Repost | "Life's Biggest Questions" by Erik Thoennes

As a pastor, I am always looking to see how to articulate the many doctrines of the gospel and of the Christian faith.  I am also always looking for resources that are easy to understand and applicable for the average believer.  Without a doubt, one of the best resources I have come across thus far is Erik Thoennes helpful book Life's Biggest Questions: What the Bible Says about the Things That Matter Most (Crossway, 2011).

The book is essentially a systematic theology text.  Through the means of questions, the author lays out in a systematic way the doctrines of the faith.  For example, "What is a Human Being?" regards anthropology.  Likewise, "What is God Like?" discusses theology proper and God's many attributes.  I find this to be a helpful approach. Beyond the more dry attempt to simply lay out what Scripture says on a given doctrine, Thoennes pulls he reader in driving them to see that doctrine affects who we are, how we live, what we believe, etc.  Why does it matter that God is Immutable, that we are sinners by conception, the Holy Spirit is Divine, and Jesus will return?  Unless pastors, and theologians as well, can answer these questions, they haven't done their job.

This is a very easy book for those new to Christian doctrine and systematic theology to read.  He begins with the existence of God and ends with eschatology, thus covering the whole spectrum of theology.  He offers easy-to-understand charts, graphs, figures, and illustrations to guide the reader to understand his argument all the while writing with clarity and articulating what Scripture says on each doctrine.  The author does not overlook difficult doctrines, but instead explains them.

This is a helpful resource that every pastor and believer should invest in.  For pastors, we must continually seek ways to better articulate theology.  For many of us, we take the collective sign of boredom from our congregation as a sign that theology isn't for the average person.  We ought not do that.  Theology is critical and all of us are theologians, thus it is the job of the pastor to shepherd his flock to better theology.  Thoennes has given us a helpful resource that is short (only 176 pages), thorough, easy-to-understand, practical, biblical, and Christ glorifying.  You can't ask for much more!


For more:
Reviews - "Godly Jealousy" by Erik Thoennes  
Reviews - The Top 5 Essential Works of Theology of the Past 25 Years
Reviews - "Doctrine"
Reviews - "The Good News We Almost Forgot" 
Reviews - "Dug Down Deep" by Josh Harris
Reviews - "Heresy" 
Reviews - "Making Sense of the Trinity" 
Reviews - "The Sovereignty of God" 
Reviews - Reviews in Brief:  The Doctrine Divine Providence 
Reviews - "Christianity's Dangerous Idea" by Alister McGrath
Reviews - "The Theology of the Reformers"  

Repost | Revelation and the Ambiguity of Justification: McLaren Adds to the Confusion

Ever wonder why many become frustrated at Emergent and Postmodern theology and especially its leading voice Brian McLaren?  Consider the following quote regarding Revelation 20 and 21 and what it says about Judgment Day and how everyone is "judged."  In other words, note what McLaren says about the gospel:

It doesn't say "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their beliefs and religious affiliation. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, atheists, homosexuals, and liberals were thrown into the lake of fire ... Christians were spared." Nothing like that at all! The judgment occurs according to works ... "what they had done." (Now I belief in justification by grace alone through faith alone - but I don't believe in "justification by believing in the doctrine of justification alone by faith alone through grace alone.") So what some Christians commonly say about judgment is quite different from what this text itself says.

 Clear huh?  So he accepts the Reformed belief of justification by grace alone through faith alone, but does not believe, at the same time in justification by believing int he doctrine of justification alone by faith alone through faith alone.  So he both affirms and yet rejects sola fida, sola gracia, etc.  And this is why people find McLaren and similar theologies confusing and unhelpful.  How would you present this to someone who is "lost" (if the word has any meaning."

So what does McLaren mean here?  First we must see that McLaren is not a big fan of a gospel that is primarily about the afterlife - the get-your-butt-out-of-hell-and-into-heaven gospel.  McLaren believes that the gospel is summed up in the phrase the Kingdom of God and primarily in the idea that the Kingdom of God is a present reality and not (almost exclusively not) a future hope.  In other words, what it means to be a follower of Jesus is to work to bring the Kingdom of God to earth here and now.  I have laid this argument out repeatedly and for more detail see my Thesis on the right in which I wrote on Brian McLaren's Soteriology.

