This week the blog is sponsored by Burke Care.

Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word. Psalm 119:74

With the year ending, we were recently invited to a small gathering about 30 minutes away from where we live. We met the usual traffic delays getting to the house. It was already dark due to the shortened daylight hours in fall. It was a misting rain, the kind you get in the South in December.

We arrived safe and comfortable. The conversation was delightful, and it was fun to hear about everyone’s family and the recent updates since we had last met. Each household there attends different churches so there were updates on community and upcoming events and plans. 

I had taken a moment prior to that evening to think about being invited to such a gathering. My past has not always included being invited to such a gathering. Redemption has taken place in my life and attending such a meal with such godly men and women as not always been part of my past. It is not often that I proactively consider being part of such an occasion. But this time, I did think about the relevance of being invited to such a gathering. 

I even awkwardly tried to express my gratitude to being included in such a grace-filled, redemptive family gathering of brothers and sisters in Christ. It is important to note that without Jesus’s intervention in my life, I would not be a part of such a moment. I verbalized my thankfulness to the group which was met with polite deflecting, but I was honest. Me being invited to such an event is an enormous testimony to what God has done in my life that should not go unnoticed.

It is humbling to consider that Jesus came down from his throne in heaven to provide a way for God to reconcile His children back to Himself. Even though I was His enemy, “He loved me.” 

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. – 1 Timothy 1:15 ESV

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. – Romans 5:10 ESV

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
– John 3:16 ESV

“Those who fear you…” I was born into a family that feared others more than they feared God. They taught me that what other people thought of me was more important that following the God of the Bible. I am eternally grateful that the Holy Spirit responded to God’s call on my heart and resurrected me from being “dead in my trespasses.” (Eph 2:5).

“…shall see me and rejoice,” It is a joy to sit and share a meal with my brothers and sisters in Christ. My new family teaches me, loves me, cares for me, corrects me, encourages me, and enjoys me. This is no small miracle knowing where I have been in my past. It is a mystery as to how God has started, been committed to, and is dedicated to bringing my transformed life to completion. (Phil 1:56)

“…because I have hoped in your word” The common denominator in all of us around the dinner table that evening was our love for the God of the Bible. The Truth of Scripture found in the person of Jesus Christ is where our hope lies. It is Jesus’ return that keeps us actively waiting, abiding in faith, hope, and love. (1 Cor 12:13)

As the Advent season of waiting ends and the infant Jesus has arrived in the manger in Bethlehem on Christmas, we enter a new liturgical season. “The Feast of Epiphany celebrates the appearing of the Son of God among us as one of us – both fully divine and fully human.” *  

I encourage you to take inventory of how God’s presence in your life has changed you and those around you. I pray that the revelation of the God of the Bible in your life will shine forth and you will see more clearly the path God has you on, for His glory and your good.

If you have more questions about your life and the friend group you find yourself with, Burke Care would love to talk with you. We would love to hear your story.

*Desiring God, “The Irony of the Epiphany” by David Mathis

Father God, thank you for adopting me into your family and putting so many wonderful people around me. I need You and I need healthy, safe community around me. I want to love You more and to love those You have placed around me more. Grant me all the love, grace, and peace to walk in this calling You have on my life. Amen.

…even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved… – Ephesians 2:5 ESV

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. – Philippians 1:56 ESV

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

Application Questions:

1. In what ways do I still feel shame about the things I do and the crowd I run with?
2. How can I break from my life of former sin and walk in the truth of God’s grace in my life?
3. God, are you good? Why do I run back to the things I do not want to do so easily?

To learn more about Burke Care or find a counselor, you can go to www.burkecare.org. You can find more Psalm 119 blog posts at Care thru Psalm 119 — Burke Care

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Today’s post is sponsored by Christian Focus Publications.

For centuries, Baptists have published confessions of faith as formal statements of their beliefs. Chief among these is the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. This doctrinal statement is a spiritual treasure trove worthy of our fresh attention. In a new study, edited by Rob Ventura, more than twenty contributors unpack its timeless biblical truths, ‘things which are most surely believed among us’ (Luke 1:1). Here, in an interview with Evan Knies of The King’s Table, Pastor Ventura shares some comments concerning A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689:

Evan: Tell us about yourself?

Rob: Let me start with my salvation. I was raised on Long Island with no Christian upbringing. I was so spiritually lost that I never heard John 3:16 until I was twenty-two years old. However, around thirty years ago while I was working professionally in the music industry in New York City, God brought some Christians into my life. With the Word of God, they showed me my sin and then pointed me to the only Savior of sinners, Jesus Christ the Lord. In His free and marvelous grace, He saved me and I was radically converted. Eventually I left the music industry and enrolled in Bible school in Manhattan.

While studying the Scriptures and through the influence of Pastor Albert N. Martin and others, I became Reformed in my understanding of theology and church life. I eventually joined a Reformed Baptist church in Englewood, New Jersey. I was later ordained there as a bi-vocational pastor in 2007 after graduating from seminary. Shortly after this, I was called to full-time ministry in another Reformed Baptist congregation in North Providence, Rhode Island (Grace Community Baptist Church). By God’s grace, I have been pastoring this church for over fifteen years.

Evan: What led to this new volume being published on the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689?

Rob: While I was writing a new chapter on the doctrine of adoption as found in the Westminster Confession of Faith for a new book by Dr. Beeke entitled: Growing in Grace (Reformation Heritage Books) I noticed that the Presbyterians had many resources which opened up their great Confession, but Baptists only had one, by Dr. Sam Waldron. While Dr. Waldron’s exposition is excellent, I thought that a newer treatment with multiple authors would be helpful for many. After conferring with Dr. Waldron about this, he agreed, so I began gathering some of our best Reformed Baptist pastors to produce this work, including Dr. Waldron himself.

Evan: What do you hope that readers will take away from A New Exposition of the LBCF of 1689?

Rob: Having read this new exposition, I believe readers will see the glories and realities of those excellent doctrines most surely believed among us. This new work on the great Baptist confession is extremely practical and pastoral; therefore, I think it will minister to many and build them up in their most holy faith. This is my prayer and the prayer of many. May God grant it to be so!

Get your copy of A New Exposition of the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 from RHB here.

May the God of love and peace be with you on this fine day.

(Yesterday on the blog: No Unfinished Sculptures)

The Gifts of This Age Point Us to the Age Still to Come

Jared Wilson: “What Jesus is saying is that marriage is meant for this age to point us to the reality of that age. How does it do that? There are so many broken marriages, and always have been since the fall, but it was originally like that. And even the best marriages, even the ones that last until death do them part, are often fraught with conflict or hurts or just disappointments.”

He Would Have Come With Me

I enjoyed this story of how God changed one man’s heart.

Navigating Cross-Cultural Relationships

Chopo Mwanza provides an interesting example of a cross-culture difference and offers some good counsel on navigating cross-cultural relationships.

Open Door

“Over the years. In various cultures. Conversations over tea build friendships. And open doors. And our exchange moves from common everyday themes to the topic most essential. And dearest to my heart. Jesus.”

We Agree, Right?

Holly Mackle: “I’ve noticed a curious trend lately: in conversations with acquaintances or strangers I realize my conversation partner presumes I believe the same way they do on a given topic. Sometimes subtle, sometimes overt, whether the topic is politics, pandemic, or Pandora stations—it just keeps happening.”

In John 3:16, Does “The World” Refer To The Elect Or To Fallen Humanity? (Video)

Sinclair Ferguson answers well in this short video.

On Divisions and the Kingdom

“Are you growing in righteousness, and peace, and joy? All the things which we are absorbing, all the debates we are throwing ourselves into, all of our stances, all of our focus and attention on the things which divide, all of our talking points….are these bringing about righteousness and peace and joy? Maybe, then, they aren’t the stuff the kingdom is made of.”

Flashback: One Very Good Reason to Read Your Bible

The benefit of knowledge of God and intimacy with God extends to your family, to your neighbors, to your church. If you can’t or won’t do devotions for your own sake, won’t you do it for the sake of others?

Nothing is too great and nothing is too small to commit into the hands of the Lord.

—A.W. Pink

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Here’s a single sentence from Paul Martin’s pastoral prayer that I think is worth pondering. Praying specifically for our Premier (think Governor if you’re American) he prayed, “Help us to pray for him more than we complain about him.” Ouch! Methinks many of us have some repenting and praying to do…

Today’s Kindle deals include some rare and interesting picks.

(Yesterday on the blog: Why I Need To Spend a Month in Quarantine)

You Keep Using That Word

Keith Mathison picks up on a famous line from The Princess Bride to ask Christians to be careful with the words and terms we use. Like this: “In recent months, for example, I’ve seen a number of Christians argue that someone is an advocate of ‘critical theory.’ While this may very well be true, sometimes I can’t help but wonder if the word means that they think it means.”

