This reminds me of the same three “P’s” in our salvation!
Do you know the three P’s of Christian Sanctification? And why should it matter for the Christian life? Is it mere “theologizing?”
Sanctification can be broken down into positional, progressive and perfected sanctification. Each of these can be understood temporally as past, present and future respectively.
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It’s a question to consider. And if New Age spirituality and the Emergent represent apostate Christianity, or maybe even that which is heretical, it might mean approaching the VOICE Bible with extreme caution. Here are links to a two part in depth review that might be profitable for all of us.
http://www.extremetheology.com/2008/11/review-of-the-voice-new-testament—part-one.html
http://www.extremetheology.com/2008/12/review-of-the-voice-new-testament-part-two.html
Rodgers’s explanation—like her previous one—is long on personal experience and short on Bible
Written by Denny Burk | Monday, February 8, 2016
If she has a reasoned biblical rationale for her views, she doesn’t really share it. In fact, she says that when she held to the traditional view, it wasn’t based as much on biblical teaching as it was on her trust in what certain Christian leaders were telling her. When she stopped trusting those leaders, she stopped holding the traditional view. In other words, it doesn’t sound like her former faithfulness on the issue was rooted very deeply in God’s word.
I just read another public account of someone who is walking away from what the Bible teaches about marriage. Former Wheaton employee and self-identified “gay Christian” Julie Rodgers explains why she has embraced gay marriage. She has written about this previously, and I have responded previously. Nevertheless, this latest account is also worth some reflection. She writes:
Your beliefs don’t shift in an instant. We research and agonize, bouncing between hope and despair, until one day we hear ourselves say something a former version of ourselves never would have said. That’s how I came to support same-sex marriage in the church. When I came out as a teenager in Baptist circles in the Bible Belt, I never would’ve imagined God would still like me if I married a woman one day. And I want to try to explain, in theological(ish) terms, how I ended up here.
She goes on to tell the story, which I won’t rehash in full here. I will simply encourage you to read it for yourself. I offer here a short list of reflections on what she has written:
1. The apostles teach us that there is no greater joy than to see brothers and sisters walking faithfully in the truth (3 John 4). Likewise, they also teach us that there is almost nothing more heartbreaking than to see someone falling away from it (1 Tim. 1:19; 4:1). This issue of homosexuality is so fraught with emotion and pathos, and it only adds grief to grief to see so many running their faith aground over it. Such a public falling away can only cause sadness. There can be no joy in it.
2. Rodgers perceives that church leaders keep moving the goalposts on what Christian faithfulness looks like for same-sex attracted Christians. Although I don’t entirely agree with her account of things, I think she is right that some evangelicals have not always taught with biblical and theological clarity on this issue. We’ve been clear that homosexuality is immoral. But we haven’t always been clear about how a Christian can struggle well against unwanted same-sex attraction. But that is no argument for abandoning the faith once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). Rather, it is an argument for us to speak and to love and to minister in ways that reflect what the Bible actually teaches. Jesus’ teaching really is good for us—all of us. It is the path to life (Matt. 7:14). Abandoning what Jesus teaches us about marriage will not lead people to Jesus but away from him (Matthew 19:4-6).
3. Rodgers’s explanation—like her previous one—is long on personal experience and short on Bible. If she has a reasoned biblical rationale for her views, she doesn’t really share it. In fact, she says that when she held to the traditional view, it wasn’t based as much on biblical teaching as it was on her trust in what certain Christian leaders were telling her. When she stopped trusting those leaders, she stopped holding the traditional view. In other words, it doesn’t sound like her former faithfulness on the issue was rooted very deeply in God’s word. That may have something to do with her recent declension from it. In any case, we can draw a lesson from this. All of us need to have our consciences bound to the explicit teaching of God’s word, not to the traditions of men. Again, this is an argument for greater biblical and theological clarity in the life of the church, not less.
4. Rodgers connects this issue to the long-standing gender controversy among evangelicals. She reasons that if evangelicals are going to allow for egalitarian readings of scripture, then they must accept gay-affirming readings as well. She writes:
Thoughtful Christians have taught that all of Scripture points to a theology of marriage that involves one man and one woman in a lifelong commitment with a green light for sex in that context alone. This is based on the idea that the Bible is our ultimate authority, but it’s complicated by the fact that we bring an interpretive lens to the Bible. When we support women’s equality in all areas of leadership in the church, we trust one interpretive lens over another. Both sides are sincere Christians and both view the Bible as authoritative––they just differ on how the Bible, which was written in a patriarchal context in the 1st century, should apply to empowered women in the 21stcentury.
