Tuesday, April 27, 2010

"I'm A Modernist At 33,000 Feet"

"We're living in strange times," so began Dr. Al Mohler at the 2007 Contending For the Truth conference held by Ligonier Ministries.  Dr. Mohler, president of the The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, gave a truly masterful talk on the topic of "Postmodernism and Society." He lays out in layman's terms exactly what the postmodernist movement is and how it is impacting our culture today, and more importantly, our children.  Dr. Mohler closed with a strong exhortation to Christians, and especially Christian parents, that they should take steps to educate themselves about what is at the heart of this dangerous movement so that they might earnestly contend for the faith:
"I believe that time is short, because the reality is that (postmodernism) is affecting our children.  They're watching the movies, they're seeing the advertising, so many of them are in schools where this postmodern worldview is being basically mainlined into them, almost as if it were an I.V. going right into their bodies.  They're getting it from the culture, they're getting it from the music, they're getting it from their peers.  James Davison Hunter, now 15 years ago, wrote an amazing book in which he indicated that evangelical young people, who would now be in their early 30s, who in terms of their belief system, were radically different from their parents without their parents recognizing it.  If that was true 15 years ago, then I would suggest to you that it is far more true, and far more urgently and emphatically important than even then.  It's important that we understand postmodernism and frankly, it's important that we understand postmodernism in its uncut form, because if you don't understand the source, you can't possibly understand the fountain.  But we need to be people who with keen eyes and with an apologetics sense of mission can look at the world and say, "I know where that comes from."  And we need to be the kind of people who, in an evangelistic conversation with our neighbors, understand when they talk about morality-as-oppressive, and they start using this language....we know where this comes from.  One of the most important things we can do is show an honest postmodernist where postmodernism lands with a thud.  You can have a postmodern architect....but not a postmodern engineer.  You can have a postmodern artist...but you don't want to have a postmodern banker.  And as Richard Rorty, himself a postmodern theorist, said: "I'm a modernist at 33,000 feet."  You want a pilot who believes in absolute truth and rationality and order and predictability.  It's a great apologetics challenge to live in the time that the Lord has given us.  It's a great opportunity.  It's a great opportunity to "subvert subversion" to the glory of God. To help people see where postmodernism shapes the culture....and where postmodernism collapses upon itself.  Sometimes one of the most important ministries of the Christian is to stand amidst the debris and point to the cause of the fall and to the only hope for recovery."
This is a fantastic talk by Dr. Mohler - I was really "at attention" by the end of it.  And I'm speaking as someone who was taught postmodernism and initially embraced it.  My sister and I were both of the generation that was right on the cusp between modernism/postmodernism, but postmodern thought, by the time we were teenagers, was very prevalent.  I initially embraced it because it sounded so much more tolerant and loving for there to be a worldview that "allowed" everyone to hold whatever conflicting views they might have, with no-one holding out one particular set of beliefs as "truer" or "better" than any other.

Thankfully, God eventually opened my eyes to the fact that this idea of all-truths-as-valid necessitated the fatalistic - and futile - view that no truths were valid.  And if no truths were valid, then there could never be an ultimate and objective standard for truth on which one could firmly stand, and say with conviction, "That. That is truth."  As Christians, we know that truth is not a "what," but a "Who."  It is a person, Jesus of Nazareth, God in flesh, who entered into time and space and spoke these words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No-one comes to the Father but by me." These words uttered by Jesus cut like a sword through today's world of easygoing, tolerant, "anything goes" postmodernism.  These words are narrow and exclusive, and they demand a response: what is your response?  Do you humbly bow the knee before the Sovereign Lord of the universe, or do you turn away gnashing your teeth at the narrow-minded intolerance of it all?

Postmodernism is perhaps the most dangerous of all philosophical movements to date.  At first blush, it "sounds" good, but ultimately it is damning.  It tickles the ears, but the Bible tells us we must guard against this (2 Tim 4:3-4).  For the sake of the next generation, we must educate ourselves about this movement so that we not only warn our children about postmodernism, but also actively train them in what the thinking is, how it takes shape and how to respond to it from a Biblical worldview. And, as Al Mohler said, " 'Subvert subversion' to the glory of God."