Brokenhearted Boldness

John Piper is concerned by some of what he sees online and lauds brokenhearted boldness. “It’s our being drawn into the callout culture, the outrage culture, the cancel culture, the coddled culture. However you name it, it is very angry. And behind the relative safety of social media, it is very bold.”

Your Last Chance to Save Big on Sing! Global, An Immersive Digital Conference

The Sing! Global 2020 conference is coming up fast and Summer registration will end at midnight on Thursday. Motivated by the urgent need to build deep believers in the 21st century, this four-day event is for pastors, church leaders or ANYONE who wants to better understand what God requires worship of us, and has been completely reimagined as an immersive digital experience. It will bring together an array of over 100 Christian leaders and artists from around the world such as John Piper, Tim Challies, Trip Lee, Alistair Begg, Joni Tada and many others to examine how Scripture transforms worship in families and churches. Register before midnight Thursday with the code CHALLIES and save an extra 20%. (Sponsored)

A Bible for the Gas Canister Man

I enjoyed this anecdote…

COVID: A Blessing in Disguise for the American Church

It is inevitable that in some ways the pandemic will prove a blessing (in disguise) for the church. Here are some of them.

What Does “World” Mean in John 3:16?

Here’s a good answer to a common question. “We might be tempted to think that there is much about the world for God to love. After all, what’s not to admire about cityscapes and farmlands, fine cuisine and backyard barbecues, classical symphonies and folk ballads, Renaissance paintings and kindergarten squiggles? The world we know is filled with texture, intrigue, opportunity, and cheer. The problem is that for all that is good and interesting and beautiful about the world, it is overrun with sinners.”

Are We Held Accountable for the Sins of Our Forefathers?

Here’s another question that has been asked a lot, especially lately. Looking to biblical example, Kyle Dillon says “we can say that individual judgment and generational judgment are fully compatible with each other when understood in their proper context.”

Are You Exploiting Your Church?

This is a heavy comparison—comparing certain pastors to strip mines! “Strip mining is a controversial practice that literally removes mountains so natural resources can be exploited. Strip miners only care about what they can take from the earth, not how they can help it grow and flourish. There’s a real temptation for pastors to treat their churches the way a strip miner treats mountains.”

Flashback: The Lingering Stench of Sin

The problem with sin is that it is too dreadful, too ugly, too pernicious to allow solutions that are perfectly clean and neat. Instead, a stink lingers in the aftermath of any great sin.

The church already has a Savior. What she needs now is the Savior’s servant, someone to do his bidding and bring his gifts.

—Harold Senkbeil

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I’ve put together a little mini-series on family, and have shown first that God created family and second that God created family as a means of carrying out his will. In today’s article I want to show that God also created family to picture his truth.

Here is what I mean: God uses family as a means of providing pictures that can teach crucial truths to humanity. There are things we cannot easily understand if we do not understand family. On the other hand, there are things we are well on our way to understanding when we understand family. When God wants to teach us certain truths, he essentially says, “picture a father and a son, or picture a wife and a husband, or picture a brother and sister.” Because he made these family relationships to be universal, he can use them as pictures in every context and in every age. He begins with what we know, then uses that knowledge as a bridge to what we don’t know.

So if we understand family, we have language and concepts that help us understand certain truths about God and his works and his ways. But if we lose family, or redefine it, we begin to lose that language and lose those concepts.

Let me give you four important pictures God uses that depend upon family.

Family Pictures the Trinity

First, family pictures the Trinity. If you don’t understand family, you can’t understand God himself. Why? Because God reveals the first person of the Trinity as God the Father and the second person of the Trinity as God the Son. Of course this Father-Son relationship is not identical to our father-son relationships, but it does help us understand that they relate and interact as Father and Son.

Imagine there was a place with no fathers and sons. In that place you would have trouble explaining John 3:16: “For God [the Father] so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” If you don’t understand the powerful, natural love and protection of a Father for his Son, how could you understand what it cost God to provide his beloved Son as a sacrifice?

This is one reason fatherlessness is harmful—it removes the point of comparison between our fathers on earth and our much greater Father in heaven. This is one reason why fathers who abuse their children are committing a terrible offence—they are giving a false picture of the way God the Father relates to God the Son—No one would ever accuse God of cosmic child abuse if there wasn’t the reality of human child abuse. This is why we need to be concerned about same-sex relationships—in a partnership where there are only two mothers, the picture of God as Father is negated.

Family Pictures the Gospel

So family pictures the relationship of the Trinity. It also pictures the relationship at the heart of gospel. The good news of the gospel is that God has a family, and we are invited to become part of it. When we put our faith in Jesus, we are adopted by the Father and become his children.

Ephesians 1:4 says, “In love, he [the Father] predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace…” How can we understand what it means to be welcomed as sons of a loving father if we don’t know anything about family?

Imagine that place where there are no families, where perhaps government raises children itself. In a place like that, you would struggle to explain the intimacy of the relationship we enjoy with God as his children. When we’re saved by God, we aren’t registered into an institution by a bureaucrat, but welcomed into a family by a Father. God gave us family so we would know what it means when he offers us the great honor of becoming his beloved sons and daughters.

Family Pictures Christ

Then, family also pictures Christ and his church. In Ephesians 5 we learn that the relationship of a husband and wife has always served as a picture of the relationship of Christ and his people. We are meant to say, “You know how a husband loves his wife and would sacrifice himself to save his bride? That’s how Jesus loves his people. You know how a wife responds to her husband’s love and joyfully follows his leadership? That’s how the church is to respond to Jesus.”

In a place where there is no marriage, you would struggle to explain how much Jesus loves his church and how the church is to respond to that love. This is why the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex unions is harmful. Christ and the church are pictured through the complementarity of a husband and wife, not the uniformity of two husbands or two wives.

This is why it is so damaging that more and more people are choosing to cohabitate instead of marry. Christ and his church are pictured in the covenantal permanence of marriage, not the temporary convenience of cohabitation. The covenant, the public promise before God and man, makes all the difference.

Family Pictures the Church

Family pictures the Trinity, the gospel, and Jesus Christ. It also pictures the church and the relationship between Christians. Spend time around Christians and you’ll soon hear someone speak of “brothers and sisters.” That’s not just a charming little quirk, but a spiritual reality that follows from our adoption into the family of God. Think of 1 Timothy 5:1 where Paul tells Timothy, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.”

If you found that place where there are no fathers, mothers, brothers, or sisters, how would you explain how church members are to relate to one another? Or if you found a place where fathers are dishonoured, mothers are forsaken, brothers are resented, or sisters are taken advantage of, it would be difficult to explain. Why? Because we are to relate to one another like a family!

Conclusion

Here’s what we need to see: God has given us family as a way to picture other things, a way to understand other realities. And the more our families look like God’s design for families, the clearer those pictures will become, the closer people will be to understanding.

A La Carte is a daily collection of news, headlines, and curiosities from around the web. I hope you enjoy it! Here’s what we’ve got for today:

Red Flags

Jamie Brown lists a few of the red flags a worship leader should watch out for.

Iain Murray and John MacArthur (Video)

Iain Murray and John MacArthur discuss reading in the ministry.

Why did the Reformation Succeed?

“Despite significant opposition, Protestant churches survived the era of their tumultuous birth and grew large to provide spiritual shade and sustenance for countless men, women and children. But how?”

#MeToo, But God

I appreciate Summer White’s perspective on the #MeToo phenomenon. (Also read Jen Oshman.)

Glory Thief

“But quietly. Inwardly. Stealthily. I crave glory. It has many names: recognition, fame, influence, usefulness, and faithfulness. Almost any positive regard will do as camouflage for a glory thief. The more respectable the term, the better it cloaks from men what God sees perfectly.”

How to Translate John 3:16 “Literally” (Video)

Bill Mounce explains once again why it’s just not that helpful to speak of “literal” Bible translations.

The Secrets of Sleep

“Today, interns still work difficult hours, but the medical world’s opinions on sleep have changed. There’s a field of sleep science dedicated to the biology of repose. Sleep medicine has become a specialty, with fellowship training programs and clinics devoted to caring for those suffering from sleep disorders. And these disorders are not rare.”

Conquest of Canaan

Here’s a new Visual Theology infographic which helpfully displays the conquest of Canaan.

Flashback: Lay Aside Every Suitcase

If you’re on a plane that is broken and burning, the best thing you can do is lay aside every weight and every hindrance so you can focus on just getting to safety. And in a world that is broken and burning, it is even more important to lay aside every possible hindrance, to do it for the good of your own soul and the good of those around you.

Giving is a “grace” as it demonstrates that God has met your needs and that his grace has inclined you to give to others.

