by Bret Capranica | Dec 8, 2005 | Uncategorized
Jim Hamilton, professor at the Houston Campus of Southewestern Theological Seminary, posts a thought provoking article on deeping our public worship expressions. I’m still trying to digest the biblical notion of using the book of common prayer and other confessional statements in public worship (I’m not forcefully opposed – still thinking it through), but the jist of his plea for more intentionally God-focused public worship resonates in my heart. Any thoughts from any readers? How about from Justin and...
by Bret Capranica | Dec 8, 2005 | Uncategorized
Tim Challies posts a portion of his interview with Dr. Sam Waldron on the subject of cessationism and continuationists. Great discussion. Here is the concludinng paragraph from today’s post: But you see, here’s the thing, Tim. I’ve tried to be very kind and focused on what all continuationists say and even the most moderate of them. But clearly the charismatic movement is not characteristically like Wayne Grudem and John Piper. The practice of tongues speaking and prophecy, as carefully as it’s defined and restricted in their theology, is somewhat rare and so when you take my thesis and begin to apply it more broadly to even mainline charismatic churches I think it’s going to serve to make a radically more Word-centered kind of Christianity. I don’t want to say that about Grudem and Piper, but they are theologians and pastors who understand all the issues and qualifications that they need to make even as continuationists. The people in the pew, the people in the Assembly of God churches out there, the other charismatic churches, aren’t making those restrictions and qualifications and for them I think my book would strike a tremendous blow – the thesis, the argument of the book – would strike a tremendous blow against something that is very distracting and takes them in an emotional and distracting direction that is not true to a Word-centered Christianity. I think my book would help them to see the problem and reject it root and branch and become more Word-centered and avoid a lot of the misguided practices and the false directions of life and guidance that they’re taking...
by Bret Capranica | Dec 8, 2005 | Uncategorized
See Joe Carter’s discussion on inerrancy and his assertion that believing the Bible to be inerrant is the most humble position a Christian should take. (HT: Between Two...
by Bret Capranica | Dec 6, 2005 | Uncategorized
While reading articles on the internet, those I want to re-read or possibly blog about I store in my nifty little e-filing cabinets on my browser (Firefox, of course). Since it has been so long since I did any regular blogging, I need to clean some of these out. Here are a few articles over the past few months that caught my eye: The Anglicans and the Catholics in England are opposed to euthanasia, but don’t seem to have any biblical convictions as to why. Al Mohler has some great material on why the stem cell debate is not purely driven by science, especially when new breakthroughs are being made in this area that do not require new fetal tissue. What does Karl Rove keep in his garage? Click HERE. While Hurrican Katrina was disasterous, isn’t interesting how BIG the disaster became due to the media hype and political maneuvering – especially when compared to the earthquake in Kashmir. Adrian Warnocks comments were compelling. Al Mohler notes how the Airforce targets evangelicals by calling chaplains to cease and desist in evangelizing airmen. Rick Warren and other seeker-saturated pastors have gathered to get the church to focus on overcoming AIDS. Conveniently, he has repented for those of us who are merely trying to fulfill the great commission and have put our resources into world evangelization rather than world immunization. After hearing Warren on Larry King Live last week, I am more convinced than ever that he has bought into a purely pluralistic Christianity that does not emphasize the exclusive gospel of Jesus Christ, but more of a cultural type of...
by Bret Capranica | Dec 5, 2005 | Uncategorized
One of the books I took along with me to Hawaii was the first volume of Ian Murray’s biography of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I have ever so slowly been reading this work over the past year, but while on the deck of the Pride of America cruise ship, while sailing past the coast of Kaua’i, I was able to read a rather large chunk of the first volume. Here are just a few portions I found very interesting: The climate of evangelical Christianity in the 1920s in England (during Lloyd-Jones’ first pastorate): A number in Nonconformity sought to arrest the drift [lack of interest in church and church attendance] by a change in church services. There were those, for instance, who, critical of the plainness of congregational worship, looked for some kind of liturgy, with choir, anthem, and organ given a major role. Others, believing that people would not come to church to be ‘preached at’, wished to turn the sermon into an address ‘relevant’ to the time, or into an essay replete with many allusions to authors, poets and novelists. The religious press never lacked samples of that kind of preaching. . . In South Wales there was added weight to the argument that traditional methods would not bring the people back to the chapels. 132-133 . . . Dr. Lloyd-Jones had nothing to say about any new programme. To the surprise of the church secretary he seemed to be exclusively interested in the purely ‘traditional’ part of church life, which consisted of the regulaservicesSservices (at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.), a prayer meeting on Mondays and a...
by Bret Capranica | Dec 4, 2005 | Uncategorized
Adrian Warnock linked this article by John Piper back in October (I’m still catching up on my blog reading and posting) and I spent a few moments reading it this morning. I am usually disenchanted by the typical Christian/Spiritual leadership definitions and descriptions. “Leadership is influence.” In my estimation, this little trite phrase is meaningless when it comes to spiritual leadership. Was Jeremiah (and many of the Old Testament prophets) poor leaders because no one wanted to follow them? Was Moses an inept leader because he (along with Joshua and Caleb) could not influence Israel to go into the promised land after their initial observations? I appreciate John Piper’s articulation of spiritual leadership. I thought about posting a few quotes, but really, you should read the whole article. I rarely print out material from the Internet, but this article will go in my prayer book and become a list of items to read and pray over...
