Underground Exiles

So, as part of my research for the manuscript I’m still working on, tentatively titled Adoptive Grace, I’ve done some thinking on the Fatherhood of God - mainly on the theology side of things.  Since I’m emotionally stunted, I’ve yet to work out how this fleshes out in our actual lives (even in my own), so I post this hoping that someone will read it and give me their thoughts.

When we think of God’s fatherhood, it’s first necessary to make certain distinctions. There is, first of all, God’s fatherhood that is exclusively trinitarian; the fatherhood of the Father, the first person of the trinity, in relation to the Son, the second person. This applies only to God the Father in his eternal and necessary relation to the Son and to the Son alone. It is unique and exclusive. No one else, not even the Holy Spirit, relates to the Father in this sense. In modern theology, it is sometimes said that men by adoption come to share in Christ’s Sonship and so enter into the divine life of the Trinity - needless to say, that’s patently false. It is serious confusion and error. The eternal Son of God is the only-begotten Son and nobody shares his Sonship, just as God the Father is not the Father of any other in the sense that he is the Father to the Son.

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As I’ve read The Mortification of Sin, I’ve certainly been humbled.  While John Owen is ponderous and weighty as a theologian, his pastoral heart shines through this particular work.

And God has been especially gracious - I’ve been given grace to mortify a particular habitual sin three times in just one week!  This just proves to me that today’s grace is sufficient.

So now I go a little further on into Owen’s work, and find this:

“When God stirs your heart about the guilt of your sin, concerning either its root and indwelling, or its breaking out, be careful you do not speak peace to yourself before God speaks it.  Listen closely to what He says to your soul.”

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Okay…I freely admit that I’m a bit of a doctrine nazi.  I take doctrine seriously, so I have a bit of a hard time when I hear someone spout bad doctrine.

I hear bad doctrine pretty regularly.  There is a dearth of biblical literacy in the American church, so bad doctrine is all over the place.  All you have to do is turn around and you trip over it.

A good example is the image I’m using in this post.  You have a copy of the AV 1611, otherwise known as the King James Version, nailed to a cross.  The image comes from the homepage of Peter Ruckman, another full blown heretic, who believes that the KJV is the only inspired version of the Bible.  Ruckman belongs in a looney bin, or at the least needs to be tossed out of the ministry.

Tonight I was invited by my girlfriend to attend the Open Heaven’s Conference at her church.  I have some qualms about some of the doctrine I’ve heard there, but overall, it seems to be a pretty safe place.  Then tonight, this wacko worship leader drones on for about 20 minutes before he starts playing; now, I can overlook some of what he said.  Mistaking Asaph (a person) for an instrument, for example.  But then the idiot says this:

“You’ve said You will not share Your glory with another, God; but we are not another!”

One of the most basic understandings we have from studying the Bible is that God is wholly other.  He is entirely other, and while we are made in God’s image and likeness, God is not like us.  And God’s glory is something that we don’t share in.  God’s glory is uniquely His; we aren’t partners in His glory.

Now, even my four-year-old neice understands that when God says He’ll not share His glory with another, it means exactly that.  How is it that an adult can manage to screw that up?

So as I continue reading The Mortification of Sin by John Owen, I find my self struck by this statement:

You cannoy mortify a specific sin that is troubling you, unless you are seeking to obey the Lord from the heart in all areas!

Let me be frank; that statement hurts.  When I first read it, it was like a hard punch to the stomach.

In reality all John Owen is doing is being plain about what is apparent all throughout the Gospels.  Jesus is absolutely ruthless about going after the heart, and anything less just isn’t on His radar.

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The Henry Institute: Commentary.

I’ve been getting some hate mail thanks to the Obama abortion post.  I’ve been derided as a single-issue evangelical when it comes to my vote.

I found the above sermon manuscript online, and at least on this issue, I’m in good company.

Go give it a read.