Category Archives: The Gospel

Dead Orthodoxy — Dead Orthopraxy

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Lately I have been thinking about the easy-believism that is so prevalent in American churches and their general disconnect between faith and practice. I generally see this occurring on two fronts, each of which is equally dangerous, yet one has been largely ignored as of late.

A Dead Orthopraxy

The first front is made up of liberals and emergents; theirs is a gospel that radically alters the lifestyles of those who embrace it yet it ultimately lacks sufficient doctrinal content to truly be considered a biblical gospel. While they may in many senses be considered orthodox in praxis this movement’s impetus is a set of social concerns and not the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ and as such their orthopraxy is a dead one. To phrase it simpler their gospel restructures their lifestyle yet it fails to transform their belief structure. This movement has received prolific critique lately and as such it is not the focus of this post. If you are unfamiliar with the emergent church then I would recommend the following link (here).

A Dead Orthodoxy

The second front has largely been ignored recently and as such presents a far subtler danger. This second front is comprised of some conservatives and fundamentalists; theirs is a gospel that radically alters the doctrinal beliefs of those who embrace it yet it ultimately lacks sufficient doctrinal content to truly be considered a biblical gospel. While they may in many senses be considered orthodox in belief this movement’s impetus is a set of truth claims and not the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ and as such their orthodoxy is a dead one. Again, to phrase is simpler their gospel restructures their belief structure yet it fails to transform their lifestyle. While these churches will affirm the basic tenets of “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” their conduct argues to the contrary. I think several examples of this will suffice to prove my point.

  • They deny the manifold glory of God by failing to teach and laboring to learn the deep things of God (Mark 12:30; II Peter 3:16-18)
  • They deny the lordship of Christ by endorsing the salvation of countless voluntarily inactive members (Hebrews 10:25).
  • They deny the sanctifying work of the Spirit by failing to discipline members in sin (Matthew 18:15-17; I Corinthians 6:9-12).
  • They deny the efficacy and infallibility of the Scriptures (Isaiah 55:10-11) by failing to shepherd the flock (I Peter 5:1-5) and by refusing to engage in biblical counseling and “referring” their church members to secular psychologists (II Timothy 3:16-17).
  • They deny the fundamental essence of the church by allowing inactive and sinning members to continue in membership (I Peter 2:9).
  • They deny the interdependent nature of the church by failing to exhort the congregation to hold one another accountable (I Corinthians 12:12-13; Colossians 3:16).

These churches have been given a pass for far too long. Their verbal assent to the doctrines of Scripture apart from the proper practice thereof is far more than institutionalized hypocrisy, it is a false gospel.

John Piper on Politics and the Gospel

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This was posted prior to the election; however, what John Piper has to say remains an important message that we all need to hear. I would also recommend reading Thabiti Anyabwile’s reflections on Piper’s video here.

2008-11-04 The Brief

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As America, and much of the world, awaits the outcome of the election here are two articles that I hope prove to be helpful as you reflect on this election and elections to come. These articles represent a balance that I think is lost in most pulpits around election season when many pastors preach the gospel of this kingdom and abandon the gospel of the Kingdom. I am glad that Piper, Driscoll, and many like them have kept the focus on the true gospel and provided us with a biblical perspective of politics.

Mark Driscoll – In God We Do Not Trust

John Piper – Let Christians Vote As Though They Were Not Voting

Make Disciples not Programs

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This week The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary began their first ever Great Commission Lecture Series; there are several more lectures to come please check that link for updates over the next month.  Starting the series off was David Platt, lead pastor of the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama.  In his lecture he offered the following criticism of the lack of biblical vision in SBC churches and followed it up will a practical exhortation to recover the mission of God.

“When you ask a pastor to describe his vision and we say things like, ‘my vision is to have this many hundred or this many thousand people in church, or to have this many buildings,’ when we say things like that we show that somewhere along the way we have lost our pursuit of Christ in the pursuit of stuff and the church. Christ should be our vision. . . .  One of the greatest challenges that I, and the staff that I lead, face is trying to reorient our thinking: the purpose of the staff is not to plan events or to provide services. The purpose of the staff, of church leaders, is to equip people, to build people, to love Christ and proclaim the glory of Christ to the nations” (emphasis added).

An article by the Towers Online is available here and MP3s of the lectures are available below.

·         “The Presence of Christ in the Great Commission”

·         “The Command of Christ in the Great Commission”

·         “The Authority of Christ in the Great Commission”

2008-04-20 The Brief

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Together for the Gospel

The conference ― T4G ― was amazing and I hope to have some of my reflections on each session up within the next week.  For those of you who enjoy live blogging, sorry I type too slowly for that.  In the mean time Sovereign Grace Ministries has been kind enough to post the MP3s online for free download so please take the time to listen to each of the conference sessions below.

·         01 Ligon Duncan – Sound Doctrine – Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry

·         02 Thabiti Anyabwile – Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church

·         03 John MacArthur – The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability

·         04 Mark Dever – Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology

·         05 R. C. Sproul – The Curse Motif of the Atonement

·         06 Albert Mohler – Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution

·         07 John Piper – How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice

·         08 C. J. Mahaney – Sustaining a Pastor’s Soul

Science

The University of Cambridge has just published the complete works of Charles Darwin online.  These works were previously available only to a select few have been published for the world to see.  This is the largest collection of its kind and contains everything from his original sketch of evolution to personal letters and photographs.

Theology

Pastor Joe Thorn, of Redeemer Fellowship, has created a phenomenal paradigm for his church entitled The Table, The Pulpit and The Square.  You can read his description and view the paradigm in his post The Full Paradigm.  I have e-mailed him and the other documents mentioned in The Table, The Pulpit and The Square will be posted online soon, so keep looking for them on his blog and I will provide links to them here.