The Wanderer

St. Alphege  7 6. 7 6

In Eden’s sinless garden
A man and woman stood,
Each crafted in God’s image,
And both entirely good.

The serpent entered Eden,
And entered both their hearts;
And neither did resist him,
Fell to his fiery darts.

So Adam’s abdication
Was punished by the Lord;
Eve’s insubordination
Jehovah much abhorred.

Then came the Second Adam
Into the wilderness.
Where Adam fell, he conquered,
Both to restore and bless.

He raises from the ruins
Of Eden’s shattered bliss,
And by his saving power
Does Satan’s blight dismiss.

True men, pursue with courage
Loving nobility;
True women, with true beauty,
Submissive dignity.

You sons of Adam, glory
That Jesus sets you free.
Eve’s daughters, bow before him,
Embrace your liberty.

©JRW

See all hymns and psalms.

A week or so ago, Miss California shocked the world by stating that she believed that same sex marriages were wrong, and that marriage was for one man and one woman.  She was slated for her views, and probably – according to some – forfeited the Miss USA title on this account.

A day or two ago, Alan Duncan MP, the openly gay shadow Leader of the House of Commons, while appearing on a British panel show, stated in response, “If you read that Miss California’s been murdered, you’ll know it was me, won’t you?”  He was mocked by his fellow panellists, but otherwise waltzed away, and there the matter lies.

I think he was troubled by her intolerance.

The Gospel Coalition seems to have come of age in the last week or so, with a full conference and the launch of the Gospel Coalition Network (a version of Mars Hill Seattle’s ‘The City’ software, as I understand it).  An interesting beast, to say the least.

For more on the Gospel Coalition, see the website and particularly the foundation documents.

Adrian Warnock is a little triumphalistic with regard to the  Network (it is, perhaps, not quite a new Pentecost!), but those interested can sign up using the following links (as a participant, if you are not ready for full membership, which requires full and mentally unreserved subscription to the standards).

• North America
• South America
• Europe
• Asia
• Africa
• Australia (and the rest of the Pacific)

If you, quite reasonably, ask the question, “Yes, but what is TGC for?” then Tim Challies has been trying to answer that question here and here.  Their website also tries to explain and make the case.

Believe it or not, happy or not, I have been blogging for a year.  This strikes me as having come round a little soon, and leaves me – as on my own birthday – reviewing the labour and profitability of the work.

That apart, I get the sense that it is de rigeur among bloggers on such occasions to give their bleaders a sense of what has got the juices flowing over the past year.  With that in mind (and excepting the ‘About’ page accessed by those asking the question, “Who is this freak?”) here is a list of the top fifteen individual viewed pages, with some appropriate explanation and comment.

• The poem The Wanderer: A short essay on an Old English poem, the poem itself providing some of the backdrop to the naming of this blog.  A more-than-sneaking suspicion persists (based on search patterns) that this page becomes especially popular when there is a spate of essay-setting on this poem in current educational establishments.  It seems I am building a significant following among the students of this and other nations!  I trust that they are not cheating.
• Idols, God and Jesus: The popularity of this article (again, looking at search patterns) is due to the fact that it has a Welsh flag prominently displayed.  This is simply a brief report of various preaching activity and the life of the church here in Maidenbower.
• Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother: The only review on the list (one other was just outside).  A brief review of Carolyn Mahaney’s very helpful book, I suspect that this is a reflection of her popularity and the recognition of the Mahaney name especially in the US.
• Punctuality: Joining forces with C. H. Spurgeon, this is a pointed plea for punctuality, especially among believers.  I think I was probably graciously frustrated when I wrote it, but it is fairly good-natured.
• Psalm 107: Oh give thanks to God our Saviour: A paraphrase of Psalm 107, as the name suggests.  Not much more to say, really.
• Womanly Dominion: An interview with Mark Chanski: My friend Mark Chanski has written two books from the perspective of ‘the dominion mandate’ looking at the roles of men and women.  I interviewed Mark concerning the book for women, although I never did get round to posting a review of the book itself.
• A horrifying obituary: The blog equivalent of rubbernecking, this points to the kind of obituary that I cannot imagine anyone wanting – the woman in question was, it seems, unequivocally unmissed.
• Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End: Another hymn, this one reviewing some of the names and titles of the Lord Jesus, and seeking to weave them together.
• An introduction to John Bunyan and The Pilgrim’s Progress (outline of the book): Another student favourite, perhaps, or maybe a first resort for those who want to get an overview of John Bunyan’s best known labour.  Nothing spectacular.
• The end of the law?: Prompted by the Affinity theological conference that ran under this title, this post simply highlighted a trend in modern antinomianism, and suggested or hinted at some of the dangers inherent in the ‘New Covenant Theology’ which is increasingly popular.  It contains links to a number of articles defending what I believe is the Scriptural and orthodox perspective on the enduring nature of the moral law (even allowing for subtle variations among those holding to this perspective).
• The skulls of children: Prompted by a programme about the deaths of children in Africa, this post wondered why liberal angst never seems to embrace the horrors of the abortion holocaust.  It prompted an interesting and moving discussion.
• Facebook friendship #1: One of two posts asking whether the social networking experience offers anything approximating to true friendship as Biblically defined.
• Federal Vision UK?: Prompted by another blogger, I was raising questions about the theological pedigree of a new theological webzine.  There is some indication that behind the blurb their lies a definite attachment to the Auburn Avenue theology, also known as the Federal Vision or hypercovenantalism.  Having had some personal experience of the dangers  and direction of such thinking, I sounded a significant note of caution (and – having been called out because of my tone of writing – sought to do so more carefully in a revised post).
• Don’t ignore polygamy: Probably the aberration on this list.  If I remember rightly, this almost certainly got picked up for some strange reason on one of those sites that draws attention to particular posts.  I have no idea why this was chosen, but it boosted the numbers big time.  It’s a curious post to make this list, being a single quote followed by a sarcastic comment, and I expect it will drop off if I am still doing this kind of list a year from now.
• Reformed and reforming: When Time magazine called “the New Calvinism” one of the modern philosophical movers and shakers, it seemed as of the Christian blogosphere went spoony.  Among the responses was a post from Mark Driscoll.  While I have enjoyed and appreciated much of what Mark says (while disagreeing with some of the tone and substance, at times significantly) this one stirred my soul a little.  It raises questions about the nature of ‘being Reformed’ as well as false distinctions sometimes made with regard to Calvinists of different stripes.

