Libby and I just got home from our trip and we are exhausted but I am so excited from this weekend. We visited:
I will share more about the trip this week, but here is a teaser
Here are a few lists that folks have come up with with their favorite books of 2007:
Enjoy!
Justin Taylor has posted an interview with Thomas McCall on Calvinism and Arminianism, have a look.
An article recently appeared in Time titled, “My Nose, My Brain, My Faith“. The article mentions some research being done with the attempt of showing that faith may be reasoned within the mind in the same way certain statements cause us to react either positively or negatively when we hear them or certain smells cause us to react in a certain way when we smell them. So, when we hear the statement “torture is good” there is a certain part of our brain that reacts negatively and the statement “2+2=4″ causes a different part of the brain to react positively. The part of our brain that reacts negatively “helps process fear, disgust and reactions to bad smells,” while the part of our brain that reacts positively “is thought to play a role in judgment, memory, fear and, according to one study, soft-drink preferences.”
The researcher admits that his study cannot prove or disprove the existence of God but it may be able to show that faith is simply a matter of preference. They are setting out to show that when we hear the statement “God is dead” it is not the judgment area of our brain that reacts, but it is rather the preference area that reacts. In other words, we don’t really believe the statement is true or false, we simply don’t like the way it sounds, it leaves a bad taste in our mouths.
I am still working out my thoughts on this but it is kind of interesting. If this research proves to be true, that our brains do actually process faith as a sense rather than as a true/false judgment, would this be such a bad thing? Certainly one could make the argument that if our faith is just simply a feeling and not something we believe is true then faith is not something absolutely true but it is more of a preference. “You can have your faith in God and I can have mine in myself, just like you prefer hamburgers and I prefer chicken.” From this argument you would then have to say that morals are a matter of preference, “you believe torture is wrong, I believe it is ok,” and now you are knee-deep in postmodern thought and reasoning. But this seems to be a stretch, just by showing that one area of the brain is reacting to preference you haven’t shown that it is the only area reacting. In other words, just by proving that something isn’t an apple you don’t necessarily prove it to be an orange. Also, the next step in research would have to set out to show why this particular area of the brain reacts to preference. Why is it that we like or dislike chocolate, why is it that we believe it’s wrong to steal from the elderly?
Interesting things to think about. The Word tells us that faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). It doesn’t seem to be something we can measure with an MRI…
I recently watched Amazing Grace again on DVD. Every time I see this movie I can’t help but think that one day the idea of murdering a child while in the womb will be thought of in the same way we now think of denying a man his freedom based on his race. Despicable.
There have been a lot of articles on abortion this week, here is a wrap-up:
For quite some time I’ve been meaning to post on a quote from Jonathan Edwards that Desiring God posted a few weeks back:
Objectors may say, God cannot always prevent men’s sins, unless he act contrary to the free nature of the subject, or without destroying men’s liberty. But will they deny, that an omnipotent and infinitely wise God could not possibly invent, and set before men, such strong motives to obedience, and have kept them before them in such a manner, as should have influenced all mankind to continue in their obedience, as the elect angels have done, without destroying their liberty? God will order it so, that the saints and angels in heaven never will sin: and does it therefore follow, that their liberty is destroyed, and that they are not free, but forced in their actions? Does it follow, that they are turned into blocks, as the Arminians say the Calvinist doctrine turn men?
Here is the question this seeks to answer: If God causes us to do things according to his will, then do we have a free-will of our own in our decisions? Now, this question, in and of itself, is not really the issue. It is the secondary questions that arise from this one that are difficult for us to deal with. First, if we have no free-will then we are just puppets on God’s sovereign strings and nothing we do really matters. Second, if we have no free-will then we cannot be held accountable for our sins because God caused us to do them and that makes him the author of sin. Typically at this point, another type of person steps in and says but if we do have free-will how can God have control over the situation and bring about the end that He desires. And so we are left with how to reconcile man’s free will and God’s sovereignty.
A lot of times, lines are drawn in the sand and people are forced to call themselves either Calvinists if they believe God causes all things to happen according to his sovereignty or Arminians if they believe man has free-will in his decisions and that God will not force him into something. But I think this attempts to take these systems of theology too far. Both of these systems attempted to explain the process of man’s salvation and from that people drew their conclusions on man’s free-will/God’s sovereignty.
Calvinism says that man is too depraved to ever have faith on his own and so God unconditionally chooses whom he desires and quickens him to the point that man can choose nothing other than God’s free gift of grace. Arminianism says that man is too depraved to ever have faith and so God conditionally chooses whom he desires based on who will freely accept his gift of grace. These are extremely oversimplified explanations of these two systems of theology and so I would encourage you to study these things in much greater depth if you have not before (like my good friend Andrew is doing). But one can see how people would draw conclusions about God’s sovereignty and man’s free-will on the basis of how they believe a man comes to faith.
