A Big Surprise, A Big Criticism, A Big Question: More Thoughts On The Place of Certainty

One of my biggest surprises this year was looking at the program for the Desiring God Ministries National Conference and seeing Dan Taylor as one of the speakers.

I love Dan Taylor. His book The Myth of Certainty is in my top ten books that have been personally helpful. I’ve reviewed the book here at IM, but here’s the short version: Taylor uses a fictional narrative about a moderate and thoughtful Bible professor who finds himself teaching at a roaring fundamentalist Bible college (not Bethel!) where he’s daily confronted with the pressure to believe far more than he does about far more than he believes anyone should be deadly certain about. In between the fictional narrative, Taylor examines the mythology of certainty in evangelicalism, particularly as it relates to evangelical Christianity. He concludes that a lack of certainty is, in many cases, a needed and Biblical virtue and excessive certainty is often just another name for arrogance excusing sin.Continue reading “A Big Surprise, A Big Criticism, A Big Question: More Thoughts On The Place of Certainty”

A Few Study Bibles Coming Out Later This Year

UPDATE: Looks like there’s more than I thought.

Many in the Internetmonk.com audience may not know that the English Standard Version Study Bible is not the only Study Bible that’s been in the works,. Before Christmas, expect to see some of these study Bibles appearing on bookstore shelves and in cyber bookstalls near you.

The Phil Johnson “PoMotivator” Study Bible. Blogging curmudgeon Phil Johnson brings his pomotivator magic to a study Bible that once and for all points out the errors of emerging church theology and David Crowder’s haircare. With more than 250 new pomotivators scattered throughout the old and new testaments, Bible students can appreciate how Paintshop Pro and biting sarcasm can open up the scriptures.Continue reading “A Few Study Bibles Coming Out Later This Year”

iMonk 101: Beyond the Bizarre and the Arbitrary: How I Became Pro-Life

Reprinted from November, 2004.

Also read this recent Uwe Siemon-Netto Collective Shame.

“Doctors should not be aborting fetuses at a stage at which another doctor “operating under a different set of instructions” could give that same baby a reasonable chance of leading a full and healthy life.”
Charlotte Edwardes, undercover reporter for the London Telegraph, who revealed how the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, the U.K.’s largest abortion provider, was circumventing late-term abortion laws in that country by sending women to a Spanish clinic that falsely certifies that every woman who comes to the clinic is in grave danger.

Ahh…the world has finally caught up with me 🙂 Here’s the story.Continue reading “iMonk 101: Beyond the Bizarre and the Arbitrary: How I Became Pro-Life”

Open Discussion at the IM Mic: How Much Can The Bible Do “Alone?”

A very interesting topic arose on the last “Real Differences” thread: Differing views on the distribution of scripture to the public.

Got me thinking…..

How much can the Bible do alone? (That’s a little tricky, because the Bible is never completely “alone.” I mean how much can the Bible do without someone there to teach or explain it?)

I’ve concluded that one of the very important differences between Catholics and Protestants has to do with the mass distribution of Bibles (or New Testaments) to the general, unbelieving public.Continue reading “Open Discussion at the IM Mic: How Much Can The Bible Do “Alone?””

Roger Oakland and Evangelicalism’s Shrinking Map of the Church

Roger Oakland does apologetics and “discernment” ministry at a well known web site. His theology is highly influenced by dispensationalism. I recently visited his web site from a link at Phoenix Preacher, taking note of his warnings about how to know your church is going “emerging.”

What we have here are Oakland’s “Signs That Your Church is Going Emergent.” Or is Emerging. Or is headed for heresy and apostasy.Continue reading “Roger Oakland and Evangelicalism’s Shrinking Map of the Church”

Voddie Baucham: Why Gov. Palin Should Be At Home

Voddie Baucham is an influential person among a lot of people in the Southern Baptist Convention. He spoke at the Founder’s Breakfast recently, he does the reformed conference circuit, and his ideas on family and church are making major inroads among younger Southern Baptists.

Pastor Baucham is nothing if not a consistent complementarian. He’s dead on against Gov. Palin being Governor, Vice President or even driving 45 minutes to work.

If you never read where conservative complementarianism goes when it consistently applies the principle that men should be in charge and women should submit, then read Pastor Baucham’s detailed explanation of what’s wrong with the Palin nomination….and the Palin family and marriage.

I appreciate the complementarians that have staked out a different position, but isn’t Baucham more consistent? And is there any doubt that his views will soon have a significant influence in the SBC and among the young, restless and reformed?

Can you be a “moderate” complementarian when Baucham’s case is so impressive?

Confession

Some Christians love to talk about the sins of Obama or gays or the mainstream media, but get really animated when I suggest we need to talk about our own, even if they are listed in the Bible dozens of times.

If the Gospel isn’t grabbing you by the real sins in your real life, just exactly what is the Gospel doing for you? Or you with it?

I don’t like the fact that I can give a really good talk on prayer when I rarely pray.

I don’t like it that I can read Matthew 5:23-24 and, as far as I can recall, never take a single step toward obeying it.

I don’t like that I can sin and then condemn someone else’s sin in almost the same breath.

I don’t like it that I’m convinced people need to understand me, but I take so little time to understand others.

I regret that I’ve spent so much of my life seeking to make myself happy in ways that never led to real happiness at all.

I don’t like it that I’ve accumulated so much stuff I don’t need, and I’m so reluctant to give it away.

It causes me real sorrow that I’ve said “I love you” far too little in my life, especially to the people I love the most.

I don’t like the fact that some of my students think I’m a hero, when I’ve done nothing more than be an unprofitable servant.

I hate the difference between what I know and what I do.

I hate the fact that I can use words like “radical” describing what others should do in following Jesus when I’m the first one to want to play it safe.

I don’t like that part of me that thinks everyone should listen to what I say.

I wish I could see myself as God sees me, both in my sinfulness and in the Gospel of Jesus.

I regret using so little of my life’s time, energy and resources for worship and communion with God.

I despise that part of me that always finds fault, and uses that knowledge to put myself above others.

I am embarrassed by the words I use that come so easily from the tongue but have little root in the heart.

I regret taking so few risks in the cause of living a God-filled life.

I despise the shallowness of my repentance for sin that has caused hurt and pain for others.

I don’t like that part of me that can make up an excuse, even lie, almost endlessly in the cause of avoiding the truth and its consequences.

I don’t like that I can talk of heaven in a sermon or at a funeral, but very little of me wants to go there.

I regret that I have loved my arrogant self far than I’ve loved my self humbled in Christ.

I regret that so much good advice, good teaching and good example was wasted on me.

But I am glad for the endless mercies of the Lord, and the amazing fact that those mercies extend to me, today and every day.

I am glad that Christ my substitute took this sorry life, pathetic obedience and lethargic worship and exchanged it for his perfect righteousness.

I am glad that the Holy Spirit is remaking and raising dead men- even at age 52.

I am glad that one day I will look at all these failures and regrets and they will have been transformed into the very glory of Jesus Christ himself.

I am glad that God has cast the very things I most dislike about myself into the depths of the sea and has removed them as far as the east is from the west.

I am glad that when I return in shame and embarrassment, my Father meets me running, covers me with his gladness and throws me a party in the presence of the naysayers and pharisees.

I am glad that Jesus takes these things I loathe about myself and says “It is finished. Come you good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Today you will be with me in paradise.”

I am glad Jesus says “Before I have called you servant, but now I will call you friend.”

I am glad Jesus says “Who condemns you? There is now no condemnation because you are in me and I am in you. If I am for you, who can be against you? Go, and sin no more.”