A Passionate Answer to President Obama
If this does not speak to heart of the President, as a father – not to his position, I wonder what/who could? John Piper speaks to that also.
What are the attributes of God? What is God like?
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
(John 17:3)
This is an introduction to, and the first in a series of posts offering answers from scripture to the above questions. To say that they are important questions, questions that deserves serious consideration, is a huge understatement!
I first learned something about God’s glorious attributes years ago from two main sources: Lutheran Catechism and reading the Bible for an “Advanced” English course as a senior in high school. Catechism provided sound doctrine (and large words) to describe characteristics of God found in the Bible. In reading the Bible for itself, I found out that what it said about God matched the big words I learned in Catechism. (As odd as it might sound in today’s scholastic environment, in those days it was permissible to write a paper about The Bible as Literature, my chosen subject.)
In addition to Scripture itself, a source of information for these posts is J.I. Packer’s book, Knowing God. Scripture references, unless otherwise noted, are from the NIV and linked to their context in an online Bible. Please read them, read the context around them, and let scripture speak to you. There are of course other, more exhaustive treatments of the attributes of God; one of the most notable being Arthur W. Pink’s work, available online here.
These posts can really only provide a short glimpse into the awesome character of God and will hopefully whet your appetite to learn even more about the Creator of the universe and the One who sent His own Son to die so that you might live. The reason for these posts is two-fold. First, there seems to exist today, in American Christianity, a deplorable lack knowledge concerning what God has revealed about Himself in scripture. Most of what we hear from pulpits stages across the country speaks only of God’s love, and even that, for the most part, is described according to our concept/definition of love, not His.
The second reason is from Scripture itself. John 17:3 tells us that “eternal life is knowing God“. That can be a bit difficult to get our heads wrapped around, but it speaks of our eternal life has a “right here”, “right now” aspect. How do we explain that in more practical, understandable terms? What effect does knowing God have on a person? J.I. Packer suggests four great effects:
1. Those who know God have great energy for God.
2. Those who know God have great thoughts of God.
3. Those who know God have great boldness for God.
4. Those who know God have great contentment in God.
We must ask ourselves, do we desire such knowledge of God? While you ask yourself this question, remember that it’s not a matter of knowing God so we can “become” great for God, it’s simply that really “knowing” leads to “having”.
And lest I forget, when God sees knowledge of Himself in his children, It gives Him pleasure.
” For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” – Hosea 6:6 (KJV)
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To be continued. . .
Carpe diem, preacherdude!
That’s actually the title of a Dan Phillips post over at Pyromaniacs that begins with this:
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat in an assembly and thought this, in the past 35+ years since my conversion: Dude, this critical moment, with these assembled people, on this your one shot — and you do THAT with it?” (Emphasis mine)
Dan Phillip’s blog focused on the Apostle Paul’s charge to young Timothy. . .
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom. . .
. . .PREACH THE WORD!”
(2 Tim 4:1-2a)
. . .and the lack of the Word in much of today’s preaching.
I had a similar moment this last Sunday morning visiting a small church in my neighborhood. The preacher however, didn’t use irrelevant humor, just have a chat, tell stories, or “weave a blurry tapestry of vague, gauzy religious sentiments”, as described in Dan’s blog. In fact he delivered a sermon based solely on scripture, a genuine exposition (rare these days) of a passage in Colossians.
My “you did WHAT” moment came near the very end of the service. After a soundly scriptural sermon, after telling us that God sent His Son to die for our sins, the preacher told us that all we need to do is “fall in love and say I Do”. At the most critical moment of the morning service, an invitation to receive come to Christ, the preacher told “these assembled people” that ALL they need to do is “. . .fall in love and say “I DO”?
I wasn’t just sad that I had just heard a lie, I just sat there, absolutely crushed. It wasn’t my place to address the Pastor, so all I could do was pick my heart up off the carpet and leave.
