An Emergent "Atonement"

Here is what Emergent Church leader Tony Jones thinks about Christ's work of atonement:

Some people today may find it compelling that some Great Cosmic Transaction took place on that day 1,980 years ago, that God's wrath burned against his son instead of against me. I find that version of atonement theory neither intellectually compelling, spiritually compelling, nor in keeping with the biblical narrative.

Even though I have come to expect these kinds of statements from Jones, MacLaren, Pagett, etc. I still am stunned by their bold heresy. Nevermind that Christ's death in the place of sinners is inescapably biblical, Tony Jones does not find it intellectually or spiritually "compelling." Can you hear the wanton hubris in those words? That he does not find Christ's atoning work "in keeping with the biblical narrative" only shows his ignorance of the biblical narrative. Of course once one throws away the inerrancy of the Scriptures then we are free to discard those portions of the Bible that we do not find to be "in keeping" with the bits we find "compelling."

Now consider the words of J.I. Packer from the book Knowing God:

Has the word propitiation any place in your Christianity? In the faith of the New Testament it is central. The love of God [1 John 4:8-10], the taking of human form by the Son [Heb. 2:17], the meaning of the cross [Rom. 3:21-26], Christ's heavenly intercession [1 John 2:1-2], the way of salvation--all are to be explained in terms of it, as the passages quoted show, and any explanation from which the thought of propitiation is missing will be incomplete, and indeed actually misleading, by New Testament standards.

In saying this, we swim against the stream of much modern teaching and condemn at a stroke the views of a great number of distinguished church leaders today, but we cannot help that. Paul wrote, "Even if we or an angel from heaven"--let alone a minister, a bishop, college lecturer, university professor, or noted author--"should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! ("accursed" KJV and RSV; "outcast" NEB; "damned" Phillips--Gal. 1:8). And a gospel without propitiation at is heart is another gospel than that which Paul preached. The implications of this must not be evaded.

* Thanks to Justin Taylor

New York

The first picture is of some ugly guy with a beautiful woman. The next shot is of Maundy Thursday Mass at St. Patricks. The last two pictures are of St. Paul's Chapel which is located directly across the street from the World Trade Center.

The Power of the Cross

He Bore our Curse

Tim Keller on MSNBC

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Your Gospel is Too Broad

Over at Church Matters Greg Gilbert posts an important critique of the "gospel" proposed by N.T. Wright and endorsed by Scot McKnight.

Greg writes:

Like many others, Scot has been advocating recently for a "broader" gospel than what I have called "The Gospel of the Cross," and this post, I think, is in the same vein. Scot quotes two different statements of the Christian gospel, one by N.T. Wright and the other by an unnamed, unlinked, "slightly edited" someone. I think it's safe to say that Scot's hope is that we will all choose Wright's version of the gospel, rather than the other one.

My own opinion, written about here, here, and here, is actually that neither of the two options Scot lays out is a sufficient explanation of the biblical gospel. On the one hand, I think it's probably inaccurate to say that the gospel (broadly considered, which it sometimes is in the NT) doesn't include the proclamation of the kingdom, the promise of resurrection, the promise of Christ's return, and many other promises. But on the other hand, I also think that what McKnight quotes here from Wright is also woefully insufficient, and indeed not good news at all. Here's what he quotes from Wright:

My proposal has been that 'the gospel' is not, for Paul, a message about 'how one gets saved', in an individual and ahistorical sense. It is a fourfold announcement about Jesus:
1. In Jesus of Nazareth, specifically in his cross, the decisive victory has been won over all the powers of evil, including sin and death themselves.
2. In Jesus' resurrection the New Age has dawned, inaugurating the long-awaited time when the prophecies would be fulfilled, when Israel's exile would be over, and the whole world would be addressed by the one creator God.
3. The crucified and risen Jesus was, all along, Israel's Messiah, her representative king.
4. Jesus was therefore also the Lord, the true king of the world, the one at whose name every knee would bow.

Click HERE to read Greg's important critique of this definition of the Gospel.

The Leading Edge of Civil Rights

I believe that reform of the public school system, particularly urban public schools is the leading edge of advancing civil rights in our country. African American young people face distinct disadvantages because of fatherlessness and the popularizing of thug-culture. However, those problems, which are monumental, could at least be blunted if young African Americans were able to escape the travesty which is the urban public school. Unfortunately certain politicians actively oppose the mechanism that enables the escape: vouchers. These politicians are baring the door to public schools. But this time, instead of allowing African American students to enter, they are preventing their escape. This is a moral outrage that would be labeled "racist" if politicians from another party were opposing vouchers.

Jay Greene of the University of Arkansas offers an update on the current fight over vouchers in Washington D.C.

The Washington, D.C., voucher program is not dead yet. Congress has set its execution date, slipping a provision into last month’s omnibus spending bill to end the program unless it is re-authorized by Congress next year. With anti-voucher members of Congress in a clear majority, supporters of the program are glum about its political prospects.

