Happy long weekend!
Posted on : 07-08-2006 | By : Alex S. Leung | In : Expletive, Reformed, Theology
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Well, it’s a long weekend… and I don’t have to work today! w00t! AND I get payed to do nothing–shweetness God’s graciousness=D
I’m in the middle of writting a post that’s a long time coming concerning 1 Timothy 2:8-10 and Ephesians 5:3… but since it’s a little heavy in Word-meat and because I wanna speak the truth in love, I’m not gonna go live with it just yet.
For now, I invite you to take a look at the comment by Pastor Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries on my July 20th “Emergent cult leaders” post, His comments were totally unexpected, in a good way… considering I posted that so long ago. I thought I was conservative in my view of orthodoxy, but it seems I have been oblivious to the saturation of liberalism in today’s church, and in Bell’s Nooma videos & writings. There is cause for serious concern in Bell and McLaren’s preached and written theology, and I thank Pastor Ken for his kind words of encouragement to simply contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, and to fight the good fight of faith… to preach the word–in season and out of season–and to have nothing to do with false teachings.
Today in Sunday school, since our class was small due to many vacationing, I took a break from directly teaching the Pastoral Epistles and played Joshua Harris’ video sermon on “Rediscovering Humble Orthodoxy“. I’ve been floored by his heartfelt plea to our generation of Christ followers to be orthodox and live it out + share it humbly. I sincerely encourage you to watch it… my heart ached when Josh almost broke down in tears for our generation, and I’m sure you will also share his love for the church and the glory of God after watching this. He does an excellent exposition of 2 Timothy 2, and really broke my own pride and arrogance down in sharing my belief in Calvinism, that I knew I have to live and share my embrace of the doctrines of grace with grace, to tell my friends about God’s life-changing power of transformation–with love and truth and humility. (Thank you Holy Spirit for this!)
“Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:20-21)
Hey Alex,
I stumbled on a A. W. Tozer (a pastor & preacher of our own very C&MA),
It follows:
If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation, it must be by other means than any now being used. If the Church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting.
Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will be not one but many), he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom.
Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the One and the salvation of the other. But he will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath.
*smiles* I guess I want to challenge you with that — be strong and courageous… in your study, reflection, be loving — but be BOLD. That what we write, teach, share — whatever is first and primarily for Him alone — His renown, our Worship to Him.
We are called to be faithful, to be loving, to be strong in grace — and to gentily rebuke, admonish and edify our brothers and sisters — NOT to be “polite” catering to every which whim of opinion.
think — our bodies being a temple of the Holy Spirit..
And Jesus overthrowing tables, the money changers’ and wares of the Jerusalem Synagogue:
Matthew 21:12-16
12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”
14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant 16 and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?”
And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read,
‘ Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have perfected praise’?”
Huge Contrast — Jesus’ precise boldness and to rebuke the problem money changers & sellers of doves — with The Word AND action
Yet the lame & blind still came to Him for healing — Healing them (love), the children in the temple no doubt having witnessed the whole ordeal.. the violence and noise of tables being flipped over stools being ‘rolled over’ doves escaping from their cages… heaps of coins clattering to the floor — and nodoubt the merchants & people running to pick up some $ :p
as child i’d be terrified i think.. yet the children praise God saying “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
a few things to think about — The Holy Spirit bringing it to mind.. mmms– thank you for all your encouragement & edification Alex!
Greetings! I enjoyed your post. I just wanted to share with you a gentle warning regarding Joshua Harris. While he may be sincere in his preaching, Sovereign Grace Ministries (the parent organization of which his church - Covenant Life Church - is the mother church) does not believe in taking all of Scripture in a consistent contextual-literal interpretation as the only authoritative, inerrant Word of God requires. This opens up the door to allow in all sorts of error. While much of what he preaches is pretty good, just be aware to ALWAYS compare what someone says against the Scripture and especially to be wary of the “experiential” (experiential to them means feelings, emotional, and prophetic things, not experiential as in ‘what my past experience with God has been in my life’) that Charismatic groups or organizations often espouse in their doctrines.
As you know, the true gospel begins with an understanding of our sinful place before a perfectly righteous and holy God from whom we deserve only wrath for our sinful disobedience. Grace and mercy can only be truly understood by those who first understand the weight of their sin and what it cost God to redeem them unto Him. Always remember that. There are and will be many false gospels proclaiming only the love and grace of (a) God. Those are not the whole story and thus are in one sense worthless, as they give an imcomplete (and thus wrong) picture of man and God and the infinite separation between the two.
Without the Holy Spirit convicting one of their sin and position before God, one cannot be saved. After all, Christ came to save sinners - people who are aware of their need for a savior - not people who think they are righteous or assume things of God.
