Weeping and Rejoicing Over Genesis 1-4

I began my 2015 reading plan today, reading Genesis 1-4 in English and trying to read Matthew 1 in Greek.

The opening chapters of Genesis are extremely important for multiple reasons.  I probably reference Genesis 1-3 in my teaching and preaching more than any other portion of Scripture.  You cannot understand the Bible, you cannot understand this world, without understanding Genesis 1-3.  It is the foundation on which the entire Bible stands.  

Despite my familiarity with these chapters, I find myself sorrowful and rejoicing every time I read them or think on them.

I weep over what was lost.  God created a good, very good, earth.  Everything he created was good, including the crown of creation, mankind.  He also demonstrated His goodness in preparing a garden for the man to work, and providing a wife for the man when no helper suitable for him was found.  

A man and a woman, naked and unashamed, in a garden with everything they needed provided.  No sickness, no death, no pain, no fear, no worry, no anxiety, no relational discord.  Most importantly, there was no separation from God.  

Then the man and the woman disbelieved God and trusted the lies of the serpent and the desire of their eyes over the words God had spoken.  Everything changed.  

Suddenly they realized they were naked, and there was shame.  

Then came the curses.  The serpent was cursed, the man and the woman were cursed, all creation was cursed.  The man and the woman were sent out of the garden, and out of God’s presence.  They were sent out of paradise with a promise that life would be full of pain hardship, and then they would die.

In Genesis 4 the first human ever born murdered his own brother out of envy and anger.  A few generations later one of his descendants boasts about his own murders.  The heart of man was irrevocably corrupted.  It seems that all hope is lost.

But in the curses and the aftermath God made a promise and gave us a picture of the hope to come.

In Genesis 3:15 God told the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” When we read this in English we might not pick up on the fact the offspring is singular.  One man will crush the serpent’s head.

In Genesis 3:21 we’re told that the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. They had been told that if they ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they would die. And one day they would.  But that day something else died in their place.  Not only did a sacrifice die in their place, the sacrifice provided clothing to cover their shame and protect them as they went out into the now-cursed world.  

Then I come to Matthew 1, and it begins with a genealogy.  Although Matthew begins with Abraham rather than Adam and Eve, he is making a point - the woman’s offspring, the child promised first to Eve, then to Abraham, then to David has arrived.  God was faithful to his promise.

The offspring, named Jesus because he would save his people from their sins, succeeded where Adam failed.  Adam and Eve succumbed to sin under the best of circumstances; Jesus resisted in the worst of circumstances (contrast Genesis 2-3 with Matthew 4:1-11).  Where Adam and Eve doubted God’s word, Jesus quoted the words of His Father to the devil.

He remained sinless his entire life.  And although he did no wrong, although he was the one person in the history of the earth who didn’t deserve to die, he was sentenced to the death and suffered great pain on the cross.

In doing so He fulfilled the promise of Genesis 3:15 and the picture of Genesis 3:21.  

In giving up his life his heel was bruised, but he crushed the serpent’s head.  Sin and death were defeated forever.

In giving up his life he provided for his people a covering for their sin and shame.  For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God proved this by raising Jesus from the dead.  The promise for those who believe is that the earth will one day again be what it once was.  All who repent and believe in Jesus’ gospel will die, but will also be resurrected to new life in the new creation.  Man will once again walk with God on a good earth.  Every tear will be wiped from our eyes, death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.  

So today I mourn what was lost. And today I rejoice for what has been done and what is yet to come.  

Three Reasons I'm Calling on Lifeway to Reform

Over the last week a movement has come together on Twitter known as #the15. I won't go into all the details of what the group is or how it came together, but if you're interested you can read this Baptist News Global article that does a good job of explaining the origin.

The name #the15 came about due to a comment by Ed Stetzer, head of LifeWay Research. The primary objective of #the15 at this point is, at a very minimum, hearing an answer from Thom Rainer, Ed Stetzer, and the LifeWay trustees on why LifeWay sells books and materials that are not just outside of Southern Baptist beliefs, but clearly outside Christian orthodoxy.  For years phone calls, e-mails, and Twitter questions have gone unanswered.

An acknowledgement that rank and file Southern Baptists have questions isn't really enough though.  LifeWay needs to remove all books, music, and other materials coming from false teachers and false churches.  Furthermore, they need to not offer to order books by Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and gay "Christians" that they don't carry in the store on the basis of doctrinal differences when those books are requested.  The Biblical standard is to rebuke and have nothing to do with those who teach false doctrine, not sell their materials for profit.

Unsurprisingly, #the15 has gained critics.  Some are criticizing things we haven't said. Some have a personal ax to grind with some of the more well known people who have joined the15. One common objection has been that reforming LifeWay won't prevent people from buying bad books. That's true. Unbelievers masquerading as Christians will find teachers who will tickle their itching ears and feed their carnal desires. Paul told us so in 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

Still, I am among those who will continue to call for LifeWay to reform.  Here are three reasons why.

As a Southern Baptist I have both a right and a responsibility to demand doctrinal purity in Southern Baptist entities.  I have an obligation to warn against false teaching wherever I see it, but I don't really have any right to appeal to Rome or cults like Bethel in Redding, CA to change what they sell in their bookstores. I'm an outsider.  I do have a right to demand the leaders of my own denomination adhere to Biblical doctrine.  I can't force them to change, but if I make my concerns known I can sleep at night knowing my hands are clean.

