tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281130062024-03-07T13:31:52.696-06:00The Race Set Before UsThis blog is devoted to discussing the pursuit of eternal life.
Discussion<br>
and participation by readers is desired, but contributions should correlate to<br>the book, <i>The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance<br>& Assurance</i>
by Thomas R. Schreiner & Ardel B. Canedayabcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.comBlogger201125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-47750027601936524092013-12-23T13:53:00.000-06:002013-12-24T07:06:23.928-06:00One More Quack!<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just in case some folks think that I fail to recognize that the action A&E took against Phil Robertson of "Duck Dynasty" is not a free-speech issue, I will reiterate why I stepped in and spoke up. I reissue this statement from one I posted on one of my friend's pages. I do so here with some additions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The issue is not a matter of free speech, constitutionally defined. Nonetheless, it is a matter of tyranny against the freedom of speech by a large sector of society in the public square. In fact that sector of society, Christians, which is routinely told to shut up, is vastly larger than the homosexual sector of society that screams loudly in the public square with the aid of their obsequious and fawning media advocates who freely give them access to their communication outlets which are protected by the Constitution as free-speech mouthpieces.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Why should anyone be outraged over these things? It is because what takes place in the public square shapes the laws of the land. When tyrannical minority groups, such as GLAAD, gain ascendancy in the public square because they have advocates who hold media positions that magnify their voices in vastly disproportionate ways so as to sound like a majority of Americans, they acquire vastly disproportionate influence upon the political and legal realms of our society to shape laws and judicial actions that have already and will increasingly alter the Constitution and the nature of our society and culture. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Laws follow the morality of society and the framework of culture. Thus, as our culture deteriorates with moral deviancy defined downward so that vile and sinful behavior are now openly celebrated, having been elevated from "alternative lifestyle" status, those who engage in vile behavior not only are celebrated in the public square but also become increasingly protected by laws until it will become impossible to violate the law of the land when we condemn those vile and wicked behaviors that are already being celebrated in the public square and area already being protected by activist legislators and activist judges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is why we cannot dismiss what has happened to a backwater elderly hick from the swamps of a Southern state, Louisiana (I write these words with tongue in cheek, of course, for such is the way the Robertsons are viewed by GLAAD and their elitist media advocates.) This is why I raised my voice in open and candid opposition to GLAAD and their media advocates but also to fellow Christians who want Christians such as I to hush up and lay down the weapons of the gospel concerning this latest public square debate. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Give GLAAD and their advocates an inch and they will be our rulers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Being salt and light, as Jesus instructs us to be, requires us to condemn evil and to commend good. I prefer to heed the directives of King Jesus than to obey fellow Christians who tell me to hush until a more opportune situation presents itself, which, evidently, they will assess for the rest of us and tell us when we should speak in the public square. No thanks! Since King Jesus is also the one who will judge me in the Last Day, I will heed him and speak out against the celebration of evil wherever, whenever, and against whomever it is being done, including a "hayseed" from the swamps of Louisiana.</span><br />
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Also worth reading.<br />
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Brian Mattson, <strong><a href="http://drbrianmattson.com/journal/2013/12/19/duck" target="_blank">Duck!</a></strong><br />
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Doug Wilson, <strong><a href="http://dougwils.com/s7-engaging-the-culture/the-scars-on-your-forearms.html" target="_blank">The Scars on Your Forearms</a></strong><br />
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Doug Wilson, <strong><a href="http://dougwils.com/s7-engaging-the-culture/a-warehouse-full-of-guile.html" target="_blank">A Warehouse Full of Guile</a></strong></div>
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abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-42721641587980656482013-12-23T13:51:00.000-06:002013-12-23T13:54:12.830-06:00Why I Give A Quack!<div align="justify">
<span class="userContent">Someone asked, "What's your point in posting '<strong><a href="http://trsbu.blogspot.com/2013/12/this-is-worth-quacking-about.html" target="_blank">This Is Worth Quacking About!</a></strong>'? So, you disagreed with <strong><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/this-is-not-worth-quacking-about" target="_blank">David Mathis</a></strong>, but you didn't offer an alternative prescription for action. What action are you suggesting that Christians should take?" </span></div>
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<span class="userContent">I offered responses initially on FaceBook.com. Here, I offer a couple of postings, this one and a follow-up, to explain why I offered a response to Mathis's blog entry and what it is that we are called to do and say as Christians. I'm not calling for radical activism. I am calling for well-balanced critical engagement of the culture and of our society that actually challenges and pushes back and refuses to be silent or to bullied into silence by activist elitist leftists and radicals who make their voices very loud because they own the mainstream media.</span></div>
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<span class="userContent">Did not the apostle Paul admonish us, as Christians, to be wary of the devil's wily ways, of Satan's devices?<br /><br /> It is that wariness that prompted me to write and to publish my piece yesterday concerning the imbroglio of disagreement among Christians that is centered upon the A&E's firing of Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty for expressing his candid beliefs concerning the sinfulness of homosexuality when asked in an interview by GQ magazine. As I said yesterday, the issue is not whether A&E has a right to hire and fire. The issue is the tyranny of wickedness that spreads virally through society by exploiting speech codes imposed by the loudest sector of society, regardless how outnumbered that small sector actually is.<br /><br /> Well, today, Brian Mattson provides an excellent and insightful piece that explains the backstory to my piece in his blog entry, <a href="http://drbrianmattson.com/journal/2013/12/19/duck" target="_blank"><strong>Duck!</strong></a>, though he and I did not converse about this matter. Nevertheless, because we both think biblically, he articulates precisely the thoughts that ignited my taking hold of my keyboard to write what I posted on FB and on my blog yesterday. <br /><br /> What Brian points out is how the devil schemes to impose his evil will upon all of us. If we do not resist those in the public square who feign offense at an outspoken Christian to accomplish their evil craving to bend our wills to do their will and the will of the devil, we will soon find that their exploitation of the tyranny of political correctness in the public square will become state-sponsored tyranny that will enforce the devil's evil will with the power of the sword. <br /><br /> This is why it is not only right but necessary to recognize that it is always seasonable to condemn sin and to uphold righteousness. Is it not? This seems to echo what the apostle Paul said to a young minister of the gospel in his own day.<br /><br /> As for being Christian citizens dwelling in the kingdoms of this world, if we wait until legislators and governors and presidents and judges add their full weight of the law to the cause of immorality, we will find ourselves ruing the day that we refused to engage evil when it was not yet in control of those who wield the sword. Have we not learned anything from history? Have we so quickly forgotten Martin Niemöller's famous quote? <br /><br /> When the Nazis came for the communists,<br /> I remained silent;<br /> I was not a communist.<br /><br /> When they locked up the social democrats,<br /> I remained silent;<br /> I was not a social democrat.<br /><br /> When they came for the trade unionists,<br /> I did not speak out;<br /> I was not a trade unionist.<br /><br /> When they came for the Jews,<br /> I remained silent;<br /> I wasn't a Jew.<br /><br /> When they came for me,<br /> there was no one left to speak out.<br /><br /> If Christians in the USA wait until legislators and governors and presidents and judges determine what can and cannot be spoken concerning issues and sins that God's Word addresses and obligates us to address with candor and with love, then it will be too late. Will it not? Oh, wait, legislators and governors and presidents and judges already are making those determinations. Aren't they? They're doing it state by state.<br /><br /> When the President, who routinely imposes his kingly will upon us citizens by his edicts, speaks out in support of same-sex marriage, as he did in May 2012, what restrains him and those who prop him up from issuing an edict that moves his belief into law?</span></div>
abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-41151613987390635472013-12-19T17:10:00.000-06:002013-12-23T14:44:00.675-06:00This Is Worth Quacking About<div align="justify">
I've restrained my pen many times over many embarrassing things that others with whom I've associated have said, taught, preached, or done. Today, I'm embarrassed again, and this time I'm not holding back. I am speaking out. My friend <strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DrPeterJones/posts/673131986040173" target="_blank">Dr. Peter Jones</a></strong> has also spoken out about this. In fact, it was his piece that brought the matter to my attention, including the piece I engage below.<br />
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Today, on the Desiring God blog (see below), David Mathis posted his response to the firing of Phil Robertson of "Duck Dynasty." See David's piece: "<strong><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/this-is-not-worth-quacking-about" target="_blank">This Is Not Worth Quacking About</a></strong>." Oh, indeed the title is clever and David sprinkles a number of cute little sayings and barbs throughout his blog entry, including division headers: "No Time to Cry Fowl" and "Pass on This Decoy." He ends his piece by stating, "Let’s lay down the weapons on this one. There will be other ducks to shoot. Pass on the decoy. There are so many good avenues for expending our righteous energy. It’s time to change the channel."<br />
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Well, I don't need to change the channel because I have never watched "Duck Dynasty." I have no interest to watch the show, either. This is not about the cable television show. This is not about commercialism. This is about the truth. "Lay down the weapons on this one"? What? When is the right time to take up the weapons of the gospel, David? I'm quite astonished that you write the following.<br />
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"Here’s a call for sheep in the midst of wolves to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). Wisdom isn’t picking a fight whenever we can, but picking the right fight. Yes, we must beware: “they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake” (Matthew 10:17–18), but this is not that day. This is not the issue.<br />
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"There will be real battles to fight — real courts and real judges and real presidents, governors, and legislatures that will continue riding the societal wave of the LGBT agenda. As the seemingly unstoppable train barrels down the tracks at us, we will continue to face excruciatingly tough decisions about when and how to hold our ground and when and if to dive out of the way and live to fight another day."<br />
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Hmmm! Many of us are wondering when the right time to engage the battle will be for many of us desired earnestly in 2012 for our pastors to engage the battle when the real battle was being fought with real legislators and with real voters in Minnesota when we had the opportunity to pass a Constitutional Amendment that would have defined marriage as entailing the union of one man and one woman. Yet obviously the time to take up the weapons of the gospel against the encroachment of the radical homosexual lobby was not then. No! That wasn't the right time to take up the weapons of the gospel, either, so you and John Piper told us and modeled for us by not engaging the battle. Instead of having that Constitutional Amendment endorsed by the citizens of the state, as soon as Leftist Activist Legislators and a Leftist Activist Governor took over the state government in January 2013, they picked up the cause of radical homosexual lobbyists and crammed down our throats their marriage redefinition law, so that now our state embraces their bastardized definition of marriage that includes the bastardized union of same-sex partners. And the fact that it is now the law of the land poses innumerable potential and plausible occasions of state-sponsored persecution of anyone who resists this horrendous law, including our church.<br />
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In this one matter you're right, David. If this were about the A&E show called "Duck Dynasty," it's not worth quacking about. But it's not about "Duck Dynasty." The issue is truth, truth indelibly imprinted by the Creator upon every male and every female. It's the truth of Romans 1:18-32. It's about the idolatry of our society. It's about the wrath of God upon humanity for their idolatry. It's about homosexuality as testimony of God's wrath against humanity for idolatry. Here is an occasion that cries out for solidarity among Christians to stand with a fellow Christian to cry out against wickedness and against persecution. So what if you and I do not spend any time watching "Duck Dynasty"? What does it matter that a Christian brother has been earning his livelihood by way of an entertainment contract with A&E? Would it be more to your liking if Phil Robertson were a plumber, a carpenter, a physician, or in some other vocation more to your liking? Would you then "quack about it"? Would you then "cry fowl"? Would you then not "pass on the decoy"?<br />
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"Lay down the weapons on this one"? No thanks, David. Your advice is wrong, and someone needs to say it. So I'm saying it, and saying it as a member of the same congregation. Step aside. Lay the weapons of the gospel down, if you so choose. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord by picking up the weapons of the gospel in this matter, because it's about the indelible truths imprinted upon us by our Creator.<br />
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Now, where's that petition? I'm going to sign it. Signed!<br />