—Kent Hughes

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It’s a fair question for the Arminian to ask: How can you preach the free offer of the gospel when you believe in a limited atonement? How can you preach the “whosoever” of John 3:16 if you cannot be certain that Christ’s atonement was for every person? How can you say, “Turn to Christ and be saved all the ends of the earth” if Christ’s atoning sacrifice does not extend to all humanity?

First, a brief theological refresher. The doctrines known as “Calvinism” insist that Christ’s atonement was completed with a limited or definite purpose in mind—the salvation of God’s elect. Thus, while the atonement was sufficient for all humanity, it was intended and applied only to those who had been specially chosen by God to be his. R.C. Sproul says, “Our view is that the redemption of specific sinners was an eternal plan of God, and this plan and design was perfectly conceived and perfectly executed so that the will of God to save His people is accomplished by the atoning work of Christ.” Conversely, Arminianism insists that Christ’s atonement was unlimited or universal, both sufficient for all humanity and applied to all equally. The call of the gospel, then, is to embrace what Christ has already done for each sinner.

The question is, do those who believe in a limited atonement have the right to honestly preach the gospel and to call on people to turn to Christ in repentance and faith even when it is possible that this person is not among the elect and, therefore, not the object of Christ’s atoning work?

The old preacher John Elias faced this question in a time of great debate about Calvinism and Arminianism. He was a convinced Calvinist and a gospel herald who could honestly say of himself, “There is not one Arminian on the face of the earth who would preach Christ to all more freely.” When he considered John 3:16 he insisted, “Whosoever! There is an infinite breadth in this word; whosoever, no matter of what nation, no matter how wretched or unworthy he might be; whosoever believeth.” He proclaimed the good news of the gospel and invited all who heard to put their faith in Jesus Christ. Yet, like many other Calvinists, he was told that he could only preach this way in contradiction to his theological principles.

So how did he reconcile “whosoever” with that tricky “L” of TULIP? He did it like this: “When we preach generally that Christ is a Savior to the lost, and persuade everyone that sees his lost estate to flee to him, we do it not under the idea that they are elected or redeemed, but as ruined; thus they are to go to him.” The call of the gospel is not to believe as one who is among the elect, but as one who is among the fallen. “You must believe as a sinner before you can know anything. This is the order of things for the Christian as an individual, and it is also the approach we should take with our listeners,” he insisted. “Our great purpose should be to get them to believe in the Son of God for salvation.”

Election is true and real, a precious doctrine of the Bible. But it is not the summons of the gospel. We do not wait until we are convinced that a person is among the elect before we call upon him to put his faith in Christ. We do not tell unbelievers to concern themselves with whether or not they have been chosen by God. No, we preach the gospel trusting that it will expose their sin, confront their unrighteousness, and save their souls. The only way they can be certain they are among the elect is when they have put their faith in Jesus!

(These quotes were drawn from Seven Leaders by Iain Murray.)

God’s people had rejected God’s prophet. For many years, Samuel had served the nation of Israel. Though his sons had proven wayward, he himself had remained faithful. He had served well. He had spoken the words of God to the nation. He had appointed judges to govern them. But still the day came when the people rejected him.

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, ‘Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations’” (1 Samuel 8:4-5). Samuel had appointed judges, but now the people demanded a king. This displeased Samuel. Literally, “the thing was evil in his eyes.” He knew that the people had rejected him, that they were repudiating him. They were expressing discontentment with his leadership and longing not only for a new leader but for a whole new system of government. Their rejection and his dejection was complete.

Samuel did the right thing—he took his concerns to God. God spoke to the prophet and encouraged him in an unusual way. God’s encouragement was that the people’s rejection was not first a rejection of Samuel the prophet, but of God the king. “And the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them’” (1 Samuel 8:7). While Samuel may have been right to be offended by the people’s demand, God had far more more right to be far more offended, for while Samuel had ruled imperfectly, God had only ever ruled perfectly. While Samuel’s time had been short, God had a long and unblemished legacy of loving, guiding, and protecting his people. Still, “Obey their voice,” he said, “and make them a king” (1 Samuel 8:22).

Samuel the prophet was God’s spokesperson to the nation of Israel. He was called and equipped by God to speak the words of God. Those who rejected the words of Samuel were actually rejecting the words of the one who called Samuel. To reject God’s spokesperson was to reject God. Today God calls you and me to be his spokespersons to the world. We can learn from Samuel that our task is to faithfully communicate the words God gives us, then to know that those who accept the words are actually accepting God, not us, and that those who reject the words are actually rejecting God, not us.

And so we dutifully, faithfully speak the gospel to the world, we call them away from their sin and to the Savior, Jesus Christ. We tell them of the one who “so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). If they heed this gospel and turn to Christ, we know that they have heeded God. If they reject this gospel and turn further from Christ, we know they have rejected God.

There may be consequences when we speak on behalf of God. We may face censure, we may face mockery, we may face violence, we may face death. Yet when we have spoken for God, we can be convinced that their hatred is first against God. God’s words to Samuel become his words to us: they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me.

Those who pay attention to the Kindle deals won’t find anything new today. Stay tuned on Monday as there are some price drops scheduled for then. In the meantime, here are some articles to read and videos to watch:

How Black and White Christians Do Discipleship Differently

This is very, very interesting. “When it comes to spiritual formation and discipleship, African American Christians are in it together. Black believers are more likely to position their growth in Christ in the context of community and fellowship, while white Christians take a more individualized approach, according to a study released this week from Barna Research.”

The Hot ‘New’ Church Growth Method

“A new study just unearthed a remarkable finding: conservative doctrine grows churches.” Owen Strachan explains why this matters.

No More Channel-Flipping Sermons

I mostly agree with this. “Sermons should not feel like channel flipping. One text here, one text there, one text over there. Citing 20 verses in a sermon does not an expositional sermon make. Just the opposite.”

Why Congregational Singing Matters Today More than Ever

Keith Getty explains why we, as Christians, need to keep singing. “I love Yo-Yo Ma. But singing with God’s people? Joining the eternal chorus? Embracing our blood-bought destiny? Standing with those who have tears in their eyes? Remembering when those same people stood next to me when I had tears in mine? Singing before this world of the only hope we have in the world? This is the eternal concerto of the soul—the ultimate masterpiece.”

The Evolution of Recorded Music (Video)

This brief three-part series of videos (2 minutes each) explores the evolution of recorded music. Things have changed a lot!

This Day in 1929. 87 years ago today Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He was America’s most visible civil rights leader until his assassination in 1968. *

62, Broke, and Living In His Car (Video)

You might enjoy learning about Colonel Sanders and the unlikely start to his business.

Compassion India

Compassion provides an important update on their work in India and why it may come to an end. Please pray! I’ve seen that work in action and seen how it blesses children there.

Flashback: Your Deepest Identity

On February 6, 2006, Stephen Harper stood before the Governor General of Canada and recited the oath of office: “I, Stephen Harper, do solemnly and sincerely promise and swear that I will truly and faithfully, and to the best of my skill and knowledge, execute the powers and trust reposed in me as Prime Minister, so help me God.”

Thanks to This Week’s Sponsor

I’m thankful to Zondervan for sponsoring the blog this week. Sponsors play a key role in keeping the site going!

God’s love in John 3:16 is not amazing because the world is so big, but because the world is so bad.

—D.A. Carson

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There are few areas of the Christian life where there is a wider gap between what Christians want to do and what Christians actually do than in this area: memorizing Scripture. We all know that we should, we all have some appreciation of the benefits, and we would all love to be released from the guilt of doing it so little. Here, courtesy of Donald Whitney and his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (now in a brand new edition), are 5 great reasons to memorize Scripture today.

Memorization Supplies Spiritual Power. “When Scripture is stored in your mind, it is available for the Holy Spirit to bring to your attention when you need it most.” No wonder, then, that David write, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” “A pertinent scriptural truth, brought to your awareness by the Holy Spirit at just the right moment, can be the weapon that makes the difference in a spiritual battle.”

Memorization Strengthens Your Faith. “Memorization strengthens your faith because it repeatedly reinforces the truth, often just when you need to hear it again.” But it can only reinforce truth that you have already committed to memory.

Memorization Prepares Us for Witnessing and Counseling. “Recently, while I was talking to a man about Jesus, he said something that brought to mind a verse I had memorized. I quoted that verse, and it was the turning point in a conversation that resulted in him professing faith in Christ. I often experience something similar in counseling conversations. But until the verses are hidden in the heart, they aren’t available to use with the mouth.”

Memorization Provides a Means of God’s Guidance. David wrote, “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.” “Just as the Holy Spirit retrieves scriptural truth from our memory banks for use in counseling others, so also will He bring it to our minds in providing timely guidance for ourselves.”

