LUX ET VERITAS !! (Light and Truth)

What Is A Christian?

2012-01-11T14:29:00.003-05:00

The word Christian is an at risk term. That is to say, it is so widely used by those both inside and outside the church and has such a wide spectrum of referents as, on the one hand, non-Roman Catholics to, on the other, ultra-conservative, right-wing "born again believers", that it is in danger of losing its original meaning. How did the term Christian originate? What are the major implications of that name? What is the correct meaning of that word? What does the Bible intend when it describes some persons as Christians?

The name Christian was first, perhaps mockingly, applied to Jesus' followers by the Roman Gentiles in Antioch: “.. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians." Acts 11:26. Apart from this reference, Christian is only used on two other occasions in the New Testament: Acts 26:28 and 1 Pe 4:16.
In the former case, the convicted but arrogant Herod Agrippa II rejects Paul’s evangelistic appeal by evasively asking “.. "In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?"” In the latter, Peter affirms that God is glorified when believers suffer for the sake and cause of Christ (note similar language and context in v. 14) rather than as murderers, thieves, evildoers or meddlers, v. 15. Prior to the occasion of Acts 11, Christians described themselves as believers, Acts 4:32; disciples, 6:1; and those belonging to the Way, 9:2. Christianity was commonly called the Way, 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22; etc.

In his Word Studies of the New Testament, Marvin R. Vincent notes that the passive verb "called" has an original meaning of "to transact business" or "to have dealings with." When one was called a Christian meant one bore the name by which one was associated in the normal affairs and communications of life. As the terms Matthew the tax collector, Mt 10:3; Luke the physician, Col 4:14; Alexander the coppersmith, 2 Tim 4:14; Rahab the prostitute, Josh 6:17, 25; Heb 11:31; Jas 2:25; and so on, all specify persons whose identities were inseparable related to their beliefs, vocations, business of life and primary associations and activities, likewise the name Christian signifies the peculiar dogma, relationship, conduct and customs of its name-bearers. That the followers of Christ decided to keep this title points to their high sense of identification with the Lord Jesus Christ and to their defiant and noble recognition of the supreme dignity and importance of their Lord, Jesus Christ.

Christian, Greek Christianos, is made up of the Greek word for Christ/Messiah, Christos, and the Latin ending ianus, meaning belonging to or identified by. (Note, Kaesarianus likewise meant belonging to Caesar). The ending -ian also means belonging to the party of someone and in this case it would mean one who belongs to Jesus' party; a follower of Christ; a disciple of Christ; an adherent to Christ and his teachings; one bearing a close identification with Christ by having the same views, desires, motives, and so on as he did, etc.

The significance of the name lies in its distinctiveness: non-believing communities recognized Christians as as a distinct group, one that was being more and more separated from Judaism and one that was in uncompromising conflict with the existing pagan religions. As a result, this new religious group stood to lose the status and the protection Rome provided to Judaism as a legally recognized religion. This was probably largely due to the fact that the church's confession, Christ is Lord, stood in open and bold contrast and contention with that of the Roman world, Caesar is Lord.

From all the above, we can clearly see that the term Christian defines us and places lifelong demands upon us. It is not a casual nickname or a convenient label; it is definitive, that is, it lies at the very center of our identity, it occupies the very core of our being. For these reasons, being a Christian is a full-time vocation. It is not a seasonal fad, a preferred vogue, a "cool" slogan, an expedient title to adorn our resumés, or a beneficial tag to enhance our acceptability in certain circles. Christian defines who we are and determines how we are to live as a result of our relationship with Jesus Christ who owns us. It is a public badge declaring our identity with Christ, confirming that we have certain beliefs concerning his Person and substitutionary atoning work and resultantly, denoting how we are to "do business" in the world. To be called a Christian, therefore, is to be marked as one who regards and reveres Christ as the source of his identity; the path and direction of his life; the fullness of his significance; the One most worthy of imitation in all areas of life, and as the very cause of his existence, his raison d'être, the reason for his being. A Christian is therefore one who belongs to Christ, 1 Cor 15:23; Gal 5:24. "..[Y]ou are Christ's'.." 1 Cor 3:23; Gal 3:29.

The term Christian therefore is controlling, comprehensive and complete. Because of the pleromic nature of Christ in whose physical body the fullness of the Godhead dwells,Col 2:9, nothing could be added to it.

Are you a Christian?

The Gift Who Comes to Make a Purchase

2012-01-04T17:14:00.003-05:00

To the Gentiles, to those whose worldview was shaped by Greek philosophical thinking, the greatest scandal was the biblical claim that the Logos became flesh. To them the Logos was that rational principle that pervaded and that held together all reality. The apostle John therefore shocked their ears when he boldly and uncompromisingly published in his gospel that the Logos was not an abstract philosophical principle, a principle of reasoning or even (some aspect of) the divine mind but a person, a real person, the only, true God that took on human flesh. The Word became flesh meant that God’s highest Self-revelation took the form of the Person Jesus Christ. That God should don weak, human flesh was the supreme stumbling-block, the superlative paradox, the consummate assault on the Greek mind.

However, Christians are not ruffled by this apparent contradiction because in it we understand the physical outworking of the great promises and purposes of God in order to bring a radical redemption to those who were his radical enemies. Yet, this is not the only apparent contradiction that we find in Scripture concerning Jesus Christ. As we search the Scripture we find many such paradoxes concerning the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, some of which are listed below:

He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the One who is, who was and who is to come, Rev 1:7.

He, who was in the form of God, did not think that such equality was something to be selfishly grasped, but ".. made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." Phi 2:6-7.

In him infinity has come into the finite world and in the form of a finite person.

On the other hand, he is the particular who has come to the universal.

He, who was rich became poor for the sake of his people so that they may become rich, through his poverty, 2 Cor 8:9.

God the Father made the sinless Christ to be sin for us, "so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor 5:21.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of life comes to die for sinners.

He is the Author of life (Acts 3:15) who comes to surrender his life for others.

He is the Great High Priest who comes to make the supreme, sacrificial offering of himself as a once for all sacrifice for sin, Heb 8-9.

The sacrifice of a docile, surrendering Lamb on Calvary's Cross was actually the triumph of the victorious Lion of Judah, Rev. 5:5-10.

And on and on.

Yet, there is one other correlation that we must take into consideration, especially as we contemplate on and celebrate Christmas, and that is Jesus Christ is both the gift and the purchaser. He is the gift of God, even that inexpressible gift, 2 Cor 9:15 – there are no human categories that are able to describe him adequately – who was at the same time the one who comes to purchase his bride.

Scripture is abundantly clear that Jesus Christ is God's gift to his people. Jn 3:16, the gospel in miniature, is perhaps the most popular text revealing the eternal truth that so great was the love of God for His people that He gave his only Son, Jesus Christ “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Our Lord continues to speak of himself as the divine gift in such places as Jn 4:10: "".. if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, .."; 6:32 – ".. my Father gives you the true bread from heaven."; etc. Jesus Christ is God's gift to the church.

At the same time, the primary reason for his Incarnation is the purchase of the church, that is, those that the Father had given him in eternity past. Thus Paul admonishes the Ephesian elders to be especially vigilant in protecting ".. all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood." Acts 20:28. On other occasions, the term ransom, meaning to redeem, to pay the price for one's release, and so on whether used as a noun, ".. the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”" Mt 20:28 or as a verb, ".. you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. ", 1 Pe 1:18-19, is used. Moreover, Christ is said to have given himself "as a ransom for all, ..", 1 Tim 2:6. Our gift has come to purchase us, to ransom us from slavery to sin, death and Satan, with the currency of his blood.

This is the great gospel truth of Scripture – God descending from heaven in the veil and weakness of human flesh to dwell among us, to live sinlessly for us, to die for us, to purchase us as his own and in so doing, to restore us to himself. The truth of the gospel is that God the Father sends his Son on a purchasing mission-- Christ comes to seek and save the lost, Lk 19:10.

At Christmas Christ’s church celebrates the Logos, not the figment of the "wise" Greek mind but the Son of the living God who came down from heaven to the mall of the fallen world to rescue those the Father had already given him in eternity past. At Christmas Christ’s church celebrates the supreme divine gift of God’s Son who comes to purchase his bride. As such, there is an authentic, distinct commercial ring to Christmas, isn’t there? Surely, but this commercial aspect has been immutably defined for us sub specie aeternitatis (in the shadow of eternity, the way God views it). Its commercial dimension is not derived from the realm of secular economic enterprise but from the redemptive character of Christ's purchase, from the purpose of his Incarnation as God's only Son ".. who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works" Tit 2:14.

A New Year with an Old Yawning or with a New Yearning?

2012-01-03T16:34:00.003-05:00

The clock is moving very fast. Things have already settled in Times Square and in the Atlanta. The dropped apple and peach have long been restored to their resting-places from which they will be aroused in a year’s time for their ephemeral display. "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; .." Eccl 3:1-2a. To many of us, the year 2011 is simply an event of the past, an odd collection of mainly uneventful activities and incidents whose recollection elicits not much more than a yawn, a lazy expression of listless ennui.

New Years are landmarks of life, chronological pointers along our brief journey. That's one way to look at them. Another perspective is to view them as God's markers in our lives, as guidelines of the riches of the manifold expressions of His kindness to us in Jesus Christ. Within our church, some have been cured of cancer and others have recuperated from other health matters. Some have received employment and others promotions. Still, others have been the recipients of continuing safety and special giftedness for overcoming new challenges on their jobs. To some, much-needed vehicles were granted and for others, relationships have been restored. For these and other temporal blessings, we are eternally grateful to our generous Lord.

But, when we think of it, how do these ministrations of God's grace to us identify us as those having that peculiar status of being in Christ? Doesn't the Lord also extend similar tokens of his common grace to unbelievers? Doesn't He truly also bestow upon them "… the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, .." with the intent of leading them to repentance? Of course he does; this is the explicit assertion of the apostle Paul in Rom 2:4. However, as Christians, aren't we to seek those graces that will transform us more and more into Christ's image? In other words, are we not required to pursue those means of grace that will equip us for heaven? Yes. Certainly. Beyond the shadow of a doubt.

As we reflect on the way we lived last year, the following questions may serve to stimulate our memories:
• has Christ dominated and defined the central yearning of our hearts?
• have we sought to glorify and enjoy him in every dimension of our lives?
• have we spent the time, money, energy, abilities and opportunities He gave us, in such ways to show that we are earthly pilgrims governed by a heavenly agenda and heading to our heavenly home whence “we await [our] Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”? Phi 3:21
• how have our family members, friends, workers, in short, our neighbors, viewed us? As demanding, critical, correcting, law-thumping, Bible-quoting, overbearing diehards or as simple, serious, sincere though stumbling followers of Christ, not having all the answers to life but eager to point them to the One who does, Jesus Christ Himself?
• what major victories have we had over particular sins with which we were plagued?
• have our wives and children been strengthened in their relationship with Christ because of us?
• Etc. Etc.

We must admit, these are tough questions. However, we must also concede that these are the real questions we need to ask ourselves.

The truth is, we are a people of the tongue; our talk far outstrips our walk. But to speak glowingly about the Bible; to chatter glibly and proudly about (our knowledge of) the distinctives of Reformed Theology; to clamor incessantly about our recent acquisition of theological apps and software, books and magazines, without demonstrating a genuine passion for Christ, his gospel and his people in all areas of our lives, is to have virtual religion- a religion that resembles and simulates authentic Christianity but that is far from it. The virtually religious are distractions to Christ and his cross; they are "noisy gongs" and "clanging cymbals” whose output is not the clear and cogent declaration of the gospel but an empty and grotesque distortion of it. Virtual religion is one lacking a fides viva, a living faith, religion that is banal and bilious, more inert and insipid than endless replays of elevator music.

Let's face it, we all like to be recognized and to be acclaimed by those among whom we live and move. We like to be known as those with the latest theological trinkets and the newest stuff, as the people "in the know." We have an inbred and stubborn inclination to self-glorification. We are so corrupt that we are adept at camouflaging and presenting our sinful desires as captivating expressions of genuine faith. Because of these iniquities, our battle must be in that area in which these desires take place, in the heart, that fulcrum of faith, Rom 10:10, that source of thought and action, whether evil, Mt 15:19, or good, 22:37. This is the fundamental arena of our Christian struggle.

Our challenge therefore in the year 2012 is to learn from the previous year and to embrace Christ wholeheartedly as the very meaning of life -".. to live is Christ." Phi 1:21. Unless this truth becomes the dynamic controlling our thinking, attitudes, words, actions and motives, we will have a ho-hum, yawning religion characterized by perfunctory and pretentious practices, devoid of genuine spiritual robustness and vitality, an attractive showpiece in superficial circles but lacking godly power. Like the Gnostic teaching corrupting the church at Colossae, "These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion .., but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." Col 2:23. On the other hand, to have a true yearning after authentic religion is to have died and to have our lives hidden with Christ in God, 3:3, and then to display Christ's life through our death in every aspect of our lives.

May the year 2012 be, not a year of yawning but one of yearning, a yearning for God's desires to be to the desires of our own hearts, a deep yearning for Christ, one that exceeds the yearning of the deer after streams of living water.

Have a yearning New Year.

Rightly Handling the Word That Has Become Flesh

2011-12-24T10:48:00.002-05:00

What does a correct view of the Baby of Bethlehem yield? When we rightly handle the Word of truth that has become flesh, we are confronted with at least three results.

Firstly, rightly handling the Word that has become flesh transfers us. It transfers us from the stall in Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary. Indeed, the Incarnation is the profound mystery of godliness, 1 Tim 3:16, but it is not an end in itself. This Jesus “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; ..th'Incarnate Deity, .. Jesus, our Emmanuel” was born that “.. Man no more may die, .. To raise the sons of earth, .. to give them second birth.” He is the ".. the woman's conqu'ring Seed, .. the Second Adam from above.." divinely promised in the protevangelium (gospel in advance) in Gen 3:15 whose mission is to "Bruise in us the serpent's head", to replace Adam' s image with the very image of God. (From "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.") The Babe is Immanuel, God with us, who comes to deliver those given to him by the Father in eternity past from the penalty, power, presence and, so often neglected, the pleasure of sin, by living a sinless life and then surrendering himself on the cross in their place. Rightly handling the Word that has become flesh transfers us from Bethlehem to Calvary.

Secondly, rightly handling the Word that has become flesh transforms us.
Those in whom God has graciously removed the blinding veil of darkness which prevents unbelievers from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, .. the image of God", 2 Cor 4:3-4, behold the Bethlehem Babe differently from the world. They view him as God’s supreme covenant gift to the church, sent by the Father to suffer once for sins, “ ..the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, .. ", 1 Pe 3:18. This understanding reaches its pinnacle in corporate worship. There, as we, by faith and "with unveiled face" corporately behold the glory of the Lord, (we) are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…”, 2 Cor 3:18.
There, as we behold the face of Christ as he is placarded before our eyes in the faithful preaching of the gospel and in the proper administration of the sacraments, we are being transformed into his image and into the image of God the Father. It is a biblical axiom that we become like what we worship, Pss 115:8; 135:18; Jer 2:5; Hos 9:10; etc. Rightly handling the Word of truth, the Word that has become flesh, transforms us into his image.

Lastly, rightly handling the Word that has become flesh transfixes us. We cannot take our eyes off him. As the apostle John states in the prologue of his gospel, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. " 1:14. The Word see indicates not a fleeting glance at something or someone temporarily occupying our interest but rather, a calm, continuous contemplation of an irresistibly fascinating object. Such is the case when we behold the Babe of Bethlehem sub specie aeternitatis, that is, the way God views him, from a heavenly perspective, as he really is.

John's testifies that the apostles' attention was continuously riveted to the glory, that is, the external manifestation of Christ's being. Their physical vision was enhanced by a supernatural, Spiritual impression. In other words, they were transfixed by him. He commanded their continuous attention. And why not? There is no greater sight to behold. No other person is worthy of such reflection. We stand, nay, we bow in an everlasting gaze upon him. Our greatest delights are at his right hand. In Christ alone, solus Christus, we have a beautiful inheritance; in him, the lines have fallen into place; in his presence we have fullness of joy and at his right hand we have everlasting pleasures. Ps 16:6, 11. At the great eschatological consummation, the eternal delight and the greatest joy of the saints is that "They will see his face, .." Rev 22:4. Rightly handling the Word that has become flesh transfixes us.

Let us rightly understand Christmas by viewing it as God does: the time at which he demonstrates His great love for us by giving ".. his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Jn 3:16. Behold the Baby in the stall at Bethlehem! Do you see what I see? Rather, do you hear what I hear? The Babe of Bethlehem is the saving gift of God.

God In The What?!!

2011-12-23T14:28:00.001-05:00

In his gospel, one of the several proofs the apostle John provides for the authenticity of Jesus' Messianic mission is that He was sent by the Father. For example, in his Bread of Life discourse in chapter 6, Jesus enlightens his miracle-seeking, consumeristic hearers that "“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (v. 29). He has come to do .. " “.. the will of him who sent me"". (38; see also 39). "“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” (44). Etc; etc. So unique is the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ that to believe in Christ is the same as to believe in God, (12:44), and to receive Christ is equivalent to receiving God the Father. (13:20).

On what basis could Jesus make such statements? He was sent from the Father because He and the Father are one. They are one in the sense that they are equally God. This bold defense of Christ's divinity is the theological and Christological foundation of John’s gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (1:1). God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ, and by necessary implication, God the Holy Spirit, are equally God in all aspects of "Godness." For this reason, Jesus was with God, that is to say, face-to-face with God in a most intimate way, in an eternal relationship. Further, is God and always will be God. It's no wonder that Jesus stuns the confused and unbelieving Jews by contending that "I and the Father are one." (10:30). The Westminster Confession of Faith instructs us that "In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost." (2.3).

The entire New Testament is flooded with proofs of the divinity of Jesus Christ. However, for our purposes today, there is one other verse asserting Christ's divinity that is frequently overlooked and that that deserves our attention- Jn 1:18: "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known." The Greek verb has made known can also be translated declared, explained or exegeted. Exegete literally means to guide out of (the ex prefix means from or out of). Thus, when we exegete a text, we seek to extract or get out of it, its original meaning. In other words, we explain what the Scripture actually says; we discover the meaning the author intended to convey to his readers.

Jesus Christ perfectly and objectively provides us with the original and clearest understanding of God the Father. There is no higher Self-revelation of God than Jesus Christ; He is God in the flesh. Anyone who has seen Christ has seen God the Father. (14:9). In becoming a human being, Christ did not become a creature. In his humanity, the eternal Son of God attaches his divinity to weak human flesh in such a way that neither is his humanity enhanced nor his divinity reduced – he is fully man and fully God at the same time and in the same relationship! In the newborn babe, infinity has taken on finiteness; eternity invades time; divinity appears in diapers; God comes down into His creation in the form of man. No other religion can make such a bold claim. The holy God comes to seek and save his worst enemies. This is indeed a mystery at which we do not stumble by at which we bow in solemn adoration and in humble, self-effacing worship.

The divine Self-revelation in Christ and Christ’s Messianic mission to seek and save sinners are a stumbling-block to the people of Jesus' time – His own people rejected Him (1:11) and the ignorant world leaders (as well as those of ours) crucified "the Lord of glory." (1 Cor 2:8). In a real sense, the incarnate Christ is God's last call, his last appeal from heaven for fallen man to be saved (Heb 1:1-2). God's coming in the weakness of human flesh is the highest expression of His mercy and the ultimate demonstration of his grace towards fallen man. There is no other redemptive process that is available to men; there is no other person by whom redemption can be accomplished, (Acts 4:12). In Christ alone are God and sinner reconciled. In Christ alone we have the grandest display of God's commitment to His creatures and, above all, to His own glory. In a word, the word of Christmas is the Word from heaven of whom the Father says, " “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” " Let it not be said of us:

Didn't know You'd come to save us, Lawd
To take our sins away,
Our eyes was blind
We couldn't see
We didn't know who You was. (From "Sweet Little Jesus Boy")

Ten Years Have Gone By

2011-09-11T16:45:00.001-04:00

It's hard to believe that ten years have gone by since that most vicious attack upon American soil. It's hard to believe that ten long years have elapsed since together with an equally shocked world, we Americans beheld with a unique admixture of outrage, sorrow, helplessness and puzzlement as the northeastern corner of our country was blanketed in an ominous haze of smoke, death and ruins. Hardly had the curtains of the new, twenty-first century been lifted to welcome in the new millennium than we were greeted with the most savage terroristic invasion, a carefully foreplanned trifocal attack by sadistic forces converting the normal means of air transport into violent weapons of mass destruction. Yes, already, ten years have gone by. How true is the reflection that the events of 9/11 that changed the world! How even more compelling is the reality that these acts of reprehensible aggression have changed America!

The country and Western song "I Can't Stop Loving You" has among its lyrics "They say that time heals a broken heart, But time has stood still since we've been apart." But apart from the fact that time has not stood still for the past ten years, that is, apart from the fact that we have not been frozen by our pain or immobilized by our anger but rather, that we have redoubled our efforts in securing our borders and have increased our understanding of the nature and dimension of foreign aggression, we are aware that time has no therapeutic properties of its own. Thus, even the Roman poet Ovid's line,"tempus edax rerum," time, the devourer of all things, falls short in its wishful affirmation. With the passage of time comes the gradual reduction of the initial pain as we, through tear-filled eyes, broken hearts and mounting uncertainties, slowly make the necessary and unpleasant adjustments to live without our loved ones. With the passage of time come (perhaps) a necessary re-evaluation and reformation of our priorities in life, indeed, maybe even an entirely new perspective of life and even above and beyond that, a new understanding of the meaning, value and purpose of life.

Life. What has 9/11 taught us concerning this reality? As we reflect on the fearful images of crumbling smoke-filled buildings, as we revisit pictures of anguished faces, as we hear again the piercing shrieks of frenetic escapees, and as we contemplate the radical personal, familial, community and national dislocations and incomprehensible losses, many of which still evade our knowledge, what new lessons come to mind? What have we learned? Sadly, our nation as a whole has not learned much. Signs of the upsurge of patriotism following the attacks and of the nationalistic resurgence marked by loud cries of "God bless America," by the defiant display of American flags on homes and by misguided clergy misquoting and misappropriating 2 Chron 7:14, "if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." are no longer perceptible. Ten years have gone by.

However, Christians should have learned and will do well to remember that we are citizens of two kingdoms. We are also citizens of this world. As such, we are under the law and are to obey our masters as unto the Lord. At the same time, we are those that have been born again by the Holy Spirit of God and that are a new creation, those that are being framed and fitted for heaven, we realize our citizenship is in heaven, where we are already seated in our union with Jesus Christ, Eph 2:6, and from which we await his Second Coming, Phi 3:20, to take his home with him to the ultimate Promised Land. We are in this world but are not of it. We are living in exile away from our home for which we have an ever-increasing longing. We understand and accept that all things in this life are under the sovereign hand of God and that while such punishing events as those of 9/11 are alarming and terrifying, yet we also know that these are under his sovereign control and are included in his immutable, eternal decree. No! The Lord God did not cause these events but in a strange way, he is working out his eternal purposes for his own glory through them. The harsh reality of these inexplicable truths of the mystery of divine sovereignty does not cause us to doubt his love, mercy and goodness. God forbid! In times of darkness, we do not deny what the Lord has taught us concerning himself and his purposes in times of clarity and light. Can this truth be distilled into compact and compelling brevity? Yes. ""For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."" Jn 3:16.

Life. If ever there was a time for Americans as a whole and for Christians in particular to grasp its meaning, it is now. A loving and mysterious God has bequeathed to his people, to his church, the gospel, that is, the message of life eternal through faith alone in Christ alone, so that those who believe on him will be granted this life and be rescued from an unimaginably greater conflagration than that of 9/11. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, humiliated himself by taking on the weakness of human flesh and entering into a world of terrorists among whom he lived sinlessly and whose death sentence he absorbed in his own flesh on the cross of Calvary where he experienced the unyielding, consuming fire of the divine wrath. This was an event that far outstrips the dreadful horrors of 9/11 in every way. This same Jesus now offers himself to be received through the means of faith alone, not to good people but to terrorists who defame and deny him daily, to even Al-Qaeda terrorists! That's life! That's love!

What should we have learned from 9/11? That life, that is, our span on this earth is brief and uncertain and that “.. man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Job 5:7. We also learn that not even Christians are exempt from the ferocious attacks of brutish enemies. However, of one thing we can be sure: a loving God has given us, who at one time were ferocious rebels without a cause against him, murderers of his most beautiful Son, life through Jesus Christ and has also bequeathed to us the Christian responsibility to share this news of reconciliation, with even our most vicious enemies. This is the God to whom those who have been granted eternal life continually sing "I Can't Stop Loving You." ….. but only because he first sang it to us.

I Went To Church On Sunday

2011-08-09T20:36:00.003-04:00

I went to church on Sunday.

As we gather together on Sundays, a dual reminder is placed before us: experientially, the struggles of the past week consisting of our progress and setbacks, our advances and reversals, our strengths and weaknesses, our salvation and our continuing sin, and hopefully, the glorious future that awaits us providing we hold fast (to) the Word that was preached to us, 1 Cor 15: 2; the hope that is set before us, Heb 6: 18; ".. the confession of our faith without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." 10:23; the Name of Jesus Christ, Rev 2:3; and what we already have, that is, the gospel of Jesus Christ, even Christ himself, 2:25; 3:1.

It is this latter dimension, the hope that is at once already ours in Christ and that yet awaits us, that enables us to embrace our daily struggles and trials. It assures us of our rest in Christ. This rest is confirmed, amplified and vivified when the gospel is preached to our ears and to our hearts, that is to say, when Christ and his saving work are placarded before our very eyes. For it is when we receive this Word, this gospel that was once handed down unto all the saints, whether audibly through its preaching or palpably in the partaking of the visible Word, the Sacraments, that our faith is strengthened and our hope increased. This assurance of our future heavenly rest already partly but properly received and enjoyed in the here and now, stirs us up unto greater faith that confirms its authenticity in love for the brethren expressed in dutiful, delightful and diligent service, Gal 5:6. Thus, the assurance of our rest has practical implications for Christian living. In this regard, this rest in the finished work of God in Christ establishes and undergirds the need for us to faithfully discharge our kingdom responsibilities.

This rest belongs to God's covenant people who share in the Sabbath rest he instituted and enjoyed upon completion of his work of creation, Gen 2:2. It is none other than the perfect peace of our justification, the consequence of God's reconciling grace to those who believe on Christ, Rom 5:1. It is a rest or a peace that we enter through faith alone in the sinless life, death and resurrection, ascension and return of Jesus Christ, indeed, a rest that is embodied in Christ himself, Eph 2:14. This rest has already broken into this present evil age and is now offered freely by God as his unique gift
"For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be for ever blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!" (From the hymn, "For All the Saints" by William W. How, 1823-1897)

Brothers and sisters, it is in church, God's assembled covenant, worshiping community, as we contemplate the Person and work of Christ and as we celebrate his works and cling to his promise of eternal redemption, that our rest is supremely embraced. The question I must now ask you is simply this: in view of the finished redemptive work of Christ and in view of the certain great promises secured by him for us, "What are you doing the rest of your life? The North, South, East and West of your life. I have only one request of your life. That you spend it all with me (no him!)." (A slight but necessary correction to Alan and Marilyn Bergman's classic ballad, "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?")

I went to church on Sunday to hear and to rejoice in the rest of the story.

