Some here, some there — December 9, 2014

by Dan Phillips

Christmas has come early!

Actually, I was looking forward to reading Frank's post... then I realized that it was "my" day. And so, since I was thinking all yesterday that I already had enough for an SHST, here is one early. Not sure whether I'll do another Friday, or something else. Suspense!

Have fun, it's quite the mini-assortment.

• I've long said that secularists have no problem with Christians being Christians, just so long as we don't do it out-loud or in public. Rick Plasterer (seriously) argues that that principle will fall heavily and possibly terminally on Christian institutions, given the current tidal wave of totalitarian, institutionalized immorality (including compulsory approval) that is sweeping what once would have been called Christendom.
• The very people who now sneer at the fact that "Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist party?" was ever asked, are having no problem with the same question posed of public persons, with the substitution of "Christian religion" for the last two words.
• Reminding one of the immortal words of Cdr. Buck Murdock.
• One last reflection on that article. Plasterer says this almost in passing: "God’s standard given in Scripture is obedience to Him regardless of pain." How many professed Christians don't even think it important to obey God regardless of inconvenience or effort, let alone pain?

Mary: "Anything else?" Reporter: "Did you know that your baby boy..." Mary's Agent: "This is in the press packet, no more questions. Thanks"
— Church Lifer (@MrChurchGuy) December 8, 2014

• Okay, this next item is not at all like the usual. I can only offer three reasons for including it... and they're stretches. First: it has footage from the Charlie Brown Christmas, including the reading from Luke, so: Christmas! Second: it features one of the very best guitar solos ever recorded by one of the very best guitarists ever to play, so: common grace. Third: it's awesome and I love it. So: my blog (in part)! Thanks to reader Keith Lamborn for alerting me to it. Enjoy, or move along to the next item.

• I loved that the creator timed the clips so well to the song, but what really won me over was the dances during the guitar solo. Awesome.
• And BTW, the song is about writing a song. In case someone's going to go all Johnny Todd on me.
• In case you didn't see it — well, (A) shame on you; and (B) go to my blog and see this lovely version of The Wexford Carol, with Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss.

Q1: If we say a tail is a leg, how many legs do dogs have? Q2: If Rick Warren says the Reformation is over, is it? #SeeWhatIDidThere
— Dan Phillips (@BibChr) December 8, 2014

• You know what's even weirder (to me) than having Rick Warren in effect say "pish-posh" to the Reformation? Having Reformation 21 publish an article lavishing praise on that wonderfully "generous" evangelical Richard Mouw! In case you don't remember, Mouw was President pf Fuller Theological Seminary for 20 years, which all by itself would be enough to raise my eyebrow. But what's more, Mouw is the man who threw Christian missionaries to Mormons under the bus, and who the Mormons love because he has proclaimed Mormonism not to be a cult.
• Do you think Harold Lindsell is looking smug in heaven? Are other saints having to tell him to stop saying "QED!"?
• So is Reformation 21 prepping an article praising the generosity of Rick Warren? Unknown.
• But the president of Covenant College agrees. So there's that.
• Well, now to something more directly seasonal, and as a reward for Frank — if he's read further than the post title — this:

Fun, eh? Now, what will I do Friday...?

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A fixed faith

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon

The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from Lectures to my Students, page 40, Pilgrim Publications.

"We have a fixed faith to preach, my brethren, and we are sent forth with a definite message from God." 

We are not left to fabricate the message as we go along. We are not sent forth by our Master with a general commission arranged on this fashion—"As you shall think in your heart and invent in your head, so preach. Keep abreast of the times. Whatever the people want to hear, tell them that, and they shall be saved." Verily, we read not so.

There is something definite in the Bible. It is not quite a lump of wax to be shaped at our will, or a roll of cloth to be cut according to the prevailing fashion. Your great thinkers evidently look upon the Scriptures as a box of letters for them to play with, and make what they like of, or a wizard’s bottle, out of which they may pour anything they choose, from atheism up to spiritualism. I am too old-fashioned to fall down and worship this theory.

There is something told me in the Bible—told me for certain— not put before me With a “but” and a “perhaps,” and an “if,” and a “may be,” and fifty thousand suspicions behind it, so that really the long and the short of it is, that it may not be so at all; but revealed to me as infallible fact, which must be believed, the opposite of which is deadly error, and comes from the father of lies.

Believing, therefore, that there is such a thing as truth, and such a thing as falsehood, that there are truths in the Bible, and that the gospel consists in something definite which is to be believed by men, it becomes us to be decided as to what we teach, and to teach it in a decided manner.

We have to deal with men who will be either lost or saved, and they certainly will not be saved by erroneous doctrine. We have to deal with God, whose servants we are, and he will not be honoured by our delivering falsehoods; neither will he give us a reward, and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast mangled the gospel as judiciously as any man that ever lived before thee.”

We stand in a very solemn position, and ours should be the spirit of old Micaiah, who said, “As the Lord my God liveth, before whom I stand, whatsoever the Lord saith unto me that will I speak.”

Neither less nor more than God’s word are we called to state, but that word we are bound to declare in a spirit which convinces the sons of men that, whatever they may think of it, we believe God, and are not to be shaken in our confidence in him.

