Welcome to “YOUR” Blog!

WELCOME TO YOUR BLOG!

This blogs purpose is, “Theology for the Rest of Us.”  Not everyone is a published theologian or knows Greek and Hebrew, but we all need to understand theology, which is the study of God.  That’s why this blog was created: to bring theology into the everyday.  Stay, read, interact.

We’re glad you’re here!

Do you love the Lord’s Day?

Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a Scottish preacher in the mid 19th century. He died at the age of 29 from typhus, but during his ministry he was one of the most powerful preachers in Scotland. M’Cheyne had a deep and abiding love for the Lord’s Day. I provide for your edification the entirety of a sermon he preached on this very topic. May it have the same impact today that it did when it was first preached.

I Love the Lord’s Day – Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“The Sabbath was made for man”

DEAR FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN,-As a servant of God in this dark and cloudy day, I feel constrained to lift up my voice in behalf of the entire sanctification of the Lord’s day. The daring attack that is now made by some of the directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway on the law of God and the peace of our Scottish Sabbath – the blasphemous motion which they mean to propose to the shareholders in February next – and the wicked pamphlets which are now being circulated in thousands, full of all manner of lies and impieties- call loudly for the calm, deliberate testimony of all faithful ministers and private Christians in behalf of God’s holy day. In the name of all God’s people in this town, and in this land, I commend to your dispassionate consideration the following

REASONS WHY WE LOVE THE LORD’S DAY.

I. Because it is the Lord’s day. -”This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice, and be glad in it” (Ps. cxviii. 24). “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” (Rev. i. 10). It is His, by example. It is the day on which He rested from His amazing work of redemption. Just as God rested on the seventh day from all His works, wherefore God blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it; so the Lord Jesus rested this day from all His agony, and pain, and humiliation. “There remaineth therefore the keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God” (Heb. iv. 9). The Lord’s day is His property, just as the Lord’s Supper is the supper belonging to Christ. It is His table. He is the bread. He is the wine. He invites the guests. He fills them with joy and with the Holy Ghost. So it is with the Lord’s day. All days of the year are Christ’s, but He hath marked out one in seven as peculiarly His own. “He hath made it,” or marked it out. Just as He planted a garden in Eden, so He hath fenced about this day and made it His own. This is the reason why we love it, and would keep it entire. We love everything that is Christ’s. We love His word. It is better to us than thousands of gold and silver. “O how we love His law! it is our study all the day.” We love His house. It is our trysting-place with Christ, where He meets with us and communes with us from off the mercy-seat. We love His table. It is His banqueting-house, where His banner over us is love-where He looses our bonds, and anoints our eyes, and makes our hearts burn with holy joy. We love His people, because they are His, members of His body, washed in His blood, filled with His Spirit, our brothers and sisters for eternity. And we love the Lord’s day, because it is His. Every hour of it is dear to us-sweeter than honey, more precious than gold. It is the day He rose for our justification. It reminds us of His love, and His finished work, and His rest. And we may boldly say that that man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ who does not love the entire Lord’s day. Oh, Sabbath-breaker, whoever you be, you are a sacrilegious robber! When you steal the hours of the Lord’s day for business or for pleasure, you are robbing Christ of the precious hours which He claims as his own. Would you not be shocked if a plan were deliberately proposed for breaking through the fence of the Lord’s table, and turning it into a common meal, or a feast for the profligate and the drunkard? Would not your best feelings be harrowed to see the silver cup of communion made a cup of revelry in the hand of the drunkard? And yet what better is the proposal of our railway directors? “The Lord’s day” is as much His day as “the Lord’s table” is His table. Surely we may well say, in the words of Dr. Love, that eminent servant of Christ, now gone to the Sabbath above: “Cursed is that gain, cursed is that recreation, cursed is that health, which is gained by criminal encroachments on this sacred day.”

