Posts Tagged ‘Reformed’

7 Jan

Letter to Reformed Baptists: Fight the Pharisee

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity. Tagged: , , , , .

It is good to be self-critical; this is even more encouraged in our post-modern age of ‘humility’, ‘community’ and ‘connection’. What has alarmed me as a Baptist of reformed conviction is how sometimes our confessions have a shimmer pirde. The admission I am foremost thinking of is that of pharisaism. “We need to be careful…” often you can hear a bible study leader say, “If we ever were to fall into error, it would be on the side of legalism and pharisaism. You just need to search through some of the popular blogs and writing of the YRR and you will read much about this topic.

We could point out the obvious signs that would reveal the pernicious shimmer of this proud sickness, but I want to peer a little deeper if possible.

  1. Everywhere is Puritan New England

Francis Schaefer said, “Each generation of the church in each setting has the responsibility of communicating the gospel in understandable terms, considering the language and thought-forms of that setting.” However it seems that often we preach as if we had a church in 17th century Puritan New England. Everyone knows what ‘propitiation’ is; everyone grasps the horror of hell and eternal matthew_23-13separation from God. Everyone crumbles when shouted at about sin and holiness.

The truth is we don’t. We live in a predominantly pagan country with a vicious air of secularism and a veneer of watered-down superstitious Christianity. Generally our communities encompass a mixture of traditional, modern and post-modern people. Issues like imperialism, westernisation, tradition, identity, gender issues, authority, politics, culture etc all cloud issues that are intrinsic to normal pastoral ministry like brokenness, spiritual blindness,  and so forth.

These are things which need to be considered if we are going to “communicate the gospel in understandable terms” to those whose souls have been entrusted to us and if we are to do the “work of an evangelist”.

  1. Love is a virtue best displayed in wrath

We speak alot of love. In fact, the doctrines of grace are the most magnificent and beautiful theological description of love that ever there was. From Ghandi to Lennon, men made in the image of God have spoken of the need and beauty of love. We, who of all people know the answer to the lack of love, and worship the God who is ‘love’, should thus be the greatest reflectors of that love. If we bring offense it is only to be either the breadth of the gospel by welcoming all kinds of people into the courts of heaven, or the narrowness of reformedChrist’s arms alone being the path to a place where gold has the same value as tar. Augustine said, “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like”

However would a homosexual or prostitute or atheist or ‘new ager’…. feel, apart from the offence of the gospel, welcomed in our company and pews? Or would we seek to break them with the hardest words, or most formalist liturgies possible? Friends, it must not be our political opinions, tones, or words which offend, nor our views on gun ownership. We are to be all things to all people, but presenting Christ and Him crucified.

  1. What our sermons REALLY mean

It seems to me that ‘most reformed Baptist’ sermons are really saying, “Buck up and try harder this week” or “we are so blessed to have the best theology and understanding of Scripture”. I say this because so often that is the kind of talk you can hear after a time of morning WORSHIP. What is going through our hearts as we work through a text and consider our context? That is our subtext; the real message of the sermon. It’s either an Arminian “go and try harder sermon” or it’s a pharisaical, “Aren’t we so great as 1689ers” Keller points out that, “The task of the preacher is to present the beauty of Christ so that He becomes the object of our hearts greatest affection. Presenting Christ as more excellent than everything will weaken the Christians [and none believers] love for things other than Christ.” (Note in brackets is my own).

The doctrines of grace must invariable produce graciousness or one does not actually understand them or has not appropriated them.

7 May

Worship: Transcendent and/vs Immanent

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

When we worship, we come to worship God Who is three times holy. In corporate worship we are in God’s house, and so we should act like it. Reverence is understandable in light of who God is. He is transcendent, He surpasses all our ideas, thoughts and opinions about Him, He is majestic, seated in the heavenlies.  Now while some think that the transcendence of God means that He is ‘unknowable’, and this is misleading. God has been speaking to mankind for a long time, and has revealed Himself in the Holy Scriptures.

What transcendence means is that God is not us. He is infinitely superior to us. He is the Sovereign King, infinitely majestic and glorious (Psalm 36:6; 1 Samuel 2:2). God is God and we are not. This is perhaps the most helpful attitude we can cultivate when we meet in worship.

The correct response to God’s transcendence is reverence, honour and esteem. When people in Scripture found themselves in God’s presence they were never flippant or casual (Exodus 20:18; Isaiah 6:5; Revelation 1:17), and this is vital since “our God is a consuming fire,” we are to “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe” (Hebrews 12:28-29).

