Underground Exiles

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?

Church In Mangalore, India

A christian believer thrashed and hanged to death in Thane-Maharashtra | Persecution Update India.

The United States is like Disneyland compared to the rest of the world.

I think the best thing that could happen to Christianity in this country is to have its eyes opened to the incredible amount of suffering and persecution that happens in places like Mangalore and Maharashtra, India, or in the Sudan or Somalia.

Open your, eyes and see…this is what it costs to follow Christ everywhere except Disneyland.

CNS STORY: Pope emphasizes that theology, Scripture must go hand in hand.

Okay, I’ve got to admit that the first thing I thought when I read that headline from the Catholic News Service was, “Really?  You think?”

Now I’m no super right-wing fundamentalist, but am I the only one that thinks that maybe the Pope is trying to close the barn door about 800 years after the horses ran away?!

After years of “infallible” ex cathedra announcements from the Vatican regarding any number of theological issues that have absolutely zero Scriptural support, now a Pope says, “Hey maybe theology and Scripture should go together.”

I just found that incredibly, sadly funny.

Now yes, allow me to say after I’ve taken some serious pot-shots at the Pope and the Vatican that I do believe there are large numbers of Catholic believers that are my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I know that many of my Baptist brethren would disagree with me and tell me that you can’t be Catholic and Christian, but they’re flat wrong.

All joking aside, here’s hoping that the Vatican level leadership of Roman Catholicism will do just what Pope Benedict XVI has encouraged here, and wed their theology to Holy Scripture!

Freedom is at the heart both of God’s grace, and who God is.

When God reveals Himself to Moses, He virtually defines Himself as an absolutely free giver of grace. In Exodus 33.18, Moses says to God,

“Please, show me your glory,”

God’s first reponse to this prayer is to give Moses a verbal revelation that precedes the visual one. In effect, what God says is, Here is my glory: “I will be gracious to whom I would be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”¹

When God says, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,” he means: I am free in showing grace. If you were to ask, “Who are those to whom you show grace,” the answer is: “Those on whom I show grace.” In other words, God doesn’t look outside His own will for an impulse to move his grace. Ultimeately grace is not constrained by anything outside of God Himself.

Right at the very heart of God’s self-revelation is the declaration that He is free in the way He dispenses His grace. And this freedom belongs to the very essence of what it means to be God. God is gracious to whom He will be gracious. He is not limited by anyone’s wickedness. He is not ever trapped by His own wrath; His grace may break out anywhere He pleases. And this is a great encouragement to the worst of sinners to turn from futile hopes and trust in God’s grace…

1. Exodus 33.19, ESV, emphasis mine. [↩]

This post is really a final thought about, and extension of, my sermon series on the distinction between the Law and the Gospel. As I tried to articulate to the college crowd at H²0 over the last 6 weeks, the Law is what God demands; the Gospel is what God provides. Articulating this distinction is essential to understanding and living life in Christ.

The more I’ve mulled over the topic in my head, even after the series has been completed, the more I realize that I could have preached in that series for the rest of 2008 and not come close to exhausting all that the Bible has to say on this particular topic.

For the most part, I use the word gospel nearly interchangeably with the word grace. I do this because Paul repeatedly speaks of the gospel of God’s grace, with grace being the focal point of the gospel. When the Law demands, the Gospel provides, and what is provided by the gospel is grace! Grace which is unmerited and totally free, and grace and freedom is at the absolute heart of who God is.

Read more…