One doesn’t have to look to hard to see we evangelicals are increasingly a confused bunch. Consider many of the questions we ask:

• Can’t we affirm same-sex marriage?
• Do we really need to talk about Hell, judgment, blood and all that nasty stuff?
• Does God really control everything—and if he does, doesn’t that mean he’s a tyrant?

With any of these, and a host of others, it’s extremely tempting to look at the historic responses to any issue—and indeed to look at what the Bible says—and say, “well that was for then, not now,” or “does it really mean what it says… maybe it means something else.”

It’s tempting to say, as one former pastor did recently, that we are “for love,” in whatever shape it takes and Christians ought to get with the program. It’s tempting to tell the lost that God’s love overcomes all and in the end they’ll be okay. It’s tempting to try to comfort the suffering by saying God is as surprised as they are.

But to do so is a cruel lie.

We dare not leave the lost with a damnable false assurance built upon an (at best) incomplete picture of God’s love. We dare not suggest Christians go with the flow of culture, as though what culture doing is surely approved by God. We dare not present a small, impotent God because we’re afraid of a very real tension.

Our goal, Packer says, is to “seek ways and means of making [Biblical terms and imagery's] meaning clear.”¹ We are not permitted to make it more palatable to the modern mind. “That would be treachery to Christ,” he writes.

Our business is to present the Christian faith clothed in modern terms, not to propagate modern thought clothed in Christian terms. Our business is to interpret and criticize modern thought by the gospel, not vice versa. Confusion here is fatal.²

We always have to remember the task set before us: to clearly present and apply the gospel to men and women in their actual situations. That means speaking the whole truth in love in ways that are understandable.

Where we become confused, we put others—and ourselves—in peril.

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Tony Reinke:

Whatever final conclusion you draw about the tweets is between you and the Lord. But we wanted to take a moment to address misinformation online as you make your own conclusions on the matter. We appreciate those of you who have come to Pastor John’s defense online, but our sense is that this isn’t a matter worth debating. Our purpose in posting here is simply to provide you with more information.

TGC13 Media Now Available

The media for The Gospel Coalition’s 2013 National Conference is now available. Go check it out.

How not to miss the visitation

Ray Ortlund:

Most of the sins we commit are not conscious. It’s natural for us all to cruise along in a mental environment of easy-going benevolence, protected from self-awareness within walls of soft but impenetrable good intentions.

God’s Irony

Mike Leake:

I admit it. I love the various ironies of life especially when it comes to our tendency to think we have charge over our destiny. Consider Pharaoh’s bravado as he issued genocidal orders to destroy a race of people. His command? “Every son this born the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live” (Exodus 1:22). His concern was that there were to be too many Jews and these “immigrant slaves” would take over the land. (Got to watch those immigrants very carefully.)

5 Ways We Grow

Tim Challies:

Just about every Christian has memorized the closing verses of Galatians and Paul’s description of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is the character of the man or woman who has been justified by grace through faith.

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A topic I’ve written on many times over the last year or two is excellence. As followers of Christ, excellence is demanded of believers in all we do. Because we follow the Excellent One, we are to pursue excellence with vim and vigor.

Christians should desire to be the most excellent writers, filmmakers, businesspeople, chefs, parents, carpenters…

And yet it’s not hard to look around and see we fall far short of this ideal.

Most of the time, I think you can fairly chalk up our failures to the curse at work. From the moment we fell, our work became hindered by thorns and thistles preventing us from reaping the fruit of our labors (Gen. 3:17-18). We work hard, but our work falls short.

None of us are exempt from this reality; it is the way the world is wired in light of our sin.

But we should probably be careful to avoid pinning all our failures on the curse.

Sometimes it’s just because we just don’t try to do a good job.

I’m not sure how it got started, but somewhere along the way Christians began to confuse what is excellent with what is not.

We make heavy-handed movies and schmaltzy songs. We define stewardship as frugality. We eschew disciplined effort for a half-hearted desire to be “flexible” in business.

