Sex and the County

Date June 2, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

From the Weekly Standard:

A FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGE IN Maryland has jolted the local liberal
establishment in Montgomery County by blocking a pilot program in sex
education. The program was designed to sweep away the “myths”–the
lingering moral inhibitions and retrograde theological teachings–that
apparently feed reservations, still widely held, about homosexuality
and same-sex marriage. Judge Alexander Williams Jr. put the kibosh on
this plan, and the jolt has had a deeper resonance, not least because
Williams happens to be a Clinton appointee. But the lasting tremors
come from the fact that the decisive strands in his May 5 judgment are
lines of argument that have been used most often by the left: The judge
invoked the concern for an establishment of religion, and beyond that,
he raised the charge, under the First Amendment, that people with
discordant views were being blocked from the public square. …

The article is definitely worth a read, but the sex-ed curriculum comprises pretty much the same old stuff: discredited
statistics, misleading
glosses over important data, and poor exegesis of Scripture.

Category Posted in Culture, Ethics, Main Page, Politics, Religion (General) Comments No Comments »

The God Who is Not Silent

Date June 2, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

A discussion was started on one of my recent posts (the review of Kimball’s The Emerging Church) regarding the practices of listening prayer and lectio devina. Since I haven’t done a regular post in awhile I thought this would be a worthy topic.

 

In my article, “Does God Whisper?”, I state the following: “[The New Testament] does not clearly, or otherwise, teach that we can all receive personal messages from the voice of God. In fact, this is nowhere in the Bible. Nowhere does the Bible teach that we are suppose to listen for a divine whisper, to be still so that we can hear the voice of God, or that all Christians can receive personal messages from God. God could, in fact, do any or all of these things; however, none of them are in the Bible.”

 

Does God “speak?” Of course; He has spoken an inspired Word and the Son has dwelt among us. The problem is that people turn more to their subjective feelings about things instead of the unchanging Word of God. They baptize their feelings with religious language like “feeling lead” when the Bible teaches no such practice. God has chosen to speak through His Word to us, by the power of the Spirit. He has also chosen, on occasion, to speak through prophets. I do believe that the gift of prophecy is still around (though it’s rare). I don’t believe that every Christian is a prophet and should therefore expect to receive divine revelation outside of scripture. With apologies to Wayne Grudem; that doctrine’s just not in the Bible.

 

I was asked who else has held my view. I don’t know enough historical theology to go much into that, except that the Reformed and Lutherans traditions have taught this. So today most Reformed and most Lutheran theologians would hold that God doesn’t speak through meditation (or any other means outside of scripture and the gift of prophecy- of course some would say that gift is dead), and I’m sure there are folks from other traditions as well. See J.I. Packer’s chapter on “Guidance” in Hot Tub Religion. For an entire book on the subject see Decision Making and the Will of God by Gary Friesen and J. Robin Maxson. I’ve also heard that Bruce Waltke is in this camp in Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion?- though I haven’t confirmed this. For some relevant audio on it get Greg Koukl’s Decision Making & The Will of God set.

I'm interested in hearing from the readers- where do you stand?

Category Posted in Main Page, Roger's Posts, Theology Comments 6 Comments »

Book Review: Sex and the Supremacy of Christ ed by. John Piper and Justin Taylor

Date June 1, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

To often in our Christian culture we hear the word ‘sex’ and close our ears. For many, there is an unspoken doctrine: sex=sin. Yes, there will be the occasional, “God created sex” point made in a sermon, but the general attitude towards sex is one of evasion. I’ve heard stories of newly wed couples being uncomfortable because they felt like they were doing something wrong when they consummated their marriage. There’s even a news report of a German couple who wanted to have kids but couldn’t figure out how because they were so sheltered.

This cultural backdrop is one reason for the need of this book, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ. God did create sex, but more than that, His intentions for it were good. John Piper reminds us of this in the first two chapters. Piper’s main points are that “sexuality is designed by God as a way to know God in Christ more fully,” and that “knowing God in Christ more full is designed as a way of guarding and guiding our sexuality.” (26)

Ben Patterson finishes Part One of the book laying the theological foundations of the Christian worldview concerning sexuality. Following Part One are two chapters on sex and sin. The first deals with issues pertaining to those who have sinned sexually or have been sinned against. The next chapter, by Al Mohler, explains the problems with homosexuality and how we should respond to it in our culture. Part Three contains a chapter for single men and a chapter for married men, and likewise Part Four contains a chapter for single women and a chapter for married women. Finally there are two chapters in Part Five that look at the doctrines of sex and marriage in historical perspective. The first is about Martin Luther and his relationship with Katherine von Bora, and the second details the Puritan’s understanding of sex and marriage.

