My Legacy to My Daughter

If there is only one thing — other than a saving knowledge of Christ — that I am able to teach my little Grace that sticks til she dies, it would be this:

Once they had all had their say, a minister’s wife looked across the table at me. “Christine, what are your thoughts.”

“You wouldn’t care to know. I’m young and single. What do I know?!”

At this the women in the room turned their attention to me, assuring me that my thoughts mattered.

I began slowly.

“I believe that a man feels most loved when he knows that he is respected.”

I went on to describe how I desired to serve my husband and show him respect to himself, in front of our children, and before others (whether he was present or not). In matters of submission, I imagined the thrill of being able to serve my husband even if the task was small. I longed for the Lord to bring me a mate that I could run along side of as we ran the course God had set before us, cheering him on … quenching his thirst … rejoicing at his/our victories.

I did not qualify my statements by saying that I would only do these things if he proved to be a godly leader and lover. I knew that many of their husbands were not. However, wives are responsible for their own actions and attitudes … not those of their husbands. Scripture does not describe the marriage relationship as “Wives, submit to your husbands when they lead you in godliness.” Instead, 1 Peter 3:1 states, “Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives—”

I have sought in my own living to apply King Lemuel’s mother’s advice to her son. She described a godly wife who’s husband is confident in her and her abilitites. She seeks to do him good and not evil all the days of her life. All the days … even before she is married? Indeed. Take God’s inspired Word seriously, ladies. Look at the married women around you. Are they disrespectful? Do they leap at the opportunity to bite off their man’s head? Do they ignore their husbands? Have they grown bored in their marriage? Single women, like myself, this is not your fate. Do what is necessary today to love your future husband. It’s really no different than living the Christian faith. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength … and … love your neighbor as yourself. Being conformed into the likeness and image of Christ, living the gospel daily, and removing selfish pride from your life is essentially the ulitmate preparation to living with and respecting and loving a husband.

Go and read the entire fantastic story here.

Goal-Setting in Evangelism

I’m posting today just so you know I haven’t been killed by the evil Sith Lord Darth Grace.

Charles Lawless, dean of the Graham School at my alma mater, Southern Seminary, writes in this Baptist Press article something we all ought to read and do. Titled “Evangelism and Goal-Setting,” Dr. Lawless talks about setting goals for personal evangelism, especially for those of us who lead busy lives. He writes:

I am the dean of a school that focuses on missions and evangelism, but evangelism does not always come easy to me. That is surprising to me now, as sharing my faith was quite easy when I was a young believer. In fact, evangelism was never difficult until I became a pastor — when the multiple tasks of ministry seemed to get in the way of evangelism. The more involved I was in leading my church, the less involved I seemed to become in evangelism.

I since have realized that I must intentionally plan evangelism into my life. I have also learned that I am not the only pastor who has to work to keep evangelism at the forefront of his ministry. For me, doing so includes setting personal goals about evangelism.

His goals:

1. Set a goal for developing relationships with non-believers.
2. Set a goal for praying for non-believers.
3. Set a goal for simply speaking about God’s goodness.
4. Set a goal for sharing the Gospel.
5. Set a goal for mentoring new believers.

As the Southern Baptist Convention begins to embrace Danny Akin’s call for a “Great Commission Resurgence,” these are quite worthy goals, especially when one reads what Dr. Lawless intends for each goal. Go here and read the whole thing to see what’s up.

More Alcohol Perspective

(Stephen’s Note: I totally forgot I had this post in the queue, so I’ll use this to test a feature I’ve been wanting to use for a while. I’m going to see if setting the timestamp on the post will post it when the timestamp arrives. This post was originally intended for back in April, after I posted on Interesting Facts About Alcohol in February.)

Let’s hear from a confessed alcoholic on this issue before we start making the argument about “recovering alcoholics” in the whole alcohol debate. Over at Justin Taylor’s blog, J. K. Jones writes:

I attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in my “spare time.” I have proved to myself over and over again that I cannot drink responsibly (!), so, for me, I cannot drink at all. That is the safest and best way for me to avoid the sin of drunkenness. This is the only prudent thing for me to do.

Does that make me a legalist? According to some it would. After all, I have added a rule that is not found in Scripture. I disagree, though. Establishing a rule for my own behavior that helps me avoid sin is not wrong in any way, shape or fashion. Why should I expose myself to temptations that I can avoid?