But in the meantime, for proof of this idea, consider what else McLaren wrote in this blogpost:

I don't read these passages as descriptions of the afterlife. As I explain in a few of my books, Revelation is a genre piece - it fits in the genre of "Jewish Apocalyptic Literature." This genre is in turn part of a larger genre called "Literature of the Oppressed." In literature of the oppressed, an oppressed group tells the truth about the powers that be, but they do it in a "slant" or indirect way so that they won't be arrested, tortured, and killed for doing so. 

So, I think the Beast represents the Roman Empire (and by extension - recalling Daniel 7 - all oppressive, violence/fear-based domination systems). I think the false prophet represents religious establishments that baptize those powerful violent, heartless, inhuman (hence "beastly") systems. And I think the point of Revelation is that the powerful people who did the killing will ultimately be judged as the villains of history, and the powerless people who got killed for their witness against the beastly systems will be judged the heroes in God's eyes. It says God is on the side of the marginalized and oppressed (remember Exodus and Pharaoh?), not on the side of the powerful who control the status quo.

You can see this influence of the present-now belief in the Kingdom and the gospel.  To McLaren, Jesus came to set the literal (not spiritual) captives free.  he came to end poverty, help the oppressed, and side with the marginalized.  McLaren, thus, has been on the front ground of social justice (remember the whole "Glenn Beck is against Social Justice" thing?) and is heavily involved in politics.

To though most read Revelation 20-21 in the future-tense, McLaren reads it more in the past-tense.  Rome was unjust and oppressive and thus was "judged."  God always sides with slaves and the oppressed (remember Exodus and Pharaoh?), and never on the side of the powerful who control the status quo.  And since this is a judgment against Rome, it is also a judgment against us in America and the West now, McLaren believes.  Are we oppressive?  Are we prone to war and ignore the oppressive and the marginalized?  If so, then Revelation 20-21 stands in judgment over us because God is for those in whom we sin against.

McLaren prefers systemic theology instead of systematic theology.  The gospel is about nations and individuals repenting of systemic sins and not of individuals repenting from moral sins.  The advantage of this should be obvious to the outsider.  McLaren's model calls for action now whereas his caricature of the transcendent gospel is simply escapism.  Certainly this is nothing new and Christians have heard this accusation for centuries now, but McLaren repeatedly makes this accusation.

So going back to the beginning, what does McLaren mean by saying that he affirms justification by faith alone through grace alone and yet at the same time rejects sola fida and sola gratia?  In order to understand, one must see that McLaren has two different meanings.  McLaren is postmodern and has deconstruct everything including the Reformed doctrines.  As he said in the post, he affirms sola fida and sola gratia, but not the doctrines of sola fida and sola gratia.  In other words, salvation doesn't come to those who affirm the right doctrines, but affirm the way of Jesus - justice, love, compassion, reconciliation (including among other faith traditions) and mercy.

Consider what McLaren has said previously on the subject:

We must be open to the perpetual possibility that our received understandings of the gospel may be faulty, imbalanced, poorly nuanced, or downright warped and twisted . . . In this sense Christians in missional dialogue must continually expect to rediscover the gospel.  -McLaren, Story We Find Ourselves In, 102

With no apologies to Martin Luther, John Calvin, or modern evangelicalism, Jesus (in Luke 16:19) does not prescribe hell to those who refuse to accept the message of justification by grace through faith, or to those who are predestined for perdition, or to those who don’t express faith in a favored atonement theory by accepting Jesus as their “personal Savior.” Rather, hell - literal or figurative - is for the rich and comfortable who proceed on their way without concern for their poor neighbor day after day.  -McLaren, Everything Must Change, 208.

So what is said here is nothing new.  McLaren rejects the doctrines of the Reformation especially with the mindset of exclusivity - only those who believe in the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ will be saved.  However, he does believe that only through faith through grace can we follow in the example of Jesus.  It is Jesus in whom we see salvation, but that can be seen in other religions and especially in the face of orphans and victims.

Clearly this is not the gospel.  In this one post itself, McLaren makes an argument for Annihilationism (something that I'm not sure he has ever dealt with) in his exegesis of "second death" from Revelation 20-21.  In addition, McLaren forces us to ask if it was God's will for Jesus to die?  In other words, is the cross necessary?  Traditionally, the answer has been an emphatic yes.  Without the cross and its meaning, there can be no resurrection of Christ along with its salvific meaning.  Paul was not bluffing when he said that unless Christ was raised from the dead we remain in our sins (1 Corinthians 15).  The cross and resurrection is necessary for salvation (both present and future; this life and the next).