Memorization Stimulates Meditation. “One of the most amazing benefits of memorizing Scripture is that it provides fuel for meditation. When you have memorized a verse of Scripture, you can meditate on it anywhere at any time during the day or night.” Then you can be like David who exclaimed, “Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day.”

Here is a final call to action:

The Word of the Word is the “sword of the Spirit,” but if there is no Bible physically accessible to you, then the weapon of the Word must be present in the armory of your mind in order for the Spirit to wield it. Imagine yourself in the midst of a decision and needing guidance, or struggling with a difficult temptation and needing victory. The Holy Spirit enters your mental arsenal and looks around for available weapons, but all He finds is a John 3:16, and Genesis 1:1, and a Great Commission. Those are great swords, but they’re not made for every battle.

The only solution is to commit to memorizing the Word of God. For God’s sake, as an expression of your desire to be used by him, fill up that arsenal.

My Favorite Picture – I really enjoyed this article: “Last week I was overwhelmed – again. It was deja vu from two years ago. All those hallways and galleries and glass cases and tiny spotlights. It doesn’t take long for me to get lost in the varied and sometimes loose interpretations of art at The Art Institute of Chicago.”

Infanticide: The Coming Battle – “First, they won’t call it ‘infanticide’ (killing infants) but ‘post-birth abortion’. The reasons are obvious. The word ‘infanticide’ strikes horror into our hearts. But ‘post-birth abortion’ makes it sound like the termination is simply an extension of abortion, which we are culturally adjusted to. Yet the terminology is grossly inaccurate.”

Mental Illness and the Church – The death of Matthew Warren has ignited some powerful and long-overdue conversations in the church about the nature of mental illness and the church’s response to it. This article is very helpful.

What Ted Kremer Wants – This is a neat story: “Serving as the Reds batboy on Thursday, Kremer asked for three things — 11 runs, 11 strikeouts for free pizza and a Todd Frazier home run. He got all three..”

Do Not Love the World – J.D. Greear: “If you read through 1 John, you’ll come across a short statement that might seem a little confusing: ‘Do not love the world or the things in the world’. This is the same guy who wrote that ‘God so loved the world that he sent his only son’. Is John schizophrenic? Did he forget that he had written John 3:16? And what does it mean to ‘not love the world’?”

3 Lies Porn Tells You – “For the amount of people who struggle with this, we don’t talk about it near enough. We don’t talk about it in our families. We don’t talk about it in our churches. We think avoiding it will make it go away. Statistically speaking, over 50 percent of the men reading this post have had exposure to pornography recently.”

There is a history full of grace behind us, and a prophecy full of glory before us.

—C.H. Spurgeon

Questions matter. They can help you to grow deeper in your knowledge of the truth and your love for God—especially when you’re dealing with the harder doctrines of the Christian faith. But questions can also be used to obscure the truth. They can be used to lead away just as easily as they can be used to lead toward. Ask Eve.

Enter Rob Bell, a man who has spent much of the last seven years asking questions in his sometimes thought-provoking and often frustrating fashion. And when he’s done asking, no matter what answers he puts forward, it seems we’re only left with more questions. This trend continues in his new book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, where Bell poses what might be his most controversial question yet:

Does a loving God really send people to hell for all eternity?

The questions you probably want answers to as you read this review are these: Is it true that Rob Bell teaches that hell doesn’t exist? Is it true that Rob Bell believes no one goes to hell? You’ll just need to keep reading because, frankly, the answers aren’t that easy to come by.

How he asks the question is just as important as the question itself. “Has God created billions of people over thousands of years only to select a few to go to heaven and everyone else to suffer forever in hell? Is this acceptable to God? How is this ‘good news’?” They say that the person who frames the debate is going to win the debate. That is especially true when the debate is framed in this way, through these particular questions. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. No offense, and no pun intended.

The Toxic Subversion Of Jesus’ Message

Bell begins the book with surprising forthrightness: Jesus’ story has been hijacked by a number of different stories that Jesus has no interest in telling. “The plot has been lost, and it’s time to reclaim it.” (Preface, vi)

A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.

ibid

You may want to read that again.

It really says that. And it really means what you think it means. Though it takes time for that to become clear.

Heaven Is A Place On Earth—and We Are Making It

Bell frames much of the book around time and place, around what the Bible means when it speaks of the when and where of heaven and hell. He points to Revelation 21, citing that the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, is coming down to the new earth. He also affirms that heaven is a real place where God’s will alone is done and that at present, heaven and earth are not yet one (pp. 42-43). These are points that few Christians could seriously question.

His argument progresses to this: Because heaven will eventually come to earth, if we’re to take heaven seriously, we must take the suffering that exists in the world seriously now. Therefore, we are called to participate “now in the life of the age to come. That’s what happens when the future is dragged into the present” (p. 45). In light of this, humanity’s role within creation is redefined so that we are not so much stewards as we are God’s partners, “participating in the ongoing creation and joy of the world” (p. 180), and engaging in creating a new social order with Jesus (p. 77). This language of partnering and participating is frequently applied by Bell to causes of social justice.

But what about hell? Is hell a future reality or a present one? Is it an earthly reality or one that exists elsewhere?

Hell appears to be more about what we do to each other than what we’ve done to God. Bell reads Jesus’ warnings of divine punishment as addressing only the temporal, rather than both the temporal and the eternal. These warnings were for the religious leaders of the day, and had very little to do with some other reality or some other time, he argues (pp. 82-83). Instead, hell is “a word that refers to the big, wide, terrible evil that comes from the secrets hidden deep without our hearts all the way to the massive, society-wide collapse and chaos that comes when we fail to live in God’s world God’s way” (p. 95). There’s no fire and no wrath, at least, none that is extrinsic to us.

Does Rob Bell deny the existence of hell? He would say no. We would say yes. He affirms, but only after redefining. And that’s just a clever form of denial.

Exegetical Gymnastics

Understanding what Bell truly believes and what he is truly seeking to teach can be a battle. The reader will find himself following many rabbit trails and arriving at several dead ends. It seems that where Bell’s arguments begin to break down, he simply walks away instead of pursuing consistency and logic. This book could not stand the rigors of cross-examination. It has little cohesion, little internal strength.

The reader will also find broad statements offered as fact. “At the center of the Christian tradition since the first church has been the insistence that history is not tragic, hell is not forever, and love, in the end, wins.” Is that true? It is easy to say, but can it be proven? Again and again Bell turns to the original languages but he quotes no commentaries, points to no sources. He says things like “’forever’ is not really a category the biblical writers used.” But he offers no proof. Again, it is easy to say, but can it be proven? Can it be proven from a legitimate source?

Throughout the book he engages in what can best be described as exegetical gymnastics, particularly in dealing with the Greek word aion, a small word that is crucial to his arguments.

While this word is commonly translated as “eternal” or “everlasting,” Bell argues that it can also mean “age” or “period of time,” or even “intensity of experience.” Using this approach, he briefly argues from the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt. 25:31-46) that eternal punishment isn’t eternal, but rather an intense period of pruning.

Now here’s the thing: aion and aionos definitely can mean “age” or “period of time,” they also mean “eternal.” The word’s context helps us to determine its meaning. So if we assume that these words primarily mean “age” or “period of time,” what happens when we apply that definition to John 3:16 where aionos is used?

For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have life for a period of time.

Not as encouraging, is it? While Bell might argue here that “life abundant” might be a better fit (playing on the “intensity of experience” angle and tying it to John 10:10), at the end of the day, we’re left with an approach that gives more credence to living your best life now than it does to worshipping Jesus.

The Good News Is Better Than This

Throughout the book, there are a number of points where we would agree with Bell, particularly when he identifies some of the goofy things that people have concocted to make God’s absolute sovereignty palpable. But his answers are equally unsatisfying. Even his good critiques are simply a bridge to bad conclusions.

As he makes his case, Bell seems to delight in being obtuse, creating caricatures of opposing views that lack logic and compassion. He paints himself as the victim of the hateful, toxic, venomous denizens of certain corners of the Internet that believe “the highest form of allegiance to their God is to attack, defame, and slander others who don’t articulate matters of faith as they do” (p. 185).

Thus, Rob Bell appoints himself a martyr for his cause, and anyone who disagrees with him is preemptively silenced. It’s a useful technique, that, but hardly a fair one. Meanwhile he acts as if those who hold to the belief that, in Bell’s words, “we get this life and only this life to believe in Jesus,” a view passionately held to by the vast majority of Christians throughout history, are blowing smoke rather than dealing honestly with the Scriptures. He subtly redefines the questions and answers, and in doing so, also shifts the battle lines.

