the gate

remember the song “the wind cries mary”?  it’s been running through my head this morning.  it reminds me of luke 19 where Jesus rebukes the pharisees for wanting the disciples to stop worshipping Him.  He tells them that if they stop, the the rocks will cry out.

i wonder if Jesus was just making a point, or if the disciples were stoned that day in the streets the rocks would have grown mouths and started singing their favorite chris tomlin jam.  perhaps Jesus meant the miraculous, but most likely Jesus seems to be saying that the pharisees cannot stop Him from being worshipped.  quiet the disciples and the cries of nature will still be deafening.

i had a conversation recently with one of my coworkers regarding faith and science.  she is not a believer, and in fact has said (although not very often) some VERY offensive and heretical things about God to me.  whenever she says those things, i remember Jesus on the cross saying “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing”.  anyways, she was a science major of sorts in college.  i was an engineering major myself and spent lots of time in science classes as the loner Christian.  i know how slanted most scientists can be.  they think anything that they can’t grow in a dish or reproduce themselves cannot be.  during my conversation with my friend, i told her that one of my favorite classes in college was physics.  at the end of that class, my faith had grown much stronger.  i told her that examining how science worked, the predictability and order in even the smallest components of our existence proves to me that behind it all is a mastermind, an incomparable imagination that has always existed that has the power and authority to bring those ideas to fruition.  to me, the rocks were already crying out. so was the theory of gravity, so were the laws of energy and fluid mechanics.

sonia is currently reading “the language of God“, written by a former atheist turned follower of Jesus, the head of the Human Genome Project.  it is partly his story of belief, but also a defense of a creator through the eyes of science.  as soon as she’s done, i’m going to read it too.  there are others too that are studying, writing and speaking about the elements of science that point to an intelligent creator.  we should be listening.

many christians, perhaps even some of you who read this blog, are afraid of science.  please don’t be.  it was our Master that designed the properties that govern our universe.  it was designed, created and is sustained by that same God.

sorry jimi, the wind doesn’t cry mary, it cries “Yahweh”.

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Grace is ‘the free and unmerited favour of God’. It is Paul’s word to describe the loving, undeserved initiative of God in giving Christ to die, raising him from the dead and revealing him to sinners. His whole message became ‘the word of his grace’ (Acts 14:3) and ‘the good news of the grace of God’ (Acts 20:24). ‘The grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men’ (Tit. 2:11). It is supremely manifested in the provision and offer of salvation. By ’salvation’ Paul is using a word with the broadest possible concept. It includes the past, the present and the future. It describes God’s liberation of man from all the ravages of sin in the conscience, the mind, the heart, the will and the body; in his relation to God, the world and himself. To use Paul’s own words, it comprises the believer’s justification (his acceptance before God), sanctification (his growth in holiness), edification (his life in the church) and glorification (his perfection in the eternal glory). Or more simply, it makes him a son and a saint, a brother and an heir. Such is the grace of Christ received by faith. The only function of faith is to respond to grace. Faith takes what grace offers.

—from John Stott, Men with a Message, (London: Longmans, 1954), p. 57. (via: Langham Partnership International - September 27, 2008)

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Pelagius was deeply disturbed by the lack of spiritual devotion and “holiness” of Christians in Rome, which he blamed on the doctrine of divine grace as expressed in Augustine’s Confessions. Pelagius said this teaching removed all motivation to follow moral law. He denied original sin and instead attributed the existence of sin to the bad example set by Adam. He taught that Christ “saves” us by setting a good example, in contrast to Adam. Pelagius insisted that humans have a good moral nature and that salvation can be achieved by choosing to live a life of self-discipline and self-denial (i.e., asceticism). In his Commentary on Romans, Pelagius taught that grace is God’s revelation in the Old and New Testaments, which enlightens us and encourages our holiness by providing explicit instruction in godliness and many worthy examples to imitate.

So according to Pelagius, holiness is achieved by the exercise of our will. Our holiness does not result from the substitutionary work of Christ, nor is it based on the imputed righteousness of Christ. When you boil it down to one short phrase, Pelagianism is human-centered religion.

Beyond the ideas about how we become a Christian (God waits for us to choose him; God has come most of the way to us, but we must close the remaining gap; etc.), Pelagius’ thinking infects and pollutes our beliefs about how we live the Christian life day to day.

