Aug
21
Sweet words from Sproul
Filed Under Apologetics, Christian Living, Evangelism | Leave a Comment
A sweet, pithy summary of the glory of the gospel from one of our best teachers, R.C. Sproul:
The glory of the gospel is this: The one from whom we need to be saved is the one who saved us.
Nov
19
Baghdad Muslims seek Christian neighbors
Filed Under Apologetics, Current Events, Evangelism, Islam, Missions, The Church | Leave a Comment
According to an article that appeared in the April, 2003, issue of The Banner of Truth, Presbyterian missionaries began working in Iraq in 1836. Some five congregations belong to the Assembly of Evangelical Presbyterian Churches-Iraq. The oldest of these congregations dates to 1840 and is located in Mosul. The National Presbyterian Church in Basra dates to 1940. Other congregations are located in Kirkuk and Baghdad.
According to tradition, in the first century the apostle Thomas evangelized the region on his way to India. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an estimated 600,000 Christians lived in the country of 22 million people. By far the largest group is the Chaldean Catholic Church, followed by the Assyrian Church of the East (called the Nestorians), the Syrian Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Informed accounts tell us that the Ba’ath party of Saddam Hussein tolerated the presence of Christians in Iraq. After the March, 2003, invasion and toppling of the Hussein government, radical Islamic forces felt free to harass Christian churches. As a result, it is believed that most Iraqi Christians fled to Jordan, Syria or the northernmost region of Iraq.
In an article by Michael Yon on his personal website last week, he tells the story of a 15 November church service held at St. John’s Church in Baghdad. The story includes some beautiful photographs. It was the first service held in St. John’s in years–since nearby St. George’s Church was destroyed and a number of clergy in the area were kidnapped and killed. Yon reports that a crowd of locals welcomed home the Roman Catholic bishop. “They were joined at the service by soldiers from the 2-12 infantry battalion, many of whom had fought hard to secure these neighborhood streets. Members of the hard-fighting Iraqi Army 3rd Division were also here for this special day.”
Many local Muslims were in attendance at the service (and yes, it was a Mass–and yes, there are huge theological issues with the Mass–just hold on that for a few minutes, OK?). The locals sent out a plea for their Christian neighbors to come home.
I’m not going to engage in analysis about the American news media or speculate about the significance of the presence of local Muslims at a Catholic mass in a Baghdad neighborhood. What is interesting is the “Y’all come home” plea to the Christians who have fled. Whatever relationships were like prior to 2003, whatever politics are in play, whatever kind of understanding these folk have or don’t have about the gospel, the local Muslim neighbors want their Christian neighbors to come back. That says a lot for the kind of people these Christians are. Could the same be said in your neighborhood if the Christian folk moved out?
Oct
18
Book review: The Dawkins Letters
Filed Under Apologetics, Books, Culture, Current Events, Evangelism, Reading, Resources | Leave a Comment
After spending days sifting through all the kind comments from my birthday last week, it’s time to get back to blogging…today a book review:
There is a resurgent, muscular, in-your-face brand of atheism running about these days, especially evident on the bookshelves and best-sellers lists, where one can find Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Sam Harris’ The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation, and Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Bennett. But the ideological alpha male amongst today’s atheist authors is Richard Dawkins, whose book The God Delusion has enjoyed a lengthy stay on the New York Times’ Bestsellers List.
Now perhaps you’re not dealing with aggressive atheists in your life right now. I must admit that Kosciusko is no hotbed of such ideas (In fact, at a county ministerial association meeting earlier this week, I discovered that no one at the meeting had even heard of any of the aforementioned books!) . Having said that, let me recommend a short book (125 pages in pocket-sized paperback) that lets you in on the discussion with intelligent, thoughtful Christian responses to the atheistic arguments (specifically interacting with Dawkins’ The God Delusion): David Robertson’s The Dawkins Letters: Challenging Atheist Myths (Ross-shire: Christian Focus, 2007).