[I have recently been addressing the subject, "What is a true Christian?"  as part of a series on becoming and being a Christian, intended to help those who are asking the question, "Am I a new creation in Christ?" answer it from a Biblical perspective.]

The apostle John wrote his gospel so that we might know that Jesus is the Christ, believe, and be saved (Jn 20.31).  He wrote his first letter so that believers might “know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God” (1Jn 5.13).

There are many things which the world – and many religious people in the world – assumes are certain marks of true Christianity.  These fool many into imagining that they are true believers when they are not.  Even many Christians build their assurance on these things, and find that they fail them when they need them, because they form no sure foundation.  These are inconclusive indications.

Gardiner Spring’s excellent The Distinguishing Traits of Christian Character or here [or, for Logos users, here] suggests seven things that are not, in themselves, conclusive marks that a professed work of grace is true or false.

Visible morality. Upright character is no sure indication of love to God.  A fair appearance does not necessarily indicate true heart righteousness (1Sam 16.7).

Head knowledge (mere speculative knowledge or intellectual perception) as opposed to spiritual understanding of the truth (Rom 1.21; 2.17-20; Jas 2.19; 1Cor 2.14).

A form of religion.  Many have the appearance of religion without the reality, the form without the power (2Tim 3.5; Mt 25.1-12; Is 58.2-3).  The Pharisees are the prime example of such people: a great reputation for religion, but a heart far from God.

Eminent gifts.  Some have great natural abilities (and, perhaps, verbal dexterity – the gift of the gab – is something that is often taken to indicate a heart for God), which they employ even in religious contexts (again, the gift of ready speech is one that people often mistake as a sign of true godliness).  Balaam and Saul both enjoyed eloquent prophetic experiences without entering the kingdom (Mt 7.22-23).  Bunyan became “a great talker in religion” before he became a true believer, and several of his characters in Pilgrim’s Progress demonstrate the same problem.

Conviction for sin.  We must be careful here.  Conviction for sin is necessary for salvation but not necessarily joined with salvation (note also that many Christians feel conviction for sin far more acutely after they are saved than before, and that some who are brought up in godly homes and converted young may have relatively little clear and distinct sense of sin).  Awareness of and a sense of guilt concerning sin do not mean that a man is saved or will be saved (Jude 14-15).  Ask King Saul, King Ahab, or Judas.

Strong assurance.  There is a difference between believing you are saved and believing in Christ and therefore being saved.  It is possible for someone entirely persuaded that they are right with God to be wrongly persuaded (Mt 3.7-9).

Notable time or manner of one’s professed conversion.  Even unusual and distinctive experiences do not demonstrate that one’s profession of faith is genuine.  There are some who live and die trusting in the memory of a moment – perhaps some warm and fuzzy feeling, or raising a hand or walking an aisle or responding to a call – without ever having known true spiritual life.

There is almost nothing more dangerous than to imagine oneself saved and yet to remain unsaved.  There is nothing more blessed than to know oneself a Christian grounded on a solid foundation, as the Spirit witnesses in the heart and to the work he is accomplishing in those whom he indwells.  To recognise these inconclusive indications for what they are liberates the true believer from the tyranny of mere subjectivism, and strips away the flawed and rotten supports on which we – and others – too often build our hopes.

What, then, are the Scriptural indicators that a genuine work of grace has taken place in the heart of a sinner?  When John writes his letter, he does so in carefully-planned circles.  Like an aircraft circling the same territory, John notes the same heart-terrain repeatedly.  At least four indispensable indications of true Christianity become plain as we circle through John’s letter.

The first is a humble and wholehearted embrace of the divine diagnosis of and remedy for sin (1Jn 1.7 – 2.2; 2.12-14; 3.5, 6, 23; 4.2, 9-10, 13-16; 5.1, 5, 10-13, 20).  A Christian man has an accurate view of himself as a sinning sinner.  He acknowledges the just judgments of a holy God (Ps 51.4; Lk 15.18; 18.13).  This Spirit-wrought conviction of sin leads to genuine repentance as his heart breaks over godlessness, he becomes revolted by his sin and turns from it and forsakes it because it offends the Lord God (Jl 2.12-13).  With repentance is joined faith in Jesus as presented in the gospel in his might and majesty, his meekness and mercy.  Faith receives Jesus, looks to Jesus, comes to Jesus, flees to Jesus, leans upon Jesus, trusts in Jesus, holds to Jesus, and rests upon Jesus.  Let us remember that this is the essential point and gives birth to all that follows: the dying thief never had an opportunity to manifest the other three marks of saving faith (though he would have done had he lived), but still the Lord assured him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23.43).  Whoever trusts in Jesus, though he believes one moment and dies the next, has his life hid with Christ in God.

The second is a humble reverence for and joyful devotion to God and his glory (1Jn 1.3-5; 2.12-15; 3.1-2; 4.12-13, 19; 5.1-2).  A radical reversal of priority has occurred: the idol Self is toppled and God reigns in the heart.  A change has occurred: a heart that by nature is enmity with God (Rom 8.7) has been replaced by one that loves God entirely (Lk 10.37).  The man who lived for self now lives for God, offering himself as a living sacrifice (Rom 12.1-2).  Gratitude for grace received and delight in God himself issues in joyful service of the Lord of glory.  This is a man convinced of God’s excellent glory, for its own sake: he would, if called upon, serve without reward for he recognises God’s worthiness to be served: Romans 11.36 seems entirely pleasing and proper to him, for God in Christ is now at the pinnacle of his thinking and feeling and doing.  The testimony of such a man’s heart is “Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps 73.25-26).  He believes it, knows it, pursues it, and repents afresh because he does not know and feel and prove it more.  He is concerned for God’s name and God’s people and therefore his time, energies, graces, gifts, faculties and efforts are consecrated to God, whether in the apparently spectacular or the genuinely mundane (1Cor 10.31).  His chief end and great delight is to glorify God and to enjoy him now and forever.  God in Christ is all in all to him, and he longs to know and feel and prove it more.

