Idleness
While clearing out my spam cache I noticed the following subject line on one of the emails: “Bored? Chat with hot singles online.” I was struck by the biblical dynamic exemplified in the statement. Idleness is the state from which a host of sin flows. The advertiser was trolling for bored people. This is often a first step leading to sinful enslavement which the Bible calls, “death”:
James 1:14 – But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
This is an anthropomorphic principle that should be utilized by Christians: idleness leads to temptation, then sin, then death. Cities have government sponsored activities for a reason; it reduces crime. There is nothing wrong with using practical means to control sin in the Christian life. The Bible doesn’t call that “pragmatism,” it calls it “wisdom.”
Boredom is a state that evolves from lack of creativity that prevents idleness. The desires of the flesh then begin to scan the landscape for satisfaction. That leads to temptation, then sin, then the fullness of sin (slavery) and death. We should recognize the teenage mantra of “I’m bored” as a ministry moment. Seriously, not taking control of your boredom can destroy your life. Teenagers often think boredom is a mysterious force that attacks them from an outer realm. Not so.
The big “I,” Christians should be on the lookout for it and keep it out of their lives.
paul
Are People Impressed With Life or Death?
I don’t know if the Potter’s House gang is sick of messages on justification yet, but at any rate, we will soon be putting the same effort into the subject of Christian living; ie., sanctification. It will be two more messages before we delve into sanctification by entering into the 12th chapter of Romans. Undoubtedly, our journey will unravel the confusion around, practicality. Pragmatism: does it encourage self-sufficiency? Does it draw people further away from God, or closer to him?
One of the many issues that is not dealt with in the Christian church is the reality that good ideas work for the lost as well as the saved. There is hesitancy among Christians to be involved in the improvement of secularism through good ideas. Are we just making people more comfortable on their road to hell?
No doubt, the metaphysical viewpoint of the Reformers that happiness is found in eradication of any attachment to the world and replaced with gazing on the glories of heaven saturates the Western mind and theology. The initial climax of escape often occupies the mind of a newly saved person such as myself until wisdom partners with exhilaration. As a young Christian, armed with enough theology to be dangerous, I was surprised to learn that Christians had funerals. What for? They are no longer here but with the Lord, what’s the point? Trust me, my association with the well-seasoned Pastor Richard Peacock was part of God’s plan for my life. However, imagine if I had been in a different camp where such a one-sided metaphysical view of life is revered? In essence, a Heidelberg Confession worldview. A much wiser musing can be found in the words of the late Steve Jobs: “Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.” Hence, Jobs was probably a better advocate for the Rapture than most Christians who think cheating death is unspiritual.
The subject of sanctification not only teaches us how to live life, but it teaches us how to look at reality. Does biblical wisdom just make the world more comfortable in its damnation, or does it qualify us to be listened to? Are people impressed with life or death? Is the world not infatuated with better ways of living? Are you aware of what is on TV these days? You ever heard of Oprah?
Look, the Reformers thought, and still think, that their way of death and escaping the world is better than any other way because it has the Jesus label. Ultimate life through progressive death. But the world is not lacking in escapism philosophy and often these philosophies also bear the Jesus label as the avant-garde. The gospel according to Moses seemed to be ultimate life through progressive life: “I put before you this day death and life, choose life!”
Does a wiser life with good results qualify us to be heard by the world? Does it adorn the gospel, or hinder the gospel? Believe it or not, such basic questions pervade the American church and confusion abounds.
Well, as humble as our little Potter’s House is, I can tell you that while the debate rages in regard to the question, “What is the gospel?” we know what the gospel is. And soon, we will journey into the true significance of Christian living.
paul
NT Wright Has Two Things Right, Plus One
“Now, in what time I was able to invest in this, I find two challenges by NT Wright against the traditional Reformed narrative absolutely exquisite and dead-on.”
I haven’t jumped into the whole fray between the minions of Plato’s Protestant Reformation and NT Wright. At the behest of some PPT friends I have perused some of NT Wright’s stuff and find him a little more philosophical than I prefer. Furthermore, he seems to be coming from the European mindset that discusses systematic theology from the viewpoint of a linear gospel or the “golden chain” construct.