Weak and Immature believers are easily led astray.  Imagine there's a woman named Becky.  She's the typical Southern Baptist wife and mother.  She faithfully attends her church with her family and serves where needed.  She hears a steady diet of topical, a-doctrinal sermons with an emphasis on what she needs to do rather than hearing what Christ has done.  One day she goes to LifeWay and sees a big display highlighting the book Jesus Calling.  She reads that a woman heard from Jesus every day for a year! How exciting!  Becky buys the book and begins reading every day.  She feels so loved and encouraged by the words Sarah Young heard from "Jesus." She has no idea that she's probably reading the words of a demon.  The Jesus of Jesus Calling is not the Jesus of the Bible, but Becky is clueless because she hasn't actually been taught the Bible.  She begins to tell her friends about the wonderful book she discovered.  Soon half the church is listening to the voice of a false Jesus.

The same scenario could unfold with any of the dangerous books Lifeway sells.  A little leaven leavens the whole lump.  A little false doctrine in one church member opens the door to more false doctrine in that person's life and in the life of the whole church.  A person who wants to buy false teaching can find it, but when Lifeway sells false teaching they could inadvertently lead well-meaning people astray.  As the operator of a Christian bookstore, the burden is on LifeWay to ensure that they are selling Christian rather than pagan books to people who don't know better.

People who are caught up in false doctrine generally don't realize they're caught up in false doctrine.  In my home town LifeWay is the only Christian bookstore that I know of.  So they're not just serving Baptists.  People who are in Word of Faith/Prosperity churches will shop there alongside Roman Catholics next to hyper-legalistic Bible-belters.  Someone who comes in looking for a book by a certain false teacher may not realize the author is a false teacher.  As a supposedly mission-minded denomination, the Southern Baptist owned and operated LifeWay should not miss out on the opportunity to share the gospel with someone who has never actually heard it.  Yes, the person may storm out in anger, but they may just listen to what the person speaking to them has to say.  Either way, the LifeWay employees will have done what they're Biblicaly required to do rather than participating in the spiritual equivalent of selling crack to a junkie.

I don't know if #the15 will achieve anything in the end.  We will rest in Christ knowing we've done what our King has commanded us to do.  Please join with me in praying for LifeWay to reform, for the true gospel of Christ to be proclaimed and defended, and for the Southern Baptist Convention, and all denominations, to grow in purity and obedience to her Lord.

My 2015 Reading Plan

What follows is my plan for reading in 2015.  The key word here is plan.  With our first child due in June and my current job ending around the same time with no idea what’s next, we’ll see how things go.  

For most of the last 4.5 years I’ve been working, taking seminary courses, and teaching regularly in our young adults groups in Beijing and Jakarta.  For six months in the middle I was a full-time seminary student.  That hasn’t left much time or mental energy for non-required/non-teaching prep reading.  Now that I’m done with seminary and taking an indefinite break from weekly teaching I’m looking forward to doing some personal reading again.

I’m planning to follow a schedule of daily reading and weekly reading that should amount to about an hour a day.  The plan is as follows.

Daily Reading

I’ll follow Denny Burk’s daily Bible reading plan.  This plan goes straight through the Bible, reading three or four chapters a day.  He schedules catch up days throughout the year, so if you miss a day or two you’ll have some opportunities to make up the missed days without doubling or tripling one day's reading.  

I’m also going to try to follow Burk’s Greek New Testament reading plan.  My Greek is not nearly proficient enough to read without major help, but fortunately Logos Bible software can help me with the time consuming task of identifying words.  The plan involves reading one chapter a day in Greek and also leaves a number of catch-up days throughout the year.  

I also plan to read one chapter of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion every day.  I’ve been a “Calvinist” (soteriologically) for several years now, but this will be the first time I’ve read Institutes.  Earlier this year I wrote a short biography of Calvin for a Church History class, but like most Calvinists, I became one not by reading Calvin, but simply by reading the Bible.

Weekly Reading

Monday - On Mondays I plan to read one or two chapters of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.  I read Grudem for my seminary courses 3-4 years ago, so this will be a refresher.

Tuesday - Most Tuesdays I will read the chapter of Gregg Allison’s Historical Theology that corresponds with the chapter of Grudem I read the day before.  Allison’s book examines the history of the doctrines covered by Grudem rather than being a chronological history of the church.  The book is only 33 chapters, so some Tuesdays I will read something from the Wednesday-Thursday list.  

Wednesday and Thursday - Wednesdays and Thursdays I will plan to read 20-30 minutes of a scholarly work on issues or Bible passages that are of interest to me.  The list so far, in no particular order:

• From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective by Various Authors
• Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books by Michael J. Kruger
• The End of the Law: Mosaic Covenant in Pauline Theology by Jason C. Meyer
• The Lord’s Supper: Remembering and Proclaiming Christ Until He Comes by Thomas R. Schreiner & Matthew R. Crawford
• The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic? by Michael Rydelnik
• Sermon on the Mount: Restoring Christ’s Message to the Modern Church by Charles L. Quarles

Friday - On Fridays I plan to spend 20-30 minutes reading the writings of the church fathers.  I'll start with Volume One of the Ante-Nicene Fathers which includes the writings of Clement of Rome, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus.  The church fathers didn't get everything right, but understanding the history of the church is of great importance.  The church has been working through theological and cultural issues for 2,000 years.  It would be foolish to ignore that history.

