Some here, some there — October 31, 2014

by Dan Phillips

Happy Reformation Day! I hope your family and/or church have something planned to lift up the glorious Biblical truths that were recovered and held high by this movement. It's my family's ~25th year, and our church's 3rd annual.

Feel free to share what you're doing to celebrate the Reformation's accomplishments in the comments. (Not you, Frank.) One of the traditional dishes the saints at CBC will be enjoying is the traditional Diet of Worms cake. Yum.

• Steve Lawson offers one of his marvellous little bio's on England's prime reformer, William Tyndale.

Haters. They Gonna Hate. Shake It Off. ~Martin Luther #ReformationDay pic.twitter.com/BJogE5iRWL
— Todd Adkins (@ToddAdkins) October 31, 2014

• Appropriate to the occasion, a Kindle reader named KevinR highlighted this from The World-Tilting Gospel:

• Over at Cripplegate, Eric Davis' list of ways in which the Roman Catholic Church would have to change for Christians to join hands with it had two effects on me: first, appreciation. It's a very good list, well-explained and well-documented. Second, discouragement. Even after reading the list, I still think of so many ways in which Rome deviates fatally from Biblical Christianity — the scapular, worshiping dead people, adding books to the Bible...
• So in place of Eric's list, I'd be tempted to say Rome needs to change in one way: it must affirm and apply the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, limited to the previously-accepted 66-book Christian canon. That done, we'd be rid of everything Eric specifies, everything I mentioned, and much else besides.
  
• That is why a robust understanding, affirmation, proclamation, and embrace of the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture should be our central concern today.
• On that last note, let me point out: today is the last day to pre-register at a discounted price. You should come to the conference. It will be fun, encouraging, instructive, and a great time of worship, followship, preparation and strategizing. Giveaways are planned. Don't miss it!
• If you go to The Aquila Report and David Murray's site (often sources for some of my finds), you get a good tour of some of the best items on the intarwebz. I commend them to you yet again. They've got a good eye for what matters to us, like [insert RPB name here] used to.
• For instance, David Murray notes and discusses Ligonier/Lifeway's extensive survey of the state of theology in America. No Pyro reader will be surprised, though all will be saddened and renewed in our conviction to do something about it.
• Erik Parker gives a healthy reminder in 7 reasons church isn't for you. And almost as a companion-piee, Nicholas Batzig offers 7 wrong reasons to join a church.
• I may have to write a post: 14 reasons I like lists.

Today, he'd be posting on the Twittenberg door and hoping for 95 Retweets.
— Church Curmudgeon (@ChrchCurmudgeon) October 31, 2014

• Religion writer Sarah Pulliam Bailey seems to be on a minor tear lately. First, this on Monday:

Standing ovation for the owner of Washington florist who declined to sell flowers to a gay couple. #erlc2014 https://t.co/0pJP561gqb
— Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam) October 27, 2014

• Of course, they did no such thing — unless it's accurate to report that a flag company "declined to sell flags with right-angles" when what they're refusing to sell is flags with swastikas. The couple in question refused to sell flowers for a "gay" "wedding." So Ryan T. Anderson rightly took her to task for it, as did yr obdt svt. (Brian Mattson has as well.) Bailey did not particularly express appreciation.
• Then Bailey tweeted this Tuesday:

Evangelical leader Russell Moore denounces ex-gay / reparative therapy http://t.co/Ym0foHOQDN #ERLC2014 pic.twitter.com/D0sUMHorHQ
— Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam) October 28, 2014

• I asked Dr. Moore what he thought of this characterization, and regrettably he answered me the way he usually does these days.
• Then Bailey reported this:

Rosaria Butterfield who just spoke at #ERLC2014 is trending nationwide. She was a lesbian, denounces ex-gay ministry http://t.co/Ym0foHOQDN
— Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam) October 28, 2014

• So; wow, it's a rough time to be trying to help homosexuals. Everyone's "denouncing" you! Well, Bailey did report one different viewpoint:

"Those who meet Jesus change." -@JackieHillPerry, a former lesbian now married to @Preston_n_Perry #ERLC2014 pic.twitter.com/X57SoaCsyW
— Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam) October 28, 2014

• What do I think? I think if you're going to speak publicly about these matters, you have to know how you'll be spun. I think you have to know that anyone trying to help homosexuals find freedom from their destructive passions — or even suggesting that it can be done — becomes Public Enemy #1. I think you have to know that "denouncing" such groups will be misunderstood and misused. So I think you have to load your statements in some such way that can't be disentangled by the enemies of God.
• Like this: "Much as I appreciate all goodhearted attempts to help folks who are in the grips of destructive and degrading perversions, mere therapy both mis-identifies goals and does not go far enough. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms hearts, natures, complexes of attraction. Only Christ gives hope, life and freedom to sinners — of any variety."
• Of course in my case, it probably would be reported like this: "Asked whether he believed that homosexuality was a sin, Phillips looked at the reporter as if he had sprouted a third eye, and said, enunciating with painstaking clarity, 'I'm a Christian. Look it up.'"
  
