David Westerfield

Together for the Gospel – Day One

On April 15, 2008

We arrived today at 10:35 am EST in Louisville. Went to the hotel, got checked-in, then went to lunch at a sports grill right by the convention center. After that, we perused the book store they had setup (which is quite gigantic, a lot larger than I thought it would be).

In the first session at 2:30 pm, Ligon Duncan spoke on the necessity and inherent inability to avoid the integrating of both systematic and biblical theology into your teaching. As R.C. Sproul has said, and Ligon reemphasized in his sermon, the question is not whether you do or don’t do theology. Everyone does theology. The question is are you doing (and therefore teaching) good theology, or bad theology? Part of this was preaching to the choir in the convention, but still something that needs to be reiterated for sure in a day when people are so ready and willing to abandon any doctrinal or systematic proposition or theological statement. It was one of those “Amen!” sermons that I am so excited I was able to hear in person instead of merely over an mp3. So I’m in no way minimizing the importance of what was said, I just want to move on to what struck me the most today…

In the second session, Thabiti Anyabwile, a speaker who I have not had the opportunity/privilege of listening to until today, gave a really great sermon on the necessity of the church (in particular, though not exclusively) to abandon the idea of biological race as a way of distinguishing people of different ethnic backgrounds. I say not exclusively the church because this needs to be applied within the world in general. However, as it relates to the church, though in the sciences racial biology has been abandoned to a large degree, much of the culture still thinks in these terms. And unfortunately, to a large degree, this thinking has infiltrated the church. We need to be the first ones to reverse it and show the world how the Gospel comes into people from all kinds of different languages, skin colors, nations, backgrounds and unites all of us at such a fundamental, deep spiritual level, that all of the other aforementioned things are secondary in nature.

The Gospel itself is the ultimate diversity-uniter ever devised (by God). When we walk into a room as believers, our automatic default is to gravitate toward people who are like us because, as Thabiti said, we think in (rather fast) terms of “Look, someone like me, therefore safe, therefore I will find joy there,” when the Gospel itself calls us to look deeper into the bonds we have with other believers of different ethnic diversities and cultural backgrounds (in particular) and say instead, “A son of Adam, like me; a person created in the image of God, like me; a sinner, like me; a person ransomed by the blood of Christ, like me; therefore I can find solidarity in Christ; therefore there is safety, therefore there is joy being united to the Savior!” (Paraphrase) Some very awesome, profound things were said.

Then the question was raised afterward during the panel discussion by C.J. Mahaney and Mark Dever, how do we practically go about fundamentally changing the way we think so that we can do this very thing? And I thought Thabiti answered honestly: it’s simply going to take consistency and time and training ourselves to think and act in this manner (my paraphrase). In a nutshell: it’s going to be a long process to reverse ingrained cultural divisions that exist within the church. In addition it is going to take time to change other people’s wrong understanding of racial biology they have been taught.

If you want a more in-depth analysis and real-time blogging of what is going on at the conference, visit Tim Challies site @ www.challies.com .

More to come …

Together for the Gospel Conference

By David Westerfield

On April 14, 2008

In Events, Personal, Philosophy of Ministry, Theology

Well I’m off to the T4G conference tomorrow. I may try and post a few points I find interesting at the conference, but there is apparently no wi-fi at the convention center in downtown Louisville, KY so updates maybe few and far between. In other words, I may wind up posting at night. So I won’t be doing any live-blogging. It should be an amazing conference about centering your ministry upon the Gospel. Check out the site @ http://www.t4g.org/ . There are mp3’s for free from the conference two years ago if you care to listen.

I’m Not the Only One Apparently – Gmail’s Growing Spam Problem

By David Westerfield

On April 11, 2008

In Security, Technology

A while back I wrote this post pertaining to what appeared to be spammers utilizing Gmail servers to send spam to my account. I didn’t know if it was just me or if others were experiencing it as well. It’s not just me apparently. This article on The Register in the UK shows that this is quite a growing problem for all mailing systems, that is now causing many mail services to start throttling Gmail (as well as Yahoo) emails that come in. This is bad news because Gmail was supposed to be one of the more secure mailing systems. In addition, it presents a big problem for services like Spamhaus because spam emails being sent through Gmail SMTP servers are not blacklisted. Therefore a spammer can send email from foreign IP address blocks that may be banned in the Spamhaus database, but because the email is actually being sent via Gmail servers, it is not blacklisted. So mail services have started enforcing throttling to limit the number of email that are sent from Gmail. This just shows that no matter how much security you put in place (even complex CAPTCHA techniques), there is always a way around systems, always. And at some point, someone will find the holes. It’s just a matter of time. The trick is staying ahead and always keeping people guessing.