Aside from not taking the Word literally, there is also the danger of allowing the ‘experiential’ to be given any level of authority, let alone parity with or priority over the Word.
Much love.
Wake
Hi Wake, thank you for your comments & encouragements.
I know Sovereign Grace is different from other Charismatic churches, where they are first and foremost, essentially reformed. From their statement of faith, they do believe that “The Bible is the only essential and infallible record of God’s self-disclosure” and that “the Scriptures are the authoritative and normative rule and guide of all Christian life, practice, and doctrine… They are totally sufficient and must not be added to, superseded, or changed by later tradition, extra-biblical revelation, or worldly wisdom.”
However, they also state that “Each book is to be interpreted according to its context and purpose and in reverent obedience to the Lord who speaks through it in living power” and “the Bible is free of error in all it teaches”
I am doubtful that SG’s interpretation of Scripture is as literal as a dispensationalist like MacArthur, though I’m sure also that as with any Charismatic group the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment is essential to their understanding of the Scripture.
Thanks for your reminders about our need for His Divinity in the midst of our depravity.
SDG,
Alex
Praise God that He has revealed to you the truth about these men and that you are defying culture to remain obedient!
Stay in Christ, and glorify God!
Dear Alex,
My name is Ryan Patterson and I am one of the members of Pastor Silva’s Church. I am also young and I was recently turned away from my foolishness as well. I have been with Pastor Silva’s church for three years this February and have never seen Ken lacking in spiritual discernment. I’m very glad that you had the chance to read what he had to write and that it impacted yet another young man for Christ Jesus our Lord. What i’ve realized throughout all of this nonsense in The Church is that these men in the “ECoD”(as Pastor Silva will call it)lack in something extremely crucial to being a Christian: daily reading of the scripture. What it seems is that these men neglect the scripture and then never get The Truth on what is wrong in their lives. It is like claiming to stand in the light, but running from the highbeams of Truth.
So my point is this Alex: Stay humble and be willing to read The Scriptures. The more The Lord teaches me that I literally wouldn’t have a breath apart from Him, the more I get out of His Word. Ken and I discuss things about the EXoD and it always turns into this phrase being said, “If they would just read the scriptures then they would know all of what we are talking about.”
Stand strong in this our time of need.
Your Brother in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior,
Ryan Patterson
“He does an excellent exposition of 2 Timothy 2, and really broke my own pride and arrogance down in sharing my belief in Calvinism [...]”
What do you mean here? That you understand you need to change the way you share your beliefs, or that you should be sharing your belief in Christ instead of in Calvin?
There is a difference.
I am always wary - from my own experience - when I see a person exchange the teachings of one man/system for another, thinking it’s a change from the wrong path to the right path when, as always, the belief is Christ is the only right track ever. Mankind is always corruptible. I don’t know that that’s what you’re saying here, though, so I’m asking.
John Calvin didn’t die for you, didn’t atone for your sins. It might not seem to be a big difference for die-hard Calvinists, what I’m saying, but it is: we aren’t to spread Calvinism, because it isn’t the same as the Gospel. We are to spread the Gospel of Christ. Thinking that Calvinism is the true Gospel of Christ doesn’t make it so, whether it is or not. There’s a fine delineation there.
Hi Julie, thanks for your comment & encouragement about the difference.
I was speaking of the change in my heart to share Christ in a way that is more humble and loving, rather than (seemingly) arrogant and proud. So this would be, that I learned that I need to change the way I share my belief in Christ’s penal substituationary atonement.
Indeed, I agree with you that Calvin didn’t die to atone for my sins, but it was Christ
I posted an article by Warfield recently concerning what Calvinism is. I simply find that our Christian faith in its purest form according to Scripture is very much like Calvin had preached/writen. I’m sure most of us have different influences in our theology, whether it be Calvin, Luther, Warfield, Augustine, MacArthur, Piper, or whomever.
Whomever’s perspective/interpretation we lean towards/quote, I hope that we are first and foremost Biblical. Thus, I agree that we all definitely should be preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
For His renown,
SDG
Alex,
Good answer to Julie’s question. If I might add that of course no one is following a man per se. This is actually something many Emergent Church leaders will bring up in regard to “Calvinism.” It s a straw man because we aren’t saying we would follow Calvin instead of Christ.
And their logic breaks down at this point. If they say we follow Calvin because we happen to see that he is a teacher who shows very clearly the Doctrines of Grace taught in the Bible itself, then they will have to admit being McLarenists and Bellists because they fee these men best articulate the view of Christianity they happen to have.
Plus, the Bible clearly tells us God chooses to work through human vessels in Ephesians 4:11-12 - “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”
So while we don’t “follow” men; it is to be as God the Holy Spirit tells us through Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1 - “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ,” we follow our Lord’s teachers as they follow Him. I pray this helps…:-)