Huge beautiful cathedrals help us to grasp this sometimes, with their incredible ceilings, stained-glass windows, and hallowed halls, we here sense a bit of our smallness before the Almighty God. Formal liturgies are also helpful, with their carefully chosen devout words, said in reverence. Hymns like “Holy, Holy, Holy” impress the reality of God’s transcendence and otherness upon us.

Worship that looses sight of this truth approaches God casually. In our desire to help others see God as more approachable we must never forget that God is wholly unlike us. “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me” (Isaiah 46:9).

BUT, not only is God transcendent, He is also immanent, which means He is near to us. We are not deists, God does not remain distant and removed from creation, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). The incarnation demonstrates this the best, for in the incarnation God took on flesh, Jesus is our brother, shepherd and Savior. His mercies are “new every morning” and He is able to sympathize with us in all our weaknesses (Lamentations 3:23; Hebrews 4:15). God is Immanuel, God with us (Matthew1:23; Isaiah 7:14).

Cathedrals do not help us to grasp God’s closeness very well. I think of Christ being a friend of sinner and tax collectors…

Many of the contemporary praise songs helps us sing not only about God, but to Him. Songs like “As the Deer”,  “Wonderful, Merciful Savior” and “My Jesus, my Savior” where we get a sense of God’s desire for us to know His nearness.

As a warning, I need to say, some songs make refer to God or Jesus as a friend in a way that makes Him sound like a buddy or sensual lover; this totally misses or skews the biblical idea. The Bible does say we are friend’s of God (John 15:14-15)… But D.A. Carson points out that “not once is Jesus or God ever described in the Bible as our friend. Of course in one sense Jesus is the best friend a poor sinner ever had. Nevertheless, that is not the terminology of Scripture, almost as if the Bible reluctant to descend into the kind of cheap intimacy that brings God or Jesus down to our level”[i].

I think perhaps a contemporary song which really captures the transcendence and yet grasps the nearness of God is “O Sacred Kind” by Matt Redman:

O Sacred King, O Holy King
How can I honour You rightly,
Honour that’s fit for Your name?
O Sacred friend, O Holy friend
I don’t take what You give lightly
Friendship instead of disgrace.

For it’s the mystery of the universe
You’re the God of holiness,
Yet You welcome souls like me
And with the blessing of Your Father’s heart
You disciple the ones You love
There’s kindness in Your majesty

Jesus those who recognize Your power
Know just how wonderful You are
That You draw near

How one does all of this practically will have to be worked out. One way may be to have different Sundays with a different focus, perhaps in line with the sermon, or to consciously make sure that there is a healthy mixture in each service. Perhaps the best way to keep this tension is to constantly remind ourselves of the gospel. In the Gospel we see a Holy, awesome God exacting wrath, and yet forgiveness, mercy, friendship and hope being expressed.

Spurgeon put it well when he said:

“I can admire the solemn and stately language of worship that recognizes the greatness of God, but it will not  warm my heart or express my soul until it has also blended therewith the joyful nearness of that perfect love that casts out fear and ventures to speak with our Father in heaven as a child speaks with its father on earth. My brother, no veil remains.[ii]“

I praise God for good Christians books that are the source of my thinking here.

[i] D.A Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000), 41

[ii] Charles H Spurgeon, The Power of the Cross of Christ, ed. Lance Wubbels (Lynnwood, WA: Emerald Books, 1995, 66.

5 May

Worship #5: Where to From Here?

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity, Doctrine, Worship. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

I promised in my last article to write about the apparent short comings on the ‘Baptist Confession of Faith’s’ section on worship, however, the more I have been looking at it and comparing it to other creeds I feel that I would be making a mountain out of a mole hill. The real issue still lies in other places…

I think that a tradition, whether it is 500, 100 or 10 years old, suffers from the same problem; We start with Scripture, but eventually put our final authority in our own traditions or views.  This may be one of the reasons why we have such a hard time figuring out what God wants us to do when we worship.

Every generation of the church is responsible to weigh its tradition and practice against the final authority of God’s word, and to be honest God has not been as specific in this area as some might prefer. The bible doesn’t give an order of service that applies to all cultures at all times. Similarly the Bible commands us to respect one another, but in African culture respect is shown by not looking someone in the eye when talking, in European culture, one should maintain a degree of eye contact, so just as the way respect is shown varies in those two cultures, it will also vary in the way worship is preformed. For example the Old Testament is full of choirs, musicians, processions, priests, robes, annual celebrations and instrument praise; but how relevant are these things since the New Testament doesn’t even mention them? Should we come before God with singing, dancing and instruments like Psalm 149? Or are those things now forbidden in the New Testament command to worship God ‘with reverence and awe’ (Hebrews 12:28)?

