Abusing Matthew 18...

And the abuses abound!

Don Carson has written a helpful article for the latest issue of Themelios.

Carson writes:

Several years ago I wrote a fairly restrained critique of the emerging church movement as it then existed, before it morphed into its present diverse configurations.1 That little book earned me some of the angriest, bitterness-laced emails I have ever received—to say nothing, of course, of the blog posts. There were other responses, of course—some approving and grateful, some thoughtful and wanting to dialogue. But the ones that displayed the greatest intensity were those whose indignation was white hot because I had not first approached privately those whose positions I had criticized in the book. What a hypocrite I was—criticizing my brothers on ostensible biblical grounds when I myself was not following the Bible’s mandate to observe a certain procedure nicely laid out in Matt 18:15–17.

Doubtless this sort of charge is becoming more common. It is regularly linked to the “Gotcha!” mentality that many bloggers and their respondents seem to foster. Person A writes a book criticizing some element or other of historic Christian confessionalism. A few bloggers respond with more heat than light. Person B writes a blog with some substance, responding to Person A. The blogosphere lights up with attacks on Person B, many of them asking Person B rather accusingly, “Did you communicate with Person A in private first? If not, aren’t you guilty of violating what Jesus taught us in Matthew 18?” This pattern of counter-attack, with minor variations, is flourishing.

To which at least three things must be said:

Read the rest of the article HERE.

What we actually teach...

"If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.

"If the gospel—even when you are orthodox—becomes something which you primarily assume, but what you are excited about is what you are doing in some sort of social reconstruction, you will be teaching the people that you influence that the gospel really isn’t all that important. You won’t be saying that—you won’t even mean that—but that’s what you will be teaching. And then you are only half a generation away from losing the gospel.

"Make sure that in your own practice and excitement, what you talk about, what you think about, what you pray over, what you exude confidence over, joy over, what you are enthusiastic about is Jesus, the gospel, the cross. And out of that framework, by all means, let the transformed life flow."

- D.A. Carson

HT: Justin Taylor

A Generation and a half from death...

Thanks to Gabriel Fluhrer for this quote from D.A. Carson:

"I have been teaching more decades now that I can count and if I have learned anything from all of this teaching, its this: my students...learn what I'm excited about. So within the church of the living God, we must become excited about the gospel. That's how we pass on our heritage. If, instead, the gospel increasingly becomes for us that which we assume, then we will, of course, assent to the correct creedal statement. But, at this point, the gospel is not what really captures us. Rather, is a particular form of worship or a particular style of counseling, or a particular view on culture, or a particular technique in preaching, or - fill in the blank. Then, ultimately, our students make that their center and the generation after us loses the gospel. As soon as you get to the place where the gospel is that which is nearly assumed, you are only a generation and a half from death".

What is God like?

Thanks for Andy Naselli for linking to D.A. Carson's message from the NEXT Conference. Excellent!

The messages from the Next 2010 Conference (May 28–31, 2010) are available as MP3s. Don Carson’s assignment was to preach on God, and his sermon describes God and then unpacks Exodus 34:1–9. Here’s his outline:

Some Things about God That Christians Have Always Confessed
1.God is triune.
2.God is the transcendent creator.
3.God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
4.God is holy.
5.God is love.
6.God is self-disclosing.

Five Observations from Exodus 34:1–9
1.The setting is sin.
2.The revelation is dangerous.
3.The revelation is hugely self-defiant.
4.The revelation is frankly mystifying.
5.The response is unqualified submission.

D.A. Caron on being Gospel-Centered

From Justin Buzzard's interview with D.A. Carson:

1. In a paragraph, what does it mean to be gospel-centered in one’s Christian life?

Some think of the gospel as so slender it does nothing more than get us into the kingdom. After that the real work of transformation begins. But a biblically-faithful understanding of the gospel shows that gospel to be rich, powerful, the wisdom of God and the power of God, all we need in Christ. It is the gospel that saves us, transforms us, conforms us to Christ, prepares us for the new heaven and the new earth, establishes our relations with fellow-believers, teaches us how to work and serve so as to bring glory to God, calls forth and edifies the church, and so forth. This gospel saves — and “salvation” means more than just “getting in,” but transformed wholeness. It would be easy to write many pages on how a gospel-centered ness affects all of life, but one must begin with a full-orbed understanding of what the gospel is and does.

2. What do you see happening with the gospel and my generation, the twentysomethings of the American church? Are you encouraged?