The third is a principled pursuit of godliness with an increasing attainment in holiness (1Jn 2.3-8, 15-16, 19, 29; 3.3, 6, 10, 24; 4.13; 5.2-5, 21).  The hypocrite likes the reputation of holiness, but the true child of God is satisfied only with the substance.  He considers his ways, and turns his feet back to God’s testimonies (Ps 119.59).  The world no longer sparkles as it did – or, at least, his attraction to it and affection for it have been fundamentally altered – and now he lives for God, called to be holy as God himself is holy (1Pt 1.16).  The bonds to sin have been broken, and the persistent habit of unmortified sinning has been shattered because of his union with Christ. The new root brings forth new fruit (Mt 7.20; 12.33-35).  His obedience – though not yet perfect – is universal (throughout the whole man), habitual, voluntary and persevering.  He has taken up his cross, and continues to do so daily, as a disciple of a crucified Christ (Mt 16.24-25).  He pursues Christlikeness – it is the burden of his private and public prayers.  He increasingly manifests the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5.22-23); he has no love for the world (Jas 4.4); the previous pattern of conformity to, company with and compromise for the sake of the world is over (2Tim 3.4; 1Cor 16.33).  This is not sinless perfection, but laborious progress.  It does not mean that a Christian faces no battles but rather than he fights great battles, opposed as he now is to a raging and committed enemy of malice and power (Rom 7.13-25).  Sometimes he wanders; sometimes he is on the back foot; sometimes, grievously, he backslides.  However, the tone and tenor of his life is one of advance.  The trajectory of his life over time is upward.  The points plotted on his spiritual graph are not a seamless upward curve, and there are painful plateaus, but the line of best fit indicates persevering progress over time as sin dies and godliness is cultivated.

A fourth mark that John identifies is affection for and attachment to God’s redeemed people (1Jn 2.9-11; 3.10-18, 23; 4.7-11; 4.20 – 5.2).  This is more than natural affection (just liking them), mercenary attachment (what you can get out if it), party spirit (a gang mentality), or mere presence (just turning up at the right place at the right time).  The true Christian loves God’s people because they are God’s people, even though they are unlovely in themselves.  In that sense, he needs no other reason, and yet he has several.  He loves them because of what they are to God, loved by him and saved by Jesus, and it is therefore Godlike to love them.  He loves them because of what they are in themselves, marked out increasingly by the image of God, by likeness to the Jesus whom he loves.  He loves them because of what they are to him, members together with him of the one body of which Jesus is the saving and sovereign head (1Cor 12.12-14, 26-27).  He loves not in word only: it is manifest in his thoughts and deeds (Eph 4.1-6, 12-16, 25-32).  He is a true churchman: he does not simply “do church” but views and responds to the saints individually and gathered together with affection, commitment, service and investment.  He is not a spectator but a servant, concerned not just to get out but to put in.

These four marks will invariably be present in a true child of God.  They will not be perfect until glory, but they will be present now.

We cannot afford to be fooled, imagining ourselves saved when we are not.  This is a most desperately dangerous condition to be in, and a devastating conclusion to daw.

We do not need to be confused, either always doubting or building on a wrong foundation.  We can know whether or not we are saved.

John writes so that we can be sure, knowing ourselves saved and enjoying eternal life.

If these marks are not in your heart and life, then you are not a Christian, whatever you claim or imagine, and you should not fool yourself nor dishonour Christ by claiming his name without walking in his ways.  You blaspheme Jesus and expose him to scorn by taking the label of a true believer but living apart from his gracious power and saving wisdom.  The hypocrite gives men a reason to scorn and deride true religion by pretending to what he does not have.  We see this written on a large scale when those professing to be a true church depart from the truth, teach their own concoctions, live without godliness, and give occasion for men to blaspheme.  “Call that Christianity!”  No!  No, it is not Christianity – it is an empty masquerade that gives opportunity for sinners to deride or despair of Jesus, which leaves your hands with the blood of men upon them, and which will ultimately damn you if you are not saved from it.  It is better to know yourself outside than falsely to imagine yourself inside: you must therefore flee to Jesus, and acknowledge your need, repent of your sin, and trust in the Saviour.

But if these things are present in you and true of you then you are a Christian, and you should not dishonour Christ by denying the source of grace in you.  Some doubting and fearful saints are terrified that they will lay claim to God’s grace in Christ without having it, and so walk in shadow if not in darkness, robbed of joy and neither being blessed nor blessing others as they might.  But consider: these things simply do not grow in the soil of the unregenerate heart, and to possess them without a Christian testimony is to know the privileges of the kingdom without wearing its livery.  It might give the impression to some that the fruits of grace can grow in natural soil, and imply that unconverted men can attain to true godliness and genuinely Christian morality, and so prompt a despising of the work of God’s Spirit.  Others might be profoundly discouraged, imagining that a man can show marks of true holiness but not really be saved, and so wonder if they can ever truly testify, “I am his, and he is mine.”  Friend, if you have these things in you, then honour the God who put them there by owning yourself saved of God, and live accordingly.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps 139.23-24).  If you need Jesus, go to him now and you will be saved.  If you have Jesus – if he has you – then hold fast, love him, serve him, and rejoice in him, for you are a child of God, and he will keep you to the end, perfecting that which he has begun in you.

The Exiled Preacher reports Robert Oliver’s observations on John Calvin’s influence on English Protestantism.

John Piper interviewed Matt Chandler after February’s Desiring God conference.  I found Matt’s answers to John Piper’s answers instructive and humbling.

• Part 1 – Chandler tells his story up to about 20 years old.
• Part 2 – More on Chandler’s story, through becoming a pastor.
• Part 3 – Chandler’s thoughts on being a pastor, a Calvinist, and a Complementarian.
• Part 4 – Chandler and Piper finish up with some advice for pastors.

HT: DG.

Kevin DeYoung has been blogging five ‘high places’ – those places which ought to be removed because they are vestiges of ungodly principles or systems – that he believes future generations will look back upon, thinking “How did they not see to deal with that?”  There is plenty of food for thought.

1. The lack of Psalm singing in our churches.
2. Worldliness in entertainment.
3. The idolatry of Youth (yes, not just youth, but Youth).
4. Our lack of church discipline.
5. Prayerlessness.

Dan Philips challenges us to stop looking to unreal ‘paper pastors’.  Wise words and a right reminder.

Shortly after Easter, I began but did not finish a piece to which I may yet return, seeking to respond to some of the attitudes to Easter that I was observing over that period.