So, my point in all this is that we should prayerfully study these topics on the basis of Scripture and not on the basis of a system of theology that man created. If we want to know the extent of God’s sovereignty we should study what the Word says about that topic (this would be what systematic theology attempts to do). If we want to know how a man is saved, we should prayerfully study what the Bible says about that topic.
If you want to know where I stand on the issue…you’ll have to ask!
Jesus tells the story of a merchant who went out seeking treasure and when he found one pearl of great value he sold all that he had to buy it. The man’s heart was completely changed when he finally found what he was looking for, he found what he needed. He was a merchant, he made his living by purchasing things and selling them for a profit. His cycle was to gain a little more on each transaction so that he could live on the profit and purchase more treasure to sell again with the principle. But this time he found something that he was willing to break his cycle for. After this one transaction he would no longer be able to buy and sell and live his life like he used to because all he had was put into this one pearl.
Everyone has needs. Everyone searches for something but we don’t know what it is we were searching for until we find it. In the gospel we find this great pearl, we find everything we need; forgiveness, restoration, and life in Christ Jesus. We become willing to break the cycle of our lives and give up all for Him because we find that He is what we truly need.
“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7
Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives
Dr. Mohler has a great post on the fact that many men are experiencing post-abortion trauma and are joining others in speaking out against the death of millions of children per year.
I had to do some travel for work in NYC and figured since I had to be there Monday morning that I could drive up on Sunday and hear Tim Keller preach. I enjoy listening to Dr. Keller whenever I can, his sermons are more “practical” and topical than expository but he has a way of relating Scripture to everyday living that is (almost) universally relevant. He is very down to earth in his speaking and does a great job of explaining the human condition (sin) in a way that most people understand and relate to.
Redeemer Presbyterian Church was started back in 1989 after Dr. Keller moved to New York City to plant a church in the way Paul did; move to the biggest city in the area and start churches then let those churches spread to the areas surrounding the cities. One of Keller’s best-known quotes (it may not be his, but he sure uses it enough) is “as the city goes, so goes the culture”. And the idea is that the cities are the cultural/academic/artistic/etc. trend-setting sources for the entire world; if you can reform the people in the cities you will, in essence, be reforming the whole world.
So, after making the trek from Northern Virginia (which included my hourly rate in tolls and possibly getting two traffic tickets) I arrived at one of the three facilities that Redeemer meets in. Every weekend they hold five services in three different locations with Dr. Keller preaching at four of the five and a combined attendance of around 5,000 people.
The evening service that I attended incorporated jazz music during their corporate worship times, which was phenomenal; I enjoyed singing “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” at three times the regular speed with a sax solo in the middle. The service itself is, well, Presbyterian. Which surprised me. I wasn’t expecting the liturgy, even if it was very minimal, found in a typical Presbyterian service (corporate reading/response of God’s Word, reading corporate prayers, reading the Apostles’ Creed, healing prayer/anointing with oil). I guess I just assumed that since this was a church in “the city” that they would not have these types of traditions. After singing, there were announcements and an offering was collected and then Tim Keller preached on the book of Job.
So, I can hear Tim Keller teach online by downloading his sermons, the reason I went to Redeemer was to see what this ministry looks like. How is the ministry team at Redeemer reaching out to the people of NYC and accomplishing what Dr. Keller’s goal is?
It’s a great approach. Tim Keller’s role is mainly as a teaching pastor. There are a lot of elders and deaconesses who are very active in the ministry. Obviously in a Sunday service this large, people cannot connect before/after the service so it’s the small groups and classes/events that bring the people closer. And this list is extremely extensive. This seems to be the way Redeemer has chosen to carry out its ministry. There is a meeting or small group or class for just about every profession and hobby you can find in the city. Business, the arts, advertising, lawyers, health care, entrepreneurs, actors, techies, financial, etc. are all represented. There are also classes on anger, finances, conflict,beauty & women’s issues, missions, bible studies, leadership training, church planting, etc. There are support/recovery groups, wide ranges of ways to serve and get involved, pastoral/elder care, short term missions projects, and the list goes on. This is a very large ministry and is well organized.
I wasn’t able to attend any of these groups, but if the leaders carry out their ministries in the way that Dr. Keller preaches, bringing the gospel to hurting people in a way that they can relate to, I would imagine they are very effective at accomplishing their mission statement, “To build a great city for all people - through a gospel movement that brings personal conversion community formation, social justice and cultural renewal to New York, and through it, to the world.”
I know it sounds like I’m reviewing a ministry like one would a book or movie and that is not my intent. I wanted to share what I learned about an effective ministry that is somewhat different than the types a guy from the ‘burbs is used to. I’m going to attend a service again with my wife on the way home next week so check back for more.
Here is the Bible on one page. Seriously. One page, the whole King James Bible so you can carry it around in your pocket. You can’t read it with your natural eyes. You can’t even read it with any type of normal magnifying lens. I wonder who will buy this?
In similar news, they’ve also put the Tanakh on a small silicon chip similar to the way they fab microchips. This one is about the size of a grain of sugar.
Enjoy.
Main Feed
Subscribe by Email
