Suicide, Christians and the Church: A Reflection

I can remember driving down the highway in Virginia in a state of depression. I’ve slipped into depression – probably a milder form than many have experienced – two or three times in my life. One was during my first pastorate, back in the late 80s. Every Saturday I’d get a copy of the Richmond newspaper and peruse the help wanted ads to see if there was a way for me to provide for my family if I threw in the towel on ministry. Honestly, if I’d had a fall-back option then I’d probably not be in the ministry today. As I drove down the rural highway in Southside Virginia my mind was walking through the valley of deep darkness that David spoke of in Psalm 23.

I looked at trees in the median and thought I could just swerve the wheel into one of those and the pain would stop.

I never seriously considered turning the wheel, but I had a deep longing for death that was evidence of the hopelessness and despair in my heart.   Continue at Dave Miller

The “Old Path” Is Not Always the Best Path – The KJV Is a Great Example!

I’ve seen it several times recently. “We are following the old paths!” I got an invitation to an “Old-Fashioned” tent revival. As the modern world rushes headlong in new, strange and frightening ways, there is a tendency for us to try to hold on to what is old, what is comfortable – that which we have known. We look back to the middle of the 20th Century as a golden age for the church (well, white Americans do – blacks probably don’t remember that era of church-approved racism, discrimination and segregation quite so fondly!).

I’ve known people (lots of them) who think that everything that is wrong with the church today is because we have abandoned the “old ways” of the mid-20th Century. The solution, then, is to simply go back to how we did them back. If we just did today what we did then, what happened then would happen now!

I think every church ought to, in some ways, be “old-fashioned.” My quarrel with the phrase is that when we talk about the old ways, we miss it by about 1900 years. For most, old-fashioned means, “the way we did things back in my day.” We ought to seek to pattern our churches after the New Testament church as much as we can. Our doctrine ought to be old doctrine, built directly from the scriptures. Our practices ought to be biblical practices translated into modern situations. But I fail to see the value in trying to take the modern church (as messed-up as it is) back to the 1950s and 1960s. Suits and ties. Hymns with a piano and organ. Spring and Fall Revivals.   Continue at Dave Miller

IMAGE

The New Testament Standard of Giving

Is a Christian required in the New Testament era to tithe – to give 10% of his or her income to the Lord’s work? Do the Old Testament commandments on tithing apply to New Testament Christians?

Blogging is a fascinating thing. Topics seem to run in cycles. A few years ago there were few topics more controversial and common among Baptist bloggers than tithing, but I can’t remember the last post I’ve seen on the subject. I guess we have been more focused on how churches are giving to the convention than how people are giving to their churches. We’ve hashed and rehashed soteriological issues ad infinitum. But the New Testament standard of giving has not been at the top of the hot topic list.

But, as a pastor, it is always at the top of my list. Sioux City does not exactly have a thriving economy and it has been several years since my church had to wonder what to do with the extra money we had left over after all our bills were paid. Every Sunday, just before I go home for lunch, I sneak a peak at our offering report to see if we get to keep the ship sailing another week. God has been good and has provided faithfully for us, but money is always a concern. Would that it were not so, but considerations of money and giving are never far from the front of my mind in this ministry.

So, I’d like to weigh in on this topic:

What is the New Testament standard for giving?   Continue at Dave Miller

 IMAGE

The Dangers of Theological Systems

We love our systematic theology and our interpretational guidelines.

• Dispensational.
• Covenant.
• Calvinist (or non-Calvinist).
• Deeper life.
• Baptist Identity
• Gospel-centered or Christ-centered.

There is a lot to be gained from theological systems. They help us unify and organize our thoughts and see consistent themes in the study of Scripture. They help us link Genesis to Leviticus to Matthew to Romans to Revelation. It is great to have an organizing hermeneutical principle when we are studying scripture.

But these controlling hermeneutical principles have some inherent dangers. I would mention some of them here.

1) The Bible is NOT a systematic theology.

If God wanted us to approach theology with radically organized theological systems, then he ought to have given us a Bible that is more systematic. It just isn’t.

Wouldn’t it have been a lot easier if Paul had given us a detailed order of end-times events? I am convinced, after many hours of study, of the eschatological system I profess. But I am amused when anyone speaks of eschatology and says, “The Bible clearly says.” Sorting out the end times is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle when all the pieces do not seem to fit together. You do the best you can under the power of the Spirit to put all the pieces together and you humbly accept that others may put them together a little differently.    Continue at Dave Miller

When Does Sports Become Idolatry?

Evidently, there was a little football game last night. One overpaid, under-educated team defeated another overpaid, under-educated team for a mythical national championship. (Sorry, still bitter about the two most evil forces in college sports playing in the BCS game).  Twitter was atwitter and Facebook was booked solid with comments about the game – mostly the effusions of glee and self-adulation from Bama and SEC fans (sorry, another uncontrollable shot, undermining the point I want to make).

