by Christine on October 22, 2007
How far removed is Joel Osteen’s message to his Lakewood Congregation from our attempts at self-sanctification – with a little help from God? Why do you think Joel Osteen’s message is so popular with Christian audiences? Watch this and ponder – 60 minutes interview with Joel Osteen.
For an excellent set of resources and an article Mike Horton wrote after his interview about Osteen with 60 minutes go here. Make sure to download and read Joel Osteen and the Glory Story.
Technorati Tags: sanctification, Westminster
by Christine on October 17, 2007
by Christine on October 12, 2007
It’s fall and time to get back to blogging the Westminster Confession. We’ve just studied Chapter 12 Of Adoption. I love how Dr. Gerstner covers this important chapter – He reads the text from the Confession and then he says, “What more can I say? Why gild the lily?” and he moves on to the Chapter 13, Of Sanctification.
Well I’m afraid that studying this chapter is not about ‘gilding the lily’ – it’s going to be about seeing the lilly in the garden of weeds that has grown up around the doctrine of sanctification. Here we go
J.C. Ryle defines sanctification this way,
Sanctification is the actual making a man inwardly righteous, though it may be in a very feeble degree.
Sounds simple. Sanctification is largely about mortification of sin. But we will spend the next couple of weeks disabusing ourselves of sanctification misunderstandings.
I came across a great quote today from my gospel hero, D. Martyn Lloyd Jones:
I do not know of a single scripture— and I speak advisedly— which tells me to take my sin, the particular thing that gets me down, to God in prayer and ask him to deliver me from it and then trust in faith that he will.
Now that teaching is also often put like this: you must say to a man who is constantly defeated by a particular sin, “I think your only hope is to take it to Christ and Christ will take it from you.” But what does Scripture say in to the man who finds himself constantly guilty of stealing, to a man who sees something he likes and takes it? What am I to tell such a man? Am I to say, “Take that sin to Christ and ask him to deliver you?” No, what the apostle Paul tells him is this: “Let him that stole, steal no more.” Just that. Stop doing it. And if it is fornication or adultery or lustful thoughts, again: Stop doing it, says Paul. He does not say, “Go and pray to Christ to deliver you.” No. You stop doing that, he says, as becomes children of God.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
From D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Sanctified Through the Truth: The Assurance of Our Salvation (Wheaton: Crossway, 1989), 54.
Sanctification is more than just ‘Let go and let God”. Ryle says elsewhere:
In sanctification our own works are of vast importance and God bids us fight, and watch, and pray, and strive, and take pains…
HT: Phil Johnson
Technorati Tags: Lloyd-Jones, adoption, puppy, sanctification
by Christine on June 26, 2007
Why should we study the Creeds and Confessions? Guy Waters – RTS professor writes in A Debtor to Mercy Alone: an interview with Guy Waters, part 1:
We don’t place the Standards over the Scripture, of course (WCF 1.10). The Standards and other faithful summaries of Christian doctrine allow us, as a friend of mine once put it, to “check our homework,” to compare our studies in the Scripture with those of competent and recognized students of the same.
I’m also watching a series of lectures on the Federal Vision given at Woodruff Road in February. Dr. Waters is one of the lecturers. He proves his point – the Westminster Confession of Faith allows us to “check our homework” as we look at errors such as the Federal Vision.
One of the complaints at the PCA General Assembly was that the study report on the FV needed more exegesis. But, if the study report is drawing from the Westminster Standards, we can have a level of confidence that a thorough exegesis has been done, unless of course we are looking to amend the Standards. Which may be the question for FV advocates.
by Christine on June 1, 2007
Most of my friends don’t have a clue what the Emerging/Emergent Church movement is – but they do share some of the same concerns that the Emerging church has with Reformed/Presuppostional Theology. My friends (and I) like narrative. As Paul Helm points out:
What happens is that in this effort to combine a narrative and a logical approach to theology the narrative approach invariably wins out. Stories are so much more fun than logical deductions and discriminations.
Donald Miller, known for his lived or hated “Blue Like Jazz”, and his influence in the Emerging Church movement says in this month’s issue of Christianity Today:
“Truth is rooted in story, not in rational systems. The Christian mission is not well served when we speak in terms of spiritual laws or rational formulas. Propositional truths, when extracted from a narrative context, lack meaning. “The chief role of a Christian,” he says, “is to tell a better story.”
