ere's an audio clip well worth listening to—especially in light of our recent posts about BioLogos and the growing pressure to abandon the biblical account of creation in favor of an evolutionary narrative:"The Narrow Way" (1st 10 minutes)
The sermon is from a series delivered by the Doctor in Pensacola in 1969. The whole series is downloadable for free, courtesy of The Martyn-Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust (a ministry worthy of your prayers and financial support).
In the above excerpt, Lloyd-Jones is decrying the church's inordinate fear of being called "narrow." This anxiety is exacerbated in our generation, he says, because modernity has tainted our worldview. We are too easily intimidated by the feigned authority of so-called men of knowledge. The result, Lloyd-Jones says, is an unwarranted capitulation to the authority of science (falsely so called). Here's a partial transcript to whet your appetite:
The Christian church in her utter folly during this present century has been recognizing a new authority. And the new authority of course is the man of knowledge, the man of culture, and particularly the man of scientific knowledge. And the church has been at great pains to do everything she can to please this new authority.
This man of learning must never be offended. And in order to please him and duplicate him, the church has been ready to take things out of the Bible. She rejects and throws out the whole of the first three chapters of Genesis, much of the other history, throws out all the miracles . . . She'll throw out anything in order to make her message pleasing and acceptable to this new authority—the man of knowledge, the man of learning, the man of science.
—D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
6 comments:
Thank you for sharing this valuable resource, Phil.
What a schizophrenic, relativistic pagan culture we find ourselves living amidst in 2010! While the good doctor certainly and accurately saw an abandonment of scriptural authority coming in exchange for a compromised trust in the authority of godless scientists (e.g. Biologos) by an apostate church, could he have imagined the depth of logical inconsistency we see so prevalent in these postmodern times? I mean, we see pagans today, regardless of whether or not they reside inside or outside of so-called "Christian" churches or colleges or seminaries simultaneously decrying the very concept of authority while at the same time choosing the authorities they wish to follow. Their spiritual blindness is taking its toll on their brains.
MLJ is one of the gratest gems the Lord has given in the 20th century and thanks to the MLJ recording trust, 20th century!
Thank you for this Phil-it was a real blessing to hear. I have been following the whole BioLogos controversy with great interest, especially the attack on Al Mohler. I was at Justin Taylor's blog last week reading the comments from some of the young Christians about the interpretation of the first 3 chapters of Genesis. I was dismayed that many of those Christians had no problem with an allegorical interpretation of Genesis. Many of them did not even have a problem rejecting a literal Adam and Eve.
I hate to say this but I think that in the future this IS going to be a test of orthodoxy and I do believe it is going to separate the sheep from the goats on the issue of inerrancy. It seems to me that our understanding of sin and redemption in the New Testament is grounded in a real Adam and a real fall. And just a casual read of the Gospels prove that Jesus believed in a literal Adam. Then of course you can't have a second Adam if there was not a first one.
A quote from the BioLogos site says that they have made their peace with evolution -but the fact remains that evolution has not made its peace with God and it never will.
I am so grateful to God for men like John MacArthur and Al Mohler and all of you godly men who take a stand against this. I am grateful too for a warning from MLJ from the past being shared here. There really is nothing new under the sun when it comes to butchering the Bible. In my opinion that is what this whole issue boils down to.
Wow! Great quote.
The man was a prophet!
Now, imagine a bunch of atheists and agnostics devoting themselves to the advancement of Biblical creation - in an effort to gain credibility with Christians.
It would be BioLogos in reverse!
Thank you for pointing this out on Twitter. I will download the sermon.
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