Sam Storms, the pastor at Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in an article entitled "Tornadoes and the Mystery of Suffering and Sovereignty" wrote this yesterday:

I’m inclined to think the best way to respond to the tragedy that struck our community today is simply to say nothing. I have little patience for those who feel the need to theologize about such events, as if anyone possessed sufficient wisdom to discern God’s purpose. On the other hand, people will inevitably ask questions and are looking for encouragement and comfort. So how best do we love and pastor those who have suffered so terribly?

I’m not certain I have the answer to that question, and I write the following with considerable hesitation. I can only pray that what I say is grounded in God’s Word and is received in the spirit in which it is intended.

Justin Taylor outlined his seven observations this way:

(1) It will not accomplish anything good to deny what Scripture so clearly asserts, that God is absolutely sovereign over all of nature.

(2) God is sovereign, not Satan.

(3) Great natural disasters such as this tell us nothing about the comparative sinfulness of those who are its victims.

(4) Events such as this should remind us that no place on earth is safe and that we will all one day die (unless Jesus returns first).

(5) We should not look upon such events and conclude that the Second Coming of Christ and the end of history are at hand, but neither should we conclude that the Second Coming of Christ and the end of history are not at hand.

(6) We must learn to weep with those who weep.

(7) Pray that God will use such an event to open the hearts and eyes of a city and a state immersed in unbelief and idolatry (and I have in mind not merely Oklahoma, but also America as a whole), to see the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and turn in faith to him, lest something infinitely worse than a tornado befall them: Eternal condemnation. Eternal suffering.

You can read the whole short article by Sam Storms here. And pray.

Jeff teaches on the necessary elements of apologetics:

1. No neutrality
2. Humble boldness
3. Evangelism (the call to repent and believe) cannot be separated from apologetics
4. How we engage in Apologetics is a moral issue
5. Specific examples are given

“No man can come to me except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him…. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me”

“Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not: and he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.”—John 6:44, 45, 64, 65.

This is how Andrew Fuller harmonized the above passges:

First, There is no way of obtaining eternal life but by Jesus Christ….

Secondly, They that enjoy eternal life must come to Christ for it….

Thirdly, It is the revealed will of Christ that everyone who hears the gospel should come to him for life….

Fourthly, The depravity of human nature is such that no man, of his own accord, will come to Christ for life….

Fifthly, The degree of this depravity is such as that, figuratively speaking, men cannot come to Christ for life….

Sixthly, A conviction of the righteousness of God’s government, of the spirituality and goodness of his law, the evil of sin, our lost condition by nature, and the justice of our condemnation, is necessary in order to our coming to Christ….

Lastly, There is absolute necessity of a special Divine agency in order to our coming to Christ…. Upon the whole, we see from these passages taken together, first, if any man is lost, whom he has to blame for it—himself; secondly, if any man is saved, whom he has to praise for it—God.[1]

[1]Andrew Gunton Fuller, The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller, Volume 1: Memoirs, Sermons, Etc., ed. Joseph Belcher (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1988), 667-69.

HT: Evan Burns

Same Gospel - James White from Shane Sowers on Vimeo.

Fact is, contrary to bumper-sticker wisdom, true Christians do not think they are more moral than others... we believe we are all in the same boat and, often times, much worse than others. We believe the world that has been pulled over ALL of our eyes to blind us ALL from the truth. The truth revealed by God that we are ALL slaves born into bondage. So we are merely sinners pointing other sinners to freedom and to bread ... and the intent, for the most part, is not from the vantage point of moral superiority (we're not), but rather one of love, to help mankind by pointing to their only hope for escape. Any so-called Christian who does it for any other reason is probably a moralist, or at least not being consistent at all with Christianity's central teaching of grace. For we believe that morality will damn just as much as immorality, apart from the Savior.

May 1, 2013

Kindle eBook editions of the popular-level NIV Application Commentary series are now on sale for just $4.99 each.

