Category: Theology Page 25 of 67

What is Reformed Theology? An Overview

On April 16, 2009

The below quote is taken from Monergism.com‘s section entitled An Overview of Reformed Theology.

“Reformed theology…

presupposes God’s Word alone as our ultimate authority.
stresses the sovereignty of God, that is, His reign over all things, meticulously determining (Eph 1:11) all that comes to pass (i.e. God is never taken by surprise).
ephasizes a Christ-Centered proclamation of the gospel, that salvation is wholly of God, by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as revealed in the Scripture alone to the Glory of God alone.
views the Bible as a redemptive-historical organic unfolding of revelation which is structured by three covenants (redemption, works and grace).

It goes without saying that those in the Reformed Tradition hold to the doctrines of grace (the five points of Calvinism), man’s helpless condition apart from Christ, the necessity of evangelism and the work of the Holy Spirit who (monergistically) quickens the dead to life through the preaching of the word as God turning their heart of stone to flesh, and opening their eyes to the excellencies of the gospel (uniting them to Christ). In other words, RT stresses the way the objective, written Word together with the inner, supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit work together. For the Word without the illumination of the Holy Spirit remains a closed book. We (the church) cast forth the seed of the gospel and the Holy Spirit germinates it, so to speak, with the blood of Christ bringing forth life in people from every nation, tribe, language, and people (Rev 14:6). RT traces its historical and theological lineage back to the theology of Christ, Paul, Augustine and to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century.”

A few links with summed up statements concerning Reformed Theology:

A Brief and Untechnical Statement of the Reformed Faith – B.B. Warfield
Reformation Essentials – Michael Horton

Colbert Takes Ehrman to Task

By David Westerfield

On April 13, 2009

In Apologetics, Funny, Theology, Video

Just a warning: being the equal opportunity offender he is, there are a couple of parts in these videos where it sounds like Colbert is mocking the claims of inerrancy and in addition makes some off-the-wall comments (it is Colbert after all). But nevertheless, he surprisingly makes some good (hilariously glaring) points and even pushes Ehrman a bit on his claims. Seems like maybe Ehrman is getting frustrated in portions of the videos? Not positive on that, but you’ll just have to watch and see for yourself.

Colbert “vs.” Ehrman (2006)

A Position Based Purely on Emotions

By David Westerfield

On April 12, 2009

In Apologetics, Culture, Theology

Quoting anonymously from the The Shack Facebook group, discussing my post found here, someone said in response to the person who posted my article as a discussion point: “____, I read a portion of your link and after about 7 paragraphs of beating around the bush and Paul-bashing, I quit. Why? Because I loved the book and I’m not going to let anybody’s negative comments ruin my experience in reading it. Why don’t you just stop busting our chops and give up? Most people love it; some don’t. We agree to disagree. End of debate.”

Ahh, pure intellectual integrity. Haha, Paul bashing? (Paul Young of course) Right. You decide. Instead of working through the difficulty of beliefs (or rather denials) that can lead people to hell when accepted, it seems some are content to just shut you out of the conversation altogether instead of seriously and honestly engaging any kind of debate because of what the book has done for them, at least emotionally speaking. Since when did the individual become the standard-bearer and authority on what’s truth or not? They just don’t want to talk about any criticism of it, even if it’s a legitimately serious issue concerned with none other than the very Gospel itself by which one is saved.

The American Dream Versus The Gospel

By David Westerfield

On April 12, 2009

In Culture, Theology

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” ¹⁴But [Jesus] said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” ¹⁶And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, ¹⁷and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ ¹⁸And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ²⁰But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ²¹So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” – Luke 12:13-21

There is a gospel that is proclaimed loudly everyday from the rooftops of this country, a gospel that is antithetical to the Gospel of Christianity. For years this competing gospel has been spoken as one in the same with the message of Christianity, particularly by many conservative Christians. Yet Jesus’s parable above makes it abundantly clear this is not the same message. The American Dream (or what could rightly be called the Gospel of Human Autonomy) is now touted as a fundamental human right from most within this country, conservative and liberal alike, and even from many of those within the evangelical movement. In fact, legislation has been instituted by many of our legislators to help those who have not yet fulfilled this dream (gospel) attain it by granting them government support and tax-payer funded benefits to get them on their way to this ultimate end. At the heart of our culture, we believe we are fundamentally entitled to this dream, as if it is the ultimate goal of human existence. But nothing can be farther from the truth.

Atheists Advertise in North Texas

By David Westerfield

On March 30, 2009

In Culture, Theology, Video

Let the marketing wars begin? Hopefully not. I’m nervous about what Christian org’s will put up in response, as a sort of unintended deterrent from the Gospel.

The Unviewed Viewer

By David Westerfield

On March 24, 2009

In Personal, Theology

Or so he thought.

Last night I had one of the more terrifying experiences in my life. It was about 10:15 pm and my wife went into our master bathroom. I was at the desk in our bedroom (connected to the bathroom) reading on my computer. As she went in she looked over to the textured, translucent window in the bathroom thinking she saw something move and noticed someone looking in, or attempting to at least. She yelled out one of those volume-controlled, startled, terrified yells, and said, “There’s a man in the window!” but didn’t say it loud enough that he heard her, because he stuck around.