The tension between the two is magnified on both sides – presuppositional apologetics vs. emerging metanarratives. I like Helm’s piece because it highlights the strength of Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology.
Yes, I would agree that great minds like Helm and even Miller (in very different ways) probably can’t hold the tension between the two. Me, I like my Biblical Theology with a strong dose of Systematics thrown in – my small mind has no problem holding the two as compatible.
Technorati Tags: Biblical Theology, Emerging Church, Westminster
by Christine on June 1, 2007
In our study of the Westminster Confession we’ve been sharing our conversion stories. Conversion narratives bring home God’s work and grace in saving us. We’ve used the Ordo Salutis to highlight each part of God’s plan of salvation. In doing this we’ve struggled to narratively explain that regeneration precedes faith, that faith and repentance go together and are two sides of one coin, that justification, regeneration, and effectual call are instantaneous. It all gets rather confusing – but it’s important that we see each part – as we relate the whole.
Paul Helm gives a helpful illustration at Helm’s Deep::
Let us take an illustration. The ordo salutis (Rom 8.28 etc.) is a sequence, part of the grand narrative of redemption. But the concepts introduced into our understanding of that sequence, and the distinctions between them, between regeneration, conviction of sin, penitence, faith, assured faith, the external call, effectual calling, justification and sanctification etc. are logical distinctions. Do they all also record temporal distinctions as well? Is justification an event? And is sanctification another, coupled to the carriage of justification and pulled along by it? Is the carriage of justification in turn pulled along by the carriage of faith? Where does adoption fit in? Has it to be squeezed in somewhere between regeneration and faith? Or between faith and justification? Or is adoption simply another description of one or more of these elements? And what about union with Christ: is this also part of the temporal sequence of separately-identifiable occurrences? If so, can we find a gap for it, a spare carriage for it to occupy? Is the decree of God, eternally foreknowing the redeemed, also an event?
Later he quotes from Geerhardus Vos:
In Biblical Theology the principle is one of historical, in Systematic Theology it is one of logical construction. Biblical Theology draws a line of development. Systematic Theology draws a circle.
The Ordo Salutis for each of us is a circle with a our line of narrative drawn through it. Helpful illustration.
Technorati Tags: Westminster
by Christine on May 16, 2007
I’ve been working so long and hard on Pulpit Search Committee, Women in the Church, Bible Study, the church website as well as being a mother and wife I had to take a long break from blogging. But I’m back briefly. I had to share this great quote from R. Scott Clark. This week we are reviewing current challenges to the doctrine of justification so I’ve been non-stop reviewing what little I know about the New Prespective on Paul and Federal Vision. Hope to share this quote with the women – they’ll have a chuckle.
Against Heresies:
The definition and nature of the gospel is fundamental to the existence of the Protestant church. It was a Reformed theologian, J. H. Alsted who said that the doctrine of justification is the article of the standing or falling of the church. In that case, we should attend to the NPP and Federal Vision questions immediately just as a physician would attend to a heart attack immediately. To torture the metaphor further, it also turns out that the patient has bone cancer and is in desperate need of long term treatment. The patient needs an immediate bone marrow transplant from Martin Luther and John Calvin. Next, the patient will need after-care provided by Francis Turretin and Johannes Wollebius. Finally, the patient needs to make immediate lifestyle changes. He must stop eating Bill Hybels and the Purpose Driven Life for lunch. These are the theological and ecclesiastical equivalents of the worst sort of cholesterol.
Read the whole Clark interview at Against Heresies – it’s terrific.
by Christine on April 19, 2006
Tim Challis posts on the Benefits of Catechisms. I particularly appreciate his posting on seeking God’s guidance. Lately I’ve been thinking about discerning God’s will – how do we do that. This is a great reminder.
As we memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism – remember the benefits pay off for years
There is no substitute for investing in children when they are still young. The catechisms that have survived to this day and have stood the test of time are worth knowing. They are worth teaching to our children. They are worth teaching to ourselves.