In the meantime, this quite excellent meditation by Iain D Campbell says most of the things I want to say in a more coherent and clearer fashion than I could when I started trying to write about it.

The only thing I would immediately add concerns the overwhelming readiness of Christians even of professedly Reformed vintage to make regular and prominent use of visual images of the Lord Jesus.  For some thoughts on this topic, might I suggest Professor John Murray on Pictures of Christ?

I had a couple of things to say about social networking in the past (specifically, Facebook).  Now, Justin Taylor points us to a post by Nicholas Carr, author of the book The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google and the article Is Google Making Us Stupid? who recently wrote about Twitter.  If you like this crunchy nugget about the electronic expression of (or, perhaps, response to) existential angst, you can read the whole thing:

The great paradox of “social networking” is that it uses narcissism as the glue for “community.” Being online means being alone, and being in an online community means being alone together. The community is purely symbolic, a pixellated simulation conjured up by software to feed the modern self’s bottomless hunger. Hunger for what? For verification of its existence? No, not even that. For verification that it has a role to play. As I walk down the street with thin white cords hanging from my ears, as I look at the display of khakis in the window of the Gap, as I sit in a Starbucks sipping a chai served up by a barista, I can’t quite bring myself to believe that I’m real. But if I send out to a theoretical audience of my peers 140 characters of text saying that I’m walking down the street, looking in a shop window, drinking tea, suddenly I become real. I have a voice. I exist, if only as a symbol speaking of symbols to other symbols.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Bob Gonzales has begun a series over at RBS Tabletalk concerning the responsibility of the whole body of Christ to be winners of souls.  I posted a chapter from Charles Spurgeon’s The Soul Winner on inducing the people of God to be soul-winners themselves.  Then, a couple of days later, I was reading a challenging sermon by John Calvin.  Remembering that Bob had made reference to several Reformed contributors who seemed to be restricting the work of evangelism to either the ordained minister of the gospel or to preaching in the church building on the Lord’s day, this comment by Calvin struck me forcibly:

Therefore, in keeping with the teaching Luke gives here, let us learn that we constitute a true church of God when we try our best to increase the number of believers.  And then each one of us, where we are, will apply all our effort to instructing our neighbours and leading them to the knowledge of God, as much by our words as by our showing them good examples and good behaviour.  That is also why holy Scripture exhorts us so often to win to God those who remain alienated from his church, for we see unbelievers as poor lost sheep.  Our Lord has not given us insight into his truth for our advantage alone, but for sharing it with others.  Because we see them as madmen casting themselves into hell, we must, to the extent we can, prevent them from doing so and procure their salvation.  That, I tell you, is the zeal all Christians must have if they are not to limit themselves just to the public worship of God.  They are to seek to encourage everyone to come willingly and affiliate with our Lord Jesus Christ so that there will be only one God, one doctrine and one gospel.  Let us be so closely conjoined that we will all be able to speak with one voice as we call upon God our Father.  Unless we do that, we give a clear indication that we have scarcely learned anything in the school of our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Each of us must extend our hand to our neighbour and encourage one another to grow more and more in the knowledge of God’s truth, which he has been pleased to reveal to us.  And when we see someone fall short, let us correct him with gentle admonitions and point how we must serve God and forsake our iniquity.

That is not said only to preachers and those who expound the word of God.  It is the charge of all Christians in general, as Paul says.  He does not tell Titus and Timothy to preach, exhort, rebuke, censure and admonish.  But he does say to them, ‘Be diligent in fulfilling your office and carrying out the charge which is entrusted to you.  Rebuke, exhort, and censure each person when you know their manner of life so as to turn them from their wicked ways and lead them to salvation’ (cf. 1 Tim. 4:13; 5:1-2; 2 Tim. 2:15; 4:2; Titus 2:1-10).  That is Paul’s instruction to all whose charge is to bear the word of God.  He exhorts everybody in general to admonish one another.

Now, as I have already said, we must make every possible effort to lead those who have not been instructed in the knowledge of God so that they and we may serve and honour Jesus Christ, and in so doing increase the numbers of believers.  But is that all?  We are far from doing all we should.  Surprisingly, we have, it seems, conspired against God by obscuring the truth of his gospel by no longer talking about it.  What, then, should be our approach?[1]

He goes on to provide practical counsel and rebuke to those inclined to avoid this duty. What he says concerning Timothy and Titus is a little confusing – I am not sure precisely what point he is trying to make – but the thrust is clear: all faithful Christians seek to grow the church through speaking and living to unbelievers in such a way as to call them to faith in Jesus (and this at a time when church attendance of the whole population was considered a duty, even if not observed).

It is a little known fact that Calvin had a great deal to say about blogging.  Not directly, of course, but the attitude and speech and behaviour that is often in evidence today in the blogosphere is no new thing, it has simply found a new platform.  Calvin has little time for it:

Now if the devil caused grumbling during the apostles’ time, what about today, when we have so many troubles and quarrels and offences among us?  We are still far from achieving the kind of perfection they had, for they had such order and such regulations among them that they are like angels.  And yet when we hear that there arose grumbling among the apostles, let us not be surprised if we encounter many stumbling blocks within God’s church today.  There is a lot of wickedness and there are many who are inclined to rebellion and who want everything to be governed according to their insights.  The very ones who have less understanding, less judgment and experience, and who are the most presumptuous are the ones who want to rule and direct everybody as they see fit.  And yet they go around creating conflicts!  They will certainly say, ‘Why is such and such not done this way?  Why can we not do it thus and so?’  To make a long story short, God would have to make them a world of their own!  If you put a dozen such clever people together, they will claw one another’s eyes out and still presume to govern everybody.  Now I would really like for such ‘governors’ to know what true Christianity is, namely that we interact with our neighbours in such a way that we show we honour other people, as Paul instructs us (Phil. 2:3).  That means we think more highly of others than of ourselves.  But some of them, indeed the majority, think they have the skill to manage something, such that, to hear them tell it, they seem to be angels whom God has sent to restore everything that is badly built.  And when it turns out for the worst, they stand there all confused.  That is what we need to glean from the firt point that Luke deals with in this account.[1]