Anything that contradicts or undermines God’s pure grace can wear the label Pelagian. Here are some common manifestations:

•The belief that we deserve — or can earn — God’s blessings. This one plays itself out in so many ways I can’t list them all. The more good things I do, or the more I obey God, the better shot I have of getting my prayers answered. If I become a better person, God will bless me more. If I have more faith, God will bless me more. Life is better for me because I’m a better person than you. This disease, tragedy, bad day, etc. is God’s punishment for my disobedience (we often turn this one on other people — “this is happening to you because you deserve it”). The list goes on and on, but the bottom line is that we believe God relates to us as Christians on the basis of our own righteousness, rather than the righteousness of Christ.

•Believing that rules are the proper motivation for morality. Emphasizing rules, multiplying rules, adding rules not contained in the Bible, ranking rules, etc., etc., are examples of this humanistic mindset. The thinking is that the more rules we keep, the more holy we are. Thus holiness is not Christ-based, but self-based.

•Being sin-focused rather than Savior-focused. I’m not saying sin doesn’t matter, but we can fairly easily identify what our primary focus is. Perhaps we focus more on our own sin; perhaps we focus more on others’ sins. Either way, we don’t live in the celebration of what Christ has done. Martin Luther’s testimony is that he lived focused on his sin and haunted by guilt until he saw the truth of Romans 1:17, that righteousness is a gift from God that is received through faith.  It was then that he came to experience the joy of Christ.

•Believing that the old covenant must be kept (followed) by Christians. OK, now that I think about it, all of these bullet-points play themselves out in so many ways I can’t begin to list them all. Ever heard a Christian say that if America will just humble herself, pray and seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways, God will hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land (2 Chronicles 7:14)? Ummm, I’ve got news for you — America isn’t Israel. That command and promise was made to ancient Israel, and was part of the old covenant. That command and promise does not apply universally to all nations (and not specifically to America), and is not part of the new covenant. The old covenant has been declared obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). Therefore, we should not assume that we should follow (reinstate) bits and pieces of the old covenant (think contract) when the entire covenant has been declared obsolete. We are no longer bound by it, and to put ourselves under it is to step down, not up. The conditional commands and promises of the old covenant have been replaced by the terms of the new covenant, which we are told in 2 Corinthians 3:6ff gives life, in contrast to the old that kills. So reverting to the conditional commands and promises given specifically to Israel under the old covenant is not the Christ way, or the Christian life. (Morals and ethics still matter, but the old covenant has been superseded by the new.) Pelagius taught that the Law of Moses is equal to the gospel of Christ, and we should pursue righteousness by means of the law.  Too many professing Christians believe the same thing — or some variation of it.

•Believing in performance-based acceptance by God. Perhaps this should be assumed by one of the previous points, but I want to make sure you see this. Many Christians believe God’s acceptance of them fluctuates. But God’s acceptance of us, and his love for us, does not fluctuate. He doesn’t accept or love us any less when we are “bad,” and he doesn’t accept or love us any more when we are “good.” As Christians, God’s relationship to us is based solely on what Christ has done. God loved us before we turned to Christ (Romans 5:8), and now he accepts us through Christ (Rom. 14:3; Rom. 15:7).

Here’s what the Bible teaches — our salvation, from start to finish, from its initiation to its completion, is all of grace. Through (and because of) Christ, God gives us what we cannot earn and do not deserve.

You say, “But I believe in Jesus.” But ask yourself if you’re trying to add Jesus to Pelagianism? That won’t work any more than my visiting a tanning salon will change my ethnicity. I’ll be back with more next week, Lord willing.

From this series: part 1 and part 2

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- A little addendum for those who like to be nit-picky -
For you hairsplitters that might wander in here, I’m using the Pelagian label a bit loosely in an attempt to simplify and shorten what could be a never ending black-hole of discussion. Thankfully God protected me from a few of those black-holes that exist in Cyberland. There are people trying to sort out all the distinctions between Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, Semi-semi-Pelagianism (B.B. Warfield and others have used this term), and Semi-Augustinianism (a term used by the esteemed historian Philip Schaff and others). I’m going to leave the endless hairsplitting for others. If you’re interested in engaging in such discussions, you can easily find them, but we’re not interested in that here.