II. Because it is a relic of Paradise and type of Heaven.-The first Sabbath dawned on the bowers of a sinless paradise. When Adam was created in the image of his Maker, he was put into the garden to dress it and to keep it. No doubt this called forth all his energies. To train the luxuriant vine, to gather the fruit of the fig-tree and palm, to conduct the water to the fruit-trees and flowers, required all his time and all his skill. Man was never made to be idle. Still when the Sabbath-day came round, his rural implements were all laid aside; the garden no longer was his care. His calm, pure mind looked beyond things seen into the world of eternal realities. He walked with God in the garden, seeking deeper knowledge of Jehovah and His ways, his heart burning more and more with holy love, and his lips overflowing with seraphic praise. Even in Paradise man needed a Sabbath. Without it Eden itself would have been incomplete. How little they know the joys of Eden, the delight of a close and holy walk with God, who would wrest from Scotland this relic of a sinless world! It is also the type of heaven. When a believer lays aside his pen or loom, brushes aside his worldly cares, leaving them behind him with his week-day clothes, and comes up to the and comes up to the house of God, it is like the morning of the resurrection, the day when we shall come out of great tribulation into the presence of God and the Lamb. When he sits under the preached word, and hears the voice of the shepherd leading and feeding his soul, it reminds him of the day when the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall feed him and lead him to living fountains of waters. When he joins in the psalm of praise, it reminds him of the day when his hands shall strike the harp of God- Where congregations ne’er break up, And Sabbaths have no end.

When he retires, and meets with God in secret in his closet, or, like Isaac, in some favourite spot near his dwelling, it reminds him of the day when “he shall be a pillar in the house of our God, and go no more out.” This is the reason why we love the Lord’s day. This is the reason why we “call the Sabbath a delight” A well-spent Sabbath we feel to be a day of heaven upon earth. For this reason we wish our Sabbaths to he wholly given to God. We love to spend the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is taken up in the works A necessity and mercy. We love to rise early on that morning, and to sit up late, that we may have a long day with God. How many may know from this that they will never be in heaven! A straw on the surface can tell which way the stream is flowing. Do you abhor a holy Sabbath? Is it a kind of hell to you to be with those who are strict in keeping the Lord’s day? The writer of these lines once felt as you do. You are restless and uneasy. You say, “Behold what a weariness is it” “When will the Sabbath be gone, that we may sell corn?” Ah! soon, very soon, and you will be in hell. Hell is the only place for you. Heaven is one long, never-ending, holy Sabbath-day. There are no Sabbaths in hell.

III. Because it is a day of blessings. -When God instituted the Sabbath in paradise, it is said, “God blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it” (Gen. ii. 3). He not only set it apart as a sacred day, but made it a day of blessing. Again, when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week before dawn, He revealed Himself the same day to two disciples going to Emmaus, and made their hearts burn within them (Luke xxiv. 13). The same evening He came and stood in the midst of the disciples, and said, “Peace be unto you;” and He breathed on them and said, “receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John xx. 19). Again, after eight days, – that is, the next Lord’s day,-Jesus came and stood in the midst, and revealed Himself with unspeakable grace to unbelieving Thomas (John xx. 26). It was on the Lord’s day also that the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost (Acts ii. 1 ; compare Lev. xxiii. 15, 16). That beginning of all spiritual blessings, that first revival of the Christian Church, was on the Lord’s day. It was on the same day that the beloved John, an exile on the sea-girt isle of Patmos, far away from the assembly of the saints, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and received his heavenly revelation. So that in all ages, front the beginning of the world, and in every place where there is a believer, the Sabbath has been a day of double blessing. It is so still, and will be, though all God’s enemies should gnash their teeth at it. True, God is a God of free grace, and confines His working to no time or place; but it is equally true, and all the scoffs of the infidel cannot alter it, that it pleases Him to bless His word most on the Lord’s day. All God’s faithful ministers in every land can bear witness that sinners are converted most frequently on the Lord’s day-that Jesus comes in and shows Himself through the lattice of ordinances oftenest on His own day. Saints, like John, are filled with the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and enjoy their calmest, deepest views into the eternal world. Unhappy men, who are striving to rob our beloved Scotland of this day of double blessing, “ye know not what you do.” You would wrest from our dear countrymen the day when God opens the windows of heaven and pours down a blessing. You want to make the heavens over Scotland like brass, and the hearts of our people like iron. Is it the sound of the golden bells of our ever-living High Priest on the mountains of our land, and the breathing of His Holy Spirit over so many of our parishes, that has roused up your satanic exertions to drown the sweet sound of mercy by the deafening roar of railway carriages? Is it the returning vigour of the revived and chastened Church of Scotland that has opened the torrents of blasphemy which you pour forth against the Lord of the Sabbath? Have your own withered souls no need of a drop from heaven? May it not be the case that some of you are blaspheming the very day on which your own soul might have been saved? Is it not possible that some of you may remember, with tears of anguish in hell, the exertions which you are now making, against light and against warning, to bring down a withering blight on your own souls and on the religion of Scotland? To those who are God’s children in this land, I would now, in the name of our common Saviour, who is the Lord of the Sabbath day, address

A WORD OF EXHORTATION.

