What We Talk About When We Talk About God – Rob Bell Reviewed at “Ref21″

What We Talk About When We Talk About God – Reformation21.

Perhaps you have heard – the infamous postmodern “Christian” (heretical) teacher Rob Bell has a new book out: What We Talk About When We Talk About God (HarperOne, 2013). Perhaps you don’t care, based on his previous heretical publications. But you should, not because his book is “must reading”, but because we should know what postmodernists like Bell are doing to and saying about the Christian faith. Indeed, we must defend the faith against those on the outside (such as the new atheists) but also against those on the inside (heretics), who claim to speak for the Lord and for His church. Bell does not, and he must be exposed as such.

As a brief introduction to this book, this is how the publisher describes it on the back cover:

How God is described today strikes many as mean, primitive, backward, illogical, tribal, and at odds with the frontiers of science. At the same time, many intuitively feel a sense of reverence and awe in the world. Can we find a new way to talk about God?

Pastor and New York Times bestselling author Rob Bell does here for God what he did for heaven and hell in Love Wins: he shows how traditional ideas have grown stale and dysfunctional and reveals a new path for how to return vitality and vibrancy to how we understand God. Bell reveals how we got stuck, why culture resists certain ways of talking about God, and how we can reconnect with the God who is with us, for us, and ahead of us, pulling us forward into a better future—and ready to help us live life to the fullest.

What I have linked you to above (top of the post) is a solid, straight-forward review by Dr.Michael Kruger, President and professor of NT at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. It appeared yesterday (May 6) at the “Reformation21″ website. Here are a couple of points Kruger makes (Read all of his review at the “Ref21″ link above.):

…Of course, Bell’s method of defending Christianity is not by stripping it of its supernatural elements (that was the issue in Bultmann’s day). On the contrary, Bell is quite keen to remind the reader of the supernatural–God is everywhere, busy at work, in us and in our world.   Instead, Bell’s makeover method is to change Christianity into a broad “spirituality.”  His book downplays (and in some instances, simply ignores) many of the key doctrines that make Christianity distinctive. He simply turns Christianity into vague, general, theism. Whereas Bultmann demythologized the faith, Bell has detheologized the faith.

…In the end, my overall concern about this volume is a simple one: it is not Christian. Bell’s makeover of Christianity has changed it into something entirely different. It is not Christianity at all, it is modern liberalism. It is the same liberalism that Machen fought in the 1920′s and the same liberalism prevalent in far too many churches today. It is the liberalism that teaches that God exists and that Jesus is the source of our happiness and our fulfillment, but all of this comes apart from any real mention of sin, judgment, and the cross. It is the liberalism that says we can know nothing for sure, except of course, that those “fundamentalists” are wrong. It is the liberalism that appeals to the Bible from time to time, but then simply ignores large portions of it.

Bell’s book, therefore, is really just spiritualism with a Christian veneer. It’s a book that would fit quite well on Oprah’s list of favorite books. What is Rob Bell talking about when he is talking about God? Not the God of Christianity.

The World Wide Web Became Free 20 Years Ago Today!

The World Wide Web Became Free 20 Years Ago Today | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network.

Not much time to post today, but can’t pass up this notice from Scientific American. Happy birthday WWW! Think of how far this technology has developed in those 20 years! Astounding! The WWW is an integral part of our lives now, including libraries. Ponder for a moment all the free information – and now free ebooks, emags, etc! – available to us via the Web! Obviously it has been a powerful tool for good in our lives; but it has also been a powerful tool for evil. May God give us wisdom to discern the difference and to use it wisely, for our good and for His glory.

Read the rest of this news item at the link above, along with some interesting links that tell the rest of the story.

You and I can access billions of Web pages, post blogs, write code for our own killer apps—in short, do anything we want on the Web—all for free! And we’ve enjoyed free reign because 20 years ago, today, Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and his employer, the CERN physics lab in Geneva, published a statement that made the nascent “World Wide Web” technology available to every person, company and institution with no royalty or restriction.

Berners-Lee proposed the Web in 1989 and had a working version in Dec 1990. But by 1993 certain user groups were positioning themselves to try to monopolize the Web as a commercial product. Chief among them was the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, which had developed a browser called Mosaic that would later become Netscape. So Berners-Lee and CERN decided to release the code for the Web, believing that software development by hundreds of Web enthusiasts at the time, and millions of people in the future, would always stay one step ahead of any company that tried to control the Web or force people to pay to use it. The decision came at a very tense time that could have ruined the Web’s primary goal as a ubiquitous, open communications platform.

Why Christians Should Read Fiction – Moore to the Point

Moore to the Point – Why Christians Should Read Fiction.

