SAGE Chapter Wins Court Battle

A federal court judge in Minnesota gave the Straight and Gays for Equality (SAGE) group at Maple Grove High School a victory against the school district.  The high school did not give SAGE the opportunity to advertise their group on a bulletin board that student groups use for advertising their extra-curricular activities.  This battle has been going on for about a year and a half and most of the plaintiffs are graduated now. 

I can think of few sins that are being as glorified to the youngest of our society as the sin of homosexuality.  It is almost as though sexual immorality is a right of passage in our schools these days.  Male homosexuality, lesbianism, transvestitism, and transgender-ism are ever present in the media through television programming, movies, and music and now even in our public schools. Can you think of any TV sitcoms that haven’t dealt positively with homosexuality?  

There is no reason that any kind of sexual orientation should be fostered and supported by the public school districts around the country.  What kind of twisted and perverse society do we live in that takes the youngest of our society and encourages them to engage in any kind of sexual activity that they think will bring them the most pleasure?  Children (yes, I said children) do not have the wisdom, intellect, or maturity to make sexual decisions for themselves!  The reason that we have statutory rape statutes and age of consent laws is that it has been well known that young people do not have the maturity to judge the consequences of their sexual decisions; consequences such as sexually transmitted diseases (some resulting in death), pregnancy, heartache, and the spiritual bonds that are created with each sexual partner.  God’s word says that when two people come together in sexual union that they “become one flesh”, there is a physical and spiritual bond created.  God’s word also says “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)  All some children know is that they want to have a good time and experience sexual fulfillment, and that desire, in most of them, overrides any clear-headed thought about future consequences. Without a sound Biblical foundation on which to stand against this peer pressure, many Bible believing children are at risk of falling into this trap.   

School districts and the courts should not be encouraging ANY type of sexual activity or experimentation. This is not the purpose of schools which should be educating children on the severe consequences of engaging in this kind of activity.  

Blashpemy

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about taking the Lord’s name in vain and how easily it slips off the tongue of unbelievers and believers as well.  I came across an interesting passage of Scripture from Leveticus 24:15-16 “…Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death…”  I was punching in at work the other day and a fellow employee blasphemed God and it came so natural to him that I bet he didn’t even think twice about it.  I remember before Christ saved me, that I would put Jesus’ name in the middle of a long string of expletives without even thinking (I had quite an anger problem).  The thought that I was using the word God or name of Jesus Christ as a curse word didn’t even phase me.  The God that had given me life and every good thing; the God that graciously didn’t cast me into hell at that very instant, was nothing more to me than an outlet of contempt and scorn. 

Using the Lord’s name as a curse word, or in a less than a reverent way was a capital offense in the Old Testament; God takes His name very seriously.  God’s name or titles exemplify His character.  Read what Adam Clarke (1715-1832) had to say in his commentary on this passage,

“On blaspheming God, and the nature of blasphemy, … one thing is sufficiently plain, that he who speaks irreverently of God, of his works, his perfections, his providence, etc., is destitute of every moral feeling and of every religious principle, and consequently so dangerous to society that it would be criminal to suffer him to be at large, though the longsuffering of God may lead him to repentance, and therefore it may be consistent with mercy to preserve his life.”  

“Consistent with mercy to preserve his life”, what an awe inspiring comment that is!  Our gracious God, the one whose name is often blasphemed allows the blasphemer to live so that He may grant them repentance!  What an awesome and great God we have! Many times I have heard professing Christians use the term “God”, Jesus, or Lord in an offhanded or flippant manner.  Most of the time it is something like “Oh my …” or “Oh Lord”, I even it find it objectionable when I hear people use the term Holy in a manner that is far from Holy.  I will even go one step farther and say that sometimes we shorten the name of Jesus and say “Jeez” which is no better than using His name.  We need to be conscious of how we use the name of our Almighty God and only use His name in the context of praise, adoration, sincere reverence, or when speaking to others about Him.  We need to show the world that His name is to be honored and revered. 

