Teacher's Task

""[T]he teacher's task is to draw attention to what is taught, not to himself" (Carl R. Trueman, The Creedal Imperative, 173).

Gospel Reality Check

"A church with a creed or confession has a built-in gospel reality check. It is unlikely to become sidetracked by the peripheral issues of the passing moment; rather it will focus instead on the great theological categories that touch on matters of eternal significance" (Carl R. Trueman, The Creedal Imperative, 168).

Reaching the Millennials: An Interview with Thom Rainer, Again

 Reaching the Millennials: An Interview with Thom Rainer from Preaching Magazine, Vol. 27 No. 4

Preaching: You mentioned church starts. It seems that a lot of the best and brightest young ministers coming along are saying, "I'm not going to inherit the problems of a previous generation of churches. We're starting fresh with new churches."

Rainer: You're absolutely right. I have one son of my three who is involved in a church plant. These millennials, these young adults, many of them are frustrated with church as usual, with local church actions, business and what they perceive as irrelevancy. So they're starting churches.

Yet I would have a challenge for some millennials as well. Keep planting churches, have that attitude; but we've got about 400,000 established churches in the United States that we cannot give up on. I would say not only start churches, but prayerfully go into these churches to try to revolutionize them even if it takes a lifetime of ministry, because we're not planting enough churches to sustain the fall off of the established churches. I hope we'll see both groups rise up, more church planters and more church people as millennial leaders going to established churches to turn them around [CCS, underline added].

Reaching the Millennials: An Interview with Thom Rainer

 Reaching the Millennials: An Interview with Thom Rainer from Preaching Magazine, Vol. 27 No. 4

Preaching: You mentioned that probably as many as 85 percent of this generation are not Christian. You've taught evangelism; you are an evangelist yourself in terms of sharing the gospel. How do churches go about seeking to evangelize the millennial generation?

Rainer: Here's the irony: This is the smallest generation of Christians, we think, in America's history. We could begin to lament that reality and say there's absolutely no hope. The irony is that this is the greatest opportunity to evangelize [CCS, underline added].

Conviction of Sin

"In all genuine conviction of sin, the great burden of pollution and guilt is felt to consist not in what we have done, but in what we are--our permanent moral condition rather than our actual transgressions [i.e. our estate of sin and misery]. The great cry is to be forgiven and delivered from "the wicked heart of unbelief," "deadness to divine things, alienated from God as a permanent habit of soul." "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. vii. 24; Ps. li. 5, 6. It hence necessarily follows that original sin, as well as actual transgressions, deserves the curse of the law. Everything condemned by the law is under its curse" (A.A. Hodge, The Confession of Faith, 116-117).

Also see Question XXVIII from The Shorter Catechism:

Question: Wherein consists the sinfulness of the estate whereinto man fell? 

Answer: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin, together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

WCF. VI. Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof - 5-6. Q&A

Blogging through and answering the questions from G. I. Williamson's The Westminster Confession of Faith for Study Classes for personal review and comprehension.

Prior posts for WCF. I. Of the Holy Scriptures - Sections 1-10.

Prior posts for WCF. II. Of God, And of the Holy Trinity - Sections 1-3.

Prior posts for WCF. III. Of God's Eternal Decree - Sections 1-8.

Prior posts for WCF. IV. Of Creation - Sections 1-2.

Prior posts for WCF. V. Of Providence - Sections 1-7.

WCF. VI. Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof.

Sections 1-2.

Sections 3-4.

Sections 5-6.

1. Is the believer both "the old man" and "the new man"?

No. A believer is not two persons. A believer is only "the new man."

2. Prove this to be correct from Scripture.

Colossians 3:9-10, Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Also, see 2 Corinthians 5:17.

3. What does "perfectionism" teach?

"Perfectionism" teaches on the absence of all sin when a believer becomes a new creation in Christ (or at the least they teach on the absence of all known and/or conscious sin).