Later in I began to examine Christianity outside of the Reformed fold. I was faced with terms and theology that were foreign to me. I had never heard of this thing called the rapture and burst out laughing the first time someone explained it to me, convinced that he was pulling my leg! One of my greatest surprises, and one I found most disconcerting, was the constant discussion in mainstream Protestantism about knowing God’s will and receiving guidance from Him. Before leaving Reformed circles I had never heard anyone claim to hear from God nor had I really seen people wrestle with issues of God’s guidance. These were foreign concepts to me.
It took me some time to figure out why this was not a struggle for me. I did not wrestle with issues of God’s guidance because I had been taught firm principles from my years of catechetical instruction. Read these words by Sinclair Ferguson (taken from his book Faithful God):
Christians in an earlier generation rarely thought of writing books on guidance. There is a reason for that (just as there is a reason why so many of us today are drawn to books that will tell us how to find God’s will). Our forefathers in the faith were catechised, and they taught catechisms to their children. Often as much as half of the catechism would be devoted to an exposition of the answers to questions like the following: Question: Where do we find God’s will? Answer: In the Scriptures. Question: Where in particular in the Scriptures? Answer: In the Commandments that God has given to us.
Why were these questions and answers so important? Because these Christians understood that God’s law provides basic guidelines that cover the whole of life. Indeed, in the vast majority of instances, the answer to the question ‘What does God want me to do?’ will be found by answering the question: ‘How does the law of God apply to this situation? What does the Lord require of me here in his word?’
I think Ferguson is exactly right. I have seen Christians wrestle and fight almost to the death with issues of guidance. More often than not, they finally take refuge in some type of circumstance or irrelevant detail that provides only brief comfort or assurance. I know of a person who made a major, critical decision in life based upon tossing a Bible in the air three times and randomly placing his finger upon a verse on the page which the Bible had fallen open to. I know of people who have made decisions based on hearing a particular person on the radio at a particular time or based on stirrings, feelings and emotions.
The catechisms, based as they are on firm Scriptural principles, do not allow for any of this. They are firm: we find God’s will in the Scriptures, particularly in the commandments. We listen and obey. God gives us great freedom to know and do His will within the situations in which He has placed us and by using the gifts and talents with which He has blessed us. Making decisions should not be difficult. Hearing the voice of God and receiving guidance from Him is as simple as opening the Scriptures.
This is just one of many examples in which I know that years of catechetical instruction have been a blessing to me and have helped me avoid the trappings of poor theology. I am grateful, now and always, that my father and theological forefathers were faithful in teaching and applying Scripture through the catechisms. I hope and pray that I will so bless my children.
I have been remiss in posting much here. Between Pulpit Search Committee, WIC, Bible Study…… I’ve needed to prioritize. I hope to post more as we talk about God’s Covenant promises in Chapter 7.
by Christine on February 14, 2006
“What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.“ (WSC 1)
What is the chief end of creation? Jonathan Edwards wrote:
The end of the creation is that the creation might glorify God. Now what is glorifying God, but a rejoicing at that glory he has displayed? (quoted from John Piper’s “The Dangerous Duty of Delight” p. 13
It is a beautiful sunny day after a fresh snow – let us rejoice at the display of God’s glory.
Part of an ongoing series of posts on Chapter 4 of the Westminster Confession of Faith – On Creation
by Christine on February 12, 2006
Should Christians Read The Da Vinci Code? This is the question that Richard Mouw – former President of Fuller Theological Seminary asks and answers at the Davinci Code: The Challange.
We are about to enter a new battleground – our Christian faith, everything we believe about Jesus Christ – divine Son of God, our very Biblical foundation – will be challenged. Vulnerable post-modern society with no foundational beliefs will be susceptible. The Doctrine of the Authority of Scripture in Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith will be turned on its head. Dr. Mouw writes:
As a Christian, questions about who Jesus is are not for me matters of mere curiosity. They have to do with the most basic issues of life. I believe that he is exactly who the Gospel writers say he is: the heaven-sent Savior, the eternal Son of God who appeared in the flesh to do for us what we could never do for ourselves; it is only because of Jesus that sinners can get right with God and receive the gift of eternal life. If Dan Brown’s story is accurate—even only a few key details of his plot are true—my faith is fundamentally misguided.
How do we get ready for this challenge – read Richard Mouw.
