April, 2006
Who's Got Good News?
I’ve got some good news!
Absolute moral truth is revealed in the Bible! Really!
Jesus was without sin! Absolutely without!
Satan literally exists! (That explains some of what goes on this world!)
But it is GOD who is both omnipotent and omniscient!
Christians must evangelize!
Who else has this good news? Protestants? Surely pastors! According to one poll in Dave Shiflett’s book Exodus last year, only 28% of mainline Protestant pastors believe all of this. Among female pastors, only 15% believed all of this. 7% of all Americans believe all of this. And, according to this poll, only 9% of "born again Christians". Hmmm. I think we need to work on educating fellow Christians on some basics. And maybe some polling organizations on what was entailed in Jesus’ teaching Nicodemus that he must be born again. I don’t know how born again I am if I can’t trust the Bible to be true, or Christ to be right. By and to whom am I born again if the god I worship may be ignorant, or even defeated in a contest. How good is the news if we distort the nature of our challenge (the existence of Satan) and don’t think Jesus’ command to tell everyone applies to us?
Who’s got Good News? By God’ s grace, I do. Satan doesn’t. God does. Those who are truly born again do. And the polls? I know we shouldn’t shoot the messenger just because we don’t like the message. But what if we’re not sure the messenger even has the message? Good suspicion of some polls and some pastors. Bad suspicion of Jesus or the Bible! The Jesus we read about in the Bible has the always true News that is Good for all of those who will repent and believe.
Al, how’s the pastors’ meeting going?
Mahaney on Dever on Spurgeon on Election
So what are the REAL conversations like between these friends? Here’s some of the highly erudite conversation today!
Mark to CJ: Wasn’t that a great Spurgeon quotation on election?! [referring to the quotation in the earlier blog entry entitled "A Becoming Weakness"]
CJ to Mark: Yep, it’s a classic and affects folks every time I use it.
Note the careful use of the capital "S" and the subtle use of compound punctuation ("?!") and the great use of adjectives ("great"). And then in CJ’s response, note that he first identifies evidences of grace ("Yep") and then educates ("it’s a classic") and then illustrates ("and affects folks every time I use it").
The Christian Response to Christ's Resurrection
Thanks Al for a great post on the Gospel (and don’t you love C.J.’s answer to his own questions?!), and for pointing us to Mark’s important article on the atonement. Thanks Mark for the Spurgeon quote.
I quoted John Piper yesterday, during the morning services (from his Easter sermon in 2000). It’s a great example of a Gospel response to the power of Christ’s resurrection. John tells the story of Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards – two elderly missionaries who had just then died in Cameroon in a car accident. John says: "Ruby [was] in her eighties and Laura in her seventies. Ruby gave all her life in medical missions among the poor. Laura, a doctor who practiced in India for many years and then here in the Cities, was giving her retirement for the bodies and the souls of the poor in Cameroon. Both died suddenly when their car went over a cliff."
John then asks: "Was that a tragedy? Well, in one sense all death is tragic."
The following is John’s answer:
Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards, at their age, could have been taking it easy here in retirement. Think of tens of thousands of retired people spending their lives in one aimless leisure after another – that is a tragedy. The fact that Jesus Christ took authority to make Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards valiant for love and truth among the poor and lost and diseased of Cameroon when most Americans are playing their way into eternity – that is not tragedy. And that he took them suddenly to heaven in their old age in the very moment of their love and service and sacrifice, and without long, drawn-out illnesses and without protracted and oppressive feelings of uselessness – that is not a tragedy. Rather, I say, "Give me that death, O Jesus Christ, Lord of the universe, give me that life and that ministry and that death!"
This is why Jesus came. This is why he was crucified. This is why he rose from the dead with all authority and promised to be with us to the end of the age – to create a people whose sins are forgiven, and whose hearts are full of the love of God, and who are so emboldened by the triumphant Christ, that they spend their lives with risk and sacrifice and love to help others know and enjoy the greatness of Christ forever and ever.
Is this not what you were made for? Is there not something in your own soul that witnesses to you that this is true and worthy of full acceptance?
Dever on the Old Testament
Al, thanks for recommending Mark’s article on the atonement in Christianity Today and commending Mark for this article. I couldn’t agree more. And thanks for your fine post on the meaning of the gospel.
In case you guys didn’t know, Mark’s latest book, The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made, was just published by Crossway. It is a must-have for every pastor’s library, and it is outstanding. Not to mention, it is only 959 pages in length.