I Went to Church on Sunday

2011-07-19T23:47:00.003-04:00

I went to church on Sunday.

At church we come together partly to experience, proclaim and witness to the rest we have already been given in Christ. By worshipping on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week which commemorates and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the church affirms its participation in the rest of Christ. Here, as the whole person is caught up in the Spirit, we are removed from the preoccupations of mundane living, divorced from existential pressures, protected from the expedient urge to fix our problems, and focused on the Person and work of our redeeming Lord, Jesus Christ. Here, at the effectual summons of the Holy Spirit, we have (been) assembled together in the presence of our Triune God in order to show forth praises to his holy name, to declare his worth among ourselves and to the nations, to ascribe the glory that is due his Name, in other words, to worship him in Spirit and in truth.

Though we are plagued by persistent remaining sins, because of our union with our Lord Jesus Christ, we are holy; we are saints; we have already entered the rest of Christ. Our date or point of entry was the time that we heard the gospel message and believed it, Heb 4:3, not according to our own doing and according to the exercise of our will but only through and after the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. We entered that rest when we placed our faith alone, the gift of God, in Christ alone. The rest that we have entered is none other than the rest that God himself entered and celebrated when he ceased from his creation of the universe, vv. 4, 10. Each Lord's Day when we gather together we are reminded of the three-dimensional perspective of our rest in Christ: past – we first entered it when he delivered us from our sins; present – we are currently enjoying the benefits and fruits Christ secured for us by his finished work on the cross and which are now being applied to our hearts and lives by the Holy Spirit; future -we will fully and finally enter this rest at the Second Coming of Christ when he gathers up all his covenant people for whom he lived and died, unto himself to present us to his and our Father.

In the meantime, our rest is interspersed with sin and with struggle against it. We live in a fallen world characterized by sin and rebellion against God, by chaos and unrest. Each day we are called to consciously wrestle against our chief enemies, ".. the schemes of the devil.. The rulers, .. the authorities, .. the cosmic powers over this present darkness, .. the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places", Eph 6:11 -12. Each day we are mustered into a battle on three fronts, against the world, the flesh and the devil.

We cannot wage this battle in our own strength but only in a synergistic dependence on God the Holy Spirit who equips us in this struggle. In this regard we, whom the Lord has redeemed from the Egypt of sin to be the people of his own inheritance, are the new covenant fulfillment of the children of Israel who, although sent and led into the Promised Land by their Redeemer God, Yahweh, Josh 1:13, were still required to fight against and drive out their enemies with the Presence and power of Yahweh: "The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them." Dt 7:22-24. Like the faithful children of Israel who understood that their entrance into the Promised Land was only a type of the final rest to be enjoyed with God forever, "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on." Heb 4:8, we, "on whom the end of the ages has come.", 1 Cor 10:11, also know that we have not yet attained our final rest. God's promise of rest still stands, Heb 4:1. "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.” vv. 9-10.

Now, this begs the question, what does our eternal rest look like? To what can we liken it? Indeed, to what must we liken it? We compare it to the rest into which God enters after his creation, vv. 3-4. For this reason, the writer to the Hebrews calls it a Sabbath rest, v. 9. We will rest from our labors in the same way that the Lord God rests from his original creation activity. In this Sabbath rest the Lord God pronounces a cosmic benediction on the work of his hands. "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." Gen 1:31. "For everything created by God is good, .." 1 Tim 4:4. This Sabbath rest then has as its primary distinction the delight of God in himself and in his work. Theologians call this God's love of complacency. A. A. Hodge defines this love of complacency as ".. that approving affection with which God regards his own infinite perfections, and every image and reflection of them in his creatures, especially in the sanctified subjects of the new creation." and Louis Berkhof explains it as God’s "..delight in the contemplation of His own infinite perfections and of the creatures who reflect His moral image." It is true that our eternal rest necessarily includes rest from sin but far more than this, it is a rest in which we will be forever delighting in him and in his work of creation and re-creation, that is, redemption. It is a rest in which we, the unmerited recipients of God's love of complacency, will be basking in the unrestricted fullness of his glory.

The church at worship on earth eagerly anticipates this rest for which she is currently being framed and fitted. The church of Jesus Christ inwardly groans with inanimate creation to enter that rest. Each Lord's Day is both a reminder and a type of the Sabbath rest that is approaching as well as awaiting us. Each Lord's Day, those who have been justified by faith alone and who now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Rom 5:1, experience this rest and cry out with Saint Augustine, "Lord, thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." Confessions, Book I. The church therefore understands that the term "rest in peace" is truly not meant for those who have died but for those who are living, for those who have eternal life by God's grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. Those who have faithfully responded to Jesus' command to come unto him and receive his rest, Mt 11:28, are the very ones who will experience this shalom and this rest consummately in heaven where they will always be with the Lord. No wonder then that the church's final recorded prayer in history is "Come, Lord Jesus!" Rev 22:20. No wonder then that we are restless until we enter our consummate rest.

I went to church on the Lord's Day. There I enjoyed, already but not yet fully, the rest of God in Christ. The rest is yet to come.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-07-05T19:22:00.003-04:00

I went to church yesterday… the day before yesterday, really.

My current reflection on service has to do with rest, that holy and glorious gift of God symbolizing one aspect of his ultimate purposes for his creation. The biblical principle of rest stands in direct conflict with and in bold contrast to the thoughts and practices of contemporary society. We are a restless people. We belong to a culture that lives and moves and has its being in quickly moving pictures and scenes, in rapidly changing sounds, in fast and fanciful alterations in every aspect of life ranging from rituals to relationships. The outcome of this groundlessness is that we are the personification of the proverbial rolling stone that gathers no moss. We're shiftless in all our ways, very impressionistic in our thinking (?) and well-nigh incapable of having an ongoing, serious discussion. In this process, even our speech has been deconstructed into a series of Neanderthal-like disjointed sounds, grunts and utterances reflecting the pervasive shiftiness and stultification of our society. We are restless in all our ways. Our culture, regressing more and more into a state of abject childishness, has been overtaken by a regrettable malaise of intellectual ADHD.

In contrast to this pitiful state of fallen man, rest is a gleaming gift of God to his chosen people. Its biblical meaning is varied but its deeper significance goes beyond the simple notion of the absence of any spatial activity and the reality of being in a secured state. These are some of the meanings contained in the first primary Hebrew word for rest, nuach, found in such texts as Gen 8:4, "the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat." and from which we have such derived nouns as Noah and Manoah. However, the rest of God encompasses more than the non-existence of disturbances, whether external or internal.

Its full meaning is located in its soteriological significance stemming from the theology of the Sabbath. To this end the Scripture tells us that “..on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation." Gen 2:2-3.

In these verses we find the clear biblical teaching of the goal or destiny of creation: rest. That this is a unique day is emphasized by the threefold presence of the word itself: God rested from all the work that he had completed (in creation)- twice. This rest took place on the seventh day – the Hebrew word for seven is intimately related to the word for rest.

What does the Scripture mean when it says that God rested from his work? Clearly it does not and cannot signify that the perfect, omnipotent, independent Lord rested because he had need of physical recuperation. Exodus 31:17 is perhaps even more puzzling for here it states that the Lord God rested on the seventh day and literally took breath, that is, was refreshed. Rest, shabat, in the Genesis and Exodus texts, points to a cessation from labor, which when combined with the fact that the Lord blessed and sanctified this day (made it holy), denotes that God was therein signifying the divine intent and purpose for that day. Please refer to Dr. Joseph A. Pipa’s article "The Puritan Sabbath" in the June 2011 issue of Tabletalk. Accordingly, this rest in which the Lord God, who had just pronounced a cosmic benediction on all that he had created, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Gen 1:31; cf. 1 Tim 4:4, participated is a rest of enjoyment and delight in his work of creation. In other words, our Creator contemplated the work of his words and concluded that it was altogether good. Further, by blessing the day the Lord confers upon it further distinctives by which it is to be marked, i.e., fruitfulness and fulfillment. The implication here is that all those who obey God by observing his Sabbath, would experience fullness of joy, completeness of satisfaction and fruitfulness of life.

Moses expanded on the nature of this rest to the sons of Israel as he proclaimed to them the law a second time. In Dt 5:15 his parting words to his people were "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." Here we find that God commanded his people to rest on one day out of seven, not only because of his pattern in creation but also because of his gracious redemption of his covenant people from Egyptian slavery. The rest into which the Lord was leading them was symbolically located in the Transjordan territory and was accomplished, in the first place, by the taking of the city of Jericho. Upon entering the Promised Land therefore, Israel was said to have entered into its rest and its inheritance. This land was described by Yahweh himself as one that was flowing with milk and honey, signifying the stout riches of divine blessings, and as a place in which Israel would experience non-interference from and victory over all her enemies. All of these were a gracious gift of God. There she was to offer fit sacrifices to her Redeemer God. "But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD." Dt 12:10-11. It was into this land and inheritance that Joshua, Moses' successor, led his people. "So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war." Josh 11:23.

But this was not the final rest that God intended for all of his people, for all time. For God's covenant people, there yet remains another day of rest. "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, .." Heb 4:8-9. This rest is to be found in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ who grants us a full-orbed rest, not simply a non-working on one day of the week and the absence of conflict but most importantly, a rest from the toil of sin. By his finished, substitutionary atoning sacrifice of himself for his covenant people on the cross of Calvary, Christ declares himself to be and presents himself as the fulfillment of all that redemption and rest in the old covenant typified. He is our rest. He, the Lord of the Sabbath, is our Sabbath rest. On the cross of Calvary, he cosmically disgraced and disarmed the rulers and authorities, by triumphing over them, Col 2:15. Then, by his resurrection from the grave, he ushered in a new order, a new age for the entire creation, a Sabbath rest for God's people, Heb 4:9. Herein lie the full meaning and significance of rest. Those of us, who by God's grace alone, have put their trust in Christ alone for their righteousness, have already entered this rest. However, its full benefits and blessings await the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who will, at that time, grant us the fullness of our redemption, the completeness of our rest, as he ushers and leads us into the anti-typical Promised Land, the New Jerusalem, to present us as trophies of his awesome work of redemption, to the Father, as his spotless bride, fully rested from the toils, trials and troubles of sin. Christ is our rest. Christ is our peace.

Each time those of us to whom the Lord has been pleased to grant his rest, Mt 11:28(28-30), attend corporate worship, we demonstrate at least three great truths: we have already been the gracious recipients of this Sabbath rest; we are currently participating in this rest; and we are anticipating that day when our rest will be complete. In the meantime, we keep on drawing near to him by corporately partaking of his Word and sacrament. With each worship our longing for that day intensifies for we are increasingly tasting and seeing that the Lord is indeed good. With each worship our joy multiplies. With each worship we celebrate the victory, the rest of our conquering King, Christus Victor. With each worship we intensify our praise to our majestic Lord and King "… Till our ransomed souls shall find, rest beyond the river." (Emphasis added)

Would you believe that this was my experience in church yesterday?

I Went To Church Yesterday

2011-06-20T20:40:00.003-04:00

I went to church yesterday.

While church attendance is a Christian duty required by God, Heb 10:24-25, it is also a delight, an enjoyment every believer should have in his heart. The Christian knows that God seeks those who are authentic worshipers of him, those who worship him in spirit and in truth, Jn 4:24. By this is meant that believers are to worship him according to the manner he demands, with (a) spiritual worship corresponding to his spiritual being or essence and according to the truth of his word which is now enfleshed in Jesus Christ, 1:1, 14, 17; 14:6. Thus, when the Samaritan woman reveals her ignorance of the true character of worship by expressing her doubt whether such worship is to take place on Mt. Gerizim, the sacred place of the Samaritans or in Jerusalem, the sacred place at which the old covenant Jews were commanded by God to observe their three annual festivals, the Lord Jesus Christ gently but firmly diverts her attention to the fact that in him (since his first coming), the essential character of worship has been changed. Accordingly he redirects the discussion from the place of worship to the mode of worship and then to the object of worship, himself. Under the new covenant therefore, true worship extends beyond cultural, racial or geographic bounds, corresponds to the spiritual essence of God and terminates on the Lord Jesus Christ who "In the beginning was the Word, [who] … was with God, and [who] …was God.. [and who] .. became flesh and dwelt among us,.." 1:1, 14.

Consequently, we understand that in attending corporate worship services, we are not really drawing near to God. Indeed, even the Old Testament saints were acutely aware of the immensity of God. (Louis Berkhof in his Systematic Theology states "In a certain sense the terms "immensity" and "omnipresence," as applied to God, denote the same thing, and can therefore be regarded as synonymous. ... "Immensity" points to the fact that God transcends all space and is not subject to its limitations, while "omnipresence" denotes that He nevertheless fills every part of space with His entire Being.") Therefore in his dedicatory prayer to God upon completion of the temple, King Solomon prays ""But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!" 1 Ki 8:27. Rather, when we go to church, we are affirming the reality that we have already been brought near to God. How? "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." Eph 2:13, that is, by the substitutionary, atoning death of Christ on the cross on our behalf, in our place and for our benefit. We are demonstrating that by God's sovereign grace alone, we are no longer separate from him, no longer afar off but have been drawn close to him by Christ through whom we have access in one Spirit to the Father, Eph 2:18, and who indeed is our access to the Father, Jn 14:6. After all, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, .." 1 Pe 3:18.

Further, by going to church we demonstrate, not only that we have been drawn near to God but also that we are continually coming to Christ, 1 Pe 2:4, that is, that we are progressing in our Christian walk. We understand and joyfully accept that corporate worship is an integral part as well as a defining aspect of our Christian life. Such a perspective protects us from misguided notions that, since worship is essentially a spiritual matter, then I can worship God however and wherever I want because "the Lord knows my heart"; that I don't have to attend church because the church is corrupt and besides, all the preachers want is my money; that the church is really neither the building nor a physical facility but really the people and all that really matters in the end is that I have "accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior into my own heart." No! The entire testimony of both the Old and the New Testament is that worship is uncompromisingly, unquestionably and fiercely corporate in scope.

It is no wonder then that while the Holy Spirit indwells individual believers, 1 Cor 6:19 -20, He also dwells in the temple of God, the corporate collection of all believers, 3:16. It is the church that Christ purchased with his blood, Acts 20:28. It is in this body that Christ by his cross reconciles all believers vertically to God and horizontally to one another, Eph 2:14-16. It is his church, a holy temple in the Lord, in which believers are no longer strangers and stragglers but in which they are being built together as members of God's own household, into a dwelling place for God by the Holy Spirit, vv. 19-22. It is this very church, his bride, for which Christ gave himself, which he is now sanctifying, ".. having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word," and which he will present to himself at his Second Coming in all her splendor, "without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." 5:25-27.

Therefore, in corporate worship, I delight in being among my brothers and sisters. I no longer regard them after the flesh, that is, from a worldly perspective, 2 Cor 5:16, but from the viewpoint of the gospel, as those with whom I am bound together by the blood of Christ with bonds that cannot be broken. It is a Christian axiom, therefore, that blood is thicker than blood. By this I mean that those who have been brought into the family of Christ through the Person and work of Jesus Christ enjoy an eternal union in him that far exceeds the relationship they share with the unsaved members of their biological family. In Christ, we are a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come, v. 17. The church at worship is the most dynamic evidence of this new ethnicity on earth.
Believe me, I did go to church yesterday. There, along with my fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God, I worshiped the Triune God in spirit and in truth.

Believe me, I did go to church yesterday. There, along with my fellow-citizens of the kingdom of God, I worshiped the Triune God in spirit and in truth.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-06-13T20:53:00.003-04:00

I went to church yesterday.

The Scripture commands all believers to attend corporate worship. The book of Hebrew issues the specific and solemn admonition that we must not neglect "to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." 10:25. This admonition comprises two elements:

• a negative prohibition against neglecting or forsaking or ceasing to meet together. In other words, corporate worship is of such a crucial nature that believers are to apply themselves to this responsibility and privilege with unrelenting dedication and unyielding commitment.

• a positive charge to incite or stir up one another in this endeavor. In this regard, two reasons are given. First, the undeveloped observation that some have already begun to ignore the need for church attendance. The text indicates that this practice was not a mere lapse into uncharacteristic inattentiveness but rather a sustained and continued custom. Second, we are to encourage one another to attend corporate religious services "all the more", that is, to an even greater degree than we would normally do, in view of the coming Day of the Lord. The urgent need to join the congregation of the righteous takes on its highest importance in view of the approaching eschatological consummation when Christ will come again to gather his own unto himself into a state of conscious, eternal heavenly bliss and to consign those that have rejected him unto an equally conscious and eternal state of condemnation and punishment in hell. Our awareness of this end time reality intensifies our need to encourage our brothers and sisters to attend corporate religious services.

Many times this verse is abstracted from its broader context. The immediate context incorporates the previous verse, 24, which exhorts us to ".. consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” The writer’s emphasis is clear: encouraging our brothers to attend worship services is a part of our overall responsibility to stir them up (not to irritate or nag them) to do good works. These good works are the necessary proof that we have indeed been justified by faith alone apart from our works and that our faith in Christ Jesus is the authentic, Jas 2:14-17. Even further, stimulating our brothers and sisters to attend church is also a concrete expression of our loving our neighbors as ourselves. It confirms the biblical truth that we are our brother’s keeper and that therefore we are to encourage and build up one another, 1 Ths 4:18; 5:11, to exhort one another daily lest we become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, Heb 3:13. It confirms and promotes our ecclesiastical unity as one body, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose systematic and symmetrical development requires the effectual outworking of each part in a dynamic interdependence so that the entire body grows and builds itself up in love, Eph 4:16. Lastly, it affirms our status as an other-worldly people eagerly looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ at which time we will worship him, the Lamb on the throne, in unbroken continuance with all the saints from every nation, tribe people and language. This is the immediate context.

The larger context lies between Heb 9:1-10:18 whose verses expound the incomparable effectual self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Briefly and broadly, 9:1-10 addresses the limited dimension of the blood of animals repeatedly shed by the high priest under the Old Covenant which could only provide an external, ceremonial cleansing. By contrast, Jesus' blood, shed once for all in the sacrifice of himself as our great High Priest, is able to purify the consciences of those who trust him, 11-14. For this reason, Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant because his blood attains forgiveness of sins, 15-22. Sinners can find salvation only in Christ's once for all substitutionary, atoning sacrifice, 23-28, which is the fulfillment and substance of all the portraits, copies and shadows contained in the Old Covenant, 10:1-18.

In the light of this great indicative of Christ's effectual sacrifice come the three imperatives to draw near to God with a sincere hearts and full assurance of faith, 22; to unswervingly hold to our confession of hope which is rooted in the covenant faithfulness of God, 23; and, 24-25, the verses occupying our major attention, to encourage fellow believers to be faithful in attending worship.

In summary therefore, the urgency of corporate worship is reinforced by the effectual, atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Those that have had (and that are still having) the full benefits of Christ's redemption applied to them by the Holy Spirit, should therefore contemplate worship not as a disturbance of their rest, an interruption of their routine, a naked duty to be performed, an occasion for the public display of (contrived) piety, and so on, but as a sincere expression of joy, humility and gratitude in response to Christ's salvation of their souls and in anticipation of the unrestrained and unrestricted demonstration of such joy and piety when Christ gathers up his own in the great eschatological harvest. For these reasons, we must strive to experience these great truths in the fellowship of the saints and also to encourage our fellow-believers to do the same. The effectual atoning sacrifice of Christ constrains all believers to meet together in corporate worship and to exhort one another to so do.

But I would not have known these truths had I not gone to church. I went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-06-06T22:00:00.003-04:00

I went to church yesterday. For the past few weeks I've been vacationing and traveling.

Our church has a weekly custom in which one member family hosts the guests and visitors to our service on that day. The hosting family invites our guests to its home and shares a meal, time and glories in the Lord with them. Host families rotate every week. On those occasions that there are no visitors, other members are invited to that family's home. This practice has been met with much eagerness and great delight and from all that I can tell, it has universal acceptance. And why not? After all, hospitality is one of the many marks of a true Christian. For example, Paul urges the church at Rome to "Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality." Rom 12:13. Peter says that this should be without any grumbling, 1 Pe 4:9. Indeed, such hospitality should be extended to strangers because of the profound implications, "for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Heb 13:2. [Note that the Greek word literally means demonstrating love to strangers]. Lastly, such acts of genuine love are required of the elders of the church, indeed, they are part of the qualifications for that office, 1 Tim 3:2; Tit 1:8.

However, I began to notice a pattern developing among our congregants. The term fellowship was being restricted to the after-service love feast or gathering. Thus, fellowship only began to take place after the benediction had been given. This was the emphasis of the remarks I overheard. As I began to reflect on this matter, I began to see that we were missing the mark. How? Because the entire church, the local church, the communion of saints meeting at a specific location, is a fellowship.

The word fellowship means partnership or communion. More specifically, it indicates a sharing and participating in something that is common to all its participants, all of whom are involved in a close relationship. In its verbal form it is found in 1 Cor 10:16 where Paul instructs us that in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, believers participate in the blood as well as in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. As an adjective, common, it is used to refer to the general truth that all believers undergo all kinds of temptations, 1 Cor 10:13. In addition, Paul reminds Titus that together they share a common faith, Tit 1:4, and Jude tells his readers that they share a common salvation, Jude 3. From the latter 2examples, we are already beginning to detect a particularly evangelical nuance. Accordingly, we are compelled to ask whence does such fellowship emerge? What is its source?

It arises from the effectual call of God the Father, who, in faithfulness to his covenant promise, summons those that he chooses before the foundation of the world to be included into the fellowship of Jesus Christ, 1 Cor 1:9. Thus, according to this infallible apostolic teaching, all that were called in this manner by God share (in) a unique fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Trinitarian dimension of fellowship is more strenuously asserted in Rom 8:9: "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him." Therefore, according to the clear testimony of the New Testament, all believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who himself proceeds from the Father and the Son, Jn 14:26; 15:26. And what is the task of the Holy Spirit? To apply to believers all the benefits that Christ has accomplished in his sinless life and in his death on the cross for their redemption and ultimate glorification. In this way, the Holy Spirit honors and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. To this end he is called the Spirit of truth who glorifies Christ by guiding believers "into all the truth" by declaring to them the things of Jesus Christ, 16:13-14.

Yet further in his first epistle, John tells us that the believer's fellowship is with the Father as well as the Son; it is a fellowship that results from believing and receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us-- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 Jn 1:1-3. Christian fellowship therefore, like Christians and the church, is birthed by the Word and by the Spirit. It is driven by and derived from the gospel.

All of these truths serve to remind us and to reemphasize that true fellowship is demonstrated by and located in the communion of the saints, that is, it is restricted to and circumscribed by the Triune God around those that are authentically Christian. As such, it is demonstrated when believers assemble in corporate worship under the God-centered, Christ-exalting and Spirit-empowered preaching of the Word of God and in the faithful administration of the sacraments of holy Baptism and the Lord's Supper which say the same thing as the gospel of Jesus Christ and which indeed are the gospel in palpable form. In this regard, the practice of the early church at Jerusalem is seminally instructive. There the believers portray four signs of the new Christian life: first, and foundationally, they devote themselves to the apostolic teaching (Calvin: the soul of the church), namely the deep truths concerning the Person and work of Jesus Christ; to the fellowship; to the breaking of bread (although commentators are divided as to whether this phrase refers to the Lord's Supper, to a common meal or to the agape love feasts preceding the eucharist, the greater weight of argument seems to fall in the direction of the Lord's Supper); and to the prayers, Acts 2:42. The point here is that this local gathering of believers came together in fellowship with one another, that is, in the fellowship of the church, in and during the course of official church activities.

Fellowship is therefore a gospel privilege granted to all believers. It takes place primarily during corporate worship but it is also evident when believers come together in a non-worship setting in which the Holy Spirit guides, instructs and illumines their conversation to, along and into the glories of Christ. By definition, unbelievers cannot have this privilege; they are said to hang out or roll or run together in floods of debauchery, 1 Pe 4:4. Their thoughts and declarations flow from themselves, into themselves and are bounded by the dark world whose prince, the devil. On the contrary, the content, tone and tenor of Christian fellowship flow from, outward and upward to Christ, the light of the world. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" 1 Jn 1:7.

What an awesome benefit derived from an awesome gospel! What an awesome participation! What an awesome Savior who makes this possible by his mediatorial work on the cross for us while we were yet sinners!

I did go to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-05-16T22:23:00.003-04:00

The thirteenth of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

I went to church yesterday.

Preaching through the book of Genesis has been exciting and rewarding. Exciting because it reinforces our need to view the earliest accounts of recorded history from the perspective of God's unfolding his redemptive purposes in history for his own glory through sinners like you and me. It is rewarding because it is a reminder of God's faithfulness to his own Name and of his hesed, his steadfast, unbreakable covenant loyalty to those he chose unto himself. It is a comforting reminder that the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, is our God, the trustworthy covenant-keeper who is the same yesterday, today and forever. As the Holy Spirit applies the preached word to our hearts, we joyfully affirm with the prophet Isaiah, "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Isa 25:9.

Yesterday's sermon was from Genesis 40, the story of the imprisoned Joseph's service to the Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and baker. In his marvelous Providence, the Lord God placed Joseph in the same prison unit with these two former confidants of Pharaoh. In his marvelous Providence, the Lord God caused them to have equally imposing and disturbing dreams, both needing immediate interpretation, on the same night. In his marvelous Providence, the Lord God enabled Joseph, disparagingly called "the lord of dreams," 37:19, by his brothers, to provide them with the requisite, separate interpretations. But how did Joseph, a Hebrew from the land of Hebrews, 40:15, end up in Egypt?

Briefly, Joseph was a daddy's boy and a spoiled brat. His brothers despised him because he continually taunted them with the fancy coat his father had given him and with his boastful claims of future lordship over them, predictions that he had dreamed. His offended siblings conspired against him, stripped him of his contentious coat, sold him to Midianite traders who took him down to Egypt and who later sold him to Potiphar, Pharaoh's captain of the guard. There Joseph quickly incurred the favor of Potiphar who entrusted all that he had to him. 39:5-6. Joseph was extremely successful and for his sake, the Lord richly blessed Potiphar's estate, vv. 2-5. All of this took place according to the marvelous Providence of God. Indeed, the Scripture affirms the hands-on Providence in this way, “The LORD was with Joseph,..” v. 2.

However, Joseph's lot suffered a swift, radical reversal. The scorned and scheming Potiphar's wife, whose brazen sexual advances Joseph consistently parried, viciously accused him of attempted rape. Potiphar believed his treacherous wife and summarily placed Joseph in the prison in which the king’s prisoners were kept. Yes, there he was, in the words of Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Alone Again (Naturally)" but also there he was, with the Lord. “The Lord was with him ".. and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” As a result, Joseph was appointed a trustee supervisor over the other prisoners and the warden placed everything under his charge ".. because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed." vv. 21-23. In the marvelous Providence of God, all these ups and downs, these good times and bad times, were ordered for Joseph. The Lord was with him when his brothers sold him, when Potiphar bought him, and when Potiphar's wife persecuted him. The Lord was with him. This very Lord is with us now as he was with Joseph.

How often we tend to think that our suffering is in direct consequence to our sin. While it is true that the holy God cannot wink at iniquity and must punish evildoers, sometimes there is not a one-to-one correspondence between our sin and our suffering. This is one of the lessons of the book of Job – sin is not necessarily causal of our suffering; it may be a possible cause but is not always a necessary one. Sometimes the Lord God providentially orders our suffering for his own glory. This truth is amply verified in both the story of Job and of the blind man in John 9. From Job's experience we learn that God is often pleased to withhold the reason for our travail and will keep it in store for display in his heavenly trophy among the many cloud of witnesses in heaven.

