I recently received one of those innocuous notification from a friend on Youtube stating that said friend had "favorited" a video, one featuring popular evangelical preacher John MacArthur. I had never heard this man preach before, and the friend who favorited the video is a Lutheran, so I figured I'd give it a listen.
Now, before I go any further, let me just say this. I had my guard down for this listen. I have a few people who I let my guard down when they preach. One, of course, is when Pastor Gary Held, my cohort on Radical Grace Radio, is preaching. It's likely that I'd also let my guard down for a sermon by Greg LeSieur as well... but for this John MacArthur sermon, I had my guard down because it came from the favorites list of a Lutheran.
I'll never make that mistake again. John MacArthur's sermon nearly killed my faith. I'm dead serious. His sermon was filled with everything from Lordship salvation to works righteousness. He claims that, yes, Christians sin, but if you have a pattern of sin in your life, you need to "check your foundation" before it's too late.
Now, I'm not trying to be too thoughtful here. I'm not interested in talking points, or well crafted prose. What I am interested in is expressing how angry I was with this man. I told Pastor Gary the other day "How dare this man try to take the grace and mercy of God away from me!" I was furious! I wanted to have John MacArthur in my studio for a few minutes, just long enough to ask him this: have you sinned today sir? If so, do you think your going to sin tomorrow? How about the next day? Yes to all? Do we see a pattern here yet? Is there now a discernible pattern of sin emerging?
So back to the point of the day. "Why does Radical Grace matter?" It's simple, yet so difficult for people to grasp: Because we need the Radical Grace of God to match the Radical nature of our sinful condition. We are, as a matter of course, so sinful at any given moment that even if someone were to administer several CCs of curare and render you in a state of coma, the doing of passing out itself would be tainted by sin. The depravity of our existence knows no bounds. That's literal. No pulling punches.
If people are only marginally sinful, then some form of mild grace from God would be sufficient. But the fact is, our sinful nature is matched only by one possible Godly response and that is the immeasurable grace and mercy of our Lord.
Radical Grace matters because it shoots for the dark recesses of our lives and fills up those lives with Christ. You all remember, I'm sure, of that description of the "God-shaped hole" that was a prominent evangelistic analogy for many years. Radical Grace tells us that there is a "sin shaped hole" in our lives that can only be filled with Christ!
I'll be doing more posts on this as time goes by. I have to. It's all I have.
Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?
Should Christians celebrate Christmas? Well of course, we answer. However, not everyone agrees.* Apparently the Puritans and Scottish Presbyterians traditionally didn't. Here are the results in a 2007 pole of 104 Reformed voters on Puritan Board:
- Yes: 53/104 or 50.96%
- No: 34/104 or 32.69%
- Still thinking it through: 17/104 or 16.35%
* See defense of Christians who don't celebrate Christmas. http://www.thebluebanner.com/pdf/bluebanner8-9&10.pdf
* See R.C.Sproul's defense of celebrating Christmas. http://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/celebration-christmas-pagan-ritual/
When we moved to this neighborhood in 2001 we started a tradition that has been in different homes each year. It was our turn again this year to host the annual neighborhood Christmas party. The neighbors can't help but notice the symbolism of our home decorations--definitely not secular. At our home we prayed before the meal. If we did not have or participate in this neighborhood tradition, would our neighbors think we are not Christians now? One Catholic neighbor bought my spiritual memoir at that party. We try to take all the commercialism out of Christmas, to simplify and not overspend the budget, but want to greet friends and neighbors all throughout the year, especially to sit on the front porch them, or go have coffee, and chat about what is important in life.
Dr. William Earl Sullivan
The Elder at my church, and an administrator on this blog, has just received an Honorary Doctorate of Humanitarian Letters from Whitefield Theological Seminary in Lakeland, Florida! I think he was quite surprised, but he is most certainly deserving. Congratulations!
Twelve Days and Doctrine
This is my second year listening to The Daily Audio Bible. Of course we are in Revelation on those podcasts and recently Brian Hardin commented that the study of Revelation is a lifelong pursuit. Yep, Brian, Revelation and eschatology will be a life-long pursuit. I thought within 2009 I would have arrived at a viewpoint and it hasn't happened. Granted that my study has been interupted by other projects, lack of dialogue on this blog, but no firm conclusion as yet.
There is an interesting story of the origin of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". It seems that in England from 1558 to 1829 Catholics were prohibited from practicing their religion. The story goes that an Irish priest penned the song "The 12 Days of Christmas" to serve as a catechism for Catholic youngsters, with "gifts" really referring to Catholic teachings and the true love being God Himself and "me" being baptized Catholics. Here is the symbolism in the song according to this story:
- A partridge in a pear tree refers to Christ who once likened Himself to a hen wishing to shelter chicks under its wings.
- Two turtle doves are the Old and New Testaments.
- Three French hens are faith, hope and charity, theological virtues.
- Four calling birds are the four gospels.
- Five golden rings are the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
- Six geese a-laying are the six days of creation.
- Seven swans a-swimming are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments. (We Reformed/Evangelicals have two--communion and baptism.)
- Eight maids a-milking stands for the eight beatitudes.
- Nine ladies dancing are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.
- Ten lords a-leaping are the ten commandments.
- Eleven pipers piping are the eleven faithful apostles.
- Twelve drummers drumming are the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed.
Meanwhile some Reformed dudes got together and made their own twelve days of doctrine, which is absolutely hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW58lVVcu4w
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