Author: fundyreformed

The Best Argument for Calvinism: Rom. 8:28 – 9:24

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I had always heard people say that Calvinism is based on logical implications not required by Scripture. Basically, it was argued, Calvinists have gone beyond what Scripture clearly teaches to come up with their positions. Anyone who agrees with this assessment must grapple with this passage of Scripture: Rom. 8:28-9:24. Why? Because it is the single best argument for Calvinism–and it is simply Scripture.

From my experience, most people choose to ignore this passage. Chapter 9 practically never gets preached on. And the average Christian just turns his brain off when reading this. Or if he is disturbed by the passage’s seeming contradiction with his theories of the atonement and man’s free will, he quickly meditates on his understanding of John 3:16 and goes on his way. Some do deal with this passage, but they so blatantly come to it with their preconceived notions as to what Scripture already does teach, that they cannot simply sit at the feet of Romans 9 and learn.

The article I am about to link to, is a good and simply written exposition of this passage. I encourage all to read it and let Scripture speak to this debate. In my own experience, I have found that it is the non Calvinist who does not let the Scripture speak. They are the ones who depend upon logical arguments for their position. There are scores and scores of passages which plainly teach the various truths which Calvinists singularly affirm. As many have said before, the Calvinist really does affirm everything a non Calvinist affirms about the gospel and God. Yet they affirm more, because they are compelled by Scripture to do so.

So, here is the article, An Overview of Romans 8:28-9:24, compliments of Reformation Theology Blog. Do not let others do your thinking for you. Read and study, and let Scripture be the authority for you on this issue.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

Bobspotted Blogroll: March 31, 2006

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GEMS FROM REFORMATION THEOLOGY

FROM THE IFBX BEAT

  • The Texas Baptist Underground has been busy lately! James Spurgeon has pointed out some pitiful examples of IFBx rationale as seen in LBT’s The Baptist Magazine here. He gave an excellent example of IFBx preaching while plugging three new links in this post. And then he commented on the “ministry” of a radio station with the hilarious call letters: WKJO (We are King James Only)!
  • My friend regularjoe over at The Big Orange Truck has been busy posting about Lord Vader of the bus ministry’s dark side! You can check out his posts on that subject here and here.
  • Also, thanks to James Spurgeon of The Texas Baptist Underground, I ran across a new blog attempting to become the underground ministry for First Baptist Church of Hammond, IN! You’ll have to check out Matt and Josh Richard’s first few posts over at Bread and Circuses. It promises to be both interesting and important.
  • By the way, I recently discovered a new version of the old Fighting Fundamentalist Forums. It is much more moderated than what the old FFF has devolved into. Anyway, I registered, and plan to post there off and on. You may want to check it out; the new name is The Fighting Fundamental Forums. [Interestingly it is moderated by someone I went to school with and knew fairly well.]

ON UNITY

  • You absolutely must check out Nathan Pitchford‘s excellent article entitled “Love, Unity, and Doctrinal Precision”. It should be required reading for anyone thinking through the issues facing fundamentalism (and indeed conservative evangelicalism) today.
  • Along these lines, my blogging friend Mathew Sims concludes that the separatism expressed in fundamentalism today could be termed (sadly) genocidal fundamentalism. I second his assessment and stress that this is happening over the most minor issues. This article and the one I mention above stress how such a view of separatism actually minimizes the importance of the major and key doctrines around which fundamentalists and evangelicals unite. [Check out my post regarding my new banner and motto, for more of these sentiments.]

LASTLY

  • I leave you with an encouraging book recommendation by Mathew Sims on The Bruised Reed by the Puritan Richard Sibbes. May you be encouraged as I was.

The Seven Dwarfs –An IFBx Sermon!

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100 Posts!

In honor of this my 100th post, I felt I should post something fun. Now the subject of this post is not exactly fun, but it is fun reading! So here is my long promised sermon outline of a sermon preached at Fairhaven College chapel entitled, “The Seven Dwarfs at Fairhaven”.

Date: 8/30/1999
Place: Fairhaven Baptist College Chapel
Speaker: Pastor —- ——– (from TX though)Title: “The Seven Dwarfs at Fairhaven”

Text: Eph. 4:11-14 and 1 Cor. 13:11

Intro: The seven dwarfs represent seven kinds of people at Fairhaven today. They are spiritual dwarfs. Now, two of the dwarfs are good dwarfs, but the rest are not.

1) Bashful — to shy to do anything for God. He can talk, but is afraid and has excuses, when he is asked to walk (ex. Moses in his call).

2) Grumpy — never in a good mood. He lives by circumstances and not God.

3) Dopey — immature. Strong in the flesh but weak in the Spirit. 1 Pet. 2:1 — he’s starving for the Word.

4) Happy — he is always joyful. Joy is a state of mind (Phil. 4:4). This is a good dwarf.