Returning to Genesis 40, Joseph's interpretations of the chief cupbearer's and baker's dreams proved that the Lord was with him – they were true. Pharaoh "lifted up" the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker, a very poignant pun, in different ways. The former was reinstated to his position in the king's court while the latter was ignominiously hanged. But the chief cupbearer did not ask Pharaoh to release Joseph as Joseph had requested of him. He did not remember Joseph… but the Lord was with Joseph. There he was again in familiar territory, imprisoned, disappointed, desolate and dejected, alone again (naturally). But the Lord was with him.

In the deep, dark night of Joseph's soul, the Lord God was working all things together for his own glory and for his good. The sovereign God was silently preparing him for his exaltation to the position of second-in-command in all Egypt, a position from which he would bring the Lord's covenant family into Egypt from which the Lord would later stage the greatest redemptive act in the Old Testament, the exodus. The Lord was with Joseph. Through the life of this individual, the Lord was sovereignly using secondary causes to effectuate his greater purposes of redemption in history. As he himself would later enlighten his brothers, "So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt… As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." 45:8; 50:20. God used his brothers’ sins against him sinlessly to promote the Lord's greater purposes of redemption that would expand from the confines of sibling rivalry to the dank prison cells in a foreign land to the palace of the world's reigning superpower to the stage of redemptive history. The Lord was with Joseph.

One great lesson from this story is this:
God moves in a mysterious way;
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm. William Cowper, 1774

When God is with us, we rejoice that the mysteries of his providence and the inscrutability of his ways are not occasions for doubt but are causes for worship. True faith (not perfect faith)in the covenant loyalty, the hesed, of the Triune God, impels us, not to seek explanations but to remember his character, to adore him and to praise him for his goodness, wisdom, beauty, etc. In times of darkness, in times of profound pain and intense suffering, our greatest comfort is not in the provision of answers but in the assurance of the presence of our great covenant God and King with us. The Lord was with Joseph. The Lord is with us. Christ our King is with us. He is Immanuel.

I learned this in church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-05-09T18:19:00.002-04:00

The twelfth of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

I went to church yesterday. I'm part of the body of Christ. In it the union between God and his people is sealed. Christ's body is the temple, the place in which God dwells with his people, Jn 2:19. It is a community, a communion of the saints. Now, it is true that the Lord saves us individually – each one of us must confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Christ from the dead, in order for us to be saved, Rom 10:9. As Jesus Jesus taught the baffled Nicodemus ".. unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Jn 3:3; see also vv. 5, 8.

However, the Scripture also goes on to tell us that our confession of Christ is neither something that we do of ourselves nor is it an action that is unto ourselves, that is, that it terminates on us. Our confession of the Lord Jesus Christ is effected by the Holy Spirit: ".. No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit." 1 Cor 12:3. Secondly, the Holy Spirit sovereignly equips each person with different spiritual gifts, vv. 4-11. Thirdly, it is in (by) this Holy Spirit that "… we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit., ", v. 13. The summary of these verses is that as man the sinner is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, he is at the same time equipped with at least one spiritual gift with which he is to glorify God and serve other believers, 1 Pe 4:10-11, in the context of the local church, into which he is divinely placed. In the same way that parts of the physical body are organically interconnected, so "God arranged the members in the body [the church], each one of them, as he chose." 1 Cor 12:18. Essential to the understanding of the word member is the notion of a relationship with others; to be a member is to be a part of a group, collective or community. "For the body does not consist of one member but of many… If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body." vv. 14, 19-20. The one church is constituted of many different members.

From the foregoing we can safely conclude that genuine faith is a faith that terminates upon the Person and work of Jesus Christ and that expresses itself in the communion of saints, which is also termed the assembly or congregation of the faithful. This community is the church. While the Scripture teaches that the word church may be used in a variety of ways – the company of believers in one house, Rom 16:5; 1 Cor 16: 19; etc.; one city, Acts 8:1; 11:22, 26; etc.; a particular province, Acts 9:31; and in a universal or catholic sense, 1 Cor 12:28; Eph 1:22; 3:10, 21; etc., "Very frequently the word is used in the plural to designate the plurality of churches, that is to say of units, scattered throughout a certain area of lesser or greater geographical proportions.. Acts 14:23; 15:41; 1 Cor 16:1, 19;.." (John Murray, Christian Baptism, p. 33). It is with particular reference to this latter application of church, that is, the local, visible church, that saving faith is expressed and verified. As the late Professor Murray elucidates, "Union with Christ and the faith through with that union is effected, though in themselves invisible and spiritual facts, are nevertheless realities which find expression in what is observable." p. 34. In other words, one cannot claim to have faith in Christ and thereby to be a part of the universal church without being a member of a local, visible community. Saving faith is anchored in ".. visible association and organization [which] are implicit in the very nature of what constitutes the church." Ibid. Membership in the local church therefore is an inevitable consequence of saving faith. As such, it is a privilege to be enjoyed, a responsibility to be willingly undertaken, a union to be displayed, for it is one of the "… far-reaching implications of faith and conduct." Such action necessarily follows our confession which is "… an intelligent and consistent profession of faith in Christ and of obedience to him." Ibid., 36. (Emphasis added)

Well, some would argue, what about the thief on the cross? Was he not saved? Did he not make a genuine profession of faith in Christ? Surely he was not a member of the local church! All of these are true. However, the major point of Jesus' extending saving mercies to this thief is to demonstrate, not the possibility of deathbed salvation – (note that of the countless biblical examples of sinners coming to faith in Scripture, this is the only one of its kind. Therefore, it can be correctly described as extremely limited- only one is recorded in Scripture, but nevertheless, real- it was genuine; Christ did save this sinner)- but his absolute faithfulness in honoring his promise that ".. Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame… For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." " Rom 10:11, 13.

So what did I learn in church yesterday? I was strengthened in the truth that being a member of the local church is an immense privilege. I was fortified in the biblical teaching that the saving faith we are given and which ".. comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." v. 17, is the very faith that directs us to the place where Christ dwells on earth, his church, his body, his historical community which he created and over which he rules by his Word and Spirit. In church I learned that membership in (t)his body is not a peripheral or incidental matter, nor is it simply a personal matter. On the contrary, church membership is one of the crucial evidences of true saving faith, the faith that is worked in the heart of the sinner by the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the Word of God but that which, essentially, is a faith that is evinced in corporate communion. In church I gained a deeper understanding of the fact that on the Lord's Day, all believers are to answer the Holy Spirit's summons to “Adeste fideles, .. Venite adoremus, Domine,” that is, to "Come all ye faithful.. Come and adore him, Christ the Lord." In so doing, we demonstrate our faith is genuine. In so doing, we demonstrate that in our corporate worship and in our service to our brothers and sisters, we are not living for ourselves but for him who lived, died and was raised for our sake, 2 Cor 5:15.

I learned all of this in church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-05-03T19:25:00.003-04:00

The eleventh of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

I went to church.. not yesterday, but the day before. Yesterday, I was out of town and could not post my blog because I was in meetings all day. But, I did go to church.

As I was doing some reading, I thought that I might approach this week's reflections from a different angle, from the perspective of a minister reviewing his last preached sermon. I think ministerial Monday morning quarterbacking does have many benefits; indeed, it is a privilege and honor with which the sovereign Lord presents us in order that we may review our sermons and detect ways by which we could (and should) improve them. How often have I neglected the glorious benefits of such an opportunity to prove myself faithful to the Lord! How often have I grieved the Holy Spirit by rejecting his loving nudges to return to the sermon and with the added insight that he provides through additional reading, reflection and prayer, stubbornly refused to apply myself to such a noble task! On the one hand, it shows the sinful extent to which I worship my own stubborn, fallen will and also the adoration with which I joyfully stroke the idol of my slovenliness. On the other hand, it evinces my very careless and callous attitude toward God's people, his sheep, the sheep of his pasture, those with whose care he has so graciously entrusted me. I neglect the truth that the spiritual gifts with which I have been endowed are to be directed toward the edification of God's people and the glorification of his Name, 1 Pe 4:10-11. Further, while it is true that our spiritual gifts are divine enablements, it is also true that, in some cases, like that of preaching, these abilities are also skills and as such, they need to be honed through diligent practice; constant revision; dutiful examination of the works of our predecessors and peers; a ceaseless resolve to learn and apply new insights; a determination to preach the whole counsel of God; copious reading and prayer; etc., all of which impel us to heightened faithfulness in the exercise of our duty to ".. preach Christ crucified, ..” After all,"..what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake." 1 Cor 1:23; 2 Cor 4:5

So what did I do yesterday? I reviewed my sermon that was based on the first seven verses of the book of Zechariah. The scene there is the heavenly council of God in which the High Priest Joshua, representing all Israel, is standing before the Judge, the Angel of the Lord, a synonym for Yahweh, with the prosecutor, Satan the Accuser, at his right hand. His ineluctable guilt is graphically symbolized by his dress –his clothing is filthy, as well as by his demeanor – he is silent; the charges are true and he is unable to produce any alibi; his mouth is stopped, Rom 3:19. He is condemned and helpless! Here the drama of redemption reaches its apex: at the last moment, when he is about to be consumed, the Lord God, abounding in mercy and goodness, graciously intervenes by silencing Satan, by delivering Joshua from the consuming fire of God's own just wrath and by ordering that his filthy garments be replaced with righteous and pure vestments taken from the heavenly wardrobe.

Clearly this is a pictorial presentation of the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone which the Westminster Larger Catechism # 70 defines as ".. an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone." Although all the elements of this doctrine are not presented in the text, nevertheless, this teaching is sufficiently identifiable. For example, the Lord God efficaciously declares the guilty and condemned Joshua to be righteous, cf. Rom 4:5-6; 5:6, 8; Gal 2:16; etc. The great exchange of Joshua’s rags of wretchedness by pure vestments is a picture of the divine Lord's clothing the sinner with Christ's righteousness, cf. Isa 61:10 with Rom 3:21-28; 10:4; 1 Cor 1:30; Phi 1:11; 3:9; etc., indeed, with Christ himself, Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27. Throughout this entire procedure, the defendant makes no contribution; he is entirely passive. He is the unworthy recipient of God's saving mercies.

My broad sermon outline was as follows:

Text: Zechariah 3:1-7
Title: Justification: A Radical Change from Rags to Riches

I. THE MISERY OF DESERVED GUILT vv. 1, 3

II. THE MERCY OF DIVINE GRACE vv. 2, 4,-5

III. THE MANDATE TO DILIGENT GUARDIANSHIP vv. 6-7

Reviewing my sermon from the post facto advantage of the Monday morning quarterback, I realized that in the final division, vv. 6-7, I was not as effective as I should have been. I did not adequately emphasize that only on the basis of the Lord's once for all declaration are Joshua and indeed, all sinners, righteous in God’s sight. Secondly, I should have accentuated the fact that we, like Joshua, are mandated to do good works which prove and testify our justification. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Eph 2:8-10. In Joshua’s case, the Lord re-commissioned and reinstated him to his priestly duties, perhaps with added privileges.

As a result my conclusion was weak. I really needed to drive home the point that our obedience to the law (sanctification) necessarily flows from our justification and that our good works are done in gratitude to the Lord for his justification and not as a prerequisite for our salvation. Further, I could have further sharpened this truth by placing it within the context of the indicative/imperative dynamic– the indicative of God's justification of sinners by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone necessarily leads them to carry out the mandate of presenting their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God, which is their reasonable service, Rom 12:1. God the Father did not snatch Jesus Christ, his eternal Son, from the consuming fire of his wrath on Calvary's cross. Instead, Christ the sinless suffering Servant, having fully obeyed the law and bearing the sins of those that he came to save and dressed in their filthy rags, willingly endured the full immolation of a fiery divine judgment for the very ones who now receive the benefits of his finished work, imputed to them by God and appropriated by faith alone. Who, being so super-abundantly privileged, would not commit his life to such a Savior? Who, being so honored as to receive the Lord himself, would not want to serve him obediently the rest of his days? Who, being saved by God's grace alone, would not live his life in such a way as to prove that God's grace reigns in his life through righteous works “leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom 5:21. This I should have done sparing no effort to present myself “.. to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”2 Tim 2:15. This is how I should have ended my sermon.

These are my reflections on my paltry service to my risen Lord. However, Deo volente, I'll have another opportunity next Sunday on which I plan to go to church. Will you be there?

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-04-25T19:30:00.004-04:00

The tenth of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

I went to church yesterday. It was Easter, Resurrection Day, the day our Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected from the grave. Easter celebrates the cosmic victory of our triumphant King of kings and Lord of lords, who in his (life,) death burial and resurrection, soundly thrashed the evil forces of Satan, sin and death, for all those that are in him, boldly and consolingly declaring to his disciples, " "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." " Mt 28:18.

What was my biblical text? My text for preaching on Christ's resurrection was Isaiah 25:1-12. You might ask why choose the Old Testament when the New Testament accounts of Christ's resurrection are presented with such clarity and detail in the four gospels? Why return to the old covenant when Paul gives us the most powerful, convincing theological defense, not only of Christ's resurrection but also of that of all believers, in 1 Corinthians 15, the locus classicus of the biblical doctrine of resurrection? Why go to the Old Testament which comes under the category of shades, shadows, prophecies and predictions concerning Christ and his Messianic ministry while the New Testament provides us with the fulfillment of our Lord and his work? To these just answers I answer: I chose the Old Testament because of the unity and continuity of the Scripture – the Scripture is one book comprising several books, with one unifying, controlling story, that is, the holy, righteous and offended God’s gracious provision of salvation for condemned sinners through faith alone in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, his eternal Son. Secondly, I selected an Old Testament passage because the doctrine of the resurrection is clearly stated there, as we will soon see.

Isaiah 25 falls within the larger subsection of chapters 24-27, which, because of their occupation with and portrayal of end time or eschatological concerns seen in such passages as 24:21-23; 25:6-12; 27:1-5, 12-13, and so on, are frequently and appropriately termed "The Little Apocalypse." A suggested broad outline of this section is as follows:

24:1-25:5 God's Universal Judgment of the Nations

25:6-12 God's Lavish Victory Feast on the Mountain of the Lord

26:1-21 The Joyous Song of the Redeemed on Their Way Home to
Jerusalem

27:1-13 The Final Gathering and the Security of God's Remnant on the
Mountain of the Lord in Jerusalem

The first five verses of chapter twenty-five complete Yahweh's universal judgment of the earth for its gross defilement by the ruthless nations. It is a judgment that highlights the Lord's destruction of the fortifications of the vicious nations which he transforms into a pitiful heap of ruins, while at that very moment presenting himself as the stronghold and refuge of his people. In the aftermath of and upon the foundations of this cosmic victory, the sovereign Lord of Hosts hosts a celebration, a lavish feast, on the Mountain of the Lord, for his redeemed covenant people from all the nations of the world, spreading a table before them in the very presence of their enemies.

Immediately we identify the prophet's reliance upon and fulfillment of the Exodus event when, after supernaturally defeating the Egyptian Pharaoh and his army, the Lord gathers his people on Mount Sinai to have a feast with his people who were represented by Israel's leaders and elders, Ex 24:9 -11. However, here in Isaiah this feast is unrivaled in scope-it extends to all nations; in opulence – it is a state dinner of matchless proportions; and in its location – it is held in the new city, the new Jerusalem.

Who is the chief enemy over whom the Lord has secured an eternal victory? Verses 7-8explicitly declare "And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken." Death, which the apostle Paul calls the last enemy, and its faithful, gruesome attendants of sorrow, disgrace and misery, are the primary foes that the Lord has crushed. This death, the justly imposed curse for breaking God's covenant, that once filled the land, 24:6, and that once was a veil, a dark shroud, a blight and a burden upon the people bringing reproach and disgrace upon them and causing them to live in abject fear, has now been swallowed up by the sovereign, omnipotent God. Then, in an unparalleled act of ultimate TLC, the sovereign Lord personally wipes away every tear of each of his redeemed covenant people. This act of sovereign condescension attains its consummation in the eschaton, Rev 7:17; 21:4.

The apostle Paul appropriates Isaiah's words, "death is swallowed up in victory," in 1 Cor 15:54, part of his climactic conclusion to the greatest exposition of the doctrine of resurrection which ends with these taunting words, " "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."" vv. 55-57. Here Paul teaches that by By his resurrection from the grave, the triumphant Christ has killed death, has swallowed it up and has removed its fangs and its teeth, its sting and its venom, for those that are in Christ.

To this end, the Scripture tells us that the reason for Christ's Incarnation was precisely this – to defeat Satan and death. For example, the writer to the Hebrews states that through his bodily death, Christ destroys "the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil," in order "to deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery." 2:14-15. In his first epistle John records “.. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." 3:8. Indeed it was he who “.. disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” Col 2:15, and who also "…abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 2 Tim 1:10.

Moreover, Isaiah’s phrase swallowed up is directly employed in the New Testament, not only by Paul in the above-mentioned text but also by Peter with reference to, none other than the devil himself, whom he fittingly describes as our adversary, likened unto a roaring lion, constantly on the prowl "seeking someone to devour." 1 Pe 5:8. Devour may also be translated swallow up or swallow down.

Thus, the New Testament clearly expounds that the victory over death foreseen by Isaiah on the Mountain of the Lord is fulfilled in Christ by his resurrection. Likewise, the festal celebration of which Isaiah speaks obtains its fullness in the resurrected Christ who bequeaths his supper, the Lord's Supper, to his people, the body of Christ, the church, as an act of proclaiming his death as often as it gathers in corporate worship, 1 Cor 11:23-26, until he comes the second time. Further, both Christ's victory over death and the ensuing celebratory, commemorative meal he institutes are foreshadowed in God's victory over his enemies in the Exodus event; are currently observed in the ordinance of Holy Communion; and are anticipated in the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in heaven, Rev 19:9. [The message of Scripture is one!]. Here John, the banished apostle, poignantly captures the triumphant dimension of this meal in the vision of ".. An angel standing in the sun, [calling] with a loud voice .. to all the birds that fly directly overhead, "Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great." " vv. 17-18.

Christ's resurrection from the grave thunders throughout history with a most authoritative, distinguishable sound vindicating his claim to be Christus Victor, the indisputable King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the living One who died, and who is now alive forevermore, holding the keys of Death and Hades, Rev 1:18. Whereas believers view weekly corporate worship as a gathering on Mount Zion in the Presence of the Lord, Heb 12:22-24, in celebration of Christ's Person and work, as Resurrection Day, Easter is that special day memorializing Christ's resurrection as a decisive historic act, a victory over all authorities, thrones and dominions, which he will consummate at his Second Coming when "the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of Christ, and [when] he shall reign forever and ever." 11:15. Thus yesterday, we observed our resurrected King with a special regard. We especially delighted in singing Zion’s songs acclaiming Christ's finished work, one of which was Brian Wren’s "Christ Is Risen! Shout Hosanna!”, the third stanza of which affirms that:

Christ Is Risen! Earth and Heaven
Nevermore shall be the same
Break the bread of new creation
Where the world is still in pain
Tell its grim, demonic chorus:
“Christ is risen! Get you gone!”
God the First and Last is with us,
Sing Hosanna, everyone!

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!

I went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-04-18T20:03:00.002-04:00

The ninth of an undetermined number in a series on the character of and need for corporate worship.

I went to church yesterday. It is always a humbling privilege to be in the presence of the Lord with the rest of the saints. It is always a joyous and fearful experience to join with the members of our local congregation on the Lord's Day. There, in the congregation of the righteous, among those who have already fled for refuge in Christ alone as our only comfort in this life and in the life to come (Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day # 1), we receive strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us, Heb 6:18. There, in the very presence of God, in the ark of his safety, he sweetly and sovereignly protects us from the chaos, hazards and evils of the world. There, we hear his voice in the preaching of the Word and as we eat and drink with the Lord Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the Lord's Table. There, we truly taste of the powers of the age to come. There, we are reminded of God's love for us, a love that reaches its highest expression in God’s sending his son to live a sinless life for us and to die for us, while we were yet sinners, Rom 5:8; see also v. 6.
Clearly the coming together in joyful, worshiping assembly is primarily an occasion for those that belong to God through Christ. Truly this is an event designed for God's people whom Christ purchased with his blood. Certainly this moment for those whom Christ states “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” Heb 2:13. Obviously this is a celebration for members only.

As I reflected on these truths, it began to dawn on me that to be a member of Christ's body, to be purchased by him and placed by his Spirit in his body, which receives its nourishment, strength and guidance from its head, Jesus Christ, is to be the recipient of an incomparable honor. There, unworthy in ourselves to be beneficiaries of Christ and all the benefits that he communicates to us, we are reminded that it is only by Christ's Person and work that we have been made adequate to receive such rewards.

I began to wonder again, that if all these are true, then why is it that some take church membership so lightly? Why is it that some regard it as an unpleasant, inconvenient option? Why is it that even among some professing true religion, they speak of the church as an unpleasant gathering that is full of hypocrites? Why do many perceive it to be a mere social and religious institution whose pastors are only out to get our money? I remember once having a discussion on this matter with a bank teller who stubbornly insisted that although she was not a member of a local, visible church, Christ still dwelt within her. In so doing she pointed to her heart. She was rather buxom.

Notwithstanding, the biblical witness is very clear: the Lord God has always been creating a people for himself. From the time of Adam and Eve, the first family, and from then on to Noah and his family, then to Abraham's family which the Lord expanded into a nation variously called the children of Israel, the sons of God, my people, and to which he often referred as his sheep, we understand that the Lord has always been concerned with sovereignly creating a people, a community, for himself. In this regard, Israel, the church of the Old Testament, was commanded by God to authenticate itself as God's own treasured possession by obeying his precepts regarding worship, diet and social/legal relationships. As Moses reminded his hearers "See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? The New Testament continues this pattern and principle. And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?" Dt 4:5-8. In sum, God's people, the members of his covenant community, the members of his church, have particular God-given signs by which they show themselves to be separated from the rest of the world and unto God.

The New Testament continues this pattern. The apostle Paul tells us throughout 1 Cor 12 that the church is indeed a body consisting of many members. "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ… For the body does not consist of one member but of many." If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body." vv. 12, 14, 19 -20.
How did the many members come to be placed in this body? By what means were they constituted as one body? By the sovereign work of God alone: "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit… But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose." vv. 13, 18. Thus, it is the Lord God himself who chooses us for our neighbors and who chooses our neighbors for us! We are his people! We are family!

Further, membership in the local church is based on the expression of our common confession of faith: "There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." Eph 4:4-6.

In this era, the body of Christ marks itself off, rather, is marked off by God, from the rest of the world, not my keeping the law but by its members' Christ-like love for one another, Jn 13:35. "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Gal 5:14.

It is therefore within the body of Christ, that the power, love and Presence of God in the Person and work of Christ as proclaimed through the faithful preaching of the Word and as received through the proper administration of the sacraments, come alive!

These were some of the great truths that were reinforced in church yesterday. As we sang together, prayed together, confessed our sins together and received God's pardon [on the basis of Christ's merits alone] together, we were reminded that we were God's covenant community, a corporate entity, his chosen people, his own treasured possession, that he is constantly forming and shaping, molding and growing, into the image of Christ, for his own glory.

I went to church yesterday. I am a member of Christ's body.

Next week, God willing, we'll continue this discussion on the topic of church membership.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-04-13T12:02:00.002-04:00

The eighth of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

I went to church yesterday – – well, really not yesterday or the day before (Tuesday and Monday) because on those days I was ill. Today, as the Lord slowly heals me, I'm trying to redeem the time. But I did go to church on Sunday; I communed with the saints.

Together with all the other believers throughout the world, we are members of Christ's body. That universal body is represented visibly in each specific, local church. As members of the church are in union with Christ through genuine faith in him and his his finished redemptive work, a union that is initiated, sustained and strengthened by the loving initiatives of his grace working through us by the effective work of the Holy Spirit, this union is necessarily reflected in the communion of the saints. This communion is an organic relationship in which all believers share with one another not only a spiritual oneness, but also a doctrinal unity deriving from our common confession of one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

Nowhere is this communion of the saints, the communion sanctorum, more vividly and more vibrantly demonstrated than in our assembling together in corporate worship. Although we come from different homes, different parts of the town or country as a whole, and although we are affected by a great variety of other circumstances pertaining to our birth, education, habits of life, local customs and even bodily constitution, when we come together on the Lord's Day as the body of Christ, when we come together in corporate worship, precisely because we are all united to Christ, all natural distinctions are subsumed under the gospel reality of Christ's finished work on the cross. In Christ all racial, social, cultural and sexual divisions, the source of conflict and injustice, are abandoned and are correctly viewed and understood in their right context, that is, from God's perspective. Being in Christ enables us to grasp that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal 3:28. Although these distinctions still apply naturally, we consider them to be an aspect of the diversity of the members of the one church, the corpus Christi, the body of Christ, into whom, Gal 3:27, and into which, 1 Cor 12:13, all members are baptized. As Christ instructed his disciples in the Upper Room, “..you in me, and I in you.” Jn 14:20 [You is plural].

In this holy communion, we are bound together with one another, more closely than peas in a pod or nuts in a shell – we are organically knitted together! In this communion we come together at a common meeting place that is Christ. There, Jesus’ words to the crowd in Jn 12:32, "" And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself,"" signifying both the death that he was about to undergo as well as the cosmic saving impact it would produce, are microcosmically enfleshed when the saints are drawn together to Christ and to one another in worship. There we reflect the magnetic charisma of Christ in a local, visible setting. There we answer the effectual call of the Holy Spirit to assemble together in Christ and at Christ. There we ascend to the high mountain of Jesus Christ. There all that are Abraham's descendants and heirs according to God's promise, Gal 3:29, and their children, come together as one covenant community, the blood-bought people of God whose organic link is clearly denoted by the reality that we ".. are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." Eph 2:19 -22. See also 4:11-16.

As we gather together in Christ and at Christ, we humbly recall the great privilege the Lord has bestowed upon us in this current dispensation. Whereas the Old Testament saints would meet their God in a physical tent called the tabernacle of God as they journeyed through the wilderness, and whereas that physical location was changed to the temple after the Lord had given them rest from their enemies and had settled them in the Promised Land, in these last days God himself has tabernacled among us in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is he, the living tabernacle of God, Jesus Christ, that has pitched his tent among us. As he patiently and pleadingly impresses upon the Samaritan woman "".. the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.""Jn 4:23-24. It is he that spreads "the corner of his garment over us and covers our nakedness.. " Eze 16:8, and that draws us unto and into himself in an unbroken and unbreakable covenant relationship.

Last Sunday, the great devourer, time, did its perfect work and before long we were singing John Fawcett's most encouraging hymn, "Blest Be the Tie That Binds." Thereafter, we lingered around the sanctuary still basking in the afterglow of our rapturous encounter with our living God. Next, we slowly and unwillingly dragged our heavy heels to the parking lot to head home to discuss the events of worship among ourselves and to pray for God's strength to meet the burdens of our secular world in the marketplace where we will bear witness to our Lord and Savior. As we finally left the safe and sublime surroundings of the sanctuary and entered into the hostile environment, we sadly recalled the words of Fawcett’s last stanza “When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain; but we shall still be joined in heart, and hope to meet again.”

