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"Amillennialism 101" -- Audio and On-Line Resources

 

Living in Light of Two Ages

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Monday
Mar312008

Academy Lecture Posted--Such as It Is

World%20of%20Difference%20samples%20cover.jpgThe audio from Ken Samples' Academy lecture has been posted on the Christ Reformed website.  Click here: Christ Reformed Info - MP3's and Real Audio (of Academy Lectures)

Ken's first lecture is entitled: "The Imago Dei:  A Reflection of God."

 Please note:  The audio quality of this lecture is very poor.  There was a technical problem (now corrected).  Our humble apologies--except to those of you who complain about free lectures!
 

Monday
Mar312008

Opening Day!

Yankee%20Stadium%20Opening%20Day.jpgIt has finally come--opening day, 2008!  Spring is at hand.

This will be an interesting year for the Yankees.  This is the final year for the current Yankee Stadium, arguably the most famous sports venue since the Flavian Amphitheater in Rome (the Colosseum).  The photo depicts opening day at Yankee Stadium, 1923, the stadium's first season.  Who hit the first home-run?  Babe Ruth, of course! 

No other team in pro sports evokes emotion (pro or con) like the Yankees!  All of the great names (Ruth, Mantle, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Berra, etc.), the great moments, and now with opening day, more are sure to come.

There are some great teams in the American League this year--The Red Sox, the Tigers, and the Indians.  The Yankees' fortunes largely depend upon three young and so-far unproven pitchers (two of whom are from Orange County!).  So, we'll see how things play out . . . 

But on this day, every team is still in first place.  Every fan still thinks they have a chance to win it all.

Opening day is here.  Finally!  Let's go Yankees! 

 

Monday
Mar312008

Who Said That?

question%20mark.jpg"Father, Your trust in me has been so great, I must be worthy. You created me, and know me as I am. And yet You placed Your Son's salvation in my hands, and let it rest on my decision. I must be beloved of You indeed. And I must be steadfast in holiness as well, that You would give Your Son to me in certainty that he is safe Who still is part of You, and yet is mine, because He is my Self."

You know the drill!  Leave your guesses in the comments section below. 

Sunday
Mar302008

$25,000 for This?

Satan%20Sucks.jpgThe "Save the LCMS!" blog posted these photos of the billboards purchased by an LCMS in the St. Louis area.  This is part of the  "Ablaze" outreach now being pushed by the current LCMS president.  (Click here: Save the LCMS!: $25,000 Ablaze Grant for This?!).  

When will these church bureaucrats get it?  Confessional churches (Lutheran or Reformed) are never more irrelevant than when they pull stunts like this.

Since I'm not a Lutheran, let me pick on my former denomination, the CRC (Christian Reformed Church).  When Michael Horton and I began the effort to organize a confessional Reformed Church in Orange County back in 1996 (what is now Christ Reformed), we approached the CRC--the denomination in which I was already ordained.

When we explained what we wanted to do, they looked at us like we had three heads!  The church officials responsible for church planting had already bought into the Rick Warren "Purpose-Drivel" philosophy.  Their mantra at the time was 400,000 [members] by the year 2000 [this was 1996].  These guys tried their best to talk us out of starting a confessional church, built upon the historic Reformed liturgy, redemptive-historical preaching, with weekly communion. They offered us scholarship money to attend Rick Warren's church planter's bootcamp.  I promptly filled out the form and requested funds to go to Princeton to finish up my Ph.D.  They were not amused.  Church bureaucrats have no sense of humor.

To make a long story short, for two years, Christ Reformed was the fastest growing church in the CRC.  Meanwhile, after buying in to the Rick Warren "Purpose-Drivel," the CRC has steadily declined in membership, and has lost its way as a confessional Reformed church.  In fact, membership has fallen well below 300,000.

The moral to the story is that Reformed and Lutheran churches are usually pretty good at being Reformed and Lutheran.  But we don't do "hip" and "with it" very well.  And when they go down that dead-end road, they don't reach the lost, but they lose the saved, and their churches shrink.   And they can't understand why so many of their former members now attend the local mega-church.

My question to the church growth types in the CRC was, "why would people want to go to one of our churches doing a very poor imitation of Calvary Chapel, when the genuine article was 20 minutes away?  They never did attempt to answer, and they took the question itself to be a sign that I wasn't interested in evangelism.

