Rachel Held Evans post on the “abusive theology” of John Piper, Sovereign Grace Ministries, and “other Reformed leaders” is getting a lot of attention.
For those of you “in” the Reformed world, it may be a good idea to read it, if only to peer outside the fishbowl.
That being said, while reading the post I was constantly thinking, “I hope I never post something like this.”
When blogging (or living for that matter) we need to remember the most weighty Scriptural commands that should govern all we do and say.
Love.
Love God, and love others.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Representing other views fairly is vital in these discussions. A good test case would be to ask yourself, “Would they agree with how I have represented them?”
Doing so won’t make those “hit bars” on your dashboard balloon, and you might not get as much money in advertising, but it will approve you as a good and faithful servant.
So many times (on all sides) unloving things are done in the name of truth.
“Speak the truth” must be the blogging world’s favorite caption, but we quickly tack on the prepositional phrase “in love” to justify our most recent exploit in “love.”
If you have heard of the Federal Vision, but not read much about it, I found a helpful summary by Luke Nieuwsma. He outlines what the Federal Vision is and what they are not.
I. What Federal Vision Theology Is
an emphasis on biblical definitions
an emphasis on the external Covenant: a different definition of “Christian”
an emphasis on strong church authority
an emphasis on the sacraments, particularly baptism
another aspect to the church: a global ecclesiology
another aspect to election
II. What Federal Vision is NOT:
salvation by works
justification by works
baptismal regeneration
a denial of assurance of salvation
The New Perspective on Paul
a denial of classic Reformed theology as found in the Westminster or Heidelberg
a denial of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness
heresy taught by men who have been tried in an ecclesiastical court
I hope to speak more about this in the future but here is the best simple overview I have found.
Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
- Screwtape (senior Demon) to Wormwood (junior Tempter) in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
There is a great need among Christians to be in the public square; practicing law, influencing policy, opposing immoral governmental injunctions.
These are the things that make up biographies. We read about Bonhoeffer, who joined groups that attempted to assassinate Hitler. We read about Wilberforce, who for years opposed the slave trade. Hopefully soon we will read about the leader who spearheaded the end of the legalization of abortion.
But it would be wrong to suppose that these are the only meaningful tasks.
In the Scriptures, readers also encounter small acts of faith and obedience that change the world. Abraham leaves his country at the call of God, and this is the beginning of the nation of Israel. Hannah simply desires a son, and this son anoints the first kings of Israel. Mary trusts that what the angel says to her is true, and she gives birth to the Savior.
In the same way it is small acts of disobedience that cause chaos. David does not raise his sons properly and his last days are spent fleeing from them. Samson marries a foreigner and it ultimately ruins him. Moses strikes the rock rather than speaking to it, and therefore does not enter the promised land.
It can be tempting to think that the simple kind word the Spirit is leading us to say, or the small and quiet smile of approval, or the sacrificial cleaning up of the toys for the 25th time that week are trivial tasks.
Mothers can despair during the fifth dirty diaper and the endless laundry. Fathers can become depressed thinking their balancing of spreadsheets has little kingdom impact. The barista can look down at the 5,000th cup of coffee served and think the task is menial.
But the modest faithful acts are not inconsequential. It is the everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keeps the darkness at bay.
And the aftermath of these things is hard to quantify, like ripples in a lake.
Could it be that a collection of these small tasks kept a marriage together? And keeping the marriage together gave their children a picture of what fidelity produces. Which in turn caused them years down the road, when they fell into the valleys of marriage, to themselves stay together. Which in turn let their grand-children see the benefits of sticking it out.
Those two small words that were spoken 75 years ago can have a legacy. And the grand-children of grand-children may be reaping the benefits of these good works and not even be aware.
Hannah and I recently watched The Hobbit again. Gandalf had a couple of lines to this effect about why he chose Bilbo Baggins. He said,
Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I’ve found that it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folks…that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.
Keeping the darkness at bay may be simply stopping your car and giving someone a jump. For God has prepared beforehand these good works for us.
Dr. William Barrick and The Master’s Seminary have allowed the video lectures of Dr. Barrick’s Hebrew course to be viewed for free. This includes access to the grammar and workbook he uses for class.
What an amazing day we live in with all the resources provided to us.