I find so ironic, that some of my own reformed brothers would use the ‘regulative principle’ to forbid instruments in Church along with hymns and spiritual songs… and then only sing unaccompanied Psalms which constantly mentions instruments, dancing and the like? AT the same time my Charismatic friends would sing about the holiness of God and His majesty, and then treat worship in a cavalier, superficial and sentimentalist way.

Some Christians think God has said nothing about worship, but the need for me to refute this thinking is useless now since if anyone has read the bible in even a superficial way they will see the folly of this thinking (I pray). God hasn’t told us everything, but He certainly hasn’t been silent on the topic.

PRINCIPLES FOR FORM

I would like to at this point suggest the guiding principles for how the ‘form’ of worship should be decided upon and evaluated. (It is helpful at this point to have read my article on the varies parts of worship). What principles guide, not the ‘elements’ or ‘circumstances’ of worship, but the ‘form’?

  1. Do what God clearly commands (regulative principle without the exclusivity part)
  2. Don’t do what God clearly forbids (Normative principle)
  3. Use SCRIPTURAL wisdom for everything else

We need to recognize that God has not given us a prescribed order of service that defines biblical worship. However we must seek to faithfully apply biblical principles and examples.

Furthermore, we must grasp the vital role that faith plays in corporate worship. Thus we never want ‘our way’ of doing things to replace vibrant real trust in the finished work of Christ to make our worship acceptable.

The next few blogs will be on how I think these principles should be applied in around 9 different tensions (I hope to make these blogs on worship more regular than once a week as we climb to the crescendo now). I also intent of shortly releasing a questionnaire that I trust will cause us to evaluate if indeed we are applying certain principles in our church.

For the growth and maturity of the Church as we all strive for the unity of the faith.

28 Apr

Worship #4: The Regulative Principle at Work… But Where?

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity, Doctrine, Religion, Worship. Tagged: , , , , , .

In my last article on worship I went into detail to explain what the ‘regulative principle’ is, I also spent some time breaking worship up into its various parts, namely: Elements, form and circumstances.

Today I would like to look at how these two things meet, in other words what interplay is there between the ‘regulative principle’ and the various parts of worship? If you have no idea what I mean by the parts of worship I have listed, or what I mean by the ‘regulative principle’ I strongly recommend you read the previous post on worship before continuing with this one.

The big question that I think often goes unasked in our everyday churches is, “Does the ‘Regulative Principle’ apply to all the parts of worship, or only to some of them?” It is my opinion that it is an incorrect application of the ‘RP’ that is behind much ‘unhealthy’ worship in churches.

-          Circumstances -

The Baptist Confession of Faith which in line with all generally with the other historic creed says the following about the circumstances of worship (Chapter 22:6):

Under the Gospel, neither prayer nor any other aspect of religious worship is tied to, or made more acceptable by, any place in which it is preformed, or towards which it is directed(1). God is to be worshipped everywhere in spirit and truth(2)… (1. John 4:21; 2. Mal 1:11; 1 Tim 2:8; John 4:23-24)

I think it is clear from the confession that the ‘circumstances’ of worship is irrelevant. A church is a church whether it meets under a tree or in a building or even in a Cathedral.

-          Elements -

With regards to elements, I think chapter 22:5 makes reference, but instead of calling it ‘elements’ calls it ‘parts’. It then goes on to mention all the elements which Scripture explicitly state must be in worship:

1)      Reading of Scripture

2)      Preaching and hearing of the Word

3)      Teaching and admonishing of one another

4)      Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs

5)      Baptism

6)      The Lord’s Supper

The first chapter affirms again the main idea of the ‘regulative principle’ when is says, “He (God) may not be worshipped … by any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures (22:1)”

I agree with this, I must since my conscience is captive to God’s Word. I will not have smoke things shaking in my church to show how our prayers rise to heaven, I will not have icons or crucifixes for worshippers to fix their focus on (22:1 uses this as an example of what it means). These are the acceptable methods we use to Glorify God in worship (note that ‘announcements’ are considered as part since natural light tells us we need them).

So far we have seen that the regulative principle does not apply to the ‘circumstances’ of worship, but clearly it does apply to the ‘elements’ of worship. Which leads me to my next question…?