The reason I bring this up is because McLaren is about to take an even more dangerous step in his theology.  Like the social gospel pioneer before him, Walter Rauschenbush, McLaren is beginning to suggest that Jesus' original plan and mission was thwarted by the evil Romans and the religious Jews.  If only Jesus hadn't died, Rauschenbush said, He would have succeeded in bringing heaven down to earth.  This is not only dangerous, but heretical - rank heresy. 

So though McLaren presents himself as something fresh and new, he is really repeating the same heresies of neo-orthodoxy, liberalism, the social gospel, and process theology.  McLaren has rejected the transcendent, pure gospel as proclaimed in Scripture, by the apostles, and remains with us today.


Brian McLaren - Q & R: Revelation 21 


For more:
Thesis: Brian McLaren and Emergent Soteriology: From Cultural Accommodation to the Social Gospel
Commentary - Who Isn't One?: Brian McLaren and Social Christians
Theology - A Fad Within a Movement: What is the Emergent Conversation and Where is it Going? 
Theology -A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: Some Final Thoughts - Part 11  
Theology - A New Kind of Christianity . . . Indeed: The Gospel Question - Part 5 
Theology - Does McLaren Reject Penal Substitution?: A Review of the Evidence
Theology -Hamilton: McLaren and Whole Foods Stores
Theology - Jim Wallis and Open Theism
Theology - Repent for Health Care is At Hand: Did Obama Just Legislate the Gospel?
Theology -  Rob Bell and the Resurrection
Theology -  SBTS and McLaren: A Response to SBTS Panel Discussion
Theology -The Emergent Gospel in 140 Characters or Less
Theology -  The Emergent Pelagius: Bouma's Critique of Pagitt's Theology
Theology -  The Evolving God: McKnight's Critique of McLaren
Theology -The Future of the Emergent Church: McLaren Weighs In
Theology -  The Gospel According to Emergents: An Insightful Article
Theology -  The Gospel Once For All Delivered to the Saints: Theology for the Next Decade
Theology - The Postmodern Social Gospel: Brian McLaren Proves My Point

The Gospel & Marriage: Keller on Love, Forgiveness, & the Example of Christ

Tim Keller's recent book on marriage (co-written with his wife) called, The Meaning of Marriage:  Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God is one of the best books on marriage to have come out in recent memory (I would also recommend Mark and Grace Drisoll's book as well though there is much controversy surrounding it).  What makes it such a great book is the connection the Kellers make between marriage and the gospel.

Below is a long section taken from the book showing this connection. The gospel is about grace, forgiveness, and love, all of which are necessary for a marriage to last and thrive.  The authors begin by giving an illustration of redemption and then applying it to marriage.  This was one of my favorite sections from the book and worth passing along.

It is said that one of the old czars of Russia had a trusted general who was dying of his wounds.  When the soldier was on his deathbed, the czar promised to raise the solder's young son and provide for him. After his death, the czar made good on his word.  He gave the young o the best of places to live and he best education.  He was given a commission and entered the army.  However, the young man had an addiction to gambling.  Because he couldn't cover his gambling debts, he began to embezzle from his regiment's funds.  One night he was sitting in the tent looking at the books and he realized that his embezzlement was about to be discovered.  he could hide it no longer from the accountants.  He sat drinking heavily as he prepared to kill himself.  He had the revolver by his side and he took a few more drinks to strengthen his resolve for the suicide.  But the drink was too potent and he passed out on the table.

That night the czar was doing what he often did.  Disguised as a simple soldier, he was walking through the camp and the ranks, trying to assess the morale of his army, hearing what he could hear.  he walked into his foster son's tent and saw him slumped over the book.  He read the book and realized what he had done and what he was about to do.

When the young man awoke hours later, to his surprise the revolver was gone. Then he saw a letter by his hand.  To his shock, it was a promissory note, saying, 'I, the czar, will pay the full amount from my own personal funds to make up the difference found not his book.' And it was sealed with the czar's personal seal. The czar had see the young man's sin clearly, the full dimensions of what he had done. But he had covered and paid for the sin personally.