Complementarians have been saying for decades that egalitarian readings of scripture will eventually give way to gay-affirming readings. While we are thankful that many egalitarians never made this leap, we cannot help but observe that their theological children have no problem making the connection. And they are doing so based on reading strategies that they learned from their egalitarian mentors. This was inevitable.
5. The Lord’s arm is not too short to save (Isaiah 59:1). He can always reach his children wherever they are. He will speak. They will hear his voice and come to him (John 10:3-5). Permanent departure from his word only leads to desolation in the end. I am hoping and praying that the departures we are seeing now will only be temporary—that the Lord would eventually get through to them. His patience and mercy are more vast than we can imagine. Perhaps the Lord would be pleased to draw back those who have turned aside. That is how I will be praying anyway.
Denny Burk is Associate Professor of New Testament and Dean of Boyce College, the undergraduate arm of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This article first appeared on his blog and is used with permission.
First a quote from the beginning of the book, one from somewhere in the middle and one from the end of the book.
“We do not undervalue love because we say a man is not justified by love, but by faith. We do not discourage prayer, because we preach that a man is not justified by prayer, but by faith. When we say that believing is not working, but a ceasing from work, we do not mean that the believing man is not to work, but that he is not to work for pardon, but to take it freely, and that he is to believe before he works, for works done before believing are not pleasing to God.”
“Thus, then, that which cancels the curse provides the purity. The Cross not only pardons, but it purifies. From it there gushes out the double fountain of peace and holiness. It heals, unites, strengthens, quickens, blesses. It is God’s wing under which we are gathered, and “he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psa 91: 1).”
“Let us then shine! Stars indeed, not suns; but still stars, not tapers nor meteors. Let us shine! Giving perhaps slender light, but that light certain and pure; enough to say to men “It is night,” lest they mistake, but not enough bring day; enough to guide the seeking or the erring in the true direction, but not enough to illuminate the world. The sun alone can do that. It is the sun that shows us the landscape; stars show but themselves. Let us then show ourselves beyond mistake. The day when all things shall be seen in full warm light is the day of the great sun-rising.”
More about the book:
Another quality eBook from Chapel Library! God’s Way of Holiness looks at sanctification–the process by which the Holy Spirit conforms a believer’s life to the will of God. Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) looks at the new life in the believer, which is the ground of holiness. He looks at Christ’s work for us and the Spirit in us and what that means for our holiness. Then he goes on to topics such as “The Root and Soil of Holiness,” “Strength against Sin,” “The Cross and Its Power,” “The Saint and the Law,” “The Saint and the Seventh Chapter of Romans,” “The True Creed and the True Life,” and, finally, “Counsels and Warnings” related to holiness in the believer’s life. Be challenged and refreshed by this careful look at the doctrine of sanctification!
Start reading it for free: http://amzn.to/1PGTdoz
Not being a professional or amateur book reviewer, I have to let the book speak for itself. I had a recommendation from a friend to read it, then read it, and am passing along the recommendation!
Assuming such a religion is on the horizon, what could possibly bring them all together? I have a thought, but am not talking at the moment. Call this a small research project.
J.C. Philpot
“They that are whole (healthy) have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance!” [Mark 2:17]
Let us look, then, at the character pointed out in the text by the expression, “THE WHOLE.” I need scarcely say, that the word naturally means a person healthy, strong, and vigorous; one untainted by sickness or disease; one in all the enjoyment of robust health, without any constitutional ailment or bodily affliction. Now it is a truth, naturally, that such people “need not a physician.” They are not in circumstances to require such aid; their vigorous health, their robust constitution, their freedom from all disease, give them perfect liberty to dispense with the services of medical skill.
From this comparison we may easily gather who are “the…
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"The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17 ESV)
The Way We Were
The above passage merely states that the consequence of disobeying God would be death. The generally accepted assumption is that both physical and spiritual death is in view. In speaking to believers in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, described spiritual death in rather stark terms:
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” (Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV)
If Paul’s words cause you to think of “The Night of the Living Dead”, or some other popular zombie movie or television series, don’t be alarmed. Paul described dead folks walking around as if they were really alive, going about their ‘stinking’ business, driven along by a rebellious spirit, controlled by their own sinful passions and desires, and the very objects of God’s holy wrath against sin. What a far cry from how much of today’s church and modern day preachers describe fallen men!