I went to church last Sunday. I communed with the saints.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-04-04T16:50:00.002-04:00

The seventh of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

One of the joys we share in corporate worship is the singing of praise to our Triune God who commands his people to "Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! " Ps 100:1-2. This we strive to do every time we assemble together. Yesterday was no exception.

As believers standing in covenant unity, continuity and solidarity with the Old Testament saints, we understand that we cannot and must not enter God's presence without a sacrifice. When our Old Testament brothers entered into God's presence, they never did so empty-handed. Such a concept was both unheard of and unthinkable to them. The worshiper would bring an animal, typically a domestic animal, one that was physically perfect, and depending on the nature of the sacrifice, after he had laid his hands on the animal’s head, either he or the officiating priest would sacrifice the animal and spread its blood on the sides of the altar, Lev 1:5, 11;
3:2; etc. On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed animals in front and on the mercy seat, 16:14 - 15. However, today, our sacrifice has already been made. Jesus Christ, the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, Jn 1:29, 36, is our once for all sacrifice satisfying the holy justice of God for sin and sinners. "… But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Heb 9:26. Christ our Savior is our final sacrifice for our sins who took our place on the cross of Calvary. Our sacrifice has already been made for us. It is his sprinkled blood that cleanses our hearts and purifies our consciences, 10:22; 9:13. However God has not repealed his command to always appear in his presence with a sacrifice. These great truths therefore beg the question, what kind of sacrifice must we now bring when we enter into God's presence for worship?

The writer to the Hebrews tells us in verse 15 of chapter 13 that through Christ alone we are to "… continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name." Jesus Christ is our sacrifice through whom we come to God to offer the sacrifice of praise as we confess (this is the literal signification of the word acknowledge) his Name. The phrase is taken from Hos 14:1-2 in which Yahweh makes a major plea through his minor prophet for his people to return to him with an earnest plea for full repentance of their sins, accompanied by their offering of the calves or vows of their lips. To confess God's Name is to say the same things that he says about himself, to declare his attributes back to him.

Therefore yesterday, we the congregated covenant community, we the New Testament priesthood, entered into God's presence through our Mediator Jesus Christ and responded to the Lord of the covenant by joyfully, thankfully, and fervently singing his words back to him, that is, confessing his Name. Like the rest of our worship service, our praise centers on the Word, attributes and acts of God in history and time, particularly as these are pre-eminently portrayed and personified in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, is Christ not the very Word of God, Jn 1:1, through whom God the Father speaks perfectly, completely and finally in these last days, Heb 1:2? Further, is he not God in the flesh, Jn 1:1, 14, even as he has testified of himself, “I and the Father are one." Jn 10:30, and again, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father...”? 14:9. Yet further, is he not God's eternal Son who completes and perfects God’s work of redemption in history? Does not the Scripture speak of him in this way: “After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,.”? Heb 1:3. Certainly it is he who fulfills all the Father’s purposes “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” 2 Cor 1:20. Lastly, the Scripture clearly teaches "… he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Heb 9:26

Undergirded therefore by these majestic and irrefutable truths, we affirm that, like the rest of our worship, our singing of praise is to be rooted in Christ's redeeming work, in the gospel which both forms and informs it. When I say that the gospel informs our praise I mean that God's redemptive work in Christ is the primary reason that he is the object of our worship. By saying that the gospel informs our worship I contend that Christ and his work are the content that we sing.

So, what exactly are our songs of praise? They are songs extolling the excellency of Christ – his birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and Second Coming- through which he attains redemption for his covenant people, songs which are at the same time, thank offerings to God for the sake of Christ.

What did we sing in church yesterday? Yesterday we sang the gospel of Jesus Christ. We sang the inspired Psalms and hymns of Scripture as well as spiritual songs composed by later Christians addressing and exulting in the incomparable majesty of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, Eph 5: 19 -20. We sang God's words back to him and the Holy Spirit used these very words to glorify him and to strengthen our hearts, sustain our faith and encourage our entire assembly as we anticipate (d) the eschatological victory of Christ over the powers of this world, the final establishment of his kingdom, and our full, unrestrained, unreserved, unrestricted joy in his presence, Rev 4-5. I went to church yesterday! Believe me, I did!

But precisely what did you sing in church yesterday? For our Hymn of Praise, that is, our opening hymn, we sang "All Glory, Laud and Honor," attributed in part to St. Theodulph of Orleans, 760-821. After the reading of the law and corporate confession, our Hymn of Thanksgiving was Horatius Bonar’s (1808-1889) "I Lay My Sins on Jesus" and our Hymn of Preparation, taken from the Trinity Hymnal, was Psalm 11:1-5, 7. For our Communion Hymn we sang a medley of songs comprising C. H. Spurgeon's (1834-1892) "Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands" and "I Know It Was the Blood." Our Hymn of Parting was John Fawcett’s (?) "Lord Dismiss Us With Thy Blessing."

So, yesterday, in response to God's immeasurable blessings to us in Christ Jesus, we assembled together coram Deo to hear from him in Word and sacrament and in return, to offer the sacrifice of praise to him for His Name's sake, for indeed "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" Rev 5:13 However, as Christians we know that our praise of God is not limited to a weekly assembly but that, according to the abundant mercies of God in Christ, our whole life is to be a sacrifice of worship, a song of adulation and and adoration, offered to God and our neighbor, demonstrated by our loving and selfless words and works, attitudes and actions. Rom 12:1-2. I went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-03-28T21:09:00.002-04:00

The sixth of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

I did not blog last week because I attended my first cousin's funeral in Hempstead, New York. On top of that, my computer broke and was not fixed until later in the week. Parenthetically, a frightening thought overwhelmed me: I realized to what extent my sanctification was tied to my functioning laptop! For several days, I was a fish out of water breaking all God's commandments against the sin of worrying, scarcely able to concentrate on matters of more importance, on such concerns that have enduring and eternal consequences! O wretched man that I am!!

At the time that all the saints go marching into the sanctuary, I was at LaGuardia Airport boarding my flight to return home to Stone Mountain. I felt strange and out of place and could not stop wondering what and how my brothers and sisters at All Saints Redeemer Church were doing; at what junction of the service were they; did they warmly greet the supplying preacher?; and so on. More worries, more sin! Yet, the truth was, I would rather occupy the last pew of my church than be at the airport on the Lord's Day. I would rather be a doorkeeper there than be at a hub of frantic busyness on such a day. I truly missed my family; I truly missed worshiping our Triune God with them in the sanctuary. I also did hate leaving my huge family back in New York but the family that was heaviest on my mind was my covenant family in Georgia.

My family on my father’s side is quite large and most of my cousins and their children and grandchildren are unsaved. While I did enjoy the brief time that I spent with them, notwithstanding the sad circumstances, I grieved over the condition of their souls and sought to use all opportunities to witness to Jesus, in word and in deed. But then I also began to reflect on the fact that my church family will be with me for a much longer time – even for eternity – than my family in New York. It was then I realized that those bought by the blood of Christ are bound in a much more intimate union, indeed, into an eternal community, than those family members according to natural generation. It is true that Blood is thicker and more long-lasting than blood. It was then that I also ruminated on the fact that the family is a wonderful gift from God granted in the context of his creation mandate to be a community – remember how he lamented that it was not good for man to be alone, Gen 2:18; recall how he created man and woman in his own image and blessed them and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, that is to populate the earth, his stage of redemption, with offspring also made in his image, 1:27-28. I next cogitated on the gospel truth that those the Lord saves by his grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, he also adopts as his sons and daughters into his family through the work of his Holy Spirit, Rom 8:14-15, who also places them in the local church, the body of Christ, 1 Cor 12:13.

The church then is a covenant family comprising several covenant families. Though having many members, it has only one head, Jesus Christ, from whom it receives its life and livelihood, Eph 4:15 -16, and into whose image its members are being transformed from one degree of glory to another, 2 Cor 3:18. The church is the new covenant community of God, participating in his covenant of grace, enjoying his spiritual blessings, Eph 1:3, as well as material blessings, Mt 6:33-34. It is assured of Christ's sustaining, sanctifying presence in its midst, and above all, it is confident that it will bask in his glory forever and ever. In anticipation of and in preparation for this glorious redemption, the church reflects a commitment to holiness, a love for God and neighbor, a passion for heavenly matters, and a sanctified dissatisfaction with the way things are. My earthly family does not share in these blessings. My earthly family is not filled with this hope. They do not and cannot have this worldview until and unless they have been born again, born from above, into a new family, the family of God. Then and only then will we be family in the truest and most profound sense of the word.

So what did I do at church yesterday? I reminded our congregation that the task of the church is to teach families to become hallmarks of holiness, to carry out the creation mandate of filling the earth with holy seed, to leave legacies of righteousness and holiness, to live in such a countercultural way that they show themselves to be vessels of God's saving mercies in Christ and instruments of his blessing to others. In return, each family's responsibilities include the commitment to disciple its children and to bring them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord in such a way that members of each local household become members of God's unique, peculiar household. In other words, to ensure that there is a one to one ratio between the earthly family and the heavenly family.

What will eventually become of my cousins and their children and their children's children? I don't know but what I do know is that dum spiro, spero, while I breathe, I hope .. and encourage, exhort, reason, plead with and use all other means available in order for them to become my family in the Spirit. This is partly what I taught in church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-03-14T17:28:00.003-04:00

The fifth of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

Yesterday was the highlight of my week. Moreover, yesterday is the highlight of my week. There I was gathered with fellow-believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, fellow-members of God's redeemed covenant community, assembled in the very Presence of our Triune God, in order to hear from him, in order to receive his blessing.

It is as we are gathered together in sacred assembly, in church, on Mt. Zion, coram Deo, before the face of God, that the most wonderful encounter takes place, that between God and man. It is here that God reaches out to man and meets him in the preached Word and in the sacraments. It is by this divinely appointed means of Word and sacrament that we hear God speaking to us. It is here that we primarily witness the divine action to and among us. It is here, as in the case of the disciples walking along the Emmaus Road when confronted by the resurrected Christ, our eyes are opened as Christ is made plain to us in Word and sacrament. It is here, the church, the new creation, born as the old of the divine Word and Spirit, that the Lord continues to speak and act with his people... Here, in this stream he has placed in the desert, his bright city in a land of darkness.

Yesterday our covenant God proclaimed to us through the visiting minister, the Rev. Leon Brown of Westminster Seminary, Escondido, Ca., not some “general” eternal truths but particularly and especially, those truths pertaining to his redemptive action in time and history, the truth of his gracious delivering sinners from their sins through his sent Son Jesus Christ, in whom alone we are to place our trust for salvation from sin, death and judgment. Through the minister, God's ambassador, we heard only one message, the message of Christ’s Person and work on the cross for us. Through the minister, God told us his story of redemption, formerly symbolized by an impressive network of types, rites, shadows and figures, all pointing to and “foresignifying” Jesus Christ, in whom they were fulfilled and substantiated. Through the minister, the Lord God reminded us of his manifold blessings in Christ, blessings concerning cleansing from sin, removal of guilt, adoption into his family, assurance of hope and preparation for heaven. Through the minister, God's spokesman, we were told that his story trumps our testimony; his work dwarfs our experiences; his covenant faithfulness infinitely outstrips our inconsistent devotion; his promise defines our word; his metanarrative controls our stories; his grace swallows up our sin.

There, we needed to have the boundless truths of this verbum externum (external Word) applied to our hearts and minds through the Holy Spirit. As God spoke to us by his Word and Spirit, he enabled us to taste and see that he is good, Ps 34:8. He enabled us to delight in him, to relish his goodness, to enjoy him in whose presence "there is fullness of joy; and at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore." Ps. 16:11.

As we, believers and our children were gathered in his presence, we were in truth and in deed rehearsing for that great day when we would see him face to face in that consummate church, the restored cosmic temple of which the garden of Eden is a type and of which the local church is a microcosmic representation. There and at that time, he will gather his elect from all the nations, from the four corners of the world. Then, He will have no need to ask them, where are you? for they will all rush to his holy mountain “clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” " Rev 7:9-10.

Yesterday I visited a miniature heaven on earth. Yesterday I went to the New Jerusalem on earth. Where did I go yesterday? I went to church. I went to the New World. I went to the real world.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-03-07T15:45:00.003-05:00

I Went to Church Yesterday

The fourth of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

As fallen mankind sinks more and more into perverse narcissism, thinking of salvation in individualistic terms persists in today's evangelicalism. For example, when we recall the time and circumstances of our coming to faith in Christ, we are still prone to think in terms of my salvation and not God's. We still refer to our conversion experience in such unbiblical terms as "the time that I made Jesus Christ my personal Lord and Savior” or "the day that I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart," and so on.

While the Scripture makes it clear that each person must individually repent and receive Christ alone for eternal life-note for example the focus on the individual indicated by "every one of you" in Acts 2:38– it equally clearly instructs us that the Lord does save his people. The message of God's redeeming his covenant people runs throughout Scripture. For example, it is by this mighty outstretched arm and strong right hand that he delivered the people of Israel unto himself, Dt 5:19; 9:29; etc. It was the church that Christ purchased with his blood, Acts 20:28. It was his sheep for whom he, the Good Shepherd, laid down his life, Jn 10:11-16. Verse 10 confirms "… I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (Emphasis added).
In describing Christ's work in redemption, Peter employs collective epithets drawn from the Old Testament: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Pe 2:9-10.
At the end of time and history when the Lord God will sum up all things under Christ, " the dead [plural] in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." 1 Ths 4:16-17. Our glorification which will occur "when the saints go marching" into heaven, "when believers will be with the Triune God in everlasting joy, when the already and the not yet of our salvation are swallowed up into a timeless perfection with the Second Coming of Christ, is in fact the glorification of the saints and not of the saint.

Further, the Lord does not leave each convert to himself, to live as an undetached "dangling participle" in life. Rather, the Holy Spirit sovereignly constitutes each believer as a member of the church into which he places him. To this end, the apostle Paul writes "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many." 1 Cor 12:13-14. That our placement in the local church is the sovereign work of our God is emphasized later in v. 18, "But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose." and again in 27, "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." (Emphasis ours).

Thus, throughout Scripture the corporate, collective, community aspect of divine redemption is convincingly demonstrated. The primary testimony in Scripture is that God saves his people. Salvation, above all, is ascribed a collective dimension. God saves his people.

It is in the context of this divinely ordained collective, the local church, that God is forming a new humanity in Christ, a new ethnicity, produced by the finished atoning work of Christ and realized by the reconciliation of man with man, Eph 2:14-15, resulting from man's reconciliation with God, to whom all persons have equal access in one Spirit, 16-18.

In serving God's people, Christ's sheep, I am gravely reminded that God's community is formed and strengthened in its unity and purity by his Word and sacrament. The preached Word of Christ's Person and work and the sacraments bearing the same message in visible form, are not habit-forming but community-forming. This is the historical language that the church speaks and hears when it is assembled in God's presence. This is God's language that by definition is on a collision course with the raucous, chaotic cacophony with which Christians are bombarded in the marketplace. Therefore, when they come to church, when they assemble corporately, it is the preaching of God's Word and the administration of the sacraments that serve to "detox" them from the world's multiple contaminations.

More specifically, in Word and sacrament, God's people are reminded of his speech and action in history, not in the distant past of a nebulous there and then but most importantly, in the midst of their existential challenges, in the hic et nunc, in the very here and now.

In Word and sacrament, God's people are reminded of his accomplishment of redemption in Christ on their behalf.

In Word and sacrament, God's promises which find their Yes in Christ, 2 Cor 1:20, are brought to bear on the hearts and minds of his assembled covenant people.

In Word and sacrament, God strengthens the faith that he first creates through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Word and sacrament, God's people are lovingly reminded of his gracious transformation of them from aliens and strangers, utterly hopeless and godless in the world, into his own people, into those that are brought near unto him through the blood of Christ, Eph 2:13.

In Word and sacrament, God's community is strengthened and sustained as his people are repeatedly told of his rescuing them from the just deserts of their sin and repositioning them to play new roles in his divine drama of redemption in which he is the chief actor.

In the ministry of Word and sacrament, God's people respond to his gracious overtures in Christ by making vows to him. We are not entirely passive as this drama is unfolded before our very eyes.

The ministry of Word and sacrament is God's primary means of grace by which he transforms his covenant people by causing them to see his Word in action, in Christ, in history and on their behalf, "That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory." 2 Cor 1:20.

The more I go to church, the more I speak and learn these transcendent, transforming truths, the more I want to have them repeated unto me there. That's why I went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-02-28T15:55:00.002-05:00

The third of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

Preaching is a difficult task. Contrary to lighthearted cultural braggadocio, all Black guys can’t preach, inasmuch as some White guys can indeed jump. Regrettably, throughout the land, preaching has been reduced to the pattern and practice of providing hearers with principles of success; steps to live a better life; techniques for improving self-esteem; processes for debt cancellation, wealth accumulation and health preservation; tips for overcoming fear, being better friends, becoming more sensitive employers and more faithful employees; and other similar banalities. One doesn't have to listen intently to a "sermon" from today's popular pulpit in order to detect unmistakable strands of legalism, moralism and humanism adorning current religious speech. I once attended a service in Clarkston, Georgia in which the minister spent over twenty minutes encouraging his members to invest in Coca-Cola stocks. What's worse, the people loved to have it so. Equally terrible is that I stayed all that time.

As ministers of the gospel, as those charged with the sole responsibility of preaching Christ and Christ crucified, our overall pastoral responsibility is to ensure that the gospel of Jesus Christ is central to every aspect of our ministry. It is this gospel, the good news about what God has done for sinners justly deserving his eternal wrath, in the saving Person and work of Jesus Christ, whom he graciously offers to condemned law-breakers, through faith alone in him alone, that is to be the foundation as well as the framework of our ministry. Faithful ministers must resist the temptation to "craft" their ministries by providing attractive choices and alternatives to their clients by offering different styles of worship that appeal to and attract different strata of society; by toning down the severity of sin in order to promote a user-friendly, inoffensive atmosphere in which one can be protected from the wrath of a holy God; by encouraging hearers to turn to Christ and to embrace him as their only help of achieving their personal goals and agenda in life; by incorporating forms and formats in ministry, especially in worship, that are influenced by today's consumerist society whose values are shaped by sitcoms and talk shows and whose attention span for robust truth is even shorter than the last commercial they just viewed. The faithful pastor is undoubtedly involved in a great test, a test of trusting God alone to define the direction and to determine the marks of "success" of the ministry over which the Lord God has placed him.

I believe that the temptation to cut theological corners by imbibing, even just a little bit, at the broken cisterns of this world reaches its highest levels in the realm of preaching. But it is also here that the faithful man of God receives his strength and encouragement for his task. How? It is the very Word of God that he is required to proclaim mainly through preaching and sacrament, that not only forms and sustains his congregation, God's covenant community over which the Lord has made him his under-shepherd, but that also strengthens him. If, in the words of magisterial Reformer Martin Luther, each Christian is to preach the gospel to himself every day, then how much more does this necessity devolve upon the shoulders of the minister in whose mouth lie the very words of God! God’s voice, said Calvin, resounds in “the mouths and the tongues” of preachers, so that hearing ministers preach is tantamount to hearing God himself speak. How much more should he regard his call with a gravity, sincerity and faithfulness, soberly recalling “ ..that we are [not] sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit...” 2 Cor 3:5-6, lest after we have preached to others, we find ourselves disqualified, 1 Cor 9:27. How much more should he cherish and claim this gospel, the mysteries of God's treasures in Christ, with which he has been entrusted, as the very epicenter of his life and ministry?

This is the perspective that I am so feverishly trying to adopt. These are the lofty, enduring truths that I am so carefully striving to apply. Such teaching forces me to do the unnatural – to look outside of myself unto the risen, resurrected, reigning and returning Christ alone as my only hope and strength, not only in the discharge of my pastoral responsibilities but also in all of life.

From this broader panorama of thought and armed with these comforting and challenging verities, I approached my task yesterday, still tainted with instability and insincerity and still troubled with nagging uncertainty and above all, with sin, still preaching with a limp, really, with the full handicap of a quadriplegic.
Thus I tried to preach the gospel of Christ to his sheep; thus I strove to present Christ to his people. Lord, help my preaching! Thus I tried to be faithful. Lord help my unfaithfulness! Thus I tried to be focused. Lord forgive my negligence!

I went to church yesterday… and all soli Deo Gloria. Yes, I, even I,, went to church yesterday.

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-02-21T16:26:00.003-05:00

The second of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

I went to church yesterday. Why not? I had no choice! I'm the preacher/pastor. In addition, I went to church because the other believers and I are the church. In this case the church is a noun and not a verb– we do not do church, as some reconstructionists shamelessly declare, we are the church, the body of Christ, the covenant collective, the communion of saints, inseparably connected to one another by the eternal bond of the Holy Spirit. Our communion is a necessary derivative of our in union with Christ our Head and it is preeminently expressed and experienced when the saints gather together in corporate worship.

The idea of the communion of the saints is fundamentally contra mundum. That is, it maintains a militant stand against this fallen world that cherishes confusion, celebrates chaos, criticizes continuity, condemns coherence and chides community. This communion of saints with its sense of orderliness, system of cohesion, standing in continuity with all the saints of the past and the future, maintains a defiant posture against the very character and claims of a lost and dying world. Though always tempted and in varying degrees impacted by worldly homogenizing tendencies to be relevant and "practical," this communion continues to maintain its distinctiveness from the world by clinging to the symbols of transcendence, by proclaiming the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and by serving as God's instrument by which he ushers in his kingdom. As a living, spiritual organism, the church, the communion of saints maintains its identity and preserves its integrity by resolutely holding fast to its head and King, Jesus Christ, whose agenda it joyfully incorporates as its own. The church gladly acknowledges that it belongs to God who creates and then re-creates his fallen creatures and then, more than placing them in the body of his Son Jesus Christ, he sovereignly constitutes them as Christ’s body. It is there, in the communio sanctorum as the gospel message is faithfully declared and as the sacraments are properly administered, that the people of God are continually transformed by his Spirit from glory to glory.

It is there as these divinely ordained means of grace are offered and received by God's people that they receive his help to inspire and energize them along the way. It is there as this worshiping community mimics the activities in heaven, that its real needs for forgiveness of sins, assurance of salvation, guidance and sustenance for the days ahead, reaffirmation as God's own, peculiar covenant people and for eternal hope, are declared and received. It is there the eternal verities of the character of God, the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit who applies the great truths of Christ's accomplished salvation to the heart's of God's elect, are confidently extolled and consolingly embraced.

With such a perspective and with such principles in hand and heart, this communion is being taught more and more to be what it really is, an other-worldly people proclaiming to a fallen world God's secret wisdom that was once hidden but that is now revealed. It boldly declares to the world that its only hope rests in the true King, the very Lord of glory whom it does not know and indeed, whom it cannot know, for if it could, it and its leaders would not have crucified him, the very Lord of glory, 1 Cor 2:8. But where did I learn all of this? And where did I proclaim all of this? In church, where I went yesterday, where else?

I Went to Church Yesterday

2011-02-14T11:19:00.000-05:00

The first of an undetermined number in a series on the character and need for corporate worship.

I went to church yesterday. Monday through Saturday is a long time to be away from the members of the body of Christ. I sorely wanted to see my brothers and sisters again. Particularly, I wanted to see our ailing sister who has been recently diagnosed with a serious malignancy and for whom we have been praying intensely. I wanted to see her face, to know how she passed the last week, to encourage her and her family members by affirming to them what they already know – our faithful Triune God is with them; that in Christ Jesus our Lord we have a great High Priest who is more than able to sympathize with our weaknesses, temptations and illnesses and that because of him, we are to hold firmly to the faith we profess, Heb 4:14-15.
I wanted to be with the young persons, some of whose parents are faithfully catechizing them with a view that, upon successful examination, they would be received into our church as communicant members.
I attended service yesterday because I wanted to meet in person the husband of one of our members who lives in another state and for whom we have been praying feverishly to return to and be reunited with his wife. Unbeknownst to him, the Lord has answered our prayers and we are rejoicing with humble thanksgiving to our merciful God who moved in the heart of this man and motivated him to come back to his wife. What an awesome God! I went to church yesterday.

However, as sound and as laudable as these motives are, they are not the major reason for my attending service yesterday. I attended service mainly because I needed to hear from heaven, to hear from God. The Scripture declares that I'm standing in covenant unity and continuity with the redeemed community of Israel whom Lord God had monergistically saved from Egyptian slavery and brought unto himself for his own glory. Then, he commanded them to stand at the foot of Mt. Sinai in order that he would speak to them from on high. There he reminded him of his Person, who he is and of his work, his redemptive work of purchasing them from captivity. Within that redemptive context and from the perspective of that introductory reminder, he gave them the plans and commands he had for their lives, the stipulations which were to govern their lives as his own treasured possession, his own holy nation that he separated from all the nations of the world, which belonged to him, but from which he was pleased to choose in an unbreakable covenant that he sovereignly instituted, a small part which he created and constituted by his word as his own people.

Like the church of the old covenant, elect Israel, the church today is a creatura verbi, a creation of the word of God. Like the church of the old covenant, today's church is the recipient of God's lavish saving mercies that he mediates through his son, Jesus Christ. So, I went to church yesterday to hear from this very God who spoke at Sinai and who now speaks to his people now assembled on Mt. Zion. To hear what? To hear the law and the gospel repeated in my heart; to hear the wonderful story of God's particular redemption of sinners through his gracious, sovereign regeneration of the Holy Spirit unto faith in Christ alone and all soli Deo gloria, to the glory of God alone; to hear this word by which we are saved, justified, sanctified and renewed; to hear this word by which we live, and move and have our being, for in like manner as it creates the church, this word also creates faith in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is this faith by which we live, 2 Cor 5:7. It is by the hearing of God's word, ex auditu, by which the church lives. I went to church yesterday to hear the word of God that I may live. I went to church yesterday.

Lessons from the Atlanta Storm, Pt. II

2011-01-26T20:08:00.002-05:00

The January storm has left many unpleasant and challenging consequences. For example, at the time of writing the city's Department of Solid Waste is entangled with unpaid workers claiming they were promised to be paid for their time away from work. The employees maintain they were willing but unable to report for duty due to the unsafe driving conditions. Many private sector companies, lacking an inclement weather policy covering disruptions of such magnitude, have also had to decide how to treat their employees' absence. The police department blames its unresponsiveness to many emergencies on a lack of chains for its car tires. The city's coffers are out of more than $5 million. And, as if these were not bad enough, the mayor and other city officials are continually at the receiving end of the blame for being unprepared and inept in their overall handling of the crisis. Overall, a dark and deep malaise of finger-pointing and frustration hovers over the ATL.

Yet, there is overhanging over this city.

For six days I marveled at how my community was quickly transformed from their dull, brown winter colors into a motionless blanket of unrelenting whiteness. It was a captivating sight. I was almost transfixed by the new, implacable hard covering, a monolithic mass proudly defying man's valiant efforts at removal. We all sat and beheld it! Of course the world complained and protested why is this happening to me!? What am I going to do now? It's so boring staying at home. Many complained of suffering from claustrophobia and even called television stations enquiring of possible mall openings so they could escape the cruel confines of their homes. I call this the inane vanity of radical depravity. Here it is that in spite of the fact that people were losing life and limb on dicey roads and regardless of the fervent pleadings of officials for us to stay at home, some were deliberately striving to do the opposite– to risk harm and danger in order to satisfy their dark, wanton craving.