-          Form –

Does the regulative principle apply to the ‘form’ of worship? It is my opinion that it does not, but rather that the ‘form’ calls for an application of Biblical wisdom (Col 3:16) and ‘natural light’. If we were to apply the regulative principle in its strictest sense to ‘form’ (meaning not doing anything in a way not explicitly said in the New Testament) we would have no lecterns, pulpits or stages, the shortest sermon in church would have to be 50min minimum (based on book of Hebrews), seating would be an issue since we have no idea of where or in which direction people should sit, furthermore, the use of projectors/overheads would be very questionable. I realize I am being facetious, and an argument from inconsistency of those who hold to the principle is not an argument against it.

I think in ‘form’ we need to apply a variety of Biblical principles as well as the wisdom God has so given men to be able to make the elements most conducive to their purpose, namely worshipping God, or to put it another way, to declare the worthiness of God in ALL His attributes.

Conclusion

I trust that again you have found this helpful and stimulating as we think on this issue together. Next week I will address the issue where I feel the Baptist Confession of Faith falls short, as mentioned in my last post, since it ties in closely with the kind of wisdom I am talking about with regards to form.

21 Apr

Worship #3: A Principle to Know

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity, Doctrine, Worship. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Worship is an intricate and difficult subject to address, hence the huge debate about it. I think it may be helpful at this stage to break it up into its different components before moving forward

Worship is made up of three things, the elements, forms and circumstances. Let me explain what I mean by each one.

Elements of worship are those things which are done in public worship: ie. Prayer, singing, preaching, offering, benediction, announcements, reading of Scripture, etc

Form: is how the elements are put into practice or action: E.g. Preaching with a pedestal, lectern, pulpit, free-standing; Reading of Scripture from KJV or NKJV, Long or short passages, both Testaments or only one. Order service is conducted in: Announcements first or song first etc

Circumstances: The circumstances of worship are the setting you find yourself worshipping in, eg. under a tree, in a prison, in a house, in a church building.

By understanding what Scripture teaches on each one of the above components I think it will be possible for us to make much headway in trying to grasp Biblical worship in our current environment.

THE KEY PRINCIPLE:

A key principle in godly worship is known as the ‘regulative principle’. It is the opinion of this author, along with the historic creeds of the faith that this principle is ‘crucial’ in understanding worship. Many of the current discussions on worship which commits the error of ‘forgetting history’ lose out on this key principle and thus end up in a flurry of debate which is unnecessary.

Briefly stated the regulative principle is as follows:

“The light of Nature shews that there is a God, who hath Lordship, and Soveraigntye    over all; is just, good, and doth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the Heart, and all the Soul, (a.) and with all the Might. But the acceptable way of Worshipping the true God, is (b.) instituted by himself; and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be Worshipped according to the imaginations, and devices of Men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or (c.) any other way, not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. a. Jeremiah 10:7; Mark 12:33 b. Deuteronomy 12:32
c. Exodus 20:4-6 (1689 London Baptist Confession, Chapter 22:1)”

Essentially the regulative principle says that only those things which God has explicitly stated should be practised in worship. This is opposed to the ‘normative principle’ of the Anglicans and Lutherans which says that only those things which Scripture forbids should be prohibited. Based on the above statement from the Baptist Confession of Faith I would have to disagree with the ‘Normative principle’. On another note it would be interesting to do a study of where those churches that espouse the ‘normative principle’ find themselves today, I dare say in the clutches of Liberalism, however, this is not an argument against it, Scripture is our rule of Faith.

Regulative Principle Normative Principle
Only do that which Scripture Commands Do anything so long as Scripture does not forbid it

The Confession goes on in Chapter 22:5 to delineate accurately just what elements the regulative principle allows in worship based on Scripture:

“The (q.) reading of the Scriptures, Preaching, and (r.) hearing the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual songs, singing with grace in our Hearts to (s.) the Lord; as also the Administration (t.) of Baptism, and (u.) the Lords Supper are all parts of Religious worship of God, to be performed in obedience to him, with   understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear; moreover solemn humiliation (x.) with fastings; and thanksgiving upon (y.) special occasions, ought to be used in an holy and religious manner.”

q. 1 Timothy 4:13 r. 2 Timothy 4:2; Luke 8:18 s. Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19
t. Matthew 28:19-20 u. 1 Corinthians 11:26 x. Esther 4:16; Joel 2:12
y. Exodus 15:1-27; Psalm 107:1-43

Let me say at this point that I do not think this Confession has grasped all that must be said about worship, and I believe that what it has left out is telling…

I hope that you have found this week’s blog entry on worship informative. Please do take the time to think about it as next week I wish to engage with these concepts in a practical way.

14 Apr

Worship #2: WHY ARE WE WHERE WE ARE?

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity, Worship. Tagged: , , , , , .