As he moves those lines, he moves closer and closer to outright blasphemy. Turning on 1 Timothy 2 (where Paul states that God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth) Bell reflects on a traditional (orthodox) view of hell and asks:

How great is God?
Great enough to achieve what God sets out to do,
or kind of great,
medium great,
great most of the time,
but in this,
the fate of billions of people,
not totally great.
sort of great.
a little great.

A God who would allow people to go to hell is not a great God, according to Bell, and the traditional belief that He would is “devastating … psychologically crushing … terrifying and traumatizing and unbearable” (pp. 136-7).

God is at best sort of great, a little great—great for saving some, but evil for allowing others to perish. Dangerous words, those. It is a fearful thing to ascribe evil to God.

So what of the gospel? Where is the gospel and what is the gospel? Ultimately, what Bell offers in this book is a gospel with no purpose. In his understanding of the Bible, people are essentially good, although we certainly do sin, and are completely free to choose or not choose to love God on our own terms. Even then he seems to believe that most people, given enough time and opportunity, will turn to God.

In This Is Love

If Love Wins accurately represents Bell’s views on heaven and hell (at least if our understanding of the book accurately represents his views on heaven and hell), it reveals him as a proponent of a kind of Christian Universalism. He would deny the label as he tends to deny any label. But if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well, you know how it goes.

As soon as the door is opened to Muslims. Hindus, Buddhists, and Baptists from Cleveland, many Christians become very uneasy, saying that then Jesus doesn’t matter anymore, the cross is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter what you believe, and so forth.

Not true.
Absolutely, unequivocally, unalterably not true.

What Jesus does is declare that he,
and he alone,
is saving everybody.

And then he leaves the door way, way open. Creating all sorts of possibilities. He is as narrow as himself and as wide as the universe.

…

People come to Jesus in all sorts of ways.

…

Sometimes people use his name;
other times they don’t.

…

Some people have so much baggage with regard to the name “Jesus” that when they encounter the mystery present in all of creation—grace, peace, love, acceptance, healing, forgiveness—the last thing they are inclined to name it is “Jesus.”

…

What we see Jesus doing again and again—in the midst of constant reminders about the seriousness of following him living like him, and trusting him—is widening the scope and expanse of his saving work.

That is what we know as universalism. And it is cause for mourning.

Christians do not need more confusion. They need clarity. They need teachers who are willing to deal honestly with what the Bible says, no matter how hard that truth is. And let’s be honest—many truths are very, very hard to swallow.

Love does win, but not the kind of love that Bell talks about in this book. The love he describes is one that is founded solely on the idea that the primary object of God’s love is man; indeed, the whole story, he writes, can be summed up in these words: “For God so loved the world.” But this doesn’t hold a candle to the altogether amazing love of God as actually shown in the Bible. The God who “shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8), who acts on our behalf not so much because His love for us is great, but because He is great (Isaiah 48:9, Ezekiel 20:9,14,22,44, 36:22; John 17:1-5).

That’s the kind of love that wins. That’s the kind of love that motivates us to love our neighbors enough to compel them to flee from the wrath to come. And our love for people means nothing if we do not first and foremost love God enough to be honest about Him.

This review was co-written with my friend Aaron Armstrong who writes at Blogging Theologically. All quotes are taken from an Advance Reading Copy of the manuscript that was provided specifically for review purposes; they will be verified against a final bound copy of Love Wins following the book’s release.

It was a dreary December day in the city of Tsingteh when John and Betty heard a rumor that Communist soldiers were drawing near to the city. The Communists were battling for control of the country and, of course, hated Christians or anyone else who would bring Western influence to their country. At the time the missionaries were not concerned; since they had moved to the city, just two weeks ago, rumors had been circulating but nothing had happened. They had been assured that government forces had come into their province to fight against the Communists. An hour later a man came running down the street shouting that the Communists were only a couple of miles away and would be upon the city in no time. Now the danger was clear. John and Betty grabbed a few supplies but they couldn’t find a way out of the city. Before they were able to flee, the soldiers surrounded the city, climbed the walls and opened the gates. There was no way to escape.

Very close to the city gate was the missionary home and it did not take long before the soldiers came upon it. The soldiers barged in and demanded to know the names of the people there; they demanded to know where they were from. Obviously two Americans would stand out in a small Chinese city. They took all the medicine they could find, all the money, all the valuables. John and Betty responded by brewing up some tea and serving each of the soldiers cake. But soon they were hauled off and put in the small local prison. They were told that they would be released only for a ransom of twenty thousand dollars. Read this letter that John wrote from prison—he wrote it to China Inland Mission, the missions organization that had posted them to China.

Dear Brethren,

My wife, baby, and myself are today in the hands of the Communists, in the city of Tsingteh. Their demand is twenty thousand dollars for our release.

All our possessions and stores are in their hands, but we praise God for peace in our hearts and a meal tonight. God grant you wisdom in what you do, and us fortitude, courage, and peace of heart. He is able and a wonderful Friend in such a time.

Things happened so quickly this a.m. They were in the city just a few hours after the ever-present rumors really became alarming, so that we could not prepare to leave in time. We were just too late.

The Lord bless and guide you, and as for us, may God be glorified whether by life or by death.

Here is a man captured by ruthless bandits, in prison with his wife and baby daughter. And his concern is not for life or for death, but only for the glory of God.

We’ll return to this most important day. But first let’s go back to the beginning.

John Stam was born in January of 1907. His father grew up in Holland but had moved to the United States as a young man. When he arrived there a clever Christian woman gave him a Bible and said, “Read this! It will help you learn English.” It taught him English, but it also taught him about the love of God. He got to John 3:16, read of God’s love for the world and said, “If God loves the world, that must mean he loves me!” And as he read that passage he prayed and asked God to forgive him. It transformed his life. Though he always held down other jobs, he also evangelized, even creating a mission hall where several days a week he would preach the gospel. Hundreds of people came to Christ through this work.

This was the kind of man John Stam had for a father. And yet John did not become a Christian as a young boy. It was only when he was 15 that he came to understand sin and he came to feel the burden of his own sin. He suddenly knew that he was a sinful person and that God would have to judge him for that sin. One day, sitting at his desk in school, he quietly prayed for the Lord to save him. And he did! Soon he came to do mission work with his father and he found that he loved to share the gospel. When he was 22 he began to do mission work full time and then decided to get some formal training. He went off to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to train to be a missionary.

Just one year before that Elisabeth Scott, who called herself Betty, had begun studying at Moody. She was almost a year older than John—she was born in February of 1906. She also came from a Christian home. Her father Charles was a brilliant scholar who studied under B.B. Warfield and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Princeton. Though he could have taught at many different seminaries, God had called him to preach the gospel. After spending a few years serving small churches in Michigan, he and his family sailed to China, to Shantung, where Charles evangelized and taught Bible classes. So Betty grew up in China and she became a Christian when she was very young. Here is a poem she wrote when she was just ten:

I cannot live like Jesus
Example though He be
For He was strong and selfless
And I am tied to me.

I cannot live like Jesus
My soul is never free
My will is strong and stubborn
My love is weak and wee.

But I have asked my Jesus
To live His life in me.
I cannot look like Jesus
More beautiful is He
In soul and eye and stature
Than sunrise on the sea.

Behold His warm, His tangible
His dear humanity.
Behold His white perfection
Of purest deity.
Yet Jesus Christ has promised
That we like Him shall be.

In that poem she proclaims that she is a sinner, that she loves herself far too much, that she needs a Savior. But she also proclaims that she loves Jesus, that she wants him to live in her. That’s big stuff for a ten-year old!

Though Betty was a Christian, it wasn’t until she was 18 that she attended a conference in New Jersey and something there changed her life. It was there that she completely consecrated her life to the Lord’s service. She wrote to her parents and said, “I don’t know what God has in store for me. I really am willing to be an old-maid missionary, or an old-maid anything else, all my life, if God wants me to. It’s as clear as daylight to me that the only worthwhile life is one of unconditional surrender to God’s will, and of living in His way, trusting His love and guidance.”

Here is a poem she wrote write about that time. This is a poem Elizabeth Elliot loved and copied into her own Bible when she was just a little girl. It is a poem that takes on real significance as we continue to learn about Betty’s life.

Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes
All my own desires and hopes
And accept Thy will for my life.
I give myself, my life, my all
Utterly to Thee to be Thine forever.
Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit
Use me as Thou wilt, send me where Thou wilt
And work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost now and forever.

So now we’ve got these two godly young people at Moody Bible Institute together, both training to be missionaries. Both were great students and both were leaders to their peers. Both of them were well-loved. At that time the China Inland Mission, that organization started by Hudson Taylor, had representatives nearby and they would have meetings for the students, to share what the organization was doing. And it was at these meetings that John and Betty first met. Over the next couple of years their relationship grew; they loved one another but were hesitant to make plans or to rush into anything. At the very least they knew that they would have a year apart—Betty would graduate one year before John and would head to China immediately. John would have to catch up a year later.

