On Getting Back What We Lost

The Biblical pattern of Receiving, then Losing, then Receiving Again the Word of God, and how this ought to inspire our prayers for Revival and Reformation.

Surprised at the Reformed Resurgence?

If you do not know by now, the doctrines of grace (a.k.a Calvinism), is on a resurgence among young evangelicals. Many may be surprised that the theology that many great men of faith professed, the greatest reformers, puritans, and evangelists, and the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention professed, is having an appeal to young minds everywhere. Are you surprised? Well you shouldn't be. I have met many young Calvinists and the stories are the same. They knew something was missing. They knew what they had was not enough. They looked around in churches, and in their culture, and neither was giving them the answers they were seeking. So they turned to the scriptures, and to their surprise they discover that God, not man, is Sovereign. They discover that it is God who decides enters his courts. They realize that God has chosen a people for himself before the foundation of the world. It is at this point the young evangelicals begin to ask questions. They have all kinds of questions. They may talk to their pastor, but they begin researching, and begin to find out that the great men of faith held to these doctrines. These men, who believed the doctrines of grace, were the most faithful preachers of the gospel, and most passionate soul winners. Observing their Christianity, and their exposition of the scriptures, and seeing the pragmatic, postmodern, pathetic fluff that poses itself as Christianity today, it is no wonder why young minds are falling in love with these theological truths. It is substance. It is a truth that exalts God and humbles man. It is a truth that drives and motivates their evangelism when understood correctly. Don't be surprised by the reformed resurgence, but rather, be prepared for it. Many in your church may be Calvinists, many in your neighborhood may be Calvinists, you might even have Calvinists in your family. The resurgence is coming. Calvinism is making a comeback. Calvinism is having its struggles right now, especially in the SBC, but in ten to twenty years, the SBC will be predominately reformed. Just wait. The resurgence is coming!!

I recommend two books to you:

By His Grace and For His Glory by Tom Nettles. This book is a book that records the history of the doctrines of grace in Baptist Life.











Young, Restless, and Reformed by Collin Hansen. This book is a book about the reformed resurgence. Collin interviews pastors, students, and others across the nation who are embracing the doctrines of grace and this book is a great treatment of the rise of reformed theology among the young minds in today's church.

*With these two books, you can see where we came from, and where we are returning.

Distributing the Hooch!

It's funny how stuff works out sometimes...

Until a few weeks ago, I really didn't overtly (or covertly) push my theological opinions on anyone. I mainly discussed "the Doctrines" with other Calvinists, on my blogs, and with my immediate family.

By God's providence all that has changed in the past few weeks! After much grief and the loss of my position at church, I've now been afforded the opportunity to openly discuss the Doctrines with people I never would've thought possible before! People are now curious. They have questions. And I want to help them find the answers!

Yesterday I launched a small campaign to get the Amazing Grace DVD into the hands of anyone from church who is interested in finding out more about what we Calvinists believe! Prior to this unpleasant turn of events, I would've never even thought of attempting such a thing. The fact is, through the unpleasantness of recent days, we now have people seriously studying their Bibles and interested in learning more about the Doctrines of Grace.

What at first looked to be the tragic "end" of my ministry, I am now growing more and more optimistic that it could be my greatest opportunity yet. I now have the chance to inspire people to think deeply about theological issues they've probably never considered before.

I covet your prayers as I openly and unashamedly distribute our "prohibition hooch" to all who seek to know the truth about what we believe!

Post Tenebras, Lux!

Evangelists Lament Reformed Resurgence

I just visited the Founders Blog and there's an interesting post about a Baptist Press article that covers a recent meeting of Baptist evangelists who are concerned with "the growth of Calvinism and the rise of a Willow Creek-style of non-confrontational evangelism within Southern Baptist churches." I'm going to pitch in my 2 cents here, but please check out the BP article and Ascol's comments on the Founders Blog.

There's one thing in particular that I want to highlight from the BP article:

Evangelist Jerry Drace is quoted as saying that some young Calvinistic pastors are "so leaning in this morphed Calvinism that they almost laugh at evangelism. It's almost to the extent that they believe they don't have to do it. So [Calvinism] gives them an excuse not to do evangelism."

Almost laugh at evangelism? Come on brother Drace! You must be kidding...

I hear a great deal of talk about these mysterious Calvinists who are anti-evangelism, but finding one is about as easy as spotting the Loch Ness Monster. I have yet to meet an SBC Calvinist with that attitude. I'd like to suggest that perhaps these young Calvinist pastors aren't "almost laughing" at evangelism, but at the buffoonery that is commonly mislabeled as evangelism! Maybe they've come to realize that true evangelism has nothing to do with adopting the methodology of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus!