Cautiously, yes. It is still a day of relatively small things. But it is always encouraging to observe the substantial number of twentysomethings who want to learn what the Bible says, who are looking for faithful mentors, who are tired of the endless openness of some strands of postmodernism but who do not want to drift back into isolationism or privatized religion. Some from very culturally conservative Christian backgrounds are engaging in a pendulum swing toward “hip” stances that are barely orthodox, but they are winning almost no one except other people like themselves. In God’s grace, the future lies with that part of the younger generation that is passionate to understand, believe, and obey the truth, and who to that end are diligently studying the Word of God for themselves and learning lessons in contrition and joy, in humility and courage, in faith and obedience, that every generation of believers must learn.

3. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area we have a lot of work to do. This is a highly unchurched metropolitan area with great hostility to the gospel. What are a couple brief points of counsel you’d give to church leaders wanting to build (or re-build) a gospel ministry in a region like this?

Trust Christ; believe the power of the gospel; abandon short-term gimmicks; think big but start small and be faithful; meet with, work with, pray with, learn from, those who have a common set of commitments and vision.

Read the entire thing HERE.

Carson on Polemical Theology

Yesterday I posted a link to the book "Beyond the Bounds" in reference to a larger point I was trying to make briefly on the necessity of polemics. Polemics is the practice of proclaiming the truth with reference to specific errors. The Scriptures frequently engage in polemics. We find polemic in books as varied as Genesis and Galatians. The prophets, Jesus, and the apostles engaged in polemic. And so the polite, undiscerning, never offensive, and effete impulse so alive in the western church needs to be confronted. This is especially true in a culture that has been so heavily influenced with a post-modern hermeneutic which has no problem setting mutually exclusive truth claims side-by-side as if no claim to truth has any more validity than any other.

Don Carson's editorial in the latest issue of Themelios addresses the issue of "polemical theology."

Caron writes:

Polemical theology is nothing other than contending for a particular theological understanding (usually one that the contender holds to be the truth) and disputing those that contradict it or minimize it. It is impossible to indulge in serious critical thought without becoming enmeshed, to some degree, in polemics. Every time you include a footnote that begins “Contra” you are engaged in polemical theology; every time you assemble six reasons as to why your interpretation of a biblical passage or your formulation of a theological issue is correct, and assert, or at least imply, that alternative interpretations or formulations are correspondingly incorrect, you dabble in polemical theology. The person who advances an exegetical or theological stance without reference to competing formulations may avoid polemics, but will usually not be taken seriously by those who have studied any issue, precisely because there is no serious engagement with those who disagree. It is not easy for Christians to be entirely free of polemics, and it is not wise to attempt such freedom. Their arguments will inevitably attract adjectives like ignorant, reductionistic, unengaged, naive—and rightly so.

So it is not surprising that the Bible itself casts up countless examples of polemical theology. One thinks of Yahweh’s sneering refutation and condemnation of the idols in Isa 40–45; of the direct condemnation of alternative stances in, say, Galatians or Jude, or of Jesus’ condemnation of hypocrites including what they teach (e.g., Matt 23); of the symbol-laden destruction of imperial pretensions in the Apocalypse. One also thinks of many subtler forms of polemics. When Jesus tells parables to indicate that the kingdom dawns slowly, quietly, over time, and in function of how the Word is received (e.g., the soils, the yeast, the weeds and the wheat), he is implicitly challenging alternative conceptions of the kingdom, and thus he is engaged in polemical theology. When the Letter to the Ephesians devotes much of its space to working out the glories and characteristics of the one new humanity that God has brought about in Christ, joining together Jew and Gentile (and, in principle, people from every tribe and language and people), it is overturning alternative views of ethnicity, of self-identification, of how to find the true locus of the covenant people of God. In other words, any robust theology that
wounds and heals, that bites and edifies and clarifies, is implicitly or explicitly engaging with alternative stances. In a world of finite human beings who are absorbed in themselves and characterized by rebellion against God, polemical theology is an unavoidable component of any serious theological stance, as the Bible itself makes clear.

Nevertheless, Carson wisely warns against building ones entire identity on polemics or what he calls the “everyone-has-got-this-wrong-before-me-but-here-is-the-true-synthesis.” He also helpfully points out that there is not one single "tone" to polemical theology.