David Robertson is minister of St. Peter’s Free Church, Dundee, Scotland (the same church Robert Murray M’Cheyne pastored in the 19th century). Robertson read The God Delusion and then decided to post an open letter to Richard Dawkins on the St. Peter’s website. Soon Robertson’s letter found its way onto Dawkins’ own website, where it elicited an enormous amount of response. As a result, Robertson expanded his critique into the ten letters which compose The Dawkins Letters.
Each of the ten letters addresses a myth that forms the basis for Dawkins’ appeals. What makes Dawkins’ arguments especially contemptible is that these myths (such as the “cruel” Old Testament God, the inherent evil of religion, the immoral Bible, the conflict between science and religion, higher consciousness among atheists) are presented under the guise of science, rationalism and empirical study. What is presented as reason is actually an appeal to anti-religious prejudice. Again and again Robertson points out the contradictions and hypocrisy evident in the atheists’ claims. Particularly strong is his response to Dawkins’ accusation that the religious education of children is a form of child abuse more harmful than the sexual abuse of children.
The final chapter in the book is a wonderful, serious, and warm-hearted explanation of why he believes that Christianity is true and why you should believe. Reading The Dawkins Letters will open your mind to some current issues and equip you to answer challenges without fear or embarrassment.
You can view a ten-minute video Robertson has produced which summarizes his point of view here.
Jul
31
Book review: The Holy Trinity
Filed Under Apologetics, Books, Christian History, Holy Spirit, Worship | Leave a Comment
The best and most challenging class I took in seminary was an elective class during my final semester under my favorite professor, Dr. Douglas F. Kelly. The class was ‘The Doctrine of the Trinity.’ The lectures and the reading were like hiking in high elevation–awe-inspiring, humbling views, but the oxygen was thin and I tired easily. Murray Garrott and I co-wrote a paper on ‘The Trinity and Personhood’ which was not all that great, but I managed to do well on the oral exam at the end. Those who want to catch the vistas these days have a great guide and companion along the mountain paths in Robert Letham’s The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship (P&R, 2004).
Letham is senior minister of Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, and adjunct professor of systematic theology at Westminster Seminary and the Washington/Baltimore extension of Reformed Theological Seminary. His book is divided into four parts: 1) Biblical foundations, 2) historical development, 3) modern discussion, and 4) critical issues (the incarnation, worship and prayer, creation and missions, and persons). While writing from a Reformed perspective, Letham interacts with theologians from all periods of church history and from a wide variety of backgrounds, from East and West, from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
Most Christians do not have a biblically solid and precise understanding of the Trinity, finding it all ‘a mathematical conundrum, full of imposing philosophical jargon, relegated to an obscure alcove, remote from daily life’ (1). Letham is not attempting to write a ‘Trinity made simple’ book, but one that is thoroughly biblical and wide-ranging in its survey of the doctrines development and implications. For example, Letham observes that in Eastern Christianity (e.g., the Greek and Russian orthodox churches) there has been a tendency to fall into the error of subordinationism, viewing the Son and the Holy Spirit as deriving from the Father and thus not quite as much ‘God’ as the Father. In Western Christianity (Roman Catholicism and the Protestant churches) the tendency has been toward modalism, blurring or eclipsing the personal distinctions so as to view God as a single person who simple manifests himself at different times as Father, Son and Spirit.
All of this has daily significance because Christian experience of God and communion with God is inescapably Trinitarian. The design, accomplishment, and application of our redemption is a work of all three persons of the one true God. The Father, Son and Spirit are vitally united to worship and prayer. Letham presents a deep and thrilling case that embracing a full Trinitarian theology equips us to engage Islam and post-modernism with the claims of the Gospel, to engage Darwinism and pagan environmentalism with the biblical vision of order, coherence, unity and diversity in the universe, and end manipulation and lovelessness in our relationships with others. The ‘critical issues’ section of the book are worth the effort of working through the thicker parts of the historical development sections.
A Prayer from Service Book of the Syrian-Antiochene Orthodox Church, the all-night vigil service, the third hour:
Glory to thee, our God; glory to thee,
O heavenly King, the Comforter, Spirit of Truth, who are in all places and fill all things;
Treasury of good things and Giver of life:
come and take up thy abode in us,
and cleanse us from every stain; and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy upon us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy upon us.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal One, have mercy upon us.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
now and ever, and unto ages of ages.