This, friends, is goofiness.

Or, to put a finer point on it, when we simply don’t do a good job out of a lack of effort, it’s sin.

Excellence demands we give our best to the glory of God. And when we hold up something we know is sub-par and call it “great,” what do we do?

We lie to ourselves and to the Lord.

This is something particularly challenging for me when I find myself tempted to put in a half-hearted effort at work and with my family. And what I’ve found is it actually takes more effort to do a poor job than to do a good one. Why? Because you have to justify why it’s okay to not do what is excellent.

Spin takes tremendous effort.

And this, too, is goofiness.

But make no mistake—God is not glorified by goofiness. Our deceit might smell like sweet bread in the moment, but when we bite, we’ll break our teeth and find our mouths “full of gravel” (Prov. 20:17). Instead, we need to remember to ”work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men;” regardless of our profession and interest, we “are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23-24).

This is the grace God gives us to glorify Him in our work. To discipline ourselves and to pursue excellence diligently. He reminds us who we work for. We don’t simply for for a man or a corporation; we work for the living God who purchased us through the blood of His Son.

And if He sacrificed so much, how can we not pursue excellence to His glory and our joy?

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To further help Christians know what they believe, why they believe it, how to live it, and how to share it, from today the eBook editions of R.C. Sproul’s Crucial Questions series will be free forever.

Hell Awakened Me

Joe Thorn:

I didn’t go to church as a kid, but I did watch a lot of horror movies so I felt pretty educated when it came to the subject of hell. From the The Gates of Hell (1980) to Hellraiser (1987), and everything in-between, Hell was a scary but fictional place. Hell didn’t bother me. It was thrilling. Fun, even. Until 1989.

Pastors: You Should Start a Study Group

Darryl Dash:

I’m convinced that we as pastors have to go a bit deeper than what’s offered at most conferences. We need more intimacy, more depth, and more encouragement than the average conference can afford. Many pastors graduate from seminary and never experience the same level of teaching just about the time that they can really benefit from it. I’m not talking about abstract, theoretical work. I’m talking about digging into the Word of God and thinking in depth how it applies to our lives and ministries.

Parents, Do You Think Before You Post?

Jen Wilkin:

My entire childhood is documented in the space of three photo albums. Two photos stand out in my memory: one, infant-me having my diaper changed from a rather compromising camera angle; the other, 2-year-old me seated triumphantly on a potty chair. I remember them because my parents teased that they would show them to any prospective suitors. Even though I knew they were joking, the possibility that those pictures would ever be viewed outside our family horrified me as an adolescent. The written record of my childhood is fairly small, too—a baby book with notes about my weight gain and first words, a collection of birthday cards and letters from family. How different this is from the record many parents are making of their children’s early years now.

The Goodness of God and the Reality of Evil

Albert Mohler:

We dare not speak on God’s behalf to explain why He allowed these particular acts of evil to happen at this time to these persons and in this manner. Yet, at the same time, we dare not be silent when we should testify to the God of righteousness and love and justice who rules over all in omnipotence. Humility requires that we affirm all that the Bible teaches, and go no further. There is much we do not understand. As Charles Spurgeon explained, when we cannot trace God’s hand, we must simply trust His heart.

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While “doctrine” is a dirty word in some circles, there are times when I wonder if it’s become a bit of a cliché in some of ours. Many of us in the “new Calvinist/YRR/whatever-you-want-to-call-this” movement love to talk about the importance of sound doctrine and why it matters. We have systematic theologies and commentaries, apologetics books and cultural critiques. But sometimes we forget to talk about what doctrine does in the life of the church, practically.

In Sound Doctrine: How a Church Grows in the Love and Holiness of God, Bobby Jamieson doesn’t give us another book on why doctrine is important. Instead, he reminds us how orthodoxy leads to a healthy church—one committed to the fulfilling of the Great Commission in the spirit of the great commandments.