---

Some here, some there — December 5, 2014

by Dan Phillips

On with the array:

• Louis Markos offers a readable and read-worthy review of Craig Blomberg's recent book Can We Still Believe the Bible?  I appreciate his push-back against Blomberg's apparent defense of the indefensible practice of "gender-norming" in translation. However, when Markos pities Bart Ehrman because "the kind of fundamentalism in which the Christian believer turned biblical debunker was raised did not prepare him for the challenges he would face in college," I recall that Phil Johnson, a classmate of Ehrman's at Moody, has noted otherwise.

#StarWarsTheologians Joseph Sith
— Michael A. Coughlin (@ABereanOne) December 2, 2014

• (That's the only one I'll feature, but it's a funny hashtag.)
• A very interesting note on the overall structure of the Biblical canon from Michael Kruger shows a textual indicator of completeness.
• There probably still are people who have not seen the video Frank Turk made when Phil announced his retirement from Teh Intarwebz. If you haven't, you need to. Hys ter i cal.
• Reader Robert Sakovich found evidence for what we pretty much suspected: the cost of discipleship has gone down a good bit.

• If you missed Charlie Brown Christmas music with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones... well, remedy it!
• Ah, Christmastime. When the atheists show yet again that their dysangelistic obsession with proclaiming the empty message of the sovereignty of self shames many Christians' readiness to tell the good and true news of Christ.

Happy Holidays from the Dark Side pic.twitter.com/OzUTP06j0l
— Darth Vader (@DepressedDarth) December 5, 2014

• The Post-"Farewell"-Bell continues on the same sad but predictable trajectory.
• When Boswell told Samuel Johnson of seeing a woman preach in a Quaker meeting, famously replied: "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all." Which I cite because...
• I feel that way when President Obama tries to use Scripture to prop up his agenda — as he did when explaining why lawless home invasion is a good thing, when done on a national scale. And D. G. Hart lodges an objection. It's nice that someone is bothered when the Bible is "so used and abused."
• Some readers will only be thinking of

• Well, now.  This is new. I've sent you to Doug Wilson in the past when his writing and sharp thinking shine. And now...this!

• I like it. Catch lyrics, some backstory and all here.
• Not everyone was smitten with Russell Moore's response to the Garner verdict. Among the unsmitten, Kevin Stilley.
• Is Christmas pagan? A number of texts will help you rise above common misconceptions. For instance, Nate Busenitz over at Cripplegate looks a little more deeply than usual at why December 25 was chosen.
• Several years ago, William J. Tighe wrote on the same question.
• Then there's my essay, To Tell the Truth, Virginia. (I'm an anti-Santaist.)
• Of course despite everything, many still sneer at Christmas ("Christ's Mass! Pfft!") and shun the opportunity. Should we follow suit? M'man Spurgeon says "What are you, nuts?", and I, of course, agree.
• If you haven't read about the O Holy Night backstory, you need to.
• Prof. David Murray writes three vital words for successful teens. Good thoughts; I think I might reverse the order.
• And hey: this Christmas season, don't be dissin' the 'Mart. Because: awesomeness.
• Dan Cogan shares his journey away from exclusively contemporary worship, to embracing as well the time-tested songs of the church.

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Sin: Kill or Be Killed

by Dan Phillips

From 2006 to 2012, PyroManiacs turned out almost-daily updates from the Post-Evangelical wasteland -- usually to the fear and loathing of more-polite and more-irenic bloggers and readers. The results lurk in the archives of this blog in spite of the hope of many that Google will "accidentally" swallow these words and pictures whole.

This feature enters the murky depths of the archives to fish out the classic hits from the golden age of internet drubbings.

The following excerpt was written by Dan back in October 2010. Dan reminded us that we are at war with Sin.

As usual, the comments are closed.

Let's suppose that at least some Biblical reality has come to bear on us. Perhaps we fled for a time, jumping at shadows,  knowing no real peace of mind (Proverbs 28:1a). Perhaps we tried blame-shifting (1 Kings 18:17), or lashing out (1 Samuel 20:30) or vain, nauseating shows of religion (Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 1:12-20). But now the Holy Spirit has arrested us. The Holy Spirit has brought days and nights of misery (Psalm 32:3-4). He has used the word, spoken His "Thou art the man" (2 Samuel 12:7), and His word struck home to our heart.

But what now? We begin to see the sin as God sees it. We admit to God that it is sin, agreeing with Him.

And?

The element I have in mind is mortification. It is dealing absolute, final, howling death to that specific sin, from its root to its branches. It is seeing it dead, dealing death to it, killing it, depriving it of all means of life and burying it.

Our objective must not be to wound sin, nor to weaken sin, nor to hamper nor cripple sin — but to kill it, to put it to death. It is we who are commanded to do it, and so we must do it. To give it no thought, or to shrug it off on God, is to thumb our nose in God's face. Yet...

We cannot do it unaided, but can only do it by the Holy Spirit's aid.

