Tried With Fire

In the latest round of revelations, Paige Patterson was allowed to retire as President Emeritus from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a retirement package, a house on the grounds, and a stained glass window in the chapel. Just prior to this, the Washington Post broke a story of how a woman was raped while a student and counseled by Patterson to not report it to the police. Anger and tears were my first response. What were they thinking? Does the life of a woman matter so little when it's stacked up against the reputation of seminary? The sick irony is that a seminary is supposed to train pastors to care for the flock of God. Pastors who are supposed to be like their Master in laying down their lives in service. Was that exemplified? Hardly. Pastor Wade Burleson has written a post detailing the back story behind the Washington Post article. Read it and weep. Read it and pray that God will tear down the curtain hiding the spiritual abuse and misogyny in His church...

I got B.B. Warfield's book on the deeper life movement, Perfectionism , several years ago to try to make sense of my former theological beliefs. I never thought I would be referring to it regarding the current discussion on sola fide . This debate is more than academic hair-splitting over theological terms. It is critical to how we answer the question, "What must I do to be saved?" Consequently, I am very concerned that a prominent theologian in the loosely reformed-ish camp is answering that question in this way. John Piper  (ht:  Brad Mason ) - "Electing love is unconditional, regenerating love is unconditional, and all other loves are conditional. Everything after regeneration that you benefit from is conditional, including glorification, salvation, sanctification, and everything else. It’s conditional, one, on faith, and second, upon the evidences of faith in obedience. Anybody in my church can understand that. Electing love is unconditional. The act of sett...

The majority of my Christian life, 40 years to be precise, was steeped in a form of deeper life/early Keswick/two-tiered salvation. I have friends and family who are still part of this movement whom I love, but I would respectfully but still strongly disagree with their theology. The preachers who taught this view made it abundantly clear that Christ got us in the door, but the rest was up to us. Failure to make the grade, in our particular circle, resulted in not being raptured and enduring outer darkness during the kingdom age. According to author D.M. Panton (1870-1955), the rapture was God's judgment of both believers and nonbelievers. Thus Christians will be left behind if they aren't spiritual enough. Here's a quote from Panton's book as evidence: For it is the bride, and not the bridegroom, that contributes the trousseau of marriage readiness, and as she provides it out of the resources of her father, so "His wife hath made herself  READY: and it was gi...

I included a picture as proof that no one is making this up. But in the foreword to Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification by Faith by Thomas Schriener, John Piper writes these unsettling words: The stunning Christian answer is: sola fide - faith alone . But be sure you hear this carefully and precisely: He says right with God by faith alone, not attain heaven by faith alone. There are other conditions for attaining heaven, but no others for entering a right relationship to God. In fact, one must already be in a right relationship with God by faith alone in order to meet the other conditions... Such faith always "works by love" and produces the "obedience of faith." And that obedience - imperfect as it is till the day we die is not the "basis of justification by ... a necessary evidence and fruit of justification." In this sense, love and obedience - inherent righteousness is "required of believers, but not for justification" - that ...

If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2 Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God's glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins?  Excerpt from a  letter  from Martin Luther to Philipp Melanchthon,  Letter no. 99, 1 August 152...

Congratulations to.... Raine and Samuel!!!!! Thanks to all who entered. Stay tuned for another giveaway next month, Lord willing.

I will be giving away 2 copies of Jesus, the Only Way to God by John Piper. This book gives a biblical defense of salvation through Christ alone in a day that demands inclusivism in the name of tolerance and love.  I also chose this book because of the topic of our annual theology conference, The Theology of Missions . If Jesus is not the only way, doesn't that render the Great Commission superfluous? What is to be said of the missionaries who have laid down their lives to take the gospel to the ends of the earth? Was their sacrifice all for nought? "At stake in this issue are our own souls. If we embrace a limitation on the universal necessity of the gospel to be heard and believed, we will begin to lose the gospel and with it our own souls. When God appoints the gospel of his Son as the universal remedy for the guilt and corruption of mankind, and we diminish that, the gospel is diminished. And you cannot diminish the gospel without diminishing yourself. The spiritual ...