The Fear of the LORD is Hatred of Evil

By David Westerfield

On April 8, 2008

In Christian Culture, Theology

“The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” – Proverbs 8:13

Within the church many times, we consider “gross” sins to be homosexuality, excessive drinking, fornication, adultery, thievery, murder, cursing, etc. And while those are in no way minimized in the Scriptures as sins that are destructive both personally and relationally (and above all in relation to God Himself), the passage above speaks just as strongly against those who are prideful and arrogant within themselves. In fact, as the passage says, wisdom hates pride, arrogance, the way of evil, and perverted speech, all of those together. Seeing as how the Scriptures are the Word of God breathed out, these are His thoughts. The LORD hates pride and arrogance with a just and righteous passion.

While even unbelievers should be humbled by the fact that God doesn’t bring His hand down to crush them at this instant, how much more humbled should we be who claim to have been shown mercy at the hand of God through Christ? And yet so often, this is not the case. We so quickly turn our judgment to the outside world and what they’re doing wrong, when we need to be turning the cutting standard of the Word inwardly and analyze ourselves, measuring ourselves against it, and not our own ideals of what is morally better and worse. What about our pride and arrogance against those very people who need Jesus and are running from Him in defiance? Is this pride we possess not just as wicked in the eyes of the Lord as the evil committed outside the church? What about our hatred of those who run wholeheartedly away from the Lord? Shouldn’t you have been the one that ran away from God? What made you humble and willing to believe in Christ, yourself or the grace of God alone?

I’m in no way saying I am exempt from having committed these sins myself and speak to myself just as much as anyone reading this. I’m a sinner and have fallen in so many ways. But regardless, it seems to be a spirit within many churches where others, those outside the church, are looked down upon as greater sinners who do not hold to our own personal moral standards, when in reality, we are murderers in our hearts just like those in prison who have committed the outward act. When we hate or look down upon people for their sins, the Lord sees our hearts much like He sees Jeffrey Dahmer’s. Meditate on that for a minute in light of Romans 3:9-18. We are commanded to be pursuing holiness through faith in Christ, and yet it seems we have forgotten the fundamentals of how we were saved.

So how do we come to hate what is evil, namely pride and arrogance within our own hearts? The answer is in the verse above. “The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil.” What does it mean to fear the Lord? “I thought we weren’t supposed to fear Him at all because of Christ?” There is one sense in which that is true. Those in Christ have been ultimately accepted for eternity. There is no fear of condemnation for those who believe. And yet at the same time, even as believers, we are called by Scripture to fear the Lord. This fear is humility. Andrew Murray talks about three separate ways in which we should be humbled as believers: 1) as a creature, 2) as a sinner, and 3) as a saint.

As a creature: There is great amount of humility we should have in being a creature subject to the King of glory. He created us without our permission, for His own glory and purposes, and He has freedom over us that we do not have over Him. This is abundantly clear in Scripture. He is the Creator, we are the creatures.

As a sinner: We should also be greatly humbled that as sinners, we have slapped God in the face and told Him, “No, you do not have control over me, in any sense. I control myself and my own destiny,” and yet He is extremely patient toward our evil toward Him. It is God’s sheer grace toward both believers and unbelievers that He doesn’t stomp us out right now for the vile that comes out of our hearts through our mouths, hands, and feet. We have offended an infinitely holy God and therefore the wrath justly due to us is infinite and eternal. This is greatly humbling and strikes right at the heart of human pride, and is one of the biggest reasons people cannot accept it. They are hardened to this message because they do not want to hear it.