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last night, pramin talked a bit about something that he and jennifer saw at the beach, a gathering of people that had brought drums and white outfits to celebrate the ocean.  they were chanting to the ocean and dancing and praising it as if it was worthy of praise, more worthy than its creator.  it reminded me about a post that i had read on mark driscoll’s blog about meditation.  i hope you see the mental arc that happened in my mind to get from white linen clad Angelinos to meditation…  :)

meditation is often misunderstood, as it is lumped in with the meditation that is taught by other religions and philosphies.  meditation, as taught by the Scriptures, is not the same thing.  in some ways, it is in fact the opposite. 

mark wrote a cool little intro to meditation here, i suggest that you take a look at it.  I will be writing more about meditation soon…

meditation - part 1
meditation - part 2

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“The worst thing that can happen to the Church is what is happening to the Church now in the West, namely that the Church is deliberately conforming to the world . . . . The modern world politicizes everything and imposes the political categories of Right and Left on everything . . . . And the Church is following the tune of this pied piper.” (Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You, chp. 10.) [via]

“No matter who becomes President, it won’t change my assignment. I’m called to be a Christian, not a Republican or a Democrat . . . . When folks — voters and candidates — go apocalyptic on what will happen if their opponent wins I reflect on the 11 elections I’ve been through (consciously). The apocalyptists have always sprinkled their language with doom and gloom and they’ve never been right. If you compare the differences between Democrats and Republicans to what some other countries in the world have, there’s not that much difference. The differences are not apocalyptic.” (Scot McKnight, Jesus Creed)

Does voting matter? Yes it does, and you should vote. But voting is of minor importance when compared to praying and proclaiming the gospel. Major on the majors, not the minors. America is not in the shape we are in because Christians are not voting. America is in the shape we are in because Christians are not praying and proclaiming the gospel as we should.

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In my first post on Pelagianism (here), I made the statement that most people in America today who call themselves Christians are Pelagian or semi-Pelagian. No one responded to that statement. So, let me be a little more precise regarding what I mean. There are relatively few adherents of actual Pelagianism today. Many more, however, can be genuinely classified as semi-Pelagian. Truly, truly, I say unto you, most professing Christians in America are influenced by Pelagian ideas. Please don’t view this as theological gibberish — it really is a matter of eternal life and eternal death.

You may be asking, “How can I be a Pelagian or semi-Pelagian if I’ve never even heard of Pelagianism or Pelagius?”

Well, as Dr. Roger Nicole says, “The sin-stained human heart is naturally Pelagian, and thus there is a natural slippage toward a man-centered direction that must be continually resisted.” (source) In others words, we are born Pelagian, and only Jesus can deliver us from Pelagian thinking. Furthermore, our tendency, once we are delivered, is to revert back to Pelagian thinking and living.

In my first post I said that Pelagians and semi-Pelagians will spend eternity in hell. Can I or anyone else say that a particular individual is headed to hell because he or she espouses Pelagian or semi-Pelagian beliefs? No, I cannot; nor can anyone else. To paraphrase John Piper, sometimes the heart gets right what the head botches up. That is to say, sometimes an individual might make statements that express semi-Pelagianism, but his or her heart is wholly trusting in the grace of Christ. So none of us can know the eternal future of any particular individual based on semi-Pelagian statements s/he might make. But as 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, we must all examine ourselves to make sure we are in the faith. Woe to the one who says, “There’s no way Jesus was talking about me in Matthew 7:21-23.” Many people have a false assurance of their salvation. If a person is trusting in anything other than Christ alone for his or her salvation, he or she is not saved. If a person is resting in anything other than grace alone for his or her salvation, he or she is not saved.

To think that we can, should, or must contribute anything to our salvation (not only before we become a Christian, but also as a Christian) by our own morality or religious/spiritual activity, is to disbelieve the gospel of grace, and to fall from grace, in the words of Galatians 5:4.

In my next post on Pelagianism, I’ll get into some of the ways Pelagius’ ideas are manifested today in the lives of professing Christians. For now, here’s a brief statement about Pelagius and Pelagianism.

Pelagius was a monk who lived in Britain in the fifth century. He was condemned as a heretic by the Council of Carthage (418 AD), the Council of Ephesus (431 AD), the Council of Orange (529 AD), and again at the Council of Florence (1438–1445 AD). Pelagius denied original sin (i.e., he said Adam’s sinfulness is not passed on to all humans) and affirmed the ability of human beings to be righteous by the exercise of their will. It is this belief that we can be righteous by the exercise of our will that is so common today.

I leave you with this thought: Understand the root, and you’ll recognize the fruit.