Defending Expository Preaching

One of the things that I like to do is to visit different church web sites, blogs, and podcasts to check the pulse of the modern evangelical church.  What I find most often, is that alot of churches seem to be focused on entertainment rather than sound Biblical teaching or preaching.  Many websites tout their rock bands, sound and light shows, video presentations, drama teams, and their “relevant” messages. 

I know people who attend some of the major “mega” churches in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN area and most of these people talk about the fun that they have at church, how funny their pastors are or how great the music is. When it comes to their “relevant” messages, I find that they closely resemble Dr. Wayne Dyer or some other “new age” guru with a heavy emphasis on pop psychology, self help, power of positive thinkng, or self esteem rather than on Biblical exegesis or theological truth.  I have found a serious lack of spiritual discernment in these people due to the shallowness of the preaching. The great doctrines of the faith are not preached, instead, the preaching is centered on the individual; how to be a better person, how to relate better with the world around them, how to move toward social justice, and become active in (liberal) politics.  I heard a sermon on a podcast recently in which the pastor talked for 45 minutes about “challenge spikes”, a term that was coined by Bill Hybels to talk of trials and struggles in life.  The only difference between some of these pastors and someone like Oprah, Wayne Dyer, or Deepak Chopra is that these pastors may throw some scripture passages (however twisted) into their messages to make them sound somewhat “Christian”.   

I’m a big supporter of expository preaching because I think that type of preaching elevates God’s word and is what preaching should do. I got turned on to expository preaching when I started listening to Dr. John Piper, Dr. John MacArthur, Dr. R.C. Sproul and others.  Expository preaching begins with the word and examines the Biblical text and reveals what the scripture means.  What I like about it is that it takes you through the Bible and explains who God is through His word and it doesn’t allow for skirting hard issues and difficult texts.  In topical sermons one can avoid controversy and difficult passages by just not preaching on them.  SOUND DOCTRINE IS IMPORTANT!!! The purpose of expository preaching is to give the saints God’s word, thus equipping them for spreading the Gospel of truth to the world around them.  The church, then, is for believers and is not meant to be a place to draw unbelievers in order to evangelize them.  Most of evangelicalism gets this point wrong with their seeker sensitive models. 

True Gospel preaching needs to lift up Christ and be centered on the person of Jesus Christ and His atoning work or it is no different from any other man-centered philosophy that has no power to save one from the well deserved wrath of God.  I’ll say it again SOUND DOCTRINE IS IMPORTANT!!!

More on Baptism and Church Membership

As I have been reading some other people respond to posts on 9Marks and other sites I have seen responses like (loosely paraphrased) “those Baptists just need to change their opinions on believer baptism and then all this controversy will go away” to “The Bible is remarkably silent on the issue of baptism.”

 I do not believe that Baptists need to “change their minds” regarding credo-baptism nor that the Bible is “remarkably silent” regarding baptism, on the contrary I believe that it says much about baptism: John’s baptism, the disciples of Jesus baptizing (John 4:1-2), Jesus’ commands to baptize the nations (Matthew 28:19), and the baptism in/of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). 

My understanding from scripture is that the baptism of John in the Jordan river was marked by confession of sin and repentance. This baptism also pointed to a future Savior (Acts 19:4), in fact, John claimed to be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of the one who would be “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” (Isaiah 40:3).  All those who were baptized by John in the Jordan were adults who made a confession of sin and repentance and who were looking forward to the coming Messiah.  Infants cannot make confession of sin, they cannot repent and therefore they cannot put their faith and trust in the Savior.  There are no recorded instances in Scripture of infants being baptized by John, Jesus, Paul or any other New Testament persons.