Sound doctrine: for life in—and the life of—the church

Jamieson, assistant editor of 9Marks and managing editor of the 9Marks Journal, hooked me the moment I read his definition of sound doctrine: “Sound doctrine is a summary of the Bible’s teaching that is both faithful to the Bible and useful for life” (17).

How many other clear and helpful definitions of sound doctrine have you encountered—definitions that balance knowledge and practice? We understand the first easily enough, but when we neglect the second we tend to get into trouble. Application testifies to how firmly we actually hold to our beliefs, confirming the genuineness of our convictions or betraying the hypocrisy of our hearts. For example, what effect does how we treat one another have on the outside world? Does it attract or repel? Do people look at our congregations and really see a group of believers committed to one another? We’ve all heard stories of ugly church splits, divisiveness, pride, and cliquishness that leave people saying, “If that’s what a church is, I’m out.”

This is what sound doctrine lived out protects us from. It brings about greater unity when handled humbly. It increases our awe of the Lord and grows us in personal and corporate holiness. It drives our witness before the watching world and increases our love for one another.

But understand: this isn’t terribly radical stuff when you think about it—it’s the basics of Christian discipleship (e.g., John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; 1 John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11-12). Jamieson writes:

Our churches should be characterized by a mutual love that extends to all those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and love, don’t forget, is fueled by sound doctrine. If bitterness, gossip, and slander are tearing your church apart, sound doctrine is one of the most necessary tools for sewing it back together. If rivalries and divisions are suffocating the church’s love, it needs to breathe anew the rich air of sound doctrine. In order to love the unlovely and to reconcile enemies, we must remember that God has done those very things for us in Christ. (71)

A church committed to faithful teaching—and equally committed to living out that teaching—can’t not be characterized by a supernatural love that surpasses all understanding.

I wonder if some of us have missed this point in our efforts to defend the truth from error. Particularly for those of us who live in our heads (like me), it’s easy to distill holding to sound doctrine to simply defending facts. And while it’s certainly no less than this defense, it’s clearly much, much more. We need to wholeheartedly affirm the truth of Christianity, remaining united around the gospel and “the doctrines that flow from and undergird the gospel” (81). And we need to live in light of that same truth.

Doctrine is for worship

The vapidity of our worship culture is a source of much consternation among conservative evangelicals. Puffy, fluffy songs that could as easily be about a girlfriend or boyfriend as about Jesus dominate the worship “set.” “Spirit keys” intrude on the pastoral prayer, leaving you feeling like you’re watching a special episode of Growing Pains rather than hearing the impassioned prayer of a shepherd for his flock.

All of this, of course, comes from a desire to create an experience—to engage the congregation in worship. In doing so, though, many resort to trying to “facilitate” (read: “manufacture”) an intense emotional experience. However, as Jamieson argues in what might be his strongest chapter, that approach misses the point of worship. Emotions are good things, but creating emotional experiences flips the object of the worship gathering from God to us.

If you really want to engage people, you need to infuse your worship with sound doctrine. “Sound doctrine teaches us to delight in God because it shows us how delightful God is,” Jamieson writes. “It holds before our eyes the perfections of his character, the abundance of his grace, and the majesty of his sovereign rule over all things” (85).

When I read this chapter, I wanted to cheer. (Regrettably I was on a plane and didn’t sense my seatmates would’ve appreciated it.) Jamieson nails the relationship between doctrine and corporate worship—that we should lose ourselves in worship, but not in squishy sentimentality. We’re to lose ourselves in awe of the God who is, who has called us to himself, and who saves and sanctifies us through his Word.

Benefit from this book

Jamieson’s book is thoughtful, helpful, and packed full of wisdom. It succeeds in reminding us that sound doctrine truly is for all of life—and it’s a book you can’t easily walk away from without feeling at least a touch of conviction. Indeed, we all too easily take the implications of our doctrine for granted.

Read Sound Doctrine for your own well-being, work through it as a leadership team, and discuss it in your community groups. If you’re serious about helping others see doctrine as essential to all of life, this book is a great starting point.