And that is exactly what happened. In the fall of 1931 Betty headed to China. John stayed back at Moody and finished up his schooling. He was chosen as valedictorian and his address to the other graduates is really amazing for how mature it is. He was a young man, but one who knew the Bible and who knew the Lord.

He talked about all of the challenges facing the gospel at the time and here is how his address ended: “People of God, does it not thrill our hearts today to realize that we do not answer such a challenge in our own strength? Think of it! God Himself is with us as our Captain; the Lord of Hosts is present in person in every field of conflict to encourage us and to fight for us. With such a Captain, who never lost a battle, or deserted a soldier in distress, or failed to get through the needed supplies… Who would not accept the challenge to ‘Go forward, bearing precious seed.’”

Finally in 1932, John set sail for China as well. A few weeks earlier he had written to Betty to ask if she would marry him, but she never received the letter. They were in an awkward spot—both wanted to serve the Lord, both wanted to be committed to a life of service, so they did not want another person to hinder their ministry. Yet John had asked Betty to marry him and she hadn’t gotten the letter yet. They were in a strange kind of limbo.

But God worked things out. John landed in Shanghai and found, to his surprise, that Betty happened to be in the city, even though she had been posted to another city hundreds of miles away. In God’s timing, she had had an infection of her tonsils and had to come to the city to be treated. John found out and rushed to her. As soon as they got together they both knew that they loved one another and agreed to be married. The problem was that China Inland Missions required a one-year waiting period before a new missionary could marry. And so they would have to get through one more year apart. Betty soon headed back to her post and John went to his.

His first challenge was to learn the language. And it’s a tough one to learn. He spent almost a year studying the language before he was able to preach in Chinese. As soon as he could do that, he was sent on iterations, which is where he would travel for a few days or weeks, walking hundreds of miles, giving out tracts, selling Bibles and preaching the gospel.

Betty served in Fowyang, an area where the church had been heavily persecuted. A few years prior all the missionaries had been chased out of the province and, several years later, when they could finally return, they expected to find that the church had been wiped out. But they returned to find a thriving church, one of which had 250 people worshiping together. There was a spirit of revival in the area and Betty spent her time preaching especially to women and children, traveling from one village to the next.

But finally that year was up and John and Betty could get married. They did that in October of 1933. He sent his family a letter during his honeymoon and you can just sense his joy in all God had done for him.

This letter finds us at Tsingtao—a young married couple. Oh, the Lord has been so good in all the arrangements that we have just be praising Him all along the way. We’re just having a most blessed time together. I’ve such a lot of things to tell you that I’m going to see if I can lay my hands on some typewriter around here before the Lord’s blessings pile up so high that I shall forget a good many of them. Truly our God seems to go out of His way to make His children happy.

As soon as that honeymoon was over, they got to work together. They continued to travel through the province ministering from town to town. Sometimes John went alone but usually he and Betty went together. They visited Christians, encouraging them. And they met with unbelievers, preaching the gospel to them. They met people who would walk 20 miles to get to the closest church—20 miles there and 20 miles back just to hear the Word of God and to spend time with other Christians. They met people who had simply been handed a New Testament and, by reading it, had come to faith; now they just waited for the missionaries to come and to teach them more about this Lord they loved but only barely knew. Along the way they realized that Betty was pregnant and in September of 1934 she gave birth to a very healthy little girl that they named Helen.

Continued in Part 2

When the Bible speaks of God’s love it invariably reaches the subject of God’s sacrifical kindness. The love of God is the love of a God who gives. The most famous verse in the Bible underscores this fact: “God so loved the world that He gave” (Jn 3:16). This giving of His only begotten Son on our behalf is the dearest expression of the love of God we can find.

The Apostle John wrote, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him” (1 Jn 4:9). Here John spoke of “manifesting” something. To manifest something is to make it plain, to show it clearly. God doesn’t merely talk about being loving; He puts His love to the test by showing it in a way that is undeniable. He shows His love by giving.

What God gives and to whom He gives it further manifests His love. God is a gift-giving God, but His supreme love is showing by His supreme gift–His only begotten Son. Elsewhere Scripture says that there is no greater love than a love that willingly lays down its life for a friend. To sacrifice your life for your friends is the “greatest” display of love we can show. Or is it? Jesus took it one step further by giving His life for His enemies.

Although Jesus did lay down His life for His friends. He died for them while they were still sinners in the midst of deserting and denying Him. This act of self-sacrifice was not done alone. Jesus acted in concert with His Father. In fact, it was His Father’s idea. The Father conceived the cup, filled the cup, and gave the cup to the Son to drink. The Son shuddered before the cup and sought to have it removed. The father said no, He would not compromise. The Son then willingly took the cup and drank it to its bitter dregs. Together they made the gift of Jesus’ precious life.

John understood the order, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10). The essence of the gospel is found in the words, “While we were yet sinners,” The love of God reaches out to us while we are alienated from Him. We have no love for Him, and our hearts are stony and cold. We love ourselves and our things. There is no affection in our hearts for God.

The supreme irony is that although God is altogether lovely, as fallen creatures we do not love Him. He is worthy and deserves our love. We owe Him our love, yet we do not love Him. On the other side, we are altogether unlovely by His standards. There is nothing in us to commend us to God, and He certainly does not owe us His love. But the staggering fact remains, He loves us. He loves us to the extent that He gave His only begotten Son for us.

For six nights he had preached on this one text. The seventh night came and he went into the pulpit. Every eye was upon him. He said, “Beloved friends, I have been hunting all day for a new text, but I cannot find anything so good as the old one; so we will go back to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse,” and he preached the seventh chapter from those wonderful words, “God so loved the world.” I remember the end of that sermon: “My friends,” he said, “for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor stammering tongue. If I could borrow Jacob’s ladder and climb up into heaven and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, to tell me how much love the Father has for the world, all he could say would be: ‘God so loveth the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'”

Unable to hold back the tears as Moorhouse preached on the love of God in sending His only Son to die for sinners, Moody confessed:

I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much. This heart of mine began to thaw out; I could not keep back the tears. It was like news from a far country: I just drank it in. So did the crowded congregation. I tell you there is one thing that draws above everything else in the world, and that is love.

As a result of Moorhouse’s influence, Moody began to study the doctrine of love. This changed his life and preaching. He later said:

I took up that word “Love,” and I do not know how many weeks I spent in studying the passages in which it occurs, till at last I could not help loving people! I had been feeding on Love so long that I was anxious to do everybody good I came in contact with.

I got full of it. It ran out my fingers. You take up the subject of love in the Bible! You will get so full of it that all you have got to do is to open your lips, and a flood of the Love of God flows out upon the meeting. There is no use in trying to do church work without love. A doctor, a lawyer, may do good work without love, but God’s work cannot be done without love.

Congregational singing: “Redeemed, Redeemed.”

Introduction of Dr. Allen by Dr. Jerry Vines.

Dr. David Allen:

Quote of John 3:16.

Argument against Limited atonement quoting only Calvinists.

What two things do these men have in common?
(Long list of theologians including Calvin, Bullinger, Ursinus, Bunyan, Edwards, Hodge, Strong.)
A: They are all Calvinists, and they all rejected Limited atonement.

2 Corinthians 5:19, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”
5-point Calvinists define “world” as the “elect.”

Extent of the atonement, two possibilities:
1. Jesus died for all humanity:
a. Arminians- He died for all equally.
b. 4-point Calvinists- He died for all, but especially the elect.
2. Jesus died for the elect.

Jesus died efficiently for all, but sufficiently for the elect. In the high Calvinist position, Jesus’ death is sufficient only for the elect.

Several theologians were named who signed either the Canons of Dort or the Westminster Confession, yet rejected Limited atonement.

“The dirty little secret that you’re not often told” about Dort is that the language was left ambiguous to allow both high Calvinists and those who rejected “strict particularism” to all sign the document.

Calvinists were repeatedly enjoined to read primary sources rather than only popular authors like John Piper and John MacArthur.

The first person ever to hold to limited atonement was a 9th century monk named Gottschalk. Gottschalk was condemned by three French councils.

Luther rejected Limited atonement, as seen in his comments on 1 John 2:2 and numerous other comments.

Numerous quotes from John Calvin were offered (such as his comments on Romans 5:18 and John 3:16) to demonstrate that he did not hold to Limited atonement.

Ursinus, “Christ satisfied for all…” but not in respect to its application.

The controversy in the second and third generation was over the introduction of Limited atonement into Calvinism.

With the introduction of Limited atonement into Calvinism leads to hyper-Calvinism.