Would I try to enforce this rule upon others? Never in a million years. It wouldn’t even bother me if I went to dinner with someone who had a beer or two with their meal. My rule in this area is not their rule.

As to the issue for those who can drink responsibly, I like what one theologian said:

“Do you suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused? Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?” – Martin Luther

Looking forward to the day that I will be able to safely drink wine in the Kingdom (Luke 22:18, 30),

JK

T4G Session 3 - John MacArthur

(Photo by Tim Challies)

John MacArthur led the third session of the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference. His message, The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability, was exactly what its title suggested — a defense of the doctrine of human depravity.

MacArthur began by stating flatly that people hate the doctrine of total depravity. In fact, he said, it may be the most despised and attacked doctrine of all, and as a result it is the most distinctively Christian doctrine. All other systems of belief hold that man has some good in them and can work their way towards salvation. In other words, we think we are basically good and can contribute in our own salvation if not outright save ourselves. We can earn salvation by doing good works, attempting to live good lives, etc. We can “bribe” God into letting us into heaven by our actions.

The problem with this is that we are self-deceived. Sinners like you and me are unwilling to see ourselves as we really are. We do not see the evil in our “good” and the evil in our “religion.” We don’t really believe what Romans 3 says: none of us are righteous, none of us seek God, all of us have gone astray and are deserving of nothing but hell. Instead, we have blinded ourselves to the truth by telling ourselves we are “basically good” and that we can do something to merit salvation.

Many evangelicals (maybe even your pastor and you yourself) hate this truth and as such seem to hate the God of Scripture. Instead of telling the biblical truth, they deceive their people by preaching and teaching a God that has been tamed, a God that says you are good and must only act like it. This is a false God that has been made up and must be rejected. In contrast, the doctrine of total depravity is the most God-honoring doctrine because it teaches all of the good, all of the work that is done to merit salvation, belongs to God alone. This is not some newfangled invention of current times or even the Reformation, it was believed and taught from the earliest days of the church.

MacArthur then took us on a short historical survey of the errors that have sought to combat this doctrine. There is Pelagius (whom St. Augustine opposed), who taught the heresy that we are created without original sin. This means we are created good and must simply stop sinning in order to get to heaven. No need for Christ when we can do it ourselves. There is also its child, semi-Pelagianism, which came into force after Augustine and has prevailed up to this day. Semi-Pelagianism affirms that human depravity is real but not total; that is, we are definitely born with original sin, but there is a “core of goodness” within us that has not been touched which can respond to God. Those who hold to forms of this heresy teach that God gives something called “prevenient grace” which allows that core to respond freely without the corruption of sin preventing a response.

As such, most evangelicals preach as if our job is simply to “introduce God and people,” and then get out of the way. One of the most common ways this is done (of which I am guilty) is the “Try Jesus” exhortation. This is a false view! The Bible is clear that people don’t want God. They will reject him every time. Exhortations that invite people to “meet God and give him a chance” are quite simply unbiblical and unfaithful to the true Gospel proclamation.

Instead, we must understand that God not only commands people to believe in him, but he also gives life that people might believe. The command to believe, by itself, does not save; God must give life to those he commands if they are to obey! This is in contrast to semi-Pelagianism which teaches that God merely opens the door and it is up to us to walk through it. God actively brings us through the door. He briefly outlined several Scriptures to underscore this point. I will here address three of them.

John 3:8 tells us clearly that salvation depends on the will of God, not man. Remember, the Holy Spirit is like the wind — he goes wherever he wants, whenever he wants, and is not constrained by human action. Salvation works in this way; that is, God saves whomever he wants, whenever he wants, regardless of human merit. I could not help but think of countless sermons I’ve heard throughout my life that stressed that even the most “Christian” person one could ever meet could end up in hell, while great and evil sinners like Hitler, Jeff Dahmer, and others could be sitting at the right hand of Christ at the heavenly feast. Unwittingly, those speakers clearly preached an aspect of the doctrine of total depravity — there is nothing in us that guarantees salvation nor anything that makes salvation more likely.

John 6:44 also clearly shows that salvation belongs to God alone and nothing man could do can affect his decision to save. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” To be saved, you must be pulled by God; you cannot come to God on your own. This is the only way great sinners could ever be saved.