As a saint: Having been rightly humbled by our willful disobedience against the King of Glory, how humbled should we be to see that this holy God who owes us nothing but wrath made a way for us to be accepted through taking that wrath Himself on our behalf at the cross? We should be greatly humbled and possess an honest fear at the greatness of the frightening power and unfathomable depths of the love of God. As a saint we are humbled to not be objects of wrath, but now, because of Christ’s perfect work, we are objects of mercy. Did He have to save you? No. Why did you believe while another person in a similar position that heard the same Gospel message did not heed the call? Why did you willingly say yes to Christ? Was it not the grace of God who Himself made you willing? Ultimately, this is humbling and should move us to love the things Christ loves and hate the things He hates more and more. “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.” All kinds of evil, including our own self-righteous pride and arrogance.

We must constantly reorient ourselves with our humble position as creatures, sinners, and as God’s adopted people through the work of Christ. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 1:7) And at the same time, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” These are both different forms of humility, one in which we despise ourselves for our rebellion and yet know that we are accepted. Reorienting ourselves with the Gospel daily should bring about a correct response of both acceptance and fear of God’s might and power. God had mercy on you through the work of Christ while you were still unwilling to submit to Him by yourself. And He did this by turning your heart and giving you a willing spirit that was sensitive to heed the call of the Gospel. Praise God for His grace in moving us to faith when we wanted nothing of it until He opened our eyes to His beauty! May that squash our pride and arrogance against an increasingly pagan society. Just remember, that should have been you and would have had God not intervened and gone underneath your entire being to move you to love Him.

What Would it Take? The Global Warming Fiasco

By David Westerfield

On April 7, 2008

In Culture, Environment, Politics, Theology

http://blogs.usatoday.com/weather/2008/ … e-bra.html

What exactly would it take for you to be personally convinced that man-made global warming is a giant lie for the most part? Now to be totally fair, many scientists (even the one’s against the global-warming marketing agenda) actually agree that man-made influences have a factor to play in the warming of the Earth, but that the percentage is too insignificant to account for in the climatological models. Furthermore, the founder of the Weather Channel himself came out a while back saying those who believe man’s CO2 output is what is changing the atmosphere have absolutely no understanding of how the climate works.

Anyway, would you be convinced that the fear-mongering of those like Gore is totally without warrant if expert climatologists from MIT, Princeton (NOAA), and the National Hurricane Conference all said the data proposed by warming activists was bogus? I hope you would. And that is exactly what has happened. According to William Gray at the National Hurricane Conference this year, we are brainwashing our kids at a young age within the education system to believe our world is on the brink of utter “natural disaster” destruction (from hurricanes and floods in particular). This is misinformation at best. Think about the impact this has on a young mind’s perspective of the world. They are being taught that unless they act in drastic ways, the weather will get worse, floods will get worse and everything will fall apart in the natural order.

Yet these major scientists cited in this article are very clear that if the Earth warms, hurricanes will not increase but decrease in severity. Then they go on to say that what really influences hurricanes is the temperature fluctuations in the ocean. Hmm … so who do you believe? Al Gore, who says those (like these elite expert climatologists and myself) that deny man-made global warming are the same as those who say the Earth is flat? Or some hardcore scientists who know what the junk they’re talking about? I just don’t know how much clearer this could be. I would like to see Gore’s tax records … don’t you think it’s mildly possible he (and CNN, NBC (and its parent, GE), now the Weather Channel, and many many other organizations) are all doing this for a giant sack of mullah? Much in the same way they hypocritically accuse big oil? I mean let’s just be fair. Gore and his cronies are just as guilty of profiteering off of environmentalism as any oil exec, don’t you think?

The reason this is even an issue for me is not just because of the clear scientific data out there. And it’s really not even ultimately about guys like Gore making a ton of cash off of it (though of course that chaps me a bit). It has more to do with the fact that political policies are being implemented to steer this country toward a more secular view of the world in attempting to fix a phantom problem known as man-made global warming. That affects all of us, and ultimately it affects Christian witness to the Gospel. What if we are making policies and guidelines that are chasing after a giant lie, but that in doing so we are moving toward a more “utopian,” godless way of viewing the world and way of living? Is that remotely possible? Have we not seen in the 20th century what happens when godless, atheistic rulers take over entire cultures? Yeah, and they thought it would never happen there either …

Why Has Reformed Theology Surged Among the Younger Generation?

By David Westerfield

On April 7, 2008

In Audio, Christian Culture, Philosophy of Ministry, Theology

Nathan Pitchford, blogging over at www.reformationtheology.com, makes some very good observations as to why this phenomenon has occurred. To sum up what Pitchford says, Reformed Theology has surged among us mainly due to five things (though there very well could be other factors as well):

1) Dissatisfaction with the theology and religious environment of our parents.

