One shocking news from last week was of a junior in high school name Chris Plaskon who stabbed a fellow student name Maren Sanchez. It happened on Friday morning in a hallway at Jonathan Law High School in the state of Connecticut. Apparently Plaskon had a crush on the girl and he stabbed her since she did not want to go to prom with him.
I do not want to focus my post on this story as much as a piece over at the New York Times about this unfortunate event. The article can be accessed by clicking HERE. Its title is quite indicative of what I’m trying to critique: “Suspect in Stabbing at Connecticut School Is Described as Popular.”
From a Christian worldview one can’t help it at times to see the folly of what the media spew out which reflect their inability to grasp a deeper understanding of what…
We have good reason to believe that discernment is floating dead atop the surface of the wide stream of American evangelicalism like a bloated corpse drifting with the current. As far as that goes, discernment may not be dead in America’s largest denomination, but it is certainly dying. An example for your consideration…
Dr. Steve Lemke, who can be seen here arguing the not-so-Traditionalist position in this PBS segment on Calvinism, is professor of religion and philosophy and serves as provost at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (SBC). According to the NOBTS website, Lemke’s teaching specialties include world religions, historical theology, soteriology and eschatology. In other words, Dr. Lemke is a learned man. And certainly, studying and teaching in the fields of theology, soteriology, and eschatology would make one well enough aware of the monumental Biblical challenges to the basic precept of Heaven is For Real and its subsequent assertions…
So said Lead Pastor John Burke in a sermon preached recently at Gateway Church in Austin, Texas.
The sermon text was 1 Kings 19 of course, and Elijah’s encounter with God while he was running for his life from Queen Jezebel and had taken refuge in a cave in the wilderness near Beersheba in Judah. Here’s the story:
9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:9-13 (ESV) (Emphasis mine)
The main point of the sermon was that just as God spoke to Elijah in a whisper, he will speak to us the same way, prompting us to do certain things, or pursue a certain course of action. When God does prompt us by ‘divine whispers’, we need to be able to discern that it’s the actual voice of God. In the Pastor’s own words:
“God will use his Word to confirm His promptings.”
There are three principles to apply in our ‘discerning’.
God’s whispers:
are not self-centered,
·are aligned with scripture
·agree with the wise counsel of other believers
I’m not going to get into the rest of the sermon, largely a litany Bible passages ripped out of context mixed with Pastor John’s personal experiences with divine whispers from God. I just have a couple of questions..
If Ezekiel had absolutely no problem knowing it was the voice of God, both inside and outside of the cave and according to Pastor John, God whispers personally to us in the same way, why wouldn’t we know that it was God? Do you think that God would personally speak to anyone and not make it really clear that he was the one speaking?
If you can find a single instance in the Bible of God speaking personally to anyone, no matter how loudly or quietly, and the hearer not immediately knowing exactly who it was, I want to know.
Mark Driscoll Apologizes to Mars Hill Church Followers for Using Wrong Book Marketing Strategy; Radio Show Host Blasts His Letter as \’Mushy Church Talk\’
We want to thank Dr. Kevin D. Zuber from his busy schedule of the pastoral ministry and being a professor to take part in this interview!
1.) Describe your current ministry to the Lord and your educational background.
I graduated from Grace College, Winona Lake, IN (BA 1977) and Grace Theological Seminary (MDiv 1981; ThM 1985) and from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (PhD 1996). I’ve been a pastor for over 25 years (Indiana, Iowa, Arizona, Illinois). Currently, I’m Professor of Theology at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL and Pastor of Grace Bible Church Northwest in Schaumburg, IL and I’m also an Adjunct Professor with Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, Chang Mai, Thailand. At Moody, my full time job, I teach Systematic Theology classes and electives, some Bible classes (Romans, Life of Christ), and some classes in philosophy. The church where I serve is small and we meet only on Sunday…
We want to thank Dr. Kevin D. Zuber from his busy schedule of the pastoral ministry and being a professor to take part in this interview!
1.) Describe your current ministry to the Lord and your educational background.
I graduated from Grace College, Winona Lake, IN (BA 1977) and Grace Theological Seminary (MDiv 1981; ThM 1985) and from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (PhD 1996). I’ve been a pastor for over 25 years (Indiana, Iowa, Arizona, Illinois). Currently, I’m Professor of Theology at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL and Pastor of Grace Bible Church Northwest in Schaumburg, IL and I’m also an Adjunct Professor with Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, Chang Mai, Thailand. At Moody, my full time job, I teach Systematic Theology classes and electives, some Bible classes (Romans, Life of Christ), and some classes in philosophy. The church where I serve is small and we meet only on Sunday…
There is something out there that is terrifying. It is the scourge of your soul, and is what keeps you up at night. It leaves you continually unfulfilled and restless. It leaves you disappointed and damaged. It slowly eats away at you, as the years of discouragement embitter you until you become a shell of who God made you to be. It is the Goliath to your David It is the biggest obstacle you’ll ever face, and is the one thing that will make or break the joy you may or may not ever experience. It will leave you hollow, empty and dissatisfied. It is a terrible affliction that can and will ruin your life if you let it. What is it?
Its not achieving your impossible dream.