Should Christians read fiction (and not just so-called “Christian” fiction)? Isn’t this a waste of time, or even worse, a concession to worldliness and a compromise of our faith? This question is constantly being raised in Christian circles and the answers are multitude. Russell Moore gives us one more on his blog (posted March 25, 2013). You may not agree with everything he writes, but he does give us good food for thought.

Is reading fiction a waste of time?

I’ve found that most people who tell me that fiction is a waste of time are folks who seem to hold to a kind of sola cerebra vision of the Christian life that just doesn’t square with the Bible. The Bible doesn’t simply address man as a cognitive process but as a complex image-bearer who recognizes truth not only through categorizing syllogisms but through imagination, beauty, wonder, awe. Fiction helps to shape and hone what Russell Kirk called the moral imagination.

My friend David Mills, now executive editor at First Things, wrote a brilliant article in Touchstone several years ago about the role of stories in shaping the moral imagination of children. As he pointed out, moral instruction is not simply about knowing factually what’s right and wrong (though that’s part of it); it’s about learning to feel affection toward certain virtues and revulsion toward others. A child learns to sympathize with the heroism of Jack the Giant Killer, to be repelled by the cruelty of Cinderella’s sisters and so on.

When you think about it, that’s how the Scriptures often work. The Proverbs, for instance, paint a vivid picture of the revolting tragedy of adultery (Proverbs 7). Jesus doesn’t simply speak about God’s forgiveness in the abstract. He tells a story, the prodigal son, designed to shock (a son who would spurn his inheritance) and to elicit sympathy and identification. The apostles do the same thing. They employ literary, visual language meant to appeal not just to the intellect but to the conscience through the imagination. Think of the Apostle Paul’s language of “laboring until Christ is formed in you,” or his use of literary themes in the OT (“fruit of the Spirit,” and so on).

Christian Publishers Association Names Top Books and Authors for 2012 (Don’t get too excited.)

Christian Publishers Association Names Top Books and Authors for 2012.

I have been hanging on to this saved post for over a month and today I decided to post it. Publisher’s Weekly also tracks Christian publications and at the beginning of the new year gives a summary of the bestsellers for the previous year. On Jan.25, 2013  ”PW” posted this summary of the best books and authors for 2012. I always hesitate to reference lists like this, because it is rather depressing to me to see what books are truly popular among Christians in our age. “Why are ‘evangelicals’ such poor readers?”, I tend to think. But then, I realize where evangelicalism is today, and I am not surprised. And, as you have heard me say before, it is good for us to know what books and authors are getting attention so that we may also be guided in what NOT to read, or to read in order to learn how to read better (See my next post!). At the same time, there are always a few good titles among these lists that may be worth reading and benefiting from. So, here is “PW”‘s introductory statement and then the first of their lists. You may find more at the link above.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) has announced its top 50 Christian books sold in 2012 in both Christian retail and general outlets. The association also named the 20 top-selling authors for last year, including the top five: Sarah Young, Max Lucado, Todd Burpo, Karen Kingsbury, and Joyce Meyer. Young’s Jesus Calling devotional and spin-offs dominated the lists; Todd Burpo’s Heaven Is for Real and Heaven Is for Real for Kids were also ubiquitous. Lucado, Kingsbury, and Meyer scored with multiple titles.

And here are the top 10:

1. Jesus Calling by Sarah Young (Thomas Nelson Publishers).

2. Be a Better Dad Today! by Gregory Slayton (Gospel Light).

3. Heaven Is for Real by Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson Publishers).

4. Jesus Calling, Large-Print Deluxe Edition by Sarah Young (Thomas Nelson Publishers).

5. The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn, (Charisma Media).

6. Jesus Calling, Deluxe Edition by Sarah Young (Thomas Nelson Publishers).

7. Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman (Zondervan).

8. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp (Zondervan).

9. The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (Zondervan).

10. The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman (Moody Publishers).

I Confess (Part I) – C.Trueman at Reformation21

I Confess (Part I) – Reformation21 Blog.

Dr.Carl Truman, who recently had a book published on creeds and their importance to the Christian and to the church (The Creedal Imperative, Crossway, 2012), has started a short series on the “Reformation21″ blog on the creeds. His title is simply “I Confess”, and it would be worth your time to read the first two (brief) installments. The first is linked above and quoted from below. The second may be found here.

In this first online article Trueman shows how confessional Christians are “disciplined” by their creeds, and he gives an interesting example to demonstrate his point – an elder who may question the sovereignty of God in this midst of some personal crisis. Here is how he opens the example and his point. Be sure to read the details of how this elder is “disciplined” by his confession.

Take an elder in a confessional church.   He has taken public vows before the church to uphold a particular set of theological tenets, for example, the sovereignty of God  as articulated in the Westminster Confession of Faith in Chapter 5 (Of Providence).   That vow binds his public teaching to the standards outlined in the Confession, and by ‘public teaching,’ I mean anything he might say either from the pulpit or while standing at the coffee machine after the service.

