16 January 2015

Some Here, Some There — January 16, 2015

by Dan Phillips

Here y'go, in the last post before the Conference!


BTW, catch me for a full hour on The Janet Mefferd Show today, Friday, from 3pm-4pm Texas time.
  • When someone uses "God is not the author of confusion" in reference to feelings of confusion in discerning God's personal will, you can rest assured that you are in the presence of someone to whom "exegesis" is, at best, a Scrabble word.
  • You're welcome.
  • Todd Pruitt brings the goods on Beth Moore, who he calls a prophet for an undiscerning church. Like Pat Robertson, like Todd Bentley, like Perry Noble, like Mark Driscoll, like Joseph Smith, like Ellen G. White, and like a host of others, Moore has "Jesus" tell her things He doesn't tell anyone else.
  • You see, this is why the Sufficient Fire conference is so needed. Go now, find out if any registrations are still available, and come.
  • Did I mention Perry Noble? You all know about Noble's crazy statements about the Ten Commandments and Hebrew. Well now he's issued an apology of sorts, which in itself is rare enough in the God-tells-me-stuff-He-doesn't-tell-you set.
  • You see, parenthetically, if God tells you stuff straight-up...why bother studying Hebrew?
  • Concerning Noble's apology, Fred Butler has offered his thoughts in a careful, nuanced, helpful post sensitively subtitled It's All God's Fault I'm an Idiot.
  • Which all just goes to show you that...
  • Also, James Duncan responds to Noble's "apology."
  • Over at The Gate of Crippledness (got my Hebrew on), Steven Ingrino offers a detailed survey of books he does and doesn't find helpful in expounding the Gospel of Mark.
  • At that same blog, the gate was left slightly ajar, allowing this stray entry.
  • I will admit I'm small enough that I wondered if delicate souls who have blocked me and removed Pyro from their blogrolls — but who do still read Cripplegate — had a pea under their mattress that day.
  • Carl Trueman defends Beth Moore.
  • OK, not really. But it was fun writing it, and it was fun picturing Carl's eyebrows as he read it.
  • So the government will test the religion of homeschooled kids and see if they need to jail the parents. Where, East Germany? Nope; right here, in Oba-merica. In Virginia, no less. [See update in comments, below.]
  • Here are the doors to the dream church, in many Christians' minds:
  • On Texas in the early days: "Texas seemed to have more Baptists than people..." Texas hasn't changed. Nor have Baptist math-skills. Interesting read.
  • Phil Johnson updates and comments on the controversy surrounding the book The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, written portentously enough by a gent called Malarkey.
  • From Pulpit and Pen comes some very troubling backstory. (h-t Robert Sakovich)
  • I invented a cartoon superhero when I was a yoot, trying to draw. His name was Malarkey Man. Little-known fact. You're welcome.
  • In our family, we (or at least I) would call this "yet another unmarketable talent."
  • Lyndon Unger, the Bare-knuck Canuck, continues getting Biblely about "shacking up" (i.e. serial fornication by roommates), in part two of his series.
  • I would not be caught dead using (or thinking) the "the Gospel is true because it's good news) argument. That said, I'm having real trouble understanding how "Your life is short and meaningless and the universe cares nothing for you" is better news than the Gospel.
Updates possible through noon.

Dan Phillips's signature


18 comments:

Tom Chantry said...

"But what happens if you faceplant faster than fat lady on a Segway?" ~ Fred Butler.

And now we have our definition of "careful, nuanced, and helpful"!

Robert said...

Pruitt nailed it with Moore..."If I were a woman I believe I would be insulted by such nauseating triviality." I'm not a woman, but I was insulted as a Christian by this statement from her book: "God and I had a blast!" Can't imagine any of the Biblical prophets saying anything like that...even in the modern vernacular.

Perry Noble's apology sounds a bit like Piper saying how he felt about his interactions with Driscoll after Mars Hill imploded. Fred's post on that was very thorough (as always with Fred) and a great read. Everybody should check it out.

Enjoyed your post at Cripplegate. It seemed timely with the whole Perry Noble ordeal. I think that guy is going to wind up creating a worse mess than Driscoll by the time it is all said and done...he has a huge following even though he seems to really hate a lot of people.

That article from Virginia about homeschoolers being taken to task for religious beliefs is just plain scary. Do people realize secular humanism/materialism is as much of a belief system as Christianity? I mean, that is the system of belief that the public school system seems to peddle and they are not being raked over the coals by the government/public for that.

More Baptists than people...funny. That was interesting...and correct. Oil is the difference.

I remember Phil speaking about the Burpo-Malarkey mess at StrangeFire. Quite eye-opening.

Will have to read the rest and comment more later.

AJM said...

It is obvious, and has been for years, that LifeWay/SBC are on some high powered allergy meds when it comes to discernment. The immune system only reacts to the healthy/sound members of the body. Not the allergens.

Robert said...

