The Surprising Children of Spong

     This past week I heard another torturous talk from the venerable Bishop John Shelby Spong. This talk was very much unpleasant, as he is an arrogant grumpy old man full of vitriol for traditional Christian belief, who shores up his views with outdated narrow scholarship combined with tabloid science. And at the end of the talk he defiantly “claims the title” of Christian. Typical of the venerable Bishop John Shelby Spong, you say, so why be annoyed?

     I thought most everyone was tired of hearing his routine.  But then I realized his "gravitas" is giving some credibility to a view that is popular, as he was invited to speak at a recent “Progressive Christianity Conference." His talk is titled “Why Atonement Theology will Kill the Church.” It's not surprising that the venerable Bishop John Shelby Spong denies Christianity the atonement (on a quite spurious basis), but it is increasingly surprising to me that there is no difference, in any substantive way, between many of the venerable Bishop John Shelby Spong's views and the sentiments of say, Reverend Brian McLaren, Reverend Rob Bell, or even, practically, Pastor Joel Osteen.

     In other words, a more sugar-coated delivery of the same ideas makes one popular. These are all crystal clear examples of Christianity without Christ. Or, Christianity with a Jesus more palatable to modern sensitivities and political correctness. The venerable Bishop John Shelby Spong and his more popular co-conspirators in the end want people to be free from the idea that humanity has a sin problem that needs Saviour solution.

     So what does the venerable Bishop John Shelby Spong propose is the real problem? It is a doctrine of “incompleteness” or “imperfection,” of “humanity in need of its potential.” Sin is “not so,” but incompleteness is. Nevermind the semantic games, this is no different than Emergent leaders, no different than Osteen, or the Health & Wealth peddlers. This tired old message is gaining new ground with audiences who have no Biblical context, because it comes with a built-in excuse for ignoring the Bible's basic overall message about salvation through Christ. And yet, somehow, it still wants to be Christian.

     This is no different than the message delivered to Eve, that she really needed to eat of the fruit of the tree to be Godly; that God was, indeed, holding her back from her full potential. 

     I think we all need to be very careful when we listen or read from many of today's popular and progressive teachers.  There is a lot to say for being fresh and creative in applying the Bible to our everyday lives, but God may have a lot to say about being downright eager to re-write the clear overarching message of Scripture.  It is apparent to me that many of these smart people don't want new applications of scripture, but they want different scriptures altogether! 

     The Bible says, “Test the spirits, to see if they are from God.” Be sure you aren't one of those who will throw out both your common sense and the Bible.  And always remember, we need to repent and believe the Gospel, because we must be born again.

"A mist in the pulpit (still) becomes a fog in the pew."

You have to love Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages (Baker, 1980) by my former professor Haddon Robinson.  How could we then imagine the thousands of sermons that would flow from our introductory preaching classes with Haddon and Dr. Scott Gibson?  Those were the days...or rather, these are still the days!  Preaching, with Biblical Theology, is a never-ending life-consuming pursuit.  Today I'm reminded of why the basics are called the basics:

"Explanation proves difficult if the expositor does not know his audience.  The more familiar he is with a subject, the less aware he may be of a congregation's ignorance of it.  The people in the pew live in a different intellectual world from their pastor.  Indeed they support him financially so that he can study what they cannot.  He must not assume that his listeners immediately understand what he is talking about.  He owes them a clear explanation of exactly what he means.  As a guiding rule, a speaker should define every important term in language the audience understands.  Certainly it is better to define too many terms than too few.  Explaining the relationships and implications of ideas, we should know the explanation ourselves so clearly that no vagueness exists in our own minds.  Then we should work through the steps in the explanation so that they come in a logical or psychological order.  A mist in the pulpit becomes a fog in the pew." (p. 141)

There should be no pride in preaching, but a sober and humble effort to both speak from the heart of God and speak to the hearts of people.  Here's to continually clearing out the mist!

Are You on the Sidelines?

“Christians are sitting on the sidelines while the culture rots.”  Baloney.

The culture is rotted, that's true.  But make no mistake: studying God's word, preaching God's word, publishing God's word as much as possible, proclaiming God's word publicly and living it out in our lives as we attempt to be faithful followers of Jesus... is exactly and only what the culture needs. 

In other (Biblical) words, “Repent and believe the Gospel!”

But people think,  "It isn't having an effect, things are just getting so much worse by the second!”

What, however, are we to expect by way of results if we are on mission with Jesus?  Adoring crowds and back-slapping congratulations? No! There is such a thing as the “ministry of death.” Christian ministry produces an “aroma of death” to “those who are perishing” (2 Cor 2:14-7, see also carefully 2 Cor 3-4)!

It should be no surprise that the culture has been rotting since the garden of Eden closed. The world's culture doesn't want to hear God's word of grace, mercy, and salvation. Self-serving cultural moral relativism (and its fascist political correctness) is the quite predictable result of scientific materialism an all its incarnations.This includes, by the way, those “ministries” that actively campaign against traditional Biblical Christianity in the name of “embracing” the culture (thereby becoming part of the culture and leaving the rule and reign of God). Christians who attempt to embrace the flatulent winds and grasp the festering waters of our culture in the vain effort to be accepted are finding this only hardens people's hearts against the gospel, which is (all by itself!) “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

The salt of the earth is also the light of the world. People are welcome to congratulate themselves all they want, but the salt may become tasteless and the light may be extinguished one day when the time of God's patience is exhausted (2 Thess 2:6-12)! Take heart, don't panic, the party is already over.  Most of what we hear about is being exaggerated by a tiny minority of Minitrue wannabes anyway.

In the meantime, the Great Commission is still as true as ever, and we are called, imperfect though we be, to proclaim the truth about the forgiveness that God offers.  God is merciful, full of grace, and willing to forgive and transform whoever is willing to come to Him by faith. That is the truth.

So though the world may seem to be nuts, remember that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm" (Ephesians 6:12-13).

Christians aren't on the sidelines, the world is playing the wrong game.

For another similar perspective that I just found after writing this:

http://thefederalist.com/2015/06/15/christians-need-to-stop-playing-the-self-flagellation-game/

It's Simply Apocalyptic: False Teaching is Very Popular

All these years later and things are still the same.  The only difference is the labels on the "camps" have changed.  I confidently maintain that the local church is the outpost of the Kingdom of God, and likely the mini-kingdoms of man-centered, world-loving religion are not.  They are popular, but free beer also draws a crowd. Why do we buy their books, tapes, and seminars and rallies?

Who, exactly, are YOU listening to?  What message do they bring to you?

2 Peter 2:1-3  But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.  Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

Copyright © 2015 HarperCollins Christian Publishing

It's Going To Be An Issue

I don't often just re-post items, but this is a good analysis, done quickly after the oral arguments last week. I hope the trend is reversed in days to come. What does the Bible say that we can expect? Don't play along...

Article: "It is Going To Be and Issue" by Albert Mohler

Will Gay Marriage "shut down" the churches in years to come? 

Jesus Pays His Taxes?

"Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said.  And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.  Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?" But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, "Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax." And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's." And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away."