 

Americans love their sports. Athletes get paid extraordinary amounts of money because of our love-affair with sports. We pay hundreds of dollars for tickets to go to games, pay $75 for a $12 t-shirt with our team’s logo on it, rant about referees, and fill social media with our praise or curses concerning our teams’ play.

I am a sports fan. There is a certain 27-time World Series champion team from the Bronx that I like a little bit. My Durango has one sticker on it, a 2009 Yankees championship window sticker. Don’t know how long I will have to wait to add another. My office at the church has a Yankee mouse pad, a Yankee light switch cover, various Yankee paraphernalia and wall hangings, and a shelf full of books about Yankees from the past. I’m a fan.

That leads me to ask a question.    Continue at Dave Miller

Christian Social Engagement in a Post-Christian America: Maybe We Should Change Our Tune?

I write this with some trepidation, because I am well aware of the all-too-common tendency among us to misread, misinterpret, misunderstand and misapply. So, let me be clear about what I am NOT going to say in this post before I try to make my point.

• I am NOT saying that Christians should retreat from engagement in the social and political arena. I do not believe that the church’s task is political, but spiritual – we are here to introduce sinners to Christ who is their only hope of salvation and to teach the full truth of God’s Word through which the Spirit works to transform us to be like Christ. But American Christians have the right and responsibility, both from the Word and from the Constitution, to be active and vocal in the political arena. I am not advocating that Christians abandon the political arena.
• I am NOT saying that we should compromise our convictions in any way. We must remain faithful to what the Bible says about gender, about sexuality, about the sanctity of life and other issues, regardless of its unpopularity in this culture. We must resist that nauseating habit that the church has had through the years of molding our convictions to the current social climate. What is right is right even if the whole world says it is wrong and what is wrong is wrong even if the entire country says it is right. Truth is not a candidate seeking our support.

If someone accuses me of saying these things, I will close my eyes and think of you while reciting that old Methodist Hymn:

May the bird of paradise fly up your nose. May an elephant caress you with his toes. May your wife be plagued with runners in her hose. May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.

You have been warned!!    Continue at Dave Miller

The Power of Negative Thinking

In 1952, a New York pastor named Norman Vincent Peale penned a book that has influenced generations that followed, called, “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Many of his thoughts and ideas were picked up by Robert Schuller, who repackaged them as “Possibility Thinking,” and built a religious empire from them.

These ideas, once seen as counter to the gospel, have now become mainstream, even in evangelical, supposedly Bible-believing Christianity. Christianity has been completely redefined, deemphasizing sin and lostness and separation from God and replacing it with a man-centered, self-reliant, relentlessly positive message – grace without the fall, redemption without the need for forgiveness.

In the Peale/Schuller world, our problem is low self-esteem and a lack of confidence in our own abilities to do great things for God. The solution is for us to think positive, believe in ourselves, dream big dreams and believe that God will help us reach our dreams. Man’s chief end is no longer to give glory to God, but God’s chief end is to bring happiness to us.

My concern is that over time this concept has gained ground and begun to establish itself as settled doctrine. Too many are replacing the hard, cold facts of the true gospel with the cotton candy of self-esteem and “you can do it” motivational approaches. A popular radio network bills itself as “positive and encouraging.”  Continue at Dave Miller

Did God Choose Barack Obama as President?

Habakkuk was confused, frustrated, and evidently just a little bit ticked at God.

“Oh, Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence” and you will not save?”  (Hab 1:2)

His concern was focused on the wickedness that was so prevalent among God’s people, in his nation.

“So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.” (Hab 1:4)

Read between the lines. “Where are you, God? Why are you allowing this wickedness to prevail?”

Then, God answered Habakkuk, but it was not an answer that the prophet wanted to hear. He expected God to say, perhaps, that he was going to restore Judah’s fortunes with a sweeping revival and bring them back to obedience that the blessing that would accrue to the obedient nation.  That is not what God said. You can almost see Habakkuk’s jaw drop as God says to him,

“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans (Babylonians), that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.” (Hab 1:6)

God goes on to describe the fierce and cruel Chaldeans, intimating that he would raise them up as a scourge to punish Judah’s wickedness. Habakkuk is nonplussed by this answer, asking God how he could possibly consider raising up an even more evil nation like the Babylonians to punish his own chosen people. He is irate now (it is fascinating how honest the prophets are when they are upset at what God is doing!). In Habakkuk 2:1, he issues an ultimatum to God to defend himself and his actions in punishing sinful Judah with uber-sinful Babylon.   Continue at Dave Miller

A New Era: Where Christians Are a Cultural Minority?