This is the Christian life.  It is characteristic of being a Christian. The many, many folks who isolate Rom 8:14 and try to fabricate some mythology of living by semi-revelation do great violence to the context. Let me set it out like this:

1. To be a son of God is, definitionally, to be led by the Spirit. Being Spirit-led is not a subset among Christians. The two sets (sons-of-God and Spirit-led) are co-extensive.
2. To be led by the Spirit is to put to death the deeds of the body.
3. To put to death the deeds of the body is to live according to the Spirit, rather than the flesh.

At least a few of you are shouting "Owen! Owen!" at your monitors. So here indeed is the great man, on this passage, in words of gold that might well be written on the front page of anyone's Bible:

Do you mortify;
do you make it your daily work;
be always at it while you live;
cease not a day from this work;
be killing sin or it will be killing you (p. 47, Overcoming Sin and Temptation; Crossway Books: 2006, Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor [emphases added])

So dash all rationalizations and equivocations and evasions and minimalizations. Burn all bridges. Disown! Flee! Kill! Ask God to help you to hate that sin as He hates sin. Would you be content to share your bed with just a few potato-bugs, or have just a little dog dung on your ice cream? Ask God to help you see what you did to your spouse, your friend, your parents, your children, your neighbor — ask Him to help you see it as He sees it. Find the root of it in your heart. Pour spiritual Round-up on it, kill it dead, all of it, roots to branches. Don't rest, don't think it's done, until it's gone, and all traces renounced, disowned, dead by your own hand.

This is part of what it means to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Romans 13:14).

I've Been No Prize, Either

by The Late Frank Turk

You know something: this Christmas will be exactly 7 Christmases since I closed my bookstore.  I was thinking this week about my bookstore on Christmas Eve day a couple of years ago, and we were rockin'. I mean, best day before Christmas ever from a purely angels-get-their-wings standpoint, if you follow the cultural idiom. And I'm busy personally – helping people, encouraging them, being nice to them. (I know you can't imagine that, but that's what was happening)

And as people were throwing money at me and I was throwing merchandise at them – in a nice way, very jolly – these two women walked into the bookstore with a little girl. My helper greets them, and I notice them because they don’t act like middle-class people. They burp when they talk, they talk too loud, that kind of stuff.

Eventually, the wave of business subsided, and I caught a breather, and I took a walk around the store to check on the people who were still browsing – because people usually appreciated that. As I chatted with the handful of people still in the store, I noticed the two women and the little girl still browsing, and I asked them if they need any help. They didn't, but as I traded service talk with them, I noticed that they needed a bath more than they needed a book. They also prolly needed to give up the half-pack of cigareetes they smoked driving over here, but I ignored that and moved on. I've come out in public when I've been no prize, either.

So I went about my business, and one of the women came to the desk to ask for some help, the little girl in tow. We chatted some more, and the more I talked to her, the less I was impressed with her social skills, and I started to get a little antsy about her parenting skills. She wasn't smacking the kid around or anything, but I was pretty sure I had never talked to my kids that way unless they were on the verge of being crucified – which was an interesting word to think of there, given the season, but it's the one that came to mind as I was sort of forced to eavesdrop on this slice of life. Not unless I was on the verge of crucifying them.

And I started to think to myself, "How can she not know better?" So she put this book about Christmas on the counter along with a Bible and some other plastic junk, and I looked at the Christmas book, thinking about the Sunday School lessons I had been teaching the last 3 weeks.

Because the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. We have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.

That is, God has made himself known to those of us -- people like me -- who probably need more than a bath and to give up a half-pack of cigarettes to get right before him, and who know better than to talk to our children as if we were about to crucify them. The One who did crucify His one and only son has made Himself known.

I'm the one who ought to know better, because He has made Himself known to me.

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Gurnall on avoiding the inception of temptation

by Dan Phillips

As I continue to read through Gurnall, this section on an occasion Satan finds a good season to press temptation home was too good, too meaty, too important not to share:

When he hath the presence of some object to enforce his temptation. Thus he takes Eve when she is near the tree, and had it in her eye while he should make the motion, that assaulting two ports at once, it might be the harder for her to hinder the landing of his temptation; and if Eve’s eyes did so soon affect her heart with an inordinate desire, then much more now is it easy for him by the presence of the object to excite and actuate that lust which lies dormant in the heart. As Naomi sent her daughter to lie at Boaz’s feet, knowing well, if he endured her there, there was hope that he might take her into his bed at last: if the Christian can let the object come so near, Satan will promise himself his suit may in time be granted. Therefore it should be our care, if we would not yield to the sin, not to walk by, or sit at the door of the occasion: look not on the beauty with wandering eye, by which thou wouldest not be taken prisoner; parley not with that in thy thoughts, which thou meanest not to let into thy heart; conversation begets affection; some by this have been brought to marry those, whom at first they thought they could not have liked.

[William Gurnall and John Campbell, The Christian in Complete Armour (London: Thomas Tegg, 1845), 47–48.]

This really is being a wonderful read as part of my devotions. Anyone might find it daunting at a glance; it's like 47000 pages long, give or take 40K. But his style is lively, practical, witty, pithy, penetrating, meaty, and always and in all ways richly edifying. I am really enjoying it.

The book is also available in a paperback set.

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"A fountain sealed"

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon

The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from Teachings of Nature, pages 129-30, Pilgrim Publications.