1. PRIZE THE LORD’S DAY.-The more that others despise and trample on it, love you it all the more. The louder the storm of blasphemy howls around you, sit the closer at the feet of Jesus. “He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet” Diligently improve all holy time. It should be the busiest day of the seven; but only in the business of eternity. Avoid sin on that holy day. God’s children should avoid sin every day, but most of all on the Lord’s day. It is a day of double cursing as well as of double blessing. The world will have to answer dreadfully for sins committed in holy time. Spend the Lord’s day in the Lord’s presence. Spend it as a day in heaven. Spend much of it in praise and in works of mercy, as Jesus did.

II. DEFEND THE LORD’S DAY.-Lift up a calm, undaunted testimony against all the profanations of the Lord’s day. Use all your influence, whether as a statesman, a magistrate, a master, a father, or a friend, both publicly and privately, to defend the entire Lord’s day. This duty is laid upon you in the Fourth Commandment. Never see the Sabbath broken without reproving the breaker of it. Even worldly men, with all their pride and contempt for us, cannot endure to be convicted of Sabbath-breaking. Always remember God and the Bible are on your side, and that you will soon see these men cursing their own sin and folly when too late. Let all God’s children in Scotland lift up a united testimony especially against these three public profanations of the Lord’s day

(1) The keeping open of Reading-Rooms-In this town, and in all the large towns of Scotland, I am told, you may find in the public reading-rooms many of our men of business turning over the newspapers and magazines at all hours of the Lord’s day; and especially on Sabbath evenings, many of these places are filled like a little church. Ah, guilty men! how plainly you show that you are on the broad road that leadeth to destruction. If you were a murderer or an adulterer, perhaps you would not dare to deny this. Do you not know-and all the sophistry of hell cannot disprove it- that the same God who said,” Thou shalt not kill,” said also, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy?” The murderer who is dragged to the gibbet, and the polished Sabbath-breaker are one in the sight of God.

(2) The keeping open Public-Houses-Public-houses are the curse of Scotland. I never see a sign, “Licensed to sell spirits,” without thinking that it is a licence to ruin souls. They are the yawning avenues to poverty and rags in this life, and, as another has said, “the short cut to hell.” Is it to be tamely borne in this land of light and reformation, that these pest-houses and dens of iniquity-these man-traps for precious souls-shall be open on the Sabbath, nay, that they shall be enriched and kept afloat by this unholy traffic, many of them declaring that they could not keep up their shop if it were not for the Sabbath market-day? Surely we may well say, “Cursed is the gain made on that day.” Poor wretched men! Do you not know that every penny that rings upon your counter on that day will yet eat your flesh as if it were fire-that every drop of liquid poison swallowed in your gaslit palaces will only serve to kindle up the flame of “the fire that is not quenched”?

(3) Sunday Trains upon the Railway.-A majority of the directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway have shown their determination, in a manner that has shocked all good men, to open the railway on the Lord’s day. The sluices of infidelity have been opened at the same time, and floods of blasphemous tracts are pouring over the land, decrying the holy day of the blessed God, as if there was no eye in heaven, no King on Zion Hill, no day of reckoning. Christian countrymen, awake! and, filled by the same spirit that delivered our country from the dark superstitions of Rome, let us beat back the incoming tide of infidelity and enmity to the Sabbath. Guilty men! who, under Satan, are leading on the deep, dark phalanx of Sabbath- breakers, yours is a solemn position. You are robbers. You rob God of His holy day. You are murderers. You murder the souls of your servants. God said, “Thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy servant;” but you compel your servants to break God’s law, and to sell their souls for gain. You are sinners against light. Your Bible and your catechism, the words of godly parents, perhaps now in the Sabbath above, and the loud remonstrances of God-fearing men, are ringing in your ears, while you perpetrate this deed of shame, and glory in it. You are traitors to your country. The law of your country declares that you should “observe a holy rest all that day from your own words, works, and thoughts;” and yet you scout it as an antiquated superstition. Was it not Sabbath-breaking that made God east away Israel? And yet you would bring the same curse on Scotland now. You are moral suicides, stabbing your own souls, proclaiming to the world that you are not the Lord’s people, and hurrying on your souls to meet the Sabbath-breaker’s doom. In conclusion, I propose, for the calm consideration of all sober-minded men, the following

SERIOUS QUESTIONS.

