, there is the ministry of Moses. Moses is a parallel or precursor to our Lord as well, in his role as The Prophet who prefigures Christ. The first Prophet really opened the door for the nation of Israel to have access to God, the second Prophet opened the door for all men to have redemption from sin and eternal life with God.

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Filed Under: Sermon Summaries
by on 8.1.08

a cool little blogging tool from Logos

I just discovered RefTagger, a plugin for WordPress available free from Logos. You can find it here. The plugin recognizes Bible references in your posts and creates a little popup that shows the verse you referenced and a link to the reference at biblegateway.com. Here are a few samples:

Jn 3.16

John 3.16

Jer 33.3

Amos 1:1f

Isa 6:1ff

Rom 3.21-26

Maybe you knew about this already, but having just found it, I had to play with it a little and see how it works.

Right now, it only links to NLT, ESV, and KJV, although many other versions are planned (and are listed on the options page for setting the plugin up).

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UPDATE: It appears that the ‘ff’ tag isn’t working, even though the Logos site says it does. Still, a nice little addition.

Filed Under: Blogosphere, Fun and games, General Interest
by on 7.31.08

lessons from leviticus

My commentary on Leviticus by G. J. Wenham has this interesting quote at the beginning of chapter 8:

It comes as a surprise to find the laws in Leviticus suddenly interrupted by a long narrative describing the ordination of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood. We tend to think of Leviticus as a law book, not as a history book. But the reverse is really the truth. Leviticus and the other books of the Pentateuch are basically concerned with the history of God’s people. They deal with the way God brought them out of Egypt, what happened in the wilderness, how God made a covenant with them, how divine worship was established, and the like. The history provides a setting for the laws, not vice versa.

It is not just that the narrative explains when and why certain laws were given. It does that. But the events are often as important as the laws. God’s saving action is just as significant as his word. Biblical revelation is more than the bare communication of truths about God and his will. The Bible affirms that God directed the course of history in order to create a holy people who knew and did his will. [Wenham, Leviticus, p. 129, underlining mine.]

I am currently preaching in chapter 8 for our communion services (first Sunday of the month). It is rather striking to look at Leviticus from this perspective.

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Filed Under: Christian Living, Devotions, Spiritual Life
by on 7.29.08

so is this representative of DBTS?

I follow a blog by a Canadian evangelical who teaches at Southern Seminary in Louisville. He is by all accounts a fine man and godly professor. Of course, we would have disagreements. This post isn’t about him, except that he announced something on his blog just now that is about erstwhile fundamentalists.

Call for papers

By Michael Haykin on Uncategorized

It might seem a tad early to be advertising this, but this post will serve as an initial call for papers to be presented in the parallel sessions of the 3rd annual Andrew Fuller Center conference to be held August 24-25, 2009, on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The theme for the conference is “Baptist Spirituality.” Plenary sessions will be given by, among others: Drs. Robert Strivens of London Theological Seminary; Crawford Gribben of Trinity College, Dublin; Tom Nettles and Greg Wills of SBTS; Greg Thornbury of Union University; and Gerald Priest of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. [bolded sections mine, for emphasis]

So… where does that leave us? Consider my post ‘parsing Doran’? No one but Dave commented there, and Dave just dismissed my points.

But isn’t this an example of the confusion and disconnect I am talking about? Am I just talking to walls? Am I nuts? Is this what being a faithful fundamentalist is about?

I suppose some might think I relish this. I assure you I do not. I would far rather write about our common salvation.

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Filed Under: Fundamentalism, Issues, Separation
by on 7.29.08

evangelism in Mongolia

I’d like once again to draw your attention to the blog of my friend and cohort, Scott Dean. He lives in the capitol, Ulan Bator, where he is starting a church. In this report, Evangelistic trip to Ovorkhangai, Scott reports on a trip to the countryside with one of his men, where they preached to people who have never heard.

May the Lord grant fruit for these labours! I would urge you to follow Scott’s ministry and support the Deans in prayer.

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Filed Under: Missions, Pastoral Theology
by on 7.28.08

how we came to have an afternoon service

Over on Chris Anderson’s blog, we were discussing various ways in which we try to elevate the tone for our communion service. In the discussion, I mentioned that we have an afternoon service rather than the ‘traditional’ Sunday evening service. I thought it might be of some interest to give a little background to our practice. It might motivate some innovation for others as well.

We have always desired that the services of our church be ordered according to our mission of soul-winning and disciple-making. The ministry drives our services rather than the services our ministry. At least, that is our ‘high sounding’ goal.

Some years ago (2/29/2004), my family and I were scheduled to be a part of a missions conference in California. As our schedule dictated, we decided to leave town on the Sunday afternoon. Our folks decided to move our evening service to just after lunch so that we could get away and so that we could all enjoy a potluck fellowship dinner between our morning services and the afternoon service.

Our ‘one-time’ event was so popular that ‘Seminar Sundays’ were born. From that time forward, we made the fifth Sunday of the four five Sunday months in the year a fellowship Sunday, with our service order as follows: Worship at 10 am, Bible study/Sunday school at 11:30 am, ‘Soup and Sandwiches’ at 12:15 pm, and an Afternoon service at 1:15 pm. That is essentially the schedule we follow today.

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Filed Under: Pastoral Theology, Policy
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