I'll leave Saturday and Sunday open in case I miss a day or two during the week.

So, that’s the plan.  I hope to share some of the things I’m learning here on the blog.  

What’s your plan for the coming year?

Southern Baptists Need to Stop Hating Thom Rainer

I don’t know who Tim Dukeman is, but he has written an excellent blog post titled Selling Crack for Jesus.  This post highlights a major problem in the Southern Baptist Convention.  It’s not too long, and I’d encourage you to read it before you continue reading this post.

Thom Rainer, President and CEO of Lifeway, seems like a nice guy.  He writes blogs that are helpful for some pastors and churches.  And he makes his living selling spiritual poison.  

His decision to sell books by some of today’s most harmful false teachers is leading many further from Christ and hardening hearts to the truth of the gospel.  

If you don’t believe me, take a look at some of the books found by JD Hall and Justin Peters when they visited a Lifeway together a few months ago.

• T.D. Jakes teaches the prosperity gospel, which is an entirely different gospel than the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and no gospel at all.  He also comes from a Oneness Pentecostal background which denies that God is eternally Father, Son, and Spirit all at the same time.
• Rick Warren distorts the message of the book of Daniel into a diet plan in The Daniel Plan.  
• John Hagee is a false prophet.
• Sarah Young is a false prophet who blasphemously claims to write the very words of Jesus.  It should be noted that the tenth anniversary edition of her book Jesus Calling contains numerous revisions of the supposed words of Jesus.
• Mark Batterson’s The Circle Maker is supposedly a Christian book on prayer, yet his ideas are not drawn from Scripture but a Jewish myth.
• The various books about supposed visits to Heaven contradict Scripture and each other.

In Matthew 23:15, in the middle of a series of woes pronounced against the scribes and Pharisees, our Lord Jesus said this:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. 

The scribes and the Pharisees were the dominant false teachers in Jesus’ day.  Jesus tells us that it’s better for a person to be spiritually neutral than caught in false teaching, for the person caught up in a false religious system, even if it has a veneer of Christian truth, is doubly damned.

In 1 Timothy 4:1 Paul wrote to Timothy, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.”  The source of all false teaching, going all the way back to the serpent in the Garden, is demonic.  

False teaching is not something to be trifled with.  

I have no doubt Thom Rainer knows these verses.  Yet, he sells books by demonstrably false teachers and false prophets for profit.  He personally profits off of the selling of books that contradict the teaching of Scripture, that have their origin not in the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather are the doctrines of demons.

What does they say about Thom Rainer? About Lifeway?  About the Southern Baptist Convention?

I don’t know Thom Rainer’s heart.  I do know though, that if Thom Rainer’s fellow Southern Baptists actually loved him they would call him to repentance.  The fact that none of his peers among the SBC elite have done so indicates that they are not loving him as they should.

If those close to him truly loved Rainer they would warn him.  They would plead with him.  And if he wouldn’t stop selling the spiritual poison that is he is selling, they would seek to have him removed from his position.  By continuing to sell false teaching for profit he is putting his own soul and the souls of thousands at risk of eternal damnation.  

It is not loving to remain silent when this is the case.  It is not loving to gently ask him why he is selling these books and then drop the issue when he doesn’t respond.  

The way to love Thom Rainer and our neighbors right now is to keep calling on him to stop selling books by false teachers through whatever means are available.  

The way to love Thom Rainer and our neighbors right now is to stop shopping at Lifeway and hope they have to shut down operations if Rainer won’t stop selling the dangerous books he’s selling.

The way to love Thom Rainer and our neighbors right now is to call on influential Southern Baptists like David Platt and Al Mohler, who have spoken out against some of the very books pictured above, to use their influence to remove the books of false teachers and heretics from Lifeway.  

The way to love Thom Rainers and our neighbors right now is to not stop talking about this issue no matter how much smug condescension and bitter hate-speech the Southern Baptist elites like Ed Stetzer ( also employed by Lifeway) and Russell Moore send our way.  

Brothers and sisters, let us love Thom Rainer and our neighbors by not staying silent and not remaining inactive. 

Selfie Sermons

Earlier this week I attended a Christmas performance at a local school, and the school had invited a local pastor to deliver a message.  The pastor began, as is pretty standard when speaking to an unfamiliar gathering, with an introduction in which he said, "Since I am a handsome man, I am already married." 

In the moment I didn't think too much of it, other than it being a really poor effort at humor.  Some people are funny, some are not, and when the not funny people try to be funny it usually doesn't end well.  It became funny to me though, when a few seconds later he showed a picture of Narcissus staring at his reflection and began to describe narcissism.  Then it became even funnier when he transitioned from narcissism to talking about how he had been invited to preach in the United Arab Emirates all expenses paid, had visited the world's only seven star hotel, and had seen the world's tallest building.  The point of telling about the trip to UAE was that when he was at the tallest building in the world he saw lots of people taking selfies.

