On Theological Diversity in Early Christianity

Michael Kruger cuts through the fog in the discussion about the supposedly radical theological diversity in and around the early church.

"All Things for Good"

Helpful big-picture Bible reflections from John Piper on our great and good God!  "If you are given singleness instead of marriage as your life, it’s because the blood of Jesus secured the eternal good that singleness will do for you. Or if you’re given a disability or a disease that’s never healed in this life, it is because the blood of Jesus secured the eternal good that this disability will do for you."

Always Reforming?

Kevin DeYoung makes vital distinctions about semper reformanda here on the threshold of Reformation Day.  The notion of the church "always reforming" provides no valid basis for revisionist teachings that set aside classic biblical doctrines in order to keep up with the times.  See also Michael Horton's article on how the church should, and should not, be perpetually reforming.

Unpacking "Once Saved, Always Saved"

"Whether from fear or ignorance, sizeable segments of the Christian church avoid the New Testament teaching that pursuing purity in this life is necessary for entrance into the next." That's how John Piper begins his very helpful article, "The Legacy of One-Point Calvinism and Casual Churchianity."  He clarifies that this necessary pursuit of purity is the fruit and not the ground of justification.  All in all, a serious and good word!

Trump's Theology

Michael Horton has a terrific and important article on "The Theology of Donald Trump" at Christianity Today.

Majoring on Minors

Conrad Mbewe speaks a word of wisdom on the "prosperity gospel" and the way it confuses majors and minors:

The Prosperity Gospel Majors on Minors from Desiring God on Vimeo.

The Startling Good News

I appreciate Amy Hall's post at Stand to Reason about the startling figure of the suffering Messiah:  "We forget how entirely unexpected and shocking the humility and servanthood of Jesus is—how foreign it is to human expectations of God, and in this case, to Muslim expectations."

Mormonism and the "Cult" Question

It is at least intriguing, and possibly disturbing, to read that “The Billy Graham Evangel­istic Association (BGEA) recently removed an article from its website that listed Mormonism as a ‘cult.’  The change followed Mitt Romney’s home visit to Billy Graham last week, where the evangelist pledged ‘help’ to the Mormon presidential candidate’s campaign” [Christianity Today online 10-19-2012].

Here’s the BGEA’s justification for this action:  “‘Our primary focus at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has always been pro­moting the Gos­pel of Jesus Christ,’ Ken Barun, chief of staff for the association, told CNN in a statement.  ‘We removed the information from the website because we do not wish to participate in a theo­logical debate about something that has become politicized during this campaign’” [CNN online 10-16-2012].

Not everyone has swallowed that claim.  Pundits find the timing of the change suspicious.  Like CNN’s Roland Martin:  “To those of my fellow evangelicals who are on the religious right, please, stop your fake trumpeting of biblical values if you’re going to run roughshod over your biblical convictions and let your partisan views take center stage” [CNN online 10-23-2012].  Biola University’s Craig Hazen contends that this move “gives the appear­ance that the BGEA might think that—on certain occasions—they will let politics trump princi­ples” [Christianity Today online 10-19-2012].  “Appearance” is the key word here.  The BGEA’s action appears to be politically expedient.

Whatever we’re to conclude about the BGEA’s maneuver, I wouldn’t want anyone to think that Mormonism’s errors are minor matters.  In fact, The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints (i.e., Mormon­ism) is decidedly contrary to biblical Christ­ianity.  Consider a few of their claims:  *Mormon­ism (founded in 1830) is the restored apos­tolic church; *God was once a man who progressed to god­hood; *the Trinity is actually three distinct gods; *humans can be exalted to godhood; *Jesus was originally a spirit-child of a hea­venly marriage who later progressed into deity; *Adam’s sin was a noble, vital act leading to godhood; *faith in Christ isn’t necessary for salvation but only to reach heaven’s highest echelons (cf. “The Bible and Religious Cults,” ESV Study Bible, pp. 2631-2).  They also accept other “scriptures,” such as The Book of Mormon, as divine revelation.  These departures from Christianity are serious and sobering. 

And so I encourage followers of Jesus Christ to be in prayer for Mormons, that they would come to faith in the one and only Savior.  And pray as well for the BGEA—for wisdom in this hour.

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Pray for Greece!

Greece has been in the news—with the recent elections, the wrenching struggle over accepting the European Union bailout terms (austerity measures and all) and whether there’s any wiggle room in the stiff terms that need to be imposed.  That story is unfolding before us as a new government has been formed to try and lead the Greek people through some very difficult times.

Having just visited Greece in the capacity of a short-term teacher with Training Leaders International for the purpose of building up pastors and church leaders among various immigrant communities in Athens, however, I’m reflecting these days more about the spiritual “state of the nation.”  [Links:  my blog from Greece; some photos from Greece]

What especially has my attention is the odd juxtaposition of two statistics in Operation World’s country report on Greece:  On the one hand, 91% of the population (i.e., 10,228,331 out of 11,183,393 people) self-identifies as “Christian.”  On the other hand, the number of “evangelicals” in the country is 41,372, or 0.4% of the population.  What does it mean that only about one half of one percent of self-proclaimed “Christians” in Greece are “evangelical”?  Let’s probe this with a couple more questions.

What does OW mean by “evangelical”?  Let me quote their definition at length.  Evangelicals are…  “All who emphasize and adhere to all four of the following:

• The Lord Jesus Christ as the sole source of salvation through faith in Him, as validated by His crucifixion and resurrection.
• Personal faith and conversion with regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
• Recognition of the inspired Word of God as the ultimate basis and authority for faith and Christian living.
• Commitment to biblical witness, evangelism and mission that brings others to faith in Christ.” 