Title: Sound Doctrine: How a Church Grows in the Love and Holiness of God
Author: Bobby Jamieson
Publisher: Crossway (2013)

Buy it at: Amazon | Westminster Books

Originally published at The Gospel Coalition

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David Murray:

…spiritual time travel is not an optional extra, something for high-flying Christians, but this is something for every Christian to try. In fact, you will never make much lasting progress in holiness if you do not travel back in time to Calvary’s cross and the empty tomb.

Let me put this as bluntly and as starkly as possible: The Christian’s holiness depends primarily on his/her ability to time travel by faith.

John Piper Is Not Anti-Seashell

Trevin Wax:

Piper’s sermon on a wasted life is powerful because it exposes the tragedy of living only for this world. But countless other sermons from Piper are powerful because they show the joy and wonder of living in this world and the importance of looking beyond the gift to the Maker of all good things – the Artist who splashes his brilliant colors on the canvas of creation.

Just Do Something: the study guide

Moody’s just released a free study guide to Kevin DeYoung’s excellent little book, Just Do Something. Download it here.

Kindle deals for Christian readers

Two of my friend Stephen Altrogge’s fiction books are free this week (and if they’re not already showing up free, they will be soon): The Chip and The Last Superhero. Both are really fun reads and well worth getting.

Also, on sale are Praying Backwards: Transform Your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus’ Name by Bryan Chappell ($1.94) and On the Grace of God by Justin Holcomb ($1.99). And in case you missed them over the weekend, here are a few other books still on sale:

• Which Bible Translation Should I Use? by Andreas Köstenberger—$4.99
• How We Got the Bible—$4.06
• The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke – Acts—$7.59
• Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: John – Acts—$7.59 (USD, price varies in Canada)
• The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon—$4.99
• Taking God Seriously by J.I. Packer—$5.99
• A Passion for Faithfulness by J.I. Packer—$4.99
• Growing in Christ by J.I. Packer—$3.99
• Affirming the Apostle’s Creed by J.I. Packer—$2.99
• James: a 12-Week Study by Greg Gilbert—$2.99
• Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministryby John Piper—$4.99
• Where to Find It in the Bible by Ken Anderson—$4.49
• Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church by Chandler, Patterson and Geiger—$3.99
• Peace Child by Don Richardson—$3.99
• The White Umbrella by Mary Frances Bowley—$2.99
• Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith by Alistair McGrath–$4.94

A Biblical and Scientific Adam

Vern Polythress:

Did Adam and Eve exist? Does science say otherwise? The human genome project has produced voluminous data about the information contained in human DNA. Various news media and scientists tell us that this information demonstrates our ape ancestry. How do we evaluate these claims?

The Unspoken Tension Between (Some) Pastors and (Some) Laity

Thom Rainer:

There is a growing tension between some pastors and some laity in churches across America. It is not pervasive, but it’s growing. Frankly, I don’t even like the seemingly opposing labels of pastors and laity. I just don’t know how to describe the groups otherwise.

This tension is like the family secret that no one mentions explicitly, but many speak around it and near it. And this tension is growing.

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1. Sunday at Immaneul.

Our first morning in town, we visited Immanuel Church, where Ray Ortlund serves as the pastor. We loved spending the morning there and meeting a whole bunch of folks (it was funny how most people assumed we were moving to town rather than visiting). What I most loved about the morning was the way Ortlund employed William Bridge’s Exodus 34 liturgy to engage the congregation and remind us of the truth of God’s character and our confidence in Christ.

2. The downtown library.

We’ve been to story times at libraries before, but we were shocked to see the production at the Nashville Public Library. They put on an amazing show for the kids, the type you’d normally expect to pay for. Library Pete and Mary Mary clearly have a lot of fun.

Beyond the story times, the downtown library itself is gorgeous. It was terrific to roam around there.

3. Chick-Fil-A.

Emily’d never tried the fabled Chick-Fil-A before our visit on Monday. She’d long heard me going on about how delightful it is and she kept thinking, “Really? It’s a chicken sandwich.” She had something like a McDonald’s chicken sandwich in mind—and when she took the first bite, her response was telling:

“This – is - good.”