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If you are not aware of the situation in India right now, I would like to make sure you know some of what is going on, and ask you to pray.

The Evangelical Alliance Prayer Bulletin gives this information:

Hindu Anti-Christian Pogrom Spreads In India
The violent Hindu anti-Christian pogrom that flared up on 23 August in Kandhamal district in the north-east Indian state of Orissa continues to rage. It now engulfs nine districts, indicating a high level of VHP (Hindu World Council) orchestration. More than 50 Christians have been killed and multitudes have been raped, bashed, burned and slashed. Some 50,000 Christians are displaced. Even the relief camps are being attacked but, praise God, two attempts to poison their water supplies have been thwarted. Furthermore, anti- Christian violence is now erupting in other states. Churches have been torched in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka whilst nuns from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity were violently assaulted in Chhattisgarh. The central government appears paralysed. Please pray for God’s intervention.

Click the link above (or here) to get more info and specific prayer points. See the bulletins issued on Sep 3, 12, & 18. The bulletin dated Aug 6 tells of more Hindu terrorism.

I also encourage you to read Pastor Rick Thompson’s blog. He quotes from a letter he received from Global Action, a ministry that we support (see our Links/Partnerships section in the side column).

Check out these articles: Five Blasts Put Delhi on High Alert and New Delhi Bomb Blasts Kill At Least 18

“Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” - Hebrews 13:3

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No, I’m not talking about the magazine, but I might be talking about you. In America today, most people who call themselves Christian are semi-Pelagian. And just so you know how important this is, Pelagians (and semi-Pelagians) will spend eternity in hell, separated from God. (Do I have your attention yet?)

There are many manifestations of Pelagianism today. For example, George Barna found that 68% of professing born-again Christians believe that God helps those who help themselves. He also reported that 31% of professing born-again Christians believe that good people can earn their way into heaven. Pelagianism comes through in “Christians’” beliefs about human government, self-centered religion, self-help religion, and life in general. Pelagianism is pervasive. The whole American ideal of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps has bled into our “Christianity”.

Full-blown Pelagianism asserts that every person is born in the state that Adam and Eve were created — we are not born sinful, but simply free to choose right or wrong. (The Bible says repeatedly that we are born sinful.) Semi-Pelagianism says that we are born sinful, but we have a little island of goodness in our sea of sinfulness. And, as R.C. Sproul says, “it’s that little island of righteousness where man still has the ability, in and of himself, to turn, to change, to incline, to dispose, to embrace the offer of grace that reveals why historically semi-Pelagianism is not called semi-Augustinianism, but semi-Pelagianism.”

Centuries ago, Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism were rejected by the Church as untrue, yet semi-Pelagianism is regarded as good, solid Evangelicalism today — and not only Christianity that wears the label of Evangelicalism; virtually any version of Protestant or Catholic “Christianity” in America today is influenced by Pelagian ideas.

When Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven . . . And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you . . .,’” he is speaking to many professing American Christians — even pastors.

Stay tuned, there’s more to come.

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i have been hearing good things about this talk so i looked it up.  definitely worth watching…very cool.

how great is our god - part 1

how great is our god - part 2

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I will never forget the day that my Savior came to me. That day was January first 1992 at 12:05am. I could not help but to bow to my King. I couldn’t resist His grace that drew me by the Spirit to the Father. What a day. The guilt was gone. The shame had vanished, and I was born again. My life was transformed. I think about that day often. This is what Spurgeon says about his conversion;

“My soul can never forget that day. Dying, all but dead, diseased, pained, chained, scourged, bound in fetters of iron, in darkness and the shadow of death, Jesus appeared to me. My eyes looked to Him. The disease was healed, the pains removed, chains were snapped, prison doors were opened, and darkness gave place to light. What delight filled my soul! What mirth, what ecstasy, what sound of music and dancing, what soarings toward heaven, what heights and depths of indescribable delight! Ever since then, I have hardly ever known joys that surpassed the rapture of that first hour.” My Conversion (Pg. 9)

For me that hour, I saw the night sky like never before. The stars never shined brighter. The leaves never looked greener to me. Nature was worshiping the Creator and it was as if I could hear it. That night was life changing. I know that God is bringing me from glory to glory, but I am grateful for that night filled with rapture divine.

When I recall that night, it brings me back to my first love with my Lord. Joy fills my heart and tears fill my eyes. Thank you Jesus for saving this wretched sinner like me.

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