Romans 8:7-8 gives us the reason why salvation must be from God; and also the foundational concept of the doctrine of total depravity. “The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Lost people have minds that are set on the flesh and as such are enemies with God. Because they are his enemies, they cannot please him, nor do they want to. Do you want to make your enemy happy? No, you want to make your enemy miserable! There is no reason, especially in light of Scripture, to believe a person could ever come to God on his own. All people are at enmity with God and want nothing to do with him. Instead, all people want to find their own way. As such, it is impossible for a lost person, a mind set on the flesh, to please God.

Lastly, MacArthur asked what this doctrine should do for us as believers. His answer is one I have grown to use quite often when talking about salvation: the doctrine of total depravity means that those who preach the Gospel should be the most humble! We should be, first of all, staggered that God reached down and overcame our enmity with him to save us. He could have rightly consigned us to hell and been done with us. Knowing this, we should humble ourselves before him in thanksgiving and praise. Next, this doctrine should remind us that we can’t change people’s hearts, nor can we solve their problems. Only God is powerful enough to do that! I was reminded of a conversation I had with a good friend about secular counseling models — it seems that all psychology is able to do is offer behavior modification; it does not get at the heart change necessary to solve the problem. When we have a God who can save a person in their sins and from their sins, we should humble ourselves and look to him for the necessary change. We can take no credit for successes in our teaching and preaching; we can only take credit for the failures. God alone brings success.

In the final analysis, the doctrine of total depravity requires us to understand that the condition of a lost sinner is so desperate that no amount of manipulation on our part can fix the situation. Each heart is the same as the next one, and as such each heart needs the same message. Therefore, we cannot change the message of the Gospel, because the Gospel is what God uses to change sinners.

In the panel session that followed, MacArthur elaborated on these last two points a bit further. He said that this doctrine gives him great relief in his preaching, counseling, and evangelism; simply because it helps him remember that a person’s salvation is not up to him. His preaching and teaching is powerless to save. If it were his responsibility to save people, he would be so burdened, overwhelmed, and depressed by this that he would leave the ministry! But if it is God who saves and not John MacArthur, he is free to simply proclaim the message that God has commanded him to give. God will take care of the results. This makes evangelism easier, because one does not have to worry about the result of evangelism as much of evangelicalism today worries. Instead, one can get the Gospel to as many people as one can, and if some believe, God is more glorified!

I found this message to be just as freeing to me as MacArthur claimed. I have in the past year had to deal with certain people who have tried to cause trouble for me as a minister, as well as people who have tried to cause discord in the community between my church and other Deaf ministries in town; in fact we are still in the process of unraveling the web that was created. I probably sinned quite a few times during this season as I fought to protect my character and integrity, including a brief time when I was ready to simply pull up the stakes and shake the dust off my feet. Also, we are dealing with a church that is stagnating in many ways (quite like the majority of Southern Baptist churches); my senior pastor and I have become frustrated and disgusted about many things, and we have spent a lot of time in serious prayer over the church that we love. But as MacArthur talked about feeling freed from being responsible for another person’s salvation, I felt a similar burden lift from my own shoulders.

Neither I nor my senior pastor are responsible for the salvation and sanctification of our people. We are responsible instead to faithfully proclaim and live out the message and shepherd the people in that message. The Holy Spirit will do the rest. I am not responsible to defeat those who have borne false witness against me nor those who have acted against my church. Instead I am responsible to live out the Gospel by correcting their errors in love and forgiving them as Christ has forgiven me. God will take care of their hearts, not I. I cannot change a person’s heart; only the God who would take on human flesh and die on a cross for that person’s sins can do that. And knowing that, I can freely proclaim God’s forgiveness and forgive others in turn. It is truly all about God, not all about me!

T4G Session 2 - Thabiti Anyabwile (Race & Deafness)

Some of you looked at the title and thought, “What? Race and Deafness?” Bear with me through this one and all will be revealed.

Thabiti Anyabwile delivered perhaps the most provocative, thought-provoking, challenging, and convicting message of the conference. Thabiti, pastor of First Baptist Church – Grand Cayman, began his message by joking that his name means “Sure, invite the black guy to talk about race.” I’m sure the irony was lost on no one, and many of the blogs out there that are not as friendly to Christian conservatism and Reformed beliefs have taken it upon themselves to hammer away at this point.

Thabiti was actually mentored by Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church for several years before becoming pastor at FBC Grand Cayman and they consider each other to be great friends and brothers. It was made known during the panel session that followed that C. J. Mahaney also developed a deep and abiding friendship with Thabiti during his years at CHBC. For these reasons alone I would like to invite my readers to throw out this silly and quite frankly stupid prejudice, especially in light of the message Thabiti gave us.