Turns out I didn’t oversell it.

3. Hanging out with Trevin Wax, Micah Fries, Jonathan Howe, Matt Capps and Michael Kelley.

Wednesday we spent time a lot of time at LifeWay and with the great folks who work there. Really enjoyed meeting Michael Kelley in person for the first time (shame we didn’t have longer). Having lunch with Trevin, Micah, Jonathan and Matt was a real treat and they were incredibly hospitable (especially since we had our three kids with us). We also got to spend time with Matt and his lovely family before we left town. Our girls were happy to make a Nashville friend.

Side note: While we were away, I read Trevin’s soon-to-be-released fiction book, Clear Winter Nights. I’ll tell you more about it later.

4. Really old Bibles.

One of the coolest things at LifeWay is found in their library—they’ve got a display cabinet showcasing a number of extremely old Bibles, including a reproduction of the Gutenberg Bible and the Gun Wad Bible, the first Bible printed in America on American made paper. As the story goes, the reason it’s called the Gun Wad Bible is because it was used as cartridge paper during the American Revolution.

5. People love kids.

One of the things that amazed us most during our stay was how we didn’t get the sense we were burdening society by being outdoors with our three kids. People smiled and talked to them and generally made us feel welcome wherever we were with them. This was a really nice change because, although it doesn’t always happen, we sometimes get the sense our presence is offensive to others here in London (usually at a store).

Those are just a few of the things we loved about our vacation. I could probably list a ton more, like my daughter discovering she likes comic books, our trip to the Frist Center for the Arts, visiting the Parthenon in Centennial Park, Hudson getting his land legs…

In fact, aside from some issues with our hotel and our car having a bit of surprise repair work (and if you’re in the area, go to Antioch Auto Center!), it was a practically perfect vacation.

We’re glad to be home and looking forward to getting back into the normal routine, but we’re already looking forward to when we get to go back. Nashville, consider yourself warned.

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Alex Chediak:

Youth is a particularly strategic time to develop healthy study habits. The early years are a season of developing our God-given talents into competencies by which we can meaningfully serve others and live with impact in a broken world. This requires learning to receive, understand, and evaluate arguments conveyed via words, equations, or other means. It requires attentive reading, alert listening, and active engagement.

But an endless assortment of instantly-available media and non-stop social interactions are making uninterrupted study less common for young adults in our day (and for all of us).

Just My Imagination

R.C. Sproul Jr:

It’s the fuzzy stuff around the edges that gets us. When we are aware we are facing a text from God’s Word, we tend to tread carefully. We move slowly, break out our exegetical tools, and get to work. The trouble comes when we’re dealing in broad generalities. We take a vague notion grounded in our private wishes, and turn these into convictions. I had a friend in college who was signed up for the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. Two years into the program he wanted out, having adopted a pacifist perspective. I asked him how he came to this conclusion- “I just can’t see Jesus blowing some guy away” was his answer. Now there are some thoughtful, nuanced arguments out there in favor of pacifism. I don’t believe them, but I can respect them. This, however, is some microscopically thin ice.

Why Going to Church on Sunday is An Act of War

Dan Darling:

…the simple act of going to church–I’m assuming here a church who preaches the gospel and declares that Jesus Christ is King–is in and of itself a declaration of war. When your weary legs rise for another verse of the chorus and you offer praise to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, you are saying, in effect, that the reigning prince of the power of the air, Satan (Ephesians 2:2) is really not the King He thinks he is. There is another King, another Kingdom and it’s coming one day in it’s fullness and power. When you gather with your fellow believers and worship Christ, you are saying to the rest of the world that man is not ultimate. You are saying that the great movements of this world may have some power, but ultimately they are part of God’s gathering of history to Himself and for His kingdom. When you worship the risen Christ every Sunday at your church, you are telling the world that in your life, for this moment, Christ is ultimate. He is to be worshipped above all else. You’re making a statement that there is Someone deserving of more adulation and worship than the lesser things to which we pledge allegiance. You’re inviting them to ask you, “Why do you think the Kingdom of God is better than the Kingdom of man? What is it about Christ that gets you to roll out of bed, get dressed, get your family dressed, hop in the car, and go to church every single Sunday? 