The larger question is what did we learn? City officials learned and solidly vowed that they will have to be more prepared the next time such a disaster strikes. But surely there has to be more than simply physical preparations of collecting more food and firewood; stocking up flashlight batteries; filling up our gas tanks, etc. Surely there has to be more than this! I agree: the key word here is prepare/preparation. Why do I say this? I use the word in the sense that reaches far beyond the immediate and the foreseeable. I'm not trying to spiritualize the storm but I was seriously reminded of the Lord's rebuke to the troubled prophet Habakkuk, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” Hab 2:14. I know I might be treading on thin ice here –pun intended – but I really did reflect on the coming time when the Lord will appear more suddenly than did the storm, even as a thief in the night. At that time his majestic self-revelation will be so sudden that even the most gifted meteorologists and their sophisticated, top-ranked, high-tech equipment will not be able to spot him on their radar screen. It was a time for me to reflect on the divine promise of the Second Coming of Christ when the Shekinah glory will emblazon the entire creation. Then, some will be ushered by the Righteous Judge to the right hand of the father in heaven to dwell with him in everlasting, unimaginable joy while others will be dispatched to an eternal, conscious punishment of incalculable proportions. In both cases God's glory will be seen in its ultimate perfection.

Like Israel, Atlanta and the rest of creation is continually charged to "prepare to meet your God… For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth-- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!" Amos 4:12-13.

This is a visitation whose preparation requires not the stockpiling of physical food that perishes but the possession of food that endures to eternal life, the Bread of Heaven. The former is acquired by our purchases, the latter by his purchase with his blood. The former is the result of our work, the latter, the work of God which is that we believe on his Son Jesus Christ. Jn 6:29-32. How can we best prepare for this (his) inexorable unveiling? The ultimate storm? By ensuring that we place all our trust for this life and for the life to come in him alone who can still the storm by his sovereign, omnipotent voice saying, "Peace! Be still!" This is the most important challenge posed by the storm.

Lessons from the Atlanta Storm, Pt. I

2011-01-19T18:52:00.000-05:00

During the week of January 9, 2011, the state of Georgia was subjected to a vicious winter storm. The capital of Atlanta, along with other cities, towns and neighborhoods, was virtually shut down as the storm moved through with a fierceness whose gravity eluded the meteorologists and shocked the ill-prepared city administrators. The city was crippled: businesses were closed; educational institutions were shut; crucial services such as medical, transportation, etc., were curtailed; employees from all sectors were for the most part confined to their homes. The pervasive helplessness was redolent of the very old movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still." One could say that we were truly the frozen chosen… or perhaps, the chosen frozen.

In fulfilling their civic responsibilities, the Police and Fire Department spokespersons, weathermen and other broadcasters, were very busy, operating with round the clock consistency, providing citizens with up-to-date reports of road closings, accidents, warnings and sound advice. Above all of their fervent admonitions, the requirement to stay at home and to keep off the roads rang out with the loudest and largest urgency. Now, well, what do you know? Like Lot who was bidden by the angels to hurry out of Sodom and Gomorrah, many motorists thought this was a joke and continued driving at normal levels of speed. It was very sickening to see them slipping, sliding and skipping over the icy surfaces, crashing into other vehicles, guardrails, trees and ditches. I called this the reckless mobility of radical depravity. This is what it was as many, with hearts hardened to the warnings and perils, ignored the very clear and obvious danger and pursued their own path which ended in damage of limb and property, as well as, in some cases, destruction of life. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Pro 16:25

Yes, the storm was terrible and yes the city was severely crippled. However, through it all, was there some transcendent truth that, lifted out perspective and even comforted our cold bodies and troubled hearts? Yes. Let's remember what the Lord told the puzzled Job in chapter 38 of that book. In a series of rapid-fire rhetorical questions that were in essence a confrontation to shut the mouths of Job and his "friends", the Lord pointed to himself as the sovereign, omnipotent and good Creator of all. Concerning the snow and its allies he sternly demanded of Job, " "Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'? The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.” (vv. 28-35). The summary statement of it all is in v. 33, "Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?"

Yes, the all-wise God whose purposes for all of his creation are forever set in heaven and inexorably implemented on earth, saw fit to demonstrate his power and glory by commending the rain, the snow and the hail to remind the arrogant, modern Atlantans of his divine being and attributes. He is the unstoppable God whose ".. way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet." Nah 1:3. Every snowflake bore his signature; every pellet of hail displayed his autograph; every drop of rain attested to, the father of the rain. Indeed, he is the ultimate Rainmaker. Above all, he is altogether holy and good!

This is one lesson I learned while I experienced a temporary confinement. God was declaring himself again to us all, as he has been doing since the time of his creation, to evince us of his invisible attributes which can be clearly understood through the creation itself. But, as it was with the Lord Jesus, who came into his own and was rejected by them, (in the words of "Sweet Little Jesus Boy") "we didn't know it was you." As Paul warned the church at Rome, we are without excuse for we refused to acknowledge his presence among us and professing ourselves to be wise, out of the futility of our thinking and darkness of our hearts, we denied him the honor that is due him. We stifled the plain truth. Rom 1:18 -22. Yet, the unmistakable reality was that to some of us whose hearts have been savingly enlightened by the monergistic work of God's grace alone, we understood the storm’s message to be ".. the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him."" Hab 2:20. This admonition applied to a perplexed Job of the land of Uz as well as to the cynical skeptics of the city of Atlanta. The storm provided another opportunity for us to be still and to harken to him who speaks out of the storm… indeed, to him who speaks to the storm.

WHAT'S IN A WORD?

2007-01-11T19:52:00.000-05:00

Last year death claimed many notable African-Americans. Among these were opera singer Robert McFerrin, Sr., father of jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin; R & B singer Ruth Brown; Gerald Levert, son of O'Jays singer, Eddie Levert and passionate crooner known for his crude gyrations; CBS newsman Ed Bradley; energetic keyboardist and somewhat singer Billy Preston; former heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson; Earl Woods, father, mentor, career crafter and best friend of Tiger Woods, world's #1 golfer; famed photographer and film-maker Gordon Parks; baseball Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett; Coretta Scott King, wife of assassinated civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; soul singer Wilson Pickett; macho, smoothed-voiced Lou Rawls and the #1 workout man in show business, James Brown.

I recently heard two Clark-Atlanta University radio announcers lamenting the passing of many of these. As they remorsefully reviewed the list of the departed ones, I was attracted by the term they used for death: these personages did not die, they observed, they transitioned. An interesting euphemism, I thought. I must admit, I had never heard this before and then I started thinking, what does the Bible say about death? A few comments are in order:

1. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, Eccl 12:7; Job 34 4:14, 15; Lk 23:46; Jn 19:30; Acts 7:59; etc.

2. It is an intrusion, and an unnatural separation because it was not in the original divine design for man; it is a consequence of the Fall. Scripture emphasizes the psychosomatic union of body and soul or body and spirit, cf. for example, Gen 2:7; Mt 10:28; etc.

3. It is man's enemy, his last enemy which will have been fully and perfectly subjected to Christ's cosmic rule at the eschatological resurrection, 1 Cor 15:26-28 and Heb 2:7-10, 14, 15 fulfilling the Messianic Ps 8: 5, 6.

4. When Adam committed cosmic treason by eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, he experienced death in two other dimensions:
spiritually -- he and all those descending from him by ordinary generation lost communion with and are alienated from God, Gen 3:8-10; Eph 2:12. This is a condition consisting of "the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his own nature, which is commonly called Original Sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it." Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 18

judicially -- all are guilty in Adam, Rom 5:12, and are justly under God’s wrath, Eph 2:3. They are already condemned by God, Jn 3:18, whose wrath now abides on them, 3:36, and will receive the ultimate judicial punishment, the second death, when Christ returns, Rev 20:11-15.

But, is there a transition? Yes, there is, for death is in fact a change or changeover, a shift or a move, to another location. It is the continued conscious existence in another realm. Paul comforts believers by stating that “.. to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Phi 1:21. He assures us that his departure would usher him directly into the presence of Christ, 23. Elsewhere he says that to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord, 2 Cor 5:8. So a transition from one location to another does take place.

However, I may hasten to add that this transition is only into the state between death and the Parousia, the Second Coming of Christ. In this intermediate state of body-less existence, the believer groans to be clothed (literally to be “further clothed” or to be “clothed upon,” Derek Thomas, "The Eschatology Of The Westminster Confession and Assembly" in Ligon Duncan, ed., The Westminster Confession Into The 21st Century Vol. 2, 328) with ".. a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.. longing to put on [his] heavenly dwelling" 2 Cor 5:1, 2. The believer's ultimate article of clothing is not received in a mere transition but in a glorious transformation which will occur when Christ “.. will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Phi 3:21. It is for this ultimate glory that the believer in this intermediate state groans, as indeed, the entire cosmos, subjected by the sovereign God to a state of futility after Adam's sin, groans to be clothed anew from on high, Rom 8:18-24.

For the believer therefore, death is also a friend that ushers him into the very presence of God. This hope is firmly grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What about the unbeliever? Scripture doesn't say much about his intermediate state but "it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment," Heb 9:27, gives us an accurate idea. The overwhelming New Testament evidence regarding the afterlife of the unbeliever is directed toward his ultimate condition in hell, which is described as a place of utter darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, Mt 25:30; eternal fire, 18:8; a hell of fire, 9; unquenchable fire, Mk 9:43; deathless worms, 48; etc.

Yes, the Bible affirms that earthly life does transition into eternal existences: the one, a glorious transformation, the other, an unimaginable torment. There is no tertium quid, no third option: the ultimate destination of man is either heaven or hell.

Such doctrines as annihiliationism (the extinction of all unbelievers); reincarnation into other rounds of existence; psychopannychia (soul sleep) and so on, are wishful but futile fabrications of the fallen mind which seeks to mitigate the gravity of sin and to diminish the holy justice of God. These are bad words; avoid them. But words like separation, intrusion, enmity, guilt. condemnation, and so on, are good words; use them. What's in these words? Sound theology.

2007 IS HERE!

2007-01-04T09:07:00.000-05:00

After what seemed like a whirlwind, the old 2006 has gone; the New Year has come. With smooth effortlessness and diminished fanfare, the New Year eased itself upon us and once again, according to inexorable Providence, we are at that place that is rightly termed “in the beginning.”

We are already at that point in' 07 that: some have mournfully taken down their Christmas decorations; hopefully few are steeling themselves to deal with the sour reality of festive worshopping-- the oncoming onslaught of finance principals and charges; others are lamenting their additional sweet rolls dancing around the center of their body circumference; some of this latter group are calling 1-800-Jenny Craig to discharge this excess; others don't care; yet others are back to their predictable patterns and familiar work environs.

How did you fare in 2006? Did you keep your promise to read through the Bible? Were you more faithful in your studying as you promised at the beginning? Were you as disciplined in returning calls, making visitations and meeting deadlines as you had pledged? Were you faithful in tithing, even during the lean summer months and lavish Christmas holidays? Were you transparent to your accountability partners? Was your home an accurate reflection of the kingdom of God? Was your thought life pure? Were you more responsible in the expenditure of your time, money and other resources? In sum, did you really pursue Christ? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding ……………….. Fill in the blank. Tell the truth, ease your conscience please the Lord, shame the devil!

Whether 2006 was one of deep regret or guarded satisfaction, the stark reality is that we cannot reclaim and redo it -- its feathers have flown. Either the locusts have foraged it or the wheels of joy have graced it. The question is what’s in store for 2007. As I observe some of the contemporary trends, I dare make the bold prediction that we will witness the following:
 female (im)pastors (sic.) will continue to rise.
Rooted in a misplaced sense of egalitarianism, equal and civil rights concerns, feminism and wanton liberalism, and above all, a heightened disdain for honest biblical exegesis, the move for an increased female clergy will produce its harvest in many new frontiers.

 evangicouples, i.e., husband-and-wife divine duos, will also increase.
Born of the same conditions as the female preacher, this dynamic presents a similar social and religious image as the female clergy, except for the additional Hollywood flair-- they are craftily cosmeticized and handsomely presented with an enticement becoming the debonair attractions of Ebony and Jet magazines. After all, there’s no dichotomy between gorgeousness and godliness@#!! They usually dominate their billboards in such a way that their print is either hardly legible or psychologically unimportant to the viewer. They are the advertisement; they are the church; they are glowing; they are growing.

 the feminization of the church will continue.
This dynamic reflects itself not only in the two categories above, i.e., women in the judicial leadership of the church and male complicity with it, but also in a distressing lack of serious exegesis and sustained, robust exposition of the cross of Christ; (consequently) a distorted feeling-oriented, psychologizing of the gospel; the prominence of effeminates in music ministry; theologically flabby lyrics; the burdensome, nasal drone of male and female praise singers putting out this music; etc. The roots of feminization go back to the era of medievalism which was characterized in part by an unfounded notion that women were more spiritually receptive than men and in maternal and bridal mystic thinking regarding (the boy child) Christ. These trends will continue.

 the reversal of the creation mandate will continue.
The divine mandate for man, made in the image of God, Gen 1:26, 27, to subdue and rule over God's creation, 28, to work it and guard it, 2:15, as God's vice-regent on earth, will continue to be flagrantly disobeyed as more and more animals will continue to sleep in our beds, eat at our tables and even have better foods than some of us do (at least in my student days). Have you not seen the commercial in which a regal feline is pampered with a sumptuous feast of salmon and greens from a can? Production of holistic multi-vitamin and mineral supplements for dogs and cats is one of the new, booming businesses in this country. Last week I even saw a car emblazoned with the advertisement of its owner as an available and bonded animal sitter!

 more Blacks will embrace Reformed Theology.
Blogs and bloggers are increasing. Attendance at conferences is on the rise. The diverse attendees at the November Pastors’ Conference at Glendale Baptist Church in Miami last year show that not only African-Americans but also those Americans hailing from the West Indies, Cuba, Mexico, South America, Africa and other places, are turning to theology as it is biblically presented. A fresh wind is blowing in Babylon! What a great joy to see our gracious, sovereign Lord breaking the yoke of entrenched errant and heretical teaching that has so crippled us! What an abounding consolation to experience the freeing and empowering grace of the true gospel! Now we are beginning to understand the profound meaning of “Amazing Grace”! Now we can truly sing the songs of Zion while in a strange land! Now our Triune God is “putting the amazing back into grace” (thanks, Michael Horton) for us! Now we are beginning to understand the meaning of pro nobis, for us, in the vicarious, atoning sacrifice of Christ! Now we are starting to grasp the unfathomable excellencies of the only true God Who has condescended to reveal Himself to sinful creatures in His Word and deeds in history.
We pray that this pattern will spread downward and outward as our gracious God sovereignly brings His truth, the only truth, to our hearts and lives.

May we live this year with a renewed determination to be better witnesses, workers and worshippers of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, ever looking to the Son’s appearing and crying out, “even so, come Lord Jesus.” May we resolve to liveour lives, coram deo, before the face of God.

THE FACE WE'LL SEE

2006-12-28T20:32:00.000-05:00

Christmas has ended and already our neighbors are taking down their decorative lights and tossing their Christmas trees to the sidewalk for the trash man to take to the place of burning. They have lost their savor. How American! How pragmatic! How 21st-century! How predictably pagan! With typically blunt American matter-of-factness, we admit we have just completed one phase of our lives and now it's time to move on to the next. What events lie ahead in the cultural calendar? Well, there's Kwanzaa and New Years (a hedonistic football fest!)and then the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday in January. Next there is African-American history month in February in which month we also rejoice in and celebrate our loved ones on Valentine's Day. And on and on and on. The wheels of time keep rotating with a tireless, pervasive subjecting power.

We have missed the point of Christmas: God humiliating Himself by laying aside the insignia of His Majesty and donning the weak raiment of man- deity in diapers, divinity draped in dust forevermore- in order to dwell in our yard, live a meteoric, sinless life, voluntarily put Himself on the cross in our place so that we, through faith in this same Jesus Christ and His work, might be reconciled to the Father. Amazing! Amazing grace! Our callous rush to get on with life testifies to our adamantine ignorance and inculpates us with those of whom it is said in the Negro spiritual, " De worl' treat You mean, Lawd, .. please, Suh, fuhgive us Lawd; we didn't know 'twas You." Tragically, we missed the point of Christmas. We didn't know it was Him.

The haste to get rid of the majestic and to return to the mundane tells us that we really did not look on the face of God in Christ. It condemns us for not viewing Christmas in the face of Christ but in the wrapping, trimmings, exchange of gifts, decorations, festivities and other externals. Now these have become cumbersome and, succumbing to our fallen macho adrenaline, we chin-up and face the new challenges of life. In so doing we have convincingly demonstrated that we have missed the beautiful face of God in Christ; we have buried Him under the seasonal outburst of bohemian busyness and have marginalized Him with an uncaring, momentary tolerance. We did not see His face. We could not see His face. The apostle was right: "In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." 2 Cor 4:4.

What is ironic is that this is the most prominent face all mankind will see. Believers and nonbelievers will see the face of Jesus Christ in eternity; the former in immeasurable, rhapsodic joy, the latter, in conscious, relentless, unthinkable torment. In the paraphrased words uttered by the sagacious Dr. Doug Kelly at the 2006 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA): Heaven is being in the presence of God with a Mediator; hell is being in the presence of God without a Mediator. In other words, the face of Jesus Christ is omnipresent; it is a face that’s always in our face! It is the face that sovereignly commands, “Thou shall have no other gods before my face.” Ex 20:3

In the Old Testament, those to whom God was pleased to reveal Himself thought they would die when they saw His face. In the new covenant, God has condescended to show us Himself in the physical form of His eternal Son, Jesus Christ, so that we may live. In this life, His face, the beatific vision, is what God's elect are dying daily to see, 1 Jn Jn 3:1-3. In the eschaton, Jesus will be recognized: the sinner will look on Him Whom they have pierced, Zech 12:10; Rev 1:7, and believers will recognize Him as the Lamb that was slain, Rev 5:6, 12. There’s no denying it -- the winsome, cherubic face of the baby of Bethlehem is the very face of Jesus Christ, the Davidic Messiah and Savior of the elect from all over the world, the face of “.. a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." Isa 53:3. Let’s face up to Him: we shall all behold Him. This is the face we’ll all see... for all eternity. Aren't you glad for the sovereign grace of God Who does not play peekabo with you?

THE FULLNESS OF TIME

2006-12-25T23:32:00.000-05:00

Along with Creation, the Exodus, the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation is a radical irruption of the eternal, divine Presence and power in time and history. It fulfills all of the Old Testament prophecies and promises concerning the Davidic Messiah and His work. Scripture describes this as occurring in the fullness of time, Gal 4:4. It fulfills, rather, He fulfills, all the goals of history.

While it testifies to the linear progression and nature of redemptive history, the fullness of time also informs us that history is likened to the womb of a pregnant woman in which the sovereign God has implanted a soteric seed, a seed of salvation. This seed, the conquering Seed of the woman, God first publicly promised to interpose between His elect and the serpent, and between their respective descendants, Gen 3:15. God’s subsequent word to the patriarchs and prophets contained the organic substance of this covenant promise in ongoing, increasing degrees of clarity. Each and every stage in the unfolding of God’s redemptive purpose occurred according to His eternal foreordination and decree; each and every stage in the unfolding of His redemptive plan contained the organic substance of this promise.

The fullness of time signifies that all the divinely mandated preparations for the coming of God in the flesh were in place. Some of these prearations are:

1. the military and political succession of kingdoms as prophesied by Daniel had already taken place. The last of these four kingdoms, the one characterized by feet of iron and clay, mighty in strength but divided and brittle, Dan 2:41-43 (31-43), the one that was the most terrifying and frightening beast with iron teeth and bronze claws, 7:19 (15-19), i.e., Rome, was now the undisputed world superpower.

2. the pax Romana, Roman peace, was already established. The wars characterizing the rule of Julius Caesar, d. 44 B.C., had ended and the rule of Augustus Caesar, cf. Lk 2:1, ushered in centuries of peace in the Roman Empire. Infrastructures were developed- many roads, among which was the famous Appian Way, were built, and waterways were safe to travel. Consequently, trade, commerce and communication were at an all-time high. Missionaries were able to travel unmolested.

3. Jews, reluctantly exempted by the Roman political and military powers from the worship of Caesar, were able to continue their monotheistic faith.

4. the scattering of Jews in the Diaspora had created many small communities of God-fearing Gentiles who strove to obey the 10 Commandments, studied the Old Testament and were learning to trust in God's promises.

5. the spread of Jews within the Roman Empire facilitated the spread of Christianity. The apostles first came to these and to the God-fearers.

6. since Rome regarded Christianity as a mere variation of Judaism, it was granted the status of a religio licita, a legal religion. By the time Christianity had begun to assert itself as more than an upgraded Judaism, it had spread so far and wide that the Roman powers could do very little to stop it.

7. under Rome's rule, Greek thought, literature and language were regarded with universal legitimacy. In particular, the use of koine Greek, an ordinary or common language that anyone with a modicum of education could apply, was widespread. This is the language in which the New Testament was written.

8. philosophically, centuries of teaching by Plato, Aristotle and their students had brought about no answers to the fundamental questions of life. The widespread number of schools and philosophies, including the Skeptics, Cynics, Sophists, Epicureans, and so on, only testified to the philosophical bankruptcy and impotency they promoted. It was into this milieu that Jesus Christ, the Logos of God, the divine mind, reason, word, speech and Son, appeared. He is the only One that could answer the pressing questions of faith, conduct and life, especially the perennial issue: how can sinful men stand before a holy, just and righteous God.

It was at this precise juncture in history, not a nano-second earlier, not a whisper of a milli-second later, that God the Father “.. sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Gal 4:4, 5. The Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ occurred at that particular kairotic moment foreordained by the Father in eternity past.

This is the meaning of the fullness of time. It signifies the pinnacle and precision of sovereign provision; nothing else needs to be done; nothing further could be said. Jesus Christ is the expected Messianic King Who, in His Person and work, brings to completion all the promises of God. The fullness of time denotes the coming of salvation to Jew and Gentile. As such, it speaks of the terminal dimension of salvation in Christ- apart from Him and after Him, there is no more means or hope of reconciliation to God. He is the exclusive way to God, Jn 14:6; Eph 2:14-16; 1 Pe 3:18; etc. He is the One we celebrate at Christmas. He is the One we glorify and enjoy forever.

JESUS IS THE REASON

2006-12-23T09:26:00.000-05:00

It's Christmas again, and already the patterns of over-indulgence in acquisition of unnecessary "stuff," the consumption of food, drink and frolic, the expenditure of time and all other resources, and so on, are already underway. It is a season when America is "malled" to death; for many, the mall becomes a fixed place of visitation. Yet, amid the din of music, cash register chh-chings, Salvation Army bell-ringing, loud speech and raucous laughter, one can still hear the occasional sobering reminder that "Jesus is the reason for the season." Though trite, this adage is not passé. Though coming from faint lips and even from cold hearts, it is still true.

He is the reason we scurry to malls and stores; He is the reason we host and attend fellowships, parties and get-togethers; He is the reason we are imbued with confidence, joy and hope. He is the reason for our celebration.

Some misinformed objectors are again spouting their ho-hum arguments against the historical legitimacy of December 25 as the date of Jesus' birth. Others will refuse to participate in the observation of Christmas though hypocritically enjoying the benefits of time off from work, good food, sales, visitation of family and friends, and so on. All of these are taking place because of Jesus. In spite of these frazzled dissent(er)s, Christmas promotes at the very least, a spirit of well-doing among us. Haven't you noticed that even the meanest persons assume some semblance of "niceness" at this time? It has the reputation of breaking the hardest intransigence and of overcoming the most stubborn sour-pusses… if only temporarily. Even Scrooges experience a visible conversion!

But this is not enough. Christ did not come to provide an external, occasional goodness -- this was already extant among the Pharisees and other self-righteous groups who, committed to maintaining their unimpressive façades, had ready established their own flexible, standards of virtue. No, Jesus, the eternal Son of God, veiled His divine glory, lived a sinless life and then laid it down sacrificially and substitutionarily for those that would believe on Him and be saved. Through this act of faith, God declares these recipients of His grace to be justified of all their sin and able to stand perfectly righteous forever in His Presence. My point is that Christmas is not something we do; it is something we receive. It is the gift of the historic church in celebrating the Father's gift of the Son to and for His elect. Ultimately, it is the gift of the eternal Trinity to the world.

As the cosmic mediating Lord upholding His entire creation by the Word of His power, Heb 1:3; as the eternal One by and for Whom all things were created, Col 1:16; as the divine Logos in Whom all things cohere, verse 17; as the Lord of life in Whom we live and move and have our being, Acts 17:28; and as the conquering King Who has destroyed (and will destroy) all dominion and under Whose feet the Father has placed (and will place) all things, 1 Cor 15:24, 25, Jesus Christ is not only the reason for the season but also for everyone and for everything. It is this sovereign, saving Christ we celebrate today, this season -- -- and forever. He is the Reason. Period.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2006-11-23T21:01:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Millions of people are uttering these words today. These seasonal words are now resonating over telephones, e-mails, greeting cards and letters. And why not? The gracious predictability of God's common grace has once more brought us to this year's celebration of Thanksgiving Day. It is a day on which families open their doors and hearts to loved ones and to not-so loved ones. It is a day marked by benign (?) over-indulgences of food, drink and fun. It is also a time of reflection: some families recall the sound foundation with which the Lord has graciously blessed them- their children and grandchildren being living fruit of their tiresome labor and prayers; others lament their wandering from those foundations but are thankful that things are not as bad as they could (should) have been; others still, younger families in particular, are now starting to build their own foundation of godliness and righteousness which will bode their posterity well.

It's also a time of prayer. Families will typically hold hands, bow heads and offer thanks to God for His Being and His gifts, some of which are lavishly spread before their very eyes on the dinner table. Even unbelievers will thank God for the material benefits He has so freely granted them, and especially for that which they are about to gorge. Little do the know that they are actually bringing a curse upon themselves for refusing to acknowledge God's temporal blessings as instruments of His long-suffering attempts to draw them unto repentance.

Believers value this day as a token representation of their entire way of life. We are mindful of the fact that thanksgiving is an inseparable dimension of the joyful worship of our Creator and Redeemer God, Ps 100: 1-5. We are also cognizant of the reality that, in view of God's saving mercies to us in Christ, our thanksgiving is to be reflected in every aspect of our lives, Rom 12:1-2. While we also thank God for His temporal blessings, above all we are thankful for His sovereign predestinating grace with which He chose us in His Son Jesus Christ before the foundations of the earth; for sending His Son to live a sinless life and then to lay it down sacrificially and substitutionally for these chosen ones; for the Father’s and the Son’s sending their Holy Spirit to regenerate and seal their elect ones until Christ comes again to gather them and to present them to His Father. Rom 8:29, 30; Eph 1: 3-14; 4:30; Tit 3:5-7; 1 Cor 15:21-24; etc.

Thanksgiving for believers therefore is our reasonable service of gratitude to our Triune God for His monergistic redemption of our lost souls. This is our greatest gift; more than that, Jesus Christ is our greatest gift. Therefore, while we cherish this special day by feasting, prayer, praise and love, we are at the same time grateful that it is only symbolic of the great Day when Christ appears "... a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." Heb 9:28. On that Day He will gather His elect from the four winds and they, one huge family of innumerable members, will live eternally in His presence in unrestricted, unfeigned thanksgiving. Above all, we will enjoy a feast, rather the feast, not of mere turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce, and not only the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, but even higher than that, the feast of seeing our God as He is. That will be the day, a day which is even longer than a thousand years! Then we will fully share and enjoy the meaning of thanksgiving.

