Essential Theological Video and Audio

Video Dave Jenkins – The Superiority of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-10) Dr. R. C. Sproul – The Renaissance Revolution Audio Thomas Watson – The Beatitudes #3 A Scrutiny and Trial Whether We Belong to the Kingdom of Heaven Thomas Watson – The Beatitudes #4 Motives to Holy Mourning, The Hindrances to Mourning by

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Mike Leake – Tornadoes and Theology

Yesterday a tornado devastated Moore, Oklahoma. Leaving 51 dead, with nearly half of that number being children. Events like this leave those effected with a myriad of questions and a flood of emotions. One article I read described survivors as in a zombie-like state. What would you say to those grieving in Oklahoma? Mostly nothing. …

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Sam Storms – Tornadoes, Tsunamis, and the Mystery of Suffering and Sovereignty

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 …

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Dr. Albert Mohler – The Goodness of God and the Reality of Evil

Every thoughtful person must deal with the problem of evil. Evil acts and tragic events come to us all in this vale of tears known as human life. The problem of evil and suffering is undoubtedly the greatest theological challenge we face. Most persons face this issue only in a time of crisis. A senseless …

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Glenn Stanton – FactChecker: Is the ‘I Only Need Jesus!’ Declaration Christian?

We hear this often in good Christian circles. The credo is adopted by many Christians in an effort to declare and live by a more stripped-down faith. They want their Christianity unleaded, organic, unplugged, non-fat, free-range, locally sourced and sustainable. The real-deal without the fluff. Except it’s not. Believing that all we need is Jesus …

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Michael Horton – Christless Christianity: Getting in Christ’s Way

What would things look like if Satan actually took over a city? The first frames in our imaginative slide show probably depict mayhem on a massive scale: Widespread violence, deviant sexualities, pornography in every vending machine, churches closed down and worshipers dragged off to City Hall. Over a half-century ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse, pastor of …

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Winston Hottman – The Gospel and the (Im)perfect Marriage

According to Merriam-Webster, perfectionism can be defined as follows: A disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable; especially the setting of unrealistically demanding goals accompanied by a disposition to regard failure to achieve them as unacceptable and a sign of personal worthlessness. Despite the need for a little more nuancing, this description serves …

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Michael Boling – The Feasts of the Lord: The Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost)

The Feast of Shavuot (The Later First Fruits/Weeks/Pentecost) “and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field;” (Exodus 23:16) “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest,” (Exodus 34:22) 15 ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the …

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Essential Theological Video and AudioMike Leake – Tornadoes and TheologySam Storms – Tornadoes, Tsunamis, and the Mystery of Suffering and SovereigntyDr. Albert Mohler – The Goodness of God and the Reality of EvilGlenn Stanton – FactChecker: Is the ‘I Only Need Jesus!’ Declaration Christian?Michael Horton – Christless Christianity: Getting in Christ’s WayWinston Hottman – The Gospel and the (Im)perfect MarriageMichael Boling – The Feasts of the Lord: The Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost)

May
21

Mike Leake – Tornadoes and Theology

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Yesterday a tornado devastated Moore, Oklahoma. Leaving 51 dead, with nearly half of that number being children. Events like this leave those effected with a myriad of questions and a flood of emotions. One article I read described survivors as in a zombie-like state.

What would you say to those grieving in Oklahoma?

Mostly nothing. There is a time and a season for everything. This is not the season to theologize. At present we weep with them. Job’s friends were good counselors until they opened their mouths and tried to give an answer to Job’s questions. In the midst of a sorrowing event, heeding James 1:19 is a necessity. Slow to speak and quick to hear.

Those directly affected by these storms will experience a range of emotions. These emotions will be expressed within a whole range of theological positions. Ranging from this to varying atheistic expressions. In times like this one of the best things that we can do is direct people to use the Psalms to give words to the emotions of their hearts.

And just be there. Give a shoulder to cry on or a shoulder to punch. There might be a time to teach and help with theology…that is probably not today.

But there are also those that are not directly effected by the Oklahoma tragedies. We grieve. We weep with them. We ask questions as well. And at times events like this trigger our own pain. But we are in a much different position in regards to teaching. Our emotions are not as raw. Thinking through events like this will assist us in times when we are the ones with tears streaming down our face, filled with raw emotion.

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May
19

Essential Theological Video and Audio

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Dave Jenkins – The Superiority of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-10)

Dr. R. C. Sproul – The Renaissance Revolution

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Thomas Watson – The Beatitudes #3 A Scrutiny and Trial Whether We Belong to the Kingdom of Heaven

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Thomas Watson – The Beatitudes #4 Motives to Holy Mourning, The Hindrances to Mourning

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May
21

Sam Storms – Tornadoes, Tsunamis, and the Mystery of Suffering and Sovereignty

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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.