So the term “evangelical” is not being used of some politically conservative voting bloc or as a label for people who promote traditional morality.  Rather, the it’s being applied to people who’ve been born again, who have a personal and vital faith relationship with the living Lord Jesus Christ, who embrace the Bible as the uniquely inspired and authoritative Word of God, and who long to live for the honor of Christ in all things.  You can say it many different ways.

Well then, when speaking of evangelicals, does OW envision only to those outside the historic Greek Orthodox Church?  No.  The 0.4% of the population includes evangelicals who are worshipping within Orthodox congregations.  Back to the OW definition:  “Evangelicals are largely Protestant, Independent or Anglican, but some are Catholic or Orthodox.  It is one of the TransBloc movements in this book.”  So, obviously, OW knows that there are evangelical renewal movements in all sectors of global Christianity, Orthodoxy included.  A glaring implication of their statistics, however, is that such movements in Greece are miniscule at best.

So, again, what does it mean to be among the 99.5% of “Christians” in Greece who say no to the concept of Christianity above under the heading of “evangelical”?

Our ministry team peeked into several Orthodox church buildings in Athens and the surrounding area.  A couple of times we were able to listen in on the worship liturgy.  In one instance, the canters sang back and forth a prayer-song pleading with the “Panagia,” the all-holy one, i.e., the mother of Jesus, “Mary, save us!”

We were distraught to hear this:  “Mary, save us!”  How bold, how brazen, to plead for salvation to someone other than the Savior, Jesus Christ.  And further, how unsettling to consider the tenuousness of the salvation experience from that frame of reference—that God is remote, and mercy is insecure…

The more we took things in, the more we came to see how different the religious landscape is in Greece compared to the USA.  Here in the States some 29% of the population is self-described as evangelical.  But in Greece, the religious scene is dominated by historic Greek Orthodoxy, and any group claiming to be Christian but not Orthodox is immediately considered suspect, peripheral, or even cultish; non-Orthodox churches are viewed as culturally marginal.

One of the leading Greek evangelical pastors in Athens explained to us that, if asked what made his evangelical church so different from Orthodoxy, he’d highlight two things.  First, he’d underscore the evangelical commitment to the “solas.”  These Latin phrases (sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus) summarize evangelical priorities on the unique revelation and authority of Scripture alone, salvation through God’s grace alone and by faith alone, all achieved by Jesus Christ alone.  Orthodox church-goers need to grapple with the solas.  OW contends, “Most Greeks are ignorant of the gospel message and are unreceptive to any non-Orthodox witness.”

And, secondly, they need to comprehend and experience the love of God as taught in Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).  The character of the father in this profound story portrays God’s great heart of love for lost and ruined lives—especially how the father scans the horizon for his lost son and then runs recklessly to him, embraces him, assures him of his acceptance, and insists on a grand celebration of the son’s return home.  That kind of a conception of God, of our Heavenly Father, is not brought out in traditional Greek Orthodox churches—and the need to see the Lord God from that angle is an urgent need.

Do pray for Greece!

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What Demons Believe

The resounding point in chapter two of the Letter of James is that authentic Christian faith is a dynamic reality, that it "works."  If we claim to have faith in Jesus but there is no meaningful expression of that faith in our actions, the claim lacks merit.  Faith without works is dead (vv 17, 26)--lifeless, useless, meaningless.  In other words, "faith" that does not lead to changed living is not true Christian faith.  And the heart that says "I believe Jesus died for me so now I can just live as I please because I'm forgiven and heaven's a done deal" is a heart that lacks genuine faith in Christ:  it is the heart of an unbeliever.  That's because real faith involves trust in and admiration for and a readiness to follow in the steps of the One we trust, the living Lord Jesus Christ.  Faith involves not only knowing truth but loving the God of truth.  No, that doesn't mean real Christians practice their faith perfectly--James is aware of that error too (3:2; cf. 1 John 1:8, 10).  But it does mean that true faith simply cannot be bottled up in the brain:  it must get out and get hands and feet and words--it must "work."


The folly of "faith without works" is driven home vehemently in 2:19:  "You believe that God is one; you do well.  Even the demons believe—and shudder!"  Notice that affirming truth does not add up to biblical faith.  If we say we "believe" that the Bible is true, and if we believe that there is just one God, one great creator God, and if we go on and affirm the doctrine of the incarnation and the deity of Christ and the truth of the sin-bearing work of the Son of God on the cross on behalf of sinners (etc.), that kind of mental assent, valuable as it is, does not save.  In fact, it does no more than what the demons do.  Satan and his vile cohorts acknowledge true information about God--his oneness, even his awesome majesty (note that they "shudder" at the thought of the true God).  But "believing" the facts is not enough, and that's because "believing" the facts is not what it means to have faith.  Authentic Christian faith involves trust, admiration, devotion, and praise; genuine faith necessarily engages the heart and arouses the will, but it is never be content just to sit in the mind affirming abstract information to which we tip our hat.
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Alister McGrath on the New Atheism

Regent College is offering Alister McGrath's recent lecture, "Why God Won't Go Away: Reflections on the 'New Atheism,'" as a free audio download at regentaudio.com (click here). This is a thoughtful, discerning and penetrating assessment and critique of the New Atheism movement--well worth the time to listen and consider! McGrath, a former atheist and a highly accomplished scholar with academic doctorates in both the natural sciences and theology (click here or here for info about him), helps one sift through the various claims and lines of argument that are advanced by authors such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

[ originally posted at www.forthejourney.blogspot.com ]

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