Perhaps this elder wakes up one morning to find that some terrible tragedy has intruded into his life: bereavement, serious illness, loss of material goods or status.  Such an event might well have a traumatic effect not just on his emotional psyche but perhaps also on his faith as well.  Perhaps there are moments, or even an extended period of time, when he questions whether God really is in control.  I pray that I never experience it, but I imagine that standing by the grave of a beloved child must be a very hard moment to believe in God’s loving sovereignty and care for his people.

This is where the discipline of a confession is important.  This elder has no right to share his doubts with the world in general.  Of course, he can speak confidentially to a ministerial friend for counsel; but he must not teach (in any sense of the word) against the content of the vows he has taken.

“Listening to the World” – Gene Veith

Listening to the World by Gene Edward Veith | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

The fourth and final feature article in the January Tabletalk is written by Gene E. Veith, a conservative Lutheran who serves both as dean of Patrick Henry College in Virginia and as director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary in St.Louis, MO. In connection with them them of this month’s issue, “The Lost Virtues of Listening, Meditating, and Thinking, Veith writes on the subject of “Listening to the World”. I didn’t know what to expect from this article, though I have appreciated the author’s writings in the past. But I was pleasantly profited by Veith’s article, and believe you will be as well.

While carefully maintaining the antithesis between the Christian and the world, Veith calls us to be “listen” to the world in the sense of being aware of what they are teaching and practicing, so that we can communicate a clear and consistent gospel message to unbelievers. I can only give you a glimpse of what he says, but once again encourage you to visit the link above and read the entire article.

An important reason for listening to the world is to recognize false philosophies and worldviews, lest they infect our Christian faith. For example, one of the governing assumptions of the world today is progressivism. This view takes for granted that what is “new” is always better than what is “old.” Thus, progressive educators tend to cut out or attack our heritage of old books and old ideas in favor of “new ideas,” “the latest developments,” and “cutting-edge thinking.”

Such language appeals to most of us, since we are, like it or not, denizens of our culture. But among the old ideas progressivism has no use for is Christianity, and the belief in progress—that things are getting better and better over against the “darkness” of the past—is one of the main vehicles for excising Christianity from society.

If we listen carefully to progressivists, we will note the syndrome that the Apostle Paul faced in the intellectual center of Athens: “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:21). We will also see the marks of Darwinism, the notion that we are ever evolving to a higher level.

TV’s Assault on Truth (Groothuis)

Reblogged from The Reformed Reader:

The appendix of Truth Decay by Douglas Groothuis is a short essay that describes how television is a “potent agent of truth decay” in today’s postmodern (or post-postmodern) world. I found the essay to be helpful, so I’ll summarize Groothuis’ five ways television has contributed (and does contribute) to the decay of truth in our culture.

“First, television emphasizes the moving image over written and spoken language.

Read more… 643 more words

CJT - I appreciated this post on the evil influence of TV in our culture - and in much of our own Christian lives. May its re-posting here make us think again of the influence which all the visual media so readily available to us today is having on the way we Christians are not only thinking but also behaving. How much different (and better!) to be shaped by the Word (of God) - and by other good words! Read more, and read better.

Christ and the Academy: An Interview with D.A. Carson

Christ and the Academy: An Interview with D.A. Carson by D.A. Carson | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org.

This month’s Tabletalk also contains a wonderful interview with Dr.Donald (“D.A.”) Carson, under the above title. Carson is a godly scholar, who is research professor of NT at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL, and a prolific author (45 books and counting!). I am reading one of his titles for a book review at present  and I dare say you have at least heard of this man. This interview is packed with the wisdom of a man who has lived in (and lived!) the Word for many years. I am going to select just one part of the interview for today and encourage you to read the entire interview at the link above.

This section has to do with preparing our children for apologetics – defending their faith against the attacks they will face in this world, especially at college. I trust you too will appreciate what Carson has to say here.

TT: What is the best way for parents to prepare their children for the attacks on their faith they may face in college?

DC: There is no formulaic answer and no guarantee. For a start, our children themselves are extraordinarily diverse. Many will be tempted by postmodern assumptions. Others will feel far greater threats from biologists, cosmologists, or psychologists who operate under the assumptions of raw atheism or, worse, functional atheism. All I can do is enumerate some values and practices in the home that seem to me to be wise, biblically faithful, and useful in mitigating the dangers. These are exemplary, not exhaustive.

First, the home should encourage vigorous Christian understanding. The most dangerous seedbed for intellectual rebellion is a home where faith is sentimental and even anti-intellectual, and where opponents are painted as ignorant knaves, because eventually our children discover that there are some really nice people who are atheists and agnostics, and they can present arguments in sophisticated, gentle, and persuasive fashion.