This book comes with some serious endorsements. Check out the following:
"This book is a landmark in the history of Bible expostion–a homiletical tour de force." Phil Ryken
"Mark Dever’s one-sermon whole-Bible-book overviews are a treasure trove for preachers, Bible teachers and growing Christians." Ligon Duncan
"Mark Dever has done the Christian community a great service in publishing these sermons." David Peterson
"This is a bold project, some might say foolhardy, but Mark Dever has brilliantly succeeded." Vaughn Roberts
"In a day of worrisome biblical illiteracy, even among Christians, there is a pressing need for books that give the big picture and provide surefooted guides for negotiating the Bible’s vast and subtle territory. To produce such a book is no easy task, yet that is what Dr. Dever has done." Carl Trueman
"Once again, this Duke graduate makes the university and the basketball team proud." Coach K
And the endorsements just go on and on, as they should for this book. Although the endorsement by Coach K cannot be verified.
Mark, thanks for all your hard work over the years preparing this material. Thanks for your compelling example in the pulpit by preaching this material. And thanks for providing pastors and Christians with this material.
Dever on the Atonement
Don’t miss Mark’s article, "Nothing But the Blood," in the current edition of Christianity Today. Mark has done a great job of laying out the objections to the substitutionary character of Christ’s atonement, and then of answering these objections with solid argument. At the same time, he acknowledges that no single metaphor or model is sufficient to describe Christ’s atonement for sin. The issue is the indispensability and centrality of substitution as a biblical theme.
Thanks for your faithfulness, Mark.
I will be in Sandestin, Florida this week for a meeting of large-church pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention. More later.
A Becoming Weakness
Al, thanks for reminding us that salvation is all of grace.
We’ve had a great Lord’s Day at CHBC thinking about this. This morning we were in II Cor. 11:1-12:13. This, of course, is that famous passage where Paul "boasts" of his weaknesses that Christ’s power may be made perfect, displayed through Paul’s reliance and Christ’s faithfulness.
It makes me think of one of my all-time favorite Spurgeon quotations. It’s in book 2 of Lectures to My Students, and Spurgeon is talking about the doctine of election. [Spurgeon had such a gift of making pride-destroyng Bible truth winsome. John Piper I think has that gift today in special measure.] Anyway, Spurgeon says, with humor, self-deprecation and sharp theological accuracy
"I believe the doctrine of election, because
I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should never have chosen him;
and I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards; and he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me,
for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love.
So I am forced to accept that doctrine," (Lectures, book 2, page 47).
I understand that some worry that if we accept the Bible’s teaching on election we will never evangelize. Should we not also be worried that if we reject the Bible’s teaching on election we will never be humbled enough to make Christianity look like anything worth having? I love Spurgeon’s humility. I love his boasting in God. I think it is attractive. I think it is motivating to evangelism. I think it displays God’s love. A biblical doctrine of election highlights our poverty and Christ’s riches, our weakness and Christ’s strength, our need and God’s supply.
It maybe that God will use our weakness and inability to highlight His own strength and grace. He’s done it before.
The Meaning of the Gospel
I write this early in the morning of Resurrection Sunday, a Lord’s Day like every other, lived and celebrated in the light of the glorious resurrection of Christ from the dead. What a time to consider the meaning of the Gospel.
C. J. raised this question, and it is so vast that it defies summarization. And yet, if we cannot summarize the Gospel, we surely do not understand it, and cannot effectively share it.
Here is one complication: We talk about the Gospel while, in one sense, meaning a summation of all that the Bible teaches. We know of Gospel churches and Gospel messages and Gospel tracts — meaning that these are self-consciously intended as centered in evangelism, the heralding of the good news of salvation through Christ Jesus.
Yet, in this other sense, the Gospel refers broadly to the comprehensiveness of the Christian truth claim, for the truths that comprise the Gospel depend upon the totality of revealed truth. One cannot truly affirm the Gospel, for example, without recognizing the background of God’s work of creation and the eschatological promise of a new heaven and a new earth. Similarly, the entire enterprise of the Gospel is dependent upon the grace of God in revelation, especially the Bible.
But, more to the point, C. J., I would define the Gospel as the good news that God saves sinners through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ [1 Cor. 15:3-4]. This good news tells us that we are sinners, who deserve only death and cannot save ourselves. The Gospel points to the cross of Christ as the propitiation for our sins, the substitutionary sacrifice for our transgressions [Romans 3:21-26] and to the empty tomb as the promise of our resurrection unto eternal life [1 Cor. 15]. This Gospel is God’s gift, as is the faith that justifies sinners. Salvation is all of grace, so that no sinner can boast of his salvation. Saving faith is made visible in those who confess with their lips that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead [Romans 10:9].