You’d think it was en epidemic in the Christian world, simply by the number of blogs, sermons, conferences, and messages given about this…
Super Bowl XLVIII may have been a bust as a football game, but it was a blockbuster as a cultural event. The telecast of the event attracted a record 111.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched television event of all-time. That record will most likely be eclipsed by the next Super Bowl, and the trajectory shows no signs of dissipating. America takes its sports seriously, and Americans take football with the most seriousness of them all.
In a real sense, big-time sports represent America’s new civic religion, and football is its central sacrament.
The relationship between sports and religion in America has always been close, and it has often been awkward. The “muscular Christianity” of a century ago has given way to a more recent phenomenon: the massive growth of involvement in sports at the expense of church activities and involvements. About fifteen years ago, the late John Cardinal O’Connor, then the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, lamented the fact that Little League Baseball was taking his altar boys away on Sundays.
“Why is it religion that must always accommodate?” asked the Archbishop. “Why must Little League and soccer league games be scheduled on Sunday mornings? Why create that conflict for kids or for their parents? Sports are generally considered good for kids. Church is good for kids.”
The Archbishop blamed secularization for this invasion of Sunday: “This is the constant erosion, the constant secularization of our culture, that I strongly believe to be a serious mistake.”
So the cardinal took on Little League and the youth soccer league in New York City. And he lost. Nevertheless, he was right about the problem. The massive rise of sports within the culture is a sign and symptom of the secularization of the larger society.
New evidence for this pattern comes from academics Chris Beneke and Arthur Remillard in an essay recently published in The Washington Post. Writing with Super Bowl XLVIII in view, Beneke and Remillard note:
“American sports fans have forged imperishable bonds with the people, places and moments that define their teams. You might even call this attachment religious. But that would be unfair—to sports.”
In other words, the attachment many Americans now have to sports teams far exceeds attachment to religious faith—any religious faith.
The two academics then make their central case:
“While teams and fans are building powerful, cohesive communities—think Red Sox Nation or the legions of University of Alabama faithful who greet one another with ‘Roll Tide’—churches are losing followers. According to a 2012 survey by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and Duke University, 20 percent of Americans ‘claimed they had no religious preference,’ compared with an unaffiliated population of 8 percent in 1990. Roughly two out of three Americans, a 2012 Pew report noted, are under the impression that religion is losing influence in the country.”
That impression is growing because it is true to the facts. Religion is losing ground and losing influence in American society. The fastest-growing segment of the American public in terms of religious identification is the “nones,” designating those who identify with no religious tradition at all. At the same time, a religious dedication to sports has been growing. While correlation does not prove causation, the links between these two developments are haunting.
Interestingly, Beneke, who teaches history at Bentley University, and Remillard, who teaches religious studies at St. Francis University, document the dramatic increase in the percentage of Americans who consider themselves to be sports fans. Just a half-century ago, only three in ten Americans identified themselves as sports fans. Fast forward to 2012 and the percentage is greater than 60 percent. At the same time, church attendance and other marks of religious activity (especially the number of hours each week devoted to church activities) have fallen sharply.
Beneke and Remillard describe the current picture in vivid terms: “Modern sports stadiums function much like great cathedrals once did, bringing communities together and focusing their collective energy. This summer, the Archdiocese of New York is expected to outline plans to close or merge some of its 368 parishes; 26 Catholic schools in the archdiocese have ceased operation. By contrast, the city and the state of New Jersey spent hundreds of millions to build new baseball and football stadiums.”
Cardinal O’Connor would no doubt see the pattern and lament it, but a good many evangelical Christians seem both unmoved and unconcerned. The problem is quite ecumenical in this respect. The youth minister or pastor at your local evangelical church is almost sure to tell you the same story. Team sports activities or other forms of organized athletics have taken many evangelical families away from church activities. Many children and adolescents know very little of church involvements, but they and their parents (and often their grandparents as well) would not miss a scheduled practice, much less a game or competitive event. The same is increasingly true of spectator sports.
Beneke and Remillard conclude by asserting that “when it comes to the passionate attachments that sustain interest and devotion, it’s time to acknowledge that sports have gained the edge. And they show no sign of relinquishing the lead.”
In the larger society, this is most certainly the case. This dramatic shift could only come to pass if the larger culture has been largely secularized. In this case, secularization does not necessarily mean the disappearance of religious faith, but merely the demotion of religious involvement and identification to a level lower than those granted to sports.
Americans may not know who their god is, but you can be sure most know who their team is.
Super Bowl XLIX is scheduled to be played next year in the cathedral currently known as the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Let the pilgrimage begin.
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I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.
Chris Beneke and Arthur Remillard, “Is Religion Losing Ground to Sports?,” The Washington Post, Friday, January 31, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-religion-losing-ground-to-sports/2014/01/31/6faa4d64-82bd-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html
Just a question to ponder. That God desires all men to be saved, but they aren’t seem to be two conclusions upon which Christians of all stripes are agreed.
If they are true, there has to be a reason that rests in the council of God or in human will.
Personally, I remember when I thought God loves us so much that, in His sovereignty, he left our salvation up to us and our free will decision. That seemed like a fine argument. Is God really ‘sovereign’ if that’s how it is? And wouldn’t leaving our salvation up to us open up the possibility, however remote, that in the end no one would be saved?
While I’ve investigated this issue and do have my own opinion, I don’t want to argue. Rather, I just want to stimulate serious thinking.
The Battle Cry 