By far the chapter I had the most fun reading was the one on Martin and Katherine. Justin Taylor does a great job of telling their fascinating story with humor and substance. That said, it’s hard for me to say there were only a couple of chapters I really liked. The truth is, the entire book was a great read. David Powlison’s chapter on sexual sin is the only I could say anything negative about. He offered some great points but he repeated himself numerous times and the chapter seemed to drag on (it could have easily been edited shorter)

Being that I’m single, I was a bit hesitant about reading this book at first. Is this topic really one a single male should study? Yes! I’m exceedingly grateful I took the time to read this book and would recommend it to everyone, regardless of where they are in life; be it single, married, divorced, 83, or whatever. This book takes some great steps forward towards curing the Evangelical evasion of sex and recognizing the role of sexuality in the life of the Christian and specifically in our relationship with Christ. Undoubtedly this will be one of the best books of the year.

Category Posted in Book Reviews, Main Page, Roger's Posts, Theology Comments 10 Comments »

Book Review: Escaping the Matrix by Gregory Boyd & Al Larson

Date May 29, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

This book was given to me through Mind & Media by Baker Books as part of a book review program. If you have a blog, click here to find out how you can get free books to review.

Most Christians live in a tension between desiring to live in complete surrender to Christ and yet still sinning along the way. This is at least true for myself, and I suspect for every other person reading this. We know how we are supposed to act in Christ, we have experienced some transformation by the Holy Spirit, but we still fail more often then we’d like. Gregory Boyd and Al Larson believe this is because we are all trapped in the Matrix.

While the book is chalk-full of references to the Matrix movies, the matrix we are stuck behind, according to Boyd and Larson, is a system of lies instituted by Satan through the secular world.  God wants us to be free from this network of lies and to become free we must replace our false “neurochips” with true “neurochips” (Biblical promises).

In nine chapters the authors work through how they view the functions of the brain, particularly in thought and memory, as well offer a number of stories of how they used their methods to bring people out of pornography addiction, a phobia of insects, and depression.

There is some good foundational theology mixed in throughout the book. For instance, there is a responsibility on our behalf to work towards our sanctification (80). And yes, Satan’s lies have deceived us on many occasions (19). However, I found more troubling foundational theology than good Biblical theology. Throughout the book there is a notion that we can become practically perfect this side of heaven. They imply that Jesus dies so that we could have a completely abundant life on earth (39). “Whatever it is that presently holds you in bondage, it doesn’t have to be there. You can experience real life—free life—in Jesus Christ!” (76)

I could go on about other instances of bad theology, however, it is the methods used by the authors that are the most important part of the book. We all know we have issues; this is why someone would read a book like this. Many are looking for the quick-fix method to help them. But it is the method Boyd and Larson offer that is the overwhelming problem (likely based on their other theological problems).

According to Boyd and Larson, the way we solve our problems is to re-present our memories and alter them in our mind’s eye. We speak and listen to our soul and recreate our thoughts and memories based on what we want to change. Sometimes this comes across as plain silliness. “Say, ‘Soul, listen up. Because of what Jesus did for me, I am…’” (44) They do encourage asking the Holy Spirit for help… (To a patient named Doreen) “Are you ready to be free? You and the Holy Spirit will create the movie The Story of Doreen’s Healing.” (171)

Aside from the exercises they offer being silly, they are completely unbiblical. Jesus didn’t lead his disciples through imagination trances. Paul didn’t instruct the new members of his churches to recreate their memories. Rather, the manner by which lives are changed according to the Bible is the Word of God. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God, not our imagination, to discern and transform us (1 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 4:12-13).

Escaping the Matrix is an escape from the transforming power of the Word of God. In its place we find the latest pop-psychology with a dangerous dash of New Age mysticism. I can find no reason to recommend this book to anyone for any purpose.

Category Posted in Book Reviews, Main Page, Religion (General), Roger's Posts Comments 6 Comments »

The Implications of Free Will

Date May 27, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

Go and read this interview with Bruce Ware on Free Will (HT: Justin Taylor BTW). If someone were looking for a succinct explanation of Calvinist theology and philosophy in contrast to Arminianism, they could likely do no better than what Ware has offered here. There’s a lot of juicy theology discussed; I’ll only touch on a bit of it.