Thabiti began with an assertion that at first left many of us slightly confused. We must, he said, throw out our concept of race. Race is not a “black/white” type of issue. Instead, we must have a biblical view of race if we are to address this issue correctly.

Race, he continued, is a biological term. It talks about our inherited genetics from the human family that passed these genetic traits down to us. In contrast, we have many ethnicities – many cultural divisions among humanity. We are familiar with many of these: black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, etc. However, the world’s view of race is to conflate biology with ethnicity. Thus we have many “races” that follow these ethnic lines.

The biblical view of race is that there is one race, descended from Noah, who in turn is descended from Adam. The biology of every human being is derived directly from Adam through Noah. Every “race” is descended from one man, and as such it is wrong, biblically, to think that there are “many races.” This would mean that there is another person out there, not descended from Adam, who created a certain “race.” As such skin color, the world’s criteria for “race,” cannot be the correct criteria in determining “race.” Instead, it is biblically correct to think of one race but many ethnicities as humanity spread throughout the earth in obedience to God’s command to be fruitful and multiply, as well as a result of the Tower of Babel.

Thabiti then gave six reasons why our modern concept of “race” is wrong:

1. It causes abuse of people and Scripture
2. It makes racism possible
3. Cooperation and fellowship becomes impossible, because “race” causes separation.
4. It removes the authority of the Bible, since the world’s concept of “race” denies that we are one in Adam, as the Bible says.
5. It causes us to resist the Holy Spirit – instead of being united, we are divided by “race.”
6. It destroys the Gospel.

This last point is likely the most serious, though it is the result of the five that precede it. The world’s concept of “race” destroys the Gospel because it makes Jesus’ death contentious. It forces us to look at Jesus’ death as not for all people, but only for the Adamic race. Because of this, we will spend the rest of existence arguing about which “race” is truly “in Adam.” Is it the blacks? The whites? The Asians? The Native Americans?

The world’s concept of “race” further destroys the Gospel because it gives us no motivation for missions. We are already experiencing this today – we don’t do missions because other “races” are not like us. We want to do missions in a comfortable setting. We don’t want to go out of our comfort zone. That’s why we send missionaries – “You do it for me. I’m not comfortable doing it myself!”

Thabiti then called us to think and act biblically on the issue of race. We must see each other as “in Adam.” In John 17:20-21 Jesus prayed that we who believe would be one just as he and the Father are one, and by doing so the world would believe in him. Again, in 2 Corinthians 5:14-18 exhorts us to have a spiritual perspective on this issue, not a fleshly view, a worldly view. We are to regard no one according to the flesh, and in terms of race, not by the color of their skin. Christ has died for all – biblically all “in Adam.” If we allow the world’s view of race to dictate our view, rather than being led by a spiritual view, we have capitulated to the flesh.

As such, when we look at a person, we cannot look at their skin. Instead we must think, “He is created in the image of God, just like me. He is descended from Adam, he is ‘in Adam,’ just like me. He is a sinner, just like me. Therefore I can fellowship with him as a brother in Adam.” With believers, we are to take that one step further: “He is a sinner saved by grace, just like me. Therefore I can fellowship with him as a brother in Christ!”

This is why unity in Christ is far more important than “race.” Ethnicity – which is what the world is really talking about when it talks about “race” – is not permanent. Rather, our identity in Christ is permanent. Therefore, our churches must be a reflection of this reality until we get to heaven.

This was a jaw-dropping, deeply applicational message for me. I and many of the Deaf pastors there constantly looked at each other knowingly all throughout this message. We were furiously nodding our heads and “amen”-ing many of the things Thabiti imparted to us.

You see, our Deaf community is fractured along the same worldly “lines” as race. There are great divisions in Deaf culture that have caused much friction. Deaf people divide along lines of deafness (deaf/hard-of-hearing), language (ASL vs. Signed English or PSE), culture (culturally Deaf vs. mainstreamed/Oral), and psychological makeup (high function vs. low function), just to name a few. The ouster of Jane Fernandes from the presidency of Gallaudet University is a glaring example of this.