"And that is the subject of this post – the true condition of fallen men. We will make no dogmatic assertions or advocate for any particular doctrine formulated by men. We will simply ask a few questions and allow scripture to speak to them.
What is the natural disposition of man toward God?
Are natural men at least seeking God?
Can the natural man comprehend the gospel or come to saving knowledge of God on his own?
Are people good deep down? What about the mind and heart?
Just how morally ‘free’ is the natural man?
I pray that the above has been profitable to you. If current assumptions concerning the state of fallen men have been crushed, bury them and leave them be. I firmly believe that if we understand what scripture has to say about the true state of fallen men, some of the things we believers tend to debate about with each other would simply vanish
That was a Beach Boys album released in 1974 by Capital Records and a bit of a comeback album for the group, if I remember correctly. But this isn’t about the Beach Boys or comeback albums. It’s really about ‘Endless Debate’. A few posts ago, there was one titled “Can a Christian Lose His or Her Salvation?” that presented passages of scripture that tell us that we MUST persevere in faith and passages that promise that we WILL persevere. A rather lengthy discussion on another blog prompted the post, but it was not intended to be a continuation of the other debate, of which I was a part. A continuation of the other discussion did ensue, and once again I was part of it, against my better judgment. After prolonged debate that was going nowhere in terms of changing anyone’s mind about anything, I deleted the entirety (or most) of the second round. I did so because it appeared to be two believers trying to convince each other of their respective arguments, rather than merely stating their positions. I believe it was the latter, but appearances are deceiving.
Also, I don’t think for a New York second that the possible loss of one’s salvation is the real issue at hand, but that the state of the human will of fallen man is, which is another discussion entirely, and one which might find voice on this little blog. If it does, it will be to present passages and sections of scripture that speak to the issue.
Old guys learn stuff. I have learned that in spiritual matters, God through the Holy Spirit is the only infallible arbiter of whatever debates arise and I need to refrain from trying to ‘convince’ others that the feelings and opinions I hold are in the end irrelevant.
Having said that, the missing debate was at times interesting, because the debaters had each once held the other’s position and over time each had changed his opinion for what was claimed to be exactly the same reason, the personal reading of scripture!. As fascinating as that might be, it’s probably not a phenomena deserving of a federal research grant, and must have been confusing to some who were following the discussion.
In the end, God will sort it all out and there will probably be some embarrassment on both sides of the debate. Until then, we should probably make the main topic of discussion ‘Christ, and him crucified…” as did the Apostle Paul, as well as rejoicing in the knowledge that God saves anyone at all!
Stay blessed!
Since it’s Saturday morning and grocery shopping for a household of 8 is on the agenda (another story) I shall go do that. Maybe I’ll listen to a bit of The Beach Boys on the way!
Three good reads from the same former Pastor and author.
Why I Left Your Seeker Friendly Church
The above title is also the title of a booklet tract published by Lighthouse Trails Research. Written by Mary Danielson, it is also billed as An Introduction to The Kansas City Prophets and Other Latter-Day Prognosticators.
The tract begins:
When speaking of spiritual things, what goes around comes around. This is true of every false movement within Christianity, especially in the last days, because the enemy is not going to let a perfectly good deception go to waste but rather will redesign anything to appeal to a subsequent generation. If a particular aberrant teaching is not rejected by the church when it first appears on the horizon by those who perceived it with spiritual eyes, then this movement or aberrant teaching will continue to lead people astray into a future generation.
Add to that the current social media technology wherein deception can attain an unprecedented level of exposure through multi-media, blogs, and conferences, and you have the recipe for a perfect storm of apostasy containing every unbiblical element imaginable. The latter-rain prophet movement is a perfect example of how this works. Regardless of the teaching, or how absurd it is, there will always be a following due to the church’s death of discernment today. With that in mind, I present to you some information of the current crop of “prophets” and “apostles” within the evangelical church. You can file this subject under “Last Days Deception,” along with everything else in Satan’s bag of tricks.
The booklet traces the history of the Kansas City Prophets, discusses principal characters, as well as other movements associated/connected to the KCPs.
To read the rest of the tract, click here.
If you want to order copies of The Perfect Storm of Apostasy – An Introduction to The Kansas City Prophets and Other Latter-Day Prognosticators, click here.
The Battle Cry 