(1) Can you name one godly minister, of any denomination in all Scotland, who does not hold the duty of the entire sanctification of the Lord’s day?

(2) Did you ever meet with a lively believer in any country under heaven – one who loved Christ, and lived a holy life – who did not delight in keeping holy to God the entire Lord’s day?

(3) Is it wise to take the interpretation of God’s will concerning the Lord’s day from “men of the world,” from infidels, scoffers, men of unholy lives, men who are sand-blind in all divine things, men who are the enemies of all righteousness, who quote Scripture freely, as Satan did, to deceive and betray?

(4) If, in opposition to the uniform testimony of God’s wisest and holiest servants-against the plain warnings of God’s word, against the very words of your catechism, learned beside your mother’s knee, and against the voice of your outraged conscience-you join the ranks of the Sabbath-breakers, will not this be a sin against light, will it not lie heavy on your soul upon your death-bed, will it not meet you in the judgment-day?

Praying that these words of truth and soberness may be owned of God, and carried home to your hearts with divine power-I remain, dear fellow-countrymen, your soul’s well-wisher, etc.

December 18, 1841.

SCRIPTURES TO BE MEDITATED ON.

1. Sabbath commanded.-Ex. xvi. 22-30; xx. 8-11; xxxv. 1-3. Lev. xix. 3-30. Dent. v. 12-15. Neh. ix. 14.

2. A sign of God’s people.-Ex. xxxi. 12-17. 2 Kings iv. 23. Ezek. xx. 12. Lam. i. 7. Heb. iv. 9.

3. Sabbath-breaking punished.-Num. xv. 32-36. Lev. xxvi. 33-35. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. Jer. xvii. 19-end. Lam. ii. 6. Ezek. xx. 12-26. Amos. viii. 4-14.

4. Day of blessing.-Gen. ii. 2, 3. Ex. xvi. 24. Lev. xxiv. 8. Num. xxviii. 9, 10. Isa. lvi. 1-8; lviii 13, 14. John xx. 1, 19, 26. Acts ii. 1, with Lev. xxiii 15. Rev. i. 10.

5. Rulers should guard the Sabbath.-Ex. xx. 10. Neh. xiii. 15-22.

6. Sabbath in gospel times-Psalm cxviii. 24. Isa. lxvi. 23. Ezek. xlvi. 1. Mark ii. 27, 28. Acts ii. 1; xx.6, 7. l Cor. xvi. 2. Rev i. 10.

The Cruelty of Jesus

Matthew 15:21-28 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

On first glance it seems that Jesus was being cruel to the plight of this woman and her daughter. Jesus had already displayed that He was able to heal. In fact, much of his earthly ministry was spent healing people of diseases, raising the dead, and casting out demons. Why was Jesus resistant in healing the Syrophoenician woman? The gospel of the kingdom was first to be proclaimed to the Jews (Matt. 10:6). After all, the Messiah was promised to the nation of Israel (Isa. 65:9), and He was born as a member of the house of David (Luke 2:4). It was to this rebellious nation that Jesus first appeared and performed many miracles. But was it because this woman was a Gentile that Jesus first ignored her request? No. Actually it had nothing to do with her being a Gentile. It had all to do with His eventual healing of her daughter being a stinging rebuke of the Pharisees and their rejection of the Messiah. Consider what Jesus said just a few chapters earlier.

Matthew 8:11-12 “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The redemption that the Pharisees dismissed without thought was begged for by the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus said, “…your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.”

It is not on the basis of national origin or religious tradition that God heals (spiritually), it is on the basis of faith.

Predestination in the life of a man of contrasts: Abraham.

Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Long before we learn of any act of obedience or disobedience, we read that the LORD called Abram to a new land in order to establish a new nation. Abram was not called because of his righteousness, for Abram was a sinner (as we will see in Gen. 12 & 20). In fact, we are never told why the LORD specifically called Abram. All we know is that the LORD did call him.

When Abram arrived in the land of Canaan, the LORD said to him:

Genesis 12:7 “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.

