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Best Pastoral Ministry Resources
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Category Archives: Reforming
Biblical Theology and Children
Here is a CD of songs for teaching your children the entire story of the Bible. Michael F. Bird highly recommends it for those who are weary of the same old songs that didn’t really paint the ENTIRE picture of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Here is what he had to say over at his blog:
“As a Father with two small children I am constantly challenged as to how best to impart a Christian worldview and a knowledge of Scripture into my kids. The odd Bible story here and there and a stack of memory verses can help, but getting kids aware of the Bible story-line as a whole is a lot harder. How do ya take these gorgeous little one’s from Crayons to Creation, Christ and the Consummation? Well, one good resource that I use is a Kids CD called: King, the Snake, and the Promise which tells the Bible story-line in song form from Genesis to Revelation. If you are weary of “Father Abraham had many sons”, then check out this resource. It comes with the Mike Bird four star seal of approval. It is available in Australia from Koorong (see the Link).”
Desiring God Seminar on Biblical Eldership
John Piper has made several of the Desiring God seminars available for FREE online! 🙂
Here is the seminar on Biblical Eldership that I thought everyone should know about and try to listen to when they get a chance.
The Future of Justification
Well folks, it’s almost here! Thankfully JT over at Between Two Worlds is giving us some shadows and types of the book about to be released in the near future by Dr. John Piper. The first blurb is a commendation by the well known Dr. Darrell Bock:
A good biblical dialogue needs two good conversation partners, who work hard to understand each other and make their case biblically. Piper’s look at justification does this with a superb tone and a careful presentation of his case. He and Wright exchanged communication before this book went public. Piper appeals to the wisdom of the ages on justification, a wisdom deeply rooted in Scripture. Wright argues his approach is also deeply rooted in Scripture as seen through a fresh appreciation of the first century context of Paul’s writing, a context we too often underestimate. This dialogue is important for the church; Piper has put us in a position to hear both sides of the debate and understand what is at stake. He has served us all well by enabling the reader to be put in the place of considering what Scripture says as he or she listens to this conversation and to our God. Iron sharpens iron, and Scripture is a sword that cuts between the soul and Spirit. Be prepared to be sharpened by a careful dialogue about what justification is.
–Darrell Bock, Research Professor of NT Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary
This book is going to be well worth buying as soon as it comes out, whether you are on one side of the New Perspective debate or the other. As Dr. Bock tells us… iron really does sharpen iron!
It is my hope and prayer that any mysteries will be dispelled in regards to the views of N. T. Wright as well as clear concerns stated by John Piper about where the New Perspective, embraced too strongly, can lead people.
I still do not know what the book will ultimately conclude, but I trust that (from past experience) John Piper will have done his best to do justice to the views of N. T. Wright. May God get all the glory and may this book help many, many people to understand the Bible even more than they did before having picked it up!
In Christ and In Defense of the Faith,
Amend ETS?
Ray Van Neste and Denny Burk have started a web site for the co-sponsoring of an amendment dealing with the minimal doctrinal requirements of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). For an introduction to the site, see the changes that they want to make below:
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Read Amendment
Before introducing the amendment to you, a little background is in order. In 2001 at the 53rd annual meeting of the ETS, Ray Van Neste proposed that the ETS adopt the doctrinal basis of the U.K.’s Tyndale Fellowship. The Tyndale fellowship unites around evangelical truths a broad group of Christian scholars from varying denominational and theological perspectives (Calvinists, Wesleyans, Baptists, Anglicans, etc). The members of the Tyndale fellowship agree to the statement of belief used by the U.K.’s Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF).
The current ETS doctrinal basis has two parts: (1) a statement on inerrancy, and (2) a statement on the Trinity. It reads as follows:
“The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory.”
We are proposing that the ETS adopt the UCCF statement with the current doctrinal basis of the ETS incorporated into it. One other addition defines the “written word of God” as the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. So we propose to amend the current doctrinal basis as follows (underlined words indicate where the current doctrinal basis has been incorporated into the UCCF statement):
ARTICLE III. DOCTRINAL BASIS
1. The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs. This written word of God consists of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments and is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and behavior.