The early English reformers all held to unlimited atonement.

Quotes from at least two Westminster divines were given to argue that many at Westminster did not hold to Limited atonement. The argument centered on whether these divines interpreted “world” in John 3:16 to refer to the world of the elect.

Richard Baxter, well-known for rejecting Limited atonement, was quoted.

Jonathan Edwards quote to the effect that Christ in some sense died for the whole world, though there is a particularity to his death that effects only the elect.

The three categories of Arminianism, Amyraldianism, and Calvinism are historically not enough. Additional categories allow for definitions of Calvinism such as hypothetical universalism and four-point Calvinism. [Dr. Allen asserts that these categories are different than Amyraldianism, but I could not understand his explanation of the difference he asserted.]

3 sets of texts that affirm unlimited atonement:
1. “All” texts
2. “World” texts
3. “Many” texts

Other texts speak of Christ dying for His sheep or for His church, but these texts do not say that He died only for these groups.

Owen argued that God hates the non-elect (a quote from Owen was cited), but the Bible says that God loves the world and never says that God hates the world.

Any teaching that says one or all of these things:
1. God does not love everyone
2. God does not want to save everyone
3. Jesus did not die for everyone
is unbiblical and should be rejected.

Quote from [Reformed Baptist] Sam Waldron: The free offer of the gospel does not require us to tell people Christ died for you.

But the above is contradicted by passages such as 1 Corinthians 15:3, in which Paul related what he said to the Corinthians as he proclaimed the gospel to them, including, “Christ died for you,” and in Jesus’ statement of the cup at the Last Supper, “This is my blood,” was given while Judas was at the table.

There is no statement in Scripture that Jesus died only for the elect

Why this is important:
1. Limited atonement undermines God’s salvific will
(Dr. Allen asserted that Dr. James White is a hyper-Calvinist according to Phil Johnson’s primer on hyper-Calvinism, as Dr. White says that God does not have any desire to save the non-elect.)
2. Limited atonement undermines evangelistic zeal
(Mark Dever in is otherwise great book on personal evangelism leaves out two important motives for evangelism- that Christ died for all men and that God desires all men to be saved.)
3. Limited atonement means that we could not say to a sinner that Christ died for you.
4. Limited atonement means that the preacher must speak to his congregation as if they can be saved, when he knows that some cannot
5. Limited atonement means that we will not give evangelistic invitations. Dr. Allen asserted that a professor [left unnamed] from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said at a recent conference that we should not give an evangelistic invitation.

Conclusion: “Should the Southern Baptist Convention move toward 5-point Calvinism, such a move would be away from, and not toward, the gospel.” This was met with a standing ovation.

Dr. Allen directed hearers to BaptistTheology.org where there is apparently a paper pointing out the logical and exegetical fallacies of Owen’s “double-payment argument.”

Three pages of handouts were given, defining terms used in the presentation such as Arminianism and Amyraldianism. Dr. Allen strove for accuracy in these definitions, footnoting each definition, using Calvinistic sources to define terms to do with Calvinism.

A peculiarity in his definitions is that Dr. Allen restricts the meaning of Limited atonement to the teaching that Christ’s death in no way benefits the non-elect. This is how he can claim so many of the Reformed teachers mentioned before did not hold to Limited atonement.

After the sermon, Dr. Vines advertised several resources, including his “Baptist Battles” series of DVDs, which includes, “Calvinism: A Baptist and His Election.”

Dr. Vines introduced by Johnny Hunt.

Dr. Vines has previously preached John 3:16 on August 26 of this year in a chapel service of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS). That previous sermon can be heard HERE.

Having listened to Dr. Vines’ sermon from the SBTS chapel, I note that the introduction to this sermon was substantially the same as that earlier sermon; however, there was an added section on various errors refuted by John 3:16, including the following controversial statement:

“‘Whosoever’ answers five-point Calvinism, which says that Christ died only for the elect.”

The main points of the sermon were identical to the main points of Dr. Vines’ sermon in the SBTS chapel service. I summarize Dr. Vines’ propositions under each of these points as best as I can while he is speaking:

1. God’s love is global and that it extends to all people.
-Dr. Vines gave information on the distinction between different Greek words for “love.”
-The origin of this love is literally, “the God.”
-The verb “love” is in the aorist tense, speaking of this love in its totality.
-The Greek adverb translated “so” speaks to the intensity of God’s love.
-“World” from Greek “kosmos” in John refers to the ordered universe, the world system, or the human beings living in creation- “for God so loved the whole of humanity.” Some extreme Calvinists understand this to refer to “the world of the elect.” [This was, I believe, not said at the SBTS chapel.] But this rather speaks to a global love- a love for the church- which the Apostle Paul describes as a love “for me.”
-“There’s not a little boy or little girl on the face of the earth” who cannot say ‘God loves me.’
-We are living in a fallen world (ref. Jeremiah 17:9). God’s love is not based upon the object loved.
-Like a mother’s heart in which the love expands to love each of her children, God’s love extends to every person.
-Why personal evangelism, missions, etc.? “For God so loved the world.”

2. God’s love is sacrificial in that He gave His Son to die for us.
-There is an emotional aspect to love, but love is primarily a decision.
-“Love is a noun,” but it is also a verb.
-Love is a decision, and the love of God is a decision.
-It is the nature of love to give.
-The aorist verb “gave” speaks of the entirety of God giving His Son in the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.
-God gave his Son “definitely” and “uniquely.”
-Dr. Vines got appropriately excited about the idea of God giving His Son, and began to pontificate- in a good way- on the details of the gospel story: Jesus’ Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, alluding to several other texts.

3. God’s love is personal and that Christ died for you.
-“Whosoever” is from the Greek word “pas,” which carries the idea of totality. (Ref. 2 Timothy 3:16, which speaks of the totality of Scripture.)
-Some say that “all those believing” is what is in view, but this would be redundant, as “believing” would be sufficient. Quote from Dr. Allen that the “pas” generalizes this phrase to extend beyond those believing to every individual.
-Ref. Romans 3:22-23 and Romans 10:12-14 to prove that “pas” refers to every individual.
-“Whosoever will may be saved.”
-In the first part of the verse God is the subject; in the phrase “whosoever believes” we become the subject.
-We have to recognize that you do not start with your systematic theology and work backward, you start with exegesis and work forward.
-The God in this Bible won’t fit in anybody’s box: if I preach from one part of the Scripture people will say, “Vines is a Calvinist!” if I preach from another part of the Scripture people will say, “Vines is an Arminian!”
-“How does this saving faith come about?” … “Is it not true that all of us have a faculty of faith?” (Ex.- faith that food is not poisoned, that a pilot is capable of navigating a plane, etc.) “Could it be that saving faith is a faith that is lifted to a higher level? How is that faith lifted?” Ref. Romans 10:17- through the preaching of the Word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Ref. 2 Thessalonians 2:13, which shows both the divine side and the human side (in “believing” unto salvation).
-The word “for,” translated from the Greek “gar” connects this to previous verses in which it is said that those who look on the serpent live; the look comes first, then the life. In John 3:16 the believing comes first, then the eternal life.

[The following is, I believe, an added point to this sermon from when he preached it at SBTS.]
4. God’s love is eternal
-“Do you believe that there’s a hell? I do.”
-Dr. Vines spoke on the terrible reality of hell, and then the promise of heaven, making the point that heaven is primarily a Person: “He who has the Son has life.”

-Andrew Lindsey

I registered for the John 3:16 Conference at First Baptist Church Woodstock, GA (FBCW) about 45 minutes ago and have been looking for an Internet connection since then. I do not know if I will have connectivity from the Conference floor; if not, I will not be live-blogging, but will post summaries as soon as I am able to reach a hot spot near the Church.

The schedule for the Conference is on the Internet HERE.

I was curious as to what vendors would be at this Conference. The tables in the vendors’ hall were mostly for sponsors of the Conference listed at the bottom of THIS PAGE.
A few other Baptist colleges also had tables; I am fairly certain I saw a table for Clear Creek Baptist Bible College in Kentucky, which recently hosted a conference on “Meeting the Calvinist Challenge.” There was also at least one personal evangelism training course, the name of which I did not recognize, which had a table.

What’s a conference without books?
Five books were given out at registration:

1. Holman Christian Standard Bible New Testament with Share Jesus Without Fear evangelism notes from William Fay. (I have used the Share Jesus Without Fear method of evangelism in the past and have found aspects of this to be very helpful.)
2. Bill Wallace of China by Jesse C. Fletcher.
3. Holman Quicksource Guide to Christian Apologetics by Doug Powell.
4. Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts by Thom S. Rainer and Sam S. Rainer III.
5. The Corinthian Confusion: A Study in 1 Corinthians by Dr. Jerry Vines.