The LORD reaffirmed the promise made in Gen. 12:1-3. But right after the reaffirmation of God’s promise, Abram sinned against the LORD.

Genesis 12:10-13 10 Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 And it came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; 12 and it will come about when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 “Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”

Abram was concerned for his own skin. He received the promise from God, that He would make Abram a great nation. But instead of acting in faith, Abram asked his wife to lie, and deny that she was Abram’s wife. Abram proceeded to repeat this same deception in Gen. 20. While we learn in Gen. 20 that Sarah was, indeed, Abraham’s half-sister, the true deception was the denial that she was Abraham’s wife.

In between these two incidents, the LORD visited Abraham (Gen. 18), and once again reaffirmed the promise made concerning him.

Genesis 18:17-19 17 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? 19 “For I have chosen him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice; in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”

Was Abraham called because of his faithfulness, or spiritual piety? No. Abraham was called, chosen, because the LORD decided to. Abraham possessed no self-merit, no exclusive claim on God’s favor. In his life Abraham displayed faithfulness and faithlessness. Twice he lied about his wife (Gen. 12 & 20). But Abraham also displayed great faith by heeding God’s call (Gen. 12), and by offering his only son, Isaac, as an offering (Gen. 22).

God does not predestine people based on what they do or their potential. God’s sovereign choice is based on the counsel of His own will.

Ephesians 1:11 1 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,

The scope of God’s purpose of Abraham may be greater than ours, but it is no less certain. All Christians have been called according to God’s purpose.

Christian Response to the Crisis in Haiti

Now is not the time to stand on doctrinal distinctives. The city of Port-au-Prince has been devastated. Initial reports are using numbers in the thousands to tabulate the dead. This does not include the scores of people who are injured and homeless. Christians should be galvanized into action. Most of us are unable to go to Haiti personally, but we are able to give. No amount is too small. Here are some Christian organizations who are helping in Haiti:

Samaritans Purse
Operation Blessing
World Vision

In addition to your gifts, you can pray. Pray that the Lord will extend His grace to the people of Haiti. Pray for the Christian missionaries who are laboring at this very moment. Pray for the church in Haiti, that they will know the provision and comfort of of the Lord at this time. Pray for the triumph of the gospel. Even though Haiti is enduring a catastrophe, the gospel is still powerful enough to save to the uttermost.

In short, pray and give.

Work out your salvation

Philippians 2:12  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling…

The phrase “work out your salvation” means to work on to the finish.  It is similar to our phrase “work it out.”  The question is whether we accomplish this working out on our own.  Is our sanctification, becoming more like Christ, the product of our own labors?  The book of Hebrews tells us:

Hebrews 12:2  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith…

The Lord Jesus Christ is the author and perfecter of faith.  Faith is made possible because of what Christ did on the cross.  But least we think that we are on our own, the author of Hebrews tells us that Christ is also the perfecter of faith.  He is actively at work in us in order to make our faith complete.  Paul knew this, for he wrote in the next passage in Philippians:

Philippians 2:13  or it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Good Christian, God is the One who is at work in you.  He has not left us on our own to fight the struggle against sin.  He is actively perfecting us.  Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way.  But even in the depth of the greatest trial, God is with us.

Romans 8:35-39  35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  36 Just as it is written, “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Confessional Baptists and the Family Integrated Church Movement

The Family Integrated Church Movement (FICM) is gaining traction in certain segments of the church.  It should be applauded for its emphasis on strong Christian families, and the role that the family plays in education of children.  However, the FICM is not a centralized phenomena.  Some churches and individuals that are FICM friendly are moderate in their views, not insisting that the family is the basic unit of the New Testament church. Other FICM adherents are more monolithic, believing that the family supersedes the church.   As normally is the case in situations such as this, the truth lies somewhere in between.  Pastor Sam Waldron wrote an excellent article on this subject on the Reformed Baptist Fellowship Blog.  The link to his article is here:  An Open Letter with regard to My Blog on the Family-Integrated Church Movement.

Why is Confessional, Reformed Theology Important?

The following article was written by Rich Leino, owner and administrator of the PuritanBoard, a confessional Reformed online community.  Rich touches on the importance of “creed over deed”, or the Gospel over works.  God is not concerned with the reforming of our lives.  God is concerned with our response to the Gospel.  The Gospel, the Evangel, is at the center of the Christian faith.  America, and most western nations, have traded the Gospel for what has been described as Therapeutic Deism.  Therapeutic Deism views God as our helper, a tonic for what ails us.  It has placed a veil over God’s holiness, man’s sin, and the hope of the Gospel.  Rich Leino’s article is a fresh reminder of that which is most important.