So I finished Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother . It was a surprisingly interesting and quick read. The author, Amy Chua, relates her struggles and successes with the Chinese parenting method in her quest for excellence. According to the author, high academic, professional, and artistic achievements are the only sources of true happiness. Therefore it's the mother's job to see that this happens through strict discipline and hard work. I found myself cringing at her battles with her youngest over the violin and was shocked that she would deem birthday cards from a 4 and 7 year old unworthy because they were not the result of best effort.  Chua makes no bones about her ambitions for her daughters and firmly believes her parenting approach is best. Even if they hate her for a season, they will ultimately realize she had their best interests and happiness at heart. But she's honest enough to admit she might be jeopardizing their relationship in the long run. In the end, there w...

The main reason that thinking and loving are connected is that we cannot love God without knowing God; and the way we know God is by the Spirit-enabled use of our minds.  So to "love God with all your mind" means engaging all your powers of thought to know God as fully as possible in order to treasure him for all he is worth. God is not honored  by groundless love.  In fact, there is no such thing.  If we do not know anything about God, there is nothing in our mind to awaken love.  If love does not come from knowing God, there is no point calling it love for God . There may be some vague attraction in our heart or some unfocused gratitude in our soul, but if they do not arise from knowing God, they are not love for God.  Think - The Life of the Mind and the Love of God , John Piper, Crossway, page 90.

Having been unexpectedly blessed with 2 copies of Think by John Piper, I will be passing one of these books on to you. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment stating why you would like this book.  (U.S. addresses only due to postage.)  The giveaway will be open until Wednesday, January 12, at which time a providential winner will be randomly picked. Here is an excerpt from the introduction: This book is a plea to embrace serious thinking as a means of loving God and people.  It is a plea to reject either-or- thinking when it comes to head and heart, thinking and feeling, reason and faith, theology and doxology, mental labor and ministry of love.  It is a plea to see thinking as a necessary, God-ordained means of knowing God.  Thinking is one of the important ways that we put the fuel of knowledge on the fires of worship and service to the world. Therefore, the main reason God has given us minds is that we might seek out and find all the reasons that exist...

In Jesus the Only Way to God , John Piper writes: [W]hen we ask, "Is Jesus the only way to salvation?" we are asking the question: Is he the only way to escape from an eternal conscious torment called hell? (pg. 24) He tackles this issue and responds to two alternatives: universalism and annihilationism.  Several well-known Christians who hold these differing views are quoted.  Interestingly, they use words such as "moral revulsion", "loathing", and "emotionally intolerable" to express their views on hell. While I would not dare put myself in the same league as these particular theologians, their views brought a few questions to mind: Are we more outraged at the idea of hell or more outraged that we would sin and rebel against a holy God? As sinners, is our outrage at the idea of hell more of an indication of our revulsion to the holiness of God? Without Christ , do I deserve eternal conscious torment because I am a sinner and have sinned...

If the evangelical church at large was ever too confrontational in its evangelism, those days are gone. The pendulum has swung, with a commercialized and psychologized temperament, in the other direction. The church today leans strongly toward offering Jesus as appealing or not offering him at all. And what's new about this temperament is that we are more inclined than we used to be to let the customer, or the person who is offended, define what is appealing.  The commercialized mindset moves away from personal conviction toward pragmatic effectiveness. It feels that if the consumer is unhappy with the presentation, there must be something wrong with it. When this feeling becomes overriding, it circles around and redefines the "truth" being presented so that the presentation can be made enjoyable. If the claim that Jesus is the only way of salvation offends people, the commercialized mindset will either not talk about it or stop believing it.  The psychologized mindset ...

Have you ever had one of those "Aha!" moments when God's truth is suddenly illuminated by the Holy Spirit? I had one of those moments last night. I was struggling these last few weeks with the topic of the next Titus 2 meeting, loving your husband. Given my situation, I didn't know if I should even go, because I didn't think I would have anything to offer. Another very real part was self pity. It still hurts at times, and it would be very tempting to stay at home and lick my wounds. But deep down I know that I need to be there. So to wrestle this out with the Lord, I began to listen to John Piper's series on marriage . I started on the ones on divorce but then went back to the beginning of the series. He gives a very different view of marriage from anything that I had ever been taught. He defines marriage as not mainly about staying in love but displaying the covenant keeping love of Christ and the church. That is why marriage is only for this life, because in...