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Now, you <strong><a href="http://www.nomblog.com/38655/#sthash.tw5vAB7C.dpbs" target="_blank">go sign the petition</a></strong>, but do be convinced in your own mind that it is the right thing to do.<br />
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P.S. David Mathis's, "This Is Not Worth Quacking About!", took quite a lot of heat from FaceBook readers who read John Piper's FB tweet of the blog entry <strong><a href="https://www.facebook.com/JohnPiper/posts/404890016307758" target="_blank">here</a></strong>.</div>
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abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-84735110750975743882013-10-14T08:18:00.003-05:002013-10-14T08:23:56.735-05:00Gentle Reformation Interview on Warnings and Exhortations<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Last week I sat for a podcast interview with Austin Brown and Barry York of Gentle Reformation.</span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” </span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">We are quite comfortable with the above verse, until, of course, we come to that little word “if.” It jumps out at us like a bugbear, startling us, even disturbing us. Why say that, Paul? Why toss in an “if.” It sounds like you’re positing a condition to salvation? Isn’t our salvation secure?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Even more forceful passages could be gathered from the apostolic letters, exhortations warning us of the dire consequences of committing apostasy. The book of Hebrews certainly comes to mind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">So what are we to do with such statements? Brush them under the rug? Explain them away? Perhaps we should just flip the page quickly?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In today’s interview with Dr. Ardel Caneday, co-author of the insightful book <i>The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance</i>, we’ll explore the biblical relationship between promise and warning, assurance and perseverance.</span></div>
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<a href="http://gentlereformation.org/?attachment_id=229874"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Download</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">For myself, I am convinced that Dr. Caneday and Dr. Schreiner have provided the church with an invaluable resource, helping us understand how these two thorny and often polarizing concepts harmonize with one another. If after listening to the interview, you’re interested in learning more, you can find the book online at Amazon. Just click the picture below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Purchase <em><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Race-Set-Before-Perseverance-Assurance/dp/0830815554/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381539437&sr=1-1&keywords=the+race+set+before+us" target="_blank">The Race Set Before Us</a></strong></em>.</span></div>
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abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-47260286413384932342012-03-07T12:11:00.002-06:002012-03-09T07:46:48.989-06:00Rick Warren and the Apostle Paul<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Recently, reports make it clear, by his own testimony, that Rick Warren, pastor of <strong><a href="http://saddleback.com/">Saddleback Church</a></strong> in Lake Forest, CA, eats <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iftar">Iftar</a></strong>. In 2006 Warren and his wife began eating Iftar meals at the Mission Viejo mosque. What is Iftar. Iftar is the evening religious meal that Muslims eat after fasting all day during the month of Ramadan, the month of fasting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Pastor Rick Warren has been </span><a href="http://pastors.com/rick-warren-on-muslims-evangelism-and-missions/"><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">asked</span></strong></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> about his eating Iftar. Warren explains,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It’s called being polite and a good neighbor. For years, we have invited Muslim friends to attend our Easter and Christmas services and they have graciously attended year after year. Some have even celebrated our family’s personal Christmas service in our home. So when they have a potluck when their month of fasting ends, we go to their party. It’s a Jesus thing. The Pharisees criticized him as “the friend of sinners” because Jesus ate dinner with people they disapproved of. By the way, one of my dear friends is a Jewish Rabbi and my family has celebrated Passover at his home, and he attends our Christmas and Easter services. I wish more Christians would reach out in love like Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Pastor Rick Warren receives praise from </span><a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2012/03/02/good-for-rick-warren/"><strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">some outspoken Evangelicals</span></strong></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">, even concerning his eating Iftar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Is Pastor Warren's eating Iftar permissible by Scripture? Do the apostle Paul's directives to the Corinthians permit a follower of Jesus Christ o eat the Muslim religious meal, Iftar? What does Paul say? Ponder carefully <strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2010:14-22&version=NIV">1 Corinthians 10:14-22</a></strong>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Of course, I realize that the Iftar meal does not entail sacrifices offered to idols. Yet, anyone who dismisses applicability of the apostle Paul's instructions to the eating of Iftar because the foods eaten are not actually offered to idols exhibits a kind of "literalism" that the passage does not warrant. To skirt the prohibition by appeal to "literalism" is to violate Paul's instruction. Muslims regard Iftar as a religious meal, a sacred meal, for it is integral to their Ramadan fasting, which is expressly religious. Hence, Paul's apostolic instruction forbids the eating of Iftar by Christians. Does it not?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Now, of course, if we love our Muslim neighbors, we will not eat Iftar with them, as Paul's further instructions make it clear, for the sake of their conscience, not for our own conscience. If we truly seek the good of our Muslim neighbors, which is their salvation, then, according to Paul's directives, we must not eat their religious meal. For when a Muslim declares that a particular meal is "Iftar," does this not fall under Paul's instructions when he says, "But if someone says to you, 'This has been offered in sacrifice,' then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience"?</span><br />
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I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. <span style="font-size: small;">No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I<span style="font-size: small;">f an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. </span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Paul's apostolic instructions seem counterintuitive, given Rick Warren's practice and the practice of many Christians who seek to evangelize Muslims. They eat Iftar in the hope that by doing so they will win their Muslim friends and neighbors to Christ. Paul directs us not to eat meals that are specifically identified as religious meals, whether in the shrine, temple, mosque or home, in order that non-believers might be saved. If Rick Warren desires the salvation of his Muslim neighbors and friends, should he not refrain from eating Iftar, in keeping with the apostolic Scriptures? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As for me and my house, we will follow the apostle Paul's instruction and <strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Cor%2011:1&version=NIV">his example</a></strong>, not Rick Warren's example. As for me and my house, we will not eat Iftar with our Muslim neighbors, though we may eat ordinary meals with them.</span> </div>
</div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-4849881590182273922011-11-29T10:28:00.001-06:002011-11-29T10:28:26.444-06:00ETS Paper Available<p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">The following is from <strong><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/28/a-b-caneday-the-advent-of-god%e2%80%99s-son-as-judgment-in-john%e2%80%99s-gospel-justification-and-condemnation-already/" target="_blank">Credo blog</a></strong>.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">To start off this week we would like to highlight the ETS paper of A. B. Caneday, who is also a weekly contributor to the Credo blog as well as a contributor to the January issue of Credo Magazine, </font><a href="http://www.credomag.com/the-magazine/upcoming-issues/"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"><strong>“In Christ Alone.”</strong></font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> Caneday’s paper is titled: </font><a href="http://www.credomag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/The-Advent-of-God%E2%80%99s-Son-as-Judgment-in-John%E2%80%99s-Gospel-Justification-and-Condemnation-Already.pdf"><strong><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">“The Advent of God’s Son as Judgment in John’s Gospel-Justification and Condemnation Already.”</font></strong></a><font face="Trebuchet MS"><font size="3"> Ardel Caneday (Ph.D., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is Professor of New Testament Studies and Biblical Studies at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has served churches in various pastoral roles, including senior pastor. He has authored numerous journal articles, many essays in books, and has co-authored with Thomas Schreiner the book <em><a href="http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/1885/nm/Race+Set+Before+Us%3A+A+Biblical+Theology+of+Perseverance+%26amp%3B+Assurance?utm_source=mbarrett&utm_medium=blogpartners"><strong>The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance </strong></a></em></font></font><a href="http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/1885/nm/Race+Set+Before+Us%3A+A+Biblical+Theology+of+Perseverance+%26amp%3B+Assurance?utm_source=mbarrett&utm_medium=blogpartners"><strong><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">(Inter-Varsity, 2001)</font></strong></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Caneday begins his paper: </font></p> <blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Despite mistakenly construing John’s Gospel against the backdrop of second-century Gnosticism, skewing his interpretation of the Gospel, Rudolf Bultmann correctly identifies divine judgment as an important aspect of Johannine theology. He observes that Jesus’ activity as “Revealer of God,” whose unitary advent (John 3:19; 9:39) and departure (12:31), is the eschatological event, “<em>the judgment of the world</em>.” According to Bultmann, Jesus’ coming cast the whole κόσμος into κρίσις. Yet, this eschatological judgment “is no dramatic cosmic event, but takes place in the response of men to the word of Jesus.” He contends, “Thus the judgement is not a specially contrived sequel to the coming and the departure of the Son. It is not a dramatic cosmic event which is yet to come and which we must still await. Rather the mission of the Son, complete as it is in his descent and exaltation, <em>is</em> the judgement.”</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Despite holding significant disagreements with Bultmann, New Testament exegetes do not miss the fact that divine judgment figures prominently in John’s Gospel. So, for example, Köstenberger observes, “in an important sense, God’s judgment was already brought about by the light’s coming into the world in the incarnation of the Son (1:14). This coming of the light into the world, in turn, confronts people everywhere with the decision of whether to embrace the light or to go into hiding and persist in darkness.” All who reject God’s Son incur divine judgment, but all who believe in him “escape judgment already in the here and now (5:24), though the final judgment awaits the end of time (5:28-29).”</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">True as this is, arguments to counter or to qualify Bultmann’s insistence that John’s Gospel contends for a “realized eschatology” versus the traditional Jewish end-time eschatology tend to overlook important ramifications of the Last Day’s advance arrival with the advent of the Son of God. The exclusive claim of Peter’s proclamation that “there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) finds expanded expression in the Fourth Gospel.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their works were evil.</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">The life of the Age to Come is resident in and mediated through God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Hence, eternal life, which properly belongs to the coming age, is already present with the incarnation of the Word and is now being imparted to all who believe in God’s Son. Noteworthy as is the advance installment of eternal life, signaling resurrection’s encroachment into the present age, of equal significance is the announcement beforehand of God’s Last Day verdict of judgment, all who believe “are not condemned,” but whoever does not believe “is condemned already.”</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">With his advent, God’s Son already brings forward two correlated acts of God—resurrection and judgment—that belong to the Last Day which consummates the present age and ushers in the Age to Come. The mission of God’s incarnate Son sweeps forward both the wrath of God’s coming judgment now revealed in Christ’s sacrificial death and the gift of God’s resurrection life disclosed in Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead. Because Jesus is the incarnate Son of God, the Father authorized him to have “life in himself” to bestow this life of the coming age to whomever he desires in advance of the day of resurrection and to set in motion execution of the coming judgment upon both those who believe and those who do not (John 3:16-19; 5:21-29). Johannine scholars affirm these emphases. Yet, lacking within discussions of the Fourth Gospel’s emphasis upon the present arrival of future resurrection and judgment in the person of Jesus Christ is development of John’s doctrine of justification, expressed with neither the verb δικαιόω nor the noun δικαίωσις but through less direct but no less emphatic expressions. In these expressions the affirmative is emphatically stated by negating its opposite so that “are not condemned” and “do not come into condemnation” bear the sense, “most assuredly justified.”</font></p> </blockquote> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Read </font><a href="http://www.credomag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Ardel-Canedays-entire-ETS-paper.pdf"><strong><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Ardel Caneday’s entire ETS paper</font></strong></a><font face="Trebuchet MS"><font size="3"><strong>.</strong> </font></font></p> abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-50530971601283880582011-11-04T15:34:00.001-05:002011-11-04T15:35:29.435-05:00Five Mottos from the Reformation<p><strong>By A. B. Caneday</strong></p> <p><a href="http://www.credomag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/solas1.jpeg"><img title="solas" alt="" src="http://www.credomag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/solas1.jpeg" width="436" height="290" /></a></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Deriving from the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century five Latin phrases— <em>sola scripture</em>, <em>sola gratia</em>, <em>sola fide</em>, <em>solus Christus</em>, and <em>soli Deo gloria</em>—have summarized the principal Christian teachings that the Reformers proclaimed in their endeavors to bring reform to the church. What do these five Latin phrases mean?