So much more could and surely should be said, but I cannot believe that anything can be taken away from this without doing great injury to the Gospel.
C. J., thanks for asking the question. I’ll post more in coming days. In the meantime, let me point to my commentary on the resurrection posted Friday.
Consumerism and the Local Church
Another helpful and convicting post Mark. Thank you. Among other things it reminds me again how much continuity there is in our situation from the late nineteenth century to now. With all the pomo hubbub about how everything today is totally different, what always strikes me to the contrary when I’m reading the 19th century leading lights is the similarity of our challenges and situation.
And now for something completely different! (As Monty and the boys used to say). No, actually, it’s related -
I’m looking at a newspaper article about a church in a major metropolitan area in the Southern United States that is building what they term "the finest presentation facility" in their county. A number of things about the story caught my attention, but especially what they are calling their worship facility: the experience center.
It’s interesting, eh? – the Protestant move from sanctuary or meeting house, to worship center, and now – experience center.
There are a number of positive things about the congregation’s emphasis noted in the article: high view of the importance of the local church, desire for evangelism, desire to serve others. But the very name of the event facility, coupled with their advertising mailer, which emphasizes that those who attend Easter Services "won’t be bored" are parabolic of the continuity of our situation with the nineteenth century, aren’t they?
After all, Spurgeon was having to talk about the difference between "feeding sheep and amusing goats" then. And today, despite the emerging/emergent protest against this supposedly locked-in-the-70′s style of ministry, it is still a driving force in church-life today.
I do not think that any discussion of our approach to Christian theology, ministry and worship in the United States in our time can afford to overlook the overwhelming power and influence of the consumer mindset (on both those who plan and lead ministry in the churches, and those they are trying to reach). It must be the starting point of our contextual discussion, and its overwhelmingly negative effects must be considered. While it is all the rage to say that all things are new now and that "postmodernism" must inform everything we do in theology, ministry and worship, there is a far more powerful and concrete force crouching at our doors. We ignore it to our peril.
Pleasant Post-modernism
Al, I know you’re in the middle of a board meeting, but CJ & I are still waiting to hear from you and Lig on a brief statement on the gospel, and particular threats to it today.
I’m sorry to be missing the time with you in Louisville, but I’m here at Southwestern for a couple of days. Last night I had a good time with 30 or 40 students in Jason Duesing’s class, talking about regenerate church membership, and the kind of understanding of conversion and practice of evangelism that entails. Today I have the privilege of meals with a few friends (Malcolm Yarnell, Paige Patterson, Jason Lee), speaking in Malcolm’s class, preaching in chapel and giving an informational meeting at 3pm about 9Marks. Pray for me in this. All the folks here have been extremely hospitable.
On to pleasant post-modernism for a moment–how’s this for a practical description of the contemporary mood?
We must be largely charitable,
and leave this brother to his own opinion;
he sees truth from a different standpoint,
and has a rather different way of putting it,
but his opinions are as good as our own,
and we must not say that he is in error.
I think it’s a pretty good on-the-ground look at the apparent humility being cultivated today in the name of our lack of omniscience. This is a quotation from C H Spurgeon as he typified opponents he was facing in 1873! He called this "the fashionable way of trifling with divine truth, and making things pleasant all round. Thus the gospel is debased and another gospel propagated." (Met Tab Oct. 19, 1873). The more things change, the more they stay the same. Semper eadem.
Let’s pray that we would most want to please not those "all round", but God, and that we would do so by clear presentations of His gospel.
Preach about God Tomorrow
What are you going to preach about tomorrow? Resolve right now, that whether you’re working through II Corinthians, or the life of Christ, or the role of children in the home, you will talk about God. Apparently RC Sproul said at the Twin Lakes Conference this week what he’s said for some time now: "To say that theology is boring is really to say that God is boring." With excitement in your heart, preacher, talk about God and the Gospel. Trace out clearly the applications of our holy God’s redeeming work in Christ. Read CJ’s blog entry from a couple of days ago on "The Gospel." Soak in the astounding holy love of God–soak in it in your own heart, and soak in it in your message. There is a reason that what we’re called to has traditionally been called the "Gospel ministry."
Is God in your sermon notes for tomorrow? Or do you have a more relevant message?