Dr. Ware does a decent job of summing up the libertarian view of freedom, which is a foundation of Arminianism. This view says that are choices are completely arbitrary, independent of outside forces. Dr. J.P. Moreland, a libertarian, sums it up this way, “When an agent acts freely, he is a first or unmoved mover; no event causes him to act. His desires, beliefs, etc. may influence his choice, but free acts are not caused by prior states in the agent.” In other words, in order to really be free, nothing outside of ourselves may influence what we do. The fact that it’s hot outside must be irrelevant to my decision to have ice cream. For Dr. Moreland we are “unmoved movers,” meaning the only motivation for our decisions can be found within ourselves.

Compatiblism says that outside factors do influence our decisions. If it weren’t hot outside, I would not have walked into Cold Stone Creamery and ordered a Cheesecake ice cream with caramel, snickers, and white chocolate chips (pardon me while I dream for a second…). Why wouldn’t I? Because I would have had no desire to do so. My desire for ice cream is directly caused by an outside factor, in this case the heat of living in Southern California.

Our ideas of freedom, in America especially, have changed. When the founding fathers wrote up our early documents they spoke of freedom, but not the freedom we speak of today. They sought freedom to be able to do what they ought to do. Today our culture relishes freedom to do what we want to do. To some degree, this is the difference between Compatiblism and Libertarianism. Compatiblists recognize that we have no natural desire to do what we ought to do. Libertarians believe that we can do what we ought to do; we will find the motivation within ourselves to do what we ought and what we ought not. Therefore, the only freedom needed is the freedom to do what one wants. Interestingly, this American dichotomy between the freedom for what we ought and the freedom for what we want was brought to my attention by Dr. Moreland.

Awhile back I heard Michael Horton make a comment about how Arminianism is responsible for many of the problems in our culture today. At the time I thought that was a gross over generalization. But in light of this discussion, I can see how that may be the case. Once we assume that we have the ability within ourselves to do what we ought, the moral framework of our society will deteriorate (as it has been doing). Society will believe that humans are either basically good or basically neutral. We will lose the idea that there is an objective ought (outside standard for morality) and our own desires will become the standard for what we ought to do. And so today in America we ought to do as we please; be it kill an unborn human, marry someone of the same-sex, ignore genocide in a foreign country, etc. Because of this libertarian notion of freedom we have become a society enslaved to our own sinful desires. God save America.

Category Posted in Main Page, Philosophy, Roger's Posts, Theology Comments 6 Comments »

Book Review: The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball

Date May 25, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

We live in an increasingly post-Christian culture. In times prior we could “preach the word” using words like sin and repentance and people would at least know what we’re talking about. The times today are such that the language American Christianity has spoken is no longer the language of American culture. In this book, Dan Kimball offers a mindset for how Christians can adapt and reach the changing culture with an unchanging message.

Dan begins by setting the stage contrasting the “seeker-sensitive” model and the “post-seeker-sensitive” model (the emerging church mindset). Churches that are seeker-sensitive, for instance, are more focused on getting people in the church doors than meeting them where they are. People in the postmodern culture understand things differently, and the seeker sensitive mindset simply will not reach most of the postmodern/emerging generation.

After outlining the cultural shifts that have taken place and dealing with some of the theological issues that arise, Dan moves on to the larger part of the book, “Reconstructing Vintage Christianity in the Emerging Church.” This second part deals with the more practical aspects of what it looks like for Christian churches to reach out to the current culture around them.

Dan Kimball is an excellent writer. He’s clear, straightforward, and writes as though he’s thought extensively about these issues ahead of time (that’s becoming harder to find these days). There were many things I loved about this book. Dan repeatedly places the emphasis of church on Jesus. “Absolutely everything we do when we design worship gatherings for the emerging church should have Jesus at the center as we lift up His name.” (121)

There were a few times when a concern about something would start to grow in the back of my mind and then almost immediately Dan would speak to that concern, as though he saw it coming. E.g.- After speaking about multisensory worship I became worried about how it was too focused on feelings and emotions. Then Dan said, “The danger, of course, is focusing so much on experience that we teach people to respond only by feelings and emotions… I believe the more the emerging church uses multisensory worship and teach, the stronger and deeper our use of Scripture needs to be.” (131)

Of course, there were a handful of things I didn’t care for. One is Dan’s emphasis on lectio devina, silence, and listening prayer- all of which I believe to be dangerous practices not supported by Scripture. However, those issues aren’t specific to emerging churches since many other people practice them as well. Another issue I had was the occasional false dichotomies between the “Modern Church” and the “Emerging Church.” For instance, Kimball states that the modern church said,  “evangelism uses reason and proofs for apologetics,” while the emerging church says “evangelism uses the church being the church as the primary apologetic.” (201) Francis Schaeffer said our “final apologetic” as Christians is love, and I think Schaeffer especially would fit both views of evangelism. Most apologists I know are more of the Schaeffer type than the “reason and proofs” only type, so I don’t believe this dichotomy is accurate.