~ Bill

The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) has published its first major findings in Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, by Oxford University Press.

The book Soul Searching accurately describes the state of American Christianity today by describing the beliefs of teens, the book:

…vividly portrays complexity and paradox in the story of contemporary teenage religion. Though widely practiced and positively valued by teens, faith is also de-prioritized and very poorly understood by them. Nonetheless, religion remains a significant force in shaping their lives.

More broadly, Soul Searching describes what appears to be a major transformation of faith in the U.S., away from the substance of historical religious traditions and toward a new and quite different faith the book describes as \”Moralistic Therapeutic Deism….\”1

A further description:

Based on a nationwide telephone survey of teens and their parents, as well as in-depth face-to-face interviews with more than 250 of the survey respondents, Soul Searching shows that religion is indeed a significant factor in the lives of many American teenagers. Chock full of carefully interpreted interview data and solid survey statistics, Soul Searching reveals many surprising findings. For example, the authors find that teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices of their parents and other adults than is commonly thought. They challenge the conventional wisdom that many teens today are \”spiritual seekers.\” And they show that greater teenage religious involvement is significantly associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes.

Soul Searching reveals the complexity of contemporary teenage religious life, showing that religion is widely practiced and positively valued by teens, but also de-prioritized and very poorly understood by them, yet significant nonetheless in shaping their lives. More broadly, Soul Searching describes what appears to be a major transformation of faith in the U.S., away from the substance of historical religious traditions and toward a new and quite different faith the authors call \”Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.\”2

What does this all mean? This means that Evangelicals of all stripes are raising children that essentially believe that God is far off somewhere, cannot really be described in words, and doesn’t really interfere in human affairs unless He is invoked when we can’t get things done on our own. Further, most believe that life can pretty much be managed except when we get in over our heads. At that point, God is there to help us out. Most believe men are basically good and we get to heaven as our good deeds outweigh our bad. Most shocking is that such beliefs are fairly consistent among the religious groups surveyed. Thus, a Roman Catholic might identify themselves by the title or a Baptist decry that they are not Roman Catholic, but their “creed” is identical.

This confirms a trend I have lived and that I now lament as one whose eyes have been opened to the power of the Gospel. Growing up Roman Catholic, I attended a Charismatic parish for several years. The priest emphasized the experiantial aspects. Belief in Christ was meditative and “discerned” while the creedal formulations were never discussed. I, thus, went to college in 1986 looking for experience of the same. Eventually discouraged that Catholic Churches lacked the “excitement” I had grown used to as a youth, I stopped going to Church for several years. Eventually I found my way into a broadly Evangelical Church where charismatic expression reigned again over doctrine. I was convinced that Roman Catholics and Evangelicals were divided only by a level of fervency for Christ. I suppose I imagined that Martin Luther and John Calvin were primarily interested in making Jesus an exciting thing again.

I attended Charismatic Churches for years. Expression of worship and excitement was always emphasized. Christ was said to have died for my sins but this was devoid of any meaning. I still understood that I must contribute my fervency and devotion to Him if I was to be accepted. I lived the life of the therapeutic Deist. I sought new experience week in and week out but always left flat, depressed, impoverished.

Then in 1997, I read Faith Alone by R.C. Sproul and everything changed. Suddenly the seemingly dead and confusing words of Scripture became utterly clear. The truth of the Gospel, for the first time, was unencumbered by vague speech. Somebody finally spoke clearly and said that Christ was the Just and Justifier. Somebody spoke plainly about imputed righteousness. I had experienced nearly everything that Charismatic experience has to offer. I had gone to the depths of the earth pursuing Christ and tried to climb to the heavens but it was all zeal without knowledge. I was not pursuing righteousness. I was not pursuing Christ. The awakening, excitement, and joy of that information, that News, filled me with a joy that no song or charismatic experience could ever replicate.