Now, I don't know this man's heart, but it really seemed to me like he was silently screaming, "Look at me! I get invited to preach in exotic places! I've seen expensive hotels! I'm somebody important! Look at me, look at me, look at me!"  I can't go to Starbucks without seeing a girl or group of girls taking selfies (full disclosure: I go to Starbucks often and regularly post pictures of the ways my name is misspelled on my Starbucks cup).  The story about traveling to UAE seemed completely unnecessary, particularly after introducing the concept of narcissism, if his objective was talking about people taking selfies.

In that moment it struck me that a lot of the sermons I've listened to recently are essentially verbal selfies, or what I'm going to start calling selfie sermons.  

I listen to probably ten or more whole or partial sermons every week.  The one positive of living in a city where it takes one or two hours to travel anywhere is that I have lots of time to listen to sermons and podcasts while I'm going around town.  I intentionally listen to both good and bad sermons, for there is much to learn from both.  One of the chief characteristics of the bad sermons is that the preacher preaches himself rather than Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins.  

The standard practice in the typical American evangelical church today seems to be for the pastor to begin with a story about himself, maybe read a few verses of Scripture, then give a list of principles that the listeners need to follow, using stories about himself to illustrate every point.

Like people usually take selfies when they look their best or when they're doing something they want to boast about, the stories the preacher shares are carefully crafted to make himself the hero and the example to be followed.  Of course the preachers will occasionally throw in a story about a time they failed or did something stupid to show how human they are, but even then the attention is on the preacher, and he's still only sharing what he chooses to share.  He's still presenting the image of himself that he wants people to see.

Last month I attended a meeting where a different preacher began by saying that all three of his children prayed to receive Christ at a young age because he prayed for them and didn't allow them to take communion until they professed faith.  He explicitly said they came to faith because he did those things.  Then he proceeded to tell his family's story.  His son later turned from the faith and lived in open rebellion against God.  The same son was then diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  He and his wife clung to an out-of-context Bible verse believing that he would live.  The son was miraculously cured through an experimental treatment and later came back to the faith.  His closing message was that the women in the audience who have wayward or sick children should keep praying for their children because God keeps his promises.

The entire message was about himself.  He made himself the hero.  He made himself the example.  He even attempted to make his experiences normative for all believers, as in, "Do what I did and you'll get the same results."  

It would have been a dereliction of duty for a pastor to deliver that message to an audience of all Christians.  The great tragedy of this particular meeting was that there was a Hindu woman in attendance who openly stated before the meeting that she wasn't a Christian.  And in what could have been the only time in her life that she'll sit and listen to a Christian preacher speak, she heard not about Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for sins, that forgiveness of sins and eternal life are available if she would only repent and believe. No, she heard about the life of the preacher.  

The instruction for pastors in Scripture is clear - we are to preach Christ.  We do not preach ourselves, we preach Christ and him crucified.  We are to deliver of first importance, as Paul did in Corinth, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.  We preach Christ from all the Scriptures.  The namesake of this blog is Luke 24 where Jesus himself said that the Scriptures are about him.  

Can I challenge you, dear readers, to do something?  Listen to your pastor's sermons over the next few weeks and ask yourself this question: Is he preaching Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins or preaching himself?  Am I learning more about Jesus or more about the pastor?  

Here's the thing - your pastor is a sinner.  Just like you he's a great sinner in need of a great Savior, and Jesus is that Savior.  There's a time and a place for you to learn about your pastor's life (and hopefully you're in a church where you can actually spend time with your pastor).  The sermon time is not that time.  The sermon is the time for him to proclaim Christ.  If your pastor is preaching himself, please leave and find a church where the pastor will be faithful to his role as an under-shepherd of Christ.  

We ought not give narcissists an opportunity to promote themselves with selfie sermons. Nothing less than your soul and the souls of those around is at stake.

Philip Yancey's Understanding of Grace is Not Amazing

Well, I had a topic for a new post ready to go, had it half-written in my mind already, and then this interview with Philip Yancey showed on my Facebook timeline.  I feel the need to respond to Yancey’s statements.

Yancey’s basic premise is this - People loved Jesus and hate Christians. We need to change what we’re saying and doing so people will like us the same way they liked Jesus.

Sadly, Yancey is either willfully or ignorantly misrepresenting the Biblical and historical record of Jesus’ life and the attitude the world has displayed towards Christians since.  

Those people who loved Jesus so much?  Eventually they yelled, “Crucify him!” and spit in his face as he was being beaten, forced to wear a crown of thorns, forced to carry his own cross, and then crucified - one the most shameful and excruciatingly painful forms of execution this sin-cursed world has ever come up with.  In fact, the word excruciating originates from crucifixion.  

Jesus’ followers?  Stephen was stoned (Acts 7) and James was killed with the sword (Acts 12).  Throughout the book of Acts the first Christians were beaten, imprisoned, and chased out town after town under the threat of death.  History says that all of Jesus’ disciples were martyred with exception of John, who died in exile after surviving being burned in oil.  Nero used Christians as human torches to light his garden.  Other early Christians were fed to lions as a spectator sport.  When Roman Catholicism, and its perversions of the gospel, became the dominant force in Europe those who dared to preach the true gospel were put to death by the Roman Catholic Church.  

