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March 23, 2005
Overdue for a new Scottish Reformation...
Why are people always trying to make their own god? It's like making a golden calf and calling it Yahweh. I get so frustrated every time I hear about dead religions ordaining gay priests. It's like, what's the point of being religious at all? If you don't believe the Bible, why would you want to be bored out of your mind in dead religion? I don't get it!
According to an article by the BBC, the Scottish Episcopal church (not to be confused with the official Church of Scotland--the Kirk--which is Presbyterian), is allowing practicing homosexuals to become priests!
Perhaps it's time for our Presbyterian friends to stand up again for truth and Scripture. I'm all for freedom of religion, but two dead denominations are not going to further the cause of Christ. Scotland needs revival, and they need a revival that's founded in Biblical truth and Protestant theology. In 1638 the National Covenant was formed in order to protest English religious interference in Scotland. In Shelley's Church History in Plain Language, he says,
The straw that broke the back of restraint within the two kingdoms came when Charles tried to force his high church brand of Anglican religion upon the Presbyterian Scots. He insisted that they conduct their worship services from the Book of Common Prayer....They rose in opposition to the move and joined in a "National League of Covenant." To defend their Church, they dared to take up arms against their king. (297)
But the issue now has the Scottish branch of the Church of England being even more liberal than the English church itself! According to an article on the LGCM website, the Scottish Episcopal Bishop of Edinburgh once said, "I could stock the Scottish Episcopal Church with sexual refugees from the Church of England. Hardly a week goes by when I don't get a letter from someone, usually with a heart-breaking story."
There is growing liberalism within the Kirk itself as well, but there is hope. There is a new William Wallace in town! As Scotsman.com reports:
Forward Together will be officially launched in Edinburgh next week by ministers who want to change the Church’s generally liberal stance on a range of theological, moral and social issues. They claim to have the support of the majority of churchgoers. The Rev Bill Wallace, a former convener of the Church of Scotland's Board of Social Responsibility and a member of the new group, said if the 'evangelical position continues to be sidelined there is real trouble ahead for the Church.'
I've been trying to find an official website for this evangelical group, but to no avail. I'll post it if I ever find it.
Posted by aaronlord at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2005
The Denominational Theory of the Church
Here is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to my friend Kirstin that I thought would make a good blog entry.
I read an interesting chapter in Church History in Plain Language about the denominational theory of the church. It kind of threw everything I thought on its head. Denomination comes from a root meaning 'to give a name to'. Basically, the theory says that we are all one body in Christ, who agree on the fundamentals of the faith, even though we are a bunch of groups with different names. Unlike sectarianism, none of these groups--'denominations'--considers itself to be the sole posessors of the whole truth. So, denominations are actually a good thing, and much less divisive than I grew up thinking. It's possible that to call oneself 'non-denominational' (according to the old definition) would have actually been a negative term, meaning that rather than recognizing the truth that other denominations might hold, we're going to be our own exclusive group. If you go by the old definition of denominationalism, than to call yourself non-denominational means you're sectarian, exclusive, and divisive, whereas to be a denomination you are recognizing the worldwide unity of the brethren, and the fact that the church is made up of believers, not registered members. Unfortunately, the definition has changed, so that people who grow up in 'denominational' churches today wonder why they have to be part of that denomination. "Why don't we just call ourselves Christian?" they ask. And so they go and start non-denominational churches, and you can miss the whole point of denominational theory if you grow up thinking Presbyterians and Baptists and Methodists are sectarian, like saying "I follow Paul" or "I follow Apollos". Scripturally, that's the closest parallel we have, and so if we look only at the Biblical truth without considering the context of church history, we can be missing something important. We who preach such things today do so only because we're not aware of the history of the wars that ravaged Europe for 100 years while they tried to settle religious differences along political boundary lines. Originally, denominations arose out of the idea that it's okay to let your neighbor have a different stance on a certain non-fundamental doctrine than you carry, as long as they agree on the main points. Now, in America, it's evolved into pluralism, but it used to be about unity in the fundamentals.
