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Biblical Truth

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23
Jul 09

Does What I Watch On T.V. Really Matter?

The television, I believe, will go down in history as the single most distracting and harmful modern invention for Christians. For all the talk about using it for the gospel and for good, we must admit that many if not most of us use it for any reason but good. I speak from experience. As a Christian of nearly 21 years, I am ashamed to admit to the things I have seen and the time wasted on television. I have liked action (read: violent) and horror movies since my college years. Friday the 13th, Halloween and zombie flicks are just a few of my favorites.

But it’s just entertainment, right?? Wrong. I told myself that for years. These movies and the majority of others expose the believer to worldviews and lifestyles that are forbidden and condemned in Scripture. In your average R-rated horror movie, you will see violence (usually extreme), explicit sex, an inordinate amount of profanity, and a worldview that is void of regard for God or His creation. But wait, you see this things (in some degree or another) on T.V. too! The Bible is very specific regarding these things:

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (Ephesians 4:29)

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. (Ephesians 5:4)

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. (Colossians 3:8)

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence…And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6:11,13)

The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. (Psalm 11:5)

Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways… (Proverbs 3:31)

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery…(Mark 7:21)

…abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. (Acts 15:29)

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. (Romans 13:13)

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— (1st Corinthians 5:9)

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality… Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.(1st Corinthians 6:9,18)

The list could go on and on. God hates the lifestyles depicted in most movies and television shows. Think shows that do not have this stuff in them are ok? Ask yourself what worldview is being presented. Are the people following the pattern of the world or are they trying to live by God’s principles in Scripture? The best example I can conceive of is John & Kate Plus 8 contrasted with the Dugger family. The former, living for themselves, the latter living for Christ and raising their children to do the same.

Some movies/shows are not necessarily compromising but still should be watched carefully. Commercials are ridiculous. Male enlargement, Viagra, fast food commercials using sexual innuendo and the like are all the product of a society obsessed with sex. When the commercials come on at my house, the mute or previous channel button gets pressed. Face it. For $60 a month, there are very very few channels a committed believer can watch.

What comes next then? For me it was getting rid of the junk I had in my movie collection. After coming to terms with the fact that as a disciple of Jesus Christ I had to clean up my entertainment habits, I made the decision and commitment to get rid of the movies that compromised my faith. I can’t say that watching violent movies made me want to kill or be violent, but they sure gave me a worldly mindset and I began to hate it. I can say that my heart and life is better off now. I have a renewed zeal for Scripture and a fierce hatred of the worldliness that once entangled me. Life is too short to spend filling our hearts with junk unfit for the kingdom of God.

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10
Jun 09

A Good Teaching Time

On our way home from Wendy’s this afternoon, we (myself, Abby and Caroline) were listening to the local Christian radio station when the song “I Am A Friend of God” came on. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this song and the lyrics sufficiently reflect Biblical theology. However, this was the version performed by Philips, Craig & Dean — the popular contemporary Christian trio that has maintained a dominant place in Christian music for over a decade.

So, by now you’re thinking, “what’s the big deal?” right?? Here’s the problem, PCD are blatantly oneness. If you are reading this and do not know what the term “oneness” means, read this (it is a long read, but well worth it). In short, “oneness” reflects a denial of the historically orthodox doctrine of the Trinity as revealed in Scripture. Oneness theology is ancient modalism in the 21st century — meaning that God is not most definitely 3 in 1 and 1 in 3, but that He “appears” in the forms of Father, Son and Holy Spirit at various times. It is an ancient heresy that has plagued the church since the third century and has repeatedly been debunked.

Anyway, so PCD are “oneness pentecostals” which I define as an erroneous and heretical group. The Trinity is a core doctrine of the historic Christian faith and one cannot deny or distort it and still remain within Biblical Christianity. When I recognized that PCD was performing this song, I turned the station and Abby said, “Hey, I like that song. What’s wrong with it?” I explained to her that nothing was wrong with the song, but plenty was wrong with the singers. I told her that they deny the Trinity and she said “Well they’re just falsies!” What she meant of course was that they were “false teachers” as she has heard me use that phrase on numerous occasions.

