Think Wink.

I read an interesting article summarizing J.J. Niehaus’ translation of Genesis 3:8. Niehaus offers a rather different translation of this verse and the theophany it reveals to the reader. Genesis 3:8 in the ESV reads,

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

The key phrase that is retranslated by Niehaus retranslates in his 1995 work entitled God at Sinai is “the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” I find the new translation interesting and I want to ponder it in this post after briefly summarizing his arguments that are found on pages 155-159 in the book.
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A Thunderous, Roaring, Crushing Voice?

Dr. Jerry Falwell

What to do?

Today I had an appointment with some more LDS missionaries. We went to McDonalds for some fastfood and to discuss our theological differences. You know, I always feel weird asking God to bless that stuff we call fast-food, but then again it reminds me that I have to believe in miracles to even ask. My good friend Shane Griffin gave me a very good book to read, Letters to a Mormon Elder by one of my favorite teachers/scholars James White. They came on last Tuesday to speak with me and I didn’t have the time last week. Shane gave me to book on Thursday, but I was busy all weekend. Friday and Saturday I was in Lee’s Summit with my Uncle Dwight. Sunday I was at Union Station here in KC, MO to see the Bodies Revealed exhibit. It was a good exhibit but I felt they didn’t need to identify the gender of every body in the exhibit. Of course I was with my youth group too.

Having crammed as much James White in my head as possible, I wanted to discuss the Mormon doctrine of God. Mormons are polytheists, Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all separate gods. This is not what the Bible teaches. However, I found that due to my lack of time to really ponder what was in Dr. White’s book, I really couldn’t articulate what I wanted to say. If I had pushed the issue of justification by faith alone and salvation by grace alone, I would have done much better. Justification I can walk through a given passage, exegeting it. Expounding the doctrine of God is more difficult because there is no passage I can just walk through.

I will make these observations. 1.) They did not hide a lot of Mormon theology from me. They spoke of pre-existence and God being an exalted man and them being polytheistic. I really appreciate that. 2.) I did not find their “one in purpose” a very satisfying exposition of Mosiah 15:1-5 from the Book of Mormon. Purposiveness is not in the text, they read it into the document. 3.) The missionaries did not want to stay in Isaiah very long and came back to their own theology. For example, I pointed to Isaiah 45:5-7 and Deuteronomy 6:4 and said there is only one God, how can they say their is three gods? 4.) They really had not answer to John 5:17-18 and John 10:30-33 and the Jews wanting to stone Jesus for claiming to be Yahweh. However, I messed up on that because I had not established the fact that both Father and Son are referred to as the one God, Yahweh. So with out that being argued, I can’t really hold that against them.

I am to meet with them next week and hopefully God will grant me to be better prepared and that I can share who the God of the Bible is, or may be I might tackle the issue of justification and grace from Romans 3-5 and Philippians 1-3. However, I do know that the little bit of truth I did mange to sneak in God can and does use for his glory, either to harden hearts or to save souls. I pray the latter for these men.

Inconsistency with in Mormonism

This Time Next Year…

A Blissful Headache

Here are a couple of videos that feature Tim Keller lecturing from his new book The Reason for God and then taking Q&A. Magnificent.

Google

H/T: Tim Challies

Berkeley

H/T: Denny Burk

Preaching is a Means not an End.

That’s a Good Question

Musical Roots

This is amazing!

Amen and Amen!

(H/T: Justin Taylor)

Thank You Dr. Piper

Piper and the Minneapolis Bridge

If anyone ever thinks Piper is perfect…

The third question in my sermon from two Sunday’s ago, my question for application, is the next question in my series on 2 Corinthians 4:4-6. The question is: how does this gospel impact the way I do ministry? Let us get the text in front of us again. Paul writes,

4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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No Doctrine But Love?

Three Requests

When I Was Napping…

Denny Burk highlights a response by Dr. John Piper to the Islamic document A Common Word Between Us and You published last October (2007) and the Christian response published in November. You can click here to get all of the links and a summary of which Christian leaders endorsed the response (You can also find Al Mohler’s response that shares Piper’s concern), but I just want everyone to watch this video and note Piper’s response. We need to come to Muslims not with a false notion of God and Jesus in order to create common ground, we need to come with Christ and him crucified for the sins of all who will believe upon him for their salvation from the wrath of God. I really enjoyed it and I am always deeply pressed on how necessary the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for every day living. Enjoy.

Everyone Loses It At Some Point

What is the “Age” of the Disciples?

I come back to Mark 1:14-15 for one last meditation before moving on to something else. Again we read from the Gospel work,

Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. He said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”

Now I want to focus upon Jesus’ actions in this text. We have seen in this series how Mark is about Jesus preaching good news and we looked at the message he preached. In this post we will come back to the idea of this book being about the gospel Jesus preached.
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Truth, Salvation, and “euaggelion”

No Doctrine But Love?

A New Way of Doing Devotions for this Year?

In my previous post Objections to Calvinism Part 4 of 5, I took the reader to Luke 10:21-22 where Jesus responds to the report of the missionaries with this prayer,

21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will (or good pleasure). 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

In that post, I argued that unconditional election and effectual calling are two things that bring joy to the entire Godhead. Jesus and the Holy Spirit rejoice in this, and it is the Father’s good pleasure to do this. Election and effectual call is the the joy of God. God rejoices and delights to reveal himself through Christ to those whom he choses. It is his joy.