</font></p> <h5 align="justify"><font face="Trebuchet MS"><font size="3"><strong><em>Sola Scriptura</em></strong><strong> (“by Scripture alone”)</strong></font></font></h5> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">The English translation of the Latin indicates that the phrase is to be understood to mean the instrument by which God discloses himself gracious to redeem humanity is solely Scripture. The Bible is the Word of God, given through the Holy Spirit, the only authoritative source for teachings concerning Christian faith and practice. The Reformers used this expression, <em>sola scriptura</em>, to distill their firm conviction against the prevailing teaching of the church at that time. The phrase captures their affirmation that the Bible alone is the ultimate and final authority concerning God’s redeeming will. Neither the pope, nor the church, nor the traditions of the church, nor even the councils of the church are privileged to hold final sway over Christ’s church concerning what is to be believed and practiced as Christians. Scripture alone holds final authority concerning faith and the nurturing of faith. Whatever other authorities that God has established in this world—whether church, state, family, or any other—they are to be subject to Scripture. To whatever degree other authorities teach or practice contrary to the Scriptures, they are to be judged by the Bible and reproved accordingly.</font></p> <h5 align="justify"><font face="Trebuchet MS"><font size="3"><strong><em>Sola gratia</em></strong><strong> (“by grace alone”)</strong></font></font></h5> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Again, the English translation of the Latin, with the word “by,” shows that this phrase indicates that grace is God’s appointed instrumentality by which he saves sinners. Because salvation comes “by grace alone,” humans are powerless to lay any claim upon God’s gift of salvation. God is not moved to be gracious to sinners by their foolish and futile notions that they have power to accrue merited favor with him. Indeed, God does save sinners, but he does so as it pleases him. God is not moved to save anyone by anything external to his own gracious will. God alone acts to save sinners by grace alone. To confess that God’s salvation is received “by grace alone” is to deny that human stratagems, devices, methods, and techniques are, in themselves, powerless to give birth to faith or to bring about salvation. Grace alone brought to bear upon us through the Holy Spirit who brings us to Christ is God’s way of showing himself glorious in our salvation. Thus, <em>by grace alone</em> God calls forth from their spiritual tombs utterly helpless sinners who are as dead and senseless in their sins as was Lazarus’s stinking corpse in the tomb. By grace alone God breathes into sinners the breath of eternal life.</font></p> <h5 align="justify"><font face="Trebuchet MS"><font size="3"><strong><em>Sola Fide</em></strong><strong> (“by faith alone”)</strong></font></font></h5> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Of the five Latin catchphrases, perhaps the most misunderstood and disputed is <em>sola fide</em>. For the Reformers it was not sufficient to affirm that salvation is <em>sola gratia</em>, by grace alone, for many of their Roman Catholic contemporaries agreed. Martin Luther’s published debate with Desiderius Erasmus makes clear the Reformers’ insistence upon affirming <em>sola fide</em>. Erasmus contended against Luther by arguing that God’s offered “rewards” are <em>merited</em>, that the reward of eternal life is <em>earned</em>. He insisted that salvation is received not “by grace alone,” but because of “free choice,” <em>human merit</em> attaches to faith with the result that <em>human worthiness</em> in addition to faith receives the reward of eternal life. Against Erasmus, Luther reasoned from Scripture (<em>sola scriptura</em>) that eternal life as promised <em>reward</em> to everyone whose obedient faith in Christ perseveres indicates God’s <em>gracious</em> <em>ordered sequence</em> of salvation, not the <em>merited cause</em> of salvation. Luther contended that God established that belief and unbelief should have their fitting consequences.</font><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_edn1"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[i]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> Calvin agrees with Luther when he states, “Nothing is clearer than that a reward is promised for good works to relieve the weakness of our flesh by some comfort but not to puff up our heart with vainglory. Whoever, then, deduces merit of works from this, or weighs works and reward together, wanders very far from God’s own plan.”</font><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_edn2"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[ii]</font></a></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Given Luther’s and Calvin’s shared belief, it is necessary to guard against a misunderstanding of <em>sola fide</em> that would eviscerate faith, virtually reducing it to a solitary act of naked assent.</font><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_edn3"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[iii]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> In order to avoid any perceived intrusion of merit into salvation, some Evangelicals take the word “alone” (<em>sola</em>), in the Protestant motto, “justified by faith alone,” as an adjective that describes <em>faith</em> itself.</font><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_edn4"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[iv]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> The result is that they contend that <em>faith in its solitariness</em> justifies. This is quite different from historic Protestant understanding which takes <em>alone</em> as an adverb to describe <em>how we are justified</em> rather than as an adjective describing <em>faith as solitary</em>.</font><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_edn5"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[v]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> Thus, to avoid mistaking <em>alone</em> as describing faith—“faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17)—it is not uncommon for Evangelicals to explain, “We are justified by faith <em>alone</em>, but the faith that justifies is never <em>alone</em>.”</font><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_edn6"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[vi]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> By this, Evangelicals mean, “We are <em>justified</em> <em>only</em> by faith.” Naked or dead faith does not justify anyone (James 2:17). Only an active or obedient faith justifies (2:18; Gal. 5:6). Not faith itself but the one in whom faith is anchored justifies. Thus, <em>sola fide</em> is inseparably linked with <em>solus Christus</em>.</font></p> <h5 align="justify"><font face="Trebuchet MS"><font size="3"><strong><em>Solus Christus</em></strong><strong> (“Christ alone”) or <em>Solo Christo</em> (“by Christ alone”)</strong></font></font></h5> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">God justifies believers not because of what faith is nor because of obedience that inescapably accompanies faith, but because of Christ Jesus in whom obedient faith rests with full confidence and assurance. It is not the reliability of faith itself that justifies. Only the reliability of faith’s object, Jesus Christ, grounds one’s justification before God (Rom. 3:21-26). Thus, the Reformers insisted upon <em>solus Christus</em>, that salvation comes to humans by Christ alone, the only mediator between God and humans. The resurrected Christ who was crucified, no human priest through the sacraments, serves as the mediator of God’s grace and forgiveness. <em>Solus Christus</em>, then, was the Reformation motto that repudiated errors that became attached to Christ’s sacrificial death. <em>Solus Christus</em> denounces the fiction that humans can accrue merits that add to Christ’s sufficient atoning sacrifice and the fallacy that earthly priests mediate God’s grace and forgiveness of sins. Christ’s substitutionary atonement is sufficient alone for our justification; any intrusion of human merit falsifies the true gospel of grace.</font></p> <h5 align="justify"><font face="Trebuchet MS"><font size="3"><strong><em>Soli Deo gloria</em></strong><strong> (“glory to God alone”)</strong></font></font></h5> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Each of the previous Latin mottos finds its summation in this, the fifth Reformation motto: <em>soli Deo gloria</em>, which means “to God alone be the glory.” Because the Reformers believed that salvation is all of grace, that salvation is initiated solely by God, that salvation is accomplished solely by God through his Son, Jesus Christ, and that salvation is received solely through faith brought to life by the Holy Spirit, they insisted that all glory is due to God alone. The Reformers agreed with the apostle Paul, “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36). Therefore, “to God alone be the glory.”</font></p> <p align="justify"><em><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">Soli Deo gloria</font></em></p> <div align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /></font></div> <p align="justify"><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_ednref1"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[i]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> “The reason why the future consequences of a good and bad life are declared in the Scriptures is that men might be instructed, disturbed, awakened and terrified. . . . [S]o by these promises and threats comes a warning of what follows upon the sin and impotence which the law has pointed out—but they do not ascribe any worthiness to out merit. Wherefore, as the words of the law serve their turn by instruction and illumination, to teach us both what we ought to do and what we cannot do, so the words of reward, signifying what is to be, serve their turn by exhorting and threatening, and animate, comfort and uphold the godly to press on, persevere and triumph, in doing good and enduring evil, lest they should be wearied, or their spirit broken.” (Martin Luther, <em>The Bondage of the Will</em>, trans. J. I. Packer & O. R. Johnston [London: James Clarke & Co.; Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1957], 183).</font></p> <p align="justify"><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_ednref2"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[ii]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> John Calvin, <em>Institutes</em>, 1.3.18.4.</font></p> <p align="justify"><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_ednref3"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[iii]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> This caution may seem like an exaggeration, but it is not, for some Evangelicals insist that saving faith <em>is not actively trusting Christ Jesus</em>. Charles Stanley affirms, “Even if a believer for all practical purposes becomes an unbeliever, his salvation is not in jeopardy” (<em>Eternal Security</em>, 74). Likewise, R. T. Kendall insists, “‘What if a person who is saved falls into sin, stays in sin, and is found in that very condition when he dies? Will he still go to heaven?’ The answer is yes” (<em>Once Saved, Always Saved</em>, 50-51).</font></p> <p align="justify"><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_ednref4"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[iv]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> The confusion seems to stem from Martin Luther’s translation of Romans 3:28 into German. Even though the Greek text of the passage does include any equivalent word, Luther inserted <em>alone</em> into his translation: “So we now hold that a man is justified by faith <em>alone</em> apart from the works of the law.” By translating the passage this way, he created what seems to be a contradiction with James 2:24, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith <em>alone</em>.” In James 2:24, <em>alone</em> is an adverb that describes how justification takes place; justification takes place not by <em>faith alone</em> but by <em>faith that entails deeds</em>. Luther explains that he added “alone” (<em>allein</em>, German), to make Paul’s argument clear (Steven Paulson, <em>Luther for Armchair Theologians</em> [Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004], 158). Unfortunately, instead of clarifying, the addition introduces persistent confusion to the motto, <em>sola fide</em> (“justification by faith alone”).</font></p> <p align="justify"><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_ednref5"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[v]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> For example, the Westminster Confession affirms: “Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love” (XI, On Justification). It is noteworthy that The Westminster Confession includes Galatians 5:6 and James 2:17, 22 and 26 as biblical support, for these are passages that Roman Catholic scholars routinely used to object to the Protestant doctrine of justification, a teaching they misunderstood.</font></p> <p align="justify"><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/#_ednref6"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">[vi]</font></a><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS"> This clarifies that the accepted sense of <em>alone</em> is an adverb, describing <em>how one is justified</em>, and the rejected sense of <em>alone</em> as an adjective, portraying faith as naked and void, is precisely the kind of faith that James exposes as false (James 2:17).</font></p> <p align="justify"><font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS">First published at <strong><a href="http://www.credomag.com/2011/11/02/five-christian-mottos-from-the-reformation/" target="_blank">Credo Blog</a></strong>.</font></p> abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-69989370614213765592011-09-29T08:35:00.002-05:002011-09-29T08:40:52.378-05:00Eighth Printing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.ivpress.com/img/book/218h/1555.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.ivpress.com/img/book/218h/1555.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
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<em> <a href="http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=1555"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Race Set Before Us</span></a></em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: large;"> is now in its 8th printing. Thanks to all our friends who have purchased, read, and promoted the book.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: large;">Click <strong><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48475797?utm_medium=api&utm_source=reviews_widget">here</a></strong> for a succinct review.</span></div>
abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-63025005968685459732011-09-11T11:49:00.000-05:002011-09-11T11:54:31.173-05:00Victor Victorious.<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here is a touching story of quite a brief race run well: <strong><a href="http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_18847692?source=rss">Victor Lost His Life, But His Love Will Last</a></strong>. Victor's adoptive parents and family are members of Bethlehem Baptist Church.</span><br />