Carl Trueman article was very good. I wish people (myself included) would think about the effects of their words before they tweet. I don't know the hashtag in question and that is probably a good thing.

Lyndon Unger did a masterful job of handling the issue of cohabitation. I actually e-mailed the youth pastor at our church a link to that blog post and am going to share it with my sons (one now, one when he is a teenager).

The whole "Better News Club" is pretty humorous to me because most responsible Christian parents I know teach their children logic, reason, and science. Those all come from an ordered universe created by God. Without God, there is no logic, reason, or science (at least not ordered...it's just all random).

DJP said...

The shaming thing is that today's chest-pounding atheist bluffer is a lot more proselytizing for his Nothing than we Christians often are for our Something.

Michael said...

Noble seems to believe that in 1 Cor 1:21, Paul is admitting he and the other apostles are preaching inaccurately and untruthfully. He is comforted in his interpretation.I'm not. I'm fearful. I'm more determined than ever, with the Holy Spirit's guidance, to understand God's word properly. Thanks for including this today, Dan!

Anonymous said...

The school district in Virginia that was going to question homeschooled kids about their faith recently overturned that policy after public outcry. Just so you know.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/01/15/school-district-to-stop-interrogating-christian-homeschool-kids/

Terry Rayburn said...

Couldn't help but chuckle at the concept of more Baptists in TX than people.

I joined the First Baptist Church of Dallas in 1981. I had moved to Dallas without a car, lived in the city, and on Sunday the buses didn't go to the suburbs, so a couple "Bible Churches" I might have preferred to attend were inaccessible.

Anyway, that year Billy Graham came to speak one Sunday at First Baptist, and lo and behold, it turns out that he was a long-time member of First Baptist, though he hadn't attended for many years.

That's when I found out that there were something like 25,000 "members" in a church that I think seated 4,000 (this from memory).

My first introduction to Southern Baptist membership polity.

Since I've never "moved my letter" (chuckle) to another SBC church, I'm quite sure I'm still a member there, though I moved away in Fall of '81, and for all they know, might have died.

Or, to paraphrase the concept, I guess there are more members at First Baptist than there are Baptists in Texas, dead or alive. :)

Terry Rayburn said...

Hah! Full disclosure: I just Googled "Billy Graham First Baptis Dallas" and found out two things:

1. Billy "moved his letter" to a church in NC in 2008.

2. First Baptist's current "membership" is 11,000. So they might have culled me out, though I don't know one what basis.

AJM said...

I wonder why Billy was a member in Dallas. Does anyone know? Did he ever live there? How often was he there under the preaching of the pastor?

AJM said...

Dan
I want to express my appreciation for SHST and your other writings. Not to mention contributions from others including commenters.
There was a time where the Beth Moores, Perry Nobles, the Rainer/Stetzer, SBC/Lifeway et al ad infinitums ad nauseums could hide behind the curtain. Thank you for being Toto and pulling the curtain back. This includes others who write as well.

FX Turk said...

Wow. Is the Conference next week?

I think I have to cancel.

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PSYCH!

DJP said...

Don't craze me, bro.

FX Turk said...

Then I'm not coming. That's my job: to craze you.

Terry Rayburn said...

Dan on the Janet Mefferd Show...really
good.

http://www.janetmefferdpremium.com/2015/01/16/janet-mefferd-radio-show-20150116-hr-3/

Spoke of the "trivialization" of God speaking (as in a chat about football in the garden over lemonade, where God "likes" the Bengals).

What could be more demeaning of the precious Word of God in the Scriptures?

I was immediately reminded of a video I saw recently of some huge suitcases full of Bibles being delivered to young Christians in China who apparently had no Bibles of their own.

They swarmed the suitcases like ants on spilled honey, then held the Bibles warmly to their love-filled faces before peeling off the wrappers to read them.

Hungry. For. A. Word. From. God.

Not likely those Bibles will be collecting dust while those precious Chinese believers muse about God "speaking to them" in the ether.

Wild thought: perhaps they, or their children, will one day be missionaries to deepest darkest America?

AJM said...

Terry
Agree with your comment.
With Sufficient Fire upon us let me illustrate with a personal experience.
I attended a church where the pastor began saying that the old ways weren't working and we must try something new. This went on for some. Finally the pastor hired a church growth consultant to refocus us through transition to transformation. This consultant told us that the reason our church wouldn't grow was because we had hindered the Holy Spirit by being committed to studying the Bible and expecting others to do the same.
He also stated the church in China was exploding because the Holy Spirit was free since they did not have the Bible to study.

Morris Brooks said...

The issue with Lifeway is disappointing, but somehow expected if you have ever dealt with the bureaucracy in the SBC. Hats off to Justin for keeping his bulldog on.

Michael said...

One more thought on the 10 Commandments. If one were to preach on them to a congregation of Christians and their guests, I think it would be accurate and clever in proper context to say when one is truly regenerate and alive in Christ, he SHALL exhibit obedience to them as fruit of the Spirit. Imperative, yes, but also a promise, no?