Monday, January 12, 2015
A Lament for a Fallen Christian Leader
If you've been a Christian for a while, you have probably experienced the pain of watching the fall of a spiritual leader you once admired. I have written this poem in hopes of helping us process the emotions and respond appropriately.
How could the mighty fall
from combing skies,
and give up all
to claw the earth with cries?
How could a shepherd boy
become a Saul
and then destroy
the flock which was his all?
How could he have no friend
to stop the train
before the end?
Did his friends think like Cain?
How could such silver rules,
such pedigree,
such splendid schools
produce such infamy?
How could such honey jet
from lips that kiss
the dirt and yet
think nothing is amiss?
How could a sinner get
forgiveness free
and turn to spit
disgrace upon the Tree?
How could God save by him
who would be lost,
for some strange whim
as castaway be tossed?
How could God not deter
from evil's lurk
His messenger
And finish His good work?
How could I think so much
of clay and build
my dreams on such
who, like me, had God killed?
Is there yet chance that he,
though Demas now,
a Mark may be,
again to keep his vow?
How can I hope I've got
no risk of fall?
Why might I not,
in love with world, leave Paul?
May toppled towers be
dread means of grace
like walls, keep me
entranced with just Your face.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Counseling the Hard Cases
A new mother imagining throwing her baby against the wall. 
A man terrified of driving on odd-numbered streets. A woman with dissociative identity disorder running down the middle of the street in the rain, barefoot. Is the Bible sufficient to help people like these? What about the woman who goes into hysterical shrieking when she enters the kitchen due to flashbacks of childhood abuse? We tend to think that people with severe problems like these need treatment deeper than the Bible discusses.
The book Counseling the Hard Cases is a wonderfully encouraging demonstration that God is not dead, and His Word is not inadequate. It contains ten true stories of people with all of the above problems, and many more, who found hope, peace, life, and lasting change through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The ten stories are told by ten different biblical counselors, who explain in detail the problems the people had, and how the Bible spoke to each of them.
I have taken over 60 hours of training in biblical counseling and have read a number of books on it, including three by Jay Adams. But I can honestly say that this book was more helpful to me than any of them. It is detailed enough that when you're done you feel like you could help someone with similar problems, yet non-technical enough that you don't get bored or brain-fogged.
More than filling your head with knowledge of counseling, this book repeatedly points you toward worship as you see how God rescues people even from the most horrible problems you can imagine.
Every pastor and church elder should own and read this book (why not bless yours by giving them copies?). I also would recommend it for any layperson who has psychological problems or who wants to help someone who does. The printed book is rather expensive but the Kindle version is reasonable.
I got this book for free, but as a gift from a friend, not the publisher.
A man terrified of driving on odd-numbered streets. A woman with dissociative identity disorder running down the middle of the street in the rain, barefoot. Is the Bible sufficient to help people like these? What about the woman who goes into hysterical shrieking when she enters the kitchen due to flashbacks of childhood abuse? We tend to think that people with severe problems like these need treatment deeper than the Bible discusses.The book Counseling the Hard Cases is a wonderfully encouraging demonstration that God is not dead, and His Word is not inadequate. It contains ten true stories of people with all of the above problems, and many more, who found hope, peace, life, and lasting change through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The ten stories are told by ten different biblical counselors, who explain in detail the problems the people had, and how the Bible spoke to each of them.
I have taken over 60 hours of training in biblical counseling and have read a number of books on it, including three by Jay Adams. But I can honestly say that this book was more helpful to me than any of them. It is detailed enough that when you're done you feel like you could help someone with similar problems, yet non-technical enough that you don't get bored or brain-fogged.
More than filling your head with knowledge of counseling, this book repeatedly points you toward worship as you see how God rescues people even from the most horrible problems you can imagine.
Every pastor and church elder should own and read this book (why not bless yours by giving them copies?). I also would recommend it for any layperson who has psychological problems or who wants to help someone who does. The printed book is rather expensive but the Kindle version is reasonable.