In the Titus 2 women's group, the next chapter we will discuss is on loving one's husband. This is obviously a difficult topic for me and reading the chapter has reopened some wounds. God has given incredible grace, but there is still more healing that needs to be done. Therefore, I started listening to John Piper's series on Marriage, Christ, and Covenant: One Flesh for the Glory of God . I plan to listen to the whole thing, but I immediately jumped to the last two messages on divorce, because I need a Biblical/eternal perspective on what has happened in my life. I am learning that if I am having a problem with something, the root is theological more often than not. This Momentary Marriage by Piper and Chris Brauns' Unpacking Forgiveness should be arriving soon. I think these will also help me as I wrestle through this with the Lord. It may seem counter intuitive, but I believe that a right Biblical view of marriage will help bring healing. I certainly agree with Pip...

Not grace to bar what is not bliss, Nor flight from all distress, but this: The grace that orders our trouble and pain, And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain. ~ John Piper This evening at prayer meeting, a brother was handing out copies of this poem. I listened to Piper's sermon on sustaining grace repeatedly in the beginning of 2008. It was good to be reminded of it again.

The Painful Discipline of Our Heavenly Father , Hebrews 12: 3-11 - John Piper, August 24, 1997. From the sermon: Will you accept the mystery of God's providence in the pain of your life, and (as verse 11 says) be trained by it for the sake of good and peace and holiness and righteousness and life?

I just finished listening to John Piper's sermons ( part 1 & part 2 ) - Subjected to Futility in Hope . (ht: Rebecca writes ) I regularly listen to sermons on suffering, which may sound strange, but I find great comfort in them. I didn't have any theology of suffering when the bottom fell out in my life, so I appreciate Piper's preaching on suffering. I forget too easily so I need to be reminded that there is a design to all that is happening. I need to hear messages that will get me past the "Why me?" and bring me to "It will be worth it in the end." One thing that Piper mentions is how we need to understand why God's children suffer so we can encourage one another when everything gives way. I get the impression that he deliberately preaches on suffering to prepare his church members to stand when their time comes. Last week in our small group, I looked around the room at the brothers and sisters who were there. Some, if not all, have been thr...

After reading Robert Schuller's interview, I needed to cleanse my spiritual palate by listening to this 1982 sermon by John Piper on Isaiah 41:14 "Fear Not, You Worm Jacob!". Here are excerpts (emphasis mine): What, then, shall we say about our own day and the dominance of the gospel of self-esteem—the teaching that traces our problems back to the fundamental cause that we don't regard ourselves highly enough? What can you say to the American church where by and large the ultimate sin is no longer failure to honor God but the failure to esteem oneself; where self-abasement not God-abasement is the ultimate evil; and the cry of deliverance from this evil is not, "O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?" but rather, "O worthy man that I am, would that I could only see it better"? What shall we say? The first thing I would say is this: Jacob is a worm. And until God has completed the miraculous work of our sanctification and made us perfect, w...

This is transcribed* from the Q&A after John Piper's talk on Charles Simeon: 'The question is would I comment on the teachings of self esteem in the church today especially the comment that before you can love God and others you must love yourself? I think it is extremely wrong headed, and I would treat it much the way Dr. Nicole treated all those inadequate views of the atonement and say there is of course a seed of truth in it. Namely, we must not deny that we are created in God's image, and we must not deny that God in His grace has a great purpose for every person and can use us significantly no matter who we are. But it is wrong headed. I mean, I would have answered Steve Roy's question differently than Dr. Nicole did the other night, and that may just have to do with our relative positions. Steve said "What do you feel about the view that says Christ died to rescue valuable humanity and thus we see a reflection of our diamond-like quality in the price pa...

I listened to John Piper's talk , Brothers We Must Not Mind a Little Suffering , on Charles Simeon yesterday and again today. Charles Simeon (1759-1836) endured decades of hostility from his own church and did not give up. This kind of spiritual backbone seems to be a rare thing today. In the light of that, Piper had some very astute comments about 20th century America. "I think we live in a very emotionally fragile time, and I am a child of my times much more than I wish I were. When I am honest with myself, the things I hate about about my culture, I see evidences of in myself." "By emotionally fragile, I mean that we are easily hurt. We pout easily. We mope easily. When I say we, I mean the American culture today, inside and outside of church. We break easily. Our marriages break easily. Our faith breaks easily. Our happiness breaks easily. Our commitment to the ministry and to the church breaks easily. We are easily disheartened and discouraged. We seem to ha...