4. What does "antinomianism" teach?

"Antinomianism" teaches that a believer may indeed sin, but he will blame-shift and deny responsibility for sinning, claiming it is the influence of the "old man or nature within me," thus denying that Christians ought to stive to be perfect. "Antinomian" literally means anti-law; "antinomianism" demonstrates it is anti-law because it shirks personal responsibility before the Law of God, e.g. The antinomian thinks: It isn't my fault that I just committed this sin! That sin flowed from the old man or nature within me.

5. Give a Scripture reference to refute "perfectionism."

1 John 1:8, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Also, see 1 John 1:10, James 3:2, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 7:14-25, and Psalm 51.

6. Give a Scripture reference to refute "antinomianism."

"Certain expressions of the apostle Paul may be quoted in what can be made to seem to support this view. He says, for example, "it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Rom. 7:17). . . . But putting this construction on these statements of Paul is false because it overlooks completely the ways in which Paul "takes the blame" for this situation. "I am carnal," he says (7:14). "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells" (7:18). Paul does not pretend that he can blame his sins on "the old man" a though they were not his. He does indeed inform us that his sins arise from the motions of his old nature as they survive in him. Yet he clearly indicates that he must fight against them and continue doing so until they are wholly destroyed. So the antinomian ends up saying the same thing the perfectionist says: "I have no sin." In this he deceives himself and shows that the truth is not in him. For both the remaining corruption, and all the motions thereof, are truly and properly sin" (78-79).

7. What is the difference between the status of the indwelling sin in the unregenerate man and the regenerate man?

The difference between the status of the indwelling sin in the unregenerate man and the regenerate man hinges upon dominion: the unregenerate man is under the dominion of sin, but the regenerate man is under the dominion of Christ, therefore he is not under the dominion of indwelling sin. "The true state of the case is this: in an unregenerate person corruption rules, but in a regenerate person the Spirit of God and the law of God have dominion (Rom. 8:7-14)" (79).

8. What pernicious error is suggested (and condemned) in Rom. 6:1-2?

The pernicious error suggested and condemned in Romans 6:1-2 is antinomianism, i.e. "the most wicked though of all . . . which suggests that sin is somehow less heinous if it is committed by a Christian." "We might rather," Williamson says, "that sin is much more heinous if it is committed by the Christian" (80). See Romans 6:1-2: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

9. Why is sin more heinous in a believer than it is in an unbeliever?

Sin is more heinous in a believe, Williamson says, because there is greater reason for the believer to overcome sin, e.g.:

• A Christian has strength that the non-Christian does not have;
• A Christian has knowledge that the unbeliever lacks;
• A Christian, most of all, has the realization of the terrible consequences of sin because he has seen what it cost the Saviour to blot them out.

10. What is "willful sin"?

"Willful sin" is the antinomian practice of sinning--living in sin--because one is not concerned with overcoming sin.

Apostate by Kevin Swanson (Parker, CO: Generations with Vision, 2013)

With a sobering subtitle--"The Men who Destroyed the Christian West"--this book accomplishes a few things. First, excluding the chapter on Aquinas, the author walks through the past 400 years of Western Civilization and identifies key Apostates, from Descartes to Locke to Rousseau to Bentham to Emerson to Marx to Darwin to Nietzsche to Dewey to Sarte, and then the author applies the Biblical principle of judging a tree by its fruit. The end result--a very bleak 200+ pages that follow the demise-trajectory of the West. Second, while providing this high overview of the West's demise-trajectory, the author observes/comments several times that this rebellious-apostate experiment is about to end; the West is most certainly running on fumes, i.e. "The heyday of humanism is long gone. This experiment with godless materialism is almost over" (154). Thus, a society that sows death will eventually reap death, and we are most certainly in the latter reaping stage, e.g. the great wars from the prior century, legalization of on-demand abortion, etc. Third, the West is going to crash and burn, however, the author encourages Christians to prepare, engage, and build the next Christendom: "If we train our children in the knowledge that is rooted in the fear of God, and in the firm hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then our children will be the ones motivated and equipped to rebuild our broken-down systems. Our children will plant gardens in the ashes of what used to be called "Western Civilization" (301).