I got this book for free, but as a gift from a friend, not the publisher.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
The Joy of ESL
Did you ever notice that immigrants often have some of the same characteristics necessary to become a follower of Jesus?
- Willingness to leave family members and all that is familiar (Luke 14:25-27)
- Courage to embrace risk or loss in exchange for a greater reward (Matthew 13:44-46)
- Recognition that they are aliens in a foreign culture (1 Peter 2:11-12)
- Willingness to work harder, for less money, than natives (1 Corinthians 9:12)
 |
| One of our students |
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Reconciling Calvinists and Arminians?
The interplay between God's sovereignty and human responsibility is one of the most difficult aspects of theology to talk about accurately. It's also one of the most important. How can God permit evil without also being guilty of evil? If God has predetermined everything in advance, doesn't that mean He is responsible for our sinful choices? And why should we bother to do anything? Que sera, sera! But if God doesn't control everyone's choices, doesn't that mean our lives could be derailed (or even ended) by the sinful (or merely stupid) decisions of people around us? Better build stronger walls! These positions have been debated heavily and hotly by philosophers and theologians for centuries, and the debates are still active today.
There are really two aspects to the ongoing controversy. First, there is the debate between determinism and libertarianism, which relate to the big picture of God's sovereignty and human responsibility in all areas of life. Then there is the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism, which focuses specifically on God's sovereignty and human responsibility in the salvation of humans from sin and God's wrath. It is a subset of the bigger debate.
Pastor and seminary professor Randy Alcorn has addressed both of these debates in his new book, hand in Hand. (And no, that was not a capitalization mistake.) Although I think he made a few blunders along the way, his book points readers in the right direction.
Perhaps the most noteworthy characteristic of this book is that it is irenic, not polemic. In other words, it's peaceful. Alcorn strongly tries to pull readers from both sides toward the middle, encouraging them to lay aside the invectives and assumptions they have about the other side. While clearly putting both Hyper-Calvinism and open theism outside the bounds of Christian orthodoxy, he seeks to show that mainstream Calvinism and Arminianism can both be orthodox.
Alcorn also works hard to base his theology on Scripture alone, rather than a logical framework. This is why he believes only four point of the five points of Calvinism. He knows that this makes his theology less cohesive, but he prefers this to believing something he doesn't see in Scripture. I applaud his intention even while I disagree with him in his understanding of some Scriptures. I love where he says, "The best theological label is 'Berean'".
In addition to bringing together a number of Scriptures relevant to this debate, hand in Hand also includes a number of quotes from other recognized Christian thinkers and teachers throughout history. For me, this was perhaps the most helpful part of the book because while I had studied most of the Scriptures before, I had not read many other writings about them. (The only other books I have read on this subject are Norman Geisler's Chosen But Free and James White's rebuttal, The Potter's Freedom, which I recommend as a companion to hand to Hand.)
Alcorn has studied this issue far more carefully than I have. So I was, frankly, surprised to find a few things that seemed like obvious errors, things that Alcorn himself may actually disagree with if he had thought about them more.
1. He attempts to find an analogies that will help explain how God's choices and human choices can both be real and meaningful. He borrows Tozer's ship analogy (pages 152-153) and Strong and Fisk's fishbowl analogy (page 178). The idea is that the ship captain controls the big picture (speed, destination, route) while the passengers have free choices within the ship (they can watch a movie, swim, eat, sleep, etc.). Similarly, the fishbowl owner controls where the bowl is placed, how many fish are in it, what food they get, but leaves the fish free to swim as they will within the limitations of the bowl. These analogies are both dangerously flawed, and I'm surprised Alcorn didn't see it. The ship captain and fishbowl owner are unable to protect their passengers and fish from every contingency. A passenger might kill another, and a fish might jump out and die. The captain and owner do not even know what the actions of the passengers and fish will be, much less have a way to bring good out of every choice the passengers and fish make. A god like this is not very comforting when tragedy strikes.
In the end, we must acknowledge that we do not and cannot understand how God's sovereignty and human responsibility coexist. We just know with confidence that both do. As with the Trinity (one God, three persons), we can see and describe what the Bible teaches on the subject, but we cannot fully explain or understand it, and no analogy will prove helpful.