Christian rapper Shai Linne recently came out with a song called Fal$e Teacher$. In it he calls out 12 popular faith leaders, dubbing each a “false teacher.” John Piper tweeted to the song and it went viral.
Below, see a portion of his lyrics from the song, which tackles each pastor’s name:
Talk to them) Joel Osteen – false teacher!
(Let them know) Creflo Dollar is a false teacher!
(Who else? Who else?) Benny Hinn is a false teacher!
I know they’re popular but don’t let them deceive ya!
(Talk to them) TD Jakes is a false teacher!
(Tell the Truth) Joyce Meyer is a false teacher!
(Let them know) Paula White is a false teacher!
Use your discernment, let the Bible lead ya!
(Keep going) Fred Price is a false teacher!
(Tell the Truth) Kenneth Copland is a false teacher!
(Who else? Who else?) Robert Tilton is a false teacher!
I know they’re popular but don’t let them deceive ya!
(Talk to them) Eddie Long is a false teacher!
(Let them know) Juanita Bynum is a false teacher!
(Who else? Who else?) Paul Crouch is a false teacher!
Use your discernment, let the Bible lead ya!
Another development in this ongoing story is that Shai Linne responded Bradley Knight’s open letter defense of his mother, Paula White, who the rapper accused of being a false teacher.
In the letter, Shai is gracious yet strong. He critiques her view of the atonement, the false “sow a seed” teaching, and claiming to speak for God. Shai closes with this.
I know you love your mother, Brad. I love mine as well. I made Fal$e Teacher$ because there are many other sons out there whose mothers have had their lives greatly damaged by the false teachings of Paula White and the others mentioned in the song. I would love to hear that Paula White has repented and renounced the many false things that she has taught. I am praying to that end. But until she does that, I must soberly maintain that the Biblical category of “False Teacher” does, in fact, apply her. And those who follow her must be warned. And just so you know, I have your email address and will gladly take this conversation offline with you if you’d like.
I enjoyed this little meditation on reading Scripture by Charles Halton at the Houston Baptist School of Christian Thought.
I am convinced that hardly a Christian reads the Bible. We may crack its spine every morning, study it groups, or vocalize it in services, but we never, ever, actually read it.
That’s because we use the Bible. We approach Scripture with the specific agenda of learning from it. We burn through four chapters a day to complete it in a year, distill theological principles from paragraphs, and make moral applications from the Decalogue.
Learning from the Bible is undoubtedly good, but when is the last time that you just read it? Not to prepare for a lesson or to discern a principle or to understand theology but merely to rest inside a narrative? To feel the energy between sentences, to let a poem’s emotion wash over you, to feel the horror of Judges 19 and sublimity of Psalm 23? Maybe never. But this is what reading is. It’s approaching a text with the agenda of mere enjoyment.
He concludes:
Many Christians approach the Bible through a rigid system — a liturgical calendar, a prescribed reading schedule, or a daily quota. This is tremendously problematic if these are the only ways in which we relate to our most sacred text. Potentially, the Bible becomes another task that we tick off our to-do-list. We need to cultivate times of unstructured reading. To borrow a phrase from Alan Jacobs, we need to read at whim. If the desire arises to read a Psalm or a Pauline letter, or, dare we say, Leviticus, and it’s not the specified passage for the day, carve out a few minutes and soak in it.
But equally problematic is the person who reads the Bible with no rhyme or reason, retweeting a random verse here and flicking open a Bible to whatever page there but never getting around to finishing an entire narrative. There’s hardly a chance that this person will enjoy the Bible’s story lines or integrate its teachings into coherent ideas. The books that make up the whole were intend to be read through. If we treat the Bible like a jumble of hypertexts and bounce around its pages we will never appreciate it in the ways its authors intended.
There is an inherent tension in our relationship to the Bible. This tension is similar to the ways in which Jewish tradition approaches prayer — certain prayers are to be recited at particular times but petitions should also flow out of the heart. Prayer demands both keva (set times of recitation) and kavanah (spontaneous intention). We could loosely translate these terms as “fixed and free.”
Like prayer, the Bible is best read fixed and free. Impromptu sessions should accompany liturgical recitations and whim should interrupt schedules. In addition, we should read the Bible for enjoyment as well as study it for understanding. To a large degree these are very different acts but embracing the Bible more fully involves holding together the tension of keva and kavanah.
