Entries categorized as ‘Books that I am reading or have read.’
This is the best thing I have read in a while.
A fanatic is somebody seeking desirable ends but ignoring constituted means. Seeking to get out of the religious rut is a desirabel end. It is right and it is in the will of God. But trying to do it in a manner that is not according to God’s constituted means is all wrong and gets us nowhere.
… some people try getting worked up psychologically.
… some people try group dynamics.
What is needed is some old-fashioned, salty horse sense. I am sure there are 189 mules in the state of Missouri that have more sense than a lot of the preachers who are trying to teach people how to get the blessing of God in some way other than by the constituted means. When you get people all broken up, dabbing at their eyes and shaking, what is the result? It does not bring them any closer to God. It does not make them love God any better, in accordance with the first commandment. Nor does it give any greater love for neighbors, which is the second commandment. It does not prepare them to live fruitfully on earth. It does not prepare them to die victoriously, and it does not guarantee that they will be with the Lord at last.
A.W Tozer Rut, Rot, or Revival
God provides intelligence and means to procure a desirable end.
Those two divinely constituted means is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and obedience to his Word.
The nike slogan makes a lot more sense now. Well, at least it’s better than a “show” of religiosity.
Categories: Books that I am reading or have read.
Tagged: constituted means, or revival, religiosity, rot, rut, tozer
Excerpts from The Cross and Salvation written by Bruce Demarest and edited by John S. Feinberg
Martin Luther
Martin Luther initially held to the conditional view of election advanced by the Schoolmen, but his study of the Bible and Augustine led him to affirm unconditional election. Against Christian humanists such as Erasmus, Luther insisted that because the sinner’s will is in bondage to corruption, it consistently resists the truth of the Gospel. Thus a person can be saved only through God’s will and working. “God has taken salvation out of my will and has put it into His own and has promised to save me, not by my own work or effort but by His grace and mercy.”
John Calvin
Calvin noted the following characteristics of election to life in Christ.
(1) Election is according to God’s sovereign will and good pleasure. It involves God’s unconditional choice of a man or woman, not the latter’s choice of God.
(2) Election is founded on freely given mercy; God is under no obligation to save a single rebellious sinner.
(3) Election is not based on foreseen faith or holiness. Although God knows all things in advance, biblical foreknowledge signifies the divine determination to save specific persons. “The foreknowledge of God… is not a bare prescience… but the adoption by which he had always distinguished his children from the reprobate.”
(4) Election is absolutely certain as to its outcome. Since the omnipotent God infallibly accomplishes his purposes, all the elect will be saved.
For Christians this is very encouraging.
For the latter. It’s heartbreaking.
Categories: Books that I am reading or have read. · Life & Thoughts · Things that I am learning
Tagged: bruce demarest, election, john calvin, john feinberg, John Piper, martin luther, reprobate, saved, the cross and salvation
The Cross and Salvation p. 35
One strand of Reformed thinking holds that, subjectively, the Spiriti enables the chosen and called to believe th truth in Christ, turn from all known sins, and trust Jesus as Savior and Lord of their lives. God creates in the converted a new spiritual nature – in the sense not of another ontological constitution but as a new set of godly inclinations, desires, and habits. Objectively, the Spirit incorporates regenerated believers into Christ in a vital, spiritual, and indissoluble union, attested by the common “in Christ” motif. The Father then forgives their sins, accepts them as righteous in his sight, and bestows the gift of eternal life. Furthermore, in the lifelong work of sanctification the Spirit progressively mortifies believers’ old nature and fortifies the new nature such that they become like Jesus in thought, word, and deed. Thus God not only declares believing sinners righteous; he effectively makes them so by the Spirit. We are saved not merely to gain heaven but also to live in holiness, truth, and love. Moreover, those whom God has regenerated, united to Christ, and justified he preserves by the Spirit to the end. Twice-born people at times disobey God and grieve his Spirit; but the Lord’s sure grip prevents them from falling away finally and completely. Lastly, God will bring salvation to completion at the return of Christ when pilgrim saints behold the Savior’s face and are fully transformed into his likeness. Biblical salvation thus has past, present, and future dimensions. The born-again person can say with confidence, “I have been saved, I am being saved, and at Christ’s return I finally will be saved.”
That last line is epic.
Categories: Books that I am reading or have read. · Heard/Read This
When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.
-Titus 3:4-6
On the human side no person can come savingly to God by the power of their own initiative or on the basis of their own merits, as the Titus text just cited indicates. but men and women, enable by the Spirit’s gracious working, perform their own necessary work.
- Bruce Demarest
I just started a book called The Cross and Salvation by Bruce Demarest after leaving it on the shelf for a while. The book came off intimidating at first because of the cover and the fact that it is a systematic theology book, however the theme of the cross and of salvation, being central to the Gospel, lured me to finally get the book started for the summer.
I’m only done with the first chapter so far, but in what I learned and profitted from in the first chapter, I can say have gained more than most books that I read in whole. I will try to post more on what I am learning throughout the next couple weeks, but this is a book I thoroughly recommend as it has been magnifying the cross that Christ carried by motive of obedience to the Father and of clemency toward an undeserving people.
Categories: Books that I am reading or have read. · Things that I am learning
Tagged: cross, demarest, feinberg, Grace, salvation
so… I haven’t done this in a while (mostly because I haven’t been reading too many books). But I would like to share a little something that really stuck out to me in my reading of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies.
Excerpt from page 90 of the book.
Key Thought
Spiritual Discernment requires that we carefully test and prove everything associated with Christian life and doctrine. Though all that God teaches about himself is important, we must focus our efforts in discernment on the doctrines that are most foundational to the Christian faith. The two areas where we must practice spiritual discernment are the same as the two general themes of Scripture: what we must believe about God and how God calls us to live on the basis of those beliefs or, said otherwise, the truth of God and the will of God.
I also really liked Challies’ definition of discernment saying that
Discernment is the skill of understanding and applying God’s Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong.
Discernment is quite a skill and my prayer is that I may discipline myself to cultivate this skill in order to see clearly what is true surrounded by a world entrenched in error.
Categories: Books that I am reading or have read.
