Fallen and Flawed

What Is Radical to You? [and 3 Books to Give Away]

Demian Farnworth — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:33:53 +0000

Like I promised yesterday, I’ve got a little surprise for you.

I’ve got three copies of David Platt’s Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream to give away.

All you have to do to enter is write a short comment about one radical change YOU would make if money, family or work wasn’t an issue.

Could be to drive down to Yucatan, Mexico to make disciples. Or enroll at Westminster Theological Seminary to become a collegiate teacher. Or adopt a child.

Be creative. Surprise me. Surprise yourself.

Also, you could simply say: “I’m right where God wants me.” That’ll do, too.

Me and my daughter will choose three people to win a copy of Platt’s Radical. Then we’ll email you and get your home address.

So, if you were going to get radical, what would you do? Looking forward to your thoughts.

Your Personal Conflict with the Great Commission

Demian Farnworth — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:41:40 +0000

**Simply fulfilling my promise to write about Radical all week. And don’t miss tomorrow’s post. Got a little surprise.**

Suspend your belief for a moment.

I want to change your view of history.

In January 1703, shortly after graduating and failing an audition for an organist’s post at Sangerhausen in January 1703, Johann Sebastian Bach didn’t take up his post as a court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar…

But instead, while riding away from Sangerhausen, Bach felt a severe call on his life to travel to Tunisia to minster the gospel to the Arabs…

Summarily giving up his ambition to be a composer.

Revision of Van Gogh’s Little Life

Almost two hundred years later, Vincent Van Gogh succeeded in his early vocational aspiration to become a pastor and preached the gospel from 1879 until his death to a small mining town in Belgium…

Neglecting his elegant [but tortured] artistic output that resulted in intoxicating paintings like The Starry Night and Still Life: Vase with Sunflowers?

Naturally, even to conceive of such events means we have to revise history and do some heavy-duty speculating.

But here’s my point–what if every great Christian artist, writer, dramatist, composer or scholar simply shed their vocational ambitions to work strictly as a missionary, preacher, teacher or evangelist?

Would our culture be any less than it is without Bach’s sacred St. John Passion or the sublime chaos of van Gogh’s Irises?

The answer, or course, is “no.”

For one thing, conceiving of history without Bach the composer and his rich legacy of liturgical works or Van Gogh and his dreamy, sad impressionistic paintings is pure fiction.

It’s the stuff of revisionist history best left in the hands of novelists who like to entertain. Here’s what I’m getting at.

The Tension the Great Commission Creates

I get a strong impression after reading David Platt’s Radical that he’d like to see us all abandon our political, social, academic or artistic pursuits and share the gospel.

That, my friends, is radical.

It’s an over-reading of his point, of course, even though he is a pastor and [I think] would be quiet happy if every one in his church–and all the readers of his book–would become evangelists or missionaries.

In fact, after you read the book there’s a small part of you wanders if you should liquidate your 401k and send it to World Vision…

Or sell your suburban home and move your family of four to a grass hut in Bangladesh…

Or scrap your dream of being a veterinarian and take the first flight to Ethiopia to save ten-year-old girls from sexual slavery.

David Platt and his book just might ruin your life in that way.

Extreme, perhaps. But Jesus and his great commission was anything but superficial.

Which brings us to the tension with our cultural mandate: God’s decree that we subdue the earth by building schools, running governments and crafting art.

Questions the Book Will Stir Up

No question: There are those who will read the book and go to the extreme. Who will give it all up and make radical changes to their lifestyle to fulfill the gospel.

David Platt’s got the testimonies to prove it. For the rest of us, we at least re-think how we spend our money.

In reality, all Platt asks you to do is bear your heart before God and ask: What can I do? How can I give it all?

And what does that mean?

Does that mean I remain here in the suburban U. S. and churn out blog posts or novels or paintings or musical scores–for your glory?

Or do you have something more radical for me? Read Platt’s book and, in truth, you will ask yourself those questions. What do you say?

One Final Thought

Sometimes I wonder what Calvin would’ve written if he’d not had his conversion, but instead pursued his ambition to live a leisurely literary life.

I gamble he might have been a French Goethe. To this literary nut job, that sounds appealing.