Instead of meeting up to find ways to place the blame for their lack of bookings at the feet of Calvinists and Willow Creekers, why don't some these evangelists take a hard look in the mirror and see if perhaps their modern evangelistic methods may be part of the problem? Could it be that after decades producing millions of false converts that some of us are ready to stop the spiritual carnage by returning to our theological heritage? Perhaps some of us are simply interested in outreach methods that are a bit more Biblical and honoring to God?

Spend some time looking at the websites of some of the evangelists in the SBC. What you'll find on the websites is almost depressing. It's not surprising to me that some of these evangelists are concerned about the Reformed Resurgence in the SBC.

If I were one of those "vocational evangelists" who are in the business of peddling a pragmatic, results-driven, side show pseudo-Gospel, I'd be worried too! Any shift toward returning the SBC to it's doctrinal foundations might mean I'd have to put away the clown costumes or get ready to update my resume for secular employment!

Would The Church Fathers Oppose Reformation Teachings?

Recently, I began to read through Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. In the Prefatory Address to King Francis, there is a section where Calvin addresses the charge that the Ancient Church Fathers would oppose Reformation teachings.

As I read this section, I found much of what Calvin stated to be quite interesting. Calvin apparently had a good command of Patristic literature and was able counter the slanderous claims made against the Reformation. Below I want to share some of Calvin's response to those who opposed the Reformation on the basis that the Church Father's would have opposed its teaching:

"[T]hey unjustly set the ancient fathers against us (I mean the ancient writers of a better age of the church) as if in them they had supporters of their own impiety. If the contest were to be determined by patristic authority, the tide of victory -to put it very modestly- would turn to our side. Now these fathers have written many wise and excellent things. Still, what commonly happens to men has befallen them too, in some instances. For these so-called pious children of theirs, with all their sharpness of wit and judgment and spirit, worship only the faults and errors of the fathers. The good things that these fathers have written they either do not notice, or misrepresent or pervert. You might say that their only care is to gather dung amid gold. Then, with a frightful to-do, they overwhelm us as despisers and adversaries of the fathers! But we do not despise them; in fact, if it were to our present purpose, I could with no trouble at all prove that the greater part of what we are saying today meets their approval.

Yet we are so versed in their writings as to remember always that all things are ours [I Cor. 3:21-22], to serve us, not to lord it over us [Luke 22:24-25], and that we all belong to Christ [I Cor. 3:23], whom we obey in all things without exception [cf. Col. 3:20]. He who does not observe this distinction will have nothing certain in religion, inasmuch as these holy men were ignorant of many things, often disagreed among themselves, and sometimes even contradicted themselves.

It is not without cause, they say, that Solomon bids us not to transgress the limits set by our fathers [Prov. 22:28]. But the same rule does not apply to boundaries of fields and to obedience of faith, which must be so disposed that "it forgets its people and its father's house" [Ps. 45:10 p.]. But if they love to allegorize so much, why do they not accept the apostles (rather than anyone else) as the "fathers" who have set the landmarks that it is unlawful to remove?"

From here Calvin makes many interesting points on how certain Catholic traditions were not in keeping with the early Fathers whom the Catholics profess to follow. While I would love to point out some of those now, I will refrain from doing so because I want to quote a section here that is more relevant to some of the dialog that has taken place here on the Mafia blog in recent weeks.

Calvin continues:

"It was a father who deemed that one must listen to Christ alone, for Scripture says, "Hear Him" [Matt. 17:5]; and that we need not be concerned about what others before us either said or did, but only about what Christ, who is the first of all, commanded. When they set over themselves and others any masters but Christ, they neither abode by this boundary nor permitted others to keep it. It was a father who contended that the church ought not set itself above Christ, for he always judges truthfully, but ecclesiastical judges, like other men, are often mistaken. When this boundary is broken through, they do not hesitate to declare that the whole authority of Scripture depends entirely upon the judgment of the church.

All the fathers with one heart would have abhorred and with one voice have detested the fact that God's Holy Word has been contaminated by the subtleties of sophists and involved in the squabbles of dialecticians. When they attempt nothing in life but to enshroud and obscure the simplicity of Scripture with endless contentions and worse than sophistic brawls, do they keep themselves within these borders? Why, if the fathers were now brought back to life,and heard such brawling art as these persons call speculative theology, there is nothing they would less suppose than that these folk were disputing about God!"

Soli Deo Gloria!

Amazing Grace to Cover Florida!

Reformers, I urge you to assist our brethren in Florida in their most noble endeavour!

"Jacta alea est!"