 Additional Resources 

Chris Rosebrough's Fighting For the Faith - Audio Version of This Talk

Pastor Bob DeWaay's Excellent Book on How Postmodernism is Undefining Christianity


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

American Idol "Gives Back" - To Pro-Abortion Groups

Posted by Christine Pack


For those not already put off by American Idol's in-your-face homosexual agenda, this article might be the clincher. As noted in the article cited above, American Idol's two "Give Back" campaigns this year are Save The Children and the United Nations Foundation, both of which channel funds to pro-abortion groups (makes the "Save The Children" moniker seem a bit ironic, doesn't it?).  American Idol also recently lent its support to a campaign to raise funds for Planning Parenthood in Los Angeles, CA. 
Eu·gen·ics (yÅ«-jÄ•n'Ä­ks) - n. (used with a sing. verb) The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.
For anyone unaware of Planned Parenthood's core philosophies, Margaret Sanger, who was the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a promoter of forced eugenics, sterilization, segregation, and sexual immorality.  She has been widely quoted for years by Planned Parenthood leaders, plainly revealing her - and their - core beliefs: 
"The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."(Margaret Sanger (editor). The Woman Rebel, Volume I, Number 1. Reprinted in Woman and the New Race. New York: Brentanos Publishers, 1922.)
"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race." (Margaret Sanger. Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. Page 12.)
"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."(Margaret Sanger's December 19, 1939 letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. Original source: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, North Hampton, Massachusetts. Also described in Linda Gordon's Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.)
"Eugenic sterilization is an urgent need ... We must prevent multiplication of this bad stock."(Margaret Sanger, April 1933 Birth Control Review.)
"Eugenics is … the most adequate and thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and social problems."(Margaret Sanger. "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda." Birth Control Review, October 1921, page 5.)
"As an advocate of birth control I wish ... to point out that the unbalance between the birth rate of the 'unfit' and the 'fit,' admittedly the greatest present menace to civilization, can never be rectified by the inauguration of a cradle competition between these two classes. In this matter, the example of the inferior classes, the fertility of the feeble-minded, the mentally defective, the poverty-stricken classes, should not be held up for emulation....On the contrary, the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective."(Margaret Sanger. "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda." Birth Control Review, October 1921, page 5.)
"The campaign for birth control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical with the final aims of eugenics."(Margaret Sanger. "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda." Birth Control Review, October 1921, page 5.)
"Our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying ... demonstrates our foolhardy and extravagant sentimentalism ... [Philanthropists] encourage the healthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder the burden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others; which brings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weight of human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant ... We are paying for, and even submitting to, the dictates of an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all."(Margaret Sanger. The Pivot of Civilization, 1922. Chapter on "The Cruelty of Charity," pages 116, 122, and 189. Swarthmore College Library edition.)
"The undeniably feeble-minded should, indeed, not only be discouraged but prevented from propagating their kind."(Margaret Sanger, quoted in Charles Valenza. "Was Margaret Sanger a Racist?" Family Planning Perspectives, January-February 1985, page 44.)
"The third group [of society] are those irresponsible and reckless ones having little regard for the consequences of their acts, or whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers. Many of this group are diseased, feeble-minded, and are of the pauper element dependent upon the normal and fit members of society for their support. There is no doubt in the minds of all thinking people that the procreation of this group should be stopped."(Margaret Sanger. Speech quoted in Birth Control: What It Is, How It Works, What It Will Do. The Proceedings of the First American Birth Control Conference. Held at the Hotel Plaza, New York City, November 11-12, 1921. Published by the Birth Control Review, Gothic Press, pages 172 and 174.)
"The marriage bed is the most degenerative influence in the social order..."(Margaret Sanger (editor). The Woman Rebel, Volume I, Number 1. Reprinted in Woman and the New Race. New York: Brentanos Publishers, 1922.)
"[Our objective is] unlimited sexual gratification without the burden of unwanted children..."(Margaret Sanger (editor). The Woman Rebel, Volume I, Number 1. Reprinted in Woman and the New Race. New York: Brentanos Publishers, 1922.)
"Give dysgenic groups [people with 'bad genes'] in our population their choice of segregation or [compulsory] sterilization."(Margaret Sanger, April 1932 Birth Control Review.)
(Online source, Diane S. Dew

photo credit: BestofWDW via photo pin cc


 Additional Resources 

Abortion Shame? Karma Doesn't Cut it

The Racist Ties To Abortion

Monday, April 19, 2010

Eckhart Tolle Gives Us Just Another Rat Wheel

Posted by Christine Pack

Life is challenging.  There are bills to pay, relationships to navigate, children to raise, health issues that rear their heads, family problems to tend to, and on and on.  So what is the "prescription" for bringing peace into our difficult and challenging lives?  In a recent USA Today interview, today's premier spiritual writer, Eckhart Tolle, has a very simple prescription:

     "Stop. Drop those thoughts. Breathe. Be still. Just be."