Don’t get me wrong: I wouldn’t trade that history if it meant we gave up the Institutes. I’m just saying: Maybe it’s not so bad to let your imagination wander on occasion.

Who knows: You might stumble upon a brilliant idea. An idea you can offer up to the glory of God.

But maybe that’s enough? We’ll never know, will we?

David Platt Frightens Me

Demian Farnworth — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:59:46 +0000

Ever hear anyone complain that academics are divorced from reality?

That theorists would simply collapse in shock if they ever stepped down from their ivory tower into the dirty world of human beings?

That some professors are educated beyond their usefulness?

That scholars are cut off from emotion, compassion and spiritual devotion?

Granted, there’s a lot of truth behind these complaints.

Intellectuals tend to elevate the mind over the heart, making the pursuit of doctorates more important than people.

But not all academics fall to this temptation. Take David Platt for example.

Educated to the Hilt

At first glance, you could level those accusations at David Platt.

He earned two undergraduate degrees from the University of Georgia. He followed that up with three advanced degrees.

But he wasn’t finished.

He added a doctor of philosophy from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary [NOBTS] to his curriculum vitae.

He then served as dean of chapel and assistant professor of expository preaching and apologetics at NOBTS.

The man is a highly accomplished academic. [And as an arm-chair intellectual, he scares me.]

Naturally, you’d expect his book Radical to read like a professional journal. But it doesn’t.

Entering the Dirty Business of Human Beings

Here’s what can’t be missed: Platt gets around.

His book is shaped by his overseas mission trips to places like India and Indonesia.

It’s influenced by his time as pastor at the Church at Brook Hills.

And it’s predisposed to sound a lot like John Piper–the quintessential scholar-turned-pastor–who obviously impacted Platt.

All this serves to make Platt firmly grounded in the dirty business of human beings, compassionate to the bone and ridiculously eager to make disciples.

Which in turn makes Radical a book anyone could read.

In fact, it’s almost simplistic. Sometimes redundant. It’s Richard Wurmbrand meets Kevin DeYoung.

You won’t get lost in this book. Neither will you have to re-read any sentences. In fact, you’ll almost get bored.

But at that moment when you’re tempted to close the book, Platt pulls you back in. He does this in a handful of ways.

Radical: Sticky from Experience and Education

He might draw out a beautiful analogy about the church being a troop carrier turned luxury liner.

Or a gripping story about a young, intelligent woman killed in a bizarre bus accident while she served Palestinian refugees in Egypt.

Or a potent scene where believers in China begged him to teach them the Old Testament…and ten days later to teach them the New.

While all these things make for a good read we have to remember that Platt argues from a very simple platform: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A platform he demonstrates you don’t need a degree to preach. Or a doctorate to understand.

Just a heart that hungers to lose it’s will in the will of God and no longer desires anything for himself–except the glory of God.

And it’s just this kind of heart that drives the hardcore academic David Platt.

The Simple, Bare-Bones Secret to Radical Faith

Demian Farnworth — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:57:17 +0000

Back in the early 19th century British Protestant missionary to China C. T. Studd said:

“Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time for waiting is past!…

“Should such men as we fear?

“Before the whole world, aye, before the sleepy, luke-warm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God,..and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts.

“We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only in our God than live trusting in man.

“And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight.

“We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works of Jesus Christ.”

A manly, near-reckless faith. Where does one get that? Great question. First, let me explain what I’m doing this week.

Here’s the deal: I want to devote the entire week to what I started yesterday as a review of David Platt’s book Radical.

That book is simply too rich to compress into one 1,000 word post. And simply too valuable to drop after just one day.

We need to expand. So let’s go.

Resisting Typical Expectations

Arguably the best chapter in Radical is the second to the last: “Living When Dying Is Gain.” That chapter can be summed up like this:

The stories we hear about believers who are hated, beat and killed in distant countries are stories about people who’ve found a desire deeper than the basic human will for self-preservation: the desire to serve Christ and be his witness.

This desire even trumps the fear of death.