It is said, often, that American Evangelicals are “overfed”. That is, they get plenty of teaching but the problem is that they don’t act. We’re told today that we need less creeds and more deeds. This, of course, is reflected in the beliefs of teens today. They reflect their parents’ notion of truth – that in the end it doesn’t matter what you believe but it just matters how you live. In fact, the reason why this is perceived to be the case is that Evangelicals no longer are taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

That’s right, Evangelicals are STARVED of the Gospel. They are fed deeds. They are fed purpose. They are fed experience. What they lack is the very News that can transform human hearts. What they never hear is that a Holy God is pouring out His wrath on all flesh. What they never hear is that all our works are like filthy rags before a Holy God who mankind hates because He is Holy. What they never hear is that, left to ourselves, no flesh will be found justified in His sight and He has every right to punish every man, woman, and child. Because God is Holy, He cannot overlook sin. It must be punished. But men think that God is there to serve them so they never experience the terribly bad news that their sin is worthy of condemnation.

Moreover, men never hear that God sent His only begotten Son into the world to bear the wrath that His people deserve. They don’t hear about the initiating love of God that gives spiritual eyes to see as the Gospel goes forth that brings dead men to life. They don’t hear that Christ bore the full penalty of wrath from His own Father that we deserve. Because they never hear it, they don’t look to Christ and believe the Gospel – a simple faith that says that Christ is God and bore the penalty of sin in His flesh and rose again to declare Himself God.

Because men, women, and children don’t hear this Good News anymore they are left STARVED in the Churches. You see, it is the Gospel that is the creed. It is the data of who Christ is, what He accomplished, and the nature of His Church that men, women, and children are not taught about. They have nobody to trust in except themselves. They have no News to embrace. Sadly, it is this very news that is the thing that transforms and saves but people don’t hear it, they’re not taught it, and they know nothing more about God than their Roman Catholic friends.

Thus, because I am a man transformed by the Evangel – the Good News of Christ – it breaks my heart to see men and women and children who have a mighty heritage in the Gospel impoverished. Many believe Grace is less powerful than the Roman Catholic Church did at the time of the Reformation. They’re asked to commit themselves fully to Christ so He will bless them. Gone is what Christ has done and it’s replaced with what we must do to draw near to Him.

In the end, it is the Creed that is more important than the Deeds. It’s not that deeds are unimportant but the deeds don’t save. It is the Creed that saves. It is the Creed that takes a dead man, running with all his might toward hell, and knocks him down and makes him alive that He might see and embrace the Gospel. As his heart reflects upon the wonderous salvation, constantly fed the Good News of how God is for those whom He has redeemed and how God has purposed to save His own to the uttermost, his heart superabounds with joy. His heart sings praises of doxology to the God he now loves, to the God he is now reconciled to. His will is now empowered by the Gospel toward love and good works – a fruit of a heart transformed!

Thus, I am convinced that those who emphasize deeds over creeds will not only lose all creeds but they will lose the deeds as well. There is nothing left, after the creeds have disappeared to empower or inform what is good. Every man does what is right in his own eyes. Sure, religion is convenient and fun for a season but as soon as it is tested in the fire of life, a life that most suburban kids are sheltered from, the phony religion is burned away. Like the “burned over” generations of the 19th century, American Evangelicalism is burning out and many are turning to rank atheism.

And so, this board embraces the Reformation and it embraces the Reformation’s historic confessions because they proclaim Christ and Him crucified. They unabashedly express the full nature of God and the wonder of the great salvation He has brought to His enemies that He loved beforehand.

The Reformed Confessions also take God seriously for He is not only our Justifier but He is a consuming fire. He is worthy of worship and adoration. He is not some mere transcendant clockmaker but is very near to us and has covenanted with man through human history. He has made promises to save that He Himself kept in the person of Jesus Christ.

Thus, theology is not a dry and boring thing but neither is it a joke or a youth game. Rather, it is an encounter with a living and Holy God who we love because He first loved us. It is because we love Him that we love to sing His praises and hate all those things that rebel against Him.

And so, we welcome you to the PuritanBoard if you are of like mind. If you are not yet a believer in the person and work of Christ and don’t know much about His person and work then we pray that our interactions on this board will demonstrate how deadly serious we are about the Truth. We pray that this seriousness about doctrine will, in some measure, be a means to the salvation of some as well as an edification to God’s Saints.

Soli Deo Gloria!

1 http://www.youthandreligion.org/
2 Ibid.

The Deception of New Years Resolutions

Psalm 5:3 O LORD, in the morning I hear your voice…

Psalm 145:2  Every day I will bless Thee, And I will praise Thy name forever and ever.