• And now, a meta-item aimed at fellow-bloggers. The post I'm about to link to may be a good article. I don't know. But when you look at it, do you want to read it, aesthetically? My large work monitor fills with text, text, text. Whole screens without paragraph-breaks. So: do you want to be read? Don't overwhelm the not-already-sold with giant text filling a screen without the possibility of a scan or a breather.
• Carl Trueman offers broad-ranging thoughts and historical perspective on the current fad of discovering that the Bible means the opposite of what it says about homosexuality. It's a worthy read both for substance, and for the introduction of "chattocracy" and an allusion to "finding dark thrills through collecting old pieces of string." That one was new to me. I'm sure the mayor of Houston is preparing a law to protect it.
• I'm also sure you all heard that a "leading Evangelical ethicist" whom none of us has ever heard of ("David Gushee"; see, I told you) decided that he's all pro-LGBT and the rest of it. One of the leading thinkers from a more Biblical perspective, Robert Gagnon, has responded. It's a brutal takedown. I like it.
• Interesting: apparently Gushee "TGC"-ed Dr. Gagnon from his Facebook page. Well, isn't that nuanced and scholarly?
• There's good Bibley sanity in Matt Moore's I Love Jesus Too Much To Call Myself A Gay Christian.
• Todd Pruitt lets us know he plans a series of sermons on Gender Confusion, Sexuality, and the Image of God, and he gives some book recommendations. To Todd's list, I would heartily add Rick Phillips' (no relation) Masculine Mandate, a book I used to great profit for this series.

• Not our usual, but... a woman did a video walking through the streets of NY, and mostly seemed to be horrified that men said appalling things like "Hi" and "Good morning" and "God bless you." So Funny or Die sent a pale white guy through the streets, and...well, I pick "funny."
• Biblical Christians are constantly frustrated in our attempts to reach out to Charismatics, frustrated both by them and by the cloud of open-but-clueless defender/enablers. I think I've figured out one reason for the disconnect: Critics deal with Charismaticism-that-is, while enablers defend an idealized dream that doesn't exist.
• That's it. Write it down.
• Let's try it this way. Show of hands: how many of you think that being near a heretic's corpse is a good way to seek an experience of the Holy Spirit? (Hands go up.) Besides Charismatics, I mean. (All hands go down.) Here's what I'm referring to:
• Charismaticism-that-is is on constant display, on the TV, at YouTube... and at Charisma Magazine. You know Charisma: that's where you can read a person named Dutch Sheets who has a spiritual experience he attributes to God at the grave of an Gospel-perverting false teacher named Charles Finney. This is an article in which you can actually read the line "I reminded the Holy Spirit..." Seriously. Whether "the Holy Spirit" replied "Hunh, good point, thanks for that," is not recorded. (The article is worth accessing, if only for Lyndon Unger's comment, as well as a wonderful word from someone called OAM.)
• Without the slightest nod to the irony, this same magazine which extols an experience at the graveside of a heretic also solemnly warns against letting demons into one's house.

• ...and tweeted this:

When pursuing an encounter with God, don't forget to watch out for other supernatural forces. #witchcraft #occult http://t.co/XKtI6MM2F4
— CharismaMag (@charismamag) October 31, 2014

• Oh well, I'm sure there's a perfectly rational, Biblical response. Like, "Martin Luther hated Jews!" Or "Servetus!" Something like that.
• Oh, and there's this gem from a year ago: open letter (from beyond the grave!) by Tozer to MacArthur. Once again, most valuable for Lyndon Unger's comment, but no less for Kofi Adu-Boahen's poignant question: "Why would Dr MacArthur not agree with this again?"
• And now, just an interesting thought: while The Gospel Coalition has blocked me in Twitter, Charisma Magazine has not. Mull that one over.

Find some way of lifting the glorious Biblical truths of the Solas high today!

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