John MacArthur has been addressing a certain interpretation of the Song of Solomon that has been prominent in recent weeks.  Mark Driscoll features prominently in his critique.  It is an honest and helpful response to some of the excesses not only of Driscoll’s treatment, but also of the apparent explosion of such treatments over recent months.  MacArthur also addresses some of the critiques of his critique that have circulated.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

Bob Gonzales has begun another provocative and helpful series over at RBS Tabletalk concerning the responsibility of the whole body of Christ to be winners of souls.  In the light of that, I thought I would post an excellent chapter from Charles Spurgeon’s The Soul Winner, on inducing the people of God to be soul-winners themselves.  From experience, I would suggest that there is little harder or more potentially discouraging than seeking to exemplify,  exhort and encourage to, and engage in the kind of principled pattern that Mr Spurgeon sets out below.  How many excuses are given?  How many prayer meetings go unattended?  How little fervour and effort there can be.  How quickly we faint and fail.  How much fear of men cripples us.  How quickly evangelising downgrades to mere socialising.  Fortunately, the first thing that Spurgeon does is to recognise the difficulty, and he helps us to overcome the discouragement in ourselves and the difficulties we face.  Faithfulness must come first, and – God willing – fruitfulness will follow.

How to Induce Our People to Win Souls

I have spoken to you at different times, brethren, about the great work of our lives, which is that of winning souls. I have tried to show you various ways in which we win souls, the qualifications both towards God and towards man of those who are likely to be used in winning souls, the kind of sermons that are most likely to win souls, and also the obstacles in the way of soul-winners. Now I should like, this afternoon, to talk to you upon another part of the subject; that is,-

HOW CAN WE INDUCE OUR PEOPLE TO BECOME SOUL-WINNERS?

You are aspiring, each of you, in due time, to become pastors of churches, unless the Lord should call you to be evangelists, or missionaries to the heathen. Well, you commence at first as single sowers of the good seed of the kingdom, and you go forth scattering from your own basket your own handfuls. You desire, however, to become spiritual farmers, and to have a certain acreage which you will not sow entirely yourself, but you will have servants who will aid you in the work. Then, to one you will say, “Go,” and he will go forthwith; or, “Come,” and he will come at once; and you will seek to lead them into the art and mystery of seed-sowing, so that, after a while, you may have large numbers of persons round about you doing this good work, and thus a far greater acreage may be brought into cultivation for the great Husbandman. There are some of us who have, by God’s grace, been so richly blessed that we have all around us a large number of persons who have been spiritually quickened through our instrumentality, people who have been aroused under our ministry, who have been instructed and strengthened by us, and who are all doing good service for God.

Let me warn you not to look for all this at the first, for it is the work of time. Do not expect to get, in the first year of your pastorate, that result which is the reward of twenty years’ continuous toil in one place. Young men sometimes make a very great mistake in the way they talk to those who never saw them until about six weeks ago. They cannot speak with the authority of one who has been as a father among his people, having been with them for twenty or thirty years; or if they do, it becomes a sort of foolish affectation on their part, and it is equally foolish to expect the people to be all at once the same as they might be after they have been trained by a godly minister for a quarter of a century. It is true that you may go to a church where somebody else has faithfully laboured for many years, and long sown the good seed, and you may find your sphere of labour in a most blessed and prosperous state, and happy will you be if you can thus jump into a good man’s shoes, and follow the path he has been treading. It is always a good sign when the horses do not know that they have a new driver; and you, my brother, inexperienced as you are, will be a very happy man if that should be your lot; but the probability is that you will go to a place that has been allowed to run almost to ruin, possibly to one that has been altogether neglected.

Perhaps you will try to get the principal deacon to imitate your earnestness; you are at a white heat, and when you find him cold as steel, you will be like a piece of hot iron dipped into a pail of water. He may tell you that he recollects others who were at first just as hot as you are, but they soon cooled down, and he will not be surprised if you do the same. He is a very good man, but then he is old, and you are young, and we cannot put young heads on old shoulders even if we were to attempt to do it. Perhaps next you will resolve to try some of the young people; possibly you can get on better with them; but they do not understand you, they are backward and retiring, and they soon fly off at a tangent. You must not be surprised if this is your experience. Very likely you will have almost everything to do in connection with the work; at all events, expect that it may be so, and then you will not be disappointed if it so turns out. It may be otherwise; but you will be wise if you go into the ministry expecting not to find any very great assistance from the people in the work of soul-winning. Anticipate that you will have to do it yourself and to do it alone; and begin doing it alone, sow the seed, tramp up and down the field, always looking to the Lord of the harvest to bless your labour, and also looking forward to the time when through your efforts, under the divine blessing, instead of a plot of land that is apparently covered with nettles, or full of stones, or weeds, or thorns, or partly trodden down, you shall have a well-tilled farm in which you may sow the seed to the best advantage, and on which you shall have a little army of fellow-labourers to aid you in the service. Yet all that is the work of time.

I should certainly say to you, do not expect all this at least for some months after you settle down to work. Revivals, if they are genuine, do not always come the moment we whistle for them. Try and whistle for the wind, and see if it will come. The great rain was given in answer to Elijah’s prayers; but not even then the first time he prayed, and we must pray again, and again, and again, and at last the cloud will appear, and the showers out of the cloud. Wait a while, work on, plod on, plead on, and in due time the blessing will be given, and you shall find that you have the church after your own ideal, but it will not come to you all at once. I do not think Mr. John Angell James, of Birmingham, saw much fruit to his ministry for many years. As far as I remember, Carr’s Lane Chapel was not the place of any great notoriety before he preached there; but he kept on steadily preaching the gospel, and at last he drew around him a company of godly people who helped to make him the greatest power for good that Birmingham had at that time. Try to do just the same, and do not expect to see all at once what he and other faithful ministers have only been able to accomplish in many years.

In order to secure this end of gathering around you a band of Christians who will themselves be soul-winners, I should recommend you not to go to work according to any set rule, for what would be right at one time might not be wise at another, and that which would be best for one place would not be so good elsewhere. Sometimes, the very best plan would be to call all the members of the church together, tell them what you would like to see, and plead earnestly with them that each one should become for God a soul-winner. Say to them, “I do not want to be your pastor simply that I may preach to you; but I long to see souls saved, and to see those who are saved seeking to win others for the Lord Jesus Christ. You know how the Pentecostal blessing was given when the whole church met, with one accord in one place, and continued in prayer and supplication, the Holy Spirit was poured out, and thousands were converted. Cannot we get together in like manner, and all of us cry mightily to God for a blessing?” That might succeed in arousing them. Calling them together, and earnestly pleading with them about the matter, pointing out what you wish them specially to do, and to ask of God, may be like setting a light to dry fuel; but, on the other hand, nothing may come of it because of their lack of sympathy in the work of soul-saving. They may say, “It is a very nice meeting, and our pastor expects a good deal of us, and we all wish he may get it,” and there it will end so far as they are concerned.