Here is why you can say to your spouse who has wronged you, 'I see your sin, but I can cover it with forgiveness, because Jesus saw my sin and covered it.' It is because the Lord of the universe came into the world in disguise, in the person of Jesus Christ, and he looked into our hearts and saw the worst.  And it wasn't an abstract exercise for Jesus - our sins put him to death.  When Jesus was up there, nailed to the cross, he looked down and saw us, some denying him, some betraying him, and all forsaking him. he saw our sin and covered it.

I do not know of any more powerful resource for granting forgiveness than that, and I don't know of anything more necessary in marriage than the ability to forgive fully, freely, punishingly, from the heart.  A deep experience of the grace of God - a knowledge that you are a sinner saved by grace - will enable the power of truth and love to work together in your marriage.

And by wielding this power in the knowledge of his grace, you are helping your spouse become something glorious. (167-168)


For more:
Blogizomai - "The Meaning of Marriage" by Timothy Keller
Reviews - "Real Marriage" by Mark & Grace Driscoll

(President) Mitt Romney's Florida Victory Speech

I think it is becoming clear that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee for president. His victory in Florida was very decisive (I predicted 12% which was pretty decisive and he blew that out of the water) and Republicans almost always do two things: choose a governor (Romney is the only governor left) and choose the assumed candidate (Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr., Dole, W. Bush, McCain, and now Romney).

So Republicans, here is your likely GOP candidate for President.




The best line:  I want you to remember when our White House reflected the best of who we are, not the worst of what Europe has become.

Here's the transcript of the above speech:

Thank you all. To the people of Florida tonight, thank you for this great victory. There are fewer candidates than when the race began, but the three gentlemen left are serious and able competitors. And I congratulate them on another hard-fought contest in this campaign.

Primary contests are not easy - and they're not supposed to be. As this primary unfolds, our opponents in the other party have been watching. They like to comfort themselves with the thought that a competitive campaign will leave us divided and weak.

But I've got some news for them: A competitive primary does not divide us; it prepares us. And when we gather here in Tampa seven months from now for our convention, ours will be a united party with a winning ticket for America!

Three years ago this week, a newly elected President Obama faced the American people and said that if he couldn't turn the economy around in three years, he'd be looking at a one-term proposition. We're here to collect.

Since then, we've had 35 months of unemployment over 8 percent. Under this President, Americans have seen more job losses and more home foreclosures than under any President in modern history.

In the last ten days, I met a father who was terrified that this would be the last night his family would sleep in the only home his son has ever known. I've met seniors who thought these would be their best years and now live day to day worried about making ends meet. I've met Hispanic entrepreneurs who thought they had achieved the American Dream and are now seeing it disappear.

In his State of the Union Address, the President actually said, "Let's remember how we got here." Don't worry, Mr. President, we remember exactly how we got here! You won the election!

Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses. In another era of American crisis, Thomas Paine is reported to have said, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." Mr. President, you were elected to lead, you chose to follow, and now it's time for you to get out of the way!

I stand ready to lead this Party and our nation. As a man who has spent his life outside Washington, I know what it is like to start a business. I know how extraordinarily difficult it is to build something from nothing. I know how government kills jobs and, yes, how it can help.

My leadership helped build businesses from scratch. My leadership helped save the Olympics from scandal and give our athletes the chance to make us all proud. My leadership cut taxes 19 times and cast over 800 vetoes. We balanced every budget, and we kept our schools first among fifty states. My leadership will end the Obama era and begin a new era of American prosperity!

This campaign is about more than replacing a President. It is about saving the soul of America. President Obama and I have two very different visions of America.

President Obama wants to grow government and continue to amass trillion dollar deficits. I will not just slow the growth of government, I will cut it. I will not just freeze government's share of the total economy, I will reduce it. And, without raising taxes, I will finally balance the budget.

President Obama's view of capitalism is to send your money to his friends' companies. My vision for free enterprise is to return entrepreneurship to the genius and creativity of the American people.

On one of the most personal matters of our lives, our health care, President Obama would turn decision making over to government bureaucrats. He forced through Obamacare; I will repeal it.

Like his colleagues in the faculty lounge who think they know better, President Obama demonizes and denigrates almost every sector of our economy. I will make America the most attractive place in the world for entrepreneurs, for innovators, and for job creators. And unlike the other people running for President, I know how to do that.