But this post isn’t about what was wrong with the preacher’s invitation – it’s about the solemn charge to “PREACH THE WORD!”. That’ the charge to pastors, preachers, teachers, and ordinary folks like you and me, even here in Blogland. In other words, if it’s NOT the revealed written Word, or if it’s not directly supported by the revealed written word, don’t go there!
I’m not bashing opinions here – opinions are great and they’re the meat some really great discussions. But they don’t amount to lot to God, in fact I remember a couple of passages that say man’s wisdom is pretty much foolishness to God.
Those of us who would dare call ourselves ‘teachers’ of sorts, especially if there is a genuine gifting to teach, had best heed the charge to “PREACH THE WORD!”, for we will be judged even more severely. We need to be about what has been written and revealed in scripture, not personal opinion, or fanciful ideas unsupportable by what has already been written.
We are to interpret and teach Scripture in the immediate and larger contexts in which it was written, not develop and ’share’ our own ‘”new/fresh insights” (vain imaginings) that serve no practical purpose other than to build “self-exalting structures”. In fact, we are be about the business of “casting down everything that would exalt itself above the knowledge of God” (1 Cor 10:5).
Does what I say/write/teach point people to me and my ‘coolness’ or to Christ and His Word. If it’s the former I need to shut up and shut down this blog.
As Dan Phillips fitly concluded in his post:
“Once again: it is a crucial moment. Vast ages of eternity hold their breath.
What do you do with it?
Preacherdude: best to ask yourself that question now, before it is asked of you on that Day.”
Carpe Diem!
Life’s Railway to Heaven
Classic Russ Taff
Precious Lord/Just a Closer Walk
Worshiping the Human Mind
In an excellent interview between John MacArthur and Phil Johnson here we find this from Dr. MacArthur:
“Modernism was a bad philosophy. Post-modernism is another bad philosophy. But in both cases, they assault the Scripture. Modernism made reason, human reason, the king. Reason was supreme in modernism. Thomas Payne, The Age of Reason, The Enlightenment, all of those things, the Renaissance. Out of that came the worship of the human mind and the mind trumps God. Now mystery trumps the Bible. The human mind trumps the Bible in modernism, mystery trumps the Bible in post-modernism. It is at the foundation an unwillingness to accept the clear teaching of Scripture.” (Online source) (Emphasis mine.)
The interview was about the dangers of the Emergent church, but contains a valuable warning for normal Bible-believing evangelicals as well. While we might not have succumbed to the “certainty of uncertainty” or embraced Emergentville’s New Age mysticism (now termed New Spirituality), we still have “mental problems”. Possible symptoms:
- Spending more time in “what does this verse mean to me” private opinion sessions than we do actually studying the Bible for what it says.
- Assuming that every little whisper in our heads is The Holy Spirit speaking to us, because as believers “we have the mind of Christ”.
- Searching for ‘deeper’ meanings in Scripture that are not found on clearly its pages, or in its context.
- Inventing, out of our imaginations, allegories, metaphors, and fanciful sounding teachings that tickle itching ears but have absolutely no value for Christian growth and maturity.
This a very short list of a few ways we “worship” our own minds. You might think that too strong a word, or even completely uncalled for. I don’t. I’ve been there and back – all of the above. What, if not worshiping our minds, is it?
And that my friends, simply speaking, is Idolatry.
Think about it. . .
A Must Listen!
Persecution or Great Awakening?
What’s it going to be?
God is “Cool”?
Last Sunday in Chapel we had another young worship leader (we have seen many over the last couple of years). After the first song during ‘worship time’, he paused and asked hypothetically (and VERY sincerely): “Isn’t God cool?”, after which we joined in the second song of the day, the lyrics of which told us that because of His love, in His Name we find comfort, shelter, healing, safely, peace, and happiness.