2. He repeats the often-asserted notion that God gave humans the ability to choose evil because otherwise we would be robots, and our love would be meaningless (pages 144-145). The obvious problem with that is that Christians will be unable to sin in heaven, yet we will not be robots and our love and worship will still be very meaningful. Alcorn asserts this very thing (pages 146-148) and yet fails to note that it contradicts what he just said. Rather than saying that God gave us the ability to choose evil so that we would not be robots, the Bible seems to indicate that God gave it to us so that He could display His incredible patience and mercy toward us when we did choose evil (Romans 9:19-24). God could have made us free, loving, non-robotic beings incapable of sin from the get-go, but He chose to make us capable of sin while on earth, so that He could display His wrath and His mercy.
3. He quotes C. S. Lewis along these same lines, but with an extra kink:
As I said before, man's freedom to choose evil is not God's tribute to the value of human self-determinism, but to the value of His own glory. The extra problem in this quote was the reference to God taking a risk. Only open theism teaches that God can take risks. I'm positive Alcorn doesn't believe in open theism (he spends an entire chapter in the book dismantling it) so I'm surprised he didn't catch that.
4. In his attempt to calm the warring parties, Alcorn skirts some of the stickier issues, such as particular redemption and double predestination. Thus a person new to the debate could come away thinking there is less difference between the two sides than actually exists.
5. Hand in Hand also does not discuss the ways consistent Arminians and Calvinists live differently. In other words, how do the differences in their beliefs result in differences in their behaviors? This book could lead one to think it is it all theoretical and makes little difference at street level. But especially when it comes to counseling, evangelism and prayer, the differences do have significant implications.
So, with these weaknesses, why I am I still recommending this book? (Since he's a four point Calvinist, I'm going to give him a four star rating!) Mainly because there are too many angry Arminians and Cage-Stage Calvinists out there. My first few exposures to the doctrines of grace (as I prefer to call the five points of Calvinism) were mostly negative snippets from snarky Calvinists. But when I heard them explained in a peaceful way, similar to the way they are presented in this book, I realized how biblical and beautiful they are. I hope that this book will have the same effect for you.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah in exchange for an unbiased review.
There are really two aspects to the ongoing controversy. First, there is the debate between determinism and libertarianism, which relate to the big picture of God's sovereignty and human responsibility in all areas of life. Then there is the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism, which focuses specifically on God's sovereignty and human responsibility in the salvation of humans from sin and God's wrath. It is a subset of the bigger debate.
Pastor and seminary professor Randy Alcorn has addressed both of these debates in his new book, hand in Hand. (And no, that was not a capitalization mistake.) Although I think he made a few blunders along the way, his book points readers in the right direction.
Perhaps the most noteworthy characteristic of this book is that it is irenic, not polemic. In other words, it's peaceful. Alcorn strongly tries to pull readers from both sides toward the middle, encouraging them to lay aside the invectives and assumptions they have about the other side. While clearly putting both Hyper-Calvinism and open theism outside the bounds of Christian orthodoxy, he seeks to show that mainstream Calvinism and Arminianism can both be orthodox.
Alcorn also works hard to base his theology on Scripture alone, rather than a logical framework. This is why he believes only four point of the five points of Calvinism. He knows that this makes his theology less cohesive, but he prefers this to believing something he doesn't see in Scripture. I applaud his intention even while I disagree with him in his understanding of some Scriptures. I love where he says, "The best theological label is 'Berean'".
In addition to bringing together a number of Scriptures relevant to this debate, hand in Hand also includes a number of quotes from other recognized Christian thinkers and teachers throughout history. For me, this was perhaps the most helpful part of the book because while I had studied most of the Scriptures before, I had not read many other writings about them. (The only other books I have read on this subject are Norman Geisler's Chosen But Free and James White's rebuttal, The Potter's Freedom, which I recommend as a companion to hand to Hand.)
