I had to write this for school. It's due Monday evening so any suggestions or changes you guys would make would certainly be helpful. Even after Monday you can offer help if you'd like because I will be keeping it for personal use. Thanks.
I. The Scriptures
I believe that the Bible was written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (cf 2 Peter 1:19-21). This authoritative word of God is the soul source from which I know the gospel of Jesus Christ and the grace of God to man (cf Romans 1:2). It is also a primary source of God for the sustaining and maturation of believers (cf Psalm 1, John 17:17).
II. God
I believe in the God of the Holy Bible from whom all things were created (cf Gen. 1:1, Col. 1:16). Being one God and yet three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Being also the sustainer of the universe and upholder of all creation (cf Heb. 1:3) He is Holy (cf Isaiah 6:3), omnipotent (cf Job 42:2, Isaiah 26:4), omnipresent (cf Psalm 139), omniscient (cf Romans 11:34), omnibenevolent (cf 2 Chron. 7:3), loving (cf 1 John 4:7ff), merciful (cf Psalm 116:5), and perfectly just. (cf Deut. 32:4).
A. God the Father
“God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. (Baptist Faith and Message Section II A)”
B. God the Son
“[I believe] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father (Nicene Creed).”
C. God the Holy Spirit
I believe in God the Holy Spirit, who inspired the human authors of the holy Scriptures and illumines the hearts of its readers. He is the effective Caller to salvation and the sole regenerator, baptizing the elect into the body of Christ, and working in and through them in sanctification.
III. Man
I believe that man is created in the image of God (cf Gen: 1:26), for the Glory of God (cf Isaiah 43:7). In the Garden of Eden Adam, the first man, sinned thus bringing the curse of original sin to all men thereafter (cf Gen. 3, Romans 5:12). Thus man is completely dependent on God’s grace for every breath taken and for salvation.
IV. Salvation
I believe in the salvation of the elect, “by grace… through faith…not a result of works” (Eph. 2:8). This salvation includes: (a) the Justification of the believer. Once a sinful man believes in Jesus (cf Romans 10:9), and repents of his sin (cf Matthew 4:17) he is then justified by God. The Justification of the believer also includes two main parts: (a.a) Substitutionary Atonement, the act of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (see II B) dying on the cross in the place of the sinner (cf Col. 2:13-15). Justification also includes (a.b) Imputed Righteousness, the act of God crediting or imputing the righteousness of Jesus Christ as that of the believer (cf Romans 4). Secondly, salvation includes (b) the Sanctification of the believer, the act of the Holy Spirit enabling maturity and Christ-likeness in the believer’s life (cf 2 Cor. 3:18). Lastly, salvation includes (c) the Glorification; this will be the very obvious final stage of salvation when all believers receive their resurrection bodies (cf 1 Cor. 15:51-52). This is an eternal salvation (cf John 6:37) marked by the Lordship of Christ over the believer’s life and displayed by the fruit of the Spirit being produced in the believer’s life (cf Gal. 5:16ff).
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Dangerous Minds
Not very long after I started working at Mardel I came across a series of videos known simply as Nooma, the brilliant creation of Pastor Rob Bell. The short sermon series struck me as odd, interesting, groundbreaking, and a little bit too expensive. I found these videos interesting enough that I thought this man must have a book and indeed he did. I eventually bought the book in order to cite some of Pastor Bell's findings on Jewish culture in a seminary paper I was working on. I read the first chapter and then the chapter I used for the paper before placing the book next to my bed so that I could finish it.
Although I never actually finished Bell's book, Velvet Elvis, I now feel as if I have been duped by some of Satan's craftiest schemes, half-truth. Yes, some of what Pastor Bell teaches is groundbreaking and maybe even useful in the evangelical world. But in my foolishness I put Bell on my short list of favorite pastors without really knowing what he believed. It turns out Pastor Bell is the face of what I will simply refer to as the emgerging/emergent movement. These are two different and yet often considered interchangeable movements, both of these movements have claims to Bell. I will try to read the entire book in the future and post a full review (who knows I might critique this post) but here is a very disturbing quote and a quick biblical response to complete my example of why we should be careful to whom we lend too much ear.
The setting to this quote is that Rob is addressing a lecturer he once heard saying that if you deny that God created the world in six literal 24 hour days you are denying Jesus' death on the cross. A critique of the lecturer is certainly in order assuming he was quoted in the correct context but this is Bell's response.
"It hit me...that for him faith isn't a trampoline; it's a wall of bricks. Each of the core doctrines for him is like an individual brick that stacks on top of the others. If you pull one out, the whole wall starts to crumble... What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archaeologists find Larry's tomb and DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if you study the origin of the word virgin in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word virgin could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being 'born of a virgin' also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse? (Velvet Elvis 26)
Bell goes on to defend that he believes in the virgin birth and biblical inspiration but that Christians should not let their faith fall apart due to the reexamination of one "brick".