In fact, death isn’t viewed as an enemy and a coffin as a rot box. They’re viewed as a reward and a launching pad. This is the essence of what Jesus taught in Matthew 10:38-39:

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Thus, when talented young men and women dismiss the expectations and promises of the world to live in filthy Palestinian refugee camps on the outskirts of Egypt…

Or in dilapidated section 8 housing in dangerous urban neighborhoods to share the gospel with the people who live there…

Only to die in obscurity a few months or years later…

Their lives are not a waste and neither are their deaths a tragedy. Rather, those lives are treasures and those deaths rewards.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

Death Is Dead to Me

The Bible teaches us that the instant we die we are ushered into the presence of Christ.

In that instant we glimpse God’s glory and unimaginable majesty. Remember, this is the great reward of the gospel: God himself.

But WAY too many Christian’s have lost that vision. A vision confiscated by the American Dream.

See, when we accept the reality that death is nothing more than a line we cross between life and God’s presence, something happens to us: We embrace a near-reckless devotion to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is the way Paul puts it:

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

Death has been conquered. And victory secured. What do we have to fear?

Don’t Make This Mistake

Some people bristle at the notion of setting our minds on death and the afterlife because they believe it makes us worthless here on the earth.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The person who sets his mind on heaven knows that his destiny is secure and glorious. He’s free to live the most radical life of love and sacrifice here on earth.

Listen. The hope of safety in the afterlife cures us of timidity, fear and hopelessness. It releases a radical, risk-taking love that baffles skeptics and forces them to ask for the reason for the hope that is in us.

When you invest emotional and mental equity into the hope that death is reward and the doorway to our savior, you’ll be set free to live a fearless, near-reckless life of love and sacrifice.

That’s the kind of believer the modern church should be training and churning out. What can we do to make that happen in our own churches? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

David Platt v. the American Dream [Book Review]

Demian Farnworth — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:08:06 +0000

David Platt is taking a swing at our long-established national ethos…

The one that says citizens of every rank can achieve a “better, richer and happier life.”

The one that says with hard work and a can-do attitude you can buy the perfect home with a picket fence…two cars in the garage…and a monster flat screen television pinned to the living room wall.

Unfortunately, it’s an ethos at odds with Jesus Christ.

Nasty Side Effect of the American Dream

Originally quoted by James Truslow Adams back in 1931, “The American Dream” is rooted in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence:

“all men are created equal…endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It’s an idea that motivated immigrants of all stripes. That drives our bulldog entrepreneurial spirit. And feeds Olympic-sized dreams.

But it’s got a nasty side effect: conspicuous consumerism.

In other words, it breeds the sense that we are not people until we have the large house in an exclusive subdivision with a 28-foot boat parked at the marina.

In this version of the American dream, material goods and worldly success rule because it provide us with a sense of safety, satisfaction and security.

And unfortunately, Dr. Platt argues in his forthcoming book Radical: Taking Back Our Faith from the American Dream, it’s hijacked the American church.

The Tension Between Building and Mission Budgets

The American church is obsessed with budgets. Building campaigns. Entertainment value. Head count. Comfort level. Presidential hat tips.

A systemic problem considering the church wasn’t built to pamper us. It was built for something completely different.

Platt points out the tension between the American church and its original purpose with two headlines he saw recently in a local newspaper: One headline declared a church spent 1.5 million dollars to build a new sanctuary. On the same page that same church gave $5,000 to missions in the same year.

There’s something very disturbing about that picture. And it says something about us, too: Our American view of the gospel makes much of us.

Jesus’ gospel, on the other hand, makes much of God and his mandate to reach the lost and the poor.

It’s an obsession with missions.

Now, before you think Dr. Platt is a small-town pastor frustrated with larger churches and their enormous budgets and congregations that rival small cities–think again.

Platt is the pastor of Birmingham, Alabama’s 4,000 strong The Church. That means he’s coping with the same ills as most megachurch pastors.

And he’s finding it hard to live with this model, a model that is on a collision course with Jesus.

The Original Purpose of the Church

In Matthew 28:19 Jesus commanded his disciples to go and make disciples of all the nations.

One thing is clear: No one is exempt from this commandment. We are all responsible for spreading the gospel and training believers.

Look around a contemporary American church and what do you see? Not much training. Discipline. Or hardship.

