{"id":2039,"date":"2012-08-13T21:19:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T05:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/?p=2039"},"modified":"2012-08-13T21:19:48","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T05:19:48","slug":"getting-what-matters-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2012\/08\/13\/getting-what-matters-most\/","title":{"rendered":"getting what matters most"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I have great confidence in this next generation. They get what matters most.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So says Matt Olson, president of Northland International University, here: \u201cConfidence in the Next Generation<\/a>\u201d. Matt is infused with this confidence after spending a Sunday at Grace Bible Church<\/a> of Philadelphia, PA. From the way he writes, it sounds like several Northland grads are involved in the ministry of this church and a NIU staffer will continue to be on the staff of Northland while moving to Philadelphia and becoming part of this church.<\/p>\n

Matt describes the church this way:<\/p>\n

\n

My soul was refreshed and encouraged as I saw a variety of things taking place at Grace. At Grace they focus on Christ in all that they do. This was evidenced by their worship, expository preaching, and deliberateness of their service. This is a church that is multi-ethnic, has a heart for the city, thriving with young people, and getting ready to launch a church plant in the next 9-12 months into another part of the city. They get what matters most.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One would expect a Christian college president to be pleased with graduates who are busy serving the Lord. No surprise there! But there is something surprising for a fundamentalist who formerly included Northland International University among his recommended colleges and universities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Grace Bible Church of Philadelphia is in the Sovereign Grace Family of Churches<\/a>. That means they fully subscribe to the Sovereign Grace statement of faith as seen here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Empowered by the Spirit<\/h5>\n

In addition to effecting regeneration and sanctification, the Holy Spirit also empowers believers for Christian witness and service. While all genuine believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit at conversion, the New Testament indicates the importance of an ongoing, empowering work of the Spirit subsequent to conversion as well. Being indwelt by the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit are theologically distinct experiences. The Holy Spirit desires to fill each believer continually with increased power for Christian life and witness, and imparts his supernatural gifts for the edification of the Body and for various works of ministry in the world. All the gifts of the Holy Spirit at work in the church of the first-century are available today, are vital for the mission of the church, and are to be earnestly desired and practiced.<\/strong> (( Emphasis added))<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

The Church<\/h5>\n

\u2026 All members of the Church universal are to be a vital and committed part of a local church. In this context they are called to walk out the New Covenant as the people of God, and demonstrate the reality of the kingdom of God. The ascended Christ has given gift ministries to the church (including apostles, prophets<\/strong>, evangelists, pastors and teachers) for the equipping of Christ\u2019s body that it might mature and grow.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is fairly well known that SGM holds to charismatic gifts and is a part of the charismatic movement. It is less well known that they hold the apostolic gift<\/a> continues to exist today, albeit, perhaps, in a \u2018dumbed down\u2019 version. Modern apostles don\u2019t write Scripture, but they are church planters. (I thought \u201cAll the gifts of the Holy Spirit at work in the church of the first-century are available today\u2026\u201d but I digress.) As I do a bit more research, I see that the SGM \u201capostolic team\u201d itself has further dumbed itself down to be merely a \u201cregional leadership team<\/a>\u201d. I won\u2019t belabor the point, but you can see there is some squishy theology going on here and more than a little shifting of doctrine. SGM seems to do theology by the seat of its pants, as it were.<\/p>\n

Anyway, we have Matt Olson\u2019s confidence that the next generation \u201cgets what matters.\u201d That\u2019s probably true, because I am in Matt\u2019s generation (we were classmates, and I\u2019d like to still be friends), but I certainly don\u2019t get it. A good deal of Matt\u2019s comments are very<\/em> confusing to me, especially in light of this:<\/p>\n

\n

Ecclesiastical Separation<\/strong>
The university\u2019s position is not to cooperate with any organization or movement that is connected with apostasy or that places less than primary emphasis on the authority of the Word of God. Northland International University does not accept the philosophy, position, or practice of the National Council of Churches in America or the World Council of Churches. Further-more, Northland is opposed to Liberalism, Neo-Orthodoxy, New Evangelicalism, Hyper-Calvinism, and the Charismatic Movement<\/strong>. ((2011-2013 Graduate School Academic Catalog, Northland Graduate School of Northland International University, p. 9, emphasis mine.))<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And this:<\/p>\n

\n

We believe God has given spiritual gifts to Christians to serve in and through the local church. Every believer has at least one gift, and the use of the gifts is always for the ultimate purpose of bringing glory to God. Among the gifts listed in the Bible, we believe that sign gifts (miracles, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy) were temporary in nature and given to the church in its infant state before the completion of the canon of Scripture. Therefore, we reject the modern Charismatic Movement and the confusion it has brought.<\/strong> (Romans 12:6\u20138; I Corinthians 12:1\u201311, 13:8; Ephesians 4:11\u201312) ((2011-2013 Graduate School Academic Catalog, Northland Graduate School of Northland International University, p. 12, emphasis mine.))<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And this:<\/p>\n

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We believe God has called believers to live a life characterized by personal, ecclesiastical, and even familial separation. Personally we are to refrain from all things that would de?le us or bring shame to the name of Christ which we bear. We are called to live a life characterized by holiness and purity and to be an example of what the believer is to be like to a watching world.Ecclesiastically we are called upon to refrain from cooperation or alliances with groups which do not stand unashamedly for the truths revealed in the Word of God. Thus, we cannot accept the position reflected in the Ecumenical Movement, Neo-Orthodoxy, New Evangelicalism, or the various branches of the Charismatic Movement. We believe cooperation should be limited to those of like precious faith.<\/strong> (Romans 16:17; I Corinthians 6:19\u201320; II Corinthians 6:14\u201317;I Thessalonians 5:22; II Thessalonians 3:6, 14\u201315; I John 2:15, 17; II John 9, 10) ((2011-2013 Graduate School Academic Catalog, Northland Graduate School of Northland International University, p. 12, emphasis mine.))<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m glad the next generation gets what matters most, because I am sure I don\u2019t. How can the president of Northland International University be pleased with the involvement of graduates who are joining a branch of the Charismatic Movement when the published documents and doctrinal statement of NIU specifically calls for separation from the Charismatic Movement, rejects the modern Charismatic Movement, and cannot accept the position reflected in the various branches of the Charismatic Movement?<\/p>\n

Do you get it? I sure don\u2019t. I wonder if the board of NIU gets it.<\/p>\n

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I have great confidence in this next generation. They get what matters most. So says Matt Olson, president of Northland International University, here: \u201cConfidence in the Next Generation\u201d. Matt is infused with this confidence after spending a Sunday at Grace Bible Church of Philadelphia, PA. From the way he writes, it sounds like several Northland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[84,71,44],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-wT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2040,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions\/2040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}