Then, if that should not succeed, God may lead you to begin with one or two. There is usually some “choice young man” in each congregation; and as you notice deeper spirituality in him than in the rest of the members, you might say to him, “Will you come down to my house on such-and-such an evening that we may have a little prayer together?” You can gradually increase the number to two or three, godly young men if possible, or you may begin with some gracious matron, who perhaps lives nearer to God than any of the men, and whose prayers would help you more than theirs. Having secured their sympathy, you might say to them, “Now we will try if we cannot influence the whole church; we will begin with our fellow-members before we go to the outsiders. Let us try and be ourselves always at the prayer-meetings, to set an example to the rest, and let us also arrange to have gatherings for prayer in our own houses, and seek to get our brethren and sisters to them. You, good sister, can get half-a-dozen sisters together into your house for a little meeting; and you, brother, can say to a few friends, ‘Could we not meet together to pray for our pastor?”‘ Sometimes, the most effectual way to burn a house is to do it by pouring petroleum down the middle of it, and setting fire to it, as the ladies and gentlemen (!) did in Paris in the days of the Commune; and, sometimes, the shortest method is to light it at the four corners. I have never tried either plan; but that is what I think. I like to burn churches rather than houses, because they do not burn down, they burn up, and keep on burning when the fire is of the right sort. When a bush is nothing but a bush, it is soon consumed when it is set on fire; but when it is a bush that burns on and is not consumed, we may know that God is there. So is it with a church that is flaming with holy zeal. Your work, brethren, is to set your church on fire somehow. You may do it by speaking to the whole of the members, or you may do it by speaking to the few choice spirits, but you must do it somehow. Have a secret society for this sacred purpose, turn yourselves into a band of celestial Fenians whose aim it is to set the whole church on fire. If you do so, the devil will not like it, and you will cause him such disquiet that he will seek the utter break up of the union, and that is just what we want; we do not desire anything but war to the knife between the church and the world and all its habits and customs. But again I say, all this will take time. I have seen some fellows run so fast at first that they have soon become like broken-winded horses, and truly that is a pitiable sight; so take time, brethren, and do not look for everything you desire to be secured all at once.

I suppose that, in most places, there is a prayer-meeting on Monday night. If you want your people as well as yourself to be soul-winners, try and keep up the prayer meetings all you can. Do not be like certain ministers in the suburbs of London, who say that they cannot get the people out to a prayer-meeting and a lecture, too, so they have one week-night meeting for prayer, at which they give a short address. One lazy man said, the other day, that the week-night address was almost as bad as delivering a sermon, so he has a prayer-meeting and a lecture combined in one, and it is neither a prayer-meeting nor a lecture, it is neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red-herring; and soon he will give it up because he says it is no good, and I am sure the people think so, too. And after that, why should he not give up one of the Sunday services? The same reasoning might apply to that as to the week-night meeting. I saw, in an American paper to-day, the following paragraph:-”The well-known fact is again going the rounds that, in Mr. Spurgeon’s church in London, the regular hearers absent themselves one Sunday evening every three months, and the house is given up to strangers. English ‘boasting is excluded’ in this matter. Our American Christianity is of so noble a type that hosts of our people give up their pews to strangers every Sunday night in the year.” I hope it will not be so with your people, brethren, either with respect to the Sabbath services or the prayer-meetings.

If I were you, I would make that prayer-meeting a special feature of my ministry; let it be such a prayer-meeting that there is not the like of it within seven thousand miles. Do not go walking into the prayer-meeting, as so many do, to say anything or nothing that may occur to you at the moment; but do your best to make the meeting interesting to all who are there; and do not hesitate to tell good Mr. Snooks that, God helping you, he shall not pray for five-and-twenty minutes. Earnestly entreat him to cut it short, and if he does not, then stop him. If a man came into my house intending to cut my wife’s throat, I would reason with him as to the wrong of it, and then I would effectually prevent him from doing her any harm; and I love the church almost as much as I love my dear wife. So, if a man will pray long, he may pray long somewhere else, but not at the meeting over which I am presiding. Tell him to finish it up at home if he cannot pray in public for a reasonable length of time. If the people seem dull and heavy, get them to sing Moody and Sankey hymns; and then, when they can sing them all by heart, do not have any more “Moody and Sankey” for a time, but go back to your own hymn-book.

Keep up the prayer-meeting, whatever else flags; it is the great business evening of the week, the best service between the Sabbaths; be you sure to make it so. If you find that your people cannot come in the evening, then try and have a prayer-meeting when they can come. You might get a good meeting in the country at half-past four in the morning. Why not? You would get more people at five o’clock in the morning than you would at five o’clock at the other end of the day. I believe that a prayer-meeting at six o’clock in the morning among agricultural people would attract many; they would drop in, and just have a few words of prayer, and be glad of the opportunity. Or you might have it at twelve o’clock at night; you would find some people out then whom you could not get at any other time. Try one o’clock, or two o’clock, or three o’clock, or any hour of the day or night, so as somehow or other to get the people out to pray; and if they cannot be induced to come to the meetings, go to their house, and say, “I am going to have a prayer-meeting in your parlour.” “Oh, dear! my wife will be in a state.” “Oh, no! tell her not to trouble, for we can go into the coach-house, or garden, or anywhere, but we must have a prayer-meeting here.” If they will not come to the prayer-meeting, we must go to them; suppose that fifty of us go trudging down the street, and hold a meeting in the open-air; well, there might be many worse things than that. Remember how the women fought the liquor-sellers in America when they prayed them out of the traffic. If we cannot stir the people without doing extraordinary things, in the name of all that is good and great let us do extraordinary things, but somehow we must keep up the prayer-meetings, for they are at the very secret source of power with God and with men.