The pall has extended to voucher programs around the country. If our legislators can terminate the D.C. program without too much political cost, might they decide to become serial killers, targeting vulnerable programs in Milwaukee, Ohio, and elsewhere?

Oddly, Congress chose to act even as the programs continue to produce solid evidence of academic effectiveness. Just this week, the U.S. Department of Education released the results of its official evaluation of the D.C. voucher program. It found that students selected by lottery to receive vouchers to attend private schools made significantly greater progress in reading than did lottery losers who stayed in D.C. district or charter schools. A student attending a private school with a voucher typically was four months ahead of the average public-school student in reading after three years. What’s more, the earliest participants in the voucher program — presumably, kids from those families most eager to escape D.C. public-school failure — were ahead of their public-school counterparts by the equivalent of 19 months of reading instruction after three years in private schools.

Last week, I released a study [PDF] that is part of the legislatively mandated evaluation of Milwaukee’s voucher program. It found that competition from the voucher program has improved the academic performance of students remaining in Milwaukee’s public schools by about 12 percentage points over the history of the program. That is, vouchers did more than benefit the students who received them; they motivated the entire school system to improve.

President Obama did the right thing by enrolling his daughters in an outstanding private school. I hope he will champion the cause of other African Americans who could never afford private schools without vouchers.

Read Jay Greene's entire article HERE.

Is America a Christian Nation? (1)

Yesterday, addressing students in Istanbul, President Obama declared that "America is not a Christian nation."

That is a pretty bold statement especially considering it was made in a predominantly Muslim nation.

Without any ad hominem attacks on President Obama or each other I would like to know your thoughts. Specifically I would like you to deal with the question, "Is America a Christian nation?"

If your answer is "no" then what is America? If your answer is "yes" then explain. To what extent is America "Christian"?

The Retreat of Christianity in America

Have you seen the cover of Newsweek? Pretty provocative stuff. Al Mohler has an excellent post on Meacham's cover article. Check it out HERE.

Is this good news? Bad news? Why?

What do you think are the implications for the church?

A Gentle Question for Phillies Fans

Are you out of your MIND?!

I know the Phillies did not have the best game yesterday. But...

Just 17 minutes into the season opener the fans in Philadelphia started booing their team. Keep in mind the Phillies are the world champions! It was less than 20 minutes into the game!

Just wondering.

Sunday's Sermon

Click HERE to listen to or download Sunday's sermon - "Behold The Cross"

Confusion or Clarity?

Over at Pyromaniacs Phil Johnson has posted, what I believe, are some spot-on observations about the panel discussion (above) on the Emergent Church at the recent Christian Book Expo. Check it out HERE.

Your Thoughts?

Velvet Jesus?

Check out THIS REVIEW of Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis.

The New Syncretism

From Christianity Today:

The shift towards pluralism has been long in coming. In his 1993 book, A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation, Roof reported that surveys of American baby boomers—Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish, liberal or conservative—all showed a trend towards religious consumerism. The values of the new generation were focused on choice, tolerance of different lifestyles, blending faith and psychology—a cafeteria-style religion where you believe in whatever works best for you.

Roof called this individualistic religious consumerism "transformed narcissism," and predicted it would come to dominate American religious life. The results of an August 2008 study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life appear to bear him out: a majority of American Christians (52%) believe that some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life...

In an October 18, 2006, interview broadcast on NPR's "Here and Now," Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stated, "Christians understand that Jesus is the route to God. That is not to say that Muslims, or Sikhs, or Jains, come to God in a radically different way. They come to God through human experience—through human experience of the divine."

Jesus Christ is the way and the truth and life for us, Canadian Anglican Bishop
Michael Ingham argued in his 1997 book Mansions of the Spirit, but there are other "diverse paths to God." The Bible stands as an account of "emerging God-consciousness," he argued, but our knowledge of God is not solely confined to Scripture, as there is "a yet wider view of God's self-disclosure" through human mystical experiences...

The former director of Christian Formation at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, [Ann Holmes] Redding began to study Islam in the wake of 9/11, after hearing Muslim imams speak at interfaith events at the cathedral. A personal crisis spurred her onto a spiritual quest that ended with her publicly reciting the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith.

A public symbol of conversion to Islam, the Shahada does not contradict anything in Christianity, Redding argued, nor did the professions made at a Christian baptism contradict anything in Islam, for the language of either creed was not to be taken in a literal sense.

"We Christians, in struggling to express the beauty and dignity of Jesus and the pattern of life he offers, describe him as the 'only begotten son of God.' That's how wonderful he is to us. But that is not literal," she said.

Read the entire article HERE.

"Don't Waste Your Life"

Abortion and the Idolatry of Money

Bonnie Erbe of US News and World Report suggests that in times of economic recession, choosing abortion is a good thing. I would offer more commentary but is it really needed?