I first put my thoughts together on this subject when the tsunami hit Japan a couple of years ago. Now, in the aftermath of the tornado that struck Moore and other areas surrounding Oklahoma City, I pray that those same truths will prove helpful to some. Allow me to make seven observations.

(1) It will not accomplish anything good to deny what Scripture so clearly asserts, that God is absolutely sovereign over all of nature. He can himself send devastation. Or he may permit Satan to wreak havoc in the earth. Yes he can, if he chooses, intervene and prevent a tornado, a tsunami, and all other natural disasters. In the end, we do not know why he makes one choice and not another. In the end, we must, like Job, join the apostle Paul and say: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-36).

(2) God is sovereign, not Satan. Whether or to what extent Satan may have had a hand in what occurred we can never know. What we can know and must proclaim is that he can do nothing apart from God’s sovereign permission. Satan is not ultimately sovereign. God alone is.

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May
21

Dr. Albert Mohler – The Goodness of God and the Reality of Evil

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Every thoughtful person must deal with the problem of evil. Evil acts and tragic events come to us all in this vale of tears known as human life. The problem of evil and suffering is undoubtedly the greatest theological challenge we face.

Most persons face this issue only in a time of crisis. A senseless accident, a wasting disease, or an awful crime demands some explanation. Yesterday, evil showed its face again as a giant tornado brought death and destruction to Moore, Oklahoma.

For the atheist, this is no great problem. Life is a cosmic accident, morality is an arbitrary game by which we order our lives, and meaning is non-existent. As Oxford University’s Professor Richard Dawkins explains, human life is nothing more than a way for selfish genes to multiply and reproduce. There is no meaning or dignity to humanity.

For the Christian Scientist, the material world and the experience of suffering and death are illusory. In other religions suffering is part of a great circle of life or recurring incarnations of spirit.

Some Christians simply explain suffering as the consequence of sins, known or unknown. Some suffering can be directly traced to sin. What we sow, so shall we reap, and multiple millions of persons can testify to this reality. Some persons suffer innocently by the sinful acts of others.

But Jesus rejected this as a blanket explanation for suffering, instructing His disciples in John 9 and Luke 13 that they could not always trace suffering back to sin. We should note that the problem of evil and suffering, the theological issue of theodicy, is customarily divided into evil of two kinds, moral and natural. Both are included in these passages. In Luke 13, the murder of the Galileans is clearly moral evil, a premeditated crime–just like the terrorist acts in New York and Washington. In John 9, a man is blind from birth, and Jesus tells the Twelve that this blindness cannot be traced back to this man’s sin, or that of his parents.

Natural evil comes without a moral agent. A tower falls, an earthquake shakes, a tornado destroys, a hurricane ravages, a spider bites, a disease debilitates and kills. The world is filled with wonders mixed with dangers. Gravity can save you or gravity can kill you. When a tower falls, it kills.

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May
21

Glenn Stanton – FactChecker: Is the ‘I Only Need Jesus!’ Declaration Christian?

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We hear this often in good Christian circles. The credo is adopted by many Christians in an effort to declare and live by a more stripped-down faith. They want their Christianity unleaded, organic, unplugged, non-fat, free-range, locally sourced and sustainable. The real-deal without the fluff.

Except it’s not.

Believing that all we need is Jesus is simply an incomplete theology and fails to understand Christianity and what it is that God teaches us about our life in him.

Let’s examine this in four key parts.

1) Jesus never taught this.

John the Baptist pointed us to Christ and Christ points us to His Father.

Jesus, in John 14, explains something very important about himself to his disciples. He proclaims to them,

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will knowmy Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

And we can know the Father because the Son points us to him. Now, how would the “just give me Jesus” folks answer Jesus?

Jesus says he is the Way, the way to somewhere or someone. Jesus told us he is going to prepare a home for us in God’s home, a place where we can dwell with the Father, through redemption from the Son, by the Holy Spirit’s drawing and keeping. Jesus tells us that he is obedient to all the Father has commanded him “so that the world may know that I love the Father.” (John 14:31)

What are the first words of Jesus’ recorded in Scripture? They tell of the center of Christ’s life, when he tells his parents,

“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2, ESV)

The New King James puts it this way,

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

Jesus announced to his parents, as if it is obvious, that he must be about his Father’s business, in his Father’s house. The meaning here is literally, “I must about the things of my Father!”

Jesus our Savior makes a way for us to know and dwell with the Father. It is Christ’s delight and unwavering heart to do this, which leads us to our next point.

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May
21

Michael Horton – Christless Christianity: Getting in Christ’s Way

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What would things look like if Satan actually took over a city? The first frames in our imaginative slide show probably depict mayhem on a massive scale: Widespread violence, deviant sexualities, pornography in every vending machine, churches closed down and worshipers dragged off to City Hall. Over a half-century ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse, pastor of Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church, gave his CBS radio audience a different picture of what it would look like if Satan took control of a town in America. He said that all of the bars and pool halls would be closed, pornography banished, pristine streets and sidewalks would be occupied by tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The kids would answer “Yes, sir,” “No, ma’am,” and the churches would be full on Sunday … where Christ is not preached.