DO THE MATH: COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

2006-10-19T07:39:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, October 17 the US population passed the 300 million mark. It is an impressive milestone considering that in 1980 total US citizens numbered 227 million and that in 1915 the total count was 100 million. The official report comes from the U.S. Census Bureau who does their math based on the birth rate, death rate and immigration rate.

In a world dominated by fast stats and quick figures such as in gas prices; web site counters and hits; carbs and fat grams; body pounds and inches; sports dollars, yardage and points; computer gigabytes and RAMs; high-speed connections, etc., numbers (not the fourth book in the biblical canon) are very important.

Biblically speaking, we also have a key numbers. We confess that there is 1 God Who subsists in 3 Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, eternally and infinitely equal in power, rank and glory. It is He Who created the worlds in 6 days. He formed a covenant people made up of 12 tribes and sent them into Egyptian captivity for 430 years. His only begotten Son spent 40 days in the wilderness, chose 12 disciples, lived in sinless humiliation for 33 years, and after His substitutionary death on the cross, was resurrected after 3 days. He will come a 2nd time to take these very ones to their eternal destiny, their heavenly home, (in) the presence of the Triune God. This home is likened unto a perfect city about 1,400 miles in length, breadth and height. Its walls, about 200 feet thick, have foundations that are decorated with 12 stones, have 12 gates on which are inscribed the names of the 12 apostles and at which are posted 12 angels. Rev 21:12 -21.

Yet there is another number which is more impelling. It is mysterious because it is inexplicable not because it is dubious. The number is simply innumerable and its great significance lies in 2 aspects: the number of saints who in heaven and the immeasurable time they will be there The paradox of this matter is that the more we count, the more we fail. There is no quantifying of these categories. The aged apostle John thought he was successful in his initial count: “And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar, 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.” Rev 7:4-8. But lo and behold, he was mistaken because when he took a second glance he soon found out that the number in heaven was indeed "..a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!," 9-10. Such are the blessings of the elect, those who will experience the full meaning of Immanuel, God with us, in a pristine environment of perfect serendipity, totally sanctified from the penalty, power and presence of sin.

This is the consummation of the Covenant of Grace, which was first proclaimed by God the Father in Gen 3:15 (the first sermon preached in Scripture), promised to 1 man Abraham-- that through him, our father of faith, his descendants would outnumber the stars in heaven and the sands on the seashore. It was then prophesied by the prophets, fulfilled in Christ and will be consummated in heaven. These blessings are uncountable. They are already ours for the Father has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenly places, Eph 1:3, already seated us with him in the heavenly places, 2: 4, and has given us the comforting guarantee that we are already glorified. As a matter of fact, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" Rom 8:29-31. Yet, their fullness will not be apprehended until God brings us coram Deo, before His very face, in heaven.

This number in heaven will not and cannot change; it has a most blessed immutability. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the US population, which grows by one person every 11 seconds, will top the 400 million mark in the year 2043. However, this number in heaven, with all its attendant blessings in Christ, is a perfect number whose exactitude is firmly secure in the secret councils of God. It is He Who chose each one of us individually and particularly in eternity past and Who most wisely foreplanned and efficaciously foredetermined the means, time and circumstances by which He would save us. What started out with one man, Abraham, will grow and grow, throughout the universe, through the expanding power of the Gospel, until it reaches its perfect fullness in heaven.

We are to count it a most inexpressible joy that God the Father has equipped and constituted us to be members of that number. Do to math. Do the impossible. Stop and count the uncountable.

THE CHURCH: ITS CALLED AND ASSEMBLED CONTEXT

2006-10-10T22:21:00.000-04:00

This is a resumption of the series on the church I started a few months ago.

The common NT word for church, ekklesia, is correctly taken to mean to be called out from. It is derived from two Greek words ek and kaleo, respectively meaning out of or from and to call. While this meaning is lexically tenable, more importantly ekklesia carries the meaning of an assembly or gathering together. That is to say, the church is God's covenant community which He calls out from the world unto Himself in order to assemble in His presence. The idea of assembly is pervasive and weighty in its New Testament use, a brief overview of which follows:

Most Frequently A Gathering Of Believers In A Definite Locality:
Whether To Worship
Acts 5:11 So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

1 Cor 11:18; etc.

Or Not
1 Cor. 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also

Gal. 1:2 and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

Etc.

A Church Or Assembly Or Gathering In An Individual's Home
Rom. 16:23 Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.

1 Cor 16:19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

Col 4:15; etc.

A Group Of Local Churches
Acts 9:31 Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

The Universal Body Of Worshipping And Professing Believers
1 Cor. 10:32 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God,

11:22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.

As God's covenant assembly the ekklesia intrinsically bears the idea of the congregation of the Lord which gathers in His presence for His worship. In this context, it has an intimate relationship with the Exodus event in which the sovereign God effects a monergistic redemption of His people. What was the purpose of Yahweh’s redemption? Primarily and ultimately, to bring glory to His Name and to publish His works among the nations, Ex 9:16; 4:4; Ps 76:10 (NIV); Rom 9:16; etc. Proximately, it was for His worship by His people on Mount Sinai. This latter dimension occupies a pervasive and thematic significance in the Exodus event. For example, it is stated in God’s initial revelation of His redemptive purpose to Moses in:
Ex 3:12 He said, "But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.'

4:23 and I say to you, "Let my son go that he may serve me." If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.'"

and it is sustained in 5:1-3; 7: 16; 8:20, 25-29; 9:1, 13; 10:3, 7-11, 25-26. From these facts we must dutifully conclude that the Exodus event is the redemptive context of God’s people being freed in order to come together, to be gathered by Him, to offer Him worship.

It is of great import that Peter echoes this very theme in the New Covenant when he charges the suffering Asia Minor church to remember that she is “.. a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Pe 2:9. This quote from Ex 19:5, 6 affirms that the Exodus theme is inextricably woven into the very fabric of the church.

So, the assembly of God, that is His called people, has a dual character: (1) it is called out of the world unto Him (2) in order to serve and worship Him forever.

Next Issue: The Calling/Gathering and Sending Aspect.

PASTORAL THEOLOGY

2006-09-19T20:30:00.000-04:00

This summer I taught an exciting course in Pastoral Theology at the American University Of Biblical Studies (AUBS) in Decatur, Ga. It was most demanding and enlightening: demanding because I had little time to select and read the texts, and to develop the curriculum; enlightening because it provided me with a clear and systematic grasp of its nature, need and neglect. The major texts used were Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor; Patrick Fairbairn’s Pastoral Theology; Andrew Purves’ Pastoral Theology—extreme care had to be taken in studying the latter because Purves writes from a Barthian viewpoint—and The Westminster Confession Of Faith. All in all, it was an enriching experience that was mutually edifying to students and teacher.

What is Pastoral Theology? It is the theology of the covenant God's care for His covenant people, in and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, within His covenant community, to His glory alone. Derivatively, this work is carried on by the Pastor. From this biblical perspective, we see that pastoral ministry is solely God’s work being conducted through His servants. Pastoral theology’s focus is the gospel, which Purves calls “God’s extrinsic grace in Jesus Christ”, the divine verbum alienum, the word beyond us. This perception radically differs from the prevailing contemporary understanding and practice which, having been co-opted by secular principles of psychology and sociology, are void of a sound biblical theological foundation.

The modern movement is founded on the teaching of Princeton professor Seward Hiltner whose thoughts were laid out in his influential 1958 work, Preface to Pastoral Theology. In it he advocates and emphasizes the tasks of healing, sustaining and guiding-- reconciliation was later added to complete the so-called fourfold task of pastoral work. Considered the father of modern pastoral theology, Hiltner, in the words of Purves, ".. moved the discipline into a distinctly clinical, psychotherapeutic, social-scientific rather than theological or doctrinal direction." Purves observes there are two major consequences and characteristics of contemporary pastoral theology:
1. “.. the loss of Christology, soteriology, and the Christian doctrine of God..”

and stemming from this,

2. ".. the tendency for pastoral work, when it lacks adequate theological foundation, to be given over to control by secular goals and techniques of care."

In other words, contemporary pastoral theology is viewed as a functional activity carried out by professionals whose main responsibility is to provide immediate therapy and healing to parishioners by, at best, combining biblical principles with secular, pragmatic and expedient means and methods. As a result, we are left with religious communities in which “Meaning has replaced truth; acceptable function has replaced discipleship; concern for self-actualization and self-realization has replaced salvation.”

To this end, many churches have incorporated secular psychology and sociology in their counseling programs. Such an approach grounds the emphasis of pastoral work in worldly wisdom, in the here and now and demonstrates at least a practical denial of the transcendence of God. With its ugly head buried in the existential sand, this methodology has no view of the comprehensive, sovereign providence of God Who is constantly arranging, deploying, directing and re-directing all persons and things as He wills, to His glory alone, and no conception of the church as His elect covenant community in and through which He directs the continuing work of Christ's redemption in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The contemporary perspective is clearly evidenced in George Barna’s and Dr. Harry R. Jackson's influential but regrettable work, High Impact African-American Churches. For example, they promote an anti-biblical view of pastors as ".. power brokers of black influence in a white society..." utilizing politics "as the means of making faith real by introducing faith principles into every fiber of life.. as marketplace gladiators representing black interests.” In addition, they are “able to motivate people to rise above their circumstances and limitations..," to mobilize them around specific goals and priorities; to help them gather the human, physical and financial resources necessary for the accomplishment of these tasks and to direct them toward their compelling and unique God-given vision. To make matters worse, pastors also see themselves as civil rights advocates, community development leaders and representatives, religious spokespersons, spiritual models, organizational directors, and so on. (pp 43, 44, 53, 120). In the end, this view of the pastor is one which degenerates into that of a hyper-active superman, one who is adept at pragmatic multi-tasking and one who imbibes freely at the broken cisterns of bankrupt secularism. A gargantuan tragedy indeed!

One must admit that this high-powered secular view of the pastoral office runs contrary to the Scripture which casts pastors mainly in the role of feeders of God’s sheep. In accordance with the prescriptive pattern of our great Lord and Head, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, our responsibility is to protect, to provide for and to promote the well-being of the souls the He has trustingly placed under our care by preaching His gospel. This central task is most pointedly summarized in the apostle Paul’s words that “.. he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” Eph 4:11-14. Pastoral care has both an insular (protection from false teachers and teachings) and maturing dimension; these two are inseparable.

As stewards of the gospel of Jesus Christ and as those entrusted with watching over the souls of the saints, our overriding responsibility is to recapture the biblical notion of pastoral theology which does not “begin with the human experience on its own terms” but which understands it “.. christologically rather than phenomenologically through the social sciences.” As cautioned by our dear brother, Dr. John Piper (from his book of the same title), “brothers, we are not professionals.”

Our most important task, therefore, is to recover pastoral theology from the sinister grasp of modern practitioners and to place it squarely and soundly on its rightful Christological and soteriological foundation, so that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the eternal truths of the gospel may be applied to the existential conditions of all God’s people, regardless of the nature of their particular angst.

I'm It.... One Book!

2006-08-23T06:14:00.000-04:00

Here is my contribution to this expanding series:

One book that changed your life: Not a book really but (in 1991) by an issue of Ligonier Ministry’s Tabletalk magazine. That was my first conscious introduction to Reformed Theology. Since then, I have been willingly, thoroughly and delightfully corrupted!!
One book you've read more than once: The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter.
One book you'd want on a desert island, besides the Bible: Perhaps P.E. Hughes’ Commentary On Hebrews.
One book that made you laugh: High Impact African-American Churches by Barna and Jackson, a bothersome, gruesome twosome
One book that made you cry: John Owens’ Works, Vol 6 on Mortification Of Sin in Believers; Temptation; The Nature, Power, Prevalency of .. Indwelling Sin
One book you wish you had written: Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Ed Clowney
One book you wish had never been written: High Impact African-American Churches One book that you are currently reading: J.I. Packer’s A Quest For Godliness: The Puritan Vision Of the Christian Life
One book that you've been meaning to read: The Millenium by Loraine Boettner

THINGS THAT BOTHER ME: I’M REFORMED… BUT PT. IV

2006-07-26T13:19:00.000-04:00

This is the final writing in this series.

In summary therefore, we have need to ask ourselves what are the consequences of this Reformed... But Pentecostal thinking. To what does it point and what are its consequences? A few remarks are submitted below. It:

 rejects the comprehensiveness of Reformed Theology by denying that there is a unique pattern of worship corresponding to this teaching. Clear teaching on the theology and liturgy of Reformed worship can be found in such profound writings as Worship by Hughes Oliphant Old (part of the “Guide To The Reformed Tradition” series by John H. Leith and John W. Kuykendall); With Reverence And Awe: Returning To The Basics of Reformed Worship by D. G. Hart and John R. Muether; (my highest recommendation) Give Praise To God: A Vision For Reforming Worship, edited by Philip Graham Ryken, Derek W. H. Thomas and J. Ligon Duncan III; and others.

 regards worship as a market transaction, an interchange between consumer and provider, both of whom enjoy a win-win situation by jointly partaking of what best suits and entertains them.

 reveals a tragic situation in which our hermeneutics and experience determine our theology, and not vice versa. In this case, the contours of custom and the conveniences of culture form the basis for our theological understanding.

 rebuffs the internal coherency and consistency of Reformed Theology by promoting a schism between doctrine and practice.

 undermines the unity and cohesiveness of this teaching and creates unnecessary confusion and distraction by claiming to present an acceptable or suitable alternative. The fact is we are not promoting a new and competing brand of Reformed worship but are in fact distorting its true existing forms according to the whims of a democratic mass appeal.

 in the end, is a wearisome repetition of liberal thinking that Scripture can be rejected when it doesn't please us.

The dreaded conjunction BUT is one of contrariety, not one of consequence, one of exception, not one of enhancement. It speaks contrarily to the meaning and essence of Reformed teaching and is in fact a partial rebuttal of such thought. Since Reformed Theology, as we have stated over and over in this as well as in other writings, is a complete framework for understanding our world, the REFORMED ... BUT proposition presents a fragmented worldview. This is a sad oxymoron. Why? Because the evil exception BUT leaves us with an "almost" worldview, a "not exactly" (like the Hertz car rental commercial) perspective. It says we are Reformed except that we choose to be Pentecostal in our worship. We’re 95%, 96%, or 98.7% (pick a number) Reformed!! We’re almost there except for this one aspect. This simply does not and cannot make sense.

The most fundamental question at this point, and indeed, at all points, is not what I want but what does God require of me? Has He given us clear instructions on this subject? Have the historic Reformed churches handed down to us sound interpretations and applications of these principles? Does the Theological concept Reformed have its own principles pervading all of life? The answer to all of these questions is of course, yes. It is our task, therefore, to uphold these principles by faithfully applying them to all matters of faith and conduct.

The Reformation assertion that the church is semper reformanda intends a continuing application of these eternal principles to our local conditions in accordance with the increased illumination God grants us by His Word and Spirit. But (here is that dreaded word again!) there is a drastic difference between faithful application and pragmatic modification, between creative contextualization and convenient mutation. As the “pillar and buttress of truth” 1 Tim 3:15, the church is called to make this distinction continually. Faithfulness to this divine vocation renders her able to reject the Reformed… BUT anomaly and to uphold the Reformed AND continuum. It is a distinction between the common and the consecrated.

THE 1st ANNUAL STONE MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE ON RT

2006-07-25T12:12:00.000-04:00

The First Annual Stone Mountain Conference On Reformed Theology, hosted by All Saints Redeemer Church, was held at Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA), Friday July 14-Saturday, July 15.

Our Lord was very gracious: He sent us far more attendees than we expected. We are ever grateful to Him for this grand token of His evangelical presence among us.

Ambitiously patterned after the Philadelphia conference of the same name which was sponsored by our dearly departed brother, Dr. James Montgomery Boice, and The Alliance Of Confessing Evangelicals (ACE), this conference was aimed at testing the waters. With very limited material resources, inadequate planning and insufficient advertising, its main purpose was to alert the professing Reformed community of a new, organized movement to promote and further this sound teaching in the Atlanta area. Needless to say, the Lord also allowed us to have encouraging interaction with many attendees who are still inquiring into the distinctives of the Reformed faith. The question and answer sessions were very encouraging, lively and supportive. In a sense, the conference confirmed what we already knew, that is, in spite of the widespread influence of non- and even anti-Christian teaching in the "church," there is a (slowly?) growing number in whose hearts the Lord has placed the intense desire to know Him rather than to bring Him "vain oblations." It was racially mixed.

Its theme, "When Grace Comes Home," was taken from Terry L. Johnson's book of the same title. Addresses centered on the impact of Reformed Theology on the lives of those encountering it. For example:
Anthony Carter's presentation, "Why Reformed Theology?", emphasized that Reformed Theology is biblical and utilized many quotes from the old masters including Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Abraham Kuyper, Wilhelmus À Brakel, and others, to emphasize the profoundly historic and comprehensive character of this body of teaching. He particularly emphasized its experiential nature in the realm of worship and in all of life.

Robert Benson, Pastor of Southwest Christian Church in Atlanta, used the theme of the conference for his presentation' s title and powerfully described the joyful and illuminating impact of Reformed Theology upon the hearts of church members through non-preaching pastoral discourses such as visitation; formal and informal conversations; counseling; etc.

My talk, “Covenant Theology: The Forgotten Part Of Reformed Theology,” drew attention to the increasing non-recognition of Covenant Theology as an intrinsic dimension of Reformed thinking. This was done in two ways: by tracing their historical relationship and by showing that the entirety of Scripture is founded on a bi-covenantal structure-- God's Covenant of Works with Adam prior to the Fall and, since the Fall, His Covenant of Grace with His elect through Jesus Christ as Surety. Both of these have their foundation in the inter-Trinitarian, ante-creation Covenant of Redemption.

Lastly, Keith Tolbert summarizeb the conference by issuing a challenge in the form of a question, “Can You Handle The Truth?” That is, now that we had been enlightened by the eternal verities of Reformed Theology, it was necessary for us to place ourselves in churches that preach and teach these doctrines faithfully. Truth always has consequences. To return to our Semi-Pelagian securities; to our beguiling bishops; to our prolix prophetesses; to a gospel of dis-grace guaranteeing roseate futures through all kinds of ridiculous religious rigmarole, was indeed to show that we could not handle the truth.

Lord willing, this conference will be an annual event. Prior notices will be made far in advance through blogs and web sites and provision will be made for early registration. We look forward to seeing you next year around mid-July. In the meantime, be semper reformandi.

THINGS THAT BOTHER ME: I’M REFORMED… BUT PT. III

2006-07-17T13:25:00.000-04:00

My recent experience at a ranking African-American PCA church was one of lament and frustration. Its leaders repeatedly emphasized that they were Reformed in their theology but Pentecostal in their worship. That is to say, their theology did not impact their worship format and content. Their views about God, man, sin, redemption, sanctification, glorification, predestination and election, history, and so on, did not affect their worship which they “liberated” to be determined by other theological distinctives, in this case, Pentecostal. These leaders have been making this public profession for several years now.

By being Reformed, they went on to say, we mean that God is sovereign. What did they mean by sovereign? That God is in charge of everything. Yes, that’s it!?** That is exactly how they defined and explained Reformed Theology. In a sweeping act of classic deconstructionism, they effortlessly equated Reformed Theology with one of God's attributes.

Two observations are necessary here. Firstly, the sovereignty of God is not a distinctive of Reformed thinking; rather, it is the confession of catholic evangelicalism, of universal Christianity. In other words, all Christians believe that the biblical God is the sovereign God. Secondly, there's more to the sovereignty of God than the bare declaration of His being in control. The psalmist tells us “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases," 115:3, and Daniel writes “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"" 4:35. From these texts and from the many other expressions of the divine sovereignty found in Scripture, for example in Isa 40:12-15, 21-31, etc., we learn that divine sovereignty necessarily includes the incommunicable attribute of Self-determination. That is to say, God is the only being in Whom that attribute inheres.

No, Reformed Theology includes more than the sovereignty of God. For introductory purposes, it is a complete system of doctrine emphasized in the 16th century Reformation and ensconced in such historic documents as The Heidelberg Catechism, The Belgic Confession, The Westminster Confession of Faith, and so on. As we said in Parts I and II, it is mostly an entire way of viewing and understanding the world. It is the lens or the framework through which we comprehend the world around us.

The ancient church employed the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi - literally, the law of prayer is the law of belief. This means that the content and manner of our prayer determine what we believe. This has been safely extended to mean that how a person worships ultimately reveals what that person really believes: our prayer and worship are sound indicators of what we believe about God, etc. This principle has many implications for us today and in the context of this writing, it principally warns us that it is the very character of God that determines our manner of worship. The way the church conducts its worship service is indicative of its theological convictions. Putting it in other way, our theology informs and instructs our doxology. If we say we are Reformed, then we have at least the responsibility to ensure that our worship is also Reformed in all its ways. This maxim applies not only to our liturgy, our order of worship, but also to the very songs we sing and to the way we reveal our emotions in response to the character of God and to His redemptive works in history, all of which have their fulfillment in the Person and in the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Since the Reformed Faith believes that the Scripture alone is our final authority in all matters of faith and life -- sola Scriptura -- then all aspects of worship, its form and its content, are to be derived from the Word of God. How has the Reformed Faith understood worship? Calvin observed that "God disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word." Article 32 of the Belgic Confession and Question 96 of the Heidelberg Catechism affirm the same. The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 and the Philadelphia (Baptist) Confession of 1742 emphasize that "The acceptable way of worshiping the true God, is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures" (22.1). [These quotes were taken from Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III's "Does God Care How We Worship" in Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship, 21, 22]. This principle has come to be known as the regulative principle of worship.

Since Reformed Theology is a worldview, it is comprehensive and it does not allow us the "privilege" of leaving any area of our faith and conduct unaffected. Particularly, in such a grave area of worship, we cannot jettison our historic teaching and opt for some other ecclesial or theological distinctive. Such a departure quickly removes the focus from our Triune God, the Subject and Object of worship, and places it on ourselves. In the end, we find ourselves worshiping our worship. This is precisely what took place that day. In full display were a form of religious pluralism fueled by a consumerist attitude of choosing the best brand that suits and pleases me; a diminished biblical theological substance of worship; a truncated view of God’s holiness; a permissive individualism enabling personal self-fulfillment; and a profound confusion between a "praise fit" and praise that is fitting. Incidentally, despite all the pervasive talk about the sovereignty of God, in that activity the creature and not the Creator/Redeemer was in charge.

Next issue: Concluding Observations of the Reformed… But Pentecostal View.

THINGS THAT BOTHER ME: I’M REFORMED BUT… PT. II

2006-07-11T14:00:00.000-04:00

Here is a small sample of some Reformed But… claims.

I’m Reformed but I don’t have to mention it every time I preach or teach.

Real meaning: this is a private matter and I don’t have to publicly announce my views or prove them to anyone. After all, the Lord knows my heart and that’s what really matters.

Here, as in the following examples, is the mistaken notion that our theology-- I’m using this word in the subjective sense of what we believe about God, man, sin, life, death, and so on-- does not and should impact all our thoughts and actions. In this scheme, my theology is a highly privatized matter, somewhat like my politics and my banking account. It is tightly compartmentalized and this protective insulation forbids it to interact with, influence or impact my other perspectives and analyses of life. It helps me to have a better grasp of religious matters which I apply to my own walk with God but it is not necessary to make it a foundational or foremost aspect of my ministry.

Clearly this position at least misunderstands the nature and purpose of all theology. It enjoys a comfortable and carnal disjuncture between private views and our corporate duty to preach the whole counsel of God. It also smacks of indolence in the patient, loving instruction of the flock of Christ with the totality of the divine revelation which has its center in Him.

I’m Reformed but I don’t have to be offensive about it.

Real meaning: I’d rather be considered affable and “nice” rather than hurt or offend one of my Arminian or even Pelagian acquaintances. Love and peace are the effective instruments that will draw them. Bees are easier caught in honey than in vinegar. You can’t catch fish with a baseball bat!!

While it is true that some Calvinists have justly earned the monikers of “frozen chosen” or “sanctimonious sour-pusses,” all Christians are commanded “to truth in love,” a necessary condition for individual and corporate growth “.. into him who is the head, into Christ, ..” Eph 4:15. Truth and love are God’s inseparable tandem for promoting the health of His church, the body of Christ. Rejecting this essential balance is fraught with problems: an overdose of truth alone leads to rampant legalism and Pharisaism and a one-sided deluge of love results in a sloppy, maudlin sentimentality capable of erupting into wicked licentiousness.

It is a transparent attempt to use the excesses of some as a covering fig-leaf of our unwillingness to communicate this most excellent teaching to others. By driving a wedge between truth and love, it commits the fallacy of the false dilemma . In the end, it is a de facto rejection of both truth and love as well as a belittling of the divinely appointed means of growing the church.

I’m Reformed but I don’t “wear my theology on my sleeves.”

This is an actual quote by a self-professing Reformed pastor of one of Atlanta’s highly visible mega-churches.

Real meaning: similar to those above-- it also countenances and advocates the closet Calvinist mentality.

The major problem here is simply that we are ashamed, afraid or diffident to proclaim faithfully and compassionately the whole theology of the Bible. Instead, we sheepishly hide behind the Reformed slogan(s) and sloppily clothe ourselves with the unfit garments of clandestine Calvinism. Reformed Theology is good for me. I enjoy reading the works of Edwards, Piper, Sproul and Ferguson. I experience deep spiritual upliftment when I read the Westminster Confession Of Faith. Calvin is intellectually challenging and Luther, profoundly pastoral. I enjoy wrestling with Van Til. I even (privately) encourage some of my members and friends to attend Ligonier Ministry’s annual March conference in Orlando because it would be of tremendous benefit for them. But I really don’t see the need to make a big deal about it.

I’m Reformed but Iwould rather not preach or teach it because it would do more harm than good now in the life of my church. After several years of intense challenges, our congregation seems to be doing fairly well now and to change things at this time would return us to those unpleasant days of commotion and conflict. Besides, Black people are turned off by much talk about doctrine; they have an aversion to –isms which, in many cases, only serve to produce schisms in the church.

This is a conflation of actual quotes by a couple of popular mega-church pastors who are graduates of the most prominent Reformed seminary in this country.

Real meaning: I admit that the Reformed doctrine is thoroughly biblical and I concede its theological stoutness but I have my career to consider. To effect any change at this time would be disastrous and I’d rather be a healer than a divider of people. In the meantime, I still read Berkhof (’s Systematic Theology) every now and then; I fellowship with my Presbyterian brothers when I have time. As a matter of fact, I consult my seminary notes from time to time to help me in my sermon preparation. At this time, however, it would neither be attractive nor advantageous for me to introduce it into my ministry.

In all of the above examples, there is an obvious dichotomy between a personal acknowledgement of the Reformed Faith and the neglect of its corporate preaching and teaching. By the latter I refer not to sporadic presentations or to intermittent investigations of some aspect(s) of Reformed distinctives but to the actual incorporation of the whole body of Reformed doctrine as the systematic teaching of the church. Tragically, this troubling conjunction (BUT) seems to be playing a greater role in some of our professing churches.

Next Issue: The Reformed But… Pentecostal view.

THINGS THAT BOTHER ME: I'M REFORMED BUT... PART I

2006-07-07T17:21:00.000-04:00

Recent events have compelled to me to put these views into writing.