Right off the bat I need to say that I am not criticizing this young worship leader or commenting on the state of much of today’s popular “worship” music. I am wondering about the “God is cool!” mentality that pervades much of postmodern Christianity. Also, I am not saying that God is NOT “cool”. It depends on what “cool” means to the speaker/hearer.
When I heard the question asked it just didn’t ‘compute’. You see, I have started listening through the Bible (mostly while driving anywhere and everywhere) again this year and I’m in the Old Testament. On my way in to Chapel I had been listening to the wilderness journey of the Israelites, with all the instances of rebellion and disobedience, followed by God’s judgment and severe consequences. God was definitely NOT being cool!
Where am I going with this? I’m so glad you asked!
After service, while driving home I realized that there are thousands if not millions of young believers (and many not so young) who have never met or known the God who isn’t “cool”. While they know something of God’s love, a bit about grace, they know little or nothing about His other attributes. Such “weighty” doctrinal issues are no longer in fashion in much of today’s church. As for those other attributes – it’s quite a list. Christian evangelist and Biblical scholar Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952) defined, from Scripture, seventeen attributes of God. “Love” and “Grace” are but two.
While I agree that “two out of three ain’t bad” (so the song goes), ‘two out of seventeen ain’t good!”. It is in knowing ALL of God’s attributes that we can come close to apprehending the meaning of Jesus’ words to His Father in John 17:3; “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” We can’t even know very much about God’s love and grace, about which we know something, WITHOUT knowing something of the other 15!~! We are limited to our human concepts of both, and strictly human concepts are far short of God’s reality.
So the heart of this old soldier goes out to this young worship leader (and all believers),who in only knowing a little, are missing out on so much of God!
And by the way, if you are reading this only knowing something, I encourage you to visit Pink’s Archive for “the rest of the story”. Not exactly light reading, but well worth it!
Man in His Fallen Estate
. . .and sacrificing Truth on the Altar of Niceness
“Man, with all his boasted understanding and attainments, is a fool: so long as he is destitute of the saving grace of God, his conduct, as to his most important concernments, is more absurd and inconsistent then that of the meanest idiot; with respect to his affections and pursuits, he is degraded far below the beasts; and for malignity and wickedness of his will, can be compared to nothing so properly as the devil.” – John Newton (1725 – 1807 & author of “Amazing Grace) from the letter “Man in His Fallen Estate”.
That is HARSH! I can’t even imagine Rev. Newton preaching that in some many most(?) of today’s churches! Where did he ever get such a low opinion of people who have not believed in and received Christ as Savior? That’s a BIG difference in the way many preachers and teachers talk about man’s condition in today’s Christian environment.
Was John Newton too harsh? Do some of today’s preachers sacrifice hard truth on the altar of niceness?
Think about it and feel free to share your thoughts.
CHARLES SPURGEON: MEET THE ONLY GOD THERE IS
From the Charles Spurgeon devotional At the Master’s Feet for January 20. Using the Sword of the Spirit Spurgeon slices through the mystic mist of the mush god of contemporary Christendom:
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7-8, KJV)
And we now declare that the God of Holy Scripture is a God of inflexible justice, He is not the God Whom some of you adore. You adore a god who winks at great sins; you believe in a god who calls your crimes peccadillos and little faults. Some of you worship a god who does not punish sin but who is so weakly merciful, and mercilessly weak, that he passes by transgressions and iniquity and never enacts a punishment.
You believe in a god who, if man sins, does not demand punishment for his offense. You think that a few good works of your own will pacify him, that he is so weak a ruler that a few good words uttered before him in prayer will win sufficient merit to reverse the sentence, if indeed you think he ever passes a sentence at all. Your god is no God; he is as much a false god of the Greeks or of ancient Nineveh.
The God of Scripture is one who is inflexibly severe in justice and will by no means clear the guilty. “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked” (Nahum 1:3, KJV). The God of Scripture is a Ruler who, when His subjects rebel, marks their crime and never forgives them until He was punished it, either upon them or upon their Substitute.
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