Look at churches overseas, though, and you get quite a different picture. Here’s how Platt described one underground church he visited:

A woman who lived in the city and knew some English shared, “I have a television, and every once in a while I am able to get stations from the United States,” she said. “Some of these stations have church services on them. I see the preachers, and they are dressed in very nice clothes, and they are preaching in very nice buildings. Some of them even tell me that if I have faith, I too can have nice things.”

She paused before continuing. “When I come to our church meetings, I look around, and most of us are very poor, and we are meeting here at great risk to our lives.” The she looked at me and asked, “Does this mean we do not have enough faith?”

Sharp contrast wouldn’t you say? He paints another humbling picture of this contrast when he compares the American church with the history of the SS United States.

Short History of a Luxury Liner

The SS United States was originally designed to carry over 15,000 troops anywhere in the world at speeds of 40 miles per hour or faster.

It was the biggest and fastest combat ship of its kind. However, it never went into combat.

Instead, the Navy used it to carry presidents, heads of state and celebrities to enjoy 695 staterooms, 4 dining rooms, 3 bars, 2 theaters, 5 acres of open deck and heated pool while they sauntered across the Atlantic Ocean.

Platt writes:

“Instead of a vessel used for battle during wartime, the SS United States became a means of indulgence for wealthy patrons who desired to coast peacefully across the Atlantic.”

Replace SS United States with the America church and you have a startlingly real picture of what we’ve become.

This is hot tub religion. Not what Jesus intended.

Jesus Versus the American Dream

Jesus intended the church to prepare Christians for battle. And to actually send them into battle. It’s purpose is to mobilize a people to accomplish a mission.

However, we seem to have turned away from a sense of mission to share the gospel with pagans and alleviate suffering and adopted the gospel of American consumerism dominated by “self-advancement, self-esteem and self-sufficiency.”

It’s our bliss versus their pain.

But the church never should’ve gotten to this point. Long ago Jesus said “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

In essence, Jesus Christ and the American Dream are NOT compatible.

What Platt Isn’t Saying

Understand: This is not a call to abandon abundance. No–it’s a call to rethink how we use it. Scripture clearly teaches that God intends our plenty to supply the needs of others.

And it’s not a question of “What can we spare?” No. It’s a question of “What will it take?”

Over a billion people are headed to a Christless eternity. Over 28,000 children will die of starvation before the day ends.

The implications are huge: We don’t have time to waste our lives on the American Dream. Not if we all have been commanded to take this gospel to them.

In the end, Jesus said we will be betrayed. Tortured. Killed. This is the undeniable truth behind being a follower of Christ.

So if we want a safe, untroubled, comfortable life free from danger, then we should stay away from the biblical Jesus and continue to cling to the American Dream.

Fear and Loathing in a Liberal Bible Class

Demian Farnworth — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:35:10 +0000

The January/February Nine Marks journal on New Liberalism brought back old memories of a particular class I took While in college:

“Bible as Literature.”

That course title was very misleading. Perhaps I was a bit naive.

The course was an elective and since I was a English major and a Christian it would serve two purposes: college credit and religious devotion.

While I got the credit, I didn’t get the devotion. [This was a secular school after all.]

Instead I got a low-grade bender on liberal theology.

A Shock to My System

Understand: I didn’t expect this. I wasn’t prepared for the challenge. Thus, it struck fear in my heart–and probably a handful of other Christians who thought to take the class for the same reasons I did.

[My own experience reminds me a lot of Daniel Wilson's battle with skepticism.]

Soon after the class began I loathed it. All parts of it. The readings before class. The discussions during class. The reeling sense of disappointment following the class.

It was the first time I ever seriously fought for my faith. Not in a public forum. But quietly within my soul.

That fight eventually went in the wrong direction.

Running Rabid and Roughshod over Scripture

Granted, we all have commitments and can never declare strict objectivity in our arguments, but it became quite clear in the first class that the professor wanted nothing more than to dismantle any Christian faith.

She had an agenda.

The classes usually ran like this: Show up to class. Read the text in question. Professor declares what Christians believe. Professor declares why Christians were wrong.

I don’t ever remember reading it as literature.

In fact, I don’t ever remember any serious textual criticism going on or effort root around the historical context.