Yet we Deaf people, of every stripe, are all “in Adam.” We are all created in the image of God. We are all sinners under the wrath of a holy God in need of a Savior. As such, the Deaf community, in order to survive, must throw out its concept of “Deaf.” We cannot afford to accept the world’s concept of “Deaf.” We cannot afford to accept the division we have created through accepting the world’s concept of “race.” We must accept a biblical view of “Deaf” if our community is to thrive in the 21st century and beyond. And ultimately, Deaf believers must strive to bring these fellow sinners into Christ, just like us.

This message was the capstone of a major shift in my thinking on Deaf issues that has slowly been taking place. I had begun to move away from the rigid categories many Deaf had created for the different types of Deaf people, in order to emphasize that we are one Deaf community, not many. With this message, all the pieces came together with a resounding click and thud that can be both heard and felt. It is my prayer this click and thud reverberates through the hearing and Deaf world for ages to come.

T4G Session 1 - Ligon Duncan

Ligon Duncan kicked off the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference in such a way that one was left with no doubt this would be a hard-hitting conference. No punches were pulled by “Lig” in his message, Sound Doctrine – Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry. I was at once wowed and deeply encouraged by this message.

In recent days I have struggled in getting the importance of doctrine across to certain friends and fellow ministers. In fact, one went so far as to leave a comment here that Jesus cared about people first, not information. I was so shocked at this statement, especially given the content of the Gospels, that I was left unable to draft a response that was worthy to publish. Ligon Duncan gave the exact response that is needed to such false views of Jesus and doctrine in his message.

The reason Lig gave this presentation is because there seems to be a deep suspicion of theology today. The quote I gave above from one commenter of this blog is a great example. But especially in the emerging and Emergent movements, as well as some moderate and most liberal movements, disdain for doctrine has led to much false teaching. Therefore we need to recover the study and teaching of doctrine in our ministries and in our churches.

Lig used as his foundational text John 17:13-17:

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Why this passage? Because, Lig explained, joy comes from the word of God. If we keep God’s word, Christ’s joy is in us and we will grow in sanctification. Indeed, we grow by learning everything that Jesus taught, as commanded by Matthew 28:19-20. Jesus didn’t say in this passage, “teach them some of what I taught you,” nor did he say, “teach them only what you think they need out of what I taught you.” No, Jesus said, “teach them to observe everything I have commanded you!” This means that doctrine, especially sound doctrine, is the most important thing we can study or teach. Indeed, the study of doctrine is not optional, but mandatory.

Without sound doctrine, false doctrine will creep into our teaching and our churches. False doctrine will seriously hurt not only ourselves, but our churches; therefore we cannot teach it (1 Timothy 1:3-7). We must strive to teach only correct doctrine; this means we must study.

Perhaps the greatest point of this message was this: If we teach right doctrine, and the Holy Spirit is in us, love pours out! The only true way to put people first is to put Jesus first, and unless we study him and his Word, we will never have a right understanding of him nor a right understanding of how to relate to people. The book of 1 John gives the clearest example and exhortation of this point.

As such, if your doctrine is bad, your actions will be bad, too (1 Tim. 6:3-5). False doctrine, according to this passage, leads to ungodliness. Egotistical attitudes, airheadedness, love of controversy and useless quarrels, envy, dissension, slander, gossip, grudges, and constant strife are marks of those who have evil minds and do not have the truth. Further, this passage teaches that such people see godliness as a means of profit. We see this all the time in televangelists such as Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, and others — their false godliness and false doctrine is a smokescreen to swindle money from gullible believers who either won’t study doctrine or have been taught not to. Lig used Hitler as an ultimate human example of what bad theology can do.

By contrast, knowledge of God’s word leads to godliness (Titus 1:1). For this reason theology must be celebrated and preached in our churches!

Next, Lig sought to answer the question, “Why is theology important?” After briefly explaining the difference betweeen systematic theology and biblical theology, he used these to show that we can’t avoid doctrine. After all, the Bible is full of doctrine! Jesus did systematic theology after his resurrection on the road to Emmaus with two of the disciples. He frequently corrected his opponents’ theology. Even when exhorting people to follow him, he made theologically loaded statements. Paul and early believers taught it from the Old Testament. If Jesus and the disciples did theology, why do we say it is unimportant? This is why such platitudes as “people are more important than information” ring resoundingly hollow and are false.

Finally, Lig sought to answer the question, “What is theology good for?” In a word, everything! Theology affects how we live, how we think, how we act. It affects how we worship, how we counsel people, how we preach, how we teach. Theology affects every aspect of life! And, when rightly understood and taught, theology brings joy!