I went on to explain to her why it is important to draw the line at certain points. There are many things that Christians can disagree on, but the Trinity is not one of them. I recently had a friend post on his Facebook “doctrine divides, but purpose unites.” To that I would respond, some doctrines are worth dividing over, and this is most certainly one of them. For a more thorough examination of PCD and their erroneous beliefs, read this.

On to the other issue of how has PCD remained so mainstream within Christian music yet hold to heretical beliefs (not only denial of the Trinity, but also that speaking in tongues is necessary for salvation). Do they sound so good that we are willing to throw down the Biblical standard of doctrinal purity just to hear them sing?? That is a question we should give some very serious thought.

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8
Jun 09

The Preaching of the Gospel: God’s Delivery Room

I have two children (8, 20 months) and I was blessed to be in the delivery room during both of their births. The event is indescribable and to truly understand it one has to experience it. There is an excitement, an electricity in the room in anticipation of what is about to happen — we will witness the entrance of a new life on planet Earth. Sometimes the experience is scary and almost violent, sometimes it is smooth and quick as in my youngest daughter’s case. (Of course, I can only speak to the experience as a man sees it, not the mother). Birth is in and of itself a special miracle. One minute, there are 3 of us in the family, the next minute, there are 4. A new life emerges from the depths of a mother’s womb and we see someone we did not see just minutes or seconds before.

The preaching of the gospel affords us as believers an opportunity to witness the greatest miracle ever to take place — the new birth. God’s delivery room may be the church sanctuary on Sunday morning, the inside of a car while listening to an audio sermon, the living room floor while reading a book, etc. Regardless of the place, wherever the preaching of the gospel is present, there is an excitement in the air causing us as believers to wonder, “who is God going to save today?”

Peter says:

23 since you have been born again, e not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through f the living and abiding word of God; 24 for

g “All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 h but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word i is the good news that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23-25, ESV)

The new birth comes through the word of God. It alone has the power to open blinded eyes and darkened hearts. This is not the same as the “talks” that are taking place in many churches on Sunday morning. This is not the 17 minute “talk” that is immediately practical, but never eternally helpful. This “word of God” is the preaching of the gospel — it is the heart of Christianity. It is “good news” because it makes it possible for lost mankind under holy wrath to be reconciled to God through the substitutionary death of His Son, His treasure, Jesus Christ.

Paul says in Romans:

13 For t “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him u of whom they have never heard? [3] And how are they to hear v without someone preaching? (Romans 10:13-14, ESV)

There is no greater experience as a Christian than to be in a service where the gospel is being preached and looking around thinking, “wow, God is going to save someone today. Today, a new name will be written down in glory.”

May we all become “preachers” of the gospel and take “God’s delivery room” with us everywhere we go!

“Like Waking Up From The Longest Dream…”

I’ve recently been reading Finally Alive by John Piper on the subject of the new birth. It is a great book and begins with the story of C.S. Lewis’ conversion/regeneration/new birth. Lewis states:

I know very well when, but hardly how, the final step was taken. It was more like when a man, after long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.

That description of the born again experience has stuck with me that past couple days and I recalled to mind an old Keith Green song that similarly bears the same truth. The following excerpt from Green’s “Your Love Broke Through” says basically the same thing Lewis said of his conversion experience:

Like a foolish dreamer, trying to build a highway to the sky
All my hopes would come tumbling down, and I never knew just why
Until today, when you pulled away the clouds that hung like curtains on my eyes
Well I’ve been blind all these wasted years and I though I was so wise
But then you took me by surprise

Like waking up from the longest dream, how real it seemed
Until your love broke through
I’ve been lost in a fantasy, that blinded me until your love broke through

In thinking about how waking up from a long sleep reflects the new birth experience, I have attempted to draw from my own “sleeping” experience. When asleep, I am not conscious of my body, soul, mind, even my very existence. I lie there in bed dead to all awareness or conciousness until the moment I wake. After waking I am fully aware of my existence and begin to “live” again.