I believe this factor is one of the largest. Much of this discontentment has to do with a tiredness of the way things have been done in our parents generation. It’s old, worn out, and about 3 inches of spiritual depth. At the root of that is a discontentment with their particular brand of a Christian worldview, their presuppositions, theology, and philosophy of ministry, all of which seems to be more temporally focused rather than eternally focused on the Kingdom. We’re tired of the idolatry, materialism and consumerism that have invaded the church. It needs to stop. The Protestant Church needs a temple cleansing, so to speak. The Church is not the market place nor should it act like it. And that’s what we are reacting against is this blatant idolatry that has moved from worshiping Christ as the supreme King to idolizing self and using Christ to that end. Now of course, it is not a blanket statement to say all within my parents generation are involved in this, because, as noted below, John Piper has been one of the largest influences on this surge. There are many others as well who have made a difference and opposed this idolatry, calling for us to reclaim the faith once for all delivered.

2) Desire for a rootedness and connectedness with the historic faith.

In the latter part of the 20th century, most within the Protestant church were simply looking to the past 100-200 years (or only their present day pastors and teachers) for information concerning the exposition of Scripture. And yet there is a deep, rich, long history of men of the faith who have contributed greatly to the Church’s literature. Our parents generation, in general, seemed to ignore these voices. No more. We want to reclaim those voices. As Pitchford says, we indeed want to be reconnected with those who have gone before us and brought so much rich theology and thinking to the church. Looking to those in church history for their input concerning the Scriptures can really help us see our own blind spots within our culture. As Greg Love, a great friend of mine has said before, you can always go and stare at a wonderful work of art for hours and glean a lot of great perspective. In fact you must be doing that. But to hear an expert on that piece of art go into detail about things you had no idea were there, you can find some things you may never have seen by just observing it yourself. So it is with Church History.

3) The resurgence of Puritan literature.

There are some works out now that you simply could not have gotten a hold of just 20 years ago. This helps greatly for the cause. The publisher Banner of Truth Trust is one of the forerunners and largest distributors of Puritan works, though there are others that have contributed greatly as well.

4) John Piper.

This man is one of the single biggest influences on the shaping of my own personal theology. The first sermon I ever heard from him was this: http://www.desiringgod.org/download.php … 961027.mp3. It shocked me how much of eternal perspective he had. I soaked it up and continue to do so to this day. To me, John Piper is a modern day Jonathan Edwards/John Owen. He takes their theology and makes it accessible. He has been an incredibly vital influence to the surge.

5) The internet (and www.monergism.com in particular).

I can’t tell you how big of help websites like www.monergism.com and www.spurgeon.org, as well as other sites, have been to influencing my own personal theology. God has richly blessed us with these resources. Take advantage of them.

Free MP3 Downloads

By David Westerfield

On April 4, 2008

In Music, Technology

Using www.dizzler.com and www.orbitdownloader.com, you can snag mp3’s for free. Dizzler does not make it readily available for you to download, so you must use orbitdownloader to “sniff” the file path when the file is being downloaded from the server into the flash player within the browser. It’s really not complicated at all. I’ve actually found a couple of pretty obscure bands on the site. I would say just do this to preview some songs and then go and buy the album just to be legal. Pretty cool though.

The Theology and Affection of Paul

By David Westerfield

On April 3, 2008

In Theology

“For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.” (Romans 1:9-10)

When listening to Romans 1 today in my car at lunch, I really took notice at how theological and yet how affectionate Paul was when he wrote his letters. It wasn’t just informational theology, it was affectionate theology, theology tempered with love. Paul very clearly did not let up on difficult points that needed addressing, and yet he did so with deep love for those to whom he was writing. And this because of the love shown to him by Christ. It was not just some academic exercise for Paul to write Romans, but everything he was about to tell them had love attached to it, even the boldness and depth of the mind-bending doctrines of Romans 9, which has at its heart both the unfathomable kindness and frighteningly harsh severity of God.

At the end of the letter in Romans 15:14-16, Paul says, “I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder…” Yes, Paul was very bold at times, for instance, when he says things like, “But who are you oh man to answer back to God?” and also the repeated statements, “May it never be!” But when going back to Romans 1, he was very lovingly affectionate. The whole letter was prefaced with and ended with love. This is convicting to me because I can tend at times to be very informational and not affectionate. May God have mercy on me, that I would portray affectionate theology toward those I encounter.

