Author: fundyreformed

Charles Spurgeon and Wine

~ fundyreformed ~ 7 Comments

Charles Spurgeon was by far the most influential Christian preacher of the last 200 years. And today, Christians of all sorts pay attention to what he thought and said on any given topic. Given the nearly unparalleled length of his written works (almost every sermon recorded for us), and given the length of his ministry, one is apt to find Spurgeon statements that can be construed to support both sides of any given debate!

Wine, it seems is no exception. Among fundamentalist and conservative evangelicals, the prohibitionist movement is alive and well. Many claim not only that abstaining from wine and alcohol is the wisest course of action, but some even claim the Bible only supports a strictly tee-totaler’s view on the subject.

Spurgeon converted to the prohibitionist cause, but apparently never held that wine in Bible times was not fermented–at least the wine Jesus drank.

Doug Kutilek, at Sharper Iron, shared some interesting quotes on this topic recently. Here is an excerpt from the early Spurgeon (1877):

“˜UNFERMENTED wine’ is a non-existent liquid. Mr. Wilson [in his book The Wines of the Bible: an Examination and Refutation of the Unfermented Wine Theory, by A.M. Wilson (Hamilton, Adams & Co.)] has so fully proved this that it will require considerable hardihood to attempt a reply. The best of it is that he is a teetotalert of more than thirty years’ standing, and has reluctantly been driven “˜to conclude that, so far as the wines of the ancients are concerned, unfermented wine is a myth.’ While total abstainers are content to make no assault upon the cup used at the Lord’s table, they work harmoniously with all who seek the welfare of their fellow men; but when they commence warfare upon that point they usually become more factious than useful: everything is then made subordinate to their one idea, and the peace of the church is disregarded. [Read the whole quote at Sharper Iron]

10 years earlier (1857), Spurgeon had said:

I am no total abstainer. I do not think the cure of England’s drunkenness will come from that quarter. (Pg. 380, Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, Lewis Drummond)

By 1887, however, Spurgeon had donned the blue ribbon of the Temperance Movement. It was not just his position change which could cause confusion, but even as an abstainer he acknowledged both sides of the issue, to some extent.

In the book Charles Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, by Lewis Drummond (Kregel, Grand Rapids: 1992) one finds the following contradictory quotes from Spurgeon from his later years:

“I don’t need it for myself, but if it will strengthen and encourage a single soul among the 5,000 that are here, I will put it [a blue ribbon] on.”

“Next to the preaching of the Gospel, the most necessary thing to be done in England is to induce our people to become abstainers.” (Both quotes, pg. 440, Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, Lewis Drummond)

So there you have it. Next time you are debating this topic, cite Spurgeon for support. No matter what side you’re advocating!

For further resources on the alcohol debate, check out my previous articles on wine:

Pictures borrowed from Wikipedia articles on Charles Spurgeon and Wine.

A New Old Look

~ fundyreformed ~ 6 Comments

Is the sixth time the charm? I don’t know but this is the 6th blog theme I’ve had for my blog. I don’t know if anyone remembers the red and tan original Blogger blog. Then we had an olive 2.0, an orange 3.0, then a very brief blue and green 4.0, and recently we’ve been all blue. (See below for samples of these previous looks.)

I think I’ve finally hit on the absolute best theme, and it’s been under my nose all along! I picked this theme for my KJV Only Debate Resource Center blog, and so I’ve shied away from using it for my main blog. But when I noticed that my blogging pal John Chitty recently updated his theme, it got me thinking. I checked out the themes again, and with WordPress’ new theme previewer, I found it easy to sample my options.

When I tested my idea of resurrecting my first header image (from 2.0), I was hooked. That hall with the stone arches (from St. Johns College at Cambridge) has always epitomized a “Reformed” feel to me. And the hallway leads you deeper in (semper Reformanda). There are many of you who haven’t seen this picture, so I hope you’ll give your impressions of it.

All along I’ve been looking for something green (not olive!). And I’ve finally found it. It has numbered comments with links, to boot. Plus it handles pictures and quotes well — no small feat compared to other popular WordPress blog themes. So Misty Look (the name of the theme), it is.

It didn’t take too much work to tweak my sidebar a bit, and rearrange my pages. But I couldn’t be happier with almost everything about this theme. I probably won’t change my KJVO blog either, since it is so rarely visited (in comparison to Fundamentally Reformed) and since it really isn’t a normal blog where I post all the time. What makes this really crazy is the fact that I’ve been maintaining another blog (of sorts) for my grandfather, and for that one I used Misty Look, too! That blog is designed more like a web page, which promotes some paddles he is selling to earn money for a missions’ cause.