[R]egardless of its audience and of the particular stance that is being challenged, polemical theology ought to develop a wide range of “tones.” Re-read Galatians. Within the space of six short chapters, Paul can be indignant with his readers, but he can also plead with them. He openly admits he wishes he could be present with them so he could better judge how he should adjust his tone. He can be scathing with respect to his opponents, precisely because he wants to protect his readers; he can devote several paragraphs to clarifying and defending his own credibility, not least in demonstrating that his core gospel is shared by the other apostles, even though he insists he is not dependent on them for getting it right. He happily connects his theological understanding to ethical conduct. All of this suggests that a mature grasp of the potential of polemical theology wants to win and protect people, not merely win arguments.

Read the entire article HERE.

Good Conversation 3

Good Conversation 2

Good Conversation 1

Thoughts on Christian Leadership

I have little patience with many of the leadership conferences and seminars offered by big, huge, really cool, awesome churches and other Christian ministries. Most of them sound something like, “How to be a super-duper impressively awesome leader.” The largest such event that is hosted by Willow Creek Community Church actually has as its slogan: “The future of the church rests with its leaders.” Yikes! No mention of Jesus’ promise to build HIS church. My friends, if the future of the church rests in my hands then I quit! I can’t build the church. As a four time alumni of this particular conference I believe I can speak with a bit of insight on this event.

Based upon the speakers the event hosts, the copy for the brochure should go something like this:
“Come hear a pastor from Dallas who preaches prosperity and denies the doctrine of the Trinity but he’s on TV a lot and has a really big, huge, awesome church. We also have a retired general in the army who will tell us a lot of really cool awesome things about leadership. There will also be this well known leadership guru who will tell us awesome stuff from his awesome book about how to be an awesome leader. But wait, there’s more! A famous NFL quarterback is going to speak about how awesome it is to be an awesome quarterback in the NFL. We’re pretty sure that some of these speakers aren’t Christians but they are awesome really cool leaders and we’re sure you will learn some awesomely cool stuff about leadership and how the future of the church rests in your hands!”

Okay, so that’s a bit of a raw spot for me. But if you go to enough of those kinds of events (and I have) then you will become 1) a high functioning workaholic who builds an awesomely cool church because you are able to perform at a level that most of humanity cannot or 2) you will become disillusioned and hate yourself and the church because you cannot perform like the guy who “pastors” the ginormous church or 3) you will simply drop off the “consult the expert” treadmill and trust that God’s Word has far more valuable words for Christian leaders than do all the false teachers, military experts, leadership gurus, and professional athletes put together.

One book that continues to challenge, encourage, and rebuke me is D.A. Carson’s The Cross and Christian Leadership. It is an exposition of the key texts in I Corinthians that pertain to Paul’s role as a leader in the church. It is a book that all those who care about the church ought to read. Pastors should read it for obvious reasons. But those who are not involved in “leadership” per se in the church ought to read it to gain a better understanding of what God expects from those who lead His church.

Carson writes:
“The person who daydreams about being a leader in almost any field imagines what it is like to be the best, or at least to be better than most others – to succeed where others fail, to be stalwart where others stumble, to create where others merely perform, to win adulation and applause, perhaps after some initial hardship and rejection. To be a leader may mean fame, money and some freedoms from the responsibilities and humdrum existence of ordinary mortals. To be a leader means to win respect. Only rarely do those who dream of leadership, but who have never experienced it, think through the responsibilities, pressures, and temptations leaders face. Almost never do they focus on accountability, service, and suffering.”

Commenting on I Corinthians 4:1-7 Carson writes:
“Two elements stand out, and both are tied to things Paul has already explained. (1) Christian leaders are ‘servants of Christ’…Christian leaders do not try to be independent gurus, all wise teachers. They see themselves simply as servants and want other Christians to see them that way, too. But they serve one particular Master: they serve Jesus Christ. (2) At the heart of the commission they have received from their Master lies one particular assignment. They have been ‘entrusted with the secret things of God’…The gospel itself is the content of this mystery, God’s wisdom summed up under the burden of Paul’s preaching: Jesus Christ and him crucified…

“What it means to be a servant of Christ is to be obligated to promote the gospel by word and example, the gospel of the crucified Messiah. That is absolutely fundamental. There is no valid Christian leadership that does not throb with this mandate…Moreover, they must beware of politely assuming such a stance, while their real interest lies elsewhere…Those who are servants of Christ, those who are entrusted with the secret things of God, do not see themselves winning popularity contests – not even within the church’s borders. That is what Paul means when he says, ‘I care very little if I am judged by you or by any other human court’ (4:3). There is only one Person whose ‘Well done!’ on the last day means anything. In comparison, the approval or disapproval of the church means nothing.”