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<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="1"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="2"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="3"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="4"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,</span></td><td align="right" valign="top"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="5"><i> </i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="6"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="7"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="8"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="9"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="10"><i> </i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="11"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="12"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="" name="13"> </a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.</span></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-5463215678531975892011-08-03T09:12:00.001-05:002011-08-03T09:13:16.210-05:00A Review of The Race Set Before Us on Amazon.com<p align="justify">Here is the most recent <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Race-Set-Before-Perseverance-Assurance/product-reviews/0830815554/ref=dp_db_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1" target="_blank">review on Amazon.com</a></strong>. I cannot take time to interact with it now. I may do so later.</p> <p align="justify">By <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2G95HWG4FGTUV/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp">Samuel Kilada "Sam"</a> (OR, USA) - <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A2G95HWG4FGTUV/ref=cm_cr_pr_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview">See all my reviews</a> <br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=cm_rn_bdg_help?ie=UTF8&nodeId=14279681&pop-up=1#RN">(REAL NAME)</a></p> <p align="justify"><b>Amazon Verified Purchase</b>(<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/amazon-verified-purchase">What's this?</a>)</p> <p align="justify"><b>This review is from: The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance & Assurance (Paperback)</b></p> <p align="justify">The Race Set Before Us is a book which, after reading the introduction, I was excited to dive into. I had strongly agreed with Schreiner in his defense of the penal substitution view in The Nature of the Atonement (though with slight modification, which I will not go into here). Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed in reading his and Caneday's argument here. Though there were a couple of shining moments, there were three major problems in this work that, as a result, have prevented their argument from convincing me: 1) Logical fallacies, 2) a considerable amount of hypocrisy, and 3) the redundant nature of their argumentation. <br /></p> <p align="justify">1) Unfortunately, the fallacy the authors made concerns their main argument. It was the authors' primary concern to establish the fact that warnings in the Bible are not a sign that a person could possibly fall away: "Paying heed to the admonitions does not...threaten assurance but is the pathway by which assurance is maintained" (308). The logical problem here is obvious. Essentially, this makes the warnings in the Bible from God comparable to a father saying to a child, "Don't touch the sun; it will burn you!" To say that the warning to not touch the sun prevents the child from touching it is not simply superfluous; it is ridiculous. Since the author's say that the warnings prevent believers from falling away, they would have to contend that, should a regenerate believer happen to never read those specific warning verses, such a person could fall away. </p> <p align="justify">2) The hypocrisy the authors commit relates to their point that we should not try to impose the warnings in scripture over the promises in scripture, so that we lose our assurance of salvation (205). This is a valid claim, but is not the issue. The problem is that the authors do the same thing, only in the opposite way. They impose the promises of scripture on the warnings, so that the warnings become exactly how I described them above: nonsensical and superfluous. For the authors, promise overrides warning, but they deny any attempt to claim the opposite, saying instead that "the two stand compatibly together" (205). </p> <p align="justify">3) Even in those beginning portions when my optimism toward the book was high, I was still bogged down by the method the authors used in writing the work, for three reasons. First, they were highly redundant; they seemed to make each of their points several times, and then even came back to them again later. The argumentation could have been made more effectively in half the space. Secondly, the amount of details and side-arguments seemed way over the top, making it difficult to follow their line of thought. Finally, the book has a negative tone because they spend so much space refuting other views. While it is important to do this in moderation, they were often guilty of creating straw-man arguments. Sometimes they refuted other views by means of their own feelings, saying something to the effect that the opposing view did not offer a true sense of assurance to them. But we should use logic and not emotion to argue our points.</p> <p align="justify">Even with these problems, the authors did make some good points. The here and not-yet aspects of salvation were generally very well presented, and they took the right position that it is not up to us to determine the salvation of other people (309-310). At least in the first chapter, they did a good job at presenting the opposing four views fairly. It is not as if I learned nothing from reading this book; it certainly helped me clarify my own views on salvation. Nevertheless, the three main problems given above have left me unconvinced.</p> abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-20011217027130593452011-07-18T11:11:00.002-05:002011-07-18T11:13:31.835-05:00Horatius Bonar and the Apostle Paul on the Saving of the Minister of the Gospel<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4a0000;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4a0000;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1f2434;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Scottish pastor, </span><a href="http://www.stempublishing.com/hymns/biographies/bonar.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Horatius Bonar</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> (1808-1889)</span></span></div>
</span></span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: #4a0000;">"..<b>.if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and
the people are not warned,</b> and the sword comes and takes any person from
among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at
the watchman’s hand.’ ... I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel;
therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me." Ezekiel
33:6-7</span></em></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1f2434; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Some one, then, must undertake the ungracious
task of probing and <b>laying bare the evils of the age</b>; for men must not be
allowed to congratulate themselves that all is well. If others will not, he
will. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1f2434; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">If others shrink from the obloquy of such a
work, he will not.... He loves his fellow-men too well. They may upbraid him;
they may call him a misanthropist, or a prophet of evil; they may ascribe his
warnings to the worst of motives, such as pride, or arrogance, or self-esteem,
or malice, or envy; but he will give no heed to these unjust insinuations.
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1f2434;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="goog_qs-tidbit-0">He will prefer
being thus misunderstood and maligned, to allowing men to precipitate themselves
upon a ruin which they see not. Rather than that they should perish, he will
allow his own good name to be spoken against. He will risk every thing, even the
hatred of brethren, rather than withhold the warning.</span> <u><em>If they give no
heed to it, he has, at least, saved his own soul. If they do, he has saved both
his own soul and theirs.</em></u></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1f2434; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">He would rather take up the glad tidings of
peace, and tell men of Him who came the first time for shame and death, and who
is coming the second time for glory and dominion; but he feels as one who has a
special and personal message to deliver, which cannot be postponed. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1f2434; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">He must remember that he is a watchman; and,
having seen danger pressing on, he must not hesitate to make it known. He must
speak his message of forewarning and rebuke, sparing no arrows, and neither
smoothing down nor hiding any form of sin, but laying his finger upon every
sore, and beseeching men to turn from their ungodliness. The evils around him
press upon him sadly; the coming evils are foreshadowed upon his spirit, and,
therefore, he lifts up his voice like a trumpet.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1f2434; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Satan has many snares which need to be
detected; the world has many spells and lures which must be disenchanted;
religion has many guises which must be unmasked, many devious paths of
inconsistency which must be pointed out, many cherished errors which must be
condemned, many carnal taints which must be abhorred and shunned. All these he
must protest against without fear or favour." </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #1f2434; font-family: Trebuchet MS;">______________________</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br /><span style="color: #1f2434; font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Bonar understood and took to heart the apostle Paul's admonition to Timothy when he writes, "<span style="color: black;">Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers</span>" (<strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20tim%204:15-16&version=NIV">1 Tim. 4:15-16</a></strong>).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1f2434; font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The salvation of the minister of the gospel is bound up with how the minister discharges the duties of the ministry.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1f2434; font-family: Trebuchet MS;">For quote click <strong><a href="http://www.shepherd.to/excerpts/bonar/thy-way.htm">here</a></strong>.</span></div>
abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-66028209786647962812011-06-21T15:01:00.010-05:002011-06-21T16:15:07.676-05:00"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" (Rom. 10:15)<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Dear Friends & Readers,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">If the Lord wills, I shall be ministering the gospel in Bangalore, India, in early to mid-August. P. J. Mathai, President of <strong><a href="http://www.mbbcs.org/" target="_blank">Maranatha Baptist Bible College & Seminary</a></strong>, has invited me to speak at the pastors’ conference to be held August 15-18 at the college and seminary. As I have done in the past (in 2002, 2004, & 2007), I will be ministering with Rev. John Hoeldtke of <strong><a href="http://www.flamemin.com/" target="_blank">FLAME MINISTRIES</a></strong> of Everett, Washington. John has made numerous ministry trips to India as well as to several other countries. In 2002 and 2007 we ministered together at Maranatha Baptist Bible College & Seminary from where we traveled to Kathmandu, Nepal, where we ministered to village pastors for a week at another pastors’ conference.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I will be speaking six times during the three day conference. My messages will be shaped thematically on the chapters contained in </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Race-Set-Before-Perseverance-Assurance/dp/0830815554?ie=UTF8&tag=abcaneday&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969"><strong><em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance & Assurance</span></em></strong></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">, a book I co-authored with Tom Schreiner. During my sabbatical I have been writing a shortened version of the book with eight corresponding chapters. The working title of the book is <strong><em>Let Us Run With Perseverance: A Training Manual for Endurance unto Eternal Life</em></strong>. So, my six messages will derive from my writing during my sabbatical throughout the past academic year.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Costs for this mission trip are considerable. My travel expenses, including airline tickets, will be at least $2500, which does not include various expenses while in India. In late July others will be traveling with John Hoeldtke to India ahead of me. They will be ministering in other cities and villages prior to arriving in Bangalore where I will join them. The policy of FLAME MINISTRIES is to cover costs of all meetings and conferences in India so as not to be a burden on the indigenous churches and Christian leaders. In fact, FLAME MINISTRIES covers all the costs entailed in hosting conferences, thus alleviating the burden that our Indian hosts would otherwise bear. Total costs for FLAME MINISTRIES to carry out this mission to India in July and August will exceed $17,000.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">If you believe the Lord would have you help with the costs of this mission trip, either for my part or for the larger mission or both, please send your contribution to:</span></div><blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">FLAME MINISTRIES <br />
PO Box 3333 <br />
Everett, WA 98213</span></div></blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Funds are needed by <strong>July 18</strong>. If you would like to assist with my personal expenses, please make your check payable to FLAME MINISTRIES and indicate on an accompanying slip of paper that it is for “A. B. Caneday Mission Trip.” FLAME MINISTRIES is an approved non-profit corporation. So, a receipt for your tax-deductible gift will be sent to you. For members of Bethlehem Baptist Church, you may make contributions to help allay my expenses by making a contribution through <strong><a href="http://hopeingod.org/about-us/giving/-financial-info/giving" target="_blank">BBC</a></strong>. If you desire to make a contribution through BBC, please send me a note at <a href="mailto:abcaneday@gmail.com">abcaneday@gmail.com</a>. I will send you a form that will direct you how to submit your gift.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">All of us who will travel to India to minister will greatly appreciate both your contributions that will assist us on our way and your prayers for our health, our safety, and our spiritual effectiveness throughout this mission endeavor.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thank you for considering this invitation to participate in my ministry in India with your monetary gifts and your prayers.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Blessings in Christ!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ardel B. Caneday</span><br />
<br />
</div><div align="justify"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img height="136" src="http://www.mbbcs.org/images/2.jpg" width="400" /></span><br />