Similarly, the local church with young people who are heading off to college should be doing what it can to prepare them—first with a solid grasp of Christian essentials, and second with the rudiments of responsible apologetics.

At the same time, both the home and the church should be living out a Christian faith that is more than intellectually rigorous. It should be striving for biblically-faithful authenticity across the board: genuine love for God and neighbor, living with eternity in view, quickness to confess sin and seek reconciliation, a concern for the lost and the broken, faithfulness in praise and intercessory prayer, a transparent delight in holiness, and a contagious joy in God. Even if our children are sucked into intellectual nihilism for a while, over the long haul it is important that they remember what biblically-faithful Christianity looks like in the home and in the church.

Fourth, wisdom in shaping our kids demands more structure when they are young; more discussion, carefully monitored controls, and a safety net as they grow older; and a willingness, in most instances, to wait to be asked for advice when they have genuinely left the nest and are no longer dependent on our roof or our wallets.

Finally, pray for them. Pray for them especially diligently when you recognize, as you repeatedly will, that unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor do so in vain.

“Library Journal” – Best Books 2012

Best Books 2012: Top Ten.

In this list of “best books of 2012″ the editors of Library Journal reveal their choices (posted Dec.20, 2012). And, because they couldn’t stop there, they added another 16 “great reads”. Of course, this is only one of the lists available once you are at the “LJ” site. You will also find the top books for all kinds of categories under both nonfiction and fiction genres (including “spiritual life” and “Christian fiction”). Keep in mind that there is a lot of secular reading material here. That does not necessarily mean it is “off limits” to the believer. It does mean that you need to exercise wise discernment.

Here are a few words of introduction from the editors of “LJ”:

When LJ’s book review editors gathered to choose best books recently, a controversy emerged. Some of us were stumping for titles—Eloisa James’s Paris in Love, Jenny Lawson’s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, and Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things—that were, at least in part, previously published on the web. But should they qualify for our august listing? Was rehashed material good enough? Did Facebook postings count as previously published? Were they even books?

As you can see from our lists—these ten bests and 16 other great reads that struck us as noteworthy in 2012—we decided that there’s no shame in a lowly birth.

Your patrons will be the beneficiaries: the advice in Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things, to pick the blog-turned-book that made our top ten, is so far from Ann Landers as to almost be a different genre, one that we at LJ now call “makes you cry on the subway.”

Christianity and the Future of the Book – A.Jacobs

Christianity and the Future of the Book – more than 95 theses.

Professor of English (Wheaton College, IL) Alan Jacobs recently shared via his Tumblr page some thoughts on a timely topic – how the Christian faith should view the transition to the digital world of books, and indeed, to the entire world of new technology. This is how he introduced his “theses”:

Last year I led a seminar on this topic for some faculty colleagues here at Wheaton. Just before our last meeting I sent to the group a list of Theses for Disputation. I thought I might reproduce them here, in case anyone is interested.

Below are a few of them (Note that the numeral order of these “theses” changed when I re-posted them here). I think you will find these thought-provoking, and perhaps, as Luther’s 95 theses did, spark some good public debate.

1. Brian Brock refers to the current regime as “technological modernity,” while Neil Postman calls it “Technopoly,” but both of them help us identify the key features of the regime: a commitment to rationalization and regularization of human behavior; a confidence that tools can direct human will into proper channels, with what is “proper” being wholly accessible to autonomous human reason; a belief in the inevitability of progress; and an insistence that technologies are always neutral, equally capable of being used for good or ill.
2. Stanley Hauerwas has rightly said that to be a Christian is to work “with the grain of the universe,” but none of those core commitments of Technopoly run wholly (or at all) with the grain of the Christian story.

3. Therefore, while working against the grain of anything is wearisome, to that we are called. Any thought that we can create a form of life that will allow us to live always with the grain, and therefore without struggle and tension, amounts to a wish-fulfillment fantasy. Paul’s images of “running the race” and “fighting the good fight” do not just concern internal “spiritual” struggles.

   4. Any thoughts about the role of the book in our professional lives and more generally our lives as Christ-followers must be pursued within the parameters of the reflections above. We should not revere the book or any other technology in itself, but value it insofar as it helps us to work with the grain of God’s universe.

   5. As a corollary, any decision to stick with paper codices instead of digital texts will be a trivial decision if in most other respects we are unreflective participants in Technopoly.

   6. The codex certainly seems to have been especially well-suited to the preservation and transmission of the Gospel, but we don’t have a control group for purposes of comparison, nor can we roll back the tape of history and replay it with the codex taken out. A Church without codices might have been worse than the one that arose; it might have been better; it surely would have been different, with a different mix of virtues and vices. There’s no way for us to know.

   7. There is no power-knowledge regime under which the Gospel cannot be preached and the Christian life practiced. God will not leave us comfortless, even if He allows our codices to be taken away.