What an answer to the unfounded, unbiblical assertion that Jesus put people above information! Doctrine does not make people less important. Rather, as we develop a deeper and more correct understanding of God, we are better able to serve and love people. And as we serve and love our people through sound doctrine, we have the joy of Christ; and they grow to love the Lord and have the joy of Christ in them also.

I have a story that took place directly before and after the conference that illustrates this clearly. Due to time and space, I will share it when I get home from work in the morning. It deserves its own post since the incident is a direct testimony to the power of the Gospel in people’s lives. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Why We Should Read Outside Of The Bible

John Piper writes a fantastic post about reading books other than the Bible. In light of the fact that I just came home from BoB and T4G with 33 books, I felt it prudent to say a word about the reading of all these books I’ve got in my library (the total now over 350 if not closer to 400). Too often I’ve been given the excuse: “Why do I need to read the works of men? I have the Bible! All I need is the Bible!” I find such an excuse to be arrogant and condescending, and quite unloving of one’s brothers and sisters in Christ.

Pastor John makes a rather practical, convicting, and convincing case for reading good books along with your Bible in this post, titled “How God Readies Us to Read In Tune.” He states:

If in your morning devotions you open God’s word to the book of Judges and find that the strings of your inner instrument are not in tune, it is not blasphemy to excuse yourself for a few moments from the King’s library and turn to a paragraph from one of his unflinchingly faithful, broken-hearted, happy servants. Should we find it surprising that the King should appoint some of his closest friends to be especially good at tuning the strings of our soul so that we may play His music when he puts the bow of his Word on our soul?

As always, don’t rely on just this paragraph, Go and read the whole thing. More T4G reflections will be forthcoming.

UPDATE: I’d said previously I came home with 32 books and that the T4G giveaway was 14 books. I forgot to add Albert Mohler’s Culture Shift to that list; it was sitting on top of my printer unnoticed amid the stack of books on my desk! This post and the previous book post have been amended to reflect that. The overall total is now 33 books; T4G count is 15. Them’s still a lotta books!

Young, Restless, and Reformed: Scott Lamb Style

Scott Lamb posts the best review of Collin Hansen’s Young, Restless, and Reformed that currently exists. It’s the best one because instead of being merely a book report, it is applicational. Everyone, no matter your theological leanings, should read this; it is a great caution against the common attitude people get in evangelicalism today.

New Blog Feature: “Beliefbusters”

Most of my readers likely have seen the fantastic Discovery Channel show Mythbusters. The premise of the show is the Mythbusters team takes on popular beliefs, urban legends, and myths and attempts to show whether or not the myths are true. This has made for one of the most informative and fun-filled television shows around. For several months I have been toying with the idea of doing a similar feature here at The Silent Holocron that I will call Beliefbusters.

Beliefbusters was inspired in part by learning, for the first time, that a belief I had held unquestionably was nowhere to be found in Scripture. This experience led to a critical examination of many of the things I had “grown up” (in 16 years as a Christian) believing, and finding the vast majority of them to be without Biblical warrant. Purging many of these popular beliefs, traditions, and outright “Christian myths” left me with only Scripture and my seminary education to fall back on. You see, for most of my seven years at SBTS I had simply cruised in an “absorb the knowledge” mode, rather than applying all I had learned. Then about one or two years into being an associate pastor at my church I began to see the links between what I believed and what I practiced. Slowly I began to learn to apply the training in hermeneutics and interpretation I had received. I began to merge together the information I had learned from my classes with the Christianity I had carried into seminary. The results have in some cases been jaw-dropping for me. All of the results have resulted in a much greater appreciation for what it means to “stick to Scripture.” And I hope every result has been glorifying to God.

This feature is not an “if-you-don’t-believe-this-you’re-going-to-hell” type of series. Nor is it intended to be argumentative and contrarian. If something that I write about in this feature offends you, I encourage you to let me know privately at the e-mail address referenced in my About page. If you’d like to dialogue on something I’ve written, or simply think I’m wrong, then I greatly encourage you to leave a comment so we can continue the discussion and let “iron sharpen iron” (Proverbs 27:17). If you attempt to use what I’ve written to attack me personally, you will quite simply be ignored. This is a place for brothers and sisters to come together to improve each other in the faith, not to tear down the body!