Anyways, this new old look appeals to me. What say ye? If I can ever edit the older posts to make the colors consistent, I’ll probably be happy for a long time. But I can’t say a new and perfect edition of this blog won’t ever appear. 7.0 would only come if WordPress.com gives us a fantastic new theme. We’ll see.

UPDATE: For posterity’s sake, I’ve included near screen shots of the 5 previous designs for this blog:

1.0

For this first one, it had a tan instead of gray background, and was a blogger-template hack. (Picture obtained from themes.wordpress.net)

2.0 3.0 4.0

5.0

ADDITIONAL UPDATE: I’ve decided to also include in this old post, the version 6 and 7 screenshots. The current version of the blog is also included as version 8. –4/24/2010

6.0 7.0 8.0

Looking Back, Looking Ahead: My Blog under Review

~ fundyreformed ~ 6 Comments

Wow. Is January 2008 half way over already? My how time flies!

I’ve been blogging now for 2 years and 2 months (mid November 2005 was when my blogging really started in earnest). In that time this blog has seen 437 posts, over 2800 comments, and anywhere from 104,000 (Statcounter/Sitemeter) to 150,000 (WordPress‘ calculations) pageviews. (My stats start from when I switched to WordPress in July of 2006).

Blogging has definitely been fun. I’ve discovered hundreds of great blogs and been discovered by scores of like minded bloggers. I’ve received encouragement and thanks for what I do, even as I’ve occasionally been criticized or discouraged by others. Through this whole process, I’ve made online friends and I’ve explored many topics I would not have otherwise. It’s been great.

The new year provides an opportunity for me to step back and assess my blog. Some of you are wondering if I’ve really been assessing my blog since it is now mid January and my new year post has only just appeared. Truth be told, we’ve been battling 2 rounds of sickness since Jan. 1 in our house, and life has been busy. Which brings me back to my purpose.

Looking Back (2007)

2007 was a year of multiple blogging personalities for me. In April, I jumped on the Mike Huckabee bandwagon, eventually creating a tumble blog accumulating Huckabee links and videos — Go Huckabee! (On a side note, tumble blogs promise to be the best way for many of you still on the fence — Larry! — to create and maintain a blog with almost no effort. Check out this post about tumble blogs.) Then in the summer, I started a team missions blog, Kingdom Surge.

The competing blogs hindered my focus on this blog, as did daily life with 3, and now 4, kids. With sometimes serious and prolonged debates, this blog can wear me out at times. My own character flaws have also contributed, resulting in the many loose ends left unfinished around here in 2007. I started a series on The Bible and the King James Only Debate, only to get about 1/2 way thru and stop. I have only blogged through 1/5th of Piper’s What Jesus Demands of the World. And I’m not yet finished with my series blogging through my church’s confession of faith. Add to that my series on man-centered Christianity that is stuck in the middle, and my entry into the atonement debate which never actually panned out. (The debate has continued without me).

My mind has always been a haven of loose ends and a hodge podge collection of thoughts. And my blog has reflected this. The dual nature of my blog complicates things as well. On the one hand, my blog chronicles my journey out of extreme fundamentalism and spends a lot of time dealing with various positions and issues related to fundamentalism. But on the other hand, I blog about general Christian topics, Reformed themes, and (now) political ruminations — like most normal Christian blogs.

Looking Ahead (2008)

So here comes 2008 and a chance for me to do a better job blogging. To do this I’ve determined to try to focus more on my own blog’s content. I’ll continue sharing posts that I’ve read and enjoyed (check my sidebar for “My Latest Blog Finds“). And I will interact with other blogs out there from time to time. But I am purposely not going to 1) interact with every comment left on my blog, 2) follow every blog I’d like to as closely as I would really like to, and 3) get drawn into fruitless debates in other venues as often as I have in the past.

If I can restrain myself in this way, then I can try to tie up the loose ends this year. I aim also to continue fine tuning the design and user-friendliness of my blog (which means completing my “topics” page, and perhaps explaining what I think about fundamentalism better). I also hope to deal with other topics that haven’t been thoroughly addressed here but which bear on my general theme. Oh, and I’d love to do some work on my KJV Only Debate blog.

Besides continuing with my missions blog (which needs some work and focus too), I still plan on continuing to blog for fun. That means I will continue to be spontaneous, and I’m sure some people appreciate that from time to time. But in 2008 I hope to finish some unfinished business, with the possibility of gearing my blog up for a transition away from dealing with fundamentalism so much and focusing more on Reformed matters and general Christian themes.

One more note of caution. As I try to become more intentional with my blog, I may post less frequently. I can’t let my blog consume me and take me from matters I really should attend to. I must nourish my spiritual life and lead my family first, and blogging can be detrimental to this.