The deadness of the unregenerate heart causes it to be unaware that it is spiritually dead. Ephesians 2 says that we were dead in trespasses and sins. Titus 3 says that we were saved when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared. We are dead in sins until God appears and wakes us up through regeneration, or the new birth. I do not want to diminish our dead and desperate condition before God by using the phrase “wakes us up.” We are dead in sin. The rigamortis has set in. We cannot nor will not make any move toward God and repentance until the Holy Spirit regenerates our dead hearts and breathes spiritual life into us. At that point, the conversion experience is like a new birth, like waking up from the longest sleep.

When I sleep, I have no awareness of time (indeed, by body’s internal clock works lest I should never wake up), therefore, I could sleep forever and not know it if it were possible. So it is with the spiritually dead — they are unaware that they are spiritually dead and were it not for the grace of God, they would never be aware of their spiritual deadness.

The ultimate point is that salvation/regeneration/the new birth etc. is all the work of God and not man. Soli Deo Gloria.

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17
Mar 09

God Spoke To Me…

Those four words cause me to cringe whenever I hear them — and I hear them often. Think for a moment about what those words are really saying. They say that God said to me what I’m about to say to you, and as such, they carry the same weight as the words He spoke in Scripture. But wait, it’s not the same these people contend. However, it is the same. When God speaks, He speaks — and it is authoritative and final. That is ultimately the problem with “God spoke to me.”

I admit that in ignorance, I have used those words before, and I am ashamed to have taken the name of my All-Sovereign God in vain. God does speak to me — everyday in fact, through His written and canonized word. No worries if it is maybe the pizza, rain outside or my own flesh marring the message, for it is already written and ready for me to read.

John Piper wrote on this issue:

It is a great wonder that God still speaks today through the Bible with greater force and greater glory and greater assurance and greater sweetness and greater hope and greater guidance and greater transforming power and greater Christ-exalting truth than can be heard through any voice in any human soul on the planet from outside the Bible.

The great need of our time is for people to experience the living reality of God by hearing his word personally and transformingly in Scripture. Something is incredibly wrong when the words we hear outside Scripture are more powerful and more affecting to us than the inspired word of God. Let us cry with the psalmist, “Incline my heart to your word” (Psalm 119:36). “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). Grant that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to know our hope and our inheritance and the love of Christ that passes knowledge and be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 1:18; 3:19).

I only wish I could get this message across to my brethren who sincerely believe that God is still “speaking” to them. He has already said everything He needs to say to us. To assume anything more is needed or given is bordering on unorthodoxy.

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16
Mar 09

Dialogue Between A Cessationist and A Continuationist

This is the first in a series of posts based on many email messages between my Pastor (a cessationist) and myself (a continuationist) concerning spiritual gifts, the historic context of their place in the NT and their place in a 21st century church.

I have reduced the content of the emails to just the questions and answers we posed each other. Comments in Blue are his original questions to me. Comments in black are my responses. Comments in Red are his follow up questions.

__________________________________

Do you believe the Holy Spirit still imparts the gift of healings through individuals to this day and it was not just a 1st century gift confirming the gospel message prior to canonization?

– To answer this question honestly and accurately, it would be necessary to know what the 1st century gift of healing looked like and how it operated. The Apostles were agents of instantaneous and verifiable healings. If that is what the NT gift of healing looked like and what Paul is talking about in 1 Cor. 12, then it would seem that it is no longer in operation. However, I do not necessarily believe that the purpose of the healing gift was confirmation of the gospel until the completion of the canon. It falls within the list that Paul cites as for the service and edification of the body of Christ. As the body of Christ is still in existence, then it stands to reason that these gifts, including healings, would continue to serve the body (the Church is arguably in greater need of the legitimate operation of the gifts of the Spirit now than when it was young).

