Tag: Theology

We Believe (#14): Death, Resurrection, and the Coming of the Lord

~ fundyreformed ~ 2 Comments

Part 14 in a series of Sunday posts celebrating the glorious Truth we believe as Christians. The readings are quoted from the Elder Affirmation of Faith, of my church, Bethlehem Baptist (Pastor John Piper). I’m doing this because every few weeks our congregational reading is an excerpt from this document, and every time we all read aloud the truths we confess, my soul rejoices. I pray these posts will aid you in worshiping our Lord on His day.

Death, Resurrection, and the Coming of the Lord

We believe that when Christians die they are made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, and are taken consciously into the presence of Christ, which is more glorious and more satisfying than any experience on earth.

We believe in the blessed hope that at the end of the age Jesus Christ will return to this earth personally, visibly, physically, and suddenly in power and great glory; and that He will gather His elect, raise the dead, judge the nations, and establish His kingdom. We believe that the righteous will enter into the everlasting joy of their Master, and those who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness will be consigned to everlasting conscious misery.

We believe that the end of all things in this age will be the beginning of a never-ending, ever-increasing happiness in the hearts of the redeemed, as God displays more and more of His infinite and inexhaustible greatness and glory for the enjoyment of His people.

*Taken from the Bethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith, paragraphs 14.1-14.3. You are free to download the entire affirmation [pdf] complete with Scriptural proofs for the above statements.

The Big "If": John Piper's Father on Perseverance and Eternal Security

~ fundyreformed ~ 5 Comments

Regular readers of this blog know I am not big on the “once saved, always saved” idea. I think it belittles the Bible’s emphasis on the necessity of persevering faith, and I don’t think it represents an orthodox view of eternal security. Salvation is no “tattoo”, Pastor Charles Stanley, not withstanding (see post linked above).

Since I had my 1 John 2:19 epiphany moment, the Bible’s teaching on perseverance and continuance in the faith has become clearer and clearer to me. And always ever more vital. Yet whenever one tries to explain it, he inevitably encounters many deaf ears, or stunned looks. Modern Christianity has biased us against grasping that faith must be alive and enduring for it to be a true saving faith.

John Piper recently shared a brief 4 minute audio clip of his father preaching on Colossians 1:23 — “IF indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast…”

I thought that clip, from a fundamentalistic SBC evangelist, was excellent. He explains the double nature of perseverance excellently. If we are really a possessor, then we are going to endure. And if we don’t endure, we are just a professor. Yet all the possessors are eternally secure. There I go again: tripping over my words trying to explain an important point. Stop reading and listen to Bill Piper, won’t you?

And if you care to read more from me on this subject, check out my posts on perseverance.

The Underappreciated Calvin

~ fundyreformed ~ 5 Comments

Loved by many, yet hated by more. John Calvin, the great Reformer, has bequeathed us a schizophrenic legacy.

He is remembered largely for the movement which carries his name: Calvinism. Predestination, cold hard logic, spiritual deadness, fatalists. This is how many view Calvinists today. Sure there are some who earn such descriptors, yet the historical orthodox movement bears greater resemblance to its founder than it does to a hyper-Calvinistic heresy.

Some view Calvin as the dictator of Geneva, yet in truth he was run out of town a time or two. He was a respected pastor, but simply a pastor. The town council condemned Servetus, and Calvin pleaded for the most merciful death available. In this he was a man of his times.

And how did his contemporaries view him? Most definitely not cold and logical. He was later chided as “the most Christian man of his generation”. Benjamin Warfield, the great Princeton theologian, described Calvin as the eminent Biblical theologian of his day (emphasis on “Biblical” rather than “theoretical” or “speculative”).

I could go on, but I would be writing the article I intend for you to read. John Chitty recently highlighted several of Calvin’s positive contributions to today’s church and he also linked to a superb article by Benjamin Warfield on Calvin as a theologian.

Among other things, Warfield points out that Calvin was the first to give a full treatment of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And in fact, when with the Reformers, Calvin dethroned the Church of Rome, he put in its place the Holy Spirit. Let me continue with an excerpt from Warfield’s article:

Previously, men had looked to the Church for all the trustworthy knowledge of God obtainable, and as well for all the communications of grace accessible. Calvin taught them that neither function has been committed to the Church, but God the Holy Spirit has retained both in His own hands and confers both knowledge of God and communion with God on whom He will. The Institutes is, accordingly, just a treatise on the work of God the Holy Spirit in making God savingly known to sinful man, and bringing sinful man into holy communion with God….

Here then is probably Calvin’s greatest contribution to theological development. In his hands, for the first time in the history of the Church, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit comes to its rights. Into the heart of none more than into his did the vision of the glory of God shine, and no one has been more determined than he not to give the glory of God to another….And above everything else he deserves, therefore, the great name of the theologian of the Holy Spirit.

[read the article in its entirety]

Reasons for Christmas

~ fundyreformed ~ 7 Comments

Today during the Sunday sermon, I was reminded of some of the explicit reasons given for Christmas in 1 John. Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus’ birth. So reasons given for Jesus coming into the world, are reasons for Christmas.

As we all celebrate Christmas, and I hope you really celebrate Jesus this Christmas. The reasons given below for Jesus’ incarnation (his taking on human flesh and being born in the manger), should help us reflect on the wonder that Jesus did come. And they should help us to prize the Cross and Resurrection as we rejoice over the babe in the manger.

…[Jesus] appeared to take away sins… (1 John 3:5)

…The Reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (3:8)

In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (4:9-10)

…the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (4:14)

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true… (5:20)

Christmas Reading

~ fundyreformed ~ 1 Comment

Merry Christmas everyone. 1 week, that’s all. Only 1 week till Christmas!

I hope that you will all have a great Christmas, but that it will be more than just an American Christmas. Please celebrate Christ and revel in worship as we remember his birth. Look past the manger to the Cross and further still to the empty tomb! Remember that Jesus is the Greatest Gift ever given!

I wanted to point you to our online Christmas Card and wish you all a wonderful Christmas. And I thought I’d also list a few interesting posts on the topic of Christmas here, as well.

Here is the link to our family Christmas greeting, and the links below are worth the read:

  • The 12 Days of Theology (an interesting new version of the popular carol 12 Days of Christmas)
  • A look at the history of the song “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”
  • A good old hymn you might have never heard of: “Christmas Day Has Come” [tune available (scroll down) here]
  • Ben Stein (a Jew) on Christmas:

    I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are “” Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they’re slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto…..I do not like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.

  • Down with Santa Claus — an thoughtful critique of Saint Nick
  • An Eschatological Advent
  • Six Gifts from God at Christmas

    Here are six gifts from God, specially wrapped and delivered . . . for you! A sympathetic friend, a supreme and unchallenged Lord over all, wonderfully wise, always able to act on behalf of those who trust him, sensitive and caring and compassionate, the giver of all peace and comfort and consolation.