<br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img height="136" src="http://www.mbbcs.org/images/3.jpg" width="400" /></span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-88647030429011721162011-06-21T09:46:00.006-05:002011-06-21T20:47:16.901-05:00Essay on Historicity of Adam in Paul's Gospel Is Now Published<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My absence from the virtual world has been due to the importance of projects in the real world. This entry does not necessarily signal greater frequenting of the blogosphere. I do, however, want to let you know that my essay, "<span style="font-family: ArnoPro-Smbd;"><span style="font-family: ArnoPro-Smbd;"><strong><a href="http://draft.blogger.com/goog_1460764490"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span></a><a href="http://www.sbts.edu/resources/files/2011/06/sbjt-v15-n1_caneday.pdf">The Language of God and Adam's Genesis & Historicity in Paul’s Gospel</a></strong>" has been published and is the featured essay in the latest issue of <em>The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology</em>. You may want to download it and read it later, since it is fairly lengthy.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I do hope and pray that this essay will be effective and useful for the strengthening of the faith of Christians everywhere. For anyone who may not have yet noticed, when I write essays for publication, I do so with pastoral concerns in mind. I do so for the establishment of Christian faith.</span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-44516795178852801092011-04-26T22:34:00.000-05:002011-04-26T22:34:05.132-05:00Book of the Year 2010<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>Mit Ausharren laufen</em> (<em>The Race Set Before Us</em>) was name Betanien-Buch des Jahres 2010 (Book of the Year 2010).</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">See <strong><a href="http://www.cbuch.de/product_info.php/info/p2804_Schreiner---Caneday--Mit-Ausharren-laufen.html">here</a></strong>.</span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-41086897981430492242011-04-26T22:06:00.001-05:002011-04-27T19:08:43.874-05:00Know German? Enjoy!<div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f0lyoRzqRfQ/TZoSxs4vZ-I/AAAAAAAAAF0/ZQI1Airsv-s/s400/ausharren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200px" i8="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f0lyoRzqRfQ/TZoSxs4vZ-I/AAAAAAAAAF0/ZQI1Airsv-s/s200/ausharren.jpg" width="132px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Peter Voth has been blogging concerning <strong><em>The Race Set Before Us</em></strong>, or actually, <em><strong>Mit Ausharren Laufen</strong></em>. Thus far, Peter has posted four blog entries. Enjoy!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://reformatorisch.blogspot.com/2011/04/gemeinsam-lesen-mit-ausharren-laufen-1.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Gemeinsam lesen: Mit Ausharren laufen #1</strong></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://reformatorisch.blogspot.com/2011/04/gemeinsam-lesen-mit-ausharren-laufen-2.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Gemeinsam lesen: Mit Ausharren laufen #2</strong></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://reformatorisch.blogspot.com/2011/04/gemeinsam-lesen-mit-ausharren-laufen-3.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Gemeinsam lesen: Mit Ausharren laufen #3</strong></span></a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><a href="http://reformatorisch.blogspot.com/2011/04/gemeinsam-lesen-mit-ausharren-laufen-4.html">Gemeinsam lesen: Mit Ausharren laufen #4</a></strong></span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></strong> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">It's heartening to see that Thabiti Anyabwile has nicely recommended <em>The Race Set Before Us</em> <strong><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/thabitianyabwile/2011/04/25/run-the-race/?comments#comments">here</a></strong>.</span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-24564261762311113172011-04-16T10:17:00.006-05:002011-04-16T13:27:40.883-05:00Martin Luther on Why the word 'reward' is used so frequently in Scripture<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Many Christians have developed an entire doctrine that isolates salvation from "reward," eternal life from "crown," or entrance into the kingdom of God from "inheritance" of the kingdom on the premise that if these pairs are comingled, merit intrudes into grace, costliness of earning merges with God's free gift. Folks who have fabricated this doctrine, which I have addressed numerous times elsewhere on this blog and in published works, style themselves as the true adherents to the teachings of the Reformers, John Calvin and Martin Luther. They do this, of course, contrary to the facts, for anyone who has actually taken time to read what these Reformers affirm in their works realize that they teach that eternal life is the crown, that salvation is the reward to be received in the Last Day.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In fact, those who insist that Scripture's use of "reward," of "crown," of "inheritance," and similar imagery proves that merit is involved in human obedience and perseverance actually join ranks with those folks Martin Luther called the Papists. This is precisely the argument that Luther is countering in his response to Erasmus in the portion I excerpt below.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Yesterday, during my writing on the issue, I had occasion to be reminded of the following excerpt from Luther's response to Erasmus in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bondage-Will-Martin-Luther/dp/1603863931?ie=UTF8&tag=abcaneday&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969"><em><strong>The Bondage of the Will</strong></em></a> (183-184) which I accessed. When I first read the book more than thirty years ago I underlined and marked this portion and others as highly significant.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">What then is the meaning of all those Scriptrues which promise the kingdom and threaten hell? Why is the word 'reward' repeated so often in the Scriptures? 'There is a reward for thy work' (2 Chron. 15.7). 'I am thy exceeding great reward' (Gen. 15.1). Again: 'Who rendereth to every man according to his work' (cf. Job 34.11). And Paul says in Rom. 2: 'To those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek eternal life' (v. 7); and there are many similar statements. The answer is that what is established by all these passages is simply a <em>consequence of reward</em>, not in any way a <em>worthiness of merit</em>; inasmuch as those who do good do not do so in a servile, mercenary spirit, whith a view to gaining eternal life--although they seek eternal life in the sense that they are in the way by which they will find and attain eternal life; so that their 'seeking' is an earnest striving and diligent endeavour after that which regularly follows upon a good life. The reason why the future consequences of a good and bad life are declared in the Scriptures is that men might be instructed, disturbed, awakened and terrified. As 'by the law is the knowledge of sin,' and instruction concerning our impotence--by which, however, it is not implied that we ourselves can do anything; so by these promises and threats comes a warning of what follows upon the sin and impotence which the law has pointed out--but they do not ascribe any worthiness to our merit. Wherefore, as the words of the law serve their turn by instruction and illumination, to teach us both what we ought to do and what we cannot do, so the words of reward, signifying what is to be, serve their turn by exhorting and threatening, and animate, comfort and uphold the godly to press on, persevere and triumph indoing good and enduring evil, lest they should be wearied, or their spirit broken. So Paul exhorts his Corinthian converts, saying: 'Quit you like men, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord' (cf. 1 Cor. 16.13, 15.58). So also God upholds Abraham, saying: 'I am thy exceeding great reward' (Gen. 15.1). It is just as if you were to comfort someone by intimating to him that his works certainly please God. This is a kind of consolation which Scripture often employs. And it is no small consolation to know that one pleases God, so that nothing untoward can follow, impossible though that may seem to be.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I could significantly extend the citation, but to do so would be superfluous. The entire book is available online such as <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=4CkBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+bondage+of+the+will&lr=&ei=wrCpTanKM4uqNrmsmI4M&cd=13#v=onepage&q&f=false"><strong>here</strong></a>, for anyone who wants to confirm that Luther actually wrote these things. So anyone may read the book without purchasing it, albeit, the link leads to an earlier translation than the one I hold in my library. This is my version of <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Martin-Luther-Bondage-Will-Johnston/dp/B00279WY92?ie=UTF8&tag=abcaneday&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">The Bondage of the Will</a></em></strong>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Let it be known, thus, that when I make the claim that Tom Schreiner and I present the classic doctrine concerning warnings and admonitions in <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Race-Set-Before-Perseverance-Assurance/dp/0830815554?ie=UTF8&tag=abcaneday&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">The Race Set Before Us</a></em></strong>, I have solid basis for making the claim. Not only does John Calvin agree with us, if you can bear the anachronism, Martin Luther does also. For additional extensive quotes that show that what we affirm is Classic Reformed teaching, see <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Run-Win-Prize-Perseverance-Testament/dp/1433514362?ie=UTF8&tag=abcaneday&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Run to Win the Prize</a></em></strong> by Tom Schreiner.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-60061695564561560032011-04-15T13:05:00.004-05:002011-04-15T13:06:35.160-05:00A Great Parody of Rob Bell<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Have you seen this parody produced by Doug Wilson? Compare the two videos. Take note of the text, filming, and music. For example, the parody speaker is a kind of converse of Bell--big with bushy hair, not a small-framed guy with shaved head. Both have similar glasses. (via Doug Huffman)</span><br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="225" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/21895447?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=ffffff" width="500"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/21895447">Robbed Hell - C.A.S.T. Pearls Presents</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/canonwired">Canon Wired</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-90330541862542267402011-02-26T14:51:00.004-06:002011-03-02T07:30:17.741-06:00“Already” but “Not Yet,” Not Contrary to the Law of Non-Contradiction<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">It occurred to me that my response to a comment <strong><a href="http://ntexegesis.blogspot.com/2011/02/portion-excised-from-already-too-long.html#comments">here</a></strong> would be instructive for readers of this blog, given recent postings <strong><a href="http://trsbu.blogspot.com/2011/02/eternal-life-both-gods-gift-and-reward.html" target="_blank">here</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://trsbu.blogspot.com/2011/02/portion-excised-from-already-too-long.html" target="_blank">here</a></strong>. The portion of my response, which I post here with some additional material, concerns a quote attributed to F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote, </span></div><blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function (<em><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Crack-Up-F-Scott-Fitzgerald/dp/0811218201/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298752830&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Crack-Up</a></strong></em>, 1936).</span></div></blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">I regard Fitzgerald’s statement a classic example of denying the law of non-contradiction. Therefore, it hardly describes what I affirm concerning justification [eternal life, redemption, salvation, et al.], both already and not yet, in the <strong><a href="http://ntexegesis.blogspot.com/2011/02/portion-excised-from-already-too-long.html#comments" target="_blank">blog entry</a></strong> to which the comment is attached. I do not "hold two opposed ideas in [my] mind at the same time" in any of what I posted in my blog entries linked above.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">I firmly believe in the law of non-contradiction. I also believe that Jesus believes in the law of non-contradiction. I still believe that two antithetical propositions cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense. I still believe that Y cannot be non-Y. This is crucial for understanding what I am affirming in my blog entry.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">As I state in my entry <strong><a href="http://trsbu.blogspot.com/2011/02/portion-excised-from-already-too-long.html" target="_blank">here</a></strong>, <i>Christ’s first advent sweeps forward two correlated acts of God from the Last Day—resurrection and judgment.</i></span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">Therefore, all the biblical imageries that portray salvation in Christ, whether salvation, eternal life, resurrection, judgment, justification, et al., have their framework of <i><b>already come</b></i> but <i><b>not yet consummated</b></i> fully oriented to the two-phase coming of God’s Son. Thus, his coming with two distinguishable phases locates, determines, and defines the <i><b>already</b></i> and the <i><b>not yet</b></i> aspects of salvation, of eternal life, of resurrection, of judgment, of justification, et al.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="center"><strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">Christ Jesus </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;"><i>is come </i></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;"><i>already; </i></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;"><i>not yet </i></span></strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;"><strong><i>come</i> is Jesus Christ.</strong> </span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">It is self-evident that in order for these two statements, arranged in a chiasm, to be truthful, the second affirmation cannot mean that Jesus Christ is “not yet come” in precisely the same way and in the same sense that the first statement asserts that he “is come already.” Such an assertion would be irrational. The Scriptures are not irrational but they do present Christ’s two-phase coming in riddle-like form that beckons understanding that requires belief.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">Jesus presents such a riddle when he announces, “Truly, truly, I say to you, <i>an hour is coming, and is now here</i>, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25).” Because, Jesus has “life in himself” and authoritatively claims, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 5:26; 11:25), he issues his riddle: Resurrection <i>is come already</i>; <i>not yet come</i> is resurrection. It is a riddle, but it is not contradictory. It is not contradictory because Jesus' second affirmation does not mean that <em>resurrection is not yet come</em> in the same way and in the same sense that his first affirmation declares that <em>resurrection</em> <em>is come already</em>. Jesus' riddle does not violate the law of non-contradiction. Contradiction is only in the mind of the one who accuses the riddle of contradiction. The mind that imputes contradiction to Jesus' riddle fails both to believe and to understand.