I would like to encourage my readers to let me know of “Christian myths” they would like to see examined in this feature. Any and all submissions will be considered. Again, you may send your submissions to the email address on the “About” page.

Now, tomorrow we will take a look at the first belief in this feature: Lucifer is Satan.

The Barack Obama “Controversy”: A Christian Response

By now most of you have read and watched on TV about the recent controversy with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama and the incendiary remarks of his pastor (or former pastor, or whatever he actually is to Obama). I’ve seen many “Christian” responses to the Obama controversy, and I find them sorely lacking. I felt it was time that I join the growing chorus by adding my own discordant voice.

I pretty much never blog about politics. I despise politics. It is the only thing I know that divides as quickly and easily as the Gospel. And divisions over politics are, in my mind, utterly useless and worthless. To this day there are people in my family and friends who still think the Democrats “are for the working man” even though the Dems long since ceased to be about such a concept, supporting things which actually undercut the working man. There are people in my family and friends who still think the Republicans are “God’s Party” and strong government though most of the Reps would make me ashamed to call them brothers in Christ, and the current administration is proving to be an example of how not to practice strong government (it’s been pretty weak).

Yet I’m going to break silence and comment on Barack Obama. How should we as Christians respond to this controversy?

Let’s start by how we should not respond.

First, let’s not delude ourselves into thinking we know exactly what Obama should do. Much of the “Christian” criticism (if not all of it) has come from white believers. Excuse me? Since when does a white person get to authoritatively tell a black person how to deal with their own culture, language, and biases? No, white believers need to sit down and shut up. If anyone is to criticize, it must be black believers who understand the culture and worldview that this controversy displays.

White people, I have observed, simply do not adequately understand the type of frustration and mindset that has developed from centuries of being treated as an inferior being. This leads to “foot-in-mouth” syndrome — pretty much nothing a white person could say about this could be taken seriously. And it will unnecessarily open the white critic to charges of racism.

Second, let’s not think that we can answer this biblically, even if in fact we can. Again, criticism that has attempted to do this biblically has come from white believers. Such criticism, while it may be correct in principle, fails miserably in practice, simply because it does not address the unique situation it seeks to criticize. It does not address the context of the black church, black culture, and the black worldview these encapsulated therein. The criticism I have seen thus far is applicable to a white church setting, not a black one. Again, we must leave such criticism to biblically faithful black pastors and theologians. White critics need to, once again, sit down and shut up.

This whole farce (yes, farce) of white commentators continually reminds me of hearing people trying to tell Deaf people how to handle their own affairs, something Deaf people have historically fought against. Deaf people want to handle things themselves as Deaf people, with no interference from the hearing. A hearing person, in Deaf culture, has no right to influence Deaf ways uninvited. In other words, if we feel we need help from the hearing, we’ll ask for it. Having recently in the past year been the target of such malfeasance from a hearing individual, I have become very sensitive to this issue in my own community, and I can only imagine how much my black counterparts must be bristling to hear white people issue their proclamations about this controversy.

So, how can believers respond to this controversy?

I’m convinced after reflection that there is only one true and biblical way a white Christian (or any Christian for that matter) can honestly, effectively respond, and that is through prayer.

Yes, prayer. I’m not going to throw out any proof-texts because, quite frankly, I’m tired of the proof-texting white Christians have done about this whole controversy. The Scripture I’d use if I did ought to be obvious (I believe Jesus said it first and Paul repeated the principle). Barack Obama is no friend of God nor the Gospel. His positions on the issues make that glaringly clear. Yet even in that I will pray for Obama.

I will pray that God will raise up faithful black pastors to respond effectively in ways no other man of God outside of that community could. I will pray that our society’s penchant for guilt-by-association (GBA) not harm Obama unwarrantedly. I will pray that Obama will only be blessed and strengthened by God for having to endure this controversy, as he is not the guilty party in this controversy. Ultimately, I will pray that Obama will receive the Gospel of God, repent, and believe.

I will pray for this black pastor, that God will put joy in his heart. I will pray that he will be moved to speak with grace. I will pray that he will seek to build up rather than tear down society. I will pray that he will be moved by God to speak faithfully instead of speaking from his racist, biased, unscriptural worldview. I will pray that this pastor will repent and become a true man of God from this day forward.

And yes, that is exactly what I think of his words. But Barack Obama should not have to suffer for this pastor’s sin, nor should he have to put up with loud white people who think they know everything.