Not to be alarmist, but it looks a lot like Satan is in charge right now. The enemy has a subtle way of using even the proper scenery and props to obscure the main character. The church, mission, cultural transformation, even the Spirit can become the focus instead of the means for “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). As provocative as Barnhouse’s illustration remains, it is simply an elaboration of a point that is made throughout the story of redemption. The story behind all the headlines of the Bible is the war between the serpent and the offspring of the woman (Gen. 3:15), an enmity that God promised would culminate in the serpent’s destruction and the lifting of the curse. This promise was a declaration of war on Satan and his kingdom, and the contest unfolded in the first religious war, between Cain and Abel (Gen. 4 with Matt. 23:35), in the battle between Pharaoh and Yahweh that led to the exodus and the temptation in the wilderness. Even in the land, the serpent seduces Israel to idolatry and intermarriage with unbelievers, even provoking massacres of the royal family. Yet God always preserved that “seed of the woman” who would crush the serpent’s head (see 2 Kings 11, for example). The story leads all the way to Herod’s slaughter of the firstborn children in fear of the Magi’s announcement of the birth of the true King of Israel.

The Gospels unpack this story line and the epistles elaborate its significance. Everything is leading to Golgotha, and when the disciples-even Peter-try to distract Jesus away from that mission, they are being unwitting servants of Satan (Matt. 16:23). “The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers”-not simply so that they will defy Judeo-Christian values, but “to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:4-5).

Satan lost the war on Good Friday and Easter, but has shifted his strategy to a guerilla struggle to keep the world from hearing the gospel that dismantles his kingdom of darkness. Paul speaks of this cosmic battle in Ephesians 6, directing us to the external Word, the gospel, Christ and his righteousness, faith, and salvation as our only armor in the assaults of the enemy. In Revelation 12, the history of redemption is recapitulated in brief compass, with the dragon sweeping a third of the stars (angels) from heaven, laying in wait to devour the woman’s child at birth, only to be defeated by the ascension of the promised offspring. Nevertheless, knowing his time is short, he pursues the child’s brothers and sisters. Wherever Christ is truly proclaimed, Satan is most actively present. The wars between nations and enmity within families and neighborhoods is but the wake of the serpent’s tail as he seeks to devour the church, employing the same tried and tested methods: not only martyrdom from without, but heresy and schism from within. In the rest of this article, I want to suggest a few of the ways we are routinely tempted toward what can only be called, tragically, “Christless Christianity.”

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May
21

Winston Hottman – The Gospel and the (Im)perfect Marriage

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According to Merriam-Webster, perfectionism can be defined as follows:

A disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable; especially the setting of unrealistically demanding goals accompanied by a disposition to regard failure to achieve them as unacceptable and a sign of personal worthlessness.

Despite the need for a little more nuancing, this description serves as a strong working definition. Perfectionism doesn’t seem like a big deal to most people, and even we as Christians tend to look at perfectionism as a “respectable” sin. The simple truth is that perfectionism, like all other sin, is a blatant form of human pride. One thing is clear too: I’m a perfectionist.

As a Christian, my brand of perfectionism can be a little more subtle because it sometimes disguises itself in pious clothing. But even when perfectionism seems to be aimed at godly living, it is prideful because it expects from ourselves now what only God has promised to accomplish in the future. Perfectionism disregards God’s promise to make us who we ought to be by attempting in our own strength to meet the goal of that promise in the present, and by positioning ourselves as the final judges of our performance.

Depending on how well we do in our own eyes, perfectionism can play out in a variety of negative responses: feelings of worthlessness, inordinate preoccupation with the opinions of other people, paralyzing fear, impatience with others, and a sense of superiority.

While I’ve recognized my perfectionist tendencies for some time now and while I am confident that God is changing me, the reality is that I tend to carry that disposition into my relationships, not least of which is my marriage.

The Perfect Marriage?

As an avid reader, I spent the years leading up to my marriage reading plenty of Christian books on marriage and husbanding. I gleaned much truth and wise advice, but as I grew in my understanding of what marriage should be, what was partially a sincere desire to glorify God became a self-oriented, unrealistic expectation. It led to an anticipation that if I just tried hard enough, I could meet the biblical standard of a godly husband, or at least come pretty close. It led to a demand for a spouse that was exactly what God says a wife should be, and a marriage that perfectly mimicked the scriptural picture of that relationship.

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May
20

Glenn Stanton – FactChecker: Does Abba Mean ‘Daddy’?