If you are starting to read this blog now, I encourage you to start on Worship #1, to get the full gist of the development of my thought. Today I wish to consider what I think we are  three major reasons for why we are where we are in worship… and why the subject is so controversial.

1)      Reactionism: People see an error and assume that the opposite must be truth, so they swing. If the Protestants had done this when they reacted against the heresies in the Roman Catholic Church of the 1500’s we would have abandoned the doctrine of the Trinity. Sometimes people are in a church where there is cold dead orthodox worship, and because they feel no heart there, they assume the opposite must be right, and go to the extreme of pure emotionalism.

On the other hand some people go to a charismatic type church and see people swinging and swaying and dancing and barking like dogs and all manner  of things, or perhaps they just hear endless choruses of empty words that sound no different to contemporary love songs, so they assume the opposite must be right, and go over to the cold dead guys.

2)      Ignorance of History: Some people enter the whole realm of dealing with worship as if they are the first people in history to get into the debate, they often end up trying to re-invent the wheel so to speak, but never really get anywhere. Imagine every scientist began his/her study, starting off with trying to work out the table of elements! There are confessions of faith and major articles written by godly men in history who have thought deeply on some issues we don’t even know are applicable to the subject. Works like the 1689 Baptist confession of Faith chapter 22, or the Westminster Confession of Faith

3)      Ancientariansim: This is the word I assign to those who think that, because we have always done things like this, it must be the right way to do it. Because we have always understood this way of doing worship to be biblical , our older understanding must be right. This is also a major error, praise God that Luther didn’t think like that when he started challenging the Romanists on their ‘old’ errors. Really what often happens in this case is that peoples ‘older style’ (which exists due to limitations of the time) become equal with Scripture or at least the supposed sole application of Scripture.

Let me say that perhaps the major issue relating to worship, which summarizes the three mentioned above, is a lack of going back to the Scriptures, as well as a lack of love and understanding. Till next time, mull these things over

7 Apr

Worship #1: Where is the Church?

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity, Worship. Tagged: , , , , .

I have been in Christian churches long enough to know there is much debate about worship, worship styles and such things. The spectrum ranges from people who say that Biblical worship must be boring and cause you to long for the 2nd coming, or the other group that says worship should be like what we all did in Sunday school, just a wish-washy of good feelings and fun. Have you ever wondered about what is God honoring worship? Has it even crossed your mind that the way you practice worship may be displeasing to God?

I think most of us (though by grace not all) would not be able to say we have thought about it. Because we are in the ‘worship-culture’ that we are in, and we have given ourselves the’ necessary proofs’, we feel we are okay, all the others must be wrong. This is a natural problem, and when looking at people in history we often remark that ‘they are a product of their time’. It is with this in mind that I wish to write about worship for the next little while and add my 50c to the discussion as we all strive to the unity of the faith. I will attempt to be brief and yet simple so that I don’t lose people who are new to the historic aspect of the debate, or who are not familiar with tons of theological jargon.

There are two extremes of people who are reading this, and both are coming at it from different angles, I wish to address the extremes, and hope that I hit every one who is in the middle as well.

Moving Along

There are people who say, “It doesn’t matter how you worship, as long as your heart is in the right place”, “It’s all about sincerity” etc. Have you ever thought that way? I mean surly we must not worship God with insincere hearts right? I agree that we must worship with our heart, we must worship with sincerity, and in Spirit, Scripture teaches this:

• Psalm 24:3-6 gives us a picture of true worshippers, and the repeated phrase are those who have a clean pure heart and clean hands.

• Back in John 4:22b Jesus says, “We [Jews] know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews.” Now the Jews were just the opposite of the Samaritans. They accepted all thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and had the whole revelation of the teaching of salvation. They had the truth – but they lacked the spirit. Just read Matthew 6:1-8, and you’ll see that they were cold, legalistic, and hypocritical. They went through the motions, but their hearts weren’t in it. Now I admit that there were some Jews who had a zeal for God, but the basic existing religion of Jerusalem was lifeless. They had the truth, but their hearts were empty.

However, we also must avoid the danger of reacting against cold clinical worship and thus end up saying, only the heart matters and not practice. But the Bible warns of that extreme as well:

• In John 4:22a, Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, “Ye worship ye know not what.” Now, what did He mean by that? Well, He acknowledged that the Samaritans were worshipping, they just didn’t know what they were worshipping.You see, the Samaritans only accepted the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) as coming from God. So their knowledge was limited.They had enough to know some of the truths about God, but not enough to have the full salvation revelation. They were worshipping, but the didn’t know the fullness of what they were worshipping.Samaritan worship, then was enthusiastic worship without proper information. Their worship was aggressive, enthusiastic, excited, and faithful, but they didn’t have the right content. In other words, they worshipped in spirit but not in truth.

