Entries from November 2005 ↓

So begins my first season of Advent as an attender of a more liturgical church. I don’t know what to expect (or if I should even expect anything hugely deviant from my previous experience), but I’m expectant of something.

Check out Katie’s post on Christmas over at Sister’s Weblog. I like her idea of taking the next year to re-examine how we celebrate Christmas (and holidays in general) and doing our best to glorify God in how we celebrate.

Good night.

My lovely wife bought me a copy of Keith Mathison’s The Shape of Sola Scriptura for my 27th birthday a few weeks ago. I already had a few books sitting on my plate at the time, but I really wanted to start digging into this one, as I recently enjoyed another of Dr. Mathison’s books. Thankfully, one of the books I was in the midst of reading was really short.

The premise of the book is essentially that over the last couple of hundred years, Protestants (especially modern evangelicals) have taken the great “scripture alone” doctrine recovered by the sixteenth-century Reformers and changed it into something that it never was intended to be: an exaltation of the role of the individual and a repudiation of the role and authority of the church. This bastardized version of the doctrine has been weighed and found wanting by many thoughtful now-former Protestants and has (in part) led them to seek stability in Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. A few passages that struck me as I began reading today . . .

[A] new generation of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox apologists has been publishing an ever increasing number of books critical of the doctrine of sola scriptura. Many of these men and women who have left Protestantism claim to have grown increasingly frustrated at the tendency within evangelical Protestantism to divide continually over numerous differences of interpretation and at its seeming inability to even begin resolving these differences. They cite the numerous theological fads that permeate Protestantism and the numerous heretics that are readily given a hearing in evangelical circles as long as these heretics claim to be preaching “what the Bible says.” Seeking shelter from the theological chaos that is modern evangelicalism, these men and women fled to communions which claim to have the answer. Part of that answer is a rejection of sola scriptura.

Within evangelicalism, many professing Christians use sola scriptura as a battle cry to justify endless schism. Other professing evangelicals use the slogan sola scriptura to justify every manner of false doctrine imaginable.
( . . . )
If sola scriptura is true, . . . critics ask, then why are Protestants unable to come to agreement on what the Scripture teaches? For these reasons and more, it is absolutely imperative that the heirs of the Reformation be able to define accurately their concept of authority and be able to defend it against its opponents.

Roman Catholic and Orthodox apologists have been effective in their criticisms in large part because of the fact that most Protestants have adopted a subjective and individualistic version of sola scriptura that bears little resemblance to the doctrine of the Reformers. As long as Protestants attempt to maintain this defective version of sola scriptura, and as long as this version of the doctrine is allowed to be identified as the Protestant position, Roman Catholic and Orthodox apologists will continue to effectively demolish it and gain frustrated seekers.

All of that is just from the introduction. Eleven chapters and three hundred pages to go. I’m excited.

(Tags: sola scriptura, keith mathison, bible)

(HT: Michaela)

I would SO use that first line on a girl if I weren’t married.

The Confession of Sin
from a collection of Puritan Prayers

O my Savior, help me.
I am slow to learn,
Prone to forget,
And weak to climb.

I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights.

I am pained by my graceless heart,
my prayerless days,
my poverty of love,
my sloth in the heavenly race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
and my unspent opportunities.

I am blind while the light shines around me.

Take the scales from my eyes,
Grind to dust my heart of unbelief.

Make it my highest joy to study you,
Meditate on you,
Gaze on you,
Sit, like Mary, at your feet,
Lean, like John, your breast,
Appeal, like Peter, to your love,
Count, like Paul, all things loss.

I believe.
Help my unbelief.

Amen.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. - Isaiah 40:8 (ESV)

The smartass in me imagines the United Church of Christ giving a response of “fo’eva? Fo’eva-eva? Fo’eva-eva?!” (a la André 3000 in Ms. Jackson).

During the work week, I often drive past Dublin Community Church, a UCC-affiliated church with a beautiful old building. On its sign, there is (or was . . . I’m not certain it’s still there) a sign reading “God Is Still Speaking”. You see, the United Church started a campaign called “StillSpeaking” a year or so ago, with the tagline “God is still speaking,” which is in turn based on a quote attributed to Gracie Allen (wife of George Burns): “Never place a period where God has placed a comma”. (This campaign is most notorious for the infamous “Bouncer” ad that I wrote about late last year on my LiveJournal . . . that entry probably garnered the most comments I’ve ever had for a single post.)

I think that there’s value in the statement, when taken at face value. God isn’t silent and he’s not dead. He speaks constantly through Scripture, through our experiences, through wise teachers, and directly to the hearts of his children through his Spirit. From looking through the StillSpeaking website (along with what I already know of the United Church), though, their use of the slogan seems to largely mean “God is saying new, different, ‘better’ things than what’s recorded in Scripture.” Perhaps that all religions and belief systems somehow will make a person just before God . . . perhaps that homosexual behaviour really isn’t wrong . . . perhaps that man really did come evolve from monkeys. Who knows? Looking through a few websites of UCC congregations, many use it to trumpet the fact that they “welcome all of God’s people,” meaning that your race, marital status, age, and (especially) your sexual behavior won’t bar you from entering for worship. First of all, Scripture suggests nothing different . . . Christ forgives, justifies, and changes all who will come to him by faith. God’s not saying anything new there. Second, “welcoming all of God’s people” is actually a pretty exclusive statement, considering the fact that the only people referred to in Scripture as “God’s people” are believer-followers of God (revealed in Christ). Of course, the UCC would likely never agree to such a restrictive definition. Guess God’s still speaking there, as well, eh?

I can appreciate the sentiment that they’re trying to create . . . a picture of a church with doors open to people of all walks of life. Unfortunately, those that they’re attracting the most with this campaign are those who likely need the Gospel the most . . . and it’s likely that they won’t hear that in the most theologically liberal church group in the country.

God is still speaking, yes. I just don’t believe that he’s saying anything that he hasn’t been telling us for ages, or that he’s taken anything back.

So says CNN, anyway.

We’ve heard this before, but I think it’s really happening this time, unfortunately. The best comedy on television is getting the axe, due to paltry ratings. Now, I won’t flip out on FOX like a lot of bloggers . . . they’re a television network and their success is, for better or for worse, measured by the number of viewers they garner, not the quality of their programming or the number of major awards said programming has won (five Emmys, one Golden Globe) despite low viewership. This is why American Idol stays on the air, while Arrested Development gets canceled.

No, friends, my flip-out is reserved for the American public . . . particularly those who contributed to this cancellation by not watching, loving, and spreading the word about this magnificent comedy. A pox be upon your houses. A POX!

I’m hoping and praying that some other network will possibly pick AD up, but the chances of that happening are slim to none. At least I have the DVDs . . .

If you already knew of this, shame on you for keeping me in the dark. SHAME!!

Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD (pastored by Joshua Harris) now has a podcast of recent sermons!

http://www.covlife.org/tools/CovenantLifeChurch.xml

Looks like this is going into the rotation for the morning/evening communte (along with Desiring God Radio, Grace to You, and NPR).

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=22020