This is the history of Jesus and his followers.

Before I go any farther I need to say, yes, absolutely, there are professing Christians who make a mockery of the gospel preaching a hate-filled message of moralism, and some mis-guided Christians who think that enforcing Christian morality on unbelievers is what God desires.  I believe those people actually represent a very small percentage of American Christianity, but receive a disproportionate percentage of attention. That said, let’s examine some of Yancey’s quotes.

When you interview non-Christians and just ask them, “Tell me about Christians,” they use words like judgmental, self-righteous, hypocritical and then a lot of ‘anti’ words: “They’re anti-science, they’re anti-gay, they’re anti-abortion, they’re probably anti-sex.”

Do you know why unbelievers feel this way about Christians?  Because they hate the truth.  They worship the gods of science, sexual liberation, and freedom - and when we tell them what the true God says they hate it and hate us.  What does God’s word say about humanity apart from Christ, those who know the truth but deny it? The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1:18-32. I’ve included verses 28-32 below.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. 

These are the people Yancey is worried about not liking Christians.  Why?

Yancey also identifies three types of Christians he thinks unrepentant sinners like: activists, artists, and pilgrims.  What follows will be his quotes and my responses.

Activists, those are the people who reach out with acts of mercy. It touches people’s hearts. And then they’re open to the message. I can travel to places and I can see the long-term effect of Christians who never talk about their faith, yet they’re reaching out with acts of mercy. They’re affecting people’s hearts, and eventually those people want to know, “Why are you doing this?”

So basically, Yancey wants Christians who show love but don’t speak love.  He wants Christians who will give a hungry man a piece of bread and send him on his way without warning him that he will one day stand before a righteous and holy God who harbors righteous wrath towards all sinners.  He wants us to send that man on his way with a full stomach and no knowledge of the fact that repentance of forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to be spared of the wrath to come.  The world loved Jesus when he had dinner with tax collectors and prostitutes.  The world crucified Jesus when he claimed to be God and called them to repent of their sins.  They will love us as long we keep our mouths shut and serve the poor, needy, and oppressed as well.  The minute we open our mouths and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, they will turn on us just as they turned on Jesus.  

Artists are also effective. Art sneaks in at a subconscious level. The Church historically was the great patron of the arts, and now, some churches are, some churches aren’t. Artists are hard to control, and yet, they are effective in communicating the Gospel to a society that is resistant to it.

I find this the least objectionable of the three, but the statement is still problematic.  For one, the gospel cannot be communicated without words.  It simply can’t.  Paul said in Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  We can hint at the gospel with non-verbal art, but we cannot call people to repentance and trust in Christ without, you know, calling them to repent and trust in Christ.  And when it comes to verbal art, no artist who explicitly communicates the gospel - telling people that they’ve sinned against a righteous and holy God and must humble themselves, repent, and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins - is going be accepted in the mainstream of society.  

I love Lecrae’s music and I don’t have a problem with him making art that doesn’t contain an explicit gospel proclamation in every song.  No Christian would be angry at a businessman for not preaching Christ in every business meeting or a teacher for not preaching the gospel in every class.  And while it’s possible that someone will become interested in Christianity through Lecrae’s music, they cannot become a Christian without hearing and responding to a clear proclamation of the gospel.  The same is true for any form of Christian art.  

And the last phrase I use is pilgrims. We can say, “Look, we’re just traveling along the same road you do, but we know something about the destination, and this is how it has helped our lives,” instead of, “We’re on the inside, you’re on the outside. You’re no good. You’re going to hell.”

If you look at Jesus’ stories, He talks about lost people, lost coins, lost sheep, the lost son. I’ve started looking at people as lost. There are many people who are just wandering around, not knowing why they’re here, how to live, what decisions they should make. And as pilgrims on the same road, we can say, “Here are some clues we’ve learned that may help.”

These two paragraphs are extremely troubling.  These statements cause me to question whether Philip Yancey knows the gospel at all.  Christians are not on the same road as unbelievers.  Jesus himself said this!  “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14). 

From Genesis to Revelation the Bible is full of insider and outsider language.  The Bible repeatedly and explicitly says that apart from Christ people are no good.  Paul in Romans 3:9-18, quoting from Psalms 14 and 53:

 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: 

“None is righteous, no, not one; 

  no one understands; 

no one seeks for God. 

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; 

no one does good, 

not even one.” 

“Their throat is an open grave; 

they use their tongues to deceive.” 

“The venom of asps is under their lips.” 

  “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 

  “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 

  in their paths are ruin and misery, 

  and the way of peace they have not known.” 

  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 

Isaiah 53:6a - “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way.”

Mr. Yancey seems to not understand much of what the Bible says at all.  It appears that, like so many, he has selectively picked a few stories about Jesus that he likes and ignored everything that doesn’t fit with who he wants God to be.  

The message of the Bible is not that people are good, having only made a few mistakes along the way.  The message of the Bible is that because of the sin nature we were all born with we hate God with all our being.  We despise our Creator and wish him dead.  When he came to earth and dwelt among us we did kill him.