2. God is a Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory.
3. God is sovereign in creation, revelation, redemption and final judgment.
4. Since the fall, the whole of humankind is sinful and guilty, so that everyone is subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
5. The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son, is fully God; he was born of a virgin; his humanity is real and sinless; he died on the cross, was raised bodily from death and is now reigning over heaven and earth.
6. Sinful human beings are redeemed from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death once and for all time of their representative and substitute, Jesus Christ, the only mediator between them and God.
7. Those who believe in Christ are pardoned all their sins and accepted in God’s sight only because of the righteousness of Christ credited to them; this justification is God’s act of undeserved mercy, received solely by trust in him and not by their own efforts.
8. The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners, enabling them to turn to God from their sin and to trust in Jesus Christ.
9. The Holy Spirit lives in all those he has regenerated. He makes them increasingly Christ-like in character and behavior and gives them power for their witness in the world.
10. The one holy universal church is the Body of Christ, to which all true believers belong.
11. The Lord Jesus Christ will return in person, to judge everyone, to execute God’s just condemnation on those who have not repented and to receive the redeemed to eternal glory.
As stated above, the UCCF statement unites a broad constituency of evangelicals in the U.K. We think there is great potential for it to be a unifying doctrinal basis for the various evangelical constituencies represented in the ETS as well.
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The current supporters of this amendment can be found here at this link.
Is it God’s “permissive” will? I don’t think so…
David Field has provided an excellent post on the issue of God’s “permissive” will. Ever since my views began to change on the issues of God’s sovereignty and how it works out in His creation, I have not been happy with the idea that some Reformed Evangelicals (including plenty of my dearest friends) have put forward as “God’s permissive will.” It just doesn’t sound right or Biblical.
In my continued search for a better way to explain God’s sovereign will to myself and others, David Field has done an amazing job in this post which I re-post here below. Enjoy and let’s discuss!
Continue reading Is it God’s “permissive” will? I don’t think so…
N.T. Wright on Faith and Works
Today’s ON FAITH question is an excellent one…
What’s more important from a faith perspective? Being saved? Or doing good works?
I would like to point out Bishop N.T. Wright’s response to the question. It is an excellent answer as well as another verification that he is in fact a very orthodox Theologian. I hope you enjoy the article. I have re-posted it on this blog entry below:
Fellowship of Mere Christianity
This is a great new fellowship that I hope and pray will do more to unite Christians under one name and banner. I found out about it from P. Andrew Sandlin here. Please visit their site and see what they are up to. Pray for the first meeting in Texas and hope for more things like this to succeed and grow the Church’s important doctrine of catholicity.
Here is their purpose:
My Use of the Reformed Confessions
John Frame has an excellent article on the use of Reformed Confessions.
The quote I enjoy the most is, “I look forward to the time when God will equip his church to write new confessions. The Reformed confessions of the 16th and 17th centuries are wonderful documents that have served the church well. But we need confessions that speak to the issues of our own time: abortion, postmodern ideology, egalitarianism, new spiritualities, ecumenism, the gifts of the Spirit, common grace, the precise role of the Mosaic law the status of non-Christian religions, the obligation of Christians to the poor, the nature of worship, biblical standards for missions and evangelism, and, indeed, the nature of confessional subscription. We need confessions also that can state the old Reformed and biblical doctrines in contemporary language and support those doctrines with the biblical scholarship that has developed over the last 400 years.”
[HT: Mark Horne]
Ascension Day and David Field
David Field has pointed out that most Evangelicals are defeatist in their view of history and fail to see how the Biblical narrative works – because most Evangelicals fail to understand and affirm what the doctrine of Jesus’ ascension really means. I cannot say how sad that makes me and how much I pray and hope for the Church to change it’s mindset. Here is a portion of his post that I cannot commend to anyone more enthusiastically!