I'm not saying that it's wrong for us to be non-denominational, or that it's wrong to be denominational (which I used to think). I just think it's important to get a context of our current church situation from Church History. Denominations were the way that the church avoided continuing massive bloodshed after the age of the Reformation. As Bruce Shelley says, "The denominational form of the church has marked the recent centuries of Christian history, not because it is ideal, but because it is better than any alternative the years have offered." No longer do we kill those we disagree with, so perhaps a greater unity in the church, outside the labels of denominations or 'non-denominations', is a greater possibility in the church today.
Posted by aaronlord at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)
John & Jen Brookman
These are my friends J.B. and Jen. I must confess I've never met Jen, but she's his wife, so now they go together, of course! :-)
A couple weeks ago J.B. was diagnosed with cancer. Prior to his diagnosis, someone from church had a 'word' for him that he was supposed to start journaling, but that this journal wasn't for himself, but it was to bless other people and help them through their issues. So he started blogging. His blog truly is a blessing, as he gets on there every day and updates everybody on what God's teaching him as he goes through the motions with hospital visits, exams, CT scans, etc.
This guy is a true bro, sent by God as a 'son of encouragement', just like Barnabas. If it wasn't for certain truths that God used him to speak to me, I think I'd be in a totally different place today. A couple weeks ago I posted a prayer request on my blog, but now I want to put the anonymous request together with the real man, and his wife, so you can not only have faces to go with the prayers, but now you can find regular updates to keep your prayers current.
Posted by aaronlord at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2005
"What Mortification Is Not"
5. Occasional victories over sin are not mortification. There are two occasions or seasons in which a man who is fighting with a particular sin may seem to have mortified it, but has not in reality. (i) When that sin breaks out sadly and seriously in a way that greatly disturbs his peace, terrifies his conscience, brings the dread of scandal, and clearly provokes the Lord to judgment. This may awaken and stir up all that is in that man, filling him with the abhorrence of sin, and sending him to God to cry out for life and help to set himself against the sin. The whole man, both spiritual and natural, is aroused. Sin shrinks. The sin in question appears to lie dead before him. It is like a soldier who draws near the enemy lines and kills an important person. The guards then awake and make strict inquiry after the enemy. The enemy, meanwhile, has hidden himself like one that is dead until the noise and tumult is over. Though for the time being he is quiet, there is in his mind the firm resolution to do more mischief at the first opportunity. (John Owen, The Mortification of Sin, abr. R. Rushing, Banner of Truth, pp. 29-30)
Posted by aaronlord at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2005
Prayer
I have a buddy who was diagnosed with cancer today. This is very shocking news, as he is a young, healthy guy. Everybody please pray for him. Pray for him, and also for his wife, that God would heal him, and give them the strength to get through. This guy is a prophet, and he has a gift of encouragement to a level that's hard to find, especially in the every-man-for-himself world of Southern California.
Posted by aaronlord at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2005
God-Centered Worship
In considering the rationale for God-centered worship, we must begin with the realization that worship is the number one priority of the Church. Jesus' famous statement in John 4:23 that the Father seeks worshipers is unparalleled, for nowhere in the entire corpus of Holy Scripture do we read of God's seeking anything else from a child of God. God desires worship above all else.
Thus, every man who calls himself a Christian must understand that worship is the ultimate priority of his life. Worship is what God wants from you and from me. Jesus hallowed and substantiated this in His chiding of busy, frenetic Martha, who was so critical of her sister's sitting at Jesus' feet: "Martha, Martha . . . you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41, 42). (R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, 111)
Nowhere in all the Scriptures do we read of God's seeking anything else from the child of God. One often hears that Christians are "saved to serve," and there is a limited sense in which this is true, for throughout eternity as well as during our earthly life it will be our joy and privilege to serve the Lord God. But this heavenly service will itself be primarily worship (see Heb. 9:14; 12:28; Rev. 22:3). Nowhere in the Bible are we told that the Lord seeks our service. It is not servants He seeks, but true worshipers. (Robert G. Rayburn, O Come, Let Us Worship, 15)
Posted by aaronlord at 09:19 AM | Comments (1)