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: small;">Jesus’ riddle calls for belief. Understanding comes through faith. Yet, many Christians find it difficult to hold in proper balance this biblical tension that Christ’s two-phase coming gives to the salvation that he has <em>already inaugurated</em> but has <em>not yet consummated</em>. Instead of reconciling their beliefs and thinking to Scripture’s portrayal of salvation as a single integrated whole that Christ brings to his people in two aspects or phases—<i>already</i> and <i>not yet</i>—because the tension seems unbearable, many Evangelicals adjust Scripture’s portrayal to fit their shrunken conception of salvation. They tend to grasp hold of the <i>already aspect</i> as from grace and exaggerate it out of biblical proportion. And they tend to recast the <i>not yet aspect</i> as a non-integrated and non-essential phase of salvation but instead regard it as a bonus earned by only some believers who through their own achievement merit a reward.</span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-62813684474645041502011-02-25T07:25:00.002-06:002011-02-25T07:26:06.647-06:00A Portion Excised from an Already Too Long Essay<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Christ’s first advent sweeps forward two correlated acts of God from the Last Day—resurrection and judgment.</span><a href="file:///I:/Ardel's%20Essays/ETS%202010%20Atlanta/#_ftn1_4769" name="_ftnref1_4769"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">[1]</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Paul’s gospel orients everyone to Christ’s cross, as the display of God’s wrath against sin (Rom. 3:21-31), and his resurrection, as God’s vindication of his Son (Rom. 1:4; 4:25; 1 Tim. 3:16), both indivisibly as the advance visitation of God’s courtroom of the Great Assize at the end of the age. The gospel message does not transport humans into the future courtroom of heaven to hear God’s verdict of condemnation or justification. Rather, the gospel announces that with the coming of Christ, God has revealed the verdict of his Last Day courtroom in advance in the crucifixion and resurrection of his Son: wrath and justification. So, believers, in union with Christ in his death and resurrection, enter the new creation, ahead of time, by way of mutual crucifixion in Christ—the world to believers and believers to the world (Gal. 6:14-15). In the gospel, God announces that he has <i>already</i> thrust his verdict—condemned or justified—forward from the Day of Judgment, which has<i> not yet</i> come, into the present with the advent of his Son (cf. John 3:16-21).</span><a href="file:///I:/Ardel's%20Essays/ETS%202010%20Atlanta/#_ftn2_4769" name="_ftnref2_4769"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">[2]</span></a></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">So, according to Paul’s gospel, each of the diverse and rich imageries he employs—whether salvation or eternal life or resurrection or justification—portrays God’s saving power in Christ as piercing the darkness of this present evil age as revealed light emanating from the Last Day back into time, featuring Christ Jesus whose crucifixion is God’s demonstration of his righteousness by subjecting him to wrath in order to judge sin in advance of the final judgment and in order that all who are in him might be justified (Rom. 3:21-31). His death is God’s judgment of sin for all who believe. His resurrection is life for the same ones (Rom. 4:25), for his resurrection is God’s justifying declaration of Jesus Christ to be the Powerful Son of God (Rom. 1:4; cf. 1 Tim. 3:16; Acts 13:33), securing God’s justifying verdict for his people, already being proclaimed in the gospel in advance of the Last Day.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">For Paul, justification is singular with discernible but indivisible aspects or phases, both <i>now</i> and <i>not yet</i>. He agrees with other New Testament writers that salvation, the kingdom of God, redemption, eternal life, resurrection, adoption, forgiveness of sins, justification, et al., are terms that depict two inseparable but distinguishable phases of both <i>already</i> and <i>not yet</i>. No more division exists between present and future aspects of justification than between first quarter and last quarter phases of the moon. It is the same and singular moon with distinguishable and discernible phases or aspects. Likewise, whether Paul speaks of justification <i>now</i> or <i>not yet</i>, it is the same and singular justification with distinguishable aspects, one present, the other future.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></div><div align="justify"><a href="file:///I:/Ardel's%20Essays/ETS%202010%20Atlanta/#_ftnref1_4769" name="_ftn1_4769"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">[1]</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> See especially Vos, <i>The Pauline Eschatology</i>, 73ff, 261ff.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><a href="file:///I:/Ardel's%20Essays/ETS%202010%20Atlanta/#_ftnref2_4769" name="_ftn2_4769"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">[2]</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> N. T. Wright is at his best when he makes this same argument: “The bringing of the future verdict forward into the present world is rooted, grounded, rock-bottom established on the brining of the Messiah forward into the-present, more specifically, on the extraordinary, unprecedented and unimagined fact of the <i>resurrection itself</i> coming forward into the present. The Messiah is not simply a figure who will emerge at the very end. Resurrection is no longer simply a last-day event in which God will raise all his people. Messiah and resurrection are middle-of-history events in which God has come to inaugurate his kingdom, his sovereign, saving rule of all creation. In and through the Messiah, God has dealt with the whole problematic fact of idolatry, sin and death and so has begun, in the Messiah’s resurrection, the new creation which is the great new Fact standing in the middle of time, space and human culture” (<em>Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision </em>[Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2009]<em>, </em>, 215).</span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-22564841711755260292011-02-12T12:09:00.006-06:002011-02-13T12:55:36.399-06:00Perseverance and Child Rearing<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Do you have dealings with adults who are cruel to others where they have power and sulky where they have none? Do you encounter men and women who are are overbearing, rude, manipulating, and untruthful? It is likely that you have encountered an adult whose parents exercised hate instead of love in their haphazard and unprincipled discipline of their children. </span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Many of the great difficulties that we run into with our adult peers are directly due to the fact that so many of these peers were reared by their parents to become brats in the workplace, in the home, on the highways, in fact, wherever they may be. Why? Their parents did not love them but hated them. What? What a shocking thing to say! Really? Do we believe God or do we not? Do we believe that God's Word is truthful or not? Do we really believe God's Word when it says, "Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him" (<strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=prov%2013:24&version=ESV">Prov. 13:24</a></strong>)? </span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Disciplining children is much more difficult than many parents would have others believe, given their hatred for their children which they mistake for love. Disciplining children is much easier than most parents believe or realize, if only they would embrace the wisdom of Scripture and consistently and lovingly apply it.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">When my wife and I became parents for the first time we were determined not to discipline our son as we observed other parents doing, which entailed endless threats but never followed by punishment. Likewise, we were committed to rear our son without the tendency toward austerity which characterized how many parents disciplined when the two of us were children. We were entirely convinced that we were obligated, as Christian parents, to adhere to and to practice the principles of child rearing that Scripture teaches. So, of course, all of Scripture, but especially the Proverbs, regulated our parenting. We read Bruce Ray's <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Withhold-Not-Correction-Bruce-Ray/dp/0875524001?ie=UTF8&tag=abcaneday&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Withhold Not Correction</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=abcaneday&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0875524001" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px! important; padding-left: 0px! important; padding-right: 0px! important; padding-top: 0px! important;" width="1" /></em></strong> which was instructional for us, guiding us, correcting us, and encouraging us.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Because we wanted our children to be able to distinguish and to recognize the difference between punishment and affection, from the beginning, we decided that we would never directly use our hands to inflict punishment. We did not want our children to be terrorized by the sight of our hands. We wanted the direct touch of our hands to be reserved for show of affection that should be welcomed. Therefore, I crafted a paddle from a select piece of pine that I deemed sturdy enough to sustain spanking buttocks but soft enough to receive wood burning of a couple of verses from the Proverbs, one on each side.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">On one side, as a visual exhortation for my wife and for me, I </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">burned <strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=prov%2023:13-14&version=ESV">Proverbs 23:13-14</a></strong>--"Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol."</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">On the other side, as a visual reminder for our children, I burned <strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=prov%2013:24&version=ESV">Proverbs 13:24</a></strong>--"Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him."</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Thus, each time we would use the paddle to spank for disobedience, whether by way of sinful deed or demeanor, we would use the verses on the paddle to explain why we spanked. In other words, in our home, spanking our sons was evangelistic, administered to save them from God's coming wrath. We expressly told them that we spanked them because we loved them enough to inflict minor temporal pain upon their posteriors in order that we might spare them from the eternal infliction of God's wrath upon them forever. Spankings were devoted to administering the call of the gospel upon our two sons.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Unfortunately, my estimation of the durability of the select pine for the paddle proved greatly disproportionate to the impact strength of its fibers. It did not take many spankings before the paddle sustained a fatal crack. I repaired the paddle with reinforcing dowels secured in holes drilled cross-grain. This proved both aesthetically displeasing and structurally inadequate. So we retired that paddle and I produced another from walnut which finally cracked years after no more corporal punishment needed to be administered but only from insufficient humidity control. Actually, I produced many paddles, mostly from cherry and oak, and sold them. Our sons each have a couple of those paddles that they use on their children's back sides today.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">What prompted this blog entry today is my happening upon a quotation from a book that recalled how reassuring it was when I was a young father who was called upon more frequently than desired to spank. A</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> local Christian radio station broadcast a program early in the morning, to which I would listen during my drive to work. This radio program entailed readings from classic Christian books, particularly recent reprints. In the year that our first son was born, <strong><a href="http://www.kregel.com/ME2/Default.asp">Kregel Publication</a></strong> published <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Studies-Proverbs-Laws-Heaven-Earth/dp/0825421233?ie=UTF8&tag=abcaneday&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Studies in Proverbs: Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=abcaneday&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0825421233" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px! important; padding-left: 0px! important; padding-right: 0px! important; padding-top: 0px! important;" width="1" /></em></strong> by <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Arnot_(preacher)">William Arnot</a></strong>. It was one of the classics from which the radio host would read excepts. One of the portions read is the following, expounding the significance of <strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=prov%2013:24&version=ESV">Proverbs 13:24</a></strong>.</span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">You indulge your child and do not correct him; you permit selfishness, and envy, and anger to encrust themselves, by successive layers, thicker and thicker on his character: you beseech him not to be naughty, but never enforce your injunction by a firm application of the rod; and you think the fault, if it be a fault, is a very trivial one: perhaps you appropriate to yourself a measure of blame for loving your child too much. Nay brother; be not deceived; call things by their right names. Beware of the woe denounced against those who call evil good. You do not love, you hate your child.</span></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Sparing the rod is the specific act, or habit, which is charged against the parent, as being equivalent to hating his son. The child begins to act the tyrant: he is cruel where he has power and sulky where he has not: he is rude, overbearing, untruthful. These and kindred vices are distinctly forming on his life, and growing with his growth. The matter is reported to the father, and the same things are done in his presence. He tells the child to do better, and dismisses him with caresses. This process is frequently repeated. The child discovers that he can transgress with impunity. The father threatens sometimes, but punishes never. The child grows rapidly worse. By the certainty of escaping, acting in concert with a corrupt nature, the habit of intentional evil-doing is formed and confirmed. All the while the father takes and gets the credit of being, if not a very wise, at least a very loving parent. No; it is mere prostitution of that hallowed name to apply it to such ignoble selfishness. Love, though very soft, is also very strong. It will not give way before slight obstacles. To sacrifice self is of its very essence. If it be in you, it will quickly make your own ease give way for the good of its object. When a father gives the child all his own way, yielding more the more he frets, until the child finds out that he can get anything by imperiously demanding it, he yields not from love to his child, but from loathsome love of ease to himself. It is a low animal laziness that will not allow its own oily surface to be ruffled even to save a son. If there were real love, it would be strong enough to endure the pain of refusing to comply with improper demands, and chastening for intentional or persistent wrong-doing. Parents who are in the habit of giving their children what they ask, and permitting them to disobey without chastisement, may read their own character in this verse of Scripture. Such a father “hateth his son” that is the word. To call it love is one of Satan’s lies. It is unmingled selfishness. The man who gravely tells his child what is wrong, and, if the wrong is repeated, sternly chastens him,--that man really loves his child, and sacrifices his own ease for the child's highest good. It is enough to break one's heart to think how many young people are thrown off the rails at some unexpected turn of life by the momentum of their own impetuousness, for want of a father's firm hand to apply in time the necessary break. We need a manful, hardy love--a love that will bear and do to the uttermost for all the interests of its objects. </span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Continue reading <strong><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ixslVjufvV4C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA254#v=onepage&q&f=false">here</a></strong>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Of course, parents, but especially fathers, need to give close attention to how they discipline lest they provoke their children to anger (<strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=eph%206:4&version=ESV">Eph. 6:4</a></strong>; <strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Col.%203:21&version=ESV">Col. 3:21</a></strong>). Few things are so disturbing to me as a parent, especially a father, who beats his children out of anger and rage, landing blows upon the body not designed by our Creator to receive striking and pounding. With paddle in my hand, it had one and only one proper portion of the body for its blunt and restrained application. In keeping with this, Arnot administers the following proper admonition.</span></div><br />
<blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Let it be remembered here, however, that every blow dealt by a father's hand is not parental chastening. To strike right and left against children, merely because you are angry and they are weak, is brutish in its character and mischievous in its effect. A big dog bites a little one who offends him: what do ye more than they? Never once should a hand be laid upon a child in the hasty impulse of anger.</span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Discipline your children for eternity. Spank now lest they be spanked eternally. Do you love your children? I could not hold back; I had to add the following from Arnot.</span><br />
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<blockquote><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">When a father puts forth his strength to hold the struggling victim, and applies the rod, although every stroke thrills [quivers] through his own heart, this is love such as God commands and approves. Our Father in heaven chastens the children whom He loves, and does not spare for their crying. Genuine parental love on earth is an imitation of His own.</span></blockquote></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-75524326760208318062011-02-11T14:09:00.028-06:002011-02-25T07:52:48.851-06:00Eternal Life, Both God’s Gift and Reward<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I am working on a writing project associated with <em>The Race Set Before Us</em>. As I was working on it something dawned upon me as I wrote the following segment. It concerns how Zane Hodges, and others who follow him, destroy their own case when they appeal to Romans 6:23 as Hodges does when he attempts to expound Galatians 6:8.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">_____________________</span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Two interpretive keys govern how advocates of the loss-of-eternal-rewards view interpret Scripture: (1) salvation is past; rewards are future; and (2) salvation is free; rewards are earned. Therefore, understandably those who hold this<i> </i>view are concerned to separate biblical admonitions and warnings against loss from the grace of salvation because otherwise, as they view the matter, the grace of salvation and of eternal life would be earned by works. Popularity of this view owes much to the notes of <i>The New Scofield Reference Bible</i>, especially the note attached to 1 Corinthians 3:14<i>.</i></span></div><blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">God in the N.T. Scriptures offers to the lost, salvation; and for the faithful service of the saved, He offers rewards. The passages are easily distinguished by remembering that salvation is invariably spoken of as a free gift (e.g. Jn. 4:10; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:8-9), whereas rewards are earned by works (Mt. 10:42; Lk. 19:17; 1 Cor. 9:24-25; 2 Tim 4:7-8; Rev. 2:10; 22:12). A further distinction is that salvation is a present possession (Lk. 7:50; Jn. 3:36; 5:24; 6:47), whereas rewards are a future attainment, to be given at the rapture (2 Tim. 4:8; Rev. 22:12).</span><a href="file:///I:/Book%20Proposal/Chapters%20for%20LURWP/#_ftn1_6922" name="_ftnref1_6922"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[1]</span></a></div></blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The tone of authoritative finality and clarity concerning their interpretive keys—salvation is past; rewards are future; and salvation is free; rewards are earned—suggests that a sharp cleavage exists between the two classes of passages. So, one would expect that Scripture would never use words such as “salvation” or “eternal life” with future reference nor as the reward to be received. Yet, what do we find? In Galatians 6:7-10, which advocates of the loss-of-eternal-rewards view insist is about “rewards” not “salvation,” Paul admonishes, </span></div><blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Do not be deceive; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap <i>eternal life</i> from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith (emphasis added).</span></div></blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Paul’s imagery of sowing and reaping mingles inseparably what loss-of-eternal-rewards view advocates separate. To them, even though Paul presents “eternal life” as the future consummation of the life of the age to come, the life we have not yet harvested, poses no obstacle as Zane Hodges explains. </span></div><blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Nothing is plainer than that the “everlasting life” of which Paul speaks is not free, but based on the moral merits of those who reap it. . . . Naturally Paul knew that eternal life was freely given (Rom. 6:23; see also Rom. 5:15-18), just as the Apostle John knew this. But Paul is not speaking about what the Galatians <i>already have</i>, but about what they may <i>yet receive</i>. Herein lies the key to this text.</span><a href="file:///I:/Book%20Proposal/Chapters%20for%20LURWP/#_ftn2_6922" name="_ftnref2_6922"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[2]</span></a></div></blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">What is the key? To explain the passage Hodges uses the same interpretive key that one can find in <i>The New Scofield Reference Bible</i>.</span></div><blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Here it should be stated clearly that in the New Testament eternal life is presented both as a free gift and as a reward merited by those who earn it. But one important distinction always holds true. Wherever eternal life is viewed as a reward, it is obtained in the future. But wherever eternal life is presented as a gift, it is obtained in the present.</span><a href="file:///I:/Book%20Proposal/Chapters%20for%20LURWP/#_ftn3_6922" name="_ftnref3_6922"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[3]</span></a></div></blockquote><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Even though Paul uses identical words, “eternal life,” in both Galatians 6:8 and Romans 6:23, Hodges severs “eternal life” as “reward” from “eternal life” as “gift” because he presumes that “eternal life,” when portrayed as a future reward, is earned by Christians and that the reward cannot be God’s gracious consummative bestowal of the gift of “eternal life” of which Christians now have but a taste through faith in Christ Jesus. He separates the two by insisting that it is possible that some, perhaps many, who receive eternal life as a "gift" <em>now</em> do not persevere in Christ and therefore will fail to receive eternal life as a <em>not yet</em> earned "reward." This is how Hodges separates or severs the two.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Hodges does not recognize that his appeal to Romans 6:23 actually contradicts his argument that "eternal life" as <em>future</em> "reward" is earned and not a "gift." He fails to realize that everywhere Paul speaks of “eternal life,” including in Romans 6:22-23, he invariably portrays “eternal life” with orientation to the future, as the life God will give for the age to come.</span><a href="file:///I:/Book%20Proposal/Chapters%20for%20LURWP/#_ftn4_6922" name="_ftnref4_6922"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[4]</span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> Roman 6:22 makes this explicit when Paul states, “you have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification <i>and its end, eternal life</i>.” Then, Paul explains that this coming eternal life in Christ Jesus is God’s gift (6:23). In other words, when Paul speaks of "eternal life" in Romans 6:22-23, he is portraying eternal life as that aspect of eternal life believers will receive in the future, not as the aspect of eternal life believers already possess. Therefore, the passage Hodges uses to establish his separation between “eternal life” as a <i>present possessed gift</i> from “eternal life” as a <i>future earned reward</i> nullifies his claim. Paul identifies “eternal life,” which believers will receive in the day of resurrection, both as “God’s gift” and as something we will “reap.” Eternal life as future "reward" is not earned; it is God's "gift."</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /></div><div align="justify"><a href="file:///I:/Book%20Proposal/Chapters%20for%20LURWP/#_ftnref1_6922" name="_ftn1_6922"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[1]</span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> <i>The New Scofield Reference Bible</i> (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), 1235. </span></div><div align="justify"><a href="file:///I:/Book%20Proposal/Chapters%20for%20LURWP/#_ftnref2_6922" name="_ftn2_6922"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[2]</span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> Hodges, <i>The Gospel Under Siege</i>, 86-87.</span></div><div align="justify"><a href="file:///I:/Book%20Proposal/Chapters%20for%20LURWP/#_ftnref3_6922" name="_ftn3_6922"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[3]</span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> Ibid, 87-88.</span></div><div align="justify"><a href="file:///I:/Book%20Proposal/Chapters%20for%20LURWP/#_ftnref4_6922" name="_ftn4_6922"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">[4]</span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"> See all of Paul’s uses of “eternal life” (Rom 2:7; 5:21; 6:22, 23; Gal. 6:8; 1 Tim. 1:16; 6:12; Titus 1:2; 3:7).</span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-71534189983484904062011-02-01T11:13:00.002-06:002011-02-01T14:19:39.255-06:00Still More on the Charge of Antinomianism as a Badge of Honor<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Concerning the issues spinning out of discussions following Jason Hood's CT article on antinomianism as a badge of honor, I commend John Frame's essay, "<strong><a href="http://www.frame-poythress.org/frame_articles/2002Law.htm">Law and Gospel</a></strong>."</span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-24752710146932005752011-01-31T13:29:00.003-06:002011-02-01T11:21:36.239-06:00More on the Charge of Antinomianism as a Badge of Honor<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">With my previous entry, </span><a href="http://trsbu.blogspot.com/2011/01/amen.html"><strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Have You Been Charged with Antinomianism?</span></strong></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">, I offered no comment or commentary. I will not post a response or commentary, but I will post some instructive material that is necessary to understand what stands behind the recent discussion on several blogs.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Particularly instructive concerning how many Reformed folks read the Scriptures through their interpretive lens of "the law and the gospel," is the <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-letter-to-michael-horton.html"><span style="color: #cc3300;">Open Letter to Michael Horton</span></a></strong> by Frank Turk. The following brief excerpt from a <strong><a href="http://www.whitehorseinn.org/">White Horse Inn</a></strong> broadcast of <a href="http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/category/white-horse-inn/2011-show-archive/">January 2, 2011</a> is instructive.</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></span></div><br />
<blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Mike Horton (MH): The Gospel can't be lived. It's the Law that's lived. We obey the commands that we find in Scripture, we do not—the Gospel is not anything for us to do. The Gospel is an announcement for us to take to the world, and on the basis of that Gospel we do live differently in the world, but that isn't itself the content of the Gospel: it is the effect of the Gospel.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Kim Riddlebarger (KR): I think you made a brilliant point. I know there will be a number of people who will hear us, who are familiar with us, and they'll say to themselves, "well, there they go, they've been on the air two minutes talking about the Great Commission, and they're back to Law and Gospel again!" But your point is absolutely spot-on: we believe the Gospel, we obey the Law—and if you are not clear about that, then you're going to go off on a mission and as you risk, as Jesus warned, making people more fit for Hell than they were before. If you're telling people that the Gospel is doing certain things, acting certain way, behaving in a certain way, then you're just accelerating their demise and decline.</span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Michael Horton, Kim Riddlebarger, R. Scott Clark and many others believe that we should regard all the commands of Scripture, including those in the New Testament, other than those that command faith, to be of the law not of the gospel. This is what some identify as "the Lutheran view." Of course, it is not strictly "Lutheran," since many who are not Lutheran but Reformed embrace the view.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">In order to understand what is going on, one needs to recognize that there are two series of "threes" that stand behind the view.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">First, we need to understand that "the Lutheran view" of the law entails the notion that the law of Moses consists of three distinct parts, what theologians call the "<strong><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/09/27/on-the-tripartite-division-of-the-law/">tripartite division of the law</a></strong>."</span></span></div><ol><li><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The <em><strong>ceremonial law</strong> </em>consisting of all that elements that concern worship, sacrifice, the prieshood, etc.</span></span></div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The <em><strong>civil law</strong> </em>consisting of all the elements that concern Israel distinctly as the covenant nation, such as regulations concerning crime and punishment, clothing, foods--clean and unclean, and the like.</span></span></div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The <em><strong>moral law</strong> </em>consisting of all the elements that concern moral and ethical behavior before humans and before God, such as those identified in the Ten Commandments.</span></span></div></li>
