Tag: Religion

Book Briefs: “Pierced by the Word” by John Piper

~ Bob Hayton ~ 8 Comments

If you’ve never read one of John Piper’s devotional books, you’re missing out. The 31 meditations in Pierced by the Word cover a variety of topics — some practical, others theological. From drinking orange juice to battling lust, from thinking about suffering to thinking about politics — each devotional reading stresses the importance of living by faith and living for Christ.

Your soul will be nourished by this book, as it stresses the importance of personal prayer and emphasizes the glory of the Gospel. I recommend that you get this or another of Piper’s devotional books, and read it as part of your spiritual diet. It will help you fight the good fight of faith.

This book is available for purchase at the following sites: Amazon.com or direct from Waterbrook Multnomah.

About Book Briefs: Book Briefs are book notes, or short-form book reviews. They are my informed evaluation of a book, but stop short of being a full-length book review.

Piper & Carson on Essential Doctrines

~ fundyreformed ~ 14 Comments

Recently we’ve been debating the idea of whether certain doctrines should be considered fundamental or essential, and others merely secondary. Most Christians and even fundamentalists do admit that there are essential doctrines that are more important than others. However, as my last installment of my church’s elder confession of faith shows, this doesn’t mean other doctrines are not important.

With these thoughts on my mind, I was surprised to find a recent discussion of this very topic from my church’s most recent conference. At the 2008 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors, they had a panel discussion on a variety of topics. One of the questions was “What makes a doctrine essential?” John Piper and D.A. Carson did a good job discussing that question. I took the conference video (available for download), and tried to cut it down to just this question: unfortunately, during the last 2 minutes, the audio and video are a little out of sync, but not too much.

 

Update: I should also note that I thought Carson’s warning about “being prophetic from the margins” was similar to my contention that majoring on the minors belittles the Gospel. Also, if anyone can’t view the video online, or download the original video, they can read the transcript.

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.

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.

We Believe (#12): Christ’s Church and Her Ordinances

~ fundyreformed ~ 8 Comments

Part 12 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.

Christ’s Church and Her Ordinances

We believe in the one universal Church, composed of all those, in every time and place, who are chosen in Christ and united to Him through faith by the Spirit in one Body, with Christ Himself as the all-supplying, all-sustaining, all-supreme, and all-authoritative Head. We believe that the ultimate purpose of the Church is to glorify God in the everlasting and ever-increasing gladness of worship.

We believe it is God’s will that the universal Church find expression in local churches in which believers agree together to hear the Word of God proclaimed, to engage in corporate worship, to practice the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to build each other’s faith through the manifold ministries of love, to hold each other accountable in the obedience of faith through Biblical discipline, and to engage in local and world evangelization. The Church is a body in which each member should find a suitable ministry for His gifts; it is the household of God in which the Spirit dwells; it is the pillar and bulwark of God’s truth in a truth-denying world; and it is a city set on a hill so that men may see the light of its good deeds — especially to the poor — and give glory to the Father in heaven.

We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of belonging to the new people of God, the true Israel, and an emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin.

We believe that the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of the Lord in which gathered believers eat bread, signifying Christ’s body given for His people, and drink the cup of the Lord, signifying the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. We do this in remembrance of the Lord, and thus proclaim His death until He comes. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christ’s body and blood, not physically, but spiritually, in that, by faith, they are nourished with the benefits He obtained through His death, and thus grow in grace.

We believe that each local church should recognize and affirm the divine calling of spiritually qualified men to give leadership to the church through the role of pastor-elder in the ministry of the Word and prayer. Women are not to fill the role of pastor-elder in the local church, but are encouraged to use their gifts in appropriate roles that edify the body of Christ and spread the gospel.

*Taken from the Bethlehem Baptist Church Elder Affirmation of Faith, paragraphs 12.1 – 12.5. You are free to download the entire affirmation [pdf] complete with Scriptural proofs for the above statements.