January 1st probably leads every other day of the year in promises and good intentions.  Lose weight, quit smoking, exercise more, go back to college, repair broken relationship etc. etc. etc.  The new year doesn’t progress very far before these resolutions are broken.  Some individuals stick with it longer than others, and there is always a few who accomplish their goal; but for the majority of us, we ditch those New Years resolutions somewhere between January and March.

Christians are not immune to resolutions.  Maybe we promised ourselves that we will read the bible more often, pray diligently, and make a real attempt to display brotherly love towards those in the church.  Halfway through the year we look back and find that we weren’t completely faithful in doing these things.  Our own broken promises to ourselves come back to haunt us.  We fall prey to the deception of New Years resolutions.

The truth is that we don’t need to wait until the beginning of a New Year to get serious about our spiritual life.  There is no better time than now to pray more (Colossians 4:2).  There is no better time than now to read the Word of God (Psalm 119:11).  There is no better time than now to do good works (Ephesians 2:10).  There is no better time than now to love the brethren (1 John 4:11).  There is no better time than now to confess our sins, repent, and obey God (James 5:16; Galatians 5:16; Colossians 3:24).  As Christians, we are called to walk in a manner worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1).  The Christian life doesn’t begin on January 1st, it’s a 24/7/365 reality.  It’s a continual journey that exists outside of a calendar.  The truth is that we will often fail and fall short. The good news is that we’re not alone on this journey.  We have been set on the path by God Himself, and He has given us the Holy Spirit to bring us safely to our destination (John 14:16).  When we fail we need to remember that all our sin, all short comings, have been laid upon Christ.  He has forgiven us for our sins and clothed us with His righteousness.  We don’t have to wait until the beginning of the week, month, or new year in order to have a fresh start.  We continually have a fresh start in Christ.

Colossians 3:3  For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Happy New Year!

The Example of Christ’s Obedience

Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

One thing is inevitable when we are born, we are going to die. The body ages, and then, fails. This is part of the curse due to the fall. We are dust and to dust we shall return. Jesus was born of a human mother and with a human body. He was not immune to the frailties of humanity. He hungered, thirsted, experienced weariness, and pain. When He was nailed to the cross His body experienced the full measure of pain and suffering that any other man would have experienced. Yet, in addition to the physical pain He suffered, He also experienced the wrath of His Father on sin. He was also separated from His Father, not through physical death, but by the Father turning away from Him, because He bore on His body the sin of the world. These things describe the atonement for sin that Christ accomplished through His death on the cross. But what lead Him to the cross? What lead him to the cross willingly?

Just before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, He took some of His disciples aside and told them the events there were shortly to take place:

Matthew 20:17-19 17 And as Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”

Jesus remained obedient to the Father, even in the face of death. In fact, His entire life on earth was marked by obedience. He obeyed His parents (Luke 2:51), He observed the Law of Moses (Matt. 8:4), and He submitted to the lawful authority (Matt. 17:24-27). Towards the end of His life, Jesus told the Father that He had finished the work that was given to Him to do. John 17:4 4 “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.”

How are we to respond to Christ’s example of obedience? We are to obey God’s commands by loving God and loving the brethren. Jesus summed up the two greatest commandments: Matthew 22:36-40 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

How do we love the LORD our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind? Simple: Learn and do. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (John 14:15).” It stands to reason that if you are to keep a commandment you need to know what it is, right? That is precisely why God has given us His word. But that is not all the LORD has given us. In order to appropriate the spiritual truth of the Word of God, we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you (John 14:16, 17).” Learning and doing is certainly easy to say. Living it is another thing. We still have sinful inclinations and fail all the time. But part of obedience to Christ is to become more like Him, and that is a process called progressive sanctification. We should more and more be in the process of becoming like Christ. As Christians we must display godly affections, a desire to be more like Christ. We should pursue obedience at every turn, and be ever vigilant. Our attitude should be the same as Paul’s in in Philippians 3:

Philippians 3:8-14 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Lastly, obedience to Christ is also our joy! We may be in the midst of great blessing, or deep in the pit of despair. In both instances it is important that we walk faithfully lest we become too proud or be crushed by grief. Habakkuk wrote, “17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail, And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold, And there be no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places (Habukkuk 3:17-19).”

Does God need you?

Paul Washer addresses the notion that God needs us in order to accomplish His will.