I don't think it is wrong to draw attention to Paul's words in 1 Corinthians as he speaks of a "brick" that would tear his entire wall down. The reason I don't think it is unfair to draw the comparison here is because Bell doesn't merely challenge a small brick but the virgin birth as something that we should allow to shake our faith.
"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:14-19 ESV)"
Paul says that the resurrection is crucial for two basic reasons. (1) the importance of the testimony. Paul makes it clear that if his Christology was wrong his faith was wrong. One might argue that we are all wrong about something but on things as large as the virgin birth and the resurrection our faith is certainly contingent. We may not know the facts about them but we at least know that they did happen according to the gospel. The second reason Paul gives is (2) the function of what is being testified to. It's not just that we were wrong but it's what we were wrong about. If there was no virgin birth Christ was 100% man and 0% God meaning that he was depraved and there is a reason the gospels skipped his teen years.
Rob is certainly popular for a reason but it's more because of the intelectual stimulation he provides than actual theological inside. It strikes me as odd that he went to the same college (Wheaton) and seminary (Fuller) as John Piper.
In the virgin-born and victoriously resurrected Christ,
Stephen
Although I never actually finished Bell's book, Velvet Elvis, I now feel as if I have been duped by some of Satan's craftiest schemes, half-truth. Yes, some of what Pastor Bell teaches is groundbreaking and maybe even useful in the evangelical world. But in my foolishness I put Bell on my short list of favorite pastors without really knowing what he believed. It turns out Pastor Bell is the face of what I will simply refer to as the emgerging/emergent movement. These are two different and yet often considered interchangeable movements, both of these movements have claims to Bell. I will try to read the entire book in the future and post a full review (who knows I might critique this post) but here is a very disturbing quote and a quick biblical response to complete my example of why we should be careful to whom we lend too much ear.
The setting to this quote is that Rob is addressing a lecturer he once heard saying that if you deny that God created the world in six literal 24 hour days you are denying Jesus' death on the cross. A critique of the lecturer is certainly in order assuming he was quoted in the correct context but this is Bell's response.
"It hit me...that for him faith isn't a trampoline; it's a wall of bricks. Each of the core doctrines for him is like an individual brick that stacks on top of the others. If you pull one out, the whole wall starts to crumble... What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archaeologists find Larry's tomb and DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if you study the origin of the word virgin in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word virgin could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being 'born of a virgin' also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse? (Velvet Elvis 26)
Bell goes on to defend that he believes in the virgin birth and biblical inspiration but that Christians should not let their faith fall apart due to the reexamination of one "brick".
I don't think it is wrong to draw attention to Paul's words in 1 Corinthians as he speaks of a "brick" that would tear his entire wall down. The reason I don't think it is unfair to draw the comparison here is because Bell doesn't merely challenge a small brick but the virgin birth as something that we should allow to shake our faith.
"And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:14-19 ESV)"
Paul says that the resurrection is crucial for two basic reasons. (1) the importance of the testimony. Paul makes it clear that if his Christology was wrong his faith was wrong. One might argue that we are all wrong about something but on things as large as the virgin birth and the resurrection our faith is certainly contingent. We may not know the facts about them but we at least know that they did happen according to the gospel. The second reason Paul gives is (2) the function of what is being testified to. It's not just that we were wrong but it's what we were wrong about. If there was no virgin birth Christ was 100% man and 0% God meaning that he was depraved and there is a reason the gospels skipped his teen years.
Rob is certainly popular for a reason but it's more because of the intelectual stimulation he provides than actual theological inside. It strikes me as odd that he went to the same college (Wheaton) and seminary (Fuller) as John Piper.
In the virgin-born and victoriously resurrected Christ,
Stephen
Thursday, August 16, 2007
First Things...
"Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45)
The purpose of this blog isn't to take away from or change what Bobby is doing in the Hidden Treasure Facebook group. My purpose in creating this blog is so that a group of Christians who are already active in studying God's Word can share what they are learning with each other.
This is an opportunity to share what the Holy Spirit is teaching you through His Word so that others may be encouraged or help you with something you are struggling with figuring out.
In Christ,
Stephen
The purpose of this blog isn't to take away from or change what Bobby is doing in the Hidden Treasure Facebook group. My purpose in creating this blog is so that a group of Christians who are already active in studying God's Word can share what they are learning with each other.
This is an opportunity to share what the Holy Spirit is teaching you through His Word so that others may be encouraged or help you with something you are struggling with figuring out.
In Christ,
Stephen
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