Genesis; Leviticus, Numbers; Deuteronomy; Joshua; Judges and Ruth; 1 & 2 Kings; 1 & 2 Chronicles; Esther; Job; 

Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs; Isaiah; Jeremiah, Lamentations; Ezekiel; Daniel; Joel, Obadiah, Malachi; Hosea, Amos,

Micah; Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah; Haggai, Zechariah; Matthew; Mark; Luke; John; Acts; Romans; 1Corinthians;

Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; Colossians & Philemon; 1 & 2 Thessalonians; 1 & 2 Timothy & Titus; Hebrews; James;

1 Peter; 2 Peter & Jude; 1, 2, & 3 John; Revelation.

May 1, 2013

Kindle eBook editions of the popular-level NIV Application Commentary series are now on sale for just $4.99 each.

Genesis; Leviticus, Numbers; Deuteronomy; Joshua; Judges and Ruth; 1 & 2 Kings; 1 & 2 Chronicles; Esther; Job; 

Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs; Isaiah; Jeremiah, Lamentations; Ezekiel; Daniel; Joel, Obadiah, Malachi; Hosea, Amos,

Micah; Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah; Haggai, Zechariah; Matthew; Mark; Luke; John; Acts; Romans; 1Corinthians;

Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; Colossians & Philemon; 1 & 2 Thessalonians; 1 & 2 Timothy & Titus; Hebrews; James;

1 Peter; 2 Peter & Jude; 1, 2, & 3 John; Revelation.

Pastor John, I see very plain statements in the Bible that show that Christ does not lose any of His true sheep. However, I am struggling to understand a passage in Revelation 3 where Christ says “because you are lukewarm... I will spit you out of My mouth.” Are you able to help me understand what these words mean?

Thanks for your question. The phrase you quoted, lifted out of its context, has caused many to doubt the biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. To correctly understand the verse in question, one has to see the broader context and know something of the historical background.

Please allow me to illustrate. Suppose someone 300 years from now, comes across a letter written this year (2013) in which a mother writes, “After the Church service today, we all went to McDonalds and each of the kids had a happy meal.”

Then let us imagine (hard as it may be to do so) that sometime between now and 300 years from now, all the McDonalds restaurants go out of business. I realize that might be a far fetched notion, but lets go along with it for a moment for the sake of illustration.

Then, 300 years from now, someone who has never heard of the McDonalds restaurant chain looks at the words “we all went to McDonalds” and assumes that this meant a Scottish family (rather than a restaurant). They then assume that the phrase “each of the kids had a happy meal” meant that the kids were happy when they ate the food. We can almost laugh at such an interpretation knowing that it misses the mark completely. That is because here in the 21st Century, the words “McDonalds” and “happy meal” are almost universally understood to refer to a restaurant and a special sized meal for children (that includes a small toy for them to play with).

The idea of McDonalds being a Scottish family and that the kids enjoyed their meal, is a possible interpretation, but that is not how these words would normally be understood in our early 21st Century context. It is far more likely that the intended meaning of the words are that the family went to a well known restaurant called McDonalds, and each of the kids had child sized meals which included toys for each child.

I say all this because the words in Revelation chapter 3 had a context, that when known, make the passage easy to understand. However, when historical context is either unknown or ignored, we are likely to misinterpret the intended meaning of the text.

The words you quote are taken from a passage in Revelation chapter 3 (v. 14-22) where the Lord Jesus, through His apostle John, is writing to the Church at Laodicea. The city of Laodicea was located in the Lycus River Valley and was an important commercial center in the first century. The local water supply was not adequate for the many residents of the city and so an underground aqueduct was built.

If you agree with the above statements from the Bible, then by definition, you already agree that man (left to himself) has no free will to come to Christ. You agree that his intentions are so sold to evil ... that his will and affections are under such bondage that he would never come apart from the grace of Christ. Therefore to teach that the natural man has a free will actually overthrows the gospel ... it is precisely because man is in bondage that he needs Christ to set him free." (John 8:34, 36)

So we have already ESTABLISHED that man has no free will. We all agree on this, EVEN ARMINIANS. The question really is what is the nature of God's grace? Is it effectual or does it merely help the sinner? Jesus answers this in John 6:63 when he declares: "All the the Father gives to me will come to me..."

We all agree that faith is not a work since it points away from self to Christ for salvation, but many make it into a work when they declare that it has its source in a good heart and so turns our eyes back from Christ to a self-generated faith apart from grace alone.

It is "because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor 1:30-31)