O all-holy Trinity, have mercy on us.
O Lord, wash away our sins.
O Master, pardon our transgressions.
O Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
now and ever, unto ages of ages. Amen.
Jul
9
Is Mormonism Christian?
Filed Under Apologetics, Mormonism | 2 Comments
Al Mohler and Orson Scott Card are currently participating in an online debate on whether Mormonism is Christianity or not. Mormonism has received a face lift in the pass few years through advertising themselves as just another denomination, aggresively advocating their family values, and by having a presidential hopeful in Mitt Romney. If you are at all interested in finding out more about the false religion of Mormonism, you really need to read the debate as it unfolds. Mohler is clearly, decisively, and graciously delivering a strong defense for the orthodox Christian faith handed down through the centuries.
Jun
20
And now for something completely different…or not
Filed Under Apologetics, Evangelism, Islam | Leave a Comment
In stark contrast to the previous blog post about the Episcopal priest from Washington who has declared herself 100% Christian and 100% Muslim is this from The Boston Globe about Lina Joy. Here’s an extended quote to cut to the chase:
Malaysia’s best known Christian convert, Lina Joy, lost a six-year battle on Wednesday to have the word “Islam” removed from her identity card, after the country’s highest court rejected the change.
The ruling threatens to further polarize Malaysian society between non-Muslims who feel that their constitutional right to religious freedom is being eroded, and Muslims who believe that civil courts have no right to meddle in Islamic affairs.
“You can’t at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another,” Federal Court Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said in delivering judgment in the case, which has stirred religious tensions in the mainly Muslim nation.
He said the civil court had no jurisdiction in the case and that it should be dealt with by the country’s Islamic courts.”The issue of apostasy is related to Islamic law, so it’s under the sharia court. The civil court cannot intervene.”
…Lina Joy, 43, was born Azlina Jailani and was brought up as a Muslim, but at the age of 26 decided to become a Christian. She wants to marry her Christian boyfriend, a cook, but she cannot do so while her identity card declares her to be Muslim.
In 1999, the registration department allowed her to change the name in her identity card to Lina Joy but the entry for her religion remained “Islam.”
Malaysia, like neighboring Indonesia, practices a moderate brand of Islam, but Muslims account for only a bare majority of Malaysia’s population and are very sensitive to any perceived threats to Islam’s special status as the official religion.
Malaysia has been under Islamic influence since the 15th century, but big waves of Chinese and Indian immigrants over the last 150 years has dramatically changed its racial and religious make-up. Now, about 40 percent of Malaysians are non-Muslim.
How about the line from the Chief Justice: “You can’t at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another,” about a conversion that took place over a decade ago!
In 1 Corinthians 10:21-22 the Apostle Paul declares in no uncertain terms, You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? In short, you can’t live a double life. Can you imagine the apostle’s reaction to a Corinthian elder (and yes, this is assuming Paul would not first question why he is talking to female elder!) who said, “I am 100% Christian and 100% a devotee of Aphrodite. At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That’s all I need. I look through Jesus and I see Aphrodite”? You don’t have to imagine his reaction. You just read it in the first sentence of the paragraph.
The story of the Rev. Ann Holmes in Washington and the story of Lina Joy in Malaysia provide a remarkable lesson about religion. For the former, religion is like a fashion accessory, putting a Muslim prayer scarf on the head five times a day and wearing an Episcopal clerical collar in between times. And it all feels good inside. For the latter, religion is a question of basic identity—under whose law will I live, whom shall I marry, where will I go, will I put myself and my family in jeopardy by standing for my faith against powers opposed to that faith, will I live or die?
In stating the issue this way, I do not doubt Rev. Holmes’ sincerity in her beliefs, but I do question whether she has any understanding of Christianity or Islam that does justice to either religion. She speaks of her “conversion” as a matter of identity, but that identity seems to boil down to the idea that you can be Muslim at breakfast, Episcopalian at dinner (in the South this is the meal eaten around noon), and Muslim again by happy hour (but I think you’d want to be Episcopalian at happy hour).
Call me when the New York Times reports on the imam who adopts Judaism as a supplemental faith.