• 2 Samuel 6:1-9 tell of how Uzzah tried to stop the Arc of the Covenant from falling to the ground, and God struck him dead because God had instituted a way for the Arc to be handled, and it was part of that was no one was allowed to touch it. Now we can see Uzzah’s heart, but it seems like the sincere thing to do, yet God was not pleased.

• Leviticus 10:1-2, shows God consuming the two sons of Aaron because the may fire which was to be used for incense in a way “which He commanded them not”.

For sake of time let me summarize what I am trying to say. God desires to be worship, with our hearts in the right place, part of having our hearts in the right place is desiring to do things the way God commanded us to. So two things need to be in place: Heart and Hand, right attitude and right action. To exclude either one is to make false worship.

31 Oct

Why Celebration for the Reformation?

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

So, today was the day… 31 October 1517, Martin Luther challenged the tyrannical religo-political system of the Catholic Church. As I considered why I celebrated the fact that God raised a man up like Luther, I thought of the far reaching effects of the reformation on everyday life and modern civilization… Ideas have consequences and the recapturing of the Gospel as it is found in the Holy Bible had far reaching effects in our world.

To name a few…

The Reformation became one of the roots of Democracy, though Luther or Calvin did not see this at the time, many historians today attribute, as least in part, the Reformation for democracy. Some seeds can be seen in Calvin’s dislike for a monarchy, where too much power is placed in one mans hands.

Public education also came to the fore. Luther wanted there to be public schools in Germany where children had to attend and learn more then just the fundamentals of the Faith, but also literature and culture. Knox and Calvin made the move to have educated clergy in churches. Edward VI of England, the Protestant King, set up 30 grammar schools, a movement which continued after his rule.

The influence on literature was remarkable, Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, Luther’s German translation of the Bible and King Henry’s King James Bible (which is sill the best selling book of all time), where all milestones in the French, German and English languages respectively. I could go one naming many other books that arose out of the Reformation which impacted and made language what it is today.

The Reformation influenced Art even more then it did language and literature; architecture, sculpting, painting etc. all were significantly advanced by the Reformation

Men like Pascal, who was a noted mathematician, physicist and inventor, and is considered one of the great religious thinkers of Western civilization. He believed that one should come to faith in God through Faith alone in Jesus Christ. We could name many other men like John Locke, Oliver Cromwell etc.

The protestant Reformation helped along many philosophies as well as the advancement of science, because it stressed individual thought and personal Faith. Ironically the advancement it allowed eventually led to rationalism which often tries to deny the God and Gospel which led to its development.

Elizabeth I the devoutly protestant queen (who was initially persecuted for her faith), brought England into what has become known as the ‘Golden Age’ of British History.

The Reformation led to woman’s Suffiridge (although this was instilled in the New Testament, it was again realized by men who were influenced the Reformers, however many still tried to suppress women using unbiblical and inconsistent theology). Ironically when women received this freedom, they sometimes took it too far to the point of confusing roles with equality with regard to function in the Church.

Other effects were the ‘Protestant Work Ethic’ which caused the prosperity of modern Europe and America. Emancipation Acts, started by William Wilberforce, the Calvinist politician from Britain. The abolishment of Child labor… I could go on and on.

Today in South Africa we are talking about moral renewal, and the truth is, we can not have moral renewal without the foundation on which to build it… and before you start talking about tolerance, remember the whole idea of ‘Tolerance’ is a child of the Reformation, particularly the Baptists… The truthful Gospel of Jesus Christ proved to be amazing in it’s impact on society, but as the Enlightenment hit, and people started becoming post-Christian we have noticed the beginning of the fall of society.

The greatest effect of the Reformation, besides all these other wonderful things, was the discovery that one can know that they are going to heaven, and that by Faith alone, in Christ alone, because of His grace and not your ability to be good, as we read in the Scripture, all of this to the Glory of God alone. I would forgo all other benefits if It was only this beautiful, liberating, courage-producing, love-creating truth-Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin, that I may be the Righteousness of God in Him, because the just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17).

15 Jul

Knowledge of God and Man Connected.