Meanwhile, the LCMS won't support a radio outreach with a proven track record of preaching the gospel and adding to Christ's church ("Issues, Etc.").  But they'll drop $25,000.00 on some stupid billboard campaign that gives every pagan another reason to think that Christianity is an irrelevant religion of stupid slogans and tacky billboards.   But no, the LCMS bureaucrats have bought into this Ablaze nonsense, and they are gonna grow the church, even if they have to kill it in the process!

For another great response to this, Click here: Save the LCMS!: Brilliant!
 

Friday
Mar282008

Mike Horton Interviews M. Z. Hemingway Regarding "Issues, Etc."

WHI%20Logo.jpg

 

Here's a link to Mike Horton's interview (taped today) with M. Z. Hemingway regarding her essay in the Wall Street Journal dealing with the LCMS's unexplained removal of "Issues, Etc."   Hemingway nails it! http://www.whitehorseinn.org/mp3/whiissuesetc.mp3

This is not merely a battle over a radio program, but this is an important skirmish in a larger battle over the future of the LCMS.  While the LCMS bureaucrats claim that canceling the broadcast is a matter of simple economics, the evidence increasingly points to the fact that "Issues, Etc.," was an obstacle to those within the LCMS with an agenda to move away the LCMS away from Lutheran confessionalism.  

When the denominational president proudly proclaims "this is not your grandfather's Lutheran Church," it means the LCMS president wants his church to look like Saddleback!

As Reformed Christians, we need to watch this matter carefully, along with the Enns situation at Westminster Theological Seminary (Click here: A Word to Students in the Midst of Controversy « Heidelblog).  In some ways these are two different manifestations of the same issue--are we going to remain confessional, and are we willing to pay the price to do so?

While I am not a Lutheran, "Issues, Etc." is a great program.  It does my Reformed heart good to read through the petition of those wanting "Issues, Etc." to remain on the air, and who have boldly professed their love for the gospel and justification sola fide.  If that is not a testimony to the power of the gospel, I don't know what is!   

Friday
Mar282008

New Academy Series Begins @ Christ Reformed Church

World%20of%20Difference%20samples%20cover.jpg

Ken Samples begins a new series tonight (3/28) entitled:  "A Little Lower than the Angels:  The Christian View of Man."  Ken's introductory lecture is entitled: "The Imago Dei:  A Reflection of God"

Here is course synopsis:  What is man? What makes human beings so different from the rest of the creatures on Earth? A person’s thoughts on the origin, nature,  and characteristics of humanity (anthropology) are a critical part of  any worldview.

This series of lectures will focus in detail on the Imago Dei (image of God), with special exploration of its spiritual, moral, and apologetic implications.

Our Academy lectures begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free of charge.  There is a time of discussion following the lecture and refreshments are served.

Textbook: Kenneth Richard Samples, A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test,  chapter 10.

Thursday
Mar272008

The Latest Scoop on "Issues, Etc."

Issues%20Etc.gifHere's a brief update on "Issues, Etc."

1).  The on-line petition has crossed the 5,000 mark.  That's amazing!

2).  The chairman of the Board of Communications (David Strang) has finally placed an explanation on the LCMS website as to why the program was pulled--supposedly, it was losing money, lots of money.  Fair enough.  That is certainly a good reason to discontinue the broadcast.

3).  But if bureaucrats can do wonders with explanations (such as we saw with President Kieschnick), they can also do a number with numbers.  Several respondents (with knowledge of the situation, and with pointed questions about the manner in which the "loss" was calculated) have raised real doubts about the arguments presented in  the chairman's explanation.  Turns out his "answer" only raises more questions.

For the latest on the on-going saga, Click here: Bring Back Issues Etc.   Meanwhile, one of the best forums for Reformation theology/thought has been silenced.

Thursday
Mar272008

The Canons of Dort, First Head of Doctrine, Article Sixteen

Synod%20of%20Dort.jpgArticle 16: Responses to the Teaching of Reprobation

Those who do not yet actively experience within themselves a living faith in Christ or an assured confidence of heart, peace of conscience, a zeal for childlike obedience, and a glorying in God through Christ, but who nevertheless use the means by which God has promised to work these things in us–such people ought not to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation, nor to count themselves among the reprobate; rather they ought to continue diligently in the use of the means, to desire fervently a time of more abundant grace, and to wait for it in reverence and humility. On the other hand, those who seriously desire to turn to God, to be pleasing to him alone, and to be delivered from the body of death, but are not yet able to make such progress along the way of godliness and faith as they would like–such people ought much less to stand in fear of the teaching concerning reprobation, since our merciful God has promised that he will not snuff out a smoldering wick and that he will not break a bruised reed. However, those who have forgotten God and their Savior Jesus Christ and have abandoned themselves wholly to the cares of the world and the pleasures of the flesh–such people have every reason to stand in fear of this teaching, as long as they do not seriously turn to God.