But it was in the act of sacrifice that the true love of God was displayed.  God’s holy wrath, perfect justice, and amazing grace all on display on a bloody cross, and three days later and empty tomb.  The second part of Isaiah 53:6 is this, “And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Someone had to die.  The penalty for sins had to be paid.  Rather than leaving us in our sins, helpless and hopeless, God sent his Son Jesus to die in our place.  He bore the wrath of God towards sinners, allowing God to show mercy while remaining just.  Anyone who repents of their and believes the good news of Jesus will be saved.

But people cannot come to Christ in faith if we don’t first tell them who they are apart from Christ.  As much as we would like to, there’s no way to make that less offensive.  

It would be a failure of love to tell someone that they’re a sinner and not give them the hope of the gospel.  It is equally a failure of love to tell someone that God loves them without telling the the truth about their own sinfulness.  As loving as Philip Yancey sounds when he speaks, he is actually demonstrating hatred towards his neighbors in refusing to tell them the truth about their standing before God.  

What Makes a Gathering of Christians a Church? What is the Difference Between a True Church and False Church?

In a post last week I set out to establish that the church is defined as the community of all true believers for all time, but that the New Testament also refers to local bodies of believers as churches.  So the church is both universal and local, invisible and visible.  Today I want to explore what makes a local church a true church, and how to identify a false church.

In the early centuries there was only one visible church, comprised of many local congregations around the world.  There was later a split between the church in the west and the church in the east, with the two eventually becoming the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.  During the Reformation an important question arose: what is a true church and what is a false church?

The Augsburg Confession, the Lutheran statement of faith, defines the church as "the congregation of saints in which the gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments rightly administered."

In Institutes of the Christian Religion John Calvin wrote, "Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ's institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists."

The definitions are similar, and I think Luther and Calvin have it right.  A true church is a gathering of believers where the gospel and whole counsel of the word of God are rightly taught and the sacraments (or ordinances for some protestants) of baptism and the Lord's supper are administered.  

Let's look at the final words of Jesus recorded in Matthew's and Luke's gospels.

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Matthew 28:18-20

Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

Luke 24:44-49

These are two separate sayings, not Matthew and Luke disagreeing on what was said.  There are some differences, but the general idea is the same.  The disciples were to go and make new disciples by proclaiming the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, baptize those who believe, and disciple them by teaching them from the Scriptures and to obey all that Jesus commanded.  Jesus didn't mention the Lord's supper in either of these statements, but the words of Jesus at the last supper along with Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 10-11 make it clear that the observing the Lord's supper is an ongoing expectation in the church.  Throughout the history of the church, baptism has marked an individual's entrance into the church and the Lord's supper has marked the individual's remaining in the church.  

Right teaching, baptism and the Lord's supper are the marks of a true church.  It would, therefore, not be right to call a group of people who gather together for Bible study or fellowship a church if there is no baptism and observance of the Lord's Supper.  Although the people gathering, if they are true believers, may be the church, they do not constitute a New Testament church body.

A false church would be a church that teaches falsely concerning the gospel or the person and finished work of Jesus Christ.  A church that teaches salvation by works, denies the deity or humanity of Christ, denies the physical resurrection of Christ, or perverts any of the other essential doctrines of the faith once for all delivered to the saints is a false church.  

The Church of Jesus of Latter Day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses are false churches because they both teach salvation by works and deny essential teachings concerning the nature of Christ.  While it is possible that some local Roman Catholic Churches are true churches, the Roman Catholic Church officially denies justification by faith apart from works, among a number of other errors, and is therefore a false church. Churches from the Church of Christ denomination who teach that baptism in a Church of Christ church is necessary for salvation are false churches.  Seventh Day Adventists who teach that observance of a Saturday sabbath is necessary for salvation are false churches.  Denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention (my own) may contain true or false churches.  With a denomination as diverse as the SBC each church must evaluated individually.

It should be noted here that a church that holds to an orthodox statement of faith but obscures or does not regularly teach the gospel should also be considered a false church.  Many of today's megachurches have orthodox statements of faith, but you will not hear the gospel preached or the word of God rightly taught.  An endless series of sermons on practical principles for a better, more enjoyable life without the gospel makes for a false church.  Many charismatic churches with their hyper-emphasis on healing and misplaced focus on the Holy Spirit rather than the person and work of Jesus Christ should be considered false churches.  (Please note: I have not said that every megachurch is a false church or that every charismatic church is a false church.) 

Paul told the church in Corinth he “decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).  In the same letter he later told them, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”  Paul's singular message in the church was Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the Scriptures.  

In 2 Timothy Paul wrote to Timothy that the Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus; that the Scriptures are God-breathed; and that they are profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:15-17).  He then commands Timothy in the presence of God and Christ to preach the word in season and out of season.  This is immediately followed by a warning that there will be a day that people will not endure sound teaching but will accumulate teachers for themselves who will scratch their itching ears (2 Timothy 4:14).  In other words, there will be a day, and that time arrived long ago and continues today, when teachers will twist the Scriptures to make them say what people want to hear rather than what they actually say.  People will not tolerate the preaching of a crucified and risen Savior for the forgiveness of their sins, but will demand Christ-less sermons full of practical life advice or promises of health and wealth.