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity, Religion. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

John Calvin said, “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” This seems to be what most people think, even philosophy lectures at universities begin with the existence of God (philosophy of religion) and then move on to man, trying to figure out how man knows what is right and wrong (interesting, when you throw God out the equation, you can only toy with theories about right and wrong, there is never a basis…. ethics – God = nightmare)

To start with man cant look at himself without first looking to God, he cant understand himself without first turning to look at God, since it is in God that man lives and moves. The gifts, talents, abilities, everything we have is not from ourselves, it is all from God, He determined where and when we would live, what our IQ would be, our environment, everything. To try to figure out who one is or anything about oneself, without first looking to God is like a man trying to discover who he is, but not looking at his parents, background, or anything that caused him to be…. maybe this is why people have identity problems and what not…

However, God is the being from which all life comes, He is the font of every blessing, all the blessing we have point us upward to God. Now the infinitude (what a great word) of goodness which is in God becomes so much more real. A rich person, in the face of infinite riches might be a little amazed and think its great, but the man who comes from utter poverty can grasp what the riches really are, because he has come to grips with the nothingness he has, so he marvels at the riches.

More specifically, the ruin that sin has plunged man into, the pain, suffering, bondage, poverty, hatred all wall us in and cause us to look upward; not only because we are hungry and starving, but being shaken by fear might learn humility, that God is God, and guess what, we are man. Did you get that? When you are lonely, and in pain, depressed, worried, fearful, let it teach you humility (Broken and contrite spirit the Lord will accept).

In man there is an ocean of misery, ever since we were stripped from the divine clothes in Eden, our nakedness shows a great amount of horrible abilities (envy, pride, vengeance, lust etc.), every man being stung by conciseness of his own unhappiness, in some way obtains some knowledge of God. What I am trying to say is that all our evil and corruption reminds us that in God, and Him alone is the true light of wisdom, solid true beautiful, amazing, wonderful goodness.

Listen to what Calvin says about this, “We are … urged by our own evil things to consider the good things of God; and indeed, we cannot aspire to Him in earnest until we have begun to be displeased with ourselves” … wow! put that in your every-body-is-special-and deserves-the-best theology. Do you chatter about theology to feel pleased with yourself and escape the results of theology, to humble you?

I think many ‘reformed’ need to think on this, reformed (or put whatever theological label you want there) in theology will take you to hell, one needs to be re-formed in heart. Be honest, who doesn’t naturally trust in themselves? In their own abilities? Completely unaware of their own misery, not only teenagers, but everyone thinks they are immortal to one degree or another. As a result anyone who comes to a knowledge of himself is not only urged to seek God, but even led by the hand of God to find Him.

On the other hand, its also true that man doesn’t fully understand himself till he looks at God, and comes down after the look at God, to then look at himself. Mans pride works in such a way that we always look good to ourselves, we always look just, or at least, not too bad- we are only convinced by solid evidence of our own impurity, vileness, wickedness (I think to many of us just believe as an abstract thought that we are evil and wicked, but we are not moved by it, we don’t believe it as a fact which effects reality). We will never be convinced of our poverty and evil unless we first look at the Lord. He is the only standard which can show us what we are really like, when we compare ourselves with others it is like the ape looking at another ape and saying, “I am more human then you” maybe because he is sitting and the other hanging?!

We are all prone to hypocrisy, an empty bag labeled righteousness (goodness) will satisfy us, instead of righteousness itself. You know what I mean, people will be happy to just carry the empty bag from an expensive store. People who think they are good, that they have the power within themselves to please God, they are like people who in the afternoon go outside, and look around, they see cars, trees, children playing, the person then thinkis to himself “Ah, what good eyes I have” they look to distant mountains and their pride grows stronger, but wait- when they look up with their powerful eyes and look at the sun, their eyes begin to burn, the squint and pull weird faces, they cannot even begin to see any form or shape on the sun, they become confused and their eyes water…. the object which gives us light to see, also shows us how limited out vision is…. It is the same when we look at our spiritual qualities, as long as we don’t look beyond the earth we are happy with our abilities, with our righteousness, wisdom and goodness- we think of ourselves in the best ways and imagine ourselves to be nothing less then demi-gods, the masters of our own destiny. But should we ever look up and put our thought on God, and reflect on what kind of Being He is, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness and wisdom and virtue, He who is the standard of what we should be like… we will see how silly the way we thought of ourselves really is, how the world pollutes our minds with thoughts of goodness inherent in us.

Now you see why in The Holy Bible men were so struck with dread and amazement when they were in the presence of God. You can see how the people who stood so firm and sure are now shaking and trembling.This is why people would die if they saw God…

Isaiah 24:23, “The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign” When God comes to reign, the brightest objects will seem dark next to His brilliance.