“A garden inclosed is My sister, My spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” 

A garden is a plot of ground separated from the common waste for a special purpose: such is the church. The church is a separate and distinct thing from the world. I suppose there is such a thing as the Christian world; but I do not know what it is, or where it can be found. It must be a singular mixture.

I know what is meant by a worldly Christian; and I suppose the Christian world must be an aggregate of worldly Christians. But the church of Christ is not of the world. “Ye are not of the world,” says Christ, “even as I am not of the world.”

Great attempts have been made of late to make the church receive the world, and wherever it has succeeded it has come to this result—the world has swallowed up the church. It must be so. The greater is sure to swamp the less.

They say, “Do not let us draw any hard and fast lines. A great many good people attend our services who may not be quite decided, but still their opinions should be consulted, and their votes should be taken upon the choice of a minister, and there should be entertainments and amusements, in which they can assist.”

The theory seems to be, that it is well to have a broad gangway from the church to the world: if this be carried out, the result will be that the nominal church will use that gangway to go over to the world, but it will not be used in the other direction.

It is thought by some that it would perhaps be better to have no distinct church at all. If the world will not come up to the church, let the church go down to the world; that seems to be the theory. Let the Israelites dwell with the Canaanites, and become one happy family.

Such a blending does not appear to have been anticipated by our Lord in John xv. Read verses eighteen and nineteen: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

Did He ever say—“Try to make an alliance with the world, and in all things be conformed to its ways”? Nothing could have been further from our Lord's mind. Oh, that we could see more of holy separation; more dissent from ungodliness, more nonconformity to the world! This is “the dissidence of dissent” that I care for, far more than I do for party names; and the political strife which is engendered by them.

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Some here, some there — November 28, 2014

by Dan Phillips

Happy day after Thanksgiving, y'all. Hope your yesterday was fun and familial and grateful.

Here's the first edition, 8:44 TX time. I plan to add through the morning as I can; have a hospital call pretty soon, so...limited! Enjoy.

• We're not all married here... so, was this anyone's yesterday? Yikes, I hope not!

• That was Thursday. Now it's Friday.

H-T this tweet: http://bit.ly/1xQRWzu

• So John Piper thinks (in a piece from 11/6) that bullying pastors abuse their authority and should be rebuked. Seriously, he does. Does say that.
• The article doesn't relate whether Piper was asked if those who have promoted and shielded bullying pastors despite repeated warning bear any responsibility or should be subject to any rebuke or expected to offer apologies or show repentance.

Has @ctmagazine crossed the Tiber? Not quite, but we honor #PopeFrancis's witness in our Dec issue. - @KatelynBeaty pic.twitter.com/fuhvkzslXo
— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) November 25, 2014

• What does Fred Astaire in a beanie have to do with it, though?
• Anyway, my reply was:

• No response.
• One more in that general area: another person John Piper elevated despite a flood of pleas and warnings was Rick Warren. I wonder if this will bring a "Do you regret partnering with Rick Warren"/"I don't regret befriending Rick Warren":

Anyone who can talk like this has no business anywhere near a Christian pulpit: . Farewell, Rick Warren. http://t.co/qFXiZHKJpq
— Dan Phillips (@BibChr) November 27, 2014

• I quote James White about as often as he quotes me; that said, I'm in total agreement with this sentiment:

Your video capitulating to Rome and betraying the Reformation, @RickWarren , breaks my heart—and should be a warning to all.
— James White (@DrOakley1689) November 28, 2014

• Maybe someone needs to direct Warren to PA#27?
• Hm; that post is almost ready to become Forty Days of Phillips' Axioms, isn't it?
• Any post with lines like "The goal of the pansexualist movement is to remove all creational distinctives," and "They want to batter down every border, every barrier, so that when we are all done, every sentient being has been melted down into their great cauldron of lust.," and "I would rather be on the wrong side of history, as they see it, than on the wrong side of stupidity, as God sees it," probably demands to be read.
• Now the Ferguson section.
• I wonder what people see when they compare Russell Moore's Ferguson and the Path to Peace with this post.
• If Moore were the sort who interacted with his readers, I would have asked this question in the comments: "You say 'we ought to recognize that it is empirically true that African-American men are more likely, by virtually every measure, to be arrested, sentenced, executed, or murdered than their white peers.' If true, that is incontestably a tragic, sad statement, period. But why do you think it is an inherently meaningful statement? What do you think it means? What is your solution? ("Church," he says, and that is part of the answer — which, again, I ask that you compare to this answer.)
• Reformation21 has a writer who tells white people what they may and may not say to black people; but as a sort of balance, he also tells blacks what not to say to whites. Interestingly, his first dictum to whites is "Don't tell us we make everything about race" — and yet he writes for an organization self-named Reformed African-American Network. No further comment.
• (Which of course reminds me of the time I NEVER, EVER wrote for an organization called Reformed Pudgy White Guy Network.)
• By contrast, even though it's on TGC, this post by Voddie Baucham is really, really good. You'd swear he and I'd been in collusion, as if we'd agreed "You focus on this aspect, I'll focus on that, and we'll meet in the middle." But we didn't.
• On the other hand, Thabiti Anyabwile — a brother I like, love, learn from, and count as a friend — thinks the Grand Jury outcome is an injustice. Concerning my post, Thabiti was kind enough to say:

