Tried With Fire

I had a late night conversation with my daughter a few days ago. After filling her in on the latest Christian hubbub in social media, she asked me, "Is this what the church is really like? Because if it is, it's depressing." True. If this is the only side people see, it looks like we aren't doing "They will know that we are Christians by our love" very well. But there is another side, and this is what I told her: - Jesus said that He will build His church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Matt. 16:18 - God has given us a preview of the glorious church in heaven around the throne. Fully sanctified, every earthly barrier torn down forever, and praising Him for our salvation with one voice. Rev. 7:9-12 - Our sanctification isn't left up to ourselves. The Holy Spirit is at work to purify and renew all God's people. Phil. 1:6 - God is able to deliver us from error. Just look at the Trinity debate. Many of us were wrong about the...

Here is a link to a recent Sunday school class by my pastor, Ryan Davidson, on the Christian and Depression, and Anxiety.  He's a professional Christian counselor as well as a pastor, so he has experience with the issue. It's a 1-class overview, but I found it very helpful. This is a related post on anxiety by Rachel Miller - Anxiety: My Thorn in My Flesh

I read Prelude to Philosophy several years ago. At that time, the Trinity wasn't on my radar, probably not on many people's radar which reveals how low the doctrine was on the totem pole. One of the good outcomes of the Trinity debate is that it is getting us thinking about how we do theology. Author Mark Foreman uses the Trinity as an examples of how sound thinking AKA philosophy helps theological understanding. "Another way philosophy aids theology is in helping Christians to draw out and express important theological concepts. For example, a cardinal belief for Christians is the doctrine of the Trinity: God in three persons. It is often surprising to many Christians to find out that not only is the word trinity not located in the Bible, but there is not even a straightforward, clear statement of the doctrine. This does not mean the doctrine is not in Scripture, for it can be inferred through bringing together a number of passages However, the main problem is that t...

I was hanging out at a local university yesterday afternoon and couldn't help but contrast my surroundings with what I had been just reading about John Calvin's college days. The following is an excerpt from his biography by T.H.L. Parker. Colleges in Medieval times were very different than they are today to say the least. They were male-only institutions. The entrance age was much younger; Calvin was 11 or 12 years old when he began his studies. The living conditions were a tad rougher too. Here's a taste of what the meal plan was like at the Montaigu College, University of Paris: A perpetual fast was kept. In the sense that food was scanty and coarse. For the main meal, the boys were given as much bread as they wanted with one-thirtieth of a pound of butter or some bottled fruit. The meat course seems always to have consisted of part of a herring or an egg and some vegetables. Theology students were in the enviable position of getting a whole herring or two eggs as we...

“I waited patiently for the Lord: and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”  Psalm 40:1-3. [T]he Lord may send you, His dear child, a very heavy sorrow. You may fall into the horrible pit and see no light, no comfort, and no one may be able to cheer you or help you. Some that have a touch of despondency in their nature have been brought so low as almost to despair of life. They have sat in darkness and seen no light, they have felt the walls of their prison and have not discovered a crack or cranny through which escape was possible, they have looked up, and even then they have seen nothing to console them. Ah, well, here is a word I commend to you—the Savior says it, “He brought Me up.” The Lord God can and will bring up His tro...

The following is an excerpt from the 3rd chapter of The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trinity . This chapter examines how evangelicals "do" theology? Somewhere along the way, this methodology led a large number of very intelligent theologians down a path contrary to the historic Christian church. How was this possible? Kevin Giles examines this by taking a look at the presuppositions in Grudem's Systematic Theology. Grudem says he works from two presuppositions: that the Bible is true, and that it is, in fact, our only absolute standard of truth. that the God who is spoken of in the Bible exists, and he is who the Bible says he is, the creator of heaven and earth and all things in them. The possibility that other presuppositions may impinge on his interpretation and systematizing of Scripture and on his theological conclusions is not seen as a possibility. The implication is that if you affirm that the Bible is inerrant you will be able ...

In the first chapter of  The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trinity , Kevin Giles traces the origin of the Eternal Subordination of the Son (ESS) in evangelicalism. 1 He cites  The New Testament Teaching on the Role Relationship of Men and Women by George Knight III as the source of this error. Published in 1977, this book lays out the concept of men and women having inherently different "roles" based on the God-given differences between men and women. In order to support this view, Knight redefined the Trinity as a "chain of command" in which the Son is subordinate to the Father and likewise woman to man. So if the Son is always under the authority of His Father and yet God, then a woman can be always submissive to man and yet be fully human. Thus you have the perfect trump card. If God is like this, what Christian woman would question that and not want to be like Jesus? You may have gotten what you want regarding human relationships but yo...

“This do in remembrance of Me.” Luke 22:19.  I am never happier than when I am in your midst, my beloved brethren, and we all sit around the table, because I think of all the Lord has done for you and for me. Why, it is not worth while going to heaven alone. A little lost child sits down on the doorstep of a West end mansion and cries because it is so lonely; is that to be our position in heaven? Are we to take no friends there with us? Who wants to be solitary in the New Jerusalem? But oh, to come with all of you to the table, and to look into the faces of all God’s people, and to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is in each one of them! They are a poor lot, full of mistakes, full of errors, full of infirmities, just like their minister, but the Lord has loved them, and bought them with His blood. A precious Christ He is, not only to have saved me but tens of thousands of His saints everywhere, for there are people of His in all churches, even in the churches that are most fu...