Now I want to go further with this idea. God rejoices when a person comes to salvation, when the elect are effectually called to faith. Jesus says in Luke 15:10, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Whose joy is Jesus referring to in heaven? It is not the angels’ joy because it is before them, not in them. Luke uses the Greek preposition enwpion to say that the joy is in the presence of the angels. I would argue that this joy is that of God’s. God is rejoicing over this sinner repenting–which is a gift of God (2 Timothy 2:24-26). God rejoices in the salvation of sinners. The angels share in this joy by virtue of being in his presence in heaven.

Now there is a difference between the angels and us: God has ordained to save sinners through the preaching of humans (Romans 10:13-17) where as angels do not preach the gospel through which God effectually calls sinners to faith and repentance. God brings about salvation through our efforts of preaching the gospel in evangelism and missions. Thus through our exercise of the preaching of the gospel God performs that which brings him joy: saving his elect. Therefore we are participating in that joy of God. We, thus, share in God’s joy. His joy in saving sinners becomes our joy as well. We have the joy of God in our preaching!

Thus as a Calvinist, I preach the gospel so that I may gain the joy of God, that I may enjoy the joy of God. Evangelism and sharing my faith unites me to an infinite joy that exists within the Trinity. I partake of that joy through my evangelistic outreach. I am not worried about trying to convince sinners to accept Christ as both Lord and Savior (I hear too much on the radio these days about Christ being Savior but never anything about him being Lord, cf. Romans 10:9-10, we confess Christ as Lord, not Savior). I am preaching and receiving the joy that I am participating in through that proclamation of the gospel.

Now apply this to missions in the remotest parts of the world, peoples who have never heard the gospel and if they have they are hostile to it and will kill you if you dare preach it. What can motivate you to stay there? Some people are indeed motivated by their lost condition. But this can be overwhelming, trying to combat this lostness that only God can defeat. But if there is joy, divine joy, in what the missionary is doing, oh how much easier it will be to remain focused, on task, and to persevere in this Great Commission. So to all of the missionaries out there, preaching the gospel to people who would have them killed for it, cling to the joy of God that is in the salvation of sinners. Let his joy sustain you in your darkest hours. Let his delight lift your burdened soul as it becomes your delight. God’s joy is one hundred thousand times brighter than any darkness Satan and this world can throw at you.

This applies to the person sharing their faith with random people down the street. Share the gospel with these lost people. Your joy will be complete because it is a perfect and infinite joy that you receive: the joy that is shared by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stand on the corner and when people mock or ridicule you, savor the gospel call that God will issue through your preaching, for you will be rewarded beyond measure.

This applies to those witnessing to friends and family. Friends may look down upon you for your faith. Family may laugh and ridicule you and your Lord. But having his joy is ten thousand times greater than the acceptance of friends and family. Preach to them the gospel and let Christ’s joy sustain you as you face the mockery and are shamed.

Let God’s joy be your joy. Preach the gospel and share in that divine joy.

Luke 15 and Lostness

Another look into euaggelion

Reflections on the Pastor

Today I want to discuss the next objection on my list, Election and Evangelism. Let me review the series so far. In the first post, I tried to distinguish historic, five-point Calvinism from hyper-Calvinism. In the second post, I showed that election in a Reformed soteriology is not a source of pride and arrogance, but is a humbling action of God that reveals his glory, from Romans 9:11 and 1 Corinthians 1:20-31. In the third post, I argued that election does not diminish our pursuit of obedience and holiness, but rather grounds our pursuit and gives us confidence that we will be obedience.

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Objections to Calvinism Part 1 of 5

Objections to Calvinism Part 7 of 5

My Comfort in Romans 9

Last year, in December, I wrote two posts on my encounters with two Mormon missionaries that I really enjoyed trying to explain the Gospel of the Glory of Christ Who Is the Image of God. You can read the posts by clicking here and here.

Well, yesterday after church–a very good sermon on John 14:6 and intolerance–I came to home and had some ribs (thank you uncle Jamie!). I was really tired so I laid down and took a nap while listening to James White; it wasn’t that he was that boring, it’s that I was that tired. All of a sudden, I heard my aunt call my name. I looked at the clock on the computer and saw that it was 4:30 pm. I went down stair and she said I had some visitors. Guess who? It was three totally different missionaries wanting to share their gospel with me again. Now I was excited but I was totally out of it, incoherent. I was so zonked out that I was drooling on my shirt sleeve. As I walked down the stairs I was wiping off my mouth while rubbing my eyes. The right side of my face was all red from me sleeping on it.

Well, my Despote has seen fit to bring new missionaries into my life to share the gospel. So I lift up these men in prayer as they are going to call me next week so we can have a little talk. I ask that you pray for God’s grace to open their eyes to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. I also ask that you pray for me that I might adequately prepared to give a defense of the hope that lies within and to do so with gentleness and respect. Pray also that this will be done with respect and with intentionality. Pray also that God’s name will be honored in the exchange.

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