Tolle, who rocketed to fame after his appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show, explains to us in his best-selling books, A New Earth and The Power of Now, that the ultimate path to inner peace is available to all of us, and at any time.  All we have to do is let go of all our thoughts.  But this thinking is nothing new, and even Eckhart Tolle understands that. Tolle was born Ulrich Tolle, but later in life took the name of "Eckhart" in honor of Catholic mystic Meister Eckhart, one of many mystics throughout the ages who have championed this idea of inner-peace-through-mysticism.  Tolle himself is a modern day mystic, determined to bring this message of inner peace through mystical practices to the masses.

But can this methodology bring peace?  In practical terms, what happens after a person has given himself or herself a little "mental spa treatment," à la Tolle's prescription?  They've got to come back to reality at some point.  Which means, back to the same circumstances.  Back to themselves.  Nothing's changed, and this is why this prescription for inner peace doesn't work.  A trip to the spa might temporarily lift the spirits and remove one from life's circumstances.....but in the end, it's back to same situation.  And more importantly, back to the same you. Sure, when times are tough - whether it's the economy, or a troubled marriage or whatever - a little escapism is enticing.  (Just ask a person who struggles with depression: oversleeping is a major symptom of depression, because sleep can oftentimes be used as an escape.)  But in the end, if there is no inner change in a person, how can outer change be effected?

I contend that Eckhart Tolle's prescription for inner peace, besides teaching one how to temporarily escape from life, is just another rat wheel.  All false religions and cults have a rat wheel for its adherents to get on - and "works" for them to start churning out - in an effort to have peace.  You see, innately, all humans have eternity written on their hearts.  People instinctively know that there is a sovereign Creator God to whom they are beholden.  But how to have peace with this God? That's the eternal question.  Of all the world's religions, only Christianity answers this question satisfactorily.  We have peace with our Maker only through the means provided by Him, by God.  After all, if a Hindu or a Buddhist could achieve peace through yoga and meditation and fasting; if a Muslem could achieve peace through jihad or mecca; if a Catholic could achieve peace through the sacraments or good works, then what would be the point of the Cross?  None of the practices of other religions can bring peace because all they are are man's pitiful attempts to figure out a way to have peace with God. The systems of "works" generated by western civilization may be a little more sophisticated than the system of works designed by cultures that do rain dances and sacrifice village maidens, but they're still just works. They're still just another rat wheel to get on in an attempt to assuage our consciences.

Take a look at some of the key points from Tolle's teachings (along with scriptural truth which refutes that any of these things are possible in an unregenerated state):
To find abundance, give it away. (Jesus tells us that we will have life and more abundantly - but it will only be through Him).
Take responsibility for your inner state. (The Bible tells us that the heart of man is desperately wicked and beyond repair.)
See, hear and appreciate. (Only Christ can give us eyes to see and ears that hear spiritual truth.)
In contrast to Tolle's teaching, the Cross stands as a monument to the exclusivity of Christianity - and the futility of works. Christianity is different in that Christians understand that salvation - peace with God - comes only from God, through the Cross, and not from themselves.  Peace comes from God reaching down to us, and never from us reaching up to Him.  Scripture tells us that there is no one who is righteous, and none who seek God.  Salvation is a gift from God, and comes not by works, so that no one can boast.

If all other religions could make a way for peace with God through adherence to some system of works, then the New Age mantra of "All paths lead to God" would be true.  But we know it is not.  We know that only those who have been born again through repentance from their sins and faith in Christ's sacrifice on their behalf will be given that oh-so-elusive inner peace.  A true and lasting peace, rather than a cheap kind of  temporary peace that comes from generating some kind of mystical experience.  Christianity offers the kind of peace that comes from knowing that - regardless of life's circumstances, - they have peace with their Maker.  They won't be given perfect circumstances - in fact, often just the opposite - but what they will have is a Lord who is an ever-present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1), a peace that passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7), and a transformed inner nature that will enable them to truly love and give from the heart (2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 5:22-24).  Makes a "mental spa treatment" seem kind of small by comparison, doesn't it?