(To be continued)

Dr. D. James Kennedy’s Passing

Dr. D. James Kennedy of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and the “Coral Ridge Hour” passed away on Wednesday September 5th.  Check out the following Blog posts:

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=999

http://christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/2476/

http://www.sfpulpit.com/2007/09/05/on-the-homegoing-of-d-james-kennedy/

What others are saying:

http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/news/2007/US/528_d_james_kennedy_dies_9_5_2007.asp

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/12779.html

Baptism and Church Membership 2

I’ve been doing more reading since last time and I have been struck by the importance of this debate and by the amount of controversy that surrounds it.  Here are some of the blog sites that I have been reading lately:

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/757_response_to_grudem_on_baptism_and_church_membership/

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/758_wayne_grudems_response_to_piper/

http://blog.9marks.org/2007/08/baptism-church-.html

http://www.enjoyinggodministries.com/enjoying-god/piper-grudem-dever-et-al-on-baptism-the-lords-table-and-church-membership-just-how-together-for-the-gospel-are-we

http://theologica.blogspot.com/2007/08/grudems-change-of-mind-regarding.html

If you visit any one of these sites you will find links to most of the others as well since they quote from each other’s blogs and websites.

I was reading some comments from Dr. Mark Dever’s blog at 9marks.org; he believes that those that are baptised as infants, but not baptised after making an adult or cognitive profession of faith are living in unrepentant sin for disobeying Jesus’ command to be baptised.  Dever would deny church membership and the The Lord’s Table (Communion) to those persons like Ligon Duncan, R.C. Sproul and other paedo-baptists although they demonstrate a sincere faith in Christ.  The problem with his stand is that he would have no problem having these same men come and preach from pulpit at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, this seems very inconsistent to me.

(To be continued)

Baptism and Church Membership

I have been reading a lot of other blogs from people I respect and admire and some that I don’t know too much about.  One of the big issues lately has been the fact that Dr. Wayne Grudem has changed his mind on his position on baptism and church membership, and whether or not there is room for compromise between those who hold to paedo-baptists (infant baptism) and credo-baptists (believer baptism) views. 

In section F1 (page 982-983) of “Systematic Theology” under the title “Remaining Questions”, “Do Churches Need to Be Divided Over Baptism?”, Dr. Grudem has stated in his new edition, “Some kind of ‘compromise’ position on baptism is not very likely to be adopted by denominational groups in the future.”  In his first edition Dr. Grudem held to a position of compromise whereby church membership didn’t necessarily need to be restricted to those who held to the denominational beliefs of the church in which they wanted membership.  I agree with John Piper’s views that he stated in his blog www.desiringgod.org “You give good evidence of being born again and that you embrace Christ as your Savior and Lord and Treasure, and you manifest an authentic intention, on the basis of that faith, to follow Jesus as Lord and obey his teachings. Therefore, since there is good evidence that you are members of the Body of Christ, you may be members of this local expression of that body.”

(To Be Continued)

Future Investigations

I don’t have time right now, but I want to investigate a few things that I have either read, thought about, or heard lately and I want to get them out there so I don’t forget them.  1) John Piper attending the multi-faith gathering after the 35W bridge collapse. 2) Todd Friel’s response to the previous point, along with opinions of Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron or any others. (i.e. John MacArthur, Al Mohler, R.C. Sproul, etc.) 3) Further investigation into the apparent schism developing between some Baptist’s and other denominational leaders regarding the ordinance of baptism and The Lord’s Supper and church membership  This is all for now.

The Deep and the Sovereign God

My wife and I watched a program on the Discovery Channel called “Blue Planet”, on the episode about the ocean depths I was so amazed by how great God’s creation is!  Our God is so awesome!!!  Here we have under the water at depths of 12,000 feet a whole universe of creatures that for thousands of years (yes, thousands and not millions or even billions) has gone undetected by man.  There were creatures with photo-luminescent cells that actually light up light penlights and others shoot out luminescent liquid that actually explodes like fireworks.  These devices were created by God as a way of hunting for food and also of protecting them from other predators of the deep.  Only a sovereign God would create these things for His glory, it wasn’t for man’s enjoyment that these were created because for thousands of years man was totally unaware of their existence.   Our God does all He does for His glory, Blessed be our God!!!!

New Beginnings

Well, here goes…another blog and another opportunity to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world (or at least any who might stumble on this site).  I look forward to ”Spreading a passion for the supremecy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples”  Because “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”