The Jesus Shaped Question: Are Christians Like Jesus?

Expect to see a lot of posts in this category.

(ESV) Philippians 3:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…

(The Message) Philippians 3: 8 Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ 9 and be embraced by him.

Christians are supposed to be like Jesus. They’re not.

Everyone knows Christians are supposed to be like Jesus. Not “like Jesus enough to be saved without him,” but “like Jesus because you’re following Jesus.” Of course, everyone also knows the vast majority of Christians aren’t like Jesus, or even making any real efforts in that direction.Continue reading “The Jesus Shaped Question: Are Christians Like Jesus?”

Riffs: 05:03:08: The Night of Weeping and A Jesus Shaped Spirituality

BHT fellow and Harry Potter blogger Travis Pinzi eloquently pens his take on a Jesus-centered spirituality in this meditation on a wonderful verse from The Church’s One Foundation.

Though with a scornful wonder, men see her sore oppressed
By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed
Yet saints, their watch are keeping, their cry goes up “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song!

As Prinzi points out, the author of this hymn is not looking for the victory of a denominational team, but for the eventual shaping of the church entirely into the bride of Christ.Continue reading “Riffs: 05:03:08: The Night of Weeping and A Jesus Shaped Spirituality”

The Little Red Book

Only Scriptural Baptist churches can make a legitimate claim to an unbroken succession back to the time of Christ and the apostles. Christ only built one kind of church and that church is described in detail in the New Testament. The only churches meeting the requirements of that description today are true Baptist churches. Baptist churches have existed in every age since their founding by Christ, though they have not always been known by that name. We do not deny that there are those in other so-called “churches” that have been born again by the grace of God. We do deny, however, that these man-made organizations are true churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. -Landmark Baptist Church self-description

When I was just a boy, I found a little red book in my father’s drawer of religious literature. The book was called The Trail of Blood. It would be part of my world for many, many years to come.

I would continue to see the book around our home and then in church until I was given my own copy shortly after I was baptized.

The Trail of Blood was the primary popular expression of a belief called Baptist Landmarkism. Landmarkism was the Baptist version of apostolic succession; a way to prove that Baptists, not Roman Catholics, Campbellites or any other denomination, were the actual historical successors to Jesus.Continue reading “The Little Red Book”

Open Thread: Union with Christ/Real Presence of Christ

UPDATE: I’m still holding firm on the indulgence granted to those who want to convert me to their version of Christianity, but let me say two things: 1) The thread is a discussion of a question, not a discussion of my errant views of whatever you believe and 2) I can’t respond to all of these posts. I simply don’t have time. If I have misrepresented any of you personally, I will apologize. If you are upset that I don’t get your view of things, we’ll all just have to learn to live with it.

Here’s a key question in my own theological evolution. I’ll lift the usual moderation rule on seeking to convert others to your point of view if you will make a substantial contribution to the discussion.

All Christians are united with Christ by the sovereign, gracious work of God himself. All the benefits of salvation come to us because of union with Christ.

So how does union with Christ relate to your understanding of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper?

I won’t rehearse where the tension is for me, but if you tell me that Christ is “really present” in the eucharist at your church, I’d like you to distinguish how Christ’s person and benefits are available to you in the Eucharist in a way they are not available to me by virtue of union with Christ.

Noted: Mark Driscoll on “The Shack”

UPDATE: A lurker suggests that Driscoll or his researcher were reading Challies’ post on The Shack. Decide for yourself.

Just one note: Driscoll seems unaware of the book’s opening chapters and the dilemma that lies at the center of the plot. It is not a book about a conversation with the Trinity. It is a book about reconciliation to something horrible that has happened in the life of a man who believes in the Trinitarian God.

Here’s the blurb from the publisher’s website:

Mackenzie Allen Philips’ youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever.

Odd omission.

Shack Attack!!

This post is my opinion, and your opinion is welcome in the comments if you can talk about The Shack instead of talking about what a jerk I am. I WELCOME differing opinions in regard to the book. Reading it and making up your own mind is what we should all do.

Well, well, well….it’s the little book that could. With about $300 of big-time promotion, William P. Young’s little novel, The Shack, is a multi-hundred thousand selling publishing phenomenon, with no sign of losing its momentum as it heads for the rare air of a million sales.

And along the way, Young’s imaginative, playfully serious account of one man’s weekend with the Trinity has apparently made a lot of doctrine policing sit up and pay attention. Attention, as in, “heresy alert.”Continue reading “Shack Attack!!”

Icebergs, Onions and Why You’re Not As Simple As You Think

“My theology is simply what I read in the Bible.”

Sure it is.

“What I believe and practice is simply what the Bible teaches and nothing else.”

Of course. What else could be simpler?

I’m sure several of you won’t be surprised at all to learn that I meet with a pastoral counselor on a regular basis. It’s one of the best things I do. We talk about all sorts of things, and we’ve developed a very beneficial dialog around many of the the issues that are part of a Jesus shaped spirituality.Continue reading “Icebergs, Onions and Why You’re Not As Simple As You Think”