We must always be an earnest example ourselves. A slow-coach minister will not have a lively zealous church, I am sure. A man who is indifferent, or who does his work as if he took it as easily as he could, ought not to-expect to have a people around him who are in earnest about the salvation of souls. I know that you, brethren, desire to have about you a band of Christians who long for the salvation of their friends and neighbours, a set of people who will be always expecting that God will bless the preaching of your sermons, who will watch the countenances of your hearers to see if they are getting impressed, and who will be sorely distressed if there are no conversions, and greatly troubled if souls are not saved. Perhaps they would not complain to you if that were the case, but they would cry to God on your behalf. Possibly, they would also speak to you about the matter. I remember one of my deacons saying to me, as we were going down to the communion, one Sabbath evening, when we had only fourteen to receive into the church, “Governor, this won’t pay.” We had been accustomed to have forty or fifty every month, and the good man was not satisfied with a smaller number. I agreed with him that we must have more than that in the future if it was possible. I suppose some brethren would have felt annoyed to have had anything like that remark made to them; but I was delighted with what my good deacon said; for it was just what I myself felt.

Then, next, we want around us Christians who are willing to do all they can to help in the work of winning souls. There are numbers of people who cannot be reached by the pastor. You must try to get some Christian workers who will “button-hole” people, you know what I mean. It is pretty close work when you hold a friend by a lock of his hair, or by his coat-button. Absalom did not find it easy to get away when he was caught in the oak by the hair of his head. So, try to get at close quarters with sinners; talk gently to them till you have whispered them into the kingdom of heaven, till you have told into their ears the blessed story that will bring peace and joy to their heart. We want, in the Church of Christ, a band of well-trained sharpshooters, who will pick the people out individually, and be always on the watch for all who come into the place, not annoying them, but making sure that they do not go away without having had a personal warning, a personal invitation, and a personal exhortation to come to Christ. We want to train all our people for this service, so as to make Salvation Armies out of them. Every man, woman, or child who is in our churches should be set to work for the Lord. Then they will not relish the fine sermons that the Americans seem to delight in so much; but they will say,” Pooh! Flummery! We don’t want that kind of thing.” What do people who are at work in the harvest-field want with thunder and lightning? They want just to rest a while under a tree, to wipe the sweat from their foreheads, to refresh themselves after their toil, and then to get to work again. Our preaching ought to be like the address of a commander-in-chief to his army, “There are the enemy; do not let me know where they are to-morrow.” Something short, something sweet, something that stirs and impresses them, is what our people need.

We are sure to get the blessing we are seeking when the whole atmosphere in which we are living is favourable to soul-winning. I remember one of our friends saying to me, one evening,” There will be sure to be a blessing to-night, there is such a lot of dew about.” May you often know what it is to preach where there is plenty of dew! The Irishman said that it was no use to irrigate while the sun was shining, for he had noticed that, whenever it rained, there were clouds about, so that the sun was hidden. There was a great deal of sense in that observation, more than appears at first sight, as there usually is in Hibernian statements. The shower benefits the plants because everything is suitable for the rain to come down, the shaded sky, the humidity of the atmosphere, the general feeling of everything is damp all around; but if you were to pour the same quantity of water down while the sun was shining brightly, the leaves would probably be turned yellow, and in the heat they would shrivel and die. Any gardener would tell you that he is always careful to water the flowers in the evening when the sun is off them. This is the reason why irrigation, however well it is done, is not so beneficial as the rain; there must be a favourable influence in the whole atmosphere if the plants and flowers are to derive benefit from the moistening. It is just so in spiritual things. I have often noticed that, when God blesses my ministry to an unusual extent, the people in general are in a praying mood. It is a grand thing to preach in an atmosphere full of the dew of the Spirit. I know what it is to preach with it; and, alas! I know what it is to preach without it. Then is it like Gilboa, when there was no dew nor rain. You may preach, and you may hope that God will bless your message; but it is no use. I hope it will not be so with you, brethren. Perhaps your lot will be cast where some dear brother has long been toiling, and praying, and labouring for the Lord, and you will find all the people just ready for the blessing.

I often feel, when I go out to preach, that there is no credit due to me, for everything is in my favour. There sit the good folk, with their mouths open, waiting for the blessing; almost everybody there is expecting me to say something good, and because they are all looking for it, it does them good, and when I am gone, they keep on praying for the blessing, and they get it. When a man is put on a horse that runs away with him, he must ride; that is just how it has frequently been with me, the blessing has been given because all the surroundings were favourable. You may often trace the happy results not only to the preacher’s discourse, but to all the circumstances connected with its delivery. It was so with Peter’s sermon that brought three thousand souls to Christ on the day of Pentecost; there never was a better sermon preached, it was a plain personal message likely to convince people of the sin of their treatment of the Saviour in putting Him to death; but I do not attribute the conversions to the apostle’s words alone, for there were clouds about, the whole atmosphere was damp; as my friend said to me, there was “plenty of dew about.” Had not the disciples been long continuing in prayer and supplication-for the descent of the Spirit, and had not the Holy Ghost descended upon every one of them as well as upon Peter? In the fulness of time, the Pentecostal blessing was poured out most copiously. Whenever a church gets into the same state as that of the apostles and disciples at that memorable period, the whole heavenly electricity is concentrated at that particular spot. Yet you remember that even Christ Himself could not do many mighty works in some places because of the people’s unbelief, and I am sure that all His servants who are thoroughly in earnest are at times hampered in the same way. Some of our brethren who are here have, I fear, a worldly, Christ-less people; still, I am not sure that they ought to run away from them; I think that, if possible, they should stop, and try to make them more Christlike.