Social Theory

"A biblical social view maintains the delicate balance between the individual and his society. The state cannot provide human relationship and community. Without the covenant bodies of family and church society will err to the side of either anarchy or tyranny. In a humanist social situation, anarchy and tyranny play off each other until the system unravels. Four hundred years ago, the church took about 10% of a family's income, the state took 5%, and the family itself retained about 85%. Today, the church gets 1-2%, the state takes 60-75% [This may be a little high, but I suppose it depends on how one calculates it, e.g. some countries have in addition to set tax rates a tax on capital gains. However, he isn't off by much. And to think, the prophet Samuel warned Israel, when she demanded a king, that a king would take a "tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants" (1 Sam. 8:15).], and the family retains a paltry 30%. The relative importance of family and church in people's lives is fairly minimal, thanks to the influence of Rousseau, Marx, and Dewey. Contrary to what Dewey believed, the true prophet of God speaks only what God tells him to speak. The salvation message preached must be the gospel of Christ, and the church elders are held responsible for "preaching the Word." The family and church are the fundamental social units, and the family is responsible for the education and upbringing of children (Eph. 6:4, Deut. 6:7, 1 Tim. 5:8). Then, the state is responsible for prosecuting crimes like murder and robbery (Gen. 9:6, Exod. 21:1-5). This is the biblical social theory rejected by John Dewey" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate, 164-165).

Loneliness

"The loneliest countries in the world as measured by percentage of people living alone, are the United States (#1), Australia (#2), Sweden (#3), Canada (#4), and Japan (#5) [Reference Citation: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_one_per_hou-people-one-person-households]" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate, 185).

Humanism

"There are two kinds of humanism. The first turns the individual into god, and the second turns the social unit into god" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate, 177).

Liberalism

"[W]e must remember that liberalism is not primarily a rejection of the supernatural; it is a reconfiguration of the nature of Christianity in such a way as to highlight religious psychology or experience and downplay or marginalize doctrine" (Carl R. Trueman, The Creedal Imperative, 142).

Bleak

"The school has replaced the church as the center of the community in most urban and rural areas today. . . . Over a 120 years later, we see the consequences of this vision. The average high school graduate is barely literate, but he knows how to use a condom. He is far more likely to support socialism and homosexuality than his parents and grandparents in their generations. But he can't name two men who signed the Declaration of Independence, and he probably can't tell the difference between Groucho Marx and Karl Marx" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate, 164).

Psalm 46

 "It is no small joy to be able to sing Psalm 46 in the dark and cloudy day." - John McCheyne

Praise

"Historically, one could make the argument that Christian theology as a whole is one long, extended reflection upon the meaning and significance of that most basic doxological declaration, "Jesus is Lord!" and thus an attempt to provide a framework for understanding Christian praise" (Carl R. Trueman, The Creedal Imperative, 135).

Dewey or Die!

"[John] Dewey's educational theory is really quite simple: education is all about training the individual to fit into the social entity of the state. . . . Centralized, institutionalized systems are not built for the individual child's needs, talents, and abilities. Inevitably, centralization and standardization of educational systems ruin individual academic achievement. Parents should know that the schools are not ultimately committed to academic excellence. Their chief purpose is to plug the children into the 'social consciousness'" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate, 162-163).

LOL: Leftovers

WCF. VI. Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof - 3-4. Q&A

Blogging through and answering the questions from G. I. Williamson's The Westminster Confession of Faith for Study Classes for personal review and comprehension.

Prior posts for WCF. I. Of the Holy Scriptures - Sections 1-10.

Prior posts for WCF. II. Of God, And of the Holy Trinity - Sections 1-3.

Prior posts for WCF. III. Of God's Eternal Decree - Sections 1-8.

Prior posts for WCF. IV. Of Creation - Sections 1-2.

Prior posts for WCF. V. Of Providence - Sections 1-7.

WCF. VI. Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof.

Sections 1-2.

Sections 3-4.