President Obama orders religious organizations to violate their conscience; I will defend religious liberty and overturn regulations that trample on our first freedom.

President Obama believes America's role as leader in the world is a thing of the past. He is intent on shrinking our military capacity at a time when the world faces rising threats. I will insist on a military so powerful no one would ever think of challenging it.

President Obama has adopted a strategy of appeasement and apology. I will stand with our friends and speak out for those seeking freedom.

President Obama wants to "fundamentally transform" America. We want to restore America to the founding principles that made this country great.

Our plans protect freedom and opportunity, and our blueprint is the Constitution of the United States.

Together, we will build an America where "hope" is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker.

The path I lay out is not one paved with ever increasing government checks and cradle-to-grave assurances that government will always be the solution. If this election is a bidding war for who can promise more benefits, then I'm not your President. You have that President today.

But if you want to make this election about restoring American greatness, then I hope you will join us.

If you believe the disappointments of the last few years are a detour, not our destiny, then I am asking for your vote.

I'm asking each of you to remember how special it is to be an American.

I want you to remember what it was like to be hopeful and excited about the future, not to dread each new headline.

I want you to remember when you spent more time dreaming about where to send your kids to college than wondering how to make it to the next paycheck.

I want you to remember when you weren't afraid to look at your retirement savings or the price at the pump.

I want you to remember when our White House reflected the best of who we are, not the worst of what Europe has become.

That America is still out there. We still believe in that America.

We still believe in the America that is a land of opportunity and a beacon of freedom. We believe in the America that challenges each of us to be better and bigger than ourselves.

This election, let's fight for the America we love. We believe in America.

Thank you. And God bless America.


For more:
Blogizomai - "The last three years have held a lot of change, but they haven’t offered much hope.": Romney's New Hampshire Victory Speech (Video & Text)
Blogizomai - Here We Go Again: Mormonism and Presidential Politics
Blogizomai - An Important Read: Is Mormonism "Having a Moment?"
Blogizomai - Hump Day Humor: Awkward Romney Interview

Hump Day Humor: Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop

From Jimmy Kimmel.





For more:

Bella Doing Better: Santorum Updates Us On His Daughter

Over the weekend, GOP Presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum rushed home to be with his youngest daughter Bella who was in the hospital. Bella, it turned out, had pneumonia but her Trisomy 18 and her young age makes such conditions serious. Santorum has sense gone back on the campaign trail and appeared on the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News Monday night and gave an update on his daughter.

Please continue to pray for Bella not because of who her father is or what party he is running in, but because she is made in the image of God. Santorum says in the interview that one of the reasons he is running for the nation's highest office was for precious children like Bella in whom society, frankly, hates. Santorum is certainly the most pro-life candidate in the race right now in both policy and practice and like Sarah Palin four years ago (who has a son with Down Syndrome) he is a living example of the gift and beauty of all children, regarding of any condition they may have.






For more:
Blogizomai - Bella Makes Everything Better: Santorum's Down Syndrome Child
Blogizomai - Repost Friday | 99 Balloons: Finding God's Grace in Life's Tragedies
Blogizomai - The Other 10%    
Blogizomai - The Threat of Trig Palin:  The Return of Life Worthy of Life
Blogizomai - A Letter & Gift From God: Palin's Letter On Trig & the Challenge of Down Syndrome
Blogizomai - When Politics Hits Home:  Sarah Palin and the Defense to Save Trig
Blogizomai - Repost | Mephibosheth and the Sanctity of the Disable: God's Glory In the Face of Deformity
Blogizomai - The Question of Infanticide:  The "House of Horrors" & the Debate Over Life 
Blogizomai - "When You Bring Your Baby Home:"  Infanticide and Arbitrary Definitions of Life
Blogizomai - What To Do With An Abortion Survivor:  Italy, Infanticide, and Secular Moral Confusion 
Blogizomai - "Badly Botched" Abortion:  Another Way of Saying Infanticide and Murder
Blogizomai - Are Ultrasounds Enough:  The Centeredness of the Sacredness of Life in the Abortion Debate
Blogizomai - Which Will We Choose?:  The Theology of Death or the Theology of Life - Peter Singer, Evolution, & the Ethics of Human 

The Historical Jesus - Ben Witherington

HT: Ben Witherington