I may need these sooner rather than later. ht: Tom Gauld

I took one history class as an elective in college, 1st semester American history. I sometimes rolled out of bed just in time to slide into the back of the auditorium. It seemed completely impractical at the time, and I couldn't wait to get past all these boring requirements so I could move on to what really mattered. But if you look at my reading stack today, a good chunk of those books are history. Why the change? My about-face was sparked at the 2012 Ligonier Conference on The Christian Mind. Dr. Robert Godfrey gave a brief overview of American Christianity, tracing the trends and movements to where we are today. One of those trends is that we have stopped thinking about how we think. This intrigued me because I had recently gone through a major shift in my theology. I came home and began to trace the genealogy of what I used to believe. I had been influenced by teachers who had someone influence them, who had someone influence them... But who were these people? This wasn...

When the present world has changed in ways we don't like, it's easy to get nostalgic for "the good old days." It's also easy to appropriate our parents and grandparents nostalgia too. If only we could go back to the day when men were men and women were women. If only we could go back to the time where "traditional family values" were the norm. If only we could go back to when our country was made up of people like us and not overrun by "foreigners." If only, if only. But what was it like in reality beyond the sepia photographs and romanticized accounts? I would argue, that the good old days were only good if you were in the privileged class. If you go back before the 2nd wave of feminism, this was prior to the 1965 Immigration Act. It would have been extremely difficult and perhaps impossible for members of my family to immigrate and become American citizens. I can't speak for my African American brothers and sisters, but have you ever as...

"Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for Me?”  Jeremiah 32:26, 27 Those who say that there is no God are, some of them, forced to admit that there is a central force, a power which makes for righteousness. They talk of an impersonal something, but we believe in a personal God, and he who has no personal God has, in truth, no God at all. I cannot call an unknown force my Father, and I cannot address my trust or my prayer to it. It , indeed! The Creator of persons an it ! We want Him, a person, a conscious, thinking, acting personality. This we have here, “I am Jehovah.” The name signifies self-existence. God does not exist because of His surroundings; He draws nothing from without, His life is in Himself. He derives no support or aid from anything outside of Himself; indeed, there is nothing which has not come of Him. All things were made by Him, and He sustains all things by th...

In All That Is In God, James Dolezal critiques "theistic mutualism" or "theistic personalism." He argues that it deviates from the classical theism of the reformed creeds and the works of earlier theologians such as Athanasius, Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas. 1  The premise of theistic mutualism (TM) is that in order for God to be relatable, there needs to be give-and-take with His creation. Without this, God is reduced to a cold and distant deity. For example: We will have to teach the following: that not only does humanity change in its relation to God, but the living relations of God to humanity... also undergo changes, as both are manifest in the world... Without reciprocity between God and world such vital relations would have no authentic reality. 2 ... if God should not experience change over time in His "intimate actual relationships with His people" then God's love would be reduced "to the frozen wastes of pure speculative abstra...

This is a link to the stories of 10 women and one man who are Australian evangelical Christians and victims of domestic violence. Read these stories and weep. Her Story of Domestic Violence  (ht: Barbara Roberts)  The bad counsel and victim-blaming are horrific. But if marriage is an idol, you will feel compelled to do all you can to shore up the idol at the expense of whoever may be sacrificed in the process. Collateral damage for the greater good. But isn't God glorified in delivering His children from evil, not in making them stay married to it? &&&&& Here is a related link which underlines the need for clarity when we talk about contentment. Is there a line that is crossed when "contentment" can be used to mean staying in an abusive situation or not taking a stand against sin? Even Jeremiah Burroughs has stated that we can use "lawful means" to seek relief from the circumstances. You just need to be content - A respon...

The elephant of the Eternal Subordination of the Son (ESS) is still in the room. Thankfully some folks are not letting this go quietly into the night without raising the alarm. If you are new to the debate, this latest round of podcasts provide good summaries of what is at stake when you turn the Trinity into a hierarchy. Theology Gals: Eternal Subordination of the Son with Rachel Miller Does ESV=ESS ? - A professor, pastor, and parishioner look at the ESV translation of a few passages. I dare you not to wince when some notes from the ESV Study Bible are read out loud. Eternal Functional Subordinatino is wack yo . - This podcast raises a number of good questions - Is a reformulation of the Trinity being used to shore up a particular view of men and women? Are seminary candidates being trained in questionable theology and not allowed to disagree with their teachers, which is then propagated to future congregations? Is the Son's subordination to the Father being used as th...

“Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.  “Come unto Me,” He said, “and I will give you rest.” Mark, it is not coming to a sacrament . It is not coming to a church, or coming to a doctrine. It is coming to a person which is set before you—“Come unto Me .” You are to come to God in human flesh, the Deity, Himself, dwelling among us, and taking our nature upon Himself. You are to come to Him . He does not bid you do anything or bring anything! He does not command you to prepare yourself, or advise you to wait. He bids you come—come as you are—come now—come alone—come to Him and to Him, only! Nobody here needs me to say that we cannot go to Christ, as to bodily going, for in His own actual person He is in heaven and we are here below. The coming to Him is men...

ht: numerous people on FB

the two most important qualities [of the Ideal woman] were obedience and femininity... She wrote, "The first law of Heaven is obedience, and it should be the first law of every home." As a practical reminder of women's obedience to men, Andelin presented each her of students with a gold-painted dowel to represent her husband's authority. Then she assigned students to give the gold stick to their husbands in order to provide the couple with the opportunity to discuss their respective roles in a humorous manner. "The husbands like it, and often hang their sticks on the wall as a reminder and threaten to use it if the wife doesn't obey," she said. [1] Helen Andelin's book Fascinating Womanhood (1963)   was probably the mother of all conservative women's books to combat the 2nd wave of feminism. The above quote regarding her view on male authority isn't an anomaly but the norm. The man "was created in the image of God and given domini...