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There are a number of possible responses people can have to the teaching of reprobation.  The Canons deal with three of them.  The first group of people identified by the Canons are “those who do not yet actively experience within themselves a living faith in Christ or an assured confidence of heart, peace of conscience, a zeal for childlike obedience, and a glorying in God through Christ, but who nevertheless use the means by which God has promised to work these things in us.”  This category refers to those who have not yet come to saving faith in Christ.  These people cannot yet say that they are trusting in Christ, although they may be wrestling with the guilt of their sins, and are convinced of the truth of Christianity. 

This group includes the older children of believers who have been baptized, but have not yet made profession of faith.  But there are others we need to consider–not mentioned by the Canons–who, at this point in time, appear to have no interest in Christ.  Although this is currently the case does not mean that all such people are numbered among the reprobate, nor can we treat them as such, even if they appear to be notorious evil doers. 

If we were Christians suffering under the persecution of one Saul of Tarsus, we would find it very difficult to believe when we heard that such a notorious persectutor of the church was now proclaiming Christ crucified.  But God can save anyone he pleases.  There is also every possibility that we will see deathbed and foxhole conversions, in the cases of those people who do not embrace the Savior—either through sin or through carelessness—until the last possible moment.  The critical point here is that we cannot regard anyone from a worldly point of view, and declare them as “reprobate” until such time as they die rejecting the Savior.

And so, as the authors of the Canons point out—“such people [those who have yet come to saving faith] ought not to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation, nor to count themselves among the reprobate; rather they ought to continue diligently in the use of the means, to desire fervently a time of more abundant grace, and to wait for it in reverence and humility.”  We should exhort all those who do not yet profess faith in the Savior, to continue to attend to the means of grace, especially the proclamation of the word of God, to the end that they may make profession of faith in Christ and thereby be regarded as “professing members” of Christ’s church.

A second group of people identified by the Canons are those, who, “on the other hand, those who seriously desire to turn to God, to be pleasing to him alone, and to be delivered from the body of death, but are not yet able to make such progress along the way of godliness and faith as they would like.”  This group includes those who have made a “profession of faith,” but who still struggle with the assurance of salvation.  These are people with habitual sins, weak consciences, improper theological views of justification and sanctification, and who because of these circumstances, take the biblical teaching about reprobation to mean that they are not numbered among the elect.  Despite all of their efforts, because of the struggle with indwelling sin, they assume that they are in jeopardy of perishing eternally.  Such people live in constant fear and introspection.

Our response to such people is set out as follows:  “Such people ought much less to stand in fear of the teaching concerning reprobation, since our merciful God has promised that he will not snuff out a smoldering wick and that he will not break a bruised reed.”  Indeed, as we have pointed out earlier, the struggle with sin, the dissatisfaction with our present level of sanctification, are actually signs that we are numbered among the elect, since those whom God has not chosen, and whom he has left in sin, never struggle with these questions.

A third group, is also identified by the authors of the Canons, and this is “those who have forgotten God and their Savior Jesus Christ and have abandoned themselves wholly to the cares of the world and the pleasures of the flesh.”  Here, the Canons are referring to those who after professing faith or joining Christ’s church, then fall away.  These people are spoken of throughout the New Testament as follows.  In 1 John 2:19, John speaks of those who “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” 

The implication is clear.  They fell away because they were not “of us,” that is, they were not numbered among the elect.  They for a time professed faith, but eventually this profession was proven false.  In Galatians 5:4, Paul speaks of those “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”  Here, the apostle is speaking of those who will not give up their confidence in the merit of human good works.  In the worse case scenario, found in Hebrews 6:4-6, the author declares that “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”  This is what our Lord is describing in the parable of the sower, recorded in Matthew 13:3ff,

    And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,  but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.  Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. . . . “Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.  As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

Some of those who profess faith are of the poor soil that our Lord describes here.  Faith may flourish for a time, but cannot ultimately take root because of sin and the cares of the world. 