It was a raw reading and the professors reaction to it. Nothing more.

While it’s not fair to call the professor a liberal [she was an atheist through and through], her approach WAS liberal.

Repulsive and Primitive Doctrines

She liked to pick on those texts that were repugnant to her senses. The wrath of God. Blood atonement. Eternal punishment. Resurrection.

Any feature that sounded primitive and offensive she dismissed. And like the Jesus Seminar she eliminated many of the words of Jesus to mere legends.

But in doing so, she, the Jesus Seminar and any liberal Christian reduced Him to a non-controversial figure instead of the unique Son of God.

If that was the case, why was He crucified if He didn’t offend anyone?

Liberals Love Affair with Man

Back in the early 20th Century, J. Gresham Machen denied that liberalism was Christianity. Whereas Christianity was rooted in supernaturalism, liberalism was rooted in naturalism.

One of the common characteristics of liberalism is an obsession with gaining the world’s approval and admiration–at any cost.

It’s the approval of the culture that counts–not Christ.

“I risk becoming a liberal, because I don’t just love God. I also love the sheep. And I love myself,” Michael Lawrence said. ”And it’s those two loves, wrongly focused, that tempt me down a gospel-denying path.”

Liberalism too often chooses the gospel-denying path.

Liberalism trims God’s Word in favor of the love and esteem of others. This explains why a historically Christian school like Harvard would slip from orthodox to liberalism.

Man has become our measure. Not God.

Liberalisms Motive

Remember liberals operate out of an apologetic motivation. They want to craft something the culture will happily swallow.

What they end up doing is trying to save Christianity from itself. And themselves from academic ridicule.

As Albert Mohler says, “The lesson of theological liberalism is clear—embarrassment is the gateway drug for theological accommodation and denial.”

But Christians are forbidden to court the spirit of the age. We are to cling to the orthodox gospel and all it’s ugly permutations.

One of the main reasons the gospel is such a stumbling block is that it cannot be adapted to suit cultural preferences or alternative worldviews.

Instead, it’s built to confront them all, including the liberal worldview.

Why Did God Create Woman?

Demian Farnworth — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:58:34 +0000

Women. Ah. My favorite subject.

Especially since I’m married to arguably the most merciful, kind and generous woman of all.

Indeed. Any amount of success I have as a father, writer or husband I owe to her.

The running joke around our house is that if not for my wife, I’d still be living with my mother.

In her basement.

Dead serious. My wife is classic helper. Classic companion. I’d be lost without her.

But what does “helper” mean? Where did that term come from?

Furthermore, why did God think man EVEN needed woman? And what does the Bible say about this union?

Let’s take a look.

History Before Woman

Long ago God created a man named Adam. He told Adam [a man made in God's image] to cultivate the earth.

To subdue it.

Adam shaped wood into tools. Domesticated oxen to plow fertile soil. He groomed fruit trees. He raised honey bees. He cultivated mint and cornflowers.

But the image of God in man was not complete. God said, “It is not good that man his alone.” He wanted to give Adam a companion.

What’s strange about this arrangement is that Adam doesn’t seem to notice his need for a companion.

He appears perfectly content to be alone.

This is problematic. Not to Adam, but to God. And for reasons we might not consider.

History After Woman

Then God created woman. Genesis 2:21-23 tells us what that looked like:

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

Because God created woman even though Adam was content in his solitude suggests God had something else in mind for man than merely tinkering around in a garden by himself.

God wanted to give man a partner in the stewardship of that garden. Together man and woman split the labor of subduing the earth.

He commanded them both to rule. To take dominion over the fish. The birds. The badgers.

And this responsibility–a sovereign authority you might say–is another way that man and woman are made in God’s likeness.

God is in charge of the universe…man and woman are in charge of the earth. But mere stewardship of goats and crops wasn’t all.

Something Adam Couldn’t Do Alone

Part of Adam and Eve’s responsibility involved multiplying humans. Procreation. Making babies.

A skill, we all know, Adam could not perform on his own.

This command would ensure God’s image spread over the earth. It allowed for Adam and Eve to fulfill their cultural mandate by sharing their workload with their children.

Yet another division of labor.

Call it imperialism if you want. But all for the glory of God. Here’s what I mean.