Alcorn has studied this issue far more carefully than I have. So I was, frankly, surprised to find a few things that seemed like obvious errors, things that Alcorn himself may actually disagree with if he had thought about them more.
1. He attempts to find an analogies that will help explain how God's choices and human choices can both be real and meaningful. He borrows Tozer's ship analogy (pages 152-153) and Strong and Fisk's fishbowl analogy (page 178). The idea is that the ship captain controls the big picture (speed, destination, route) while the passengers have free choices within the ship (they can watch a movie, swim, eat, sleep, etc.). Similarly, the fishbowl owner controls where the bowl is placed, how many fish are in it, what food they get, but leaves the fish free to swim as they will within the limitations of the bowl. These analogies are both dangerously flawed, and I'm surprised Alcorn didn't see it. The ship captain and fishbowl owner are unable to protect their passengers and fish from every contingency. A passenger might kill another, and a fish might jump out and die. The captain and owner do not even know what the actions of the passengers and fish will be, much less have a way to bring good out of every choice the passengers and fish make. A god like this is not very comforting when tragedy strikes.
In the end, we must acknowledge that we do not and cannot understand how God's sovereignty and human responsibility coexist. We just know with confidence that both do. As with the Trinity (one God, three persons), we can see and describe what the Bible teaches on the subject, but we cannot fully explain or understand it, and no analogy will prove helpful.
2. He repeats the often-asserted notion that God gave humans the ability to choose evil because otherwise we would be robots, and our love would be meaningless (pages 144-145). The obvious problem with that is that Christians will be unable to sin in heaven, yet we will not be robots and our love and worship will still be very meaningful. Alcorn asserts this very thing (pages 146-148) and yet fails to note that it contradicts what he just said. Rather than saying that God gave us the ability to choose evil so that we would not be robots, the Bible seems to indicate that God gave it to us so that He could display His incredible patience and mercy toward us when we did choose evil (Romans 9:19-24). God could have made us free, loving, non-robotic beings incapable of sin from the get-go, but He chose to make us capable of sin while on earth, so that He could display His wrath and His mercy.
3. He quotes C. S. Lewis along these same lines, but with an extra kink:
Of course God knew what would happen if they {Adam and Eve} used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. ... If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will—that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings—then we may take it it is worth paying. (Page 56; quoting from Part 18 of Mere Christianity)
As I said before, man's freedom to choose evil is not God's tribute to the value of human self-determinism, but to the value of His own glory. The extra problem in this quote was the reference to God taking a risk. Only open theism teaches that God can take risks. I'm positive Alcorn doesn't believe in open theism (he spends an entire chapter in the book dismantling it) so I'm surprised he didn't catch that.
4. In his attempt to calm the warring parties, Alcorn skirts some of the stickier issues, such as particular redemption and double predestination. Thus a person new to the debate could come away thinking there is less difference between the two sides than actually exists.
5. Hand in Hand also does not discuss the ways consistent Arminians and Calvinists live differently. In other words, how do the differences in their beliefs result in differences in their behaviors? This book could lead one to think it is it all theoretical and makes little difference at street level. But especially when it comes to counseling, evangelism and prayer, the differences do have significant implications.
So, with these weaknesses, why I am I still recommending this book? (Since he's a four point Calvinist, I'm going to give him a four star rating!) Mainly because there are too many angry Arminians and Cage-Stage Calvinists out there. My first few exposures to the doctrines of grace (as I prefer to call the five points of Calvinism) were mostly negative snippets from snarky Calvinists. But when I heard them explained in a peaceful way, similar to the way they are presented in this book, I realized how biblical and beautiful they are. I hope that this book will have the same effect for you.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah in exchange for an unbiased review.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
My Uncle's Hep C, Gone!
Anyone who has been rescued from death will want to talk
about it. Particularly if their words will help save the lives of others. Such
is the case for my uncle. His hepatitis C, and the treatments to suppress it,
nearly cost him his life. Now he is completely rid of the virus. Here’s his story, in his own
words.
I am an engineering
graduate of Texas
A & M University. I am a Viet Nam veteran
who recently celebrated my 66th birthday. I enjoy travel, various
volunteer activities and collecting and restoring old cars.