Once again, his name came up to me in regard to Al Mohler et al having their panties in a bundle over this guy. I was sent a couple of videos and one in particular incited me to dig a little deeper. The second video, seething with pompous Platonist arrogance, made me wonder what exactly it was about NT gramps that worries these guys so much, so I downloaded the book that irritates them the most on my Kindle and read the chapters on justification.
Let me pause here to remind you of something. These guys that are on the Southern video know how to present themselves in a way that makes everyone listening to them feel small. But be sure of this: when they stand before the Lord to give an account of their false doctrine we will be reminded in no uncertain terms that they sit down on the toilet and take a dump in the exact same way we do. Moreover, if you listen carefully, much of what they espouse is not even worthy of toilet paper. Mohler, in the video, is incredulous that NT has the “audacity” to question an anti-Semitic murdering mystic despot; namely, Martin Luther. Mohler then describes Plato’s Protestant Reformation as “the gospel.” At the end of this post, I have embedded a video that speaks to this aptly in my opinion.
Here, I will focus on what seems to irritate these guys the most about NT gramps. Doctrinally that is, their displeasure that NT takes away from the number of people they can control notwithstanding. When I watch the Southern video, I just see nicely dressed and well-spoken wolves whining about the mutton that they are being deprived of. Then there is a cub that they always have tagging along for training in the form of Denny Burk.
Now, in what time I was able to invest in this, I find two challenges by NT Wright against the traditional Reformed narrative absolutely exquisite and dead-on.
First, the idea of Christ’s righteousness being perpetually/progressively imputed to the believer for justification. NT is not dogmatic about this, but the wolf pack cannot even tolerate any semblance of this idea because it is the core of their false progressive justification gospel. They find a challenge here by a scholarly heavyweight most threatening.
Secondly, one of the elements of NT’s New Perspective on Paul; ie., the Reformers read Paul wrong in regard to the Pharisees; specifically, their idea (supposedly from Paul) that the Pharisees were “legalists.” Oh my. If not for the width of the Atlantic and my precious Susan, I would kiss this guy right on his bearded face. In the video, Mohler, shifting around in his throne-like chair because his panties are in a bundle (probably pink), reiterated the Reformed idea that the Pharisees were the legalistic personification of mankind’s fetish for “justifying themselves.”
This is not true at all. First of all, “legalism” is a word that does not appear anywhere in the Bible. It’s not a biblical concept. I have eradicated the concept from my mind because it is not a biblical concern. The Bible is primarily concerned with the traditions of men and antinomianism. That’s God’s truth replaced with the traditions of men in an anti-truth endeavor. And that’s exactly what the Pharisees were. They weren’t professionals at attempting to obey the truth of God’s word for justification as posited by the Reformers, they were rank antinomians inside and out who replaced God’s truth with their traditions.
The Reformers, past and present, have replaced that fact with their own narrative because they are the Pharisees on steroids. Luther was constantly accused of being an antinomian by medieval theologians, and the likes of John Piper (among others) have stated that the accusation of antinomianism is an indication that you are preaching the true Reformation gospel. The Reformation coined the term “orthodoxy” which is Reformed creeds, confessions, and councils that have replaced the truth of God’s word. The Reformed crowd is the epitome of the Pharisees and NT Wright is dead-on in his assertion that the Reformers misrepresent the Pharisees (see chapter 2 of “The Truth About New Calvinism” available on Amazon and this ministry).
NT is right about one more thing in my book. Though I wonder about his concept of “final justification” and what seems to be the “golden chain” approach to justification, I work hard at this ministry and deserve a few sinful pleasures accordingly. Therefore, I like him because he annoys the wolves and causes them to howl irrationally. The video and the screaming thereof like alley cats in the night was music to my ears. When justification is a chain with sanctification links in the middle, the wrangling over what is works and not works are inevitable. NT’s approach to that seems to be novel and not Catholic or Reformed.
Beats me, I choose to like him for now because of the reasons stated. And though I am on a diet, I am eating pizza tonight, and at least one slice will be in NT’s honor.
paul
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