The Imperfect and Aktionsart

William Mounce:

Meaning is communicated in more ways than time and aspect, and when we see a verb in a certain tense with a certain aspect, there are other factors that determine its meaning. This is Aktionsart.

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Christ hath purchased peace for his people; and what Christ hath purchased for them, God the Father is engaged to give unto them. Read the purchase in Eph. 2:13-14, “But now in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments, for to make in himself of twain, one new man, so making peace.” Verse 16, “And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; and came and preached peace unto you that were afar off, and to them that were nigh.” So that thus ye see it is the purchase of Jesus Christ: this inward peace and quietness of soul, it is Christ’s purchase; and what Christ the Son hath purchased, God the Father is engaged to give.

William Bridge, A Lifting Up for the Downcast

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Here are a number of (hopefully!) still active deals for the Kindle:

• Which Bible Translation Should I Use? by Andreas Köstenberger—$4.74
• How We Got the Bible—$3.47
• The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke – Acts—$7.59
• Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: John – Acts—$7.59 (USD, price varies in Canada)
• The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon—$4.99
• The Holman Bible Atlas—$4.99
• The Holman Illustrated Guide to Biblical History—$4.99
• Taking God Seriously by J.I. Packer—$5.99
• A Passion for Faithfulness by J.I. Packer—$4.99
• Growing in Christ by J.I. Packer—$3.99
• Affirming the Apostle’s Creed by J.I. Packer—$2.99
• James: a 12-Week Study by Greg Gilbert—$2.99
• Signature in the Cell by Stephen Meyer—$2.99
• The MacArthur Bible Commentary—$5.99
• Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley—$4.99
• Journey to Joy by Josh Moody—$1.00
• Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministryby John Piper—$4.99
• Where to Find It in the Bible by Ken Anderson—$4.49
• Redemption by Mike Wilkerson—$2.99
• Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church by Chandler, Patterson and Geiger—$3.99
• One Perfect Life by John MacArthur—$3.99
• Peace Child by Don Richardson—$3.99
• The White Umbrella by Mary Frances Bowley—$2.99
• Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith by Alistair McGrath–$4.94

On Why We should Love and Hate the Suburbs

Matthew Lee Anderson:

Like most kerfuffles, the recent dispute over Christianity and the suburbs has teetered on engendering far more heat than there has been light.

Some of that was due to our own Keith Miller’s post, which self-consciously provoked and explored questions rather than laid out definitive hypotheses.  (Mission accomplished.  The comments have been wonderful.)  But one gets the sense that the discussion has been fueled by vagueness, that it’s full of heuristic caricatures set up to illuminate more fundamental points.  And heuristic caricatures often breed defensive responses, and around the internet wheel-go-round we spin.  That’s my observation, anyway, which I am happy to be wrong about.

Kingdom Come—50% off at Westminster Books

Sam Storm’s new book, Kingdom Come: The Amillennial Alternative, is on sale at Westminster Books for $15 (a 50 per cent savings). You can read a sample which includes the introduction and first chapter here.

Radical Christianity: A Call to Legalism or a Cause to Live?

Ed Stetzer:

I think we need more missional and more radical role models and resources for the church. I think we need it because the bigger problem is complacency, not an overemphasis on radical missional living. At this time and in most Western cultural contexts, a consumer church is a greater danger than a radical Christianity.

However, that does not mean that all of us need to be David Platt.

Idle of the Heart

Joe Thorn:

I continually run into young men who are frustrated at their stage in life in part because of a lack of clarity about their calling, or a lack of opportunity to do what they really want to do.  This frustration leads many to become idle. Inactive if not aimless.

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