Eckhart Tolle is seducing many Christians into New Age spirituality with his books which artfully blend liberal doses of Scripture with Universalist theology. If you or anyone you know have been lured into this apostasy, please realize that this is not biblical Christianity.  True Christian faith recognizes and proclaims that there is only one way to God, and it is through Christ.  And no matter how good a book may sound or "feel," if this truth is not at its core, it is false teaching.  Repent, and run back to the Savior, for He is mighty to forgive.

photo credit: Earthworm via photo pin cc

Thursday, April 1, 2010

An Open Letter To John Piper

Posted by Christine Pack

Dr. John Piper
When I heard the news that John Piper had invited Rick Warren to be his keynote speaker at the 2010 Desiring God conference, I literally laughed. I thought it had to be a joke.  It was even a couple of days before April 1, so I think I can be forgiven for thinking someone might be playing an early April Fools prank on me.  The Desiring God National Conference, where Rick Warren will be speaking, is scheduled this year for October 1-3 in Minneapolis.  This is an annual event held by John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church.  John Piper, who has also authored many books, is widely well regarded in evangelical circles as being very doctrinally solid. So, I don't think I'm overstating it to say that many of us are simply in shock at hearing this news.  The blogosphere has exploded with back and forth talk on this topic.  Tweets are furiously twittering.  In just the past few hours, my inbox has had more than 100 messages about this issue.

With a white-hot spotlight on this topic right now, I'm going to take this opportunity to publicly address Dr. John Piper at Desiring God on this issue.  So here goes....

Rick Warren
Dear Dr. Piper,

I want to express my shock and sadness over Rick Warren being invited to speak at the 2010 Desiring God conference.  As a new Christian, I trained to be in leadership with Celebrate Recovery, a Saddleback ministry.  As time passed during my training, I became more and more uncomfortable at being under the authority of Rick Warren.  While I was learning how to lead groups in going through steps that would ostensibly free them from addiction, I began to privately think to myself: "These people don't need 12 steps to get sober, they need one step - to see God as He really is, high and holy."  And these groups I attended did not lift God up high and holy. I heard nothing of the glorious gospel, of wretched sinners being under the wrath of God, without merit and without hope, but that God, being rich in mercy, intervened into this bleak and hopeless situation by sending a Savior, Jesus, who gave himself up as a sacrifice for sins, so that all who would repent and place their faith and trust in him would be set free from the curse of sin.  When I asked about this, I was told that yes, this was definitely a "weakness" of the program.  A "weakness" of the program.....proclaiming God rightly?  But you see, this is everything....

I thank God that he graciously opened my eyes to the unbiblical nature of the Celebrate Recovery program, which led me to research Rick Warren, and what the whole Purpose Driven movement was all about.  Dr. Piper, I hope you don't feel it is ungracious of me to ask you please rethink your decision to invite Rick Warren into your church. You have done so much over the years to protect the purity of the gospel message, and I hope that your eyes are beginning to be opened about the unbiblical nature of Rick Warren's teaching, which undermine the gospel in so many ways.  I hope that you will do some more research about Rick Warren, and if you do, I think you will see that the gospel Rick Warren proclaims is "another gospel." (Galatians 1:6-9)

With kindest regards,

Sola Sisters


 Additional Resources 

Pastor Bob DeWaay Visits Rick Warren, Asks Him To Preach Christ

Redefining Christianity: Understanding The Purpose Driven Movement

Redefining Christianity - 15-part Radio Program

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Who Says The "Begats" Are Boring?

Posted by Christine Pack

It has been said that all of the Old Testament is an arrow pointing to Christ.  It is a grand account, filled with instantly recognizable characters: Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah. It is an account of a chosen people, and the beginning of the unfolding of God's plan of salvation.  There are amazing miracles and epic stories of kings and nations.  There are amazing displays of God's might and power: the devastation of the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, water from rocks, a talking donkey. And yet, you can almost feel the excitement as the Old Testament comes to a close, and we find ourselves at the beginning of the New Testament.  There is a fresh wind blowing: Messiah is coming!  We open to the first page of the New Testament, the Gospel According to Matthew, and we find.....a genealogy?!  Bor - ing!!  Or is it?

Genealogies are those looong passages interspersed throughout the Bible that trace the bloodline of Jesus. They're also known as the "begats."  As in, so-and so-begat so-and-so, and he begat so-and-so, and he begat.......  The one at the beginning of Matthew, and running for several paragraphs, covers more than 2,000 years and 40 generations.  These are the passages that people joke about as being boring, even painful to read.  Can't sleep? goes the old joke, just read through a genealogy, that ought to do the trick.  And yet, one of the things that God used to save me was the genealogy lines in the Bible.  It's true. Here's how it happened.....