‘Yes, it’s sad that this unwed, pregnant mother of three had no money for bus fare. It’s terrible that her boyfriend lost his job. It is heart-wrenching that she fell to tears in the doctor’s office. But in the long run, can we not agree that an unwed couple’s decision not to bring a fourth child into the world when they are having trouble feeding themselves and three children is no tragedy? It’s actually a fact-based, rational decision that in the end benefits the three children they already have and society as well.

‘Feeding and raising children is expensive. Tuition may be free at public schools but there are still books, transportation, food, clothes, medical care and activities that add up—way up. One may assume this family of five is struggling just to maintain its basics: housing and food. Add one more child and those costs rise as income drops. It’s no tragedy: it’s a good decision. The decision benefits society in two ways. It allows the couple to focus more time, energy and resources on their three children, giving each child a better life and a better chance of growing up to contribute to society. It also lessens the chance the family will have to rely on scarce public resources (food stamps, TANF) to raise their children.’

Read the entire article HERE.

Naming False Teachers

James MacDonald of Harvest Bible Chapel has posted some thoughts on Brian MacLaren and the responsibility to identify false teachers in the church.

1. Why Brian MacLaren is Like My Palm Pilot

2. The Public Rebuke of False Teachers

"Is The Shack that good?"

I know I have posted several reviews of The Shack but I keep getting asked about the book and it is still a best-seller. If you have read any of the other reviews I have posted then you already know that I am no fan of the book. Call me crazy but I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea to monkey around with doctrines like the Trinity, the atonement, God's sovereignty, the Scriptures, etc.

Here's a portion of a review from Ordained Servant:

But is The Shack that good? And is the teaching of The Shack in line with Bunyan and the Bible? Lane Keister, author of the Green Baggins blog on the Web, doesn't think so. He has this to say:

The Shack is the story of a man ["Mack"] whose [youngest] daughter is brutally murdered. The man ... receive[s] a message from God [four years later] to meet him at the shack, the very place where his daughter was murdered. He then meets God....
The upshot of the plot is that God explains to the main character the why's and the wherefore's, and the man is healed. The theological upshot is that God is good, but not all-powerful....
Contrast Job. Job lost much more than the man in the story.... He had much more to complain about than the man in The Shack. He too wanted God to explain.... But when God finally has His say, He tells Job that He does not have to come to the bar of human reason. Humans have to come to the bar of God.
This is where C.S. Lewis comes in. In his brilliant essay entitled "God in the Dock," he makes [a] really important [point].

Here is that important point from Lewis:

Ancient man approached God ... as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God's acquittal. But the important thing is that Man is on the Bench and God is in the Dock.

The author of The Shack is a typical example of "modern man": From Young's perspective, God is in the dock and God (through the author of The Shack) must present "a reasonable case for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease." Young ignores Lewis's rebuke and—with tongue in cheek—titles chapter 7 of The Shack "God on the Dock," making an allusion to Lewis's essay and his own rejection of it (104-114).

Young's approach is far different from that which we see in John Bunyan and in Job in the Bible, as Keister explains:

Bunyan and Young go in fundamentally different directions. Christian's journey is to the bar of judgment as a defendant whom God will acquit based on the spotless righteousness of Christ imputed to him. The man's journey in The Shack is to the bench, where he magnanimously acquits God of wrong-doing, once it becomes evident that God is really powerless to stop it....

... [O]ne of my friends ... . noted the contrast between the way in which God is portrayed in the Bible as opposed to how God is portrayed in The Shack. The God of The Shack is hardly a God with the least little hint of awe and majesty. He is not the God of the whirlwind, which is how God treated Job. He is not the God before whom all bow their faces to the ground.

In chapter 6 of The Shack, Mack meets God, and we as well are introduced to a very different view of the Triune God from that found in Scripture:

The door flew open, and he was looking directly into the face of a large beaming African American woman ... . Just as she turned to enter the cabin, a small distinctly Asian woman emerged from behind her ... . He [Mack] then glanced past her and noticed that a third person had emerged from the cabin, this one a man. He appeared Middle Eastern and was dressed like a laborer, complete with tool belt and gloves (82-84).

All three are "down to earth," humanized to such an extent that any sense of awe seems to be excluded:

Mack tried again to look at the Asian woman ... . From her attire, Mack assumed that she was a groundskeeper or gardener ... . [T]he large woman put her arm around Mack's shoulders, drew him to her, and said, "Okay, we should probably introduce ourselves to you. I am the housekeeper and cook"... . "And I," interrupted the man who looked to be in his thirties and stood a little shorter than Mack himself, "I try to keep things fixed up around here. I enjoy working with my hands, although, as these two will tell you, I take pleasure in cooking and gardening as much as they do" (85-86).

Read the entire review HERE.

"A Shelter in the Time of Storm"

The new book by Paul Tripp looks excellent. You can get a copy by clicking HERE.

By the way, if you attend Church of the Saviour or live in the Philadelphia area Dr. Tripp is going to be with us for a weekend conference in January. More details to come!

Sunday's Sermon

You can listen to or download last Sunday's sermon, "God Will Provide the Lamb" HERE.