For clarity, I am speaking in this post of biblically-based, gospel-founded Christianity, not cultural Christianity or Christendom.  A friend mentioned the other day that there were 4 billion “Christians” on earth. Not sure where that statistic comes from, but does any of us really believe that there are 4 billion “born-again” Christians – those who have repented of their sins and trusted Jesus Christ alone (and consciously) for their salvation.

I grew up in a Christianized, Christian-centric, Christian-sympathetic world. I have heard arguments on both sides, but I do not believe that the US was ever a “Christian Nation” It was one that saw itself as responsible to God and was Christian enough that people could make the argument that we were a Christian nation, though.

Such is no longer true.

We who believe the Bible to be the perfect word of God are entering a new era in this nation. Gone (or rapidly going) are the days in which our nation shared, in the main, our values. In my college years, a controversial organization formed called the Moral Majority. It was based on the premise that there was in America a majority of people who shared our values.

Such is no longer true.  Continue at Dave Miller

A Case for Cessationism: A Response to Dave Miller

Dave Miller recently wrote an article titled “God told me that the Bible does NOT teach Cessationism.”  Cessationism is the belief that the miraculous spiritual gifts detailed in Scripture have ceased, and are no longer present in the church.  I disagree with Miller’s article for many reasons:

1) He’s overly simplistic and dismissive. It’s undeniable that for over 1600 years of church history, the miraculous spiritual gifts were inactive in the church.  They were only present among heretics.  In spite of this fact, Miller believes cessationism is “hermeneutical wishful thinking.”  There must be a lot of wishful thinkers in church history!  You cannot dismiss hundreds of years of church history as hermeneutical wishful thinking.

2) The reason I’m a cessationist is because I believe the purpose of the miraculous gifts has ceased.  It’s not because of wishful thinking. I was raised a charismatic!  The reason I’m a cessationist is because I asked what Scripture identified as the purpose of the miraculous spiritual gifts.  The answer is that the miraculous gifts were given for the building up of the church so that early Christians could trust the truth being presented as coming from God (See where Christ healed one person out of a multitude in John 5:2-9 to validate His identity: Acts 2:22-23 ; Paul speaks of the signs of an apostle as proof for his apostleship in 2 Cor. 12:12; miracles were random in Scripture; and spiritual gifts were given to individual Christians to encourage and build up other Christians/the church: 1 Cor. 12:7 and the context of the chapter; Rom. 12:1-8; 1 Pet. 4:10-11).  Thus, the question is if this purpose is still needed today.  Does the message of Christ and the apostles need to be revalidated with each generation?  No.  The gospel spread without repeated validation for over 1600 years.  Furthermore, it’s a wicked generation who seeks a sign beyond the signs that have already been provided (Matt. 12:39). The person who says, “I’ll only believe the gospel if God . . .” reveals his or her unrepentant heart.  If he or she will not hear Scripture, he or she will not hear the message accompanied by miracles either (Luke 16:31).   Continue at Jared Moore

A Plea to Al Mohler, Nettles and the Founders

I feel so much like Michael Corleone right now.  I want to ignore the Calvinism wars. I want to talk about something else. I want to move on the things that I think are more important that are being ignored in our obsession with promoting or assailing Calvinism.  But, as soon as I make a commitment, then:

Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in!

Alan Cross wrote a powerful article at his site, Downshore Drift, called, “Does Al Mohler Need to Repent of Promoting Calvinism?”  In that article, he calls on Dr. Mohler to change his ways, asking him to tone down the rhetoric on the Calvinism front. I would encourage you to read Alan’s post before you move on from here.

Okay, I’ll take your word for it that you read Alan’s take on the subject. Alan makes some great points there, which I think need to be heard. I want to expand on what he says with some points of my own.   Continue at Dave Miller

The Gamaliel Solution: A Way Forward in the Calvinism Wars?

In the story recorded in Acts 5, the Sanhedrin was furious and bloodthirsty. In defiance of the Council’s command the Apostles continued to proclaim Christ and that set them off. Called before this intimidating body, Peter was anything but timid. He called them to account for the death of Jesus, proclaimed the resurrection and announced his intentions to obey God rather than to cower before them. This insolence infuriated them and they were determined to squash that annoying sect.

Enter Gamaliel. He was one of the more influential teachers and leaders in Jewish history, even being quoted in the Mishnah a number of times. Saul of Tarsus studied under him and even after his experience on the road to Damascus, and his rejection of the Law as a means of salvation, kept a high regard for his teacher. Gamaliel stepped forward with calm words of wisdom.

“Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” Acts 5:35-39

He counseled a more cautious tack.  He reminded them of the rebellions led by Theudas and by Judas (no, not that one) and pointed out that their false messianic claims came to nothing. Here he demonstrates a great faith in the power of God. He was confident that if the “Way” was a human movement, if would fail in and of itself. If, on the other hand, it was of God (as we believe it was!) their opposition would not stop it and in fact they would be opposing the work of God.   Continue at Dave Miller