Initiates into the Reformed Faith
Our God is forever to be praised for His gracious sovereignty by which He continues to reveal the glorious depths of His truth to our people. Our hearts should overflow with incessant gratitude for His divine delight in disclosing the deep mysteries of His Person and work, especially in the message, mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, to those that are blind babes. The fact that many of us are the undeserving, privileged recipients of God's objective, ab extra Self-disclosure, a revelation that attains its highest significance in the divine redemption of sinners justly deserving death, is at once humbling and self-abnegating. Why? Because His divine choice originates solely in His eternal purposes which are founded upon (the immutable purpose and pleasure of) His will. Yes, we are experiencing the influx of a growing number of initiates into the Reformed tradition… soli Deo gloria, to the glory of God alone.

What is even more revealing is that, in spite of my fleshly anxiety to see an acceleration in this growth, the undeniable reality is that it is a process over which I have no control and which, in fact, requires "time, times, and half a time," figuratively speaking, of course. Its duration will quite likely extend beyond my fleeting lifetime. My ardent desire to see our people leave the dried and blanched deserts of non-Reformed affiliations, especially those that are of the Word Faith, Prosperity and garden-variety Arminian brands, to feed on the lush and verdant pastures of the Reformation thought, cannot hasten their exit. It’s all of God Who alone has the sovereign power to remove the scales from their eyes and to part the waters of doubt and ignorance that they may step onto the environs of wholesome nourishment.

Our task at this time is to be fervent in prayer, vigilant in seeking divine appointments for sharing our faith, and faithful in establishment “deliverance ministries” [we’re not sheep-stealers, we’re sheep-deliverers] to recognize and receive them when the Lord sends them in our direction. Our constant petition should be that God will continue to open up the eyes of all of His elect, more and more, to the manifold riches and wisdom of His grace which are so robustly and consistently captured in what is known as Reformed Theology. Amen.

So much for those that are being constantly initiated into the faith. But ..

What about Those Already Professing to Be Reformed?
But what about those who claim to be already grounded in Reformed thinking? What about those of us who believe we have a clear grasp of the faith once for all handed down to the saints? What are the responsibilities of those who have already tasted the goodness of the Lord as superbly protected and promoted by the Reformed Faith? Further, what is the impact of Reformed thinking on those of us who are already in Reformed denominations such as the PCA, ARP, EPC, and so on?

Yet further, what are the duties of those who are members of independent, non-connectional Reformed churches, for example, our Baptist brothers and sisters? Are we striving to apply Reformed teaching to all areas of our corporate and private lives? Are we constantly employing the maxim ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda (the Reformed church is always reforming) in all facets of our lives? Are we earnestly striving to bring every thought captive to this all-embracing rubric? Since Reformed Theology is a theistic worldview, should we not be about the business of diligently seeking to submit all areas of our lives to its principles? Or, are we satisfied to be quasi-Reformed, that is, Reformed in our acceptance of the minimal Five Points Of Calvinism without seeking to apply the entire body of truth to our views of the sacraments (Sacramentology); the nature, purpose, constitution, leaders, etc., of the church (Ecclesiology); to our liturgy, worship, and preaching; and lastly, to our evangelism and discipleship? Are we taking up the challenge to be semper reformanda, if in fact we are the ecclesia reformata?

The theological buck does not stop with an initial embrace of the Five Points but of necessity must continue to expand and to be extended to all areas of our lives, including sports, the arts, education, economics, politics, and the like. To fail to do so is to fall into the Reformed But… sindrome (sic).

Next issue: Some examples of the Reformed But… mindset.

WELL, WELL, WHAT DO YOU KNOW….? PART III

2006-06-05T09:14:00.000-04:00

This is the final of a 3-part series examining the details of the Eddie Long/ITC/James Cone affair. After reviewing the facts of the matter, Part I; the larger unbiblical, theological framework and similarities among Long, ITC and Cone, Part II; we now conclude by focusing on the Essence of eschatology, the purpose ministry and a caution to our brothers.

Christ Is Our Eschatological Goal
The voluntary condescension of Jesus Christ, beginning with His Incarnation and ending with His passion and death, does not merely provide us with an example to live by (The Example Theory of The Atonement), with the existential need for good to conquer evil, or with an inspiring pattern of the weak overcoming the mighty or the poor defeating the wealthy. Neither does it furnish us with some inane principles and guarantees of material prosperity in this life. Such views are contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture. Rather, Christ's humiliation establishes an eschatological goal, a goal that is pointed to and attained by the theology of the cross, not the theology of glory which finds its expression in "power and autonomy."

The biblical dialectic of crown through the cross, glory through groaning, life through death, power through (Christ's) weakness, cross and resurrection-- all encompassing both the First and Second Coming of Christ-- will arrive at its perfect synthesis only in the Consummation when all things are placed under the feet of the Lamb, cf. Gen 3:15; Rom 16:20; 1 Cor 15: 24-28; Rev 19:6, 11-21. Yet, we live victoriously in this present age, not by deconstructing the divine design in redemptive history but by clinging tenaciously to the cross and to its theology, both of which grant us confidence in the final eschatological victory which is ours even now in Christ. "[T]his confidence, anchored in the resurrection of Christ, ... provides the triumphant indicative for a baptism in the age to come." (Adapted from Horton, Covenant And Eschatology, 43, 44). Therefore we joyfully join in the apostolic affirmation: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom 8:31-39.

It is most important that we arm ourselves with the correct view of this recent development. Failing to have a full-orbed perspective lands us in an ether/or conundrum-- either we side with ITC/Cone or we align with Long. Our trust must be in the Scripture alone Which affords us the transcendent, panoramic perspective we are to embrace: "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." Eph 4:11-16.

Here are the biblical mandate for pastors and the biblical model for churches: authentic growth of God's covenant community is attained in a loving and nurturing local body and is measured by that community's faithful work which prepares it to recognize and reject false teachings and teachers.

Conclusion -- A Caution to the Reformed Community
It is regrettable that the name and teaching of Cone are again receiving undue attention in some sectors of Black Reformed thought. Recently one person told me that given the impact of Cone's contributions to Black Theology, “we have to deal with him.” My response was and is that Cone has already been dealt with and found theologically lacking among those "conservative" corners of the Black Church, for example the National Baptist Association which does not endorse his theological viewpoints.

As those professing to be Reformed, we have at least a moral responsibility to present and to promote Reformed Teaching, the loftiest and most internally consistent interpretation of Scripture and the one most committed to preserving the sovereignty and glory of God in the entirety of His Self-revelation and works of redemption, to His glory alone, in a manner that is edifying to our readers. In His gracious sovereignty, our God has availed the Internet to us for His grand purposes. It therefore behooves us all to exercise due diligence in our expressions, thoughts and comments. As the ITC/Cone/Long episode confirms, our people need to be clearly, patiently and lovingly instructed and grounded in the unshakable truths of Scripture which find their hermeneutical apex in the simplicity of Jesus Christ. It seems that decades of prodigious preaching, teaching and writing by several Black theologians have done little or nothing to sharpen our understanding of and to increase our commitment to the God of the Scriptures. This is particularly disturbing when we recall the works of Cone whose earliest writings go back to at least the 1970’s. I hold that, should he have understood the telic design of our sovereign God’s unfolding of redemptive history and accordingly sought to apply that overarching truth to the condition of Blacks in the United States, especially during the fluid, epochal, social and political times of four decades ago, it is reasonable to assume that he would have made significant contributions to grounding our people in sound doctrine. Instead, his cultural and social impositions on Scripture have only served to drive our people away from their only hope, the true Christ and His gospel, while at the same time attracting them to competing paradigms of Black empowerment and intriguing notions of widescale liberation of the disenfranchised from oppressive White power structures.

My brothers, we owe it to our Lord to strive fervently and faithfully to expound and apply this (Reformed) teaching whenever we have opportunity. On the basis of our Lord's promise that our continual, abounding in His work in Him, is never in vain, 1 Cor 15:58, we can expect that somewhere along the way we will impact some who will respond, “well, well, what do you know.. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out ! ” ” Rom 11:33 (KJV)

WELL, WELL, WHAT DO YOU KNOW….? PART II

2006-05-31T11:22:00.000-04:00

In my last blog I reviewed the ITC/Long fiasco, oops, mess. (Hi, brother ronde love. I stll love you). Now I’ll try to get beneath the events and analyze their meaning.

The Bigger Picture: Cone's Theology Is Not Orthodox
Yet, Cone's remarks must be evaluated in light of the broader theological spectrum. His criticism of long, though valid in context, does not emit from orthodox biblical theological convictions. His theological construct, Black Theology, deviates blatantly from the theology taught in Scripture in that it:
• is a branch of Liberation Theology which discounts individual accountability for sin to a holy and just God; elevates all oppressed peoples into a specially-favored disenfranchised class; views man's fundamental dilemma, not as original sin and practical sins resulting therefrom, but as the world's plutocracy; regards salvation as the liberation of the oppressed from the ruling classes; etc.

• has as its focus the immediate liberation of Blacks from the oppressive White man and his systems, by any means necessary.

• claims the absolute preference of God and Jesus Christ for the disenfranchised, marginalized and downtrodden.

• severely limits the immanence of God to His acts on behalf of the oppressed in this life… even in contradiction to His other attributes. It neglects the inescapable truths that God's immanence is also revealed in history by His redemptive works, especially in the Person and the work of the Incarnate Christ; in our lives in the Presence and power of the Holy Spirit; in His providential government of all His creation; etc.

• denigrates historic orthodoxy as the White man’s contextualization of truth.

• relegates the Bible to the role of a self-fulfillment manual.

• grants the oppressed special religious privileges, regardless of their relationship to Jesus Christ by faith alone.

• practically denies the biblical doctrine of original sin, especially in the lives of those listed immediately above.

• downplays the hope of the eschatological perfection when the righteous Judge will make all things right.

• de facto presses the need for a realized eschatology in this life.

• confounds such biblical categories as redemption with liberation; bondage with oppressed; sin with evil, etc. Its narrow view of oppression limits its struggle to the Black man's liberation from economic, psychological, physical and emotional subjugation. Herein lies its grand irony: just as our White oppressors’ violated the clear meaning of the biblical text to fulfill their own sinister, immediate ends, so too does Black Theology desecrate Scripture by super-imposing its agenda on it, by subjecting it to ad hoc liberation interpretations and by simultaneously presenting an absolute and false dichotomy between our needs in this world and in the one to come. In this scenario, Jesus is the grand Liberator of all the oppressed and, according to Black Theology’s interpretation of Lk 4:18-21, His mission is to release them from the shackles of poverty and from all other forms of earthly inequity.

• unbendingly insists on the Black experience as the highest binding element, the ultimate authority and the paradigmatic expression of biblical truth.

• in essence is nothing but humanism cut, tailored and dressed to fit the African-American experience. Black Theology begins with the existential circumstances of the Black man and opportunistically incorporates Scripture into its schema in order to fulfill its end -- the attainment of the Black man's dignity mainly through the efforts of self-realization but broadly, by any means necessary.

Further, ITC has historically been a supporter of Dr. Cone. His theological views are well-accepted by that institution, one of whose professors, Dr. Jacqueline Grant, Fuller E. Calloway Professor of Systematic Theology, a former student and protégé of Cone, uses his textbook on that subject. It is not difficult to determine ITC’s theological stand.

Framing The Issue
On this basis, we should not view the current imbroglio as a matter of ITC/Cone versus Long. This would be improper and incorrect. The foundational formulation should be Jesus versus ITC/Cone and Long. Why? Because, in the end they all attack the Scripture: ITC and Cone by their advocating Black Theology (and the “feminist Gospel” ??) and Long, by his promotion of prosperity and Word Faith theologies underscored by the expedient application of secular financial and business practices.

In Fact, ITC/Cone And Long Have Many Similarities
All of them would commonly admit that the chief end of (the Black) man is not, as loftily summarized in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, but to achieve Black social, economic and spiritual (whatever that may be) equality through regaining dignity and honor, by a creative use of the Bible. Their difference is not one of theology but one of methodology: Cone identifies with the oppressed in order to effect their liberation from White oppressors while Long grabs more and more from the oppressed because the more he gets, the more he is able to give back to them!! Both are grave distortions of the Gospel.

Further, both also have this in common: an inordinate concentration on the present, on the hic et nunc. Black Theology focuses overwhelmingly on reversing existing conditions, on liberation now for all oppressed, especially Blacks, at all costs and by any means necessary, and Prosperity Theology presses the expectation, the demand, and even the right, for all God's children to be financially prosperous today, now.

Both overestimate the importance of this present age, their attitudes towards which betray a misguided notion of ultimacy. For example, Black Theology despises the fact that God has delegated the power for ensuring social justice to governments whose officers will one day account to Him for all their thoughts, principles and actions. Prosperity Theology, in falsely promising a bounty of material blessings to those having the right faith, saying the right words and doing the right deeds, is in fact directing its hearers to find self-fulfillment right now. In both cases this unhealthy preoccupation with the present, the very essence of a consumer culture, ends up crippling the church by detracting it from its major role of worship, of which evangelism and discipleship are supportive means, in such a way that it de facto has no sense of the course and content of redemptive history which climaxes in the Second Coming of Christ Who will reward His servants for their suffering on earth for His Name's sake. It is this "eschatological orientation to God's promised future which establishes the context of human life" (Michael Horton's quote of Colin Gunton in Horton's Covenant And Eschatology, p. 42, emphasis ours) so that, as Horton continues, "The definitive power for Christian community is neither .. resignation to defeat nor .. "the will to power" but the Lamb who was slain for others but now is the life for others." Horton, p. 43.

Both denigrate our expectation of the Consummation because they reject God’s promises that He will bring forth His ultimate fulfillment of all things in Christ. Both deny unjust suffering for the sake of Christ as the Christian vocation, 1 Pe 2:18-21; indeed, in His suffering, He is our model, 22-25. Our unjust trials are not to take us by surprise, rather, we are to rejoice in them for it is fitting that such trials first occur with those of the household of faith, 4:12-19. Finally, both revel in a false over-realized eschatology founded on a theology of glory rather than a theology of the cross. Contrarily, our biblical eschatological hope which is to be woven into every fabric of our lives, finds its highest expression in none other than our sovereign Lord Jesus, “.. the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb 12:2.

Next issue: Christ alone is our eschatological goal. The Conclusion—A Caution to the Reformed Black Community

WELL, WELL, WHAT DO YOU KNOW...? PART I

2006-05-26T19:51:00.000-04:00

In March of this year, 29 graduating seniors of the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta signed a written protest against that institution's selection of Bishop Eddie Long as May commencement speaker. Though the event has passed and though the posting of these observations at this time may not have its optimum effect, I do believe that the thoughts expounded in this three-part series have some validity. I hope this is your experience also. Thanks to my friend Anthony Carter for suggesting this medium.

It is about time that some Blacks would freely and openly disapprove of one of Black religion’s "Untouchables," one who has increasingly hoodwinked his congregation with an eclectic admixture of Word Faith Theology, Prosperity Teaching, unconscionable heresy, rank mysticism and personal duende. It is encouraging that some circles in the Atlanta area are courageously speaking out against the theology and conduct of one of Black America's most visible, prominent and popular religious icons, Bishop Eddie Long, Pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. It is laudable that some have come to the point of saying that enough is enough -- in the words of Roberto Duran, the nonplussed recipient of a relentless pugilistic pummeling by Sugar Ray Leonard, No más! It is commendable that some would lift every voice above and against the obsequious din showered upon Long and sing: this fellow does not represent us!

I'm speaking of the representative group of 29 graduating ITC students (hereafter called the ITC 29) who vented their firm opposition to President Michael Battle's invitation of Long as this year’s commencement speaker. The remonstrants’ letter was clear and cogent, sound and objective, articulate and accurate, and responsible –it amply supported its claims by solid documentation. Among the many reasons for the ITC 29’s disapproval of the beleagured Bishop Long were his:

 discrediting the mission and vision statements of ITC.

 ethical foibles: the August 28, 2005 “Atlanta Journal-Constitution” reported his receipt of $3.07 million in salary, more than half the amount paid to intended beneficiaries, and many other material/financial benefits from a nonprofit corporation founded by him.

 vituperative denunciation of less popular Black preachers as ".. a bumbling bunch of preachers who can't talk … who spend time baptizing babies." See my previous article.

 (incorrect) analysis and disqualification of women from some leadership positions in the Church.

 disparagement of the value of theological education and his denunciation of ITC's leadership as "antiquated hindrances.." and "obsolete traditions" out of touch with the "fresh move" of God among His people.

 rash and irresponsible exegesis of 1 Jn 2:22; 1 Sam 3:1-10; and the account of the beheading of John the Baptist, to support his nonsensical idea that today's church must sever itself from past, otiose traditions in order to hear the new message that God is speaking.

 "lack of scholarship" and blatant disrespect for ITC faculty.

There’s More To The Matter
In addition to the ITC 29’s protest, there is another dimension to this situation. The May 11 Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports that, because of ITC's invitation to long, Dr. James H. Cone, the father of Black Liberation Theology (which is by no means Biblical Theology), has refused to attend the commencement exercises. According to the AJC, Cone, a prolific writer, respected scholar and Systematic Theology professor at New York's liberal Union Theological Seminary, cites Long's Prosperity Teaching as the premier cause of his objection. He contrasts Long’s commitment to personal and corporate prosperity with slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and legacy of fighting for and identifying with the causes of the poor. Cone stated "King devoted his life to the least of these.. King could have been just like Bishop Long with all the millions he has, but he chose to died poor. He would not use his own message or his own movement to promote himself." Cone would not attend the commencement, the AJC article continues, because "he doesn't want to appear to condone Long's ministry."

Cone’s remarks are important for a few reasons. They:
 seem to be an accurate summary of the conflict between the biblical model of servant leadership, pre-eminently patterned by our Lord Jesus Christ and the American, TBN business/commercial/entrepreneurial model practiced by Long, Creflo Dollar, T. D. Jakes, Ike Hilliard, and others.

 attack the major tenets of Prosperity Teaching-- that God prospers the faithful with financial blessing in his life; that this divine blessing starts with leaders and consequently and derivatively flows to the followers; that material prosperity is emblematic of spiritual well-being; that such blessings are available now, in this life; etc.

 expose the intrinsic fallacy of Word Faith Theology and its abominable disdain for Scripture in that it reverses the explicit teachings of the Word of God on the need for all Christians, especially ministers, to be content under all circumstances, Phi 4:10-13; to shun the stifling cravings for wealth, to pursue holiness, fight the good fight of faith, store up treasures in heaven as a foundation for the future, Mt 6:19-21; 1 Tim 6: 9-19, passim; etc., and defiantly perverts them into practices and standards for gaining wealth, a type of wealth that proves spiritual well-being.

 emphasize the need for ministers to be faithful to their call by wholehearted devotion to the studying, preaching and teaching of the Word of God rather than being lovers of money, cf. 1 Tim 3:3.

 along with the ITC 29 's protest, confirm that the prosperity professors are no longer immune to criticism from the Black religious community.

 have the potential to be a catalyst spawning the opening of more eyes and mouths against the insidious “Prosperity Gospel.”

For these and other reasons, Cone’s and the ITC 29 's comments and actions are to be dearly cherished.

In Part 2: The Bigger Picture: Cone's Theology Is Not Orthodox. What Does He Really Teach? Cone/ITC and Long Have Many Similarities

THE ONE-POINT CALVINIST

2006-05-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I was discussing the topic of Limited Atonement with two Atlanta-area Bible college students. They both claimed to be Calvinists but were wrestling with the tormenting question, for whom did Christ die? (AKA The Extent Of Christ’s Atonement). They proffered the usual arguments of the "all passages," for example, 2 Cor 5:14, 15; 1 Tim 4:10; Tit 2:11; etc., and the "world passages," for example, Jn 1:29; 3:16; 12:47; 2 Cor 5:19; etc., passages stating that Christ died for all and for the world but passages that are egregiously mistaken to mean that Christ died at least to make salvation possible for every human being.

I retorted that the logical and theological inferences from their potential universal salvation scheme were grievous: firstly, that Christ actually died for no one in particular; secondly, it is man who actually and really saves himself -- he has the moral ability to choose Christ without any independent, prior divine enablement; thirdly, final responsibility for salvation rests with each individual because he possesses the ultimate, decisive power in regeneration; and fourthly, man therefore deserves all the honor, praise and glory.

Their swift objection to these remarks precluded my extension of their position to other necessary consequences which would include a lack of the assurance of salvation; a loss of the joy of salvation; a hindered witness, work and worship; religious schizophrenia alternating between emotions of He loves me and He loves me not; and ultimately, no salvation at all since Christ is our only Savior and Mediator, Acts 4:12; 16:30; 1 Tim 2:5; etc.

They accepted my suggestion to review the TULIP, the acrostic named after the Dutch flower and the summary of the Dutch Calvinists’ response to the remonstrations of Jacob Arminius' followers at the Synod of Dordt (1618-1619). We started with the T-- TOTAL DEPRAVITY, which means that apart from God's prior, monergistic, external work in fallen man, the sinner is totally or radically unable to prepare himself for salvation, to incline himself to salvation, to turn to God, to please and obey Him, etc., Pss 51:5; 58:3; Jer 17:9; Rom 8:7; etc. Here my two young friends further demurred. They did not grasp the profundity of radical depravity and in fact subscribed to a partial depravity of man in his Adamic nature. They endowed sinful man with a remnant capacity, “an island of righteousness,” with which he is able to cooperate with God in his salvation. It was strange -- their idea of radical was anything but radical. Their understanding of the term “total” practically pointed to a meaning of “partial.” Their frenetic attempts to jitterbug on this issue proved to be futile as also were my tries to show the logical and theological contiguousness of the Calvinistic scheme. In the end, they departed mildly shaken but stubbornly unconvinced of the historical interpretation and application of the term radical. They stumbled and fell at the first point.

Yet the Scripture insists that apart from the Holy Spirit's monergistic regenerating work in his heart, changing it from one of stone to one of flesh and savingly enlightening him to trust in Christ as He is presented in the Gospel, man is completely and irretrievably lost. He is dead in his transgressions and sins, Eph 2:1, 2. Dead means dead. Theologically speaking, it means he is hostile to God, unresponsive to him, hates Him and needs the miracle of the new birth to quicken him and to cause him to respond to God's gracious overtures toward him in the Gospel. It is only when we embrace these fundamental truths of biblical anthropology, truths that are embedded in the first point of the TULIP, that we can correctly understand the necessity for and the inseparability of all its points. Because fallen man is TOTALLY (RADICALLY) DEPRAVED, that is to say, he is sinful, corrupt and polluted to the very core or root of his being (radical derives from the Latin word radix, meaning root), in order for him to be saved, God must UNCONDITIONALLY ELECT him unto salvation. This in turn means that God Himself decides which of fallen, condemned man, if any, He will save. By His abounding love and mercy and for His Own glory according to the pleasure of His will, God chooses a particular or LIMITED number of sinners in Christ to Himself and it is for these that Christ made ATONEMENT. In history and time, the Holy Spirit applies the benefits of Christ’s atoning work by regenerating them and then they IRRESISTIBLY and freely answer His effectual call without doing violence to their will. Lastly, these are the very ones our Trinitarian God ensures will PERSEVERE to the end: the Farther works out His plan in them enabling them to press on, Phi 1:6; 2:12, 13; the Son continues His Priesthood role of praying for them, Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; the Holy Spirit continues the application of Christ’s redemption to their hearts by sanctifying and enabling them to produce spiritual fruit indicative of their salvation, Gal 5:22, 23, and constantly assuring them of their filial relationship, Rom 8:15-17; Gal 4:6,7.

It is only in this biblical scheme, otherwise denominated as Calvinistic, that God alone receives the glory that is rightly due Him, Ps 96:4-8; Isa 42:8; etc. It is only in this scheme that the divine sovereignty in man's salvation is zealously, consistently and reverently maintained. It is only in this scheme that we can truly exult that salvation is only of the Lord, Jon 2:9.

Can we opt for some of these five points or must we accept them all? Contrary to the post-modern penchant and reverence for free choice, these points constitute a comprehensive, concrete concatenation. To change, adjust or tamper with any of these points is to sever their unity and to destroy the completeness of their thought. Such action lands us in the Arminian camp. There's no such being as a 4-point, 3-point, 2-point Calvinist; these are all variations of Arminianism. A partial Calvinist is an Arminian.

But notice this scheme receives its foundation from a correct biblical understanding of the fallen nature of man, TOTAL DEPRAVITY, the first point. Failing to grasp the full ramifications of this point perforce catapults us over the Arminian precipice. As for me, I'm a 1-point Calvinist. I (believe I) understand TOTAL DEPRAVITY, especially as it is evinced in my own life. Would that we were all 1-pointers. That’s my point, my first point !

AN OPEN LETTER TO JOHN PIPER

2006-04-24T16:37:00.000-04:00

April 23, 2006

Our Dear Brother:

Over the years we have come to know you and love you even though we don't see you. Your prolific writings are an undisputable witness to your personal and theological identity and to your overall goal in life-- to be satisfied in God alone to the Glory of God alone. Indeed, your profound statement that God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him alone has received axiomatic status. Like your mentor, Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the greatest American theological mind, you have correctly sought to promote the honor, beauty and excellency of God in all you say and do.

We rejoice in these tireless efforts and in your advocacy of the simplicity of the gospel of which Jesus Christ is the Sum, the Substance and the Subject. Your vast teachings on suffering as God’s primary instrument in our sanctification and as our sovereignly ordained window to display His glory, resonate with a counter-cultural timbre and are a sound and effective polemic against the inane, heretical Word Faith teaching that is spreading wildly across our land and throughout the world.

In particular, we cite the following areas:

YOUR LOVE FOR YOUR WIFE, NOËL.
We admire and are encouraged by your tenderness, warmth and love for her. We read several years ago in an unrecalled source that you pray with and for her every night before you retire. This is an awesome display of your covenant responsibilities as her head and priest and is a partial fulfillment of your eldership responsibilities of being the husband of one wife and of managing your home well.

YOUR BOUT WITH CANCER
Our congregation was very saddened by your illness and we took it upon ourselves to pray for you assiduously. Your name was added to our church’s bulletin as one of those for whom individual corporate intercession was to be made, and we were careful to ensure that our petitions were in accordance with your stated priorities, at the top of which was that God be glorified in your illness. This in itself was a humbling lesson in theocentric prayer and our prayer life was immensely improved thereby.

We have read your instructions, insights and exhortations surrounding your illness. With your public permission, we made copies of your articles and shared them with members of other congregations, family members, friends and co-workers, most of whom are affiliated with ministries of lame and questionable theological stature. They were impressed and encouraged; they had never been the privileged recipients of such selfless, sound, consistent, theocentric thinking. A co-worker (whose mother is also suffering from cancer) of one of our members read your article, "Don't Waste Your Cancer," and was initially offended, denouncing it as insensitive, unbiblical and blasphemous. Upon subsequent, sober reflection, she apologized to her benefactor, sought her forgiveness and admitted that your article was helpful, encouraging and in perfect comportment with Holy Scripture. She even shared it with her mom.

We continue to pray for your continued and complete recovery. Your insatiable drive to glorify our Triune God in all you do leads us to await anxiously your next publication(s) on the lessons you learned during these times in the "valley of vision." We speak proleptically. We are confident you will not disappoint us.

Unto Him Whose Glory Will Not Be Shared With Idols,

All Saints Redeemer Church
Decatur, Ga

ELECT OF GOD: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE BLACK CHURCH

2006-03-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

Since the concept church in Black Church is of cardinal importance and since the church is God’s unique and exclusive possession, in the construct Black Church, therefore, by the very nature of the matter considered, the term church occupies a position of paramountcy. This truth has at least the following implications:

The epithet Black designates the ethnic particularity of a group of God's people.