Before I finish, let me encourage other bloggers to assess your blogging. Be sure you are using blogs and not being used by blogs. No one will be perfect, but we can’t be afraid to focus on real life and let our virtual realities slip.

In my next post, I’m going to highlight the best and the worst of Fundamentally Reformed‘s 2007. I’ll try to be as self-serving as my first post of 2007 was, because hey, this is my blog and it’s fun to look back!

Oxygenating Your Spiritual Life

~ fundyreformed ~ 4 Comments

Are you blue in the face?

Going without oxygen, or with too little oxygen makes one blue. And going too long without meditating on God’s Word makes one blue as well.

Yesterday’s sermon, by my pastor John Piper (will be available for download here from Desiring God) emphasized our need to be meditating on the Gospel and reading our Bibles. His text was James 1:21.

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

He focused on the second half of the verse. Why do we receive the word, when it is already implanted? This is the “word of truth” by which we have been born again, already (vs. 18). So why do we still need to be receiving the word?

Just because we are alive, doesn’t mean we don’t need to breathe. Rather, since we are alive, our bodies demand that we breathe. Breathing is necessary for life, but breathing doesn’t make our hearts beat.

Similarly, Piper reasons, if we are genuinely saved, and spiritually alive, we will want to breathe. And breathing is necessary for our life. The word is able to save our souls, but only if we receive it with meekness. Of course, a genuinely saved person will receive it with meekness.

So the Bible, and particularly the gospel message contained in it (“word of truth” primarily refers to the message of Gospel–good news of Jesus) is vital for our spiritual well being. If we don’t humble ourselves and fill ourselves with it continually, we prove that we have no real life. And availing ourselves of the Bible, reminding ourselves constantly of the Gospel, proves to sustain and nourish our spiritual life.

So aim with me this year to do a better job of oxygenating your spiritual life, by God’s grace and for His glory and our joy.

Note: I’ll add the link to Piper’s message, when it is available. I hope also to recap last year’s blogging and focus on 2008 in a post here soon.

UPDATE: Check out these Bible Reading plans available for download from NavPress. Our church uses the Discipleship Journal plan.

UPDATE 2: Here is the link to Piper’s sermon.

Huckabee's Victory Speech

~ fundyreformed ~ 12 Comments

Congratulations to Huckabee! He won Iowa by 9 points, 34% to 25% over Romney (with 95% reporting).

You will want to listen to his victory speech. It’s good, and only about 5 minutes long.

Plus this is a good bonus 5 minute interview clip from FoxNews.

Way to go, Huckabee! May the momentum continue.

Before I go, let me provide an excerpt from David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times and regular commenter for PBS’ The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. In a column entitled The Two Earthquakes, Brooks has this to say of Huckabee’s win.

On the Republican side, my message is: Be not afraid. Some people are going to tell you that Mike Huckabee’s victory last night in Iowa represents a triumph for the creationist crusaders. Wrong.

Huckabee won because he tapped into realities that other Republicans have been slow to recognize. First, evangelicals have changed. Huckabee is the first ironic evangelical on the national stage. He’s funny, campy (see his Chuck Norris fixation) and he’s not at war with modern culture.

Second, Huckabee understands much better than Mitt Romney that we have a crisis of authority in this country. People have lost faith in their leaders’ ability to respond to problems. While Romney embodies the leadership class, Huckabee went after it. He criticized Wall Street and K Street. Most importantly, he sensed that conservatives do not believe their own movement is well led. He took on Rush Limbaugh, the Club for Growth and even President Bush. The old guard threw everything they had at him, and their diminished power is now exposed.

Third, Huckabee understands how middle-class anxiety is really lived. Democrats talk about wages. But real middle-class families have more to fear economically from divorce than from a free trade pact. A person’s lifetime prospects will be threatened more by single parenting than by outsourcing. Huckabee understands that economic well-being is fused with social and moral well-being, and he talks about the inter-relationship in a way no other candidate has.

In that sense, Huckabee’s victory is not a step into the past. It opens up the way for a new coalition.

A conservatism that recognizes stable families as the foundation of economic growth is not hard to imagine. A conservatism that loves capitalism but distrusts capitalists is not hard to imagine either. Adam Smith felt this way. A conservatism that pays attention to people making less than $50,000 a year is the only conservatism worth defending.

Will Huckabee move on and lead this new conservatism? Highly doubtful. The past few weeks have exposed his serious flaws as a presidential candidate….

…
Huckabee probably won’t be the nominee, but starting last night in Iowa, an evangelical began the Republican Reformation.

Read the full article.

One other worthy link is Michael Medved’s “Told You So” at Townhall.com.

Again, congratulations to Huckabee and his many supporters. We can pull this off! Go Huckabee!