1. State the basic facts concerning our lost condition?

 Adam rebelled in the Garden of Eden, and his sin is our sin. Thus, Adam's penalty is our penalty--Romans 5:12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

2. Are these facts simple to understand or to explain?

No. As WCF. VII. notes, Adam was both the natural and federal head of all mankind, and this is so because God declared it to be so. 

3. How do we know that it is right for God to condemn us for Adam's sin?

We know it is right because we take God at his word--"and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." "And we know that it is just for God to do so, because he always does what is right" (74).

4. What teaching in the Bible is often overlooked in this matter?

It is often overlooked that there is a corporate aspect to mankind's existence. "The Bible does not regard the human race as so many isolated individuals, each separately created by God (as were the angels), but as an organic unit created in one man--and then, one pair--having the power to produce offspring in their own likeness and image. Adam and Eve were the 'root of all mankind.' God has made 'from one blood every nation' (Acts 17:26)" (74-75).

5. What does the "creationist" teach as to the derivation of the soul?

A "creationist" believes that a man and woman generate the organic body, but that the derivation of the soul is a new creation of God that is infused or placed into the body. 

6. What does the "traducianist" teach as to the derivation of the soul?

A "traducianist" (Latin for transmitter) believes that a man and woman generate both soul and body of their progeny, albeit this is a mysterious process that is not fully understood by man. This is consistent with the belief that Adam and Eve were the root of all mankind, as well as what the Bible says regarding human generation, e.g. Hebrews 7:10, For he [Levi] was yet in the loins of his father [Abraham], when Melchisedec met him. Genesis 46:26, All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six.

7. Which do you favor, and why?
 
I favor the "traductionist." Why? In addition to Biblical reasons given above, the teaching of the "creationist" seems deficient: if original sin is an imprint upon both soul and body, then a "creationist" implicitly teaches that God creates a new, sinful soul and places it in a body generated/begat by a man and woman. "How could the soul be created sinful by God?" (45) The answer to this rhetorical question is that it could not! for God is good!

8. In either case, what other principle helps explain our guilt in Adam's sin?

Our guilt in Adam's sin follows from the Biblical principle of representation. Adam was both the natural and the federal head of all mankind. "The act of Adam was the act of all men because he represented them" (76). Again, Romans 5:12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

9. Why was only the first sin of Adam our responsibility?

The reason only the first sin of Adam was our responsibility is because "Adam terminated his representative actions with that one sin" (75). 

10. How are all other sins related to this one?

All sins are related to this one because "by that one act he (and we) became corrupt and guilty. . . . He and we became totally depraved. And because our condition was that of being 'wholly defiled in all faculties and parts of soul and body' (WCF. VI. 2.), it followed that continual transgressions proceeded out of this condition" (75). All other sins are related to this one because will/desire/affections flow from nature, i.e. sinful will/desire/affections flow from depraved nature.
 

Essence of a Christian Worldview, i.e. God is Sovereign

"Another fundamental element of the humanist agenda [e.g. the Humanist Manifesto of 1933] is man's complete sovereign control over his own destiny. . . . One simple proverb destroys the grand proclamations of the Humanist Manifesto: "A man's heart deviseth his way, but God directeth his steps" (Proverbs 16:19). It is not brute chance in an indeterminate universe that controls man's destiny, nor is it man himself. God and only God is sovereign over reality. This is the very essence of a Christian worldview" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate, 162).

The Elbow Drop of Higher Education

"Since the advent of the secular universities from the 12th century in Europe or from the 17th century in America (Harvard College), these academic institutions have formed the juggernaut for undermining the Christian worldview in the West. This is hardly debatable, and the majority of public and private universities would admit this to be the case" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate, 156).

Words of the Bible and the Word made flesh

"The words of the Bible and the Word made flesh [John 1:14] are distinct, but they are also inseparable. Every act of redemption--from the exodus, to the return from exile, to the cross itself--is also revelation. They tell us something about the nature of sin, the way of salvation, and the character of God. Likewise, the point of revelation is always to redeem. The words of the prophets and the apostles are not meant to make us smart, but to get us saved. Redemption reveals. Revelation redeems" (Kevin DeYoung, Taking God At His Word, 50).