Richard Fuller on Anti-Predestinarianism

Today, many Southern Baptists have been lead to believe that the increased interest in Calvinism is an attempt to bring in doctrines that are either unbiblical or antithetical to being a Baptist. This effort has been lead in part by an elite cadre of preachers and historical revisionists bent on spreading their message that embracing Reformed theology will stifle evangelism and missions.

While reading Dr. Tom Nettles' book, By His Grace and For His Glory, I found the following quote by Richard Fuller, the 3rd President of the Southern Baptist Convention:

"If anything be certain, then it is that the anti-predestinarian system is wholly untenable. It is good for nothing, since it solves no difficulty and stultifies our reason, it is practical atheism and it contradicts express assertions of the Bible."

This is just one of many examples that Nettles cites that show the founders of our movement were indeed Calvinists who opposed Arminian thinking. To anyone willing to undertake a study of SBC history, it will become undeniably evident that it's not Calvinists who are bringing in "new" doctrines, rather, we are working to bring the Convention back to it's historical and Biblical foundation.

Semper Reformanda!

Making Myself Irrelevant

I'm sick to death of the use of the word "relevant" in relation to Christian preaching. Either a church uses it to advertise ("Look how relevant we are!"), or a pastor is castigated with it ("His sermons aren't very relevant.")

In these usages, I surmise that "relevant" means something like: You can begin to use this stuff and put it in practice immediately. It's not all airy-fairy, pie-in-the-sky preaching.

Well, I'm sick of it. I'm especially sick of the fact that the preachers who are loudest about their relevance seem to be the ones of the Emergent stripe, who have almost totally left off the systematic preaching of the Scriptures, in favor of topical sermonettes on how-to instructions that would fit perfectly well on an episode of Oprah.

When greater "relevance" is sought in preaching, one or more of the following may really be going on:

1. The preacher is so boring that it becomes impossible to grasp the fulness of his message, leaving the hearer with disjointed bits and pieces that cease to function together as a consistent truth. The boring preacher is another thing I'm sick of, but that's fodder for another post. It's tough to retain anything when you're nodding off.

2. The preacher has abandoned the Word in favor of trying to be relevant. (It's amazing how this works, but the one who chases "relevance" in his preaching is the one who has left behind the very thing that makes his preaching useful at all.) He has lots of good jokes and interesting stories, and he has developed his personal preaching style to an art form. He's interesting, but delivers nothing real.

3. The preacher has done a poor job of showing how the truths of the Word of God ought to effect his flock. Yes, pastor, this is part of your job description. You err if you simply exposit the Word, even faithfully, and fail to help your people see the application. Even doctrines like the Trinity and the Incarnation (and maybe especially ones like that) need to be presented in a way that elicits a change in your hearers. That's right: I said the Incarnation ought to have an observable effect on people who believe it. Shame on you if you leave the weighty doctrines of the Word under a glass case, behind a velvet rope. Encourage the people to reach out and touch it and grapple with it. It won't break.

4. Either the pastor or his congregation, or both, have lost sight of the power of the Word of God to effect immediate change with respect to our deepest need. What could be more relevant than eternal life? Than deliverance from hell? Than being transformed into the image of Christ? Than conquering the remaining motions of defeated sin? Pity the Christian who believes he's so advanced that the hearing of these things is no longer relevant in his mind.

5. The congregation is lazy. It can't maintain a train of thought for longer than a commercial break. It can't be bothered to really think anymore.

6. The congregation equates the presence of the Holy Spirit with their breaking out in goose-bumps. It's become so experience-oriented that it can no longer believe that the central act of Christian worship is the attentive, faith-filled hearing of the Word of God.

7. The congregation has to be entertained. This is just as much a tragedy as the boring pastor in #1 above. Both are evils to be despised in the churches. As a preacher, I refuse to try and compete with your satellite television, your Ipod, or your X-box. Stay at home if you're addicted to those things, and call upon them in the day of Judgment.

8. The congregation wants to attach Christ to their old lives; they don't want Christ to put their old lives to complete, utter, irretrievable death. Give me some tips about how to raise my kids. Help me be a better business man. Give my family some moral guidance. But don't talk to me about dying with Jesus, about what real repentance is, or why I might need to do it.

9. The congregation has developed itching ears, and can't stomach the preaching of doctrines which challenge the traditional teaching they've always received. All this talk about fallen man's depravity and moral inability to turn to God in faith...well, Preacher, that ain't they way I always heard it. God loves us enough to let us choose to go to hell if we want, didn't you know, Preacher?

I could mention more if I really sat and thought about it. I'm sure you could too. Give me Revival, not Relevance.

Martin Luther at The Diet of Worms

This is probably the most inspiring movie in my collection. Would to God we had a few more Luther's in our day! If you don't own this movie, buy it ASAP!