Later in 1st Cor. 12 and in Eph. 4, one of the spiritual gifts listed was apostleship, which was for the benefit of the church, yet you don’t believe that gift continues do you?

There are two ways to interpret this verse: 1) it is only referring to the first Apostles (with a capital A) and is no longer a ministry function today; 2) it is referring to the first Apostles and in a broader perspective, the apostles or “commissioned ones” that would come later and throughout church history. My best understanding of the term in this sense is that “apostles” today most closely fits with missionaries or those who make great sacrifice to start new works. The word apostolos cannot really be made to fit only the first Apostles — at least not in my best understanding of the word.

Either way, there are no modern-day Apostles with the same apostolic authority that the original ones had. The Apostles had access to special revelation/inspiration that was unique for the purpose God was using them — to write His message to us. We do not have that today — whether or not some could technically be called “apostles” in the broad sense of the term.

Even so, in the Ephesians passage, if apostleship in the broad sense of the term has ceased, when did we attain the unity of the faith, knowledge of the Son of God, etc. that this passage indicates these gifts serve to assist? This sounds terribly familiar to Paul’s language of “when that which is perfect/complete has come…” in 1 Corinthians 13. Again, if one sees the “perfect” and “unity of the faith” as the completed canon, then all of these would have ceased early on — including prophets, pastors-teachers and so on, but I do not understand the “perfect” and “unity of the faith” as the completed canon, so I can allow for all of these gifts to continue.

Again, for the sake of clarity, there are no modern-day Apostles with apostolic authority, but as I stated earlier, the use of apostolos can easily apply to missionaries and the such.

__________________________________

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12
Jan 09

Repellent??

After a late Saturday doing pretty much nothing, my family skipped church and slept in this past Sunday morning. As such, we were able to catch some of the church programs on TV and found ourselves (my wife and I that is) watching Southland Christian Church’s program. The Pastor was speaking from Song of Solomon on sex. In bluejeans and an untucked shirt looking more suitable for a sporting event than church, he stood against a video back drop of a screen with the “explicit lyrics” warning found on so many cd covers today. Little did we know that “explicit lyrics” fit his sermon perfectly.

He begins to read from Solomon 1 and quickly begins to get explicit with his explanations and description of the verses he read from Solomon, even at one point encouraging the married couples in the congregation to turn and “lay a big one” on their spouses. Using terms like “make-out” and “great sex” he began to describe what he called a “sex repellent.” He said his wife sometimes wore a hooded sweat shirt that he told her was a natural “sex repellent” because it was so unattractive to him. While I share his disdain for sweat clothes of any kind, it is what my wife said next that struck me as one of the most profound things I’ve heard in a while.

This pastor had been sharing how clothing can effect our relationships and more specifically, the sex lives of married couples. No wife is attracted to a sloppy looking husband, and no husband is attracted to a careless looking wife. After hearing him talk about how wives/husbands need to consider their spouses when they dress so they can look good for each other, my wife said “what if his clothes are a repellent to God?” A light came on in my head and my truth meter shot off the charts.

The guy had been so focused on the explicit nature of the Song of Solomon, that he failed to acknowledge the imagery it provided was also and equally descriptive of the relationship between Christ and the Church. As such, if the application of “looking good” was to remain, then it stands to reason that his sloppy casual dress was repelling to a holy God worthy of our very best.

Before you slap the “God looks at the heart” argument on me, please remember that our outward actions and appearance are a reflection of the inward condition of our hearts. Would this Pastor dress in worn jeans and an untucked shirt to meet a dignitary such as the Governor or President?? Of course not. How then can the sovereign God of the universe be worthy of any less??

I (and most men working in professional environments) can’t even come to work in clothes like that. Southland’s Pastor made the point that when a women dresses in unattractive clothes, she is telling her husband that she does not value him. If we carry this over to the Christ/Church application of the Song of Solomon, what does that say about his and the rest of his staff’s Sunday morning dress?