What Male-Female Union Does to God’s Glory

Listen: When man and woman work in harmony–sharing the responsibility of creating culture, raising children and sharing the gospel–God is glorified.

And he is glorified within the ordained parameters of marriage.

From the Genesis narrative of the creation of man and woman God demonstrates his plan for marriage equals a monogamous heterosexual relationship.

Proliferation of mankind–God’s image–could not happen any other way.

God knew that his glory was limited in the creation of one man. So he made woman. And then man and woman made child.

This union and procreation honors God. Glorifies him. Extends his joy as this man, woman and child honor them with their hearts and service.

It’s a lifestyle of adoration for their creator. Incomplete when man was alone.

Recommended resource: God, Marriage and Family Andreas J. Kostenberger

What Is True Saving Faith?

Demian Farnworth — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:59:34 +0000

When the Apostles proclaimed the gospel in the first century, it had a certain content.

People could reject that content. But they could also accept it as true.

They could even believe in it.

Yet, that still left them with out true saving faith.

Listen: Accurate content and sincere belief in that content doesn’t amount to saving faith…

Those are necessary elements–but not sufficient elements. There’s one more element.

Let’s address the first two elements before we get to that last one.

Notitia–the First Element of Saving Faith

One, we must make sure that content is accurate. No use believing in something that isn’t true or heretical.

As you probably know, there’s something dreadfully wrong with this statement: “It doesn’t matter what they believe–as long as they are sincere.”

Joseph Kony was sincere in his belief that he was called by God to abduct children, murder entire families and displace over a million Sudanese so he could establish a theocratic kingdom.

Sincerity can go awfully wrong.

The same is true for Christians: It’s meaningless to be sincere in our belief but not know whether our belief is accurate or not.

We risk heresy if we do otherwise. Thus, the first element of saving faith is accurate content–notitia. Let’s look at the second.

Assensus–the Second Element of Saving Faith

Second, we must believe that content is true. We must assent to it. This is assensus.

But it’s still not enough to redeem us.

I believe that Augustine wrote the City of God. However, that doesn’t redeem me. There has to be something more.

Fiducia–the Third Element to Saving Faith

The third element to saving faith is fiducia–personal trust and commitment in the accurate content we believe.

This is when a Christian accepts, receives and RELIES on Christ alone.

Granted, the message of that content is important. I could put my trust and commitment in Augustine–but it wouldn’t do me any good.

He’s not offering salvation. Only Jesus Christ is.

What Saving Faith Does to Our Lives

We look to Jesus [not Augustine nor any man] for justification, sanctification and eternal life.

With saving faith, we tremble at the commands of God…yield in obedience to the mandates of Christ…and put our trust in the promises of God for now and for the future.

In essence, it radically rearranges our lives. Christ becomes our object of delight. Our obsession.

And we long to do nothing more than please him. [We don't always succeed, but that's another story.]

Here’s the core content we we confess as true, deserving of our belief and worthy of our submission:

That Christ was born, willingly and perfectly lived under the law of God and died as an atoning act. We believe he was dead, buried and rose again.

Only when we believe that information is accurate and trust it holds the power to save us can we safely say we are born again. Anything less and Jesus is not saving us.

A Christian’s Approach to the Mind, Death and Persuasion

Demian Farnworth — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:16:56 +0000

Not long ago Annie Dillard wrote, “Strange seizures beset us.”

By seizures she meant motifs.

Themes.

Ideas that haunt [whether for good or bad] a writer.

For me, those themes boil down to this: the mind, death and persuasion.

In our culture, anti-intellectualism dominates.

Death is feared.

And persuasion is reframed to mean “manipulation.”

What is a Christian to make of these three topics? Let’s explore.

A Sanctified Mind

I love learning. I love facts. I love knowledge. And doctrine. But there are enormous problems with a “cold, speculative, unsanctified head-knowledge of Christianity.”

It’s bound to feed you enough rope to hang yourself.

No.

That head knowledge must be sanctified. And your mind must be matured in Christ because the mind is important to God. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.”

The moral: Use your mind to love the things of God.