5) Sleepy — sleeps in church. He doesn’t conquer wandering thoughts. He has spiritual indifference.

6) Doc — he cares. He cares for spiritual matters, and has patience. He is also a good dwarf.

7) Sneezy — he bases everything on his feelings.

I hope you are as dumbfounded to see this as I was when I listened to this message! So we are to start with a Disney movie, and then go to Scripture to see what we can spiritualize from it? And this is Bible preaching? Some might object that it is merely a method to gain a hearing. Yet a whole message like this? It just does not seem to be a very Scripturally based sermon to me. This is not the model I would give young preacher boys for them to model their messages after. That is for sure.

While this sermon is a little extreme as an example, there were many others with the same basic premise. Sermons are designed according to the speaker’s whim and not the mandate of a passage of Scripture. This problem is not exclusive to IFB/IFBx’s to be fair, yet this sort of preaching is very pervasive. This tends to a trivializing of preaching and contributes to a poor hermeneutic which negatively impacts Bible study and even personal Bible reading. Rather than Bible thumpers, we need Bible trumpeters!

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us by Stuart Townend

~ fundyreformed ~ 3 Comments

This past Sunday, we sang this song. It is a very deep and thoughtful song, which I am more and more appreciating. It may soon become my #1 favorite song. I hope it blesses you as much as it has blessed me.

  

How Deep The Father’s Love For Us

by Stuart Townend

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
(REPEAT last two lines)

Copyright 1995, Kingsway’s Thankyou Music CCLI #74901

  

This is yet another modern hymn by Stuart Townend. I have already blogged about one of his other great hymns “In Christ Alone”. For this song I was able to find a pdf versin of the words and music in a sheet music form, here. For an idea as to the melody you can listen to a sample of the tune here. And if you are interested, you can order an octavo edition of an arrangement of this song (for use in choral music) here.

Update: For the story behind the song, click here.

A New Banner for a New Motto

~ fundyreformed

Fundamentally Reformed

Note: the banner above used to adorn my Blogger blog. As of July 16, 2006 I switched to WordPress.com.

How do you like my new banner?? I have been toying around with redesigning my template, but being not all that HTML savy, I have opted for merely adding this banner. The banner highlights my new motto, “striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God.” I give five Bible verses in support of my motto:

Eph. 4:3 “…eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Eph. 4:13 “…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,…”

Rom. 15:5-7 “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

These verses stress that God desires us to be in unity. Moreover, “the unity of the Spirit” and “the unity of the faith” result in a unity of praise from God’s people.

The purpose of my blog has been to promote unity. And by the grace of God this will continue.

Now some might say, “How can Bob truly be promoting unity when he continually rants and raves about the errors of fundamentalism?” Well, first off, make sure you understand exactly where I am coming from in my critique of fundamentalism. If you do not want to read my extremely long (sorry :)) personal story, at least read this post and maybe even this post. And do not neglect to read my earlier clarification post. But beyond what I have said previously about the issue, consider this. My concern over fundamentalist doctrinal and practical errors, is really a concern for more unity in the church. And unity is by no means at odds with doctrinal clarity.

Let me explain. Although I believe that the fundamentalists often inflate the importance of minor doctrines at the expense of unity, I still think it is important to promote the importance of minor doctrines. I think it is so important that much of this blog discusses them. The more we agree on minor doctrines, the better our practical unity will be. Yet we still share a huge degree of unity with those who may disagree with us on some clearly minor issues. Why? Because we share agreement the most important and fundamental doctrines in Scripture! For a better defense of this, see Nathan Pitchford‘s latest article on unity–he does a masterful job presenting how unity and doctrinal precision are not at odds.

Now, why am I so hung up on fundamentalists? I mean Evangelicalism has its fatal flaws too. I know, but I was raised a fundamentalist. Thus, I know their flaws, and want to see them fixed. Further, too often fundamentalists seem to cushion themselves from any personal evaluation due to their loud defaming of evangelicals. Often such loud speech merely covers for problems equally appaling of their own.

In conclusion, I have brought forth this new motto to stress the fact I am promoting unity. I think fundamentalism–even its best representations–practically distorts unity. It is a hindrance to unity. Yet I want to realize that fundamentalists–all of them–are my Christian brothers, with whom I have real unity (whether they {or I} acknowledge it). So this banner will help me remember to disagree and fight for doctrinal truth in a loving way. The previous subtitle I had, was more of an explanation of my blog’s title. “Out of the fog of independent fundamental Baptist extremism, into the light of Reformed Theology–a journal.” This clued you in on the nature of this blog, and what kind of topics I would discuss. This is still valuable and so I have kept it as a title for the banner–hover your cursor on the banner, and you should see that line. Yet, I think it brought a connotation that I was all out to bash IFBs or something. This is not the case, as this post has labored to explain.

∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 “¢ Rom. 15:5-7