I think I’m in complete agreement with everything that’s said here, tho not everything is said here: http://t.co/LvA3m2Mdev @BibChr
— Thabiti Anyabwile (@ThabitiAnyabwil) November 26, 2014

• (Aside: Challies also recommended the piece, which we appreciate; it apparently not visible to TGC writers.)
• Then Thabiti wrote FourCommon But Misleading Themes In Ferguson-Like Times, which at least seems to offer push-back to both Voddie (primarily and by name), and to yr obdt svt.
• I'll offer this: to the degree that every one of my prescriptions were followed, it would certainly reduce the rate of theft, imprisonment, death and all the related miseries. If every one of Thabiti's suggestions were followed... arguably could mean fewer dead innocents, more dead policemen, both, or something else.
• Now to finish on non-Ferguson topics...
• Somehow I missed the brilliance of Andrew Wilson's Case for Idolatry. I hereby correct that omission, and raise it an Accurate Parody.
• "Sologamy"? Wouldn't a better term be "ipsogamy"?

Now I'll leave you tapping your toes with a video suggested by Kerry Allen:

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The Grace That Brings Salvation

by Frank Turk

From 2006 to 2012, PyroManiacs turned out almost-daily updates from the Post-Evangelical wasteland -- usually to the fear and loathing of more-polite and more-irenic bloggers and readers. The results lurk in the archives of this blog in spite of the hope of many that Google will "accidentally" swallow these words and pictures whole.

This feature enters the murky depths of the archives to fish out the classic hits from the golden age of internet drubbings.

The following excerpt was written by Frank back in August 2009. Frank offered his thoughts on Titus 2:11-14.

As usual, the comments are closed.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. (Titus 2:11-14)

Briefly today, back to Titus in order that we might finish with the Pastorals in 2009. I am tempted to give you 500 words on the use of the word “For” here, but I’m going to refrain from that to tell you this instead: this paragraph ought to make you weep, or want to weep.

If you live in this world at all – if you are actually in the world, even if you are not of the world (and you should not be of the world, but you must be in it)—you can see that people need saving. Often we go to the headlines to work this out to talk in some kind of meta-narrative way, but I can tell you that in my own life, the people around me need saving. The guy who quits his marriage to save his job needs saving from his self-contained and sinful values. The little guy who gets caught in a brush fire needs saving from a world in which the punishment for our sinfulness if death and suffering. The beer-gourmand needs saving from his beer, and the teetotaler needs saving from his tea.

And most of all, for the readers on this blog, the religious people need saving from the high-fallutin’ idea that their systematics make them the court of final appeal for other Christians and the church. The Grace of God has appeared, people! And it’s bringing salvation to all people -- it’s good news for all the people.

You know: good news. It's a refuge from this world. It's the joy that set before us. And it's good news to people who are hurting and dying. This is why it should make you weep: because it is so lavish, and we are often so stingy with it when it comes down to really being faithful to our alleged ideals.

Let's review what Paul has said up to this point:

• The church must be set in order
• To do so, we need Elders
• Elders are mature men who have manifested the fruit of the spirit
• They do so in order to credibly preach the word of God
• They are credible because they live like they believe this stuff
• They must teach others to do so as well
• Because the Grace of God has come, to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works

Try that out. Live like that.

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Seven revelations of Ferguson

by Dan Phillips

I was just as happy to have my plans to write on this yesterday curtailed by Frank's post, as I usually am. It gave me a day more to ponder. That done — the ponderation having been ponderously pondered — I'll offer some thoughts, which in intent will be very like those I offered about "the Florida revival." That is, they will be Biblical principles whose application is I think fairly obvious.

Frank's focus was on the undeniable human tragedy. I won't reinvent that wheel, but will focus on other aspects. I hope the posts will be complementary. Don't blame his post for not being mine, nor mine for not being his. Fair enough?

To the seven revelations of Ferguson:

First: men outside of Christ are still hateful and still hate each other (Titus 3:3). Anger simmers not far below the surface. Evolution, real or imagined, biological or social, has changed none of that. No Federal program will fix it, no state or local legislation will fix it. It is a problem of the human heart, which lurks beneath every epidermal hue. Someone needs to propose a solution that transforms hearts. Anyone know of one?

Second: it still is better to gather the facts and hear an array of perspectives before coming to a conclusion (Proverbs 18:17). Some spoke awfully quickly when this situation first made the news. There seemed to be some feeling that immediate conclusions and statements should be made and issued.

One of the problems with this is that, once a public statement has been made, one is reluctant to walk it back publicly. Human nature and human pride make it very hard to retract a dogmatic stance, once publicly adopted. Better to wait longer and say less, than to jump the gun (pun unintended) and say too much.