</ol><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Those who hold "the Lutheran view" or the "tripartite division of the law" regard the first two <em><strong>parts</strong></em> of the law as rendered null and void. Hence, Christians are not bound by by either the <strong><em>ceremonial</em></strong> or the <strong><em>civil</em></strong> law. We rightly no longer have concern about mixing fabrics in the clothing we wear, and we offer no animals in sacrificial ceremony. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">However, adherents believe that the third <strong><em>part</em></strong>, the moral law, is binding in perpetuity. And </span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">when the New Testament commands, exhorts, or warns without specifically calling for faith, those commands, exhortations, or warnings all of these belong to the law in the sense of "the moral law." They do not belong to the gospel. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">What do they mean by the moral law? They believe in the classic "Three Uses of the Law." By this they mean "Three Uses of the Moral Law." When the Reformed and Lutheran scholastics talked about God’s moral law (<em>lex moralis</em>), they taught that there are three basic uses of the law (<em>usus legis</em>). They are:</span></span></div><ol><li><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The <strong><em>civil use</em></strong> (<em>usus politicus sive civilis</em>). That is, the law serves the commonwealth or body politic as a force to restrain sin. This falls under the general revelation (<em>revelatio generalis</em>) discussion in most of the scholastics as well as natural law (cf. Rom 1-2).</span></span></div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">he <strong><em>pedagogical use</em></strong> (<em>usus elenchticus sive paedagogicus</em>). That is, the law also shows people their sin and points them to mercy and grace outside of themselves. In Muller’s summary, this is “the use of the law for the confrontation and refutation of sin and for the purpose of pointing the way to Christ” (p. 320). This can be found in the Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Days 2-4.</span></span></div></li>
<li><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The <strong><em>normative use</em></strong> (<em>usus didacticus sive normativus</em>). That is, this use of the law is for those who trust in Christ and have been saved through faith apart from works. It “acts as a norm of conduct, freely accepted by those in whom the grace of God works the good” (p. 321). This can be found in the Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Days 32-52.</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">They believe that all New Testament commands, exhortations, and warnings that do not specifically </span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">call for faith belong to the "Third Use of the Moral Law." This "third use of the law" has created controversy among Lutherans. Many Lutherans have rejected the "third use of the law," because they contend that the law always accuses, so it cannot be used as a moral norm by the Christian. So, for Lutherans, the third use of the law essentially reverts to the second use as it drives believers to Christ again and again and away from unbelief. </span></span></div></li>
</ol><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Understanding "the Lutheran view's" articulation of these two series of "threes" concerning the law of Moses is vital to understanding why some may </span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">regard being charged with antinomianism as a badge of honor. Because, in their belief system, the New Testament's commands, exhortations, and warnings that do not specifically call for faith belong to the law not the gospel, the gospel imposes no moral demands upon anyone. That is the law's work and function, not the gospel's work. The gospel is strictly the announcement of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. The gospel does not issue any requirement upon us except one, faith.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Some who hold that even New Testament commands, warnings, and admonitions belong to the law not the gospel are willing to wear the charge of antinomianism as a badge of honor, because they insist that the gospel lays no moral requirements upon anyone. Only the law places moral restraints and requirements upon us. Yet, some of these same folks are not necessarily shy to reverse the accusation of antinomianism against those who do not hold their view of the law, but when they do, their charge has nothing to do with the moral or ethical demands of the gospel, since the gospel makes no moral or ethical demands. The gospel requires only one thing--faith--faith for justification. Rather, their accusation of antinomianism concerns the moral law and sanctification. Anyone who does not hold to the "tripartite division of the law" and the "three uses of the law" may be suspect. P</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">eople who believe that the gospel lays commands, admonitions, and warnings upon all who hear the gospel may be charged with being "legalists" with regard to justification, but they also may be charged with being "antinomians" with regard to sanctification.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">This is why <strong><a href="http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/jason-hood-frank-turk-dane-ortulund-mike-horton-antinomianism/">one</a></strong> who has engaged in the recent discussion returns the charge of antinomianism against evangelicals who do not share his view of the law.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></span><br />
<blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Antinomianism? I’ll show you antinomianism: defiance of God’s holy will as revealed in the fourth commandment. Reformed Christians confess that God has given ten commandments. What about the fourth commandment? Most of the evangelicals I’ve known, who are wound up about the “Lordship Controversy,” are antinomian (lawless) when it comes to the fourth commandment.</span></span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Yet, simultaneously, this individual might accuse the same non-sabbatarian evangelical with legalism with regard to justification.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Yes, I realize that it is all quite confusing, but such is the nature of the discussion. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">I could say much more and may yet do so in another entry. However, for now, does <strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus%202:11-14&version=NIV">Titus 2:11-14</a></strong> have anything to say with regard to the notion that because the gospel is of grace that the gospel lays no moral or ethical demands upon us but that all commands, admonitions, and warnings derive from the law?</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></span></span><br />
<blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the 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 wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. </span></span></span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Am I misunderstanding this passage to point out that Paul does not say that it is the law that "teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age" but that it is the grace of God in the gospel that teaches us these things?</span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-29390558391511110292011-01-29T16:39:00.004-06:002011-01-31T11:53:10.362-06:00Have You Been Charged with Antinomianism?<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Need some engaging long winter day reading?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">At this time I cannot take the necessary time to offer any commentary, so I post this simply for your reading with one question. Are New Testament exhortations and warnings to be equated with the law? See Michael Bird's entry <a href="http://euangelizomai.blogspot.com/2011/01/antinomian-wars-continued.html"><strong>here</strong></a>, where he essentially poses the same issue.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">____________________</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><a href="http://draft.blogger.com/goog_468674611">Heresy Is Heresy, Not the Litmus Test of Gospel Preaching</a></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It's time to put aside this abused "badge of honor."</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Jason B. Hood</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">According to Paul, the charge of antinomianism is not an understandable misunderstanding, but an utterly undeserved, undesirable, and slanderous charge that is ironically accurate of Paul's loveless, lawless opponents (Rom 3:8; Gal 2:11-12, 5:9-10; Matt 23), and grossly inaccurate for Paul, Jesus, and the entire early Christian movement. The charge is thoroughly incorrect and unwelcome, on a par with the slanderous accusations the early church endured of atheism, cannibalism, incest, and evil-doing (cf. 1 Pet 2:12).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Adopting accusations as a badge of honor or litmus test represents a failure to understand the rhetorical function of the antinomian accusation in the literary context of Romans and in Paul's social context: It was neither a fair and honest assessment nor a reasonable response to Paul's preaching, but a weapon employed against Paul's honor in the court of public opinion. Taking the charge of antinomianism as a positive sign is as anachronistic as suggesting that the charge of drunkenness is a good test of our ministry in light of Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34. Moreover, Paul uses similar rhetorical questions in Romans. Should we strive to speak about redemptive history in such a way that our listeners sometimes charge God with unfaithfulness and injustice in rejecting Israel outright (Rom 3:3, 9:14, 11:1)?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Read the whole article.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">You may want to read some responses.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong><a href="http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2011/01/27/the-fear-of-antinomianism/">The Fear of Antinomianism</a></strong> by Michael Horton</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/01/27/the-radical-gospel-defiant-and-free/">The Radical Gospel, Defiant and Free</a></strong> by Dane Ortlund</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tullian/2011/01/27/two-ways-to-realize-radical-obedience/">Two Ways To Realize Radical Obedience: My Indirect Response To Jason Hood</a></strong> by Tullian Tchividjian</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #956839; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/jason-hood-frank-turk-dane-ortulund-mike-horton-antinomianism/"><strong>Jason Hood, Frank Turk, Dane Ortlund, Mike Horton, and Antinomianism (UPDATED)</strong></a><strong> </strong>by R. Scott Clark</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And a partial response: <strong><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2011/01/28/we-who-have-the-spirit-have-the-power-to-change/">We Who Have the Spirit Have the Power to Change</a></strong> by Jason Hood</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-letter-to-michael-horton.html">Open Letter to Michael Horton</a></strong> by Frank Turk </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong><a href="http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2011/01/bonus-open-letter-to-r-scott-clark.html">[Bonus] Open Letter to R. Scott Clark</a></strong> by Frank Turk</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">HT: <strong><a href="http://euangelizomai.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-being-called-antinomian-is-not-sigh.html">MB</a></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28113006.post-17246512480460615802011-01-03T16:12:00.000-06:002011-01-03T16:12:13.040-06:00The End of the World Is Coming!!!!!<div align="justify"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/frw-620x364.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" n4="true" src="http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/frw-620x364.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Harold Camping, President of Family Radio, has been walking in his own alternative universe for several years. Now he is predicting that Christ will come for his believers on May 21, 2011 and that on October 21, 2011 the Lord will destroy this world. If interested, you may read more <strong><a href="http://www.wecanknow.com/">here</a></strong>.</span></div><div align="justify"><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Camping has troubled Christians, especially on the West Coast, for years with his bizarre teachings and anti-church rhetoric. </span></div><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Not everyone who‘s heard Camping’s message is taking such a dramatic step. They’re remaining in their day-to-day lives, but helping publicize the prophecy in other ways. Allison Warden, of Raleigh, has been helping organize a campaign using billboards, post cards and other media in cities across the U.S. through a website, We Can Know.</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/can1-620x132.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="68" n4="true" src="http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/can1-620x132.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">The 29-year-old payroll clerk laughs when asked about reactions to the message, which is plastered all over her car.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">“It’s definitely against the grain, I know that,” she said. “We‘re hoping people won’t take our word for it, or Harold Camping’s word for it. We’re hoping that people will search the scriptures for themselves.”</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Camping, 89, believes the Bible essentially functions as a cosmic calendar explaining exactly when various prophecies will be fulfilled.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“Beyond the shadow of a doubt, May 21 will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment,” he said.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The doctrine known as the Rapture teaches that believers will be taken up to heaven, while everyone else will remain on earth for a period of torment, concluding with the end of time. Camping believes that will happen in October.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“If May 21 passes and I’m still here, that means I wasn’t saved. Does that mean God’s word is inaccurate or untrue? Not at all,” Warden said.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Only God knows how much injury and damage Camping and his followers will wreak upon immature and ingenuous folks who become duped into believing their message.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><blockquote><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time (<strong><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%2013&version=NIV">Mark 13:21-23</a></strong>).</span></blockquote></span></div>abcanedayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13671418539630398806noreply@blogger.com1