In the book of Romans Paul writes, “Do not any longer conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

In other words, your mind must be dominated by the Spirit. Romans 8:6 says, ”For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

Only then can we understand spiritual truths. Only then can we make sense of heavenly wisdom.

Even in the Old Testament we see an emphasis on the mind: God said to Isaiah, ““Come now, let us reason.”

It takes a mind to reason. A mind nurtured on biblical truths. Mature in spiritual wisdom. Your mind has a purpose. It’s to be worked out. For Christ. Use it.

A Sanctified Death

Susan Cheever said, “Death is terrifying because it’s so ordinary. It happens all the time.”

Perhaps this is why Kierkegaard said that death is the single most important philosophical topic known to man…

It is knowledge that separates us from God. We must make meaning of it.

Yes, death is a metaphysical issue. It goes beyond the physical. But it is real. And it haunts humanity.

An unsanctified mind might treat death as a sleepless demon bent on ruining your life. Or a bony clown who can drink you under the table.

For the Christian, though, death is stripped of it’s power to terrorize.

John Wesley, paraphrasing 1 Corinthians 15:55, said about death, “Thou art now robbed of all thy spoils; all thy captives are set at liberty.”

In the end, death is the gate to the garden of our Lord.

A Sanctified Persuasion

As a writer, I’ve got a particular investment in being understood. And getting people to believe me.

That means I appeal to reason. I use wisdom. Much in the same way a lawyer tries to persuade a judge that a person is innocent.

Like the mind, persuasion is a tool we MUST use for the cause of Christ. But first it must come under Christ.

An unsanctified mind will pervert persuasion and use it to seduce and deceive. To accumulate wealth and conquer woman.

To push God-denying ideas.

Before Christ, I adored the mind. Was spellbound by death. And toyed with persuasion to gain an advantage on other humans.

After Christ, these things came under Christ. But that doesn’t mean they lost their allure to tempt in unbiblical ways.

To pride. To fear. To greed.

I’m still dogged by the baggage of being an intellectual snob. Occasionally haunted by death.

For whatever reason, these are my motifs. Topics I churn regularly. In the end, whatever I write will be used to glorify God.

What I wrote before Christ will glorify by demonstrating his justice and judgment on a deliberate rebel.

When I write after Christ, I will glorify him by demonstrating his mercy and faithfulness, power and glory.

So tell me, what themes possess you? What haunts you? Dogs you–whether good or bad? How have you seen those things sanctified after conversion?

Looking forward to your thoughts. Brutal and all.

Theology Will Keep You from Committing Suicide

Demian Farnworth — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:10:27 +0000

A systematic study of what the Bible says about a particular topic is theology proper.

It’s a pursuit every Christian must vigorously and regularly engage…

Because it’s the means by which we answer the hard questions of life.

Questions like who am I? Why are we here? What is God? What happens when I die? Do I have a soul?

Questions no one is immune from. And questions science ultimately can’t answer.

NIH Director Francis Collins put it this way:

Belief in God was for me anyway, a much more defensible, plausible position. Not something I could prove but something that made great sense and also provided a powerful answer to some of the biggest questions we all ask of our selves and that science can’t really help us with. Like why am I here? And what does life mean anyway?

Without thoughtful, coherent answers to our big questions, life makes no sense at all.

It would be nice if we could simply stop asking those questions. But that’s impossible. We are forever curious. We constantly ask these questions.

We are natural born theologians.

To look for the answers outside of Christ, however, leads to confusion. All other disciplines lead to dead ends. Isolation. Incoherence.

As Gene Fant said at the Evangel blog, “A secularist worldview is hopelessly fractured…. There can be no meaningful interpretive key for knowledge because there is only disintegration and brokenness among the various stakeholders.”

Theology, on the other hand, offers us a relentlessly unified, comprehensive answer to the hard questions: Christ is lord over all.

Listen: If our questions go unanswered, everything remains in the air. Everything becomes unanchored.

Without theology, despair looms. Without theology, suicide knocks at our door.

Heavy prices to pay for not believing in God.

Thus theology leads to relevance. In fact, while regarded as a rather stuffy, arid discipline, it’s the cornerstone on which a Christian must build AND maintain his life.

There is no choice. We must use our minds in this pursuit. Let me know what you think.