Third: people ought to stick to what they know (cf. Proverbs 25:14). Being an expert in one area has nothing to do with expertise in others. For instance, one Christian brother who is a bookish conference speaker/author offered this:

E.g. 1) empathetic public resolves, 2) redoubled effort to hire and train minority officers, 3) increased R&D in how to disarm w/o killing.
— John Piper (@JohnPiper) November 25, 2014

To that, an equally-Christian brother with twenty years of actual experience in law enforcement responded:

. @JohnPiper Pastor, please. This statement shows a great deal of ignorance to what life is like behind the badge.
— Tony Miano (@TonyMiano) November 25, 2014

Neither brother, probably, could do what the other does. It might have been well for the former to punt on this question, and stick with Scripture. "A man's got to know his limitations" may not be in Scripture verbatim, but it's sage advice.

As I'm trying to do. I'm a Christian, and I'm a minister of the word of God. If I have expertise, it's there. So I'll endeavor to speak as such.

Fourth: the very best thing parents of all ethnicities can do for their children is (1) repent and believe savingly in Christ (1 John 3:16), (2) advance in His Word as genuine disciples (John 8:31-32), (3) involve themselves in a faithful Gospel-proclaiming, Bible-teaching church (Hebrews 10:24-25), (4) marry before having children and honor the marital bond (Matthew 19:3-9) — and, in that overall context, (5) raise children in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4, among many others). In that context, they will teach their children many indispensable life-lessons. For instance, they will teach their children that

• The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10)
• Therefore they should seek and cultivate and embrace the fear of God from their earliest days (Proverbs 2:1ff.)
• Gangs will appeal to their most vulnerable points, but they must consider their violent end and heed the inscripturated voice of God's wisdom instead (Proverbs 1:10-32)
• Immoral people will sweet-talk them, but by Dad's instruction and God's word they should see right through it (Proverbs 2:16ff; 7:1ff.)
• They should pick godly friends who walk in the fear of God, or else they will come to harm (Proverbs 13:20; 22:24-25)
• They should avoid drunkards (and, therefore, druggies; Proverbs 23:20-21)
• They should study hard in school and learn a profitable skill while children (Proverbs 22:29)
• They should know that what will matter and will reveal their character is not how they see or feel about themselves, but what they actually produce (Proverbs 20:11)
• They should take full responsibility for their own choices and actions, and never blame others for what they choose and do (Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Romans 14:10, 12; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Galatians 6:5, 7-8, etc.).
• They should never steal, but instead should be productive and generous (cf. Ephesians 4:28)
• They should respect officers of the law as God's servants, knowing that disrespect for the office is disrespect for God which invites His judgment (Romans 13, especially vv. 1-5)
• If they defy the lawful authority, they should expect God's judgment to fall on them (Romans 13:4-5a).
• If in any of these things they choose to defy God and rebel against Him and His word, they must expect both of their parents to stand with God, and not to make excuses for, coddle, enable, or otherwise try to deodorize their sin (cf. Deuteronomy 21:18ff.)

Fifth: faithful pastors must prescribe and teach these things without prejudice (2 Timothy 2:14; Titus 3:1-2).  What I'm saying won't make the beautiful people love you. They won't. They won't praise you (as a Tweep did John Piper) for being "nuanced." You'll be told you're insensitive, you're ignoring the real problems, you're impractical. But as a minister of the Gospel, you know better. Sin is the problem. Sin is always the problem at some level; and there's only one solution for sin. The Son's blood buys your freedom (Ephesians 1:7), and the Son's word shows you how to live in it (John 8:31-32). 

That's what you have to give. You're not a social engineering genius. You're a servant of God who has His word. Don't set it aside. It applies here.

Sixth: if the issue of racism is ever to be resolved, people will have to stop thinking of bitterness and suspicion and resentment and prejudice as ills that other people really have to get over (cf. Romans 2:21-23; 1 Corinthians 10:12). Now, hear me: If you can read that sentence and think, "Well, he mainly means whites" or "blacks," you know something I don't. I mean people. I mean you, I mean me. I mean every color on the palette.

I've seen this in marriage. Every pastor has. The sure prescription for deadlock, for stalemate, is two people who are willing to change just as soon as the other person changes. You think that doesn't apply here? Mercy.

Seventh: the only real solution for racism is the one God instituted: the cross of Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:28-29; Ephesians 2:14-22; Colossians 3:11). Astute readers will say, "Some of those verses are about Jews and Gentiles, so they don't apply." To that, first: maybe some of those verses are, but not all; and second, they don't? You think the Cross addresses Jew-Gentile hatred and suspicion and contempt, but not black-white hatred and suspicion and contempt?

There isn't a Federal program that will fix this, or a local one. If one person says, "Let's make it harder for cops to kill people," another will say "Let's make it harder for people to menace cops." And each person will sound like he's enabling some form of sin — either a hypothetical thug's sin against a decent cop, or a hypothetical trigger-happy cop's sin against an innocent teen. You see where this goes? It's all beside the point.

The point is that only God has the answer, and it's the one we find only in His word.

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In No Particular Order, Redux

by The Late Frank Turk

Recently, someone said we have to keep on talking about race in this country.  While I think I agree with the essay where he says that as a whole, it's not the most helpful turn of phrase as I see it.  But I have a couple of thoughts that are, it seems to me, useful.

In no particular order:

What does anyone deserve?