A CD of a sermon from FBCW Pastor Johnny Hunt was also given: “A Wineskin in Smoke” from Ps. 119:81-88.
Finally, Conference-goers received a booklet advertising the Jerry Vines By The Book Sunday School Curriculum.

I have no idea how any of these resources directly relate to the subject of the Conference.

-Andrew Lindsey

While I had at first intended to attend the conference, I eventually accepted a conflicting invitation to visit the Dominican Republic with Compassion International. However, Andrew Lindsey was kind enough to volunteer his services as a liveblogger. For the next two days, he will bring live summaries of the conference. You’ll be able to read them right here at the blog. Stay tuned beginning this evening!

This marks the third interview I’ve completed with artists involved in various disciplines. I first interviewed Max McLean about performance art and then Makoto Fujimura on his abstract art. Today I turn to photography and interview Lukas VanDyke, a photographer I have met at several conferences. Lukas is an exceptional photographer and I enjoyed his responses to these questions. I hope you do too!

Tell me a little bit about yourself—who you are and what you do.

Who I am? I tend to be very introspective and have piles of journals to prove it. So I will keep this short. I’m a Christian, and want to live a life to glorify God. There are two general questions I often ask myself. First, what am I known for right now as I live. And secondly, what will be I remembered for when I die. And for both questions I want the answer to be that I am living/lived my life with the kingdom of heaven in mind. To God be the glory.

Practically I am 26 year old guy who lives in Los Angeles and loves everything about his life. I love living in LA, I love my church, I love my friends, and I love my work. I started out in the Midwest when I was little, but ended up in Los Angeles in 2nd grade. I have been at John MacArthur’s church since then and can’t express my debt to the teachers there for the clear exposition of the scripture and its application on my life. The fellowship, love, and God centered focus of the body of believers I am part of makes me long to spend eternity with them doing what we do every week only free of our imperfections.

Vocation wise I actually do a number of different things. I am currently the Senior Network Analyst at The Master’s College. I’ve worked there consistently for the past 7+ years. However, ever since I opened my photo studio I have cut back my time there to give me the chance to shoot more. I love the impact I am able to have at the college and it is definitely a ministry which is worth ones time, but I also have a passion for photography. When I am fully engaged in a shoot the whole world around me disappears and it almost feels like magic. I guess it’s the thrill and passion of creating art. I love the experience. Which would lead one to ask what I shoot? Mostly I do fine art wedding coverage and couples portrait sessions. But I also do enjoy the abstractness of doing the cover art for various bands and other musicians. It’s a charge listening to the music and attempting to create images which define the music without sound. I also do some family portraits and free prayer cards for any missionaries who ask me. And within the major categories of what I do one of my favorites in conference coverage. I cover the Shepherd’s Conference at Grace Community Church every year, I also cover the Resolved Conference, and have done coverage at Steve Lawson’s church. And recently I got asked to start doing coverage for Ligonier Ministries and have emails to potentially do a few others. I love the conferences because I love meeting new people, and being able to help in any way with the impact these conferences have on the world.

Tell me how you came to be a Christian.

When I was five my Dad explained that if I were to die I would go to hell, and then explained a basic gospel. I repented and prayed a prayer to God. After that point all through my childhood I remember seeing consistent fruit in my life. I think I probably became a Christian at the point. However, I did still have a lot of doubt all through grade school and junior high. I prayed the prayer of salvation almost every night. I think this was probably because although I had an understanding of the tenants of gospel I couldn’t clearly articulate it with scripture. It wasn’t until I got into a small discipleship group when I was in junior high that I became surer of my faith. In small group we systematically went through some different core truths. We discussed God and who He is, memorizing verses such as Gen 1:1: and Acts 17:24-27 showing God is the creator of the universe. We talked about man and his sins and memorized Rom 3:23, 6:23 and other such scripture related to our total depravity and inability to come to God. We dived into Christ’s death and redeeming work on the cross in John 3:16 etc… And finally we talked about how man through nothing in himself can accept this gift and memorized Eph 2:8-9. We also practiced role play situations and learned how to clearly articulate this to others. It was a wonderful experiencing bringing me to a more scriptural based understanding of my sanctification. I also learned the 5 points of Calvinism and their scriptural basis in junior high. This clear teaching at an early age built a foundation for the growth and struggle for sanctification I have seen since then.

How is photography a form of art?

Photography is an art in one sense of the word in that it requires skills on a multiplicity of levels. The creation of fine art images requires technical speed and skill with the camera. It assumes understanding of the complexity of color and light and how to use and bend such to make an image bleed with color. It necessitates an ability to understand and capture or evoke emotion from the subject or situation. This is followed by the process of fine-tuning the hues, saturation, and overall feel in post processing. All of which is just a brief synopsis of the complex mental and emotional process which goes into the creation of images. In the above definition of the word “art” my aim is to create images which, I hope, will take on an objective quality of excellence.

But overlying the technical aspects of image creation my internal validation stems from a different goal. I think the following really defines photography or anything else as art. I strive to create images which bring people into a realm which they have not yet or currently are not experiencing. I want to introduce them to a reality outside the mundane, bending their emotions, and driving them to an action which otherwise may have never caressed their mind. My passion draws the fibers of my inner being to produce, create, and define people’s conception of reality with the truth of things which exist outside the mundane of their world. In the case of fine art portraiture this might be as simple as conveying expressions of love or joy between couples in a beautiful way. However, in the case of international photos essays I bleed to show people the existence of the church, and people’s lives around the world. A life exists within the people I photograph. A life behind their eyes. Yearning hearts exist beyond the stereotype we throw at one another. Though the appearance of a person I photograph often shows their personal manifesto towards life, it isn’t always fair to classify every individual within that social group as one holding to those ideals. Are they not still people? I want to bring the world beyond their conception of the ordinary into the unseen and unheard and unspoken of.

Is photography your only artistic outlet or do you enjoy creating other kinds of art as well?

Although I would consider myself weak in the area, I do enjoy writing. For the same reason as I love photography, I love creating visual pictures that move people to see the pleasure I find in so many things.

When did you first discover your abilities in photography and your love for it? Have you received any formal artistic education?

During high school and in my first year of college I had tinkered with a point and shoot camera and I guess someone liked my work and asked me to shoot their wedding. All of a sudden something snapped in me and I decided to go all out. It’s actually a lot of really amazing stories which would take to long to write here. But in the course of a few months I started working for another wedding photographer and ended up with a good set of professional equipment and was shooting like crazy. I took a few basic classes to learn how to shoot manual, use studio lighting, and some journalism related classes, but for the most part it’s just been thousands of hours of work. Looking at other images and absorbing the feel and what I like about them. Doing intense criticism on every aspect of my own work looking for any area I could improve, and adjusting pushing myself and learning. I shoot around 200,000 images a year right now. I love it!

How do you seek to bring glory to God through your art?

Well I think anyone from custodial to the corporate executive can bring glory to God through their work. It’s working with fervor, with excellence, with diligence, with a love for those around us which shines the light of Christ. But aside from the above I specifically seek to bring glory to God through art by building bridges from the mundane to the passionate. God has given each person an allotted amount of time in life. We all have the choice as to how we use this time. I strive to show images which make people want to act. It’s actually been really amazing over the last few months, I have been see how emotional God has created us, and really starting to understand more the joy, sorrow, and passion we can live our lives with. God has given us an amazing world.

Which of your photos or series of photos are your favorites? Why?

A few years ago I went to Berlin, Germany for a couple months to do some work with our missionaries over there. While I was there I started a project photographing extremely close face shots of the beggars all around the urban center of Berlin. A year later I did a second series of beggars in the heart of Mexico City, Mexico. I took all these images with a wide angle lens from within 18 inches of my subjects face. These are by far some of my favorite images. They are context free portraits of people’s eyes. All of these eyes have a story behind them which I don’t know now nor will ever know. They are representative of lives filled with love or hatred, dreams or despair, hope or misery. Each has a story, each has a reality, and each has a need for a savior. I currently have an entire wall in my office filled with 16×20 inch prints of this series. But I love any image which has emotional passions, from images of prayer meetings in the mud brick slums of Brazil, to a crowd of anxious Russian seminary students leaning over Rick Holland to hear about the Word.

• Faces of Need
• Wedding Photographs
• Portraits
• Other

What are your hopes and dreams for your photography? Do you hope to build this into a full time occupation?

My hope would be to use something I love to further the Gospel of Christ. Right now this is a two part goal. One I want to be able to impact people for ministry through visual images. Second I like it because it gives me the flexibility to volunteer my time for missions for months at a time when the need arises. And obviously those things don’t generate any income, but I LOVE shooting weddings, and portraiture, and commercial images also. So for now it is just expanding what I do in every direction!