It had not quite registered in my mind what she yelled initially. I just thought it was a bug, maybe a scorpion or tarantula or something a little worse than the normal roach, but not some guy in the window. Sitting at the desk, with my back turned away from the window, I quickly turned around and saw the guy. Because the glass is textured you can’t see people clearly looking from the outside-in, but you can see colors, shapes, etc. So he really couldn’t see a lot. But the closer to the window you are, the better you can see people. And so we clearly saw him standing there trying to do some peepin’.

Calvin on the Resurrection of Christ

By David Westerfield

On March 21, 2009

In Church History, Theology

Next follows the resurrection from the dead, without which all that has hitherto been said would be defective. For seeing that in the cross, death, and burial of Christ, nothing but weakness appears, faith must go beyond all these, in order that it may be provided with full strength. Hence, although in his death we have an effectual completion of salvation, because by it we are reconciled to God, satisfaction is given to his justice, the curse is removed, and the penalty paid; still it is not by his death, but by his resurrection, that we are said to be begotten again to a living hope, (1 Pet. 1: 3;) because, as he, by rising again, became victorious over death, so the victory of our faith consists only in his resurrection.

The nature of it is better expressed in the words of Paul, “Who (Christ) was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification,” (Rom. 4: 25;) as if he had said, By his death sin was taken away, by his resurrection righteousness was renewed and restored. For how could he by dying have freed us from death, if he had yielded to its power? how could he have obtained the victory for us, if he had fallen in the contest?

Sin is Divine Treason – It is Indeed a Fearful Thing

By David Westerfield

On March 20, 2009

In Scripture, Theology

“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” – Hebrews 10:26-31

“Sin is divine treason.” – Thabiti Anyabwile, from the Ligonier Conference, speaking on the divine treason of sin in light of God’s holiness. How often do we really see sin as it is? I confess that I just don’t many times because well, I’m a great sinner and am still blinded to a great amount of my own wickedness. We certainly don’t talk about sin like this nowadays, even in church where we should be. Sin is treason, divine treason. Think about the seriousness of treason at the political level. You can be thrown into prison for life or worse, executed for committing this crime, because you, being a citizen of this country, are betraying her through your actions. Yet how much worse is divine treason against a holy, eternal God! And this is every sin! God has every right to punish all of us to hell for eternity. He would be right and just to do so. And yet in great mercy, Christ condescended of His own free will and choice in order that we would be rescued, not because we were worth it or even wanted it or even saw our need for it, but because He is Amazing.

The Holiness of God

By David Westerfield

On March 19, 2009

In Theology

Having come to the close of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) in my Scripture reading, the holiness of God has been made clear. I don’t see how you could miss it. When postmoderns in our day reject the “nonsense” of the laws and sacrifices contained within these five books, I can’t help but think that their underlying rejection is the holiness of God Himself who set these out as definitively appropriate. What we call absurd laws and statutes in our intellectually “sophisticated” society, God plainly and clearly set forth as right and true. If we reject and rebel against what He instituted, is it not Him we are rejecting ultimately, the Giver of those laws and statutes?

As I have been reading these passages this time, I have been struck by God’s absolute otherness, separateness from us. Surely He has condescended and made Himself known to us in Christ. But this in no way negates His transcendence. These five books make this abundantly clear. In order for God to be favorable toward us, a sacrifice had to take place over and over again that covered or took the place of us in punishment, pointing to the final sacrifice of Christ upon the cross for our sins who bore our punishment once and for all. When we anthropomorphize God and make Him like us (apart from how He has revealed Himself and condescened to us in Christ), we do a great disservice to the clear proclamation of His holiness in Scripture.

It is this very holiness which caused many of those holy saints in the Old Testament to fall on their faces in terror at His presence. And to think how glibly we approach Him in our worship many times. The God of the New Testament is the God of the Old Testament. We must always keep that in mind when we read through any passage of the time during and after Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

The Shack is a Fictional Portrayal of God?

By David Westerfield

On March 17, 2009

In Apologetics, Christian Culture, Culture, Theology

I want to quote people anonymously from The Shack Facebook group and add some commentary to each to show that this book is not viewed as a mere work of fiction. I believe these quotes are very instructive as to what the book is actually doing in culture and how it is indeed changing people’s understanding of who God is and how He relates to us. It seems many people’s understanding is actually changing based on Young’s understanding and portrayal of God.

Emotional responses aside to the story itself (not critiquing that at all), if it is an unbiblical portrayal of God and His work to save us in Christ, is that really and truly a good thing? Is that true spiritual progress in terms the Bible prescribes? If people become more religious and emotionally struck as a result, is that necessarily conversion by the Gospel work of Christ, or is it merely becoming religious and “dead in trespasses and sins?” I’m not talking in any way about the story’s plot line being good or not and loving the story in itself and/or identifying with it to some degree. I’m asking, is an unbiblical picture of God a positive thing? What do you think?