A long time ago in blog years, I posted an essay at my old blog about the primary pitfall in engaging with homosexuals and the people who love them.  I know most of you have not mastered clicking thru (maybe: you're just committed to not driving my page counter, you stingy louts), so I'll copy the key bit right here:

See: if I say, "well, homosexuality is a sin, Dustin," what Mr. Rowles hears -- and I think he's listening just fine -- is the subtle hint of this outrageous lie: "he actually deserved what he got." I know none of you regular readers of this blog would actually mean that, but the ones who harnessed that conclusion up to the horse of my assertion are the ones who pounded his Dad's face in for being gay -- you know, God hates fags, boy, so I'm going to smash a coke bottle in your face. ...
So the problem in talking to Mr. Rowles now is not trying to convince him what the Bible says about (for example) homosexuality. The problem is convincing him that you don't want to bash his father's head in over it. That kind of ferocious evil is what Dustin Rowles associates with the moral affirmation "homosexuality is a sin". My suggestion is that helping him believe what you believe about homosexuality is frankly a stupid gambit.

The application from the question of evangelizing homosexuals and the people who love them to evangelizing people who are committed to measuring anything by means of race is this: the problem is that somehow the facts are all interpreted right now toward the interpretation that anyone who is the victim of a cross-racial crime "got what he deserved."  Referring to the facts simply sounds, to the people you are talking to, like this statement: "When you think about it, he got what he deserved."

Your righteous indignation at the crime rate of blacks against whites? It sounds like you're saying that the victims of non-black-on-black crimes got what they deserved.

Your erudite notification of statistics which indicate that far more black people are killed by black people than by white people?  It sounds like the victims here, therefore, got what they deserved.

Your socio-economic analysis of what is the problem behind the problem?  It sounds like the victims here, therefore, got what they deserved.

What if we start here: it doesn't matter what Trayvon Martin  Michael Brown was doing in that neighborhood.  He didn't deserve to die. He wasn't putting anyone's life in danger; he didn't deserve to die.  Until and unless you are willing to say that out loud -- and I don't care which side of the argument you are on here -- if you can't say that Trayvon Martin Michael Brown did not deserve to die, you frankly have no place in this discussion.  Your moral compass and your real empathy for other people are both broken.  You can't do anything to make this or the future better until you deal with that.

Having it both ways

The problem with our legal system is that, ultimately, it has to make a decision.  That is: when something comes before it, it's meant to take action and not merely take it to committee for deep pondering.

A while ago, our legal system decided that the Federal Government had no business saying anything about what constitutes marriage in this country.  That, apparently, was a victory.  This weekend, the same system at a different level reviewed the charges against George Zimmerman Darren Wilson, the evidence presented, and concluded there was no grounds for charges.  Listen: it didn't say he was innocent.  It didn't say that Trayvon Brown was not dead, nor that George  Wilson did not pull the trigger.  It said that this man was, at the end of the day, not to be punished for the events on 9 Aug 2014.

You can't have it both ways: either the system is working, or it is not working.  You can't say that the system works only when you like the outcome.  That every outcome does not benefit you politically or socially or even in terms of your self-esteem is probably about right.

Never Coming

Is racism a problem?  I live in a cul de sac where the families are mixed about 70-30 white-to-black.  There is no open animosity on the street (except for the one guy who posts anonymously to the neighborhood watch about his problems with every other person's yard, pets and children)(who is not me)(as far as you know)(no seriously: not me), but let me admit something: there is also not always the most neighborly atmosphere.  Maybe: it's a southern thing.  Maybe: its a local culture thing.  Maybe: the middle class changed from when I grew up and people just don't make friends the way they used to. But there are some families who do not even come out of their houses, and never come to neighborhood parties.

Without a doubt, what is happening is better than open hostility -- but only just barely.  It worries me that there are fences in place I don't understand and don't really know how to cross.  I am open to suggestions because I have tried the normal stuff, and it is received, at best, with kind indifference.

EX POST FACTO
After the comments were closed here, Luke Wolford found me via Twitter and came across with this:

@Frank_Turk I think you missed the point of my TeamPyro comment. I meant the opposite of what you thought I meant. Sorry for the confusion.
— Luke Wolford (@LukeBWolford) November 26, 2014

For which I am grateful that he offered a kind rebuke to a misunderstanding. The misunderstanding being mine actually, he deserves an apology from me. I was wrong, Luke. I apologize. Please forgive me.

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The pinnacle of popularity

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon

The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from the lifetime of works from the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.  The following excerpt is from Words of Cheer, pages 55-56, Pilgrim Publications.

"A smiling world is worse than a frowning one."

She saith, “I cannot smite the man low with my repeated blows, I will take off my mailed glove, and showing him a fair, white hand, I’ll bid him kiss it. I will tell him I love him: I will flatter him, I will speak good words to him.”

John Bunyan well describes this Madam Bubble: she has a winning way with her; she drops a smile at the end of each of her sentences; she talks much of fair things, and tries to win and woo. Oh, believe me, Christians are not so much in danger when they are persecuted as when they are admired.

When we stand upon the pinnacle of popularity, we may well tremble and fear. It is not when we are hissed at, and hooted, that we have any cause to be alarmed; it is when we are dandled on the lap of fortune, and nursed upon the knees of the people; it is when all men speak well of us, that woe is unto us.