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When listening to a sermon on the Fatherhood of God, we’ve heard it more times than we can probably count: the illustration that when Jesus refers to his Father as abba, it is a very comfortable, deeply intimate child-like term, interpreted as either papa or daddy. Jesus uses the term once in Mark’s gospel and Paul uses it two times in Romans and Galatians.

Of course, the bible teacher or pastor’s purpose in explaining the word abba this way is to show us that Jesus had a very intimate relationship with his father, not stoic or merely positional. It is what a loving father has with his son and the son who lives securely and comfortably in that love. It is an important message—and it is true.

You can’t read John 17, Jesus’ intimate and passionate prayer to his Father the evening before his brutal and sacrificial death, and not see this tender intimacy. You see it also in John 1:18 where some versions have it that Jesus dwells “in the bosom of the Father.” Ask someone you know well if you can sit at their side. They will be happy and honored to have you do so. Ask them if you can dwell at their bosom and you’ll get a different reaction. We also see this Father/Son intimacy at Jesus’ baptism where the Father proclaims from heaven to us all his extravagant love and pride in his son.

This intimacy and love between the divine Father and his Son is as true as the existence of God himself, for it is his very nature. But it is simply not true that Jesus’ use of the word abba means something a small child would utter in reference to his father. It does not mean “daddy” or “papa”.

This origin of this understanding is generally traced to the notable German Lutheran New Testament scholar Joachim Jeremias who in his 1971 text New Testament Theology explained that abba was “the chatter of a small child… a children’s word, used in everyday talk” and seemingly “disrespectful, indeed unthinkable to the sensibilities of Jesus’ contemporaries to address God with this familiar word.” (p. 67) While Jeremias did use the word “daddy” or “papa” in relation to abba, the implication was strong and others came along to make that connection.

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May
20

Tedd Tripp – The Power of Presentation

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It was one of those conversations that embarrass everyone in earshot. A young mother was desperately trying to explain to a demanding three-year-old why he could not have any of the candy the store had placed at his eye level. As the child became more insistent, the mom became more shrill. Suddenly, perhaps as much in frustration as in humiliation, she abandoned her groceries, grabbed her son, and shot out of the store, a torrent of words spilling from her mouth.

Teaching children, especially young children, to see the importance of obeying Mom and Dad is not an easy task. Presentation is important. Here’s what I mean. If you go to a fine restaurant, the food will be presented attractively. It won’t be thrown on the plate as you might expect in an army mess hall.

The way we present obedience is equally important. We should never come to our children in a demanding tone with words like these, “Look, I am your dad. I put a roof over your head. I buy every morsel of food you put in your mouth. As long as you live in my house, you will do what I say.” While each of those things is true, this presentation misses the beauty and goodness of God’s ways.

In a biblical vision you might revise the presentation this way. “God is good. He has made you and me and all things for His glory. In love and kindness He has given you a mommy and daddy who love you, who have maturity, wisdom, and life experience. And God says that you should obey Mommy and Daddy. We insist on your obedience because we love you and we know that is good for you.”

Think on what is being communicated to the child. God is good. He is the Creator and sustainer of all things. He has communicated how we should live. God has shown great love in giving you parents who love you and care for you. Walking in God’s ways is the pathway of blessing.

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May
20

E.H. Askwith – The Historical Value of the Fourth Gospel

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The writer of these pages sets himself the task of showing on internal grounds that the Fourth Gospel is a historical and not merely, as some present-day critics affirm, a theological document. In speaking, however, of the Gospel as historical we do not mean that the aim of the writer
of it was primarily a historical one. His interest may well have been theological, as indeed he expressly states it to have been (xx. 31). But our contention will here be that the writer did not invent his story to teach theological truth. We believe that the things which the Evangelist records as having happened are real events, that they did take place. In saying this we are setting ourselves in opposition to much of the criticism of our day, which denies to this Gospel serious historical value, regarding it as irreconcilable with the Synoptic tradition of the life of Jesus Christ.

For the opposition to the Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel is based chiefly on internal grounds. Its external credentials might be accepted by adverse critics were it not for what they consider to be overwhelming objections against its apostolic authorship on the ground of internal evidence. But, as it is, the external evidence is explained away because it is thought that the story of the life of Jesus in this Gospel cannot be brought into agreement with what is acknowledged to be the earlier story in point of time, that, namely, which we have in the pages of the Synoptists. Critics opposed to the Johannine authorship ot the Gospel contend that both stories of the life of Jesus-that of the Synoptists and that of the Fourth Gospel-cannot be alike historical. A choice, then, has to be made between the two, and preference is shown for the Synoptic story. For it is argued that the Fourth Gospel is obviously a theological document, and its writer’s interests are theologically determined, so that its genesis is explicable on theological grounds. While, then, the Fourth Gospel may be an interesting psychological study its contents are not history and are not to be so interpreted.

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