I grew up faithfully attending church with my family.  We loved our church and were involved in many activities: choir, Sunday school, youth group, food drives, retreats, etc., etc. But, it was a very liberal church, and by that I mean, I can't say that I ever heard a clear gospel message in all the years that we attended.  The messages would generally start out with the reading of a Bible verse, but would wind up being a blend of moralism, pop psychology, worldly wisdom and self-help, sometimes with a measure of good old-fashioned American work ethic thrown in.  But no gospel.  And the Bible was sort of viewed as the message given to us by God about how to live Godly lives, with Jesus of course as the primary example.  I remember hearing the story of Adam and Eve as a child in Sunday school, but being told, "Of course, this didn't literally happen since we know that the earth is millions of years old."  Obviously, we were told, God was speaking in metaphorical terms here.  "Adam" as a representative figure of mankind, and "Eve" as a representative figure for womankind.  But there was never a literal "Adam" and a literal "Eve."

Along with this, we were taught that Jesus didn't really perform all the miracles accredited to him by the gospel accounts.  One class in particular stands out in my mind: a teacher earnestly laboring to help us see that Jesus couldn't have possibly fed 5,000 people with just one small meal.  What really happened, he explained to us, was that Jesus brought the little boy with the five loaves of bread and two fishes before the crowd, and the people, being moved by seeing such generosity of spirit in a child, were shamed into pulling out their own secret stashes and sharing.  I'm convinced that this was how the Jesus-as-a-great-moral-example teaching became so entrenched in liberal circles. In bowing down to the false "god" of science (which put forth, among other things, that the earth was millions of years old and miracles weren't possible), liberal theologians had to find a way to make the miracles of Jesus make sense.  This was how they did it.  But, about those pesky genealogies.....

Flash forward 15 years. I have left the church long ago and wound my way circuitously through many different religions, all of which, ultimately, proved futile.  I'm an agnostic now, and back in church giving this Christianity thing a second look, though with massive amounts of skepticism.  Still, I'm attending faithfully with my husband, taking notes, listening intently.  Our pastor stands up one Sunday and says to us, "For those of you who have never read the Bible, I want to invite you to get a reading guide and start reading through it."  I mentally have a forehead smack moment.  As in, why hadn't I ever read the Bible? After all, I had read the Tao Te Ching, the Sutras and Upanishads, the sayings of Buddha, Theosophical writings, etc.  Somewhat sheepishly, I got my reading guide after the service, went to the store the next day and got a study Bible, and started reading.

When I got to one of the bloodlines, okay I admit it, my eyes did roll up in my head at the first reading.  But then I went down to the study notes, which rather matter-of-factly explained that the "begats" were given so that people would know that (1) the Bible was a real book, of real history and real people fixed in time; and was therefore (2) a bloodline that could be traced from Adam and Eve to Jesus.  My brain began to short-circuit.  All those years of allegorized, evolutionized "facts" I had been taught were clashing with this book being presented as historical fact.  I knew I could not reconcile the story of the Garden of Eden with the science I had grown up with.  Where did you squeeze in the millions of years of slow, evolutionary development? Adam and Eve were presented as two real people, the first two people, fully and completely formed. This was a big problem for me, you see, because I was thoroughly postmodern in my thinking.  My generation was probably the first full generation to be raised on the tenets of postmodernism.  Postmodern thought, in a nutshell, is this: your truth is your truth, and my truth is my truth, and even if they are different truths, they can peacefully co-exist. So that's why my brain was short-circuiting; all my postmodern thinking was being challenged by this presentation of Bible history as fact - fact which could not peacefully co-exist with the "science" of millions of years.

So one of these was true and one was not...but which one?  I began to study the bloodline, and realized that it simply wasn't possible to squeeze those millions in.  So what was I going to believe? Well, in his providence, God led me to two things:

(1) Answers in Genesis. AIG is an amazing ministry with many scientists who have gone on record categorically stating that the scientific evidence, rather than proving millions of years, instead is beginning to point more and more to a "young earth" timeline.....as in, a timeline that lines up with about the same amount of time given in the Bible. You can go here to see a very long list of scientists in agreement with the "young earth" timeline.  Bear in mind that these men and women are experts in their field, most of them in some area of specialized scientific study (archaeology, astronomy, physics, biology, chemistry, etc.).  My point is this: you simply cannot look at this long list of scientists and give the standard worldly line: "Well, you must be an uneducated idiot to believe in the young earth theory!"  You can say a lot of things when you look at this list of scientists, but you definitely can't say that.

