With this year being the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the Reformation (though there were quite a number of precursors leading up to that point), there are a number of great resources that are celebrating what God has done in history in recovering the gospel, while expressing the urgent need for ongoing reformation in our present day in the church (universally).
Tag: Carl Trueman
A couple of years ago, a series of articles came out claiming the influence of the Reformation is mostly over for Protestantism. When looking at mainline Protestantism and mainstream evangelicalism, we certainly can draw a conclusion that this would appear to be the case. Carl Trueman addresses this issue on the Janet Mefferd Show from 2010.
Trueman also speaks to the issue of social justice and evangelicalism making that a primary drum beat, instead of the Person and work of Christ. The danger and concern is that social justice issues, as important as they are, may replace the central teaching and preaching of the Gospel, which is the primary function of the church.
I’m also including a later interview with Trueman by Mefferd on the Reformation’s influence.
Dr. Carl Trueman talks about Martin Luther and the Reformation. July 22, 2011 (MP3)
Carl Trueman has posted some very insightful thoughts on the nature of ‘celebrity’ in culture generally and its impact on the church specifically. He had a good bit of push back while making many good points. I’ve included Thabiti Anyabwile’s push back. As I find them I am posting them here for future reference since this is a very fascinating subject. This has made me consider the many ways in which I fall victim to this thinking at present and affects my argumentation (i.e. appeal to authority, that is, whoever is a well-known voice rather than arguing it on its own terms). This is an important subject in relation to the church, because the craving for being known and accepted by the larger world is strong. The onslaught of ‘celebrity’ has engulfed evangelicalism to a great degree to where we rely now on lesser popes and personalities instead of the ordinary means of the local church for transformation: the word preached, prayer and the sacraments.
Precursor article:
- Messiahs Pointing to the Door – March 2009
Series of articles that got it rolling:
- Home Thoughts from Abroad – April 16, 2011 @ 9:33 AM
- What hath Jerusalem to do with Hollywood? – April 19, 2011 @ 6:23 AM
- Thoughts on Marketing and Conferences – April 20, 2011 @ 11:16 AM
- — Response from Thabiti Anyabwile – “Really Trueman? Only in America?” – April 20, 2011 @ 3:09 PM
- Not guilty! – April 20, 2011 @ 4:13 PM
- The Lady Doth Protest Too Much – April 21, 2011 @ 9:02 AM
- — Second Response from Thabiti – “Uncle… Uncle!” – April 21, 2011 @ 9:34 AM
- Truly Honoured – April 21, 2011 @ 12:07 PM
- — Third Response from Thabiti – “A Solution I Had Not Considered” – April 22, 2011 @ 10:22 PM
- Fascinating Week – April 23, 2011 @ 8:24 AM
- An interesting email – April 27, 2011 @ 8:35 AM
Seperate from the stream above but related:
- The Sweet Smell of Success – September 14, 2011 @ 8:24 PM
- Fixing the Indemnity – October 3, 2011 @ 6:49 AM
- An Apology – October 4, 2011 @ 9:35 AM
A case-in-point and response to Mark Driscoll over his comments to a UK radio talk show host:
- A Poker Tell – January 14, 2012 @ 10:26 PM
More case-in-points related to the Elephant Room 2 debacle:
- Do You Beat Your Wife? – January 26, 2012 @ 1:39 PM
- Gnosticism, Nicea and Celebrity – February 1, 2012 @ 8:43 AM
T4G Conference Panel:
On the Mark Driscoll Fallout from the Janet Medford Interview:
- Do You Beat Your Wife? – Carl Trueman
- After the Circus Parade – Frank Turk
- TD Jakes and Elephants in the Room – AOMIN
- Some Thoughts on the Elephant Room – Denny Burk
- Wretched: Driscoll, Jakes, MacDonald and an Elephant – YouTube
- Phil Johnson & Todd Friel – Discerning The Elephant Room – Oct. 8, 2011 – YouTube
As Carl Trueman on Reformation21.org and Al Mohler on almohler.com have pointed out recently, something is so fascinating with the recent wave of criticism by the left of Obama asking Rick Warren to perform the invocation at his inauguration (which I must give Obama credit on being a consistent relativist as opposed to others on the far-left): no matter how friendly, or nice, or palatable or seeker-friendly you make your message concerning what Scripture says about God’s Law or the Gospel itself, those who are unbelieving and God-hating, those who are adamantly opposed to what is said still view you as a crazy, fanatical nut.
Warren even goes so far as to be a middle-of-the-road kind of guy politically speaking, I’m guessing with the hope with bridging a cultural divide. Yet it seems to not matter to those who hate Scripture. Now Obama is receiving a backlash of criticism from the far-left gay rights community for asking Warren to do the prayer, as well as those who simply believe in the normalcy of homosexuality, because Warren believes it to be sin according to Scripture. And in doing so, they believe Warren to be a “fundeemeentaleest,” even though he has gone to great lengths to make his message more acceptable to a hostile, post-Christian (quickly becoming anti-Christian) culture.