See also: Judges 13:22; Isaiah 6:5; Ezek 1:28; 3:14; Job 9:4 Gen 18:27; 1 Kings 19:13

(Dedicated to the memory of a man used by God greatly, John Calvin, glory to God through Jesus Christ)

11 May

Is Doctrine that Important/ The Distaste of Doctrine (Part 4)

Posted by tyrellh in Christianity. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

- FOUNDATIONS – (I suggest you read Part 1,2 and 3 before this for it all to make sense)

I recently brought a book, and the author was a rather popular guy in ‘Christian’ circles these days. At one point in his book he says, that he believes Jesus was born of a virgin, but if that was not true, he could keep being a Christian! Apparently Jesus being born of a virgin or not being born of a virgin doesn’t impact on His saving work on the cross. That’s a bizarre leap of reasoning don’t you think.

I realized while I was reading that for this guy doctrine won’t save yourself and others, so you don’t have to watch it closely. His faith is kind of blind, detached from reality, a reality where a ship needs certain parts to make a journey.

What if someone could prove today that Jesus really had an earthly father? What if there was irrefutable evidence and there was a DNA test to prove it. What if the gospel writers made up “cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”? What if it was some ploy to appeal to secular Mithra cults at the time, whose gods also had supposed virgin births?

What if that part of our ship was left out?

Could a person still sail? Could a person still love God? Could a one still be a Christian?

Would you still want to travel the distance Jesus traveled?

Or does everything just shatter?

But it is so amazing if you consider the following:

Jer 36:30 says, “ Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David” right, but now look who is in Jesus’ genealogy in Mat 1:11 “ and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. “ Fortunatly, this is the family line of Joseph who was Jesus adoptive father, but not blood father.

As we read on in matthew we see the wonder of the whole thing, Mat 1:20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Mat 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Mat 1:22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

Mat 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

When the angel points out that this is fulfilling a prophecy he does it on purpose, because this baby has got to be able to pay for peoples sins, what man could do that, except the God-man, God with us.

So without the virgin born Jesus, we are lost in our sins, not saved from them.

This is because truth is fixed in reality, it doesn’t flex or bend or change, gravity will always stop you from jumping of a building and going up, unless you have some kind of flying contraptions attached to you. Traffic will always be dangerous if you are standing in a freeway, there is just nothing but that reality. The natural laws God made to allow the universe to run and work, what an amazing God, a God is not a God of confusion (1 Cor 14:33).

This really made sense for me a while ago, in college I was doing a course in Pastoral counseling, and one of the issues I was looking into was how psychiatrists use medication, when I came across rather interesting information about a placebo (not to be confused with the band). What doctors do mostly with people who are hypochondriacs or psyco0semantically ill people, you know the kind that think they get healed at those ‘healing crusades’ on TV (people who think they are sick, but really aren’t) is give them something that looks like a drug, but really it is just sugar or some other harmless substance, and suddenly the people feel better and are able to get on with life. If man’s sickness of sin and brokedness was not real, then we wouldn’t need a real cure, one made up in my mind would b e just as good.

But in the real world death crushes families, people starve in poverty, countries make war, children are lost, women are raped, men are murdered. I see sin and its wages all around and it’s a problem in reality, and so whatever cure I’m going to grasp hold of has to come into this same reality and be different, not just some fancy idea made up in peoples heads.

I am far more concerned with what is true and right and can fix these problems, then with ignoring the cure in the name of false humility or anything else for that matter. You always defend the things you love, you delight in it and want to bring others to delight in it.

Imagine someone who came to a doctor with a deadly sickness, and the doctor gave them some lame placebo that does nothing, imagine the doctor said that the real cure is not that important, and it makes no different what ingredients are in you tablet. Would you fight that? Wouldn’t you complain to the superintendent of the hospital?

This is why Paul told Timothy to teach only what goes along with sound doctrine (Titus 2:1)

This is why God said that those who oversee and watch over the church “… must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” Rebuke those who contradict it? Sounds harsh, but its important, life and death important.

The gospel was called ‘good news’ by the early Christians, but if you change that message and tell people something that is not real, then its not good news… it’s a lie.

Jesus never lied, he told the truth to the barest of reality, but not reality as natural man sees it all the time. One time His teaching was so hard and difficult that his disciples said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” and later some of those who had been following him turned back and stopped following Him (John 6:60,66).

So people today want to make the gospel massage so wide, they want to change the drugs ingredients so much, maybe so more people feel comfortable taking it, I mean, who wants stuff loaded with all kinds of crazy chemicals.. unless it will save you! But Jesus said, they way to life is narrow and hard, and few will find it (Matt 7:14).

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