(2) James Ussher's 'Adams' Chart of HistoryJames Ussher was a 17th century Anglican bishop who painstakingly charted out the bloodline from Adam and Eve to Jesus.  His chart features the Biblical timeline going across the top and the corresponding world history underneath it. It's so amazing to look at it, and see God's hand sovereignly guiding all of human history.  Below the scarlet thread of Jesus's bloodline, you see nations and kings rise and fall, but above it all, God's bloodline marches steadily onward toward the fulfillment of his purposes (Psalm 90).  And what are those purposes?  What exactly is the point of the bloodline? Well, the point is where it ends.  Like in the Old Testament, remember? All of it an arrow pointing to Christ?  This is also what the bloodline does, it puts the spotlight on the one single Person at the end of it:  Jesus, the Messiah.  Jesus, the Lamb of God "who takes away the sins of the world." Jesus, who came and did what no other human being could have ever done: He lived a perfect, sinless life, the life that not one of us could ever live, and he took his perfect life and offered it up as a sacrifice for many. He was crucified and buried, but on the third day after his death, he was raised, proof that his sacrifice was acceptable to God and efficacious for the cleansing of sin.  And anyone who repents and puts their trust in him will be given a new heart and new desires, raised from death to life, born again.  His ultimate reason for coming to this earth was so that He would die. And God put a great big spotlight on that with the begats so that we wouldn't miss the one life - and death - that mattered above all others.

As Americans, we tend to think that we are so mighty, the greatest nation on earth.  Well, when you look at Ussher's timeline, you realize that ALL these kingdoms once had their day in the sun, but where are they now?  Egypt was once the mightiest nation in the world, known for the architectural magnificence of their awe-inspiring pyramids, and for taming the Nile River.  Babylon, known for their acclaimed Hanging Gardens, and brilliant military campaigns led by Nebuchadnezzar.  Rome, their amazing Roman roads and contributions to education and government.  Where are they now?  Some of them are still around, but do they rule the world?  Looking at this chart is truly humbling. It brings the deeper realization of that corny old chestnut: "History is really His - Story"  All of history is "His" story, and it's all about Christ.  All of history is about him.  That's why the Bible so carefully and methodically lays out that bloodline time and time again.  The begats aren't boring - quite the opposite.  They serve the very important purpose of anchoring the Son of God in time and space, a real person, who really lived at a fixed point in history.  The begats take the Bible out of the realm of allegory, and make it something that must be contended with on its own terms.  There is no "filler" in the Bible; all of God's word is holy, inspired, valuable, important (2 Tim 3:16). Even the begats. And for some of us oddballs, especially the begats.


photo credit: Lawrence OP via photopin cc


 Additional Resources 

Answers in Genesis

Adam's Synchronological Chart of History (compiled by James Ussher) 

Scientists Who Have Examined the Data and Conclude that the Evidence Points To Young Earth

The Dark Side of Darwin (interview with Dr. Jerry Bergman)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

When The World Determines the Message of the Church


A great discussion by Pastor Bob DeWaay of Twin City Fellowship in Minnesota.  Pastor Bob DeWaay, a thorough and biblical researcher, hosts a weekly program called Critical Issues Commentary.  On this program he has covered such wide ranging topics as:
Finding God's Will 
Personal Words From God 
Binding and Loosing 
Generational Curses 
Theophostics Ministry/Healing of Memories 
The Sufficiency of Christ 
The Church Growth Movement 
The Seeker Sensitive Movement 
The Blood Atonement 
Pietism 
Sanctification 
Divination, Mysticism & Spiritual Formation 
Emergent Church 
False Spiritual Warfare Teachings 
Free Will 
Apostles & Prophets 
Biblical Judging 
Means of Grace 
Hebrews 
This particular program is entitled When The World Determines the Message of the Church.  It is a strong counter-point to the present day conventional wisdom that, as the culture changes, the church needs to change with it and adapt its message to whatever culture it finds itself in.  This is unbiblical thinking and Bob DeWaay explains why.  We have a God who transcends cultures.  Whatever culture, whatever time or place we find ourselves in, fallen man must conform himself to God, not seek to conform God to the culture of the day.