Overall, this is a great book. With the exception of only a few points I would recommend it to just about anyone wanting to make a difference for Christ in the postmodern culture. Dan Kimball has some good ideas for how to do church differently and reach the culture without capitulating to it and becoming the culture.

Category Posted in Book Reviews, Emerging / Emergent Church, Main Page, Roger's Posts, Theology Comments 6 Comments »

Murdock Can Fly!

Date May 24, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

That's
me flying a Boeing 717. Scary thought isn't it? My stepfather, who works
for Boeing, won a raffle for a free hour in the flight simulator with
two guests- my mom and I. Our instructor was cool enough to let us each
have a shot at take off and landing, which ended up taking two hours.
These aren't open to the public, and for employees it costs $150 an
hour per person. So we got quite a deal.



Here's the specs
and a small picture of the outside of the simulator. It runs on a 6
point axis of motion, meaning you feel everything. The trainer told us
that after he trains a pilot in one of these they are certified to fly
for any airline, without having ever flown a real airplane. That's how
real these things are.



So how'd I do?
Apparently quite well. He decided to throw some weather conditions in
on me to mess me up a bit but I handled it okay. It certainly isn't
easy. Pressure on the yoke can build up quickly and before you know it
it feels like you're lifting weights. Of course that wouldn't be a
problem if the auto-pilot were on, but that's no fun is it? So now I
really am Murdock from the A-Team. Not only am I crazy, but I can fly
too!

Category Posted in Main Page, Miscellaneous, Roger's Posts Comments 3 Comments »

Link-phobia

Date May 24, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

Apologist Steven Cowan has joined the blogging world and wrote an excellent piece “Christians and Arts” a few weeks ago highlighting how we should engage art from a Christian worldview.

Brett Kunkle has returned from his voyage to the Emergent/YS conference in Nashville last weekend and is telling his tales over at STR.

I just finished up building a new website for one of my clients. The
client happens to be our very own Hannibal Smith (Mark Guillen) and his
site is Soul-Juice Studios. Go see see a cute picture of his youngest daughter and check out the projects he's working on.

Mark Ostreicher, President of Youth Specialties, has found an ancient-future avenue for freedom.

The White Horse Inn has been doing a great series on “How to Read the Bible.” This week's topic is “Law and Gospel.” Earlier this month they covered “Evangelism in the Book of Acts” which is well worth the download fee.

Category Posted in Main Page, Miscellaneous, Roger's Posts Comments No Comments »

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Date May 23, 2005 Posted by Roger Overton

Today I received a nice piece of junk mail telling me why I
need to subscribe to “the prophetic voice for the endtimes,” which happens to
be a magazine called Midnight Call. (Funny, I thought the Bible was our
prophetic voice…) To be honest, it’s very hard for me to take these sorts of
things seriously- especially when they claim they provide “information you
won’t read anywhere else.” Finally “Daniel’s prophecies [are] explained,” as if
no Biblical scholars prior to the writers of this magazine had any
understanding of the prophecies.

I’m use to hearing that stuff. I grew up in a Baptist church
(that I love dearly) and heard plenty about a pre-tribulation rapture. My
Grannie (whom I also love dearly) is really into it. Awhile back she wrote, “I
just read Madame Hillary’s book about her plans to take over the White House. I
am more than ever convinced that Jesus is coming soon.” (Hillary’s time in
office would be the tribulation.) I’m also use to hearing about Christians attacking
other Christians on doctrinal issues that aren’t central to the faith, like Ken
Ham’s obsession with Hugh Ross (Young Earth Creationist attacking an Old Earth
Creationist).

What really got to me as I read through this junk mail was
the “Statement of Faith.” It starts out like most others talking about the
authority of the Bible and the Trinity. But after talking about Jesus they
throw in two incredibly problematic statements…

“WE BELIEVE that Israel is God’s chosen
people, and that the restoration of the Jews to their own land is the
fulfillment of the Word of God.

