When Sheep Attack

HT: Sacred Sandwich

“Hollywood Has the Best Moral Compass”

You must be kidding me. Albert Mohler with some commentary on the Roman Polanski debate. Also, lest we think that the moral compass belongs to “good people”, there’s another article about home-grown morality and the Gospel’s distinctness. A snippet of that one:

Writing about his own childhood in rural Georgia, the novelist Ferrol Sams described the deeply-ingrained tradition of being “raised right.” As he explained, the child who is “raised right” pleases his parents and other adults by adhering to moral conventions and social etiquette. A young person who is “raised right” emerges as an adult who obeys the laws, respects his neighbors, gives at least lip service to religious expectations, and stays away from scandal. The point is clear — this is what parents expect, the culture affirms, and many churches celebrate. But our communities are filled with people who have been “raised right” but are headed for hell.

Morality is not a question of social liberalism versus social conservatism. It’s a question of the Gospel!

Special Revelation and Reason

Doug Wilson brings a good message on the importance of Scripture in Christianity. Well worth your time. Best stuff is his classroom analogy. This fits well with blogging through the Institutes… the Scriptures do not submit to the tests of reason. The Scriptures claim to reveal a reason above our own that demands our full conformity to the way God reasons.

A Different Kind of Witnessing

Watch John Piper essentially witness to the Religious Newswriters Association in Minneapolis on September 11th. This is at an informational seminar on the new Calvinists, but Piper also uses the opportunity to share the Gospel with the group. Well worth 15 minutes of your time.

Counter-Cultural Christ

John MacArthur wrote a few weeks back for the Washington Post’s On Faith series. A snippet:

The first word of his first sermon was “Repent!”–a theme that was no more welcome and no less strident-sounding than it is today. The first act of his public ministry touched off a small riot. He made a whip of cords and chased money-changers and animal merchants off the Temple grounds. That initiated a three-year-long conflict with society’s most distinguished religious leaders. They ultimately handed him over to Roman authorities for crucifixion while crowds of lay people cheered them on.

Jesus was pointedly, deliberately, and dogmatically counter-cultural in almost every way. No wonder the religious and academic aristocracy of his generation were so hostile to him.

A good read.

Want to Understand N.T. Wright?

Try this video.

N.T. Wright seems to have two main novelties, neither of which are really new: 1) the view that Paul is looking at justification as future and righteousness as “covenant membership/faithfulness”, and 2) the holistic Gospel that redeems all of Creation, not just individuals. Thus, the Gospel means a redemption of Creation, culture, economy, etc.

Watch the video, it’s well worth your time.

Whither Dispensationalism?

Came across an interesting video that I posted below. He takes a little while to start rolling, but he’s got some decent arguments that are worth your thoughts. I don’t agree with all of his theology, but his critiques should cause pause for those of us that have grown up soaking in dispensationalism. The thing that’s always gotten me about a pre-trib rapture is the misuse and weaving of Scripture before a coherent theology emerges. For instance, how many times have you heard this passage (Matthew 24:40-42) used as an argument for pre-trib rapture?

Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

But all the preceding context is forgotten: these individuals aren’t being taken in a rapture, they’re being taken in judgment!

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

Those who are being judged are the ones taken, not the ones left behind.

Watch this video, and at least think about it. Prophecy and the end times are not so cookie cutter clear… as most dispensationalists would have you believe.

I welcome comments!

Young, Restless, Idolatrous?

An excellent post by Carl Trueman on the Neo Reformers. The last paragraph:

Ultimately, only the long term will show if the YRR movement has genuinely orthodox backbone and stamina, whether it is inextricably and inseparably linked to uniquely talented leaders, and whether `Calvinism is cool’ is just one more sales pitch in the religious section of the cultural department store. If the movement is more marketing than reality, then ten to fifteen years should allow us to tell. If it is still orthodox by that point, we can be reasonably sure it is genuine. Indeed, when torn jeans, or nose rings, or ministers talking about their sex lives from the pulpit become passé or so commonplace that they cease to be distinctive, we will see if it is timeless truth or marketable trendiness which has really driven the movement; and, even it proves to have been the latter, we should not panic. We will still be left with the boring, mundane and nameless people and culturally irrelevant and marginal churches – the nameless ones — upon whose anonymous contributions, past and present, most of us actually depend.

Read the whole thing.

Radical Ramadan

Brian McLaren shares that he’ll be participating in Ramadan with some Muslim friends. You can read his announcement about it here. For some context on what Ramadan is, see here. While the emphasis at the about.com site is the neighborly affect of Ramadan, it is nothing less than an act of worship towards Allah that is intended to gain salvation merit.

So Brian McLaren, who says he follows Jesus, and is about grace, and all the rest… is participating in an event that undercuts grace and goes against what Jesus told His followers they must do. That’s postmodernism for ya’.

Doug Wilson responds with a rather hilarious post here.

HT: Vitamin Z

Bob Bixby Exits the Blogosphere

Bob Bixby, one of the more sane fundamentalist voices and a good read for many years, is leaving the blogosphere.