There is true teaching of the word and false teaching of the word.  Just because a man opens a Bible, reads a text, and proceeds to deliver a sermon in a Sunday morning gathering of professing Christians does not mean a true church exists.  The word must be rightly taught, and baptism and the Lord's supper must be administered, in order to have a true church.

Churches such as the LDS or Jehovah's Witnesses with their false doctrines concerning the person and work Jesus Christ and false gospels of works are easy to identify as false churches.  In other cases it's not as easy to identify a false church, not as black and white as we would like it to be.  

Further complicating our discernment of true and false churches is the fact that among true churches there are more pure and less pure churches.  That will be the subject of my next post on the church.   

  

Links of the Week - December 12, 2014

In the Hands of the Communists -  "It was a dreary December day in the city of Tsingteh when John and Betty heard a rumor that Communist soldiers were drawing near to the city. The Communists were battling for control of the country and, of course, hated Christians or anyone else who would bring Western influence to their country. At the time the missionaries were not concerned; since they had moved to the city, just two weeks ago, rumors had been circulating but nothing had happened. They had been assured that government forces had come into their province to fight against the Communists. An hour later a man came running down the street shouting that the Communists were only a couple of miles away and would be upon the city in no time. Now the danger was clear. John and Betty grabbed a few supplies but they couldn’t find a way out of the city. Before they were able to flee, the soldiers surrounded the city, climbed the walls and opened the gates. There was no way to escape."

The Benefits of Sitting Under Expository Preaching - I'm a big believer that pastors should preach expositionally, preferably verse-by-verse through whole books of the Bible. Eric Davis wrote an article explaining seven benefits for you, the congregant, of sitting under expository preaching.

Working Clothes - Frank Turk reworked an old post to remind us how the good news of Christmas helps us make it through the day when all we see or hear every time we turn on the TV or use the Internet is bad news.

The Tragic Prevalence of Sexual Assault - Challies interviewed Justin Holcomb on how to help, and how not to help, those who have been sexually assaulted.

Can We Identify Those Who Prey on Our Children? - Meanwhile, Deepak Reju has an article at The Gospel Coalition on identifying sexual predators.  It's not an easy task.

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism - Adam Ford makes some brilliant webcomics.  In this one he explains the false religion that many, I would even say most, American "Christians" are actually adherents to.

My Favorite Santa Claus Story - Nathan Busenitz shares his favorite Santa Claus story.  It's mine as well.

What is the Church?

Rarely a day goes by that I don't see someone posting an article about the church on my Facebook timeline or Twitter feed.  Some of the articles are good, some are really bad.  It seems that everyone is talking about the church, but what is informing our thinking on the church?  Sadly, I think what's being said in most of the articles I read and the personal conversations I've had is based on feelings and personal experiences rather than an informed understanding of what God has told us about the church in Scripture.  Since much of what I hope to write in the future will relate to the church, this will be the first of a series of posts attempting to give a brief, concise introduction to a Biblical understanding of the church.  

The first and most basic question is this: what is the church?

I think most Christians would rightly say that the church is a people and not a building or organization.  But who are the people? I like Wayne Grudem's definition.

The church is the community of all true believers for all time.

What this means, and I recognize that not everyone agrees with me on this point, is that everyone from Adam and Eve until Christ's return who is brought to genuine faith in Jesus Christ is a part of the church.  The Old Testament saints didn't know Jesus' name, they didn't see God's redemptive plan unveiled as we who live on the other side of the cross and resurrection do, but we were all saved by Christ's once for all sacrifice.  Scripture clearly and repeatedly affirms that believing Jews and Gentiles have been united in one body in Christ.

So there is only one church.  Why is it then, that in my hometown alone there are hundreds of churches, and millions more spread out across the inhabited world?  This is because the church is both invisible and visible, universal and local.

The Church Universal

The invisible church is the church as God sees it.  It includes all those true believers in all times and places who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestined for adoption in Christ, redeemed by Christ's blood, and sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3-14).  The invisible church is universal.  The true believer in an American megachurch is a member of the same church as the true believer meeting in secret in a house in North Korea.  We are one body, to use one of the Biblical metaphors for the church, or collectively we are the bride of Christ, to use another.  

The Local Church

If we are all one church, then why are there so many churches, sometimes meeting across the street from each other at the same time?  The answer is that the church is also local.  The local church is the visible church, what we see.  The visible church contains true churches and false churches, and among true churches you will find more pure and less pure churches.  When we talk about the church, most often we are talking about the visible church.  

You might then ask, “If there is one universal church, is it wrong for true believers to meet in different church buildings across the street from each other?”  The answer is no.  If those churches are in conflict with each other or competing against one another there is a problem, but from the earliest days following Christ's ascension we see people meeting together in large groups and small gatherings.  As the church spread around the world people in Antioch didn't pack up there belongings and move to Jerusalem, they stayed in Antioch and began their own church.  They were one body with the Jerusalem church, but meeting in a different location.  When Jesus spoke to the seven churches in Revelation he called each one "the church in (city name)." In Titus 1, Paul instructed Titus to appoint elders in every town.  Paul's letter to the Ephesians, which has its central theme the unity of the church in Christ, was written to a group of local congregations in and around Ephesus.  