It is not in the cold, wintry wind that I take off my coat of righteousness, and throw it away; it is when the sun comes, when the weather is warm, and the air balmy, that I unguardedly strip off my robes, and become naked. Good God! how many a man has been made naked by the love of this world!

The world has flattered and applauded him; he has drunk the flattery; it was an intoxicating draught; he has staggered, he has reeled, he has sinned, he hast lost his reputation; and as a comet that erst flashed across the sky, doth wander far into space, and is lost in darkness, so doth he; great as he was, he falls; mighty as he was, he wanders, and is lost.

But the true child of God is never so; he is as safe when the world smiles, as when it frowns; he cares as little for her praise as for her dispraise. If he is praised, and it is true, he says, “My deeds deserve
praise, but I refer all honour to my God.” Great souls know what they merit from their critic; to them it is nothing more than the giving of their daily income.

Some men cannot live without a large amount of praise; and if they have no more than they deserve, let them have it. If they are children of God, they will be kept steady; they will not be ruined or spoiled; but they will stand with feet like hinds’ feet upon high places,—“This is the victory that overcometh the world.”

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Some here, some there — November 21, 2014

by Dan Phillips

Here's the first burst. I'll start some major adds after my Bible etc. reading, so check back. Priorities!

If @RickWarren called the Pope "the Holy Father," without air-quotes, how does he retain ANY cred among Christians? (http://t.co/njIleze1lu)
— Dan Phillips (@BibChr) November 18, 2014

• I go to Doug Wilson's site daily. But it may be a week, two or three, before something grabs me. Then when Doug's in the ten-ring, he is just In. The. Ten. Ring. Like this brilliant takedown of Greg Boyd.
• Friends don't let friends indulge their revulsion against God's sovereignty. See Pinnock. See Boyd. See a host of others.
• It often seems to be the case that when Doug is brilliant, he's brilliant by clusters. So the above was followed soon thereafter by Remanded to Sensitivity Camps, which is, well, brilliant. It's a thought from the same seedbed as this post, which even Challies admitted seeing.

You know, it's that 99% of the Charismatics that give the other 1% a bad name.
— Dan Phillips (@BibChr) November 11, 2014

• WORLD Magazine. No less than the New York Times has a profile touting the magazine as being a fearless, clear-eyed exposer of Protestant leaders' sins. I myself was initially a very vocal fan and promoter of the magazine. But their drift forced me to a very different position.
• I noted a bit ago big names who seem to dismiss reparative therapy for same-sex fornicators, but without reported explanation. Now comes a solid piece from Heath Lambert titled What’sWrong With Reparative Therapy?
• Some pastors are responding to the gay mirage fad by opting out of doing civil marriages altogether. (Site may have unsavory side-column images.)
• At the risk of making this a Doug Wilson themed edition, the brother offers his own thoughts on the previous suggestion.
• Today is an historical landmark of sorts, no pun intended:

Incredible to consider it was one year ago today that I interviewed Mark Driscoll about his new book. What a year. #JesusIsLord
— Janet Mefferd (@JanetMefferd) November 21, 2014

• Which makes it hard not also to recall:

I wouldn't recommend authors go on @JanetMefferd's show after she pulled this during an interview with @PastorMark http://t.co/a0zdkIC43P
— BetweenTwoWorlds (@between2worlds) November 23, 2013

• Pause to reflect on the commentary that subsequent history added to both Tweets.
• Now, to be fair: if anyone knows of any retractions and apologies — which is to say, any welcome deviations from PA#2 — let me know so that I can share.
• Not related, and not theological, but still fairly awesome.
• To us:

"Phillip, fetch me the nail gun." - @drmoore to @pbethancourt at the Vatican pic.twitter.com/50VjR7XhIA
— Eric Schumacher (@emschumacher) November 19, 2014

• To the Pope:

Back on American soil. Thank you @Pontifex for gracious hospitality, and the opportunity to have this important conversation.
— Russell Moore (@drmoore) November 21, 2014

• In between? Don't know.
• Used to be that Multnomah Press was a sure sign of Biblically-faithful Christian books. No longer. But in a rarity, the publisher is splitting into two labels, to deal with conservative titles and those that aren't so much. They're being up-front with buyers, that some of their titles are going away from Biblical fidelity. You know, just like Eerdmans, Baker, and Zondervan didn't.

RT @played_well: One of the best fridges ever. pic.twitter.com/A3JY58rPWJ @BibChr @jacigreggs I updated my wish list.
— Fred Butler (@Fred_Butler) November 21, 2014

• Remember how Houston's lesbian mayor Annise Parker was seeking sermons and correspondence from some local pastors touching on homosexuality, her conduct in office, related matters? Remember how her legal team launched it, she doubled down, then she retracted? Turns out it seems to be ongoing.

Of gathering of Jews, Muslims, LDS and others, @RickWarren says "we all love Jesus Christ" — http://t.co/MJ6GK5U0SZ
— Dan Phillips (@BibChr) November 19, 2014

• Butler on Lawson on Watson.
• Yep:

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