With this last category, it is important to notice that we are not counseled to exercise the care we would with the previous two groups, since the goal here is to make perfectly clear to them the consequences of their actions, lest they not repent—“such people have every reason to stand in fear of this teaching, as long as they do not seriously turn to God.”  In this regard, we are to use the teaching of reprobation much as we would the preaching of the law, namely to terrify the conscience, and to drive them to Jesus Christ who is the mirror of election.  People in this category are not to be comforted, but warned!

The diverse nature of these three categories of individuals make it clear to us why we must exercise great care when we teach, preach and reflect upon this very difficult subject (reprobation).  But the general rule of thumb is clear.  Those who are indifferent to their sin need to be confronted by the law and the fact of the final judgment.  Those wrestling with the guilt of sin, need to hear the gospel, over and over again.  They need to participate in the means of grace, because it is through these things that God strengthens faith and confirms our election.


Tuesday
Mar252008

"No Condemnation" -- Romans 8:1-11

romans%20fragment.jpgThe Nineteenth in a Series of Sermons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

In Romans 7:14-25, Paul describes the Christian’s struggle with indwelling sin.  But in Romans 8, Paul speaks of the Christian’s victory over sin.  Many see this as a pattern of sanctification.  Mature Christians supposedly live in Romans 8 and walk in the Spirit, because they have advanced beyond the  struggle of Romans 7:14-25 because they no longer walk in the flesh.  However, the contrast between the conditions of Romans 7 and Romans 8 is a contrast between Christians, who walk in the Spirit since they have been set free from sin, death and the condemnation of the law, and non-Christians, who walk in the flesh, remaining bound to sin and death while under the condemnation of the law.  This means that the struggle with sin of Romans 7 is a reality for every Christian.  But so too is the victory Paul describes in Romans 8.

We now move into the first eleven verses of Romans 8.  Paul reminds struggling sinners that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, even in the midst of their struggle with sin, before the apostle goes on to contrast those who walk after the flesh (those “in Adam”) with those who walk in the Spirit (those “in Christ”).  As we move into Romans 8, “we find ourselves in a different atmosphere from that in chapter 7.  There is still the opposition between good and evil, but the dominant note is that of victory.”  It is vital to notice that this is not the believer’s victory over the struggle with sin described in chapter 7.  Rather, the victory of which Paul speaks is Christ’s victory over sin, death and the condemnation of the law.  Because the Christian has been set free they must struggle with sin, since having been justified they are also in the process of sanctification.  Only a freed slave struggles with living like the bond-servant they once were.  Someone who has never known freedom from bondage to sin knows nothing of the struggle to live as a freedman. 

To properly interpret Romans 8:1-11, we need to place this section of Paul’s argument in its context.  This section is the “triumphant conclusion of 5:12-21.”  For all those who are “in Christ,” “eternal life replaces the condemnation and death that were the lot of everybody in Adam.”  This is why it is so important to keep the overall structure of Romans 5-8 in view as we work our way through this particular section.  Even though we are “in Christ,” we remain in the flesh until death or the resurrection.  We all struggle to avoid sinning but we sin anyway.  We desire to do what is right but we don’t do it.  But we are reminded by Paul that there is, now no condemnation for those in Christ.  Thus the victory of Romans 8 is not our victory over the struggle with sin.  Paul is describing Christ’s victory over sin in which we all now participate because of our union with him.

To read the rest of this sermon, click here
 

Tuesday
Mar252008

More Interesting Links . . .

Links.jpgFrancis Schaeffer . . . as bad as Jeremiah Wright?  Franky, get over yourself!   Os Guiness sure tells a different story, and he was there too.   Click here: Francis Schaeffer's son: Dad 'worse' than Obama's pastor

A kinder, gentler, Imam?   Because of increasing radicalism (like that is a surprise), the Saudis are now "retraining" 40,000 clerics.  Talk about confusion between Mosque and state!  Wait a minute, Mosque and state are one and the same. Click here: BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saudis to retrain 40,000 clerics.

This is just plain creepy.  People are making coats from the pelts of their deceased dogs.  Come to think of it, Andy's getting a little long in the tooth . . .   My wife Micki keeps talking about needing a new coat, hmmm.   Click here: Hair of the dog: The animal lovers who turned their dead pets' coats into woolly jumpers | the Daily Mail

This awful story gives new meaning to the angry rant, "I'm gonna tear you a new one."  Click here: FOXNews.com - Woman Goes for Leg Operation, Gets New Anus Instead - Health News | Current Health News | Medical Ne