The Importance of Distinguishing the Universal and Local Church

This distinction between the universal church and local church, the invisible and the visible, is an important distinction to make. When someone has a bad experience with “the church,” is hurt by “the church,” is frustrated with “the church,” or says they’re leaving/have left “the church,” they are referring to the visible church, a specific local church or local churches.  There are important questions for an individual who feels this way to ask, and questions that I’m afraid most people don’t ask.

Was my bad experience with the church because I was in error and the church was acting in accordance with Scripture?  Or was the church clearly in violation of Scriptural teaching?  

Is the church a true church or false church, according to Scripture?

Are my expectations of the church based on a robust Biblical understanding of the church or my personal feelings and desires?  

Was I genuinely wronged, is the local church genuinely in error, or were not yet perfected saints behaving like not yet perfected saints?  Even if I was genuinely wronged, what has God told us about how to respond when wronged?

Church history is full of examples of people responding to one error by overreacting and committing the opposite error.  A period of hyper-legalism is followed by a period of licentiousness (the current state of American evangelicalism, broadly speaking).  A period of institutional church excesses and abuses is followed by people thinking they don’t need the church and will just meet together without any kind of structure at all (a small sub-sect of American evangelicalism at the present time).  It is important when we recognize errors in the visible church that we don’t respond with an equally unbiblical error.  The opposite error of an error is still error.  We must always seek to return to Biblical faithfulness, conforming our local churches to what God has told us they should be.     

Future posts in this series will deal with what the New Testament identifies as a faithful local church and what the purpose of the church is.  

A Confession and Request for Prayer

As I start a new blog, where I hope to post on variety of topics and give updates on how and what Maggie and I are doing in the future, I want to begin with a confession and request for prayer.

For more than two years I have been sinfully discontent with the circumstances of my life.

A few years ago when I discovered the doctrine of God's sovereignty I fell in love with the doctrine. I loved to teach it; I preached it every opportunity I had. In one of my preaching classes I actually got reamed pretty good, by a fellow Calvinist, for bringing God's sovereignty into a text where it didn't really belong. What I've realized over the last couple of years is that I like the doctrine better than I like the reality of living under God's sovereignty.

In October 2012 on the night that Maggie and I made the final decision that we were leaving Beijing for Malaysia and made a list of things we wanted to do before we left, we saw a store that sold home decorations. Maggie made the comment that it looked so homey, and in that moment it really hit me that I wanted a home. I wanted to settle down in one place and make a home with Maggie. What's happened over the last two years couldn't be much different than what I wanted, and still want. We were only in Malaysia for six months. In Indonesia we're about to move into our third apartment in less than 18 months. None of my plans and desires for work and ministry have come to fruition. I'm working a job I don't enjoy in a city I don't like at all.

I see that God is waging an all-out assault on my affections for this world, my desires for comfort and security in something or someone other than Him. I see it, and yet I don't like it. I've responded not by pressing into God, pursuing after Him, but distancing myself from Him. I've been bitter, angry, and resentful for much of the last year, particularly the last four months.

I've been aware of these things for quite some time, but have pushed them down and ignored them. Now, the Spirit has brought me to a place where I can no longer ignore my sinful attitudes. I must repent and seek restoration. I must echo the cry of David in Psalm 51.

Discontentment, grumbling, and complaining are not often thought of as “major” sins. Scripture says something different though. In Numbers 21 God sent a plague of fiery serpents on the people of Israel because they complained, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” God had provided everything they needed, but rather than responding with gratefulness and worship, they complained because what God had given was not satisfying to them. In Deuteronomy 28, when God is telling the people what the curses for disobedience will be if they do not obey the Law, he tells them that they will be taken into captivity, “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things.”

Grumbling, complaining, ingratitude – these are sins that resulted in serious consequences for the people of Israel. Why? Because the root of these sins, the root of every sin, is unbelief. When I'm unsatisfied with what God has given me, even though he has given me more than enough, it reveals that I don't believe that God is enough, that God loves me, that God knows what is best for me. In short, it reveals that I think I would be a better god than God, and that is a deathly error. It is the very same error that brought the curse of sin upon this world when Adam and Eve disbelieved God and ate the fruit.

And it is particularly heinous to wallow in self-pity on this side of the cross. I know that my sins have been forgiven by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. I know that where I was once an enemy of God, condemned under His just and holy wrath, I have now been reconciled. I know that where I was once spiritually dead and deserving of eternal death in Hell, God has made me alive together with Christ because of the great love with which he has loved us – not only in this life but with the sure promise of eternal life in glory. Yet I get angry, even resentful, because I don't have a few temporal things I want and have to deal with some challenges I'd rather not deal with?

Thank God for His mercy, His patience, His lovingkindness. Thank God that he knew the wickedness of my heart, the ingratitude I would often harbor, and sent Jesus to pay my ransom anyway. Thank God that one day He will deliver this wretched man from this body of death.

I have identified some specific changes that I need to make – certain behaviors and habits that tend to feed my discontent rather than leading to gratitude and praise. I won't detail those things here today, but please do pray as I seek to make changes and fight for joy rather than continuing to feel sorry for myself and demand that God do what I want him to do.

Please pray for me, and pray for Maggie, as we work through these issues together.