I think the pattern exhibited by Paul in the verses mentioned needs to be closely observed within the Reformed community in particular, because though we may, by God’s grace alone, have come to see particular doctrinal points in a clearer manner (giving God credit for that), we make the conveying of those doctrines simply academic at times. But it is both academic and affectionate at the same time. Obviously there are more and more awesome exceptions, which I hope becomes the majority of the confessing Reformed community. Paul starts and closes his letters with love and affection. By God’s grace, may we do the same to all we encounter, especially those who are adamantly opposed to us.

Saved by Grace Alone Through the Preaching of the Gospel

By David Westerfield

On April 1, 2008

In Theology

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” – Romans 10:17

There are some who reason that because it is the Spirit alone who grants eyes and ears to see and hear the truth of the Gospel, we have no responsibility to preach the Gospel to the lost. They reason that God alone is the one who saves and does all the work; therefore, we don’t have to preach, because God saves absolutely apart from man.

The problem with this thinking though is that it denies passages making it clear that no one will be saved unless they hear the word. What we gather from this is that God has chosen in His divine providence to save people through the preaching of His Word. “Faith comes from hearing,” as the verse above says. This means that the God-created, supernatural faith purchased in the cross for His people, worked into us by the Holy Spirit, comes from hearing the Gospel preached by someone sent from God. That is clear.

Then the verse goes on to say that the very spiritual hearing we need to apprehend the Gospel itself comes “through the word of Christ.” Hearing comes through the Word of Christ. We cannot hear unless God opens our dead ears. And this itself comes through the preaching of the Word. God does not save apart from His word (though of course He absolutely could if He wanted). But rather, He saves through His Word preached. That is the way He has chosen to do it. No one will be saved unless the Holy Spirit comes in power through the preaching of the Gospel from the Word of God. So am I missing something here?

We affirm Romans 9, and Romans 10. We affirm that God is sovereign in salvation and has the divine right to save whoever He wants (as Romans 9 made clear). And at the same time, we are responsible to carry the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. Romans 10:14-15 makes this clear. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

It is unfortunate that Calvinism gets lumped into these hyper-Calvinistic categories when we adamantly deny the doctrines they propose. Dave Hunt, Ergun/Emir Caner, George Bryson, some Dispensationalists from the Free Grace Society in particular, and others, would lump Historic Calvinism into these hyper-Calvinistic modes of thinking and yet it is clear from history and from the present day movement of evangelistic Calvinists in the West, that Calvinists in general, with the exception of a few groups, negate the fatalistic assumptions of hyper-Calvinists. This shows to me that the aforementioned list of people making accusations against Calvinism, that it squashes evangelism, have no idea what they are talking about.

Spurgeon, Edwards, Whitefield, and John Calvin himself made it very clear that we are to preach the Gospel to all without exception, because we have no idea who the elect are that God has chosen. Anyone proposing that you can know who they are need not look further than the Apostle Paul. Did he show “signs of election” while on the road to Damascus to kill, imprison, and persecute Christians? Christ came in power though and cut him to the core of his being to change him from the inside out. Paul was not pursuing Christ, but rather pursuing His demise, until Christ came and changed His very nature by His power. The granting of our very faith is a supernatural work of God alone.

And that is how all of us were saved who believe in Christ. Paul was obviously an exception in the way in which he was saved because Christ came and spoke directly to him in the midst of others. But the image there portrayed in Acts is the same for us. We were saved in the same way through Christ speaking life into our dead hearts though someone telling us the Gospel at some point in our lives. It is just unfortunate that Calvinism gets a bad rap because a minority of loud mouths.

Gizmodo Has Gone a Bit too Crude for Me

By David Westerfield

On March 28, 2008

In Technology

Lately, it seems Gizmodo has started upping the ante on the amount of crude and course titles and bloggage on some of the latest tech gadgets coming out. So I’m now taking them off my blog list on the left and no longer recommending them as a site to visit. I know they could care less about some Christian saying they are ceasing to visit and recommend the site, but there it is. It’s unfortunate because I enjoy some of the content they have on there, but I guess that’s the way they want it.