Sir, you ask how to fight an idea. Well I'll tell you how ... with another idea.
While on vacation, I finally got around to listening to some audio that had been on my "To Hear" list. Mark Driscoll's talk on The Supremacy of Christ and the Church in a Postmodern World was on that list.
(Via the following link you can watch, listen, and/or download the message.)
Referencing the obligation to contend for the truth from Jude 3, Driscoll gave 9 things/truths for which we must contend:
- The veracity (my word) of Scripture as the meta-narrative
- The sovereignty of God amid the threat of Open Theism
- The virgin birth of Jesus Christ
- The reality of a sin nature amid the threat of Pelagianism
- Penal substitutionary atonement
- The exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the only way
- Gender differences as defined by the Bible, resulting in different roles for men & women in the home and church
- The doctrine of hell, being literal, conscious, and eternal
- The Kingdom (and the King) over (and more important than) culture
Any others we might add, particularly those threated by the Emergent/postmodern condition?
Driscoll is a bit of a controversial figure, but I suggest his talk would be worth a listen.
Though one might disagree with his decisions about which particular aspects of culture should be rejected, received, or redeemed, I think he's right in that we need to be focus on the incarnation (by following Christ's example, i.e., being "incarnational") in addition to focusing on Christ's exaltation.
Driscoll's contention was that the Emergent tend to focus on Christ's humanity to the exclusion of His deity, while the Reformed are susceptible to the reverse.
posted by GUNNY @ 05:51
5 comments
5 Comments:
Thank you for that link. I have downloaded it and will cross-load to my MP3 player soon.
I'd be curious as to what you think, but I found it motivated me to put my doctrine to practice more.
One suggestion is to reconsider the doctrine of hell.
“THIS IS THE WILL OF HIM WHO SENT ME”—JESUS
John 3:35 "The Father loves the Son
and has given ALL things into his hand."
What has the Father given to the Son? ALL things!!!
Now, look at what the will of the Father is:
John 6:39 "And this is the will of him who sent me,
that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day."
So, WHAT is the WILL of the FATHER concerning Jesus???
LOSE NOTHING of what HE had given him, which was ALL!!!
So, Jesus' commission is to lose nothing
of all that the Father has given him, and the Father gave him ALL, therefore NONE will be lost!!! That means
(drum roll please!!!)~~~~~~(that was a drum roll—really!)
(if you can’t get excited about this with me, your pulse is zero)
ALL WILL BE SAVED!!!
This means no eternal torment and no eternal death!!! Remember, the Word says death will be eliminated, and guess what that means; it means that after that, there will only be LIFE!!!
This means salvation of ALL!!! (yeah, I know it’s repetitious, but that is what you want to do with really good news)
Some of you may be thinking, well what about
THIS verse, or THAT verse, or this OTHER verse???
What I have shared with you is undeniable, straight-forward, easy-to-understand TRUTH, so, THIS, THAT, or the OTHER verses need to be understood in terms of this TRUTH.
Since what God through his Holy Spirit through his servant John has said is obviously true, then the Holy Spirit must not have yet revealed to you the true meaning of all those hell, fire, and damnation verses. Hell, fire, and damnation are actually all part of God’s plan to reconcile all created beings back to Him.
Don't explain it away, just believe it!!!
Believing IN God, puts you in no better position than the demons. But where the rubber meets the road is
DO YOU BELIEVE GOD WHEN HE STATES HIS TRUTH SO PLAINLY!!!
If you do not believe that these two verses in John are saying that none will be lost, consider this possibility.
Satan has made you believe that “all” does not really mean “all”, which is a common deception.
Or, Satan is just not allowing you to believe this truth.
YOU HAVE TWO CHOICES:
BELIEVE GOD OR BELIEVE SATAN!!!
Don, thanks for the comment. However, I think you're missing the context which clarifies the all in John 6:39.
"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out."
- Jesus in John 6:37
(cf. John 6:37-40)
The way one knows he/she has been given by the Father to the Son is that he/she comes to Jesus by faith.
Gunny,
I have no illusions of making you reconsider your entrenchment in Calvinism. I was entrenched in Arminianism for the first 62 years of my life and was not looking to get unentrenched, but one day about 4 years ago, something happened which challeged my long-held beliefs. I went on a journey that involved reading thousands of pages of material, many hours of tapes, thousands of hours in the scriptures, church history, translation history, etc. I became disassociated from any denomination, for I didn't want any denominational bias to influence me. I only listened to the Bible and individuals not associated with any denomination which gave me a chance for a reformation not influenced by any existing denomination. My conclusion after these 4 years is that only universal salvation "fits" with the scriptures as a whole; with the plan of God as I see it; the nature of God as I see Him in and of Himself and as I see Him in Jesus. I am saddened by the thought of "some" as opposed to "all". I have faith in Jesus, but I have no joy in the thought that I am one of the elect and "some" are not. Don't tell me a person could enjoy heaven while knowing a loved one is being tortured forever. So God is going to make us heartless creatures to not feel the pain of our loved ones? How can "Father" be associated with a being who would do this to his creations? Pardon my ramblings, but a darkness comes over me when I even consider "some" being tortured. I leave you with one verse, "As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive". Note that it does not say "all in Christ shall be made alive", it says "in Christ all shall be made alive". We all died in Adam not of our choosing so also we will all be made alive in Christ not of our choosing.
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