More Profundity and Phun from Phil…
Nothing much from me, but check out these posts from Phil Johnson–[if you didn't 'get' the posters, email me, I'll try to explain.]
Why Error is Thriving in the Church [Spurgeon]
Postmodern-Relativism-and-the-Church Posters
Think and enjoy…
Pas. Sam
Challenging Ideas, not Attacking People
Christians should expect our thinking to be increasingly challenged by the group-think of our age. Our holding to the body of biblical truth, and to an orthodox interpretation of those truths, will inevitably pit us against much of the thinking of the general populace. Sound familiar? I would hazard a guess that you, as a Christian reading this, are already nodding your head like a Justin Verlander bobblehead. (more…)
We are already at odds because of the Gospel…
Need we add any more reasons for friction between Christians and the lost?
Phil Johnson’s continuing thoughts on Christians and Society have been striking a harmonic chord with me–at the same time pointing out the dissonant sound of the political “Christian Right.” By dissonance, I am referring to the many ways the Christian Right message & actions flies in the face of Scriptural truth–actively, or ignorantly. Phil’s earlier missives speak well to this. You can see them here.
I have understood one of the implications of Second Corinthians 6:3 (and other passages regarding “offense” to others) to be that our only allowable ‘offense’ as Christians is the Good News itself. It seems today that many who hate, despise or think ill of Christians & Christianity (and thus in a real sense, Christ) are doing so for wrong reasons. For our part, we should ensure that the only reason they have to stand against us is our Gospel-centeredness.
An incomplete, but perhaps helpful analogy
The influx of the influence of Emergent teaching and teachers has been dramatic–the actual coming in has been gradual, but the spread of their influence seems to be connected to a full and open throttle. I saw this article by W.F Buckley, whose memorial is today, and it appeared to me to be analogical (in some ways and not others), to how someone within the realm of Christian orthodoxy might view many of the events, teachings, and ministries related to Bell, Wright and other emergent-types–including a connectivity to some of the people we have met who left orthodox Christianity for this stuff. It connected with me not so much about how the person changes, but the ideas.
A partial quote from the article:
“If I ever heard a song played by the Grateful Dead I wasn’t aware of it. If I had been, I’d have pricked up my ears and listened real hard because I have a memory. It is of a young man who came to work at my shop. He had just graduated from Harvard, wanted to do some opinion journalism, and qualified for a summer internship that stretched into two or three years. It was toward the end of the decade of the Sixties that he drew me aside one day, after we had gone to press. He said that he had been to a concert by the Grateful Dead and that it was a wonderful experience, and that he would go again whenever the group was in reach, and he invited me to join him at one of the concerts, which I wish I had done….” Read all of it here.