WE BELIEVE in the pre–tribulational appearance of Jesus Christ
for the Rapture of His Church (all born again believers).”

Maybe they don’t mean to exclude people from being
Christians who don’t believe these doctrines, but they do exclude us from
something. Namely, it becomes difficult to fellowship and serve with people who
make their ministry strictly about secondary issues, especially issues in which
there are a number of views within the pale of orthodoxy. 

One of the things that I love about Stand to Reason is that
while it is doctrinally strong it doesn’t make secondary issues dividing lines.
They hired me while I was still Arminian, even though most of the staff,
including the President, is Calvinist. It’s not that these doctrines aren’t
important. Rather, it’s that the unity of the body of Christ and serving Him is
more important. I’m proud to serve with people I disagree with, be it on issues
of creation, soteriology, missiology, etc.- these are still my brothers and
sisters in Christ.

We need statements of faith to be clear about the
necessities of our faith, but we need to be careful about where we draw the
lines. I hope they don’t believe I’m not saved because I don’t believe the
entirety of these two statements. My prayer is that we can all respectfully
disagree on secondary issues so that we can strongly proclaim together the
primary issue of the Gospel.

Category Posted in Main Page, Roger's Posts, Theology Comments 3 Comments »

The Fruit of Suffering

Date May 23, 2005 Posted by Amy Hall

I didn't plan to spend so much time on suffering, but the subject is central to the lives of those who serve Christ faithfully and well, and I've been seeing evidence of this everywhere I turn.  Specifically, today I can't avoid thinking about it as I read about the life of St. Patrick here, here, and here–in awe of the incredible blessing his suffering has been to the world and to me personally. 

 

St. Patrick, a Briton, was kidnapped by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland when he was sixteen, sometime around 400 AD.  He had previously rejected the Christian faith of his parents, but he repented and gave his heart to God during his six years of captivity and prayed constantly as he tended sheep alone in the hills.  When he escaped and returned to Britain, he was far behind his peers in terms of education and never really caught up, but he worked hard to receive the theological training he needed so he could return to the Irish as a missionary.

 

He did return, and within a hundred years, the country was transformed from an illiterate, pagan nation of war, slavery, and human sacrifice to the guardian of the literature of Western civilization as Rome crumbled.  After the dust settled, it was the Irish who traveled into Europe to plant the seeds of spiritual renewal and learning through the creation of monasteries that protected the ancient manuscripts and re-evangelized Europe.

 

All of this happened because of what God accomplished through St. Patrick and his suffering.  From The Confession of Saint Patrick:

 

[God] stirred up me, a fool, from the midst of those who are considered wise and learned in the practice of law, as well as “persuasive in their speech” and in every other way and, ahead of these others, inspired me who is so despised by the world, to be fit to help (if only I could!) faithfully and “in fear and trembling” and without any complaint that race of people to which the love of Christ drew me and thus spend the rest of my life, if only I might prove worthy; simply to serve them in humility and truth.

 

Consequently, in response to our rule of faith in the Trinity I must take this decision [to return to the Irish], disregarding any risks involved, and make known “the gifts of God and his everlasting consolation.”  Neither must we fear any such risk in faithfully preaching God's name boldly in every place, so that even after my death a spiritual legacy may be left for my brethren and my children, so many people in their thousands whom I have baptized in the Lord. (p. 36-37)

 

It's hard for me to read this without tears and overwhelming gratefulness because I am one of the children of this legacy.  This week, I leave for Ireland, and I'll visit family who still live on the farm of my great-great-grandfather.  I'll see the church where they and my ancestors before them worshipped.  I'll see my ancestors' gravestones that still declare the glory of Christ and his resurrection.  The truth about Him–first brought to Ireland through the sufferings of St. Patrick–has been passed down through the centuries, down through the generations of my family, and blessed me beyond imagining.  All I can do is say thank you to a man who risked his life to love the very people who first enslaved him–to a man who was so grateful for “that gift, so great, so salutary, to know God and to love him” that he could think of nothing but returning to a people desperately in need of that same gift.

 

“So at last I came here to the Irish gentiles to preach the gospel…Now I was able to hand over the freedom of my birth for the benefit of others.  And should I prove worthy, I am ready and willing to give up my own life, without hesitation for his name.” 

 

St. Patrick's Day will never be the same for me again.

Category Posted in Amy's Posts, Main Page, Miscellaneous, Theology Comments 1 Comment »

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