I am not sure how I was
infected with Hepatitis C but as a veteran I had mass inoculations as well as
oral surgery. In 1978, I was in a nearly fatal auto accident that resulted in
a lengthy stay in the hospital. My leg was repaired and during surgery I
received 12 pints of blood.
In 1986, I was told that I
had elevated liver enzymes and that I should eschew alcohol and other drugs that
mal effect the liver. Two years later, I was diagnosed with gall stones and
decided to donate a pint of blood in advance of the surgery in case it was
needed. After going home to recover, I received a rather startling letter,
informing me that my blood was unfit and would be destroyed. My doctor then
told me that I probably had non-A non-B hepatitis and that as long as I
continued to abstain from alcohol there was little concern. Hepatitis C was not even codified or noted as a distinct disease until about 1990 ergo the term non A non B Hepatitis. C was not thought to be a serious or deadly disease as it sometimes took years to manifest in symptoms.
In 1996 my Internist
noticed that my liver enzymes had continued climbing and referred me to a
Gastroenterologist who performed a biopsy that confirmed that I had Hepatitis C
and Stage One scarring. Early the next year I began what became some of the
hardest years of my life. I had 4 different versions of Interferon and
Ribavirin treatments for seven of the next 8 years and ending in 2005. I was a
responder but never cured.
I weighed 145 pounds at the
end of that period of time, lost my job and my spouse. After ceasing
Interferon, my health rebounded but my viral load continued to climb as did my
liver enzymes. My esophagus was also deteriorating and I was on a list for
transplant.
Fortunately, God had other
plans as the last few years I was treated at BAMC in San Antonio and had kept
in touch with my nurse for several years. I sent her an email in late 2011 to
say Merry Christmas and learned she and her husband had returned to Texas. She was working
with some of the doctors who had treated me at BAMC. They were doing clinical
trials for AbbVie Labs and having success in treating Hepatitis C. I wrote
back and asked if any guinea pigs were needed. Angie almost immediately wrote
back and told me to come see them on Friday. That began what is nothing short
of a Miracle. In one week my liver enzymes were declining and my viral load had
dropped from nearly 2 million to 25. After two weeks my enzymes were in normal
range and there was no virus.
I had zero expectations but
was encouraged by the stellar early results. At the end of treatment and after
one year I was given a “cured” letter. One of the doctors who had treated me
at BAMC came in with a big smile on his face, looked me in the eye and said,
“You are cured”. After being mal affected from this disease, years of
unsuccessful and difficult treatment, being told you are CURED is beyond words
to express. It was emotional, physical and certainly Spiritual.
Life is
a Gift and rather than traveling a path that was based on being prepared for
deteriorating health and very likely an earlier death, I have
been given an opportunity to live and relish a healthier outlook than I could
ever imagine. I did nothing to earn or deserve much less expect such an amazing
gift but I hope that I can give back a little by testifying to the immense
blessing that I have received.
Friends that have known me
for many years have told me that they have the old John back. I am not sure
about that but I am older and I feel better than I have in many years without
the bleak cloud of a deadly disease continuing to erode my being. I am
stronger, less irritable, laugh more and have much joy in contemplating the
future.
I cannot easily verbalize
my thanks and gratitude to AbbVie. This is not about me but about God's Healing Grace and the many dedicated health
professionals who devoted their lives to finding a cure. I am obliged to all the people I know and the many others I never
met for making me part of the cure. There is hope for those who have Hepatitis
C.
If you know someone with hepatitis C, please forward
this to them and encourage them to talk to their doctor. Even if they do not opt to use the AbbVie
protocol (which has just now been approved by the FDA) it's important for them to get examined and treated before further liver damage is incurred. Transplants and end of life treatments can be extremely expensive, not to mention the risk of an early demise. If they would like to
speak with my uncle, contact me and I will put you in touch!