So instead of worrying about his wife’s hooded “sex repelling” sweatshirt, he probably should worry about his own “God-repelling” dress when corporately coming together to worship God. His entire “sermon” was based on the explicit nature of Solomon and failed to deliver any real God-honoring principles. I wholly agree that God has plenty to say about the sex lives of married believers and has a blessing for those who pursue His glory in all things, but this guy was entirely too explicit for Sunday worship and the majority of what he said belonged in a couples’ marriage conference or better yet, a sex therapy session.

Legalistic?? No, just true.

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26
Sep 08

Fleshing out the “Christ-walk”

As Christians, we know that we are to strive to show Christ in our daily lives. Yet, how many of us go about our lives, neglecting to “walk the talk?” I do. I don’t do it intentionally, but I do it. The way I sometimes treat people, the way I shape my priorities — all of it.

How many times have a I had an opportunity to walk the “Christ-walk” but didn’t? Almost daily. I can’t personally be Jesus, but I can make it a priority to reflect His nature, at which sometimes I fail miserably. Even then, I find myself focusing on the “other Christians” than myself and improving my own walk. That is the ultimate trap that Jesus warned us about in Matthew 7:5 when He told us to first remove the plank from our own eye before worrying about the speck in our brother’s eye.

What a lesson to be learned.

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3
Jul 08

Silence Speaks Consent

This past weekend I was at home in SC taking my 7 year old to spend a week with my mom and was at church with her on Sunday. Her Pastor spoke on Christians not speaking up for the truth in a spiritually and morally decaying society. He mentioned the phrase “silence speaks consent.” It caught my ear and I have been giving it some thought.

His application was within the broader realm of American society, but I think it fits just as well within the church — the visible church that is. Stepping back and taking a look at the overall visible church, I see where the silence of solid, Biblical teaching has spoken consent for whatever doctrine and Christian fad that seems to be “in” at the time. Word faith, kingdom now, seeker-sensitive, emergence, stale liturgy, decisionism and wacky revivalism have practically taken over the visible church.

Even where we can find good solid doctrine, it is often dead and sounds like it is coming from the reader’s digest instead of a living book of Scripture. I for one will speak up and stand up for the truth — all truth, not just a church creed or statement of faith.

My silence has spoken consent for long enough.

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10
Jun 08

The Unanswered Questions

Many have said that when they get to heaven, they want to ask God certain questions. I cannot personally think of anything I want to ask God — at least not at this point in my life. Perhaps I will one day feel the need to ask Him a question in heaven, but for now I am content to leave questions unanswered.

Applying the unanswered questions theme to Calvinism and Arminianism, each theological system has such questions. For Calvinists, the two questions are thus:

Exactly how God can ordain that we do evil willingly, and yet God not be blamed for evil?
Exactly how God can cause us to choose something willingly?

Wayne Grudem says of these two questions,

“To both, Calvinists would say that the answer is somehow to be found in an awareness of God’s infinite greatness, in the knowledge of the fact that he can do far more than we could ever think possible. So the effect of these unanswered questions is to increase our appreciation of the greatness of God.

On the other hand, Arminians must leave unanswered questions regarding God’s knowledge of the future, why he would allow evil when it is against his will, and whether he will certainly triumph over evil. Their failure to resolve these questions tends to diminish the greatness of God–his omniscience, his omnipotence, and the absolute reliability of his promises for the future. And these unanswered questions tend to exalt the greatness of man (his freedom to do what God does not want) and the power of evil (it comes and remains in the universe even though God does not want it). Moreover, by denying that God can make creatures who have real choices that are nevertheless caused by him, the Arminian position diminishes the wisdom and skill of God the Creator. (Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 350-1)

Grudem hits the nail on the head with the essential difference between Calvinism and Arminianism — the emphasis on the greatness of glory of God rather than the greatness of man. Something to think about.

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