Black therefore corresponds to similar distinctions such as White in White church, Asian in Asian church, and so on. If understood in a racial context, it is akin to Indo-American, Anglo-American, Scottish-American, Trinidadian-American, Pakistani-American and any or all of the copious and cumbersome permutations our un-hyphenated imaginations can concoct.

The Black Church embodies an undeniable testimony to the manifold grace of God Who is building unto and for Himself a holy, unified and catholic people from every nation of the world. That which He began with Adam in the primeval garden; continued with Abraham, the father of our faith; furthered with the other patriarchs; extended with the constitution of His covenant community, Israel; prophesied by the mouths of the prophets; fulfilled in the character and work of Jesus Christ; expanded by the affusion of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; and developed and strengthened by His apostles, will attain its glorious consummation in the eschaton when He will forever be worshiped by "... a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" “ Rev 7:9-10. Elect of the Father, redeemed by the Son, regenerated and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, the church is presented by the Lord Jesus to Himself “.. in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,..” This is the revelation of the mystery of God, the display of the noblest and most profound expression of His manifold wisdom “.. to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” Eph 5:27; 3:9, 10. The Black Church is an inseparable part of this glorious eschatological manifestation.

Though intervening historical particularities vary, each culture plays an equally significant role in the unfolding of this redemption drama. Israel is the only exception to this cosmic equality. Both the Old Testament, Gen 12:1-3; 17:15-16; 22:15-18; 26:1- 4; 35:11-13; Ex 19: 4-6; Dt 7:7-8; etc., and the New Testament, Mt 10:5-6; 15:21-28; Jn 4:22; Rom 1:16; etc., uphold the unique priority of Israel for a particular time, that is, the entirety of the old covenant. However when the fullness of time had come with the First Advent of Jesus Christ, the anticipatory shadows of that covenant were filled with the substance of their predictions and the gospel began to be preached to all nations. The Black Church is also a part of this historical drama.

All nations other than Israel are Gentiles and God's monergistic redemptive work regarding them is metaphorically described as that of bringing other sheep into His sheepfold, Jn 10:16 fulfilling Isa 56:8, “ The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, "I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered." ”, and as a wild olive shoot being ingrafted into a cultivated olive tree, "contrary to nature," Rom 11:11-24. The Black Church is also a part of this scheme.

In the continuing dispensation of God's provision of salvation for His people, His focus is on the elect of all races and nations and not on ethnic entities, Rom 9:6. That is to say, those whom He foreordained unto salvation through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ are individually chosen from all the nations of the world. Thus we join the elect throng singing:

Elect from every nation, Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation One Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses, Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, With every grace endued.
("The Church’s One Foundation." Written by Samuel J. Stone, 1839-1900.
# 347 in The Trinity Hymnal. (Atlanta: Great Commission Publications), Seventh Printing, 1998.

The Black Church is always to be understood foremost and fundamentally from a biblical perspective: creationally, because “.. he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "' For we are indeed his offspring.' ” Acts 17:26-28; and redemptively, as comprising God’s Own people whom He chose unconditionally from among the African (-American) people.

Ultimately, the Black Church comprises God’s elect only. It stands on equal footing with all other ethnic peoples comprising the “Israel of God,” a community of faith transcending biological descendancy. The roots of our being lie in Adam and of our faith, in Abraham, “.. the father of all who believe..” Rom 4:11, because “just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed."” Gal 3:6-8.

To place our ultimate origins in Africa or in the history of Africans in America is the essence of humanism -- the elevation and exaltation of man and culture above God. Contrarily, to ascribe our roots to Adam and to Christ is the essence of biblical theism. What we are addressing here is our view of the world, our worldview, a salient feature of which is the matter of origin and destination, i.e., the issue of ultimacy. In such a case, we are bound to acknowledge that “.. from him and through him and to him are all things.. ," Rom 11:36, and that ".. for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." 1 Cor 8:6. See also Acts 17:28 along with Jn 3:16; 6:37-40, 44; 10:28, 29; etc.
The former position leads to independence from God, the latter, to dependence on Him; the former, to worship of the self as the self-sufficient measure of man, the other, to the worship of God as our Creator and Redeemer; the former to the City of Man, the other, to the City of God.

Summary: As the chosen Of God, the Black Church finds its ultimate origin in biblical theology. It cannot claim any soteriological particularism for itself but must look to and thank the Triune God for His gracious salvation whereby He has been pleased to include her in His cosmic redemptive scheme.

Next issue: The Church As A Community: Its Called Context.

THE CHURCH IS THE PEOPLE OF GOD

2006-03-12T22:08:00.000-05:00

When we consider the term Black Church we must seek to understand not only what it means but also which term takes precedence. Is it the Black Church or is of the Black Church? In other words, which is the defining category? Is “Black” the defining characteristic of the church? Or, is "Church" the premier entity of which Black is a particular kind? These are important preliminary considerations when we engage in profitable study of such an encompassing subject.

Constraints of time, space and means urge me to answer the above questions immediately and unequivocally: in the construct, the Black Church, the term church is of paramount importance. It is a biblical term with a wide variety of applications but it is primarily used to indicate God's (Own) people, with the dominant notion of their assembly in His Presence. This we will develop in later segments but now it is sufficient to supply the following proofs that the church is an institution divinely constituted as God’s Own people:

It Is God’s Chosen Or Elect People
Dt 4:37: And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,

10:15: Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.

Rom 8:33: Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

1 Pe 2:10: Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

God Chose Her From Among All The Nations Of The World
Amos 3:2: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

cf.
Ex 19:5: Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

He Has Marked Them Out For Himself
Ps 4:3: But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; ..

… Even Before The Creation Of The World To Live Holy Lives
Eph 1:4: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

It Is His Unique, Exclusive, Personal Possession
Ex 19:5-6: Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel."

Dt 14:2 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

1 Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, ..

It Is Chosen By God Through A Condescending, Voluntary Divine Act With No Meritorious Qualities Inhering In The Object Of His Affection
Dt 7:7-9: It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

1 Cor 1:26-29: For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

God Exalts Her Above All Nations
Dt 26:18-19: And the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised."

As God's People They Are Zealous To Do Good Works
Tit 2:14: who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

God Writes His Law On Heir Hearts
Heb 8:10: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Cf. Jer 31:31-34

As God’s Personal Possession, They Are To Publish Praises Of His Divine Saving, Electing Mercies Toward Them To All World
1 Pe 2:9-10: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

They Will Enjoy Eternal, Eschatological Bliss In His Presence
Rev 21:3: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

To those who say how can these texts be said to refer to the church when the word itself is not included among them, I respond that you are precisely correct. Scripture does not merely give us words or terms; the Holy Spirit also speaks to us from the pages of Holy Writ in concepts and thoughts which can be systematically identified and traced throughout redemptive history. Although the word church makes its first biblical, chronological appearance in Mt 16:18, the reality of the church as a divinely instituted and constituted, historical, biblical-theological entity, occurs in the very early and formative years of recorded redemptive history. Dispensationalist claims to the law of first reference--- “the first reference to any doctrine in Scripture usually contains the embryonic truth of its development.” That is, God introduces a subject in microscopic form and then later enlarges it. [Elmer Towns, Theology For Today (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1989), p. 609], --- in support of their view that the church is a New Testament doctrine making its first canonical appearance in Mt 16, betray a static approach to the study of Scripture and a grave theological anemia in fathoming “.. the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things,” Eph 3:9. These claims destroy the thematic and structural unity of Scripture and proffer a false, major and rigid dichotomy between the old and new covenants; law and grace; Israel and the church, while admitting some degree of unity. Contrarily, the Reformed view, to which I subscribe, maintains the essential unity between these categories while acknowledging the discontinuities as necessarily arising from the progressive development of the history of redemption. Such unity is achieved by the ubiquitous Immanuel Principle, "I will be Your God and you will be My people," God's covenant promise and commitment to bind Himself by His hesed, His steadfast love, to those He sovereignly elects out of the mass of fallen humanity.

Summary: The church is God’s elect, assembled people of all ages, in both the old and new covenant.

Note: Each of the segments in this series is integrally and theologically linked to its forerunner. I therefore ask that you keep this in mind and do not disjoin them should you determine to read them in toto.

Next article: The implications for the Black Church as God’s Own people.

WHAT IS THE BLACK CHURCH? QUESTIONS GALORE, PT. III

2006-03-06T06:41:00.000-05:00

And now, the final set of questions on the Black Church.

What are the primary view and practice of the Black Church regarding its history?
Does it regard origin to be in Africa or in Abraham?. That is, does the Black Church consider its birth in the introduction of Christianity to the Black slaves by White slave-masters or does it count itself to be hewn from the rock and from the quarry that is Abraham? (Isa 51:1, 2)

Does it acknowledge the sovereign, providential purpose of God in actively permitting slavery as His perfect instrument for bringing the gospel to Black slaves? Or, does it fault the White man for his involvement in slavery and its disgusting aftermath of racial segregation, Jim Crow, etc.?

Has the Black Church forgiven Whites (the White Church) for their role in slavery and in their propagation of a myriad of injustices to Blacks? If so, how is this forgiveness objectified in its life? Does it continue to extend forgiveness to them?

Is it committed to a separate existence from the White church? Is the Black Church (like many White churches) determined to pursue mono-cultural membership?

Does it view the civil rights movement as the major impetus in its development?

What Are the Primary View and Practice of the Black Church regarding Its Future ?
Is the Black Church an institution of hope? By this I do not mean hope in general or a feeble expectation that someday things will get better. What I mean is this: does the Black Church unswervingly hold that Christ alone is its only hope both in this life and in the life to come?

Do the sermons and the teachings of Black pastors remind their hearers that they are pilgrims in a foreign land on their way to the new Jerusalem?

Does it view the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion as mere symbols of faith in Christ? Does it see them as memorials and signs of "our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior?" Or, does it view them as signs and seals of God's promises to His elect, effectually mediated through faith in Christ and His saving work, and guaranteeing the fullness of our redemption at His Second Coming?

This ends the trilogy of questions on the Black Church. These questions were intended to stimulate thought and, perhaps, to invigorate discussion on this crucial subject that will always be before us. Deo volente, the next blogs will attempt to examine the church from a biblical perspective. Perhaps unfortunately, but necessarily, the next blog will also introduce some questions which should lead us into our discussion.

WHAT IS THE BLACK CHURCH? QUESTIONS GALORE, PT. II

2006-03-01T21:19:00.000-05:00

We now move to the second part of this series on the Black Church and draw attention to the major characteristics of the Black Church. What are some of the major characteristics of the Black Church? I submit that these may be determined mainly by its pastoral preaching and teaching.

Is the focus of the Black Church on the eternal and invisible? Is the message from its pulpit anchored in God's eternal purposes which He is unfolding inexorably in our communities and the rest of the world, according to His most perfect, wise and eternal counsel? Do pastors constantly remind their members by precept and practice that their lives are to be shaped by the absolute, transcendent truth of God's Word? Do they exhort them to live in light of the reality that this world and all of its schemes are passing away, are but a vapor?

Related to this issue is this concern: does the Black Church reflect the eternal principles of the kingdom of heaven on earth? That is to say, does it hammer home such counter-cultural principles as taking up our cross daily and following Jesus as a normal requirement for kingdom membership? Does it emphasize self-abnegation, even to the point of losing one's life in order to find it, for the sake of Jesus? Are its ministries concerned with only or mostly temporal matters?

Is the Black Church producing kingdom disciples armed with a theistic worldview and a clear understanding of their responsibilities as citizens of two kingdoms?

Is it equipping its members with an "epistemological self-consciousness" that is rooted in the Scripture, the verbum Dei, the word of God, so that they fully understand that they know only because God has spoken?

Is Scripture the God-breathed, inerrant, infallible eternal Word of God, the final authority in all matters of faith and conduct? Or is it on par, if only in some cases, with other literature?

Are its members actively worshiping and serving God in ways that hasten the day of Christ's return?

Is the Black Church God-honoring, Christ-centered and Spirit-empowered in all aspects of its ministry? That is to say, is the Triune God the focus of all that it does? For example, is God both the Subject as well as the Object in its worship? Are all things properly ordered to grant Him the honor and glory that are due Him only? Is the commitment to glorify God only conspicuous and pervasive in the Black Church?

What is the dominant theology of the Black Church? Or, what are the dominant theologies of the Black Church? Is biblical religion the driving and dominant element in its teaching or is it a sidelined reference occasionally consulted for its exemplary merits?

Is Christ crucified placarded as man's only hope of salvation from sin and from the eternal wrath of a holy God Who must punish evil? If this is so, then, is this truth the warp and woof of the ministry of the Black Church?

Is the scandal of the particularity of Christ and His work a stumbling-block to the Black Church or is it gladly embraced as the ultimate demonstration of the wisdom, love and power of God?

Are the specific claims of the Christian faith faithfully propounded as God's unique standards for all His elect?

Is the Triune God revered as the only God, infinite, unmatchable, supreme, most excellent in the absolute superlatives of His attributes or is He subversively deconstructed to equality with a or any other god variously called "he", "the one", "the man upstairs," god (as in T.D. Jakes’ Sabellian theology) or with the popular god who desires and even guarantees material prosperity for his people?

Is the deity that is proclaimed from the Black pulpit one that can be manipulated into man's service by praise, prayer, tithes, obedience and other human works?

This is the second of three sets of questions on this pressing issue.

WHAT IS THE BLACK CHURCH? QUESTIONS GALORE, PT. I

2006-02-26T06:15:00.000-05:00

Necessarily, much discussion is being fostered on the identity of the Black Church. This conversation is prevalent as well as it is problematic. Problematic, if only from the perspectives of its derivation, composition and reflection in the contemporary scene. My initial modus operandi in addressing this subject, which I will pursue in subsequent blogs, is to tackle it by posing a series of insistent questions. First and foremost is, naturally, what is the Black Church?

Is it the collection of churches under the umbrella of the major Black denominations, namely, National Baptists, Missionary Baptists, African Methodist Episcopal (AME), African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ)? Do these alone represent and circumscribe the Black Church? It might be profitable to note that large masses of Blacks were converted and mostly joined the Methodist and Baptist churches after the American Revolution, thereby completing(?) a courtship which began in the Great Awakening in New England. These denominations therefore have historical roots as far as major membership is concerned. Do they demarcate the contours of the Black Church?

Or, should we view the Black Church as the totality of individual institutions with predominant Black congregations? That is to say, does the Black Church include not only the members of major Black denominations but also those predominantly or only Black congregations within major White denominations? Here, individual local bodies within such denominations as the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC); the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), the Presbyterian church USA (PC USA); the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (the ARP); the Assemblies of God; United Methodist Church; etc., are being addressed.

Further, is it comprised of the Black mega-churches -- typically those with at least two thousand members? Black mega-churches are growing at faster rates than those of their Anglo counterparts. George Barna and Harry R. Jackson, Jr. report in their High Impact African-American Churches that the percentage of large Black churches surpasses that among White or Hispanic congregations and that ".. there are at least a dozen black churches whose attendance exceeds either of those well-known congregations [Willow Creek and Saddleback] by at least a couple thousand people per week!" (p. 26) The high visibility and rapid fecundity of these huge institutions have caused both Blacks and Whites to afford them the status as due representatives of Black religion. Is this accolade well-founded? Is this status accurate ?

Or, is it the aggregation of all African-American church members, whether these are in African-American churches are not? That is to say, is the Black Church constituted of Black members wherever they worship and regardless of their denominational affiliation?

Lastly, is the Black Church a(ny) religious institution furthering the general advancement for African-Americans? "As long as they are people who cannot help themselves there is going to be a need for the Black church." Heard on the Al Sharpton (barbershop) television talk show, “Sharp Talk”(?) on Sunday, January 22, 2006. Many Black churches now have home-ownership programs; community assistance programs; economic development training; entrepreneurial classes; counseling of many kinds; crisis intervention training; and so on, as part of their "curriculum." Is the Black Church therefore a religious entity for furthering the civil, economic and social rights and responsibilities of its people?

These are a few questions that come to mind in the first of three Questions Galore.

Public Edu--what?

2006-02-23T17:08:00.000-05:00

The word educate derives from the Latin, educare, to lead out -- very likely from darkness into light. It speaks of a process, even a lifelong process, increasing in intensity, varying in formality and progressing in complexity. Sadly, most of the children in the U.S. are educated in public school systems. Sadly, because these systems are monstrous juggernauts trying to keep up with a culture that is being swallowed up by godless, irrational, neo-pagan, anarchistic currents vigorously striving for official acceptance. Along with jumbo shrimp; bureaucratic efficiency; police protection; gay pride; prosperity gospel; women preachers, and so on, the term public education is a principal member of my list of favorite oxymorons.

Take the DeKalb County, Ga system in which I serve as a substitute teacher. Throughout the spectrum, from elementary to high school, the conversations and conduct of students are indicative of:

Rampant Egocentrism: emphasis is on the immediate and indiscriminate satisfaction of the self. All of life's rivers culminate at a self-appointed apex called "me." The entirety of life serves the regnant, ruthless self. In particular, life's unrequited debt to the self consists of lavish and ludicrous outlays of clothing, unending collections of CDs, videogames, multi-functional cellular phones, and the unrestricted freedom to do as I will. Such values as sacrifice, selflessness, altruism, charity, temperance, kindness, honor, community, and so on, are epistemologically absent from their vocabulary of life. Everyone exists to serve and to meet my needs; the community’s only import is as a subservient instrument of my needs.

Insipid Materialism: thoughts and actions stem from and are locked into the hic et nunc, the here and now. Their paradigm of life is the acquisition of more for the sake of more. This insatiable thrust has as its aim more—more jewelry, amusements, entertainments, clothing, "articles of strong prevailment in unhardened youth" (Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream), fueled by a naked greed and fortified by a corrupt psychology of self-entitlement and self-fulfillment.

And, ultimately of,
Practical Nihilism: In the final analysis, to them nothing really matters; nothing matters, really. Their riveted focus on the temporal and ephemeral; their unswerving insistence on being instantly gratified; their social Darwinist, belligerent tendencies; the prevailing preoccupation with the crass, vile and filthy, all fueled by destructive Hip-Hop lyrics and intoxicating rhythms, point to and strengthen a philosophy of life which logically speaks of all reality being nothing. How? Why? Because in their quest to achieve their aims, destruction of others and self are plausible and even necessary. It is a sub-culture which lives out the existential realities of Nietzschean nihilism and of Sartrean pessimistic futile passion.

To make matters worse, it's a sorrowful reflection of a larger, godless society sinking into the engulfing quicksand of pagan futility, in increasing hostility to any mention of an absolute, transcendent truth.

Whence did this condition arise? Ultimately from fallen culture which insists on and guarantees its stultification and self-destruction by determining to live life apart from God, “under the sun.” But now, does the fault primarily lie with the school system or with the parents? Clearly, both yet major culpability must extend to the latter who are God's first social plank in the construction of society in His image. All humans are required to produce their own kind in the image and likeness of God. This requires parents to execute their God-given covenant role of educating their children. In the case of Christian parents it means:

Instructing them in and modeling to them the importance of living in a covenant relationship with God and with one another. This relationship is generational in its extent, cf. Ps 78:2-6; Acts 2:38, 39; etc.

Inculcating in them a comprehensive, unifying Christian worldview in stanch opposition to its secular counterpart which cannot even adequately meet the needs of this world.

Nurturing them in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Pe 3:18, Who alone is their ultimate Satisfaction, Sufficiency and Goal, both in this life and in the one to come.

Equipping them to glorify God in all they do and to witness to others, as a rule of life.

Grounding them in the eternal, foundational precept that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom and knowledge, Ps 110:2; Pro 1:7; 9:10; etc. This is the basis of all education.

Home-schooling in a covenant context and with a covenant content is most effective for raising Kingdom-oriented children and home-schoolers ought to be eternally grateful to God for this wonderful privilege of e-duc-ating them. This gratitude manifests itself both upward to God in praise and worship and outward in overflowing empathy and intercession for those unable or unwilling to extricate themselves from the woeful grasp of this dark and oppressive system. After all, aren't we children of light?

PS: I know I've painted with a pretty broad brush but nevertheless the strands are sufficiently accurate and apropos in their identification and application.

What Can We Expect In 2006?

2006-01-17T08:41:00.000-05:00

I make no claim to the ability of predictive prophecy. Since the close of the canon, this charismatic gift is no longer extant or necessary; the revealed precepts of God in Scripture alone are sufficient for all concerns of faith and conduct. Yet, as I gaze over the deteriorating American evangelical landscape, the beliefs and patterns of yesteryear bequeath us both a solid basis and copious room for plausible anticipation.

For example,

WE CAN EXPECT THE CONTINUING ATTACKS ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF EVANGELICALISM.

This is easily predicted from the already established teachings of such popular soi-distant Bishops as Eddie Long; TD Jakes; Clarence McClendon; Kenneth C. Ulmer, and of Dr. Creflo Dollar, and others of that class. It is sad that these leaders and institutions are still counted as genuinely Christian when their theology has been consistently, irreverently and unapologetically flaunted contra the salient doctrines of the Faith: God, the Trinity, the Person and work of Christ, the humanity and eternal deity of Christ; etc. It is shocking that they are continued to be viewed as evangelical. We stand in grave need of aligning our assessments with the revelatory truth of Scripture.

These infidelities will assuredly wax more and more in frequency and in intensity.

WE CAN EXPECT AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF BLACKS EMBRACING REFORMED THEOLOGY

The growth in the number of Reformed blogs, websites and the increasing attendance at the Ligonier and other conferences are salutary trends. It is heartening to see more Blacks embrace the Reformed distinctives. In the least, it signals our:
· desire to grab hold of our faith in its most accurate, sound, consistent and robust presentation.
· recognition of the inability of other doctrines to present and preserve the sovereignty of God in His glorious, voluntary Self-manifestation in creation and redemption -- the latter, through the Person and atoning work of Christ.
· understanding of the primacy of God in the entire order of salvation, from election in eternity past; to effectual calling, regeneration, conversion, justification, adoption, sanctification and perseverance in time and history; to glorification in eternity future.

While these are good ground for rejoicing, a caution must be sounded here. There is a tendency for many of us to equate Reformed Theology with a personal acceptance of the Doctrines of Grace (the Five Points of Calvinism). It is true that Reformed Theology does include these five points but it is also crucial that we realize that it is not limited to these designations.

Reformed Theology is, above all, a worldview -- a way of viewing and understanding God, man, sin, life and death, etc. It is the framework from which we view our world and the presuppositions we hold about it. In short, it forms and informs our views and our actions on immediate as well as ultimate issues. To limit Reformed Theology to a personal acceptance of the five Doctrines of Grace is to compartmentalize it and to reduce it to the particular, though crucial, realm of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, and to neglect its context of and impact on the covenant community. The danger here is both patent and pressing. Such a reduction allows us to:
· remain in churches dominated by Arminian theology, singing the old Arminian songs, holding a defective view of the meaning, nature, unity, purpose, offices, sacraments, etc., of the church; a deficient view of eschatology; an adulterated perspective of worship, etc.
· reject Covenant Theology as an inseparable component of Reformed Theology and as the controlling hermeneutic of iredemptive history.
· be biblical in our soteriology but "cultural" in our thoughts about politics, art, sports, etc. Culture takes priority over Christ.
· adopt a minimalist position regarding this system of doctrine.

We cannot append Reformed Theology to our other ideas about life and accurately designate ourselves as truly Reformed. As stated before, this body of doctrine is a controlling, incorporating category, the grand rubric of all theological reality. As such it precedes and defines all epithets.

My concern is that all Reformed Blacks (as opposed to Black and Reformed ) will graduate beyond these initial steps into the full-orbed richness of Reformed thought.

OTHER EXPECTATIONS:
· The TBN empire will expand in number of stations as well as in the number of high-profile performers appearing on its programs. Granted their theological content, how can they not?
· Churches in the Black community will feature more celebrities in their worship.
· "Christian music" will be more and more secular while its patrons continue "to get their praise on."
· The Person and atoning work of Jesus Christ will recede more and more into the spreading umbrage of secular thought that is invading the church.
· The accelerating intrusion of female preachers (a disturbing oxymoron) and Word-Faith theology will cause many traditional Baptist and Methodist churches to drift further away from their historic roots. Many Baptists are really not Baptists anymore. Their designation is still retained but their doctrine and church life are being determined by an eclectic theology.
· The New Black Magisterium will expand. Self-appointed bishops, apostles and husband and wife "evangi-couples” will continue to expand. Mega-churches will thrive and more cathedrals, the mounting symbol of the new magisterium, will also appear. Our people will be plunged further and further into a “neo-medieval“ theological darkness. As the Old Covenant prophet lamented: “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?” Jer 5:30-31.

· As our post-literal culture continues in its epistemological shift from a print-based to an image-driven society, we can count on the insertion of more Power-Point presentations, graphics and images in the services. We will soon have an electronic gospel. Popular sermons will become shorter and will be adorned with more levity, testimonies, urgent political pitches and engaging story-telling. The service will have more drama, skits and “Christian comedy” to relieve the strain of sustained deliberation. We are not far from a service with commercial breaks. Already, some regard the offertory as playing this role!

· The inordinate concern for the care and safety of animals, many times over the interests and concerns of humans, will make more headway in both Black and White communities. While shopping last Christmas Eve my wife saw a Black man proudly cuddling a puppy in an Atlanta mall. Yes, these creatures will continue to exercise dominion over us. As the sign in a vet’s office in Chamblee, Ga says: “Pets Are People Too.”

In the face all this,
· God's remnant will grow stronger in (the) faith through radical self-denial and unjust suffering. The faithful servants will stand and be counted as they live their lives focusing on the things that are above, where they are seated in Christ, as they reflect heaven on earth. They will continue to be bold witnesses for Christ at great cost for they realize their world to be the theater of their pilgrimage, a journey that culminates in the New Jerusalem..

By God’s grace, may we be included in this lot.

My First Blog

2006-01-17T08:38:00.000-05:00

With great diffidence I now enter the yawning domain of cyber-talk. Tony Carter pressured me. But stepping into this enterprise means that I'll attempt to contribute to the ongoing Reformed theological discussion with keen attention to its application to the Black community. Although many more able professors are already in the forefront of this necessary task, I, perhaps foolishly, believe I might be able to make some worthwhile addition.

My ultimate concern is that all Christians come to know the sovereign majesty of the Triune God as He is most accurately depicted and jealously defended in the systematic and comprehensive body of doctrine called Reformed Theology. Years of trampling by the ‘whelming flood of Arminian doctrine, perhaps still the default theology in American evangelicalism (though wretched Pelagianism is rising rapidly), have prepared us for the sweet richness and hearty biblical reality of Reformed dogma. In this matter, God has been merciful to usward by sovereignly opening our eyes and causing us to see Him in His Triune majesty and in the incomparable excellencies of His attributes, not as abstract propositions on the pages of Scripture but as the God of action Who sovereignly rules over the affairs of all His creatures for His Own glory. To this end, He has called out of the fallen world, a covenant people whom He redeems unto Himself through regeneration by His Spirit and faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. Those whom He chose in eternity past have been, are being and will be glorified by Him. Ultimately, they will attain the apex of their salvation with Him in heaven. It is an irrefutable axiom of Reformed thought that God saves; salvation is of the Lord alone.

May He guide us in this difficult but necessary task.