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Spurgeon, Summarized
My parents and I were blessed recently by watching a free, online documentary about the life of 19th century British preacher Charles Spurgeon. If you know a lot about Spurgeon, you'll learn things that you didn't know. If you've never heard of him, you'll get a comprehensive overview of a man you should know, who ranks right up there with Luther, Wesley and Calvin in importance to church history.
http://throughtheeyesofspurgeon.com/
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Lead Us Not into Consumption
The American Church is drowning in prosperity. Of the four types of soil Jesus talked about, we are clearly most like the third, where the "weeds" of "the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful" (Matt 13:22). Most thoughtful men realize this, some have warned eloquently about it, but no one seems to have found an herbicide that works.
Examine your own life: compare the huge pile of blessings you enjoy (which would be considered fabulous luxuries by people in most places of the world and most times in history), and the trickle of meaningful ministry that you produce. Of the 168 hours that come your way every week, how many of them get spent simply on keeping yourself and your family rested and fed and healthy and clean and clothed and looking decent (and paying for all of the above)? How many get spent on the Word of God and prayer and evangelism and discipleship?
Why is it that Christianity is declining in our country while we have more money and more training and more tools available to us than ever before? Why is it that of 1,999,564,000 professing Christians in the world, only 10,200 are foreign missionaries to unevangelized peoples? Of the 15.2 trillion dollars in annual income of professing Christians, why do only $250 million make it to supporting foreign missions in unevangelized places? (Year 2000 statistics, includes all denominations and sects of Christianity.)
How could this happen in a religion founded by a Someone who had no place to lay His head (Matt 8:20), and propagated throughout the Roman empire by a man who wrote 1 Corinthians while hungry, poorly clothed, and homeless (4:11)?
I am grateful that the American church has some men who model for us commitment to Scripture, devotion to prayer, skill in evangelism, fidelity in marriage, wisdom in child-rearing, and many other aspects of following Jesus. But where are the Christian men today who can lead us out of chokehold of the American dream? Even the ones who preach against it most, seem to lead lifestyles that are virtually indistinguishable from the rest of us.
Today we honor and admire David Brainerd, Adoniram Judson, David Livingston, John Wesley, George Whitefield, John Paton, and Hudson Taylor for the incredible physical and financial and familial sacrifices they made to see the gospel spread in their generations. But no one today actually imitates them, or even seems to know how to imitate them, in our culture. Nor do I.
May the Lord rescue us, for the sake of His own reputation.
Examine your own life: compare the huge pile of blessings you enjoy (which would be considered fabulous luxuries by people in most places of the world and most times in history), and the trickle of meaningful ministry that you produce. Of the 168 hours that come your way every week, how many of them get spent simply on keeping yourself and your family rested and fed and healthy and clean and clothed and looking decent (and paying for all of the above)? How many get spent on the Word of God and prayer and evangelism and discipleship?
Why is it that Christianity is declining in our country while we have more money and more training and more tools available to us than ever before? Why is it that of 1,999,564,000 professing Christians in the world, only 10,200 are foreign missionaries to unevangelized peoples? Of the 15.2 trillion dollars in annual income of professing Christians, why do only $250 million make it to supporting foreign missions in unevangelized places? (Year 2000 statistics, includes all denominations and sects of Christianity.)
How could this happen in a religion founded by a Someone who had no place to lay His head (Matt 8:20), and propagated throughout the Roman empire by a man who wrote 1 Corinthians while hungry, poorly clothed, and homeless (4:11)?
I am grateful that the American church has some men who model for us commitment to Scripture, devotion to prayer, skill in evangelism, fidelity in marriage, wisdom in child-rearing, and many other aspects of following Jesus. But where are the Christian men today who can lead us out of chokehold of the American dream? Even the ones who preach against it most, seem to lead lifestyles that are virtually indistinguishable from the rest of us.
Today we honor and admire David Brainerd, Adoniram Judson, David Livingston, John Wesley, George Whitefield, John Paton, and Hudson Taylor for the incredible physical and financial and familial sacrifices they made to see the gospel spread in their generations. But no one today actually imitates them, or even seems to know how to imitate them, in our culture. Nor do I.
May the Lord rescue us, for the sake of His own reputation.
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