It is true that I have had the other sort of experience, as well as the joyous one I have been describing. I remember preaching, one night, in a place where they had not had a minister for some time. When I reached the chapel, I did not have any kind of welcome; the authorities were to receive pecuniary benefit if nothing else from my visit, but they did not welcome me at all; they said, in fact, that there had been a majority at the church-meeting in favour of inviting me, but the deacons did not approve of it because they did not think I was “sound.” There were some brethren and sisters from other churches there; they seemed pleased and profited, but the people who belonged to the place did not get a blessing; they had not expected one, so of course they did not receive it. When the service was over, I went into the vestry, and there stood the two deacons, one on each side of the mantelpiece. I said to them, “Are you the deacons?” “Yes,” they answered. “The church does not prosper, does it?” I asked. “No,” they replied. “I should not think it would with such deacons,” I said. “Did I know anything against them?” they asked. “No,” I said,” but I did not know anything in their favour.” I thought that, if I could not get at them in the mass, I would try what I could do with one or two. I was glad to know that my sermon or my remarks afterwards led to an improvement, and there is one of our brethren there, and doing well to this day. One of the deacons was so irritated by what I said that he left the place, but the other deacon was irritated the right way, so that he remained there, and laboured and prayed until better days came. It is hard when you are rowing against wind and tide, but it is worse even than that if you have a horse on the bank pulling a rope, and dragging your boat the other way. Well, never mind, brethren, if that is your case, but work away all the harder, and pull the horse into the water. Still, remember that when once a favourable atmosphere is created, then the difficulty is to maintain it. You notice that I said, “When the atmosphere is created,” and that expression reminds us how little we can do, or rather that we can do nothing without God, for it is He who has to do with atmospheres, He alone can create them and maintain them; therefore, our eyes must be continually lifted up to Him, whence cometh all our help.

It may happen that some of you do preach very earnestly and well, and sermons that are likely to be blessed, and yet you do not see sinners saved. Well, do not leave off preaching; but say to yourself, “I must try to gather around me a number of people who will be all praying with me and for me, and who will talk to their friends about the things of God, and who will so live and labour that the Lord will give a blessed shower of grace because all the surroundings are suitable thereto, and help to make the blessing come. I have heard ministers say that, when they have preached in the Tabernacle, there has been something in the congregation that has had a wonderfully powerful effect upon them. I think it is because we have good prayer-meetings, because there is an earnest spirit of prayer among the people, and because so many of them are on the watch for souls. There is one brother especially who is always looking after any hearers who have been impressed; I call him my hunting dog, and he is ever ready to pick up the birds I have shot, and bring them to me. I have known him waylay them one after another, that he might bring them to Jesus; and I rejoice that I have other friends of this kind. When our brethren, Fullerton and Smith, had been conducting some special services for a very eminent preacher who is in the habit of using rather long words, he said that the evangelists had the faculty for “the precipitation of decision.” He meant that the Lord blessed them in bringing men to decision for Christ. It is a grand thing when a man has the faculty for the precipitation of decision but it is an equally grand thing when he has a number of people around him who say to each hearer, after every service, “Well, friend, did you enjoy that discourse? Was there something in it for you? Are you saved? Do you know the way of salvation?”

Always have your own Bible ready, and turn to the passages you want to quote to the enquirers. I often noticed that friend of mine, of whom I spoke just now, and he seemed to me to open his Bible at most appropriate passages, he appeared to have them all ready, and handy, so that he would be sure to hit on the right texts. You know the sort of texts I mean, just those that a seeking soul wants:-”The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Well, this brother has a number of such passages printed in bold type, and fastened inside his Bible, so that he can refer to the right one in a moment, and many troubled souls has he thus led to the Saviour. You will not be unwise if you adopt some such method as he has found so exceedingly helpful.

Now lastly, brethren, do not be afraid when you go to a place, and find it in a very bad condition. It is a fine thing for a young man to begin with a real downright bad prospect, for, with the right kind of work, there must come an improvement some time or other. If the chapel is all but empty when you go to it, it cannot well be in a much worse state than that and the probability is that you will be the means of bringing some into the church, and so making matters better. If there is any place where I would choose to labour, it would be just on the borders of the infernal lake, for I really believe that it would bring more glory to God to work among those who are accounted the worst of sinners. If your ministry is blessed to such people as these, they will be likely to cling to you through your whole life; but the very worst sort of people are those who have long been professing Christians, but who are destitute of grace, having a name to live, and yet being dead. Alas! there are people like that among our deacons, and among our church-members, and we cannot get them out; and, as long as they remain, they exert a most baneful influence. It is dreadful to have dead members where every single part of the body should be instinct with divine life; yet in many cases it is so, and we are powerless to cure the evil. We must let the tares grow until the harvest; but the best thing to do, when you cannot root up the tares, is to water the wheat, for there is nothing that will keep back the tares like good strong wheat. I have known ungodly men who have had the place made so hot for them that they have been glad to clear right out of the church. They have said, “The preaching is too strong for us, and these people are too Puritanical and too strict to suit us.” What a blessing it is when that is the case! We did not wish to drive them away by preaching the truth; but as they went of their own accord, we certainly do not want them back, and we will leave them where they are, praying the Lord, in the greatness of His grace, to turn them from the error of their ways, and to bring them to Himself, and then we shall be glad to have them back with us to live and labour for the Lord.

God in Three Persons: Biblical Testimony to the Trinity by Allen Vander Pol

Presbyterian & Reformed (58pp, pbk)

Our author begins by stating his intention to write about the Trinity for those investigating Christianity, new Christians, those wanting a better understanding of ‘the basics’ of the faith, and those who have followed or are following false religions, and who need (or want) to know the Biblical testimony regarding this doctrine.

With these readers in mind, Vander Pol deals with God the Son, God the Father, and God the Spirit, in that order.  Each brief chapter marshals key Biblical evidence and explains it, taking care not to overwhelm, but dealing with many critical issues.  The author summarises the evidence before looking in more detail at Biblical passages that deal with all three persons of the Godhead, focusing on the way in which the Triune God works in salvation.

A final chapter, which is perhaps the strongest, deals with typical challenges to the doctrine of the Trinity.  Questions often asked are stated and answered with brevity and candour.  No attempt is made to duck difficult questions; the Biblical record is employed at each point to address the issue.  A brief conclusion urges readers to throw themselves on the mercy of this three-in-one and one-in-three God for the salvation of their souls. The author also supplies a brief reading list for those wishing to dig deeper.

The great difficulty in a book of this sort is the tension between the pursuit of simplicity and brevity on the one hand, and precision and fullness on the other.  The target readership will not necessarily know the concepts and language with which the evangelical and reformed fraternity is familiar, and the clarity of this presentation is to be applauded.  For the same reasons, it would probably be unfair to challenge particular phrases, even if there are points at which one wonders if slightly greater fullness and accuracy of statement might have been achieved without necessarily sacrificing clarity and brevity.

The particular strength of this little book is its readiness to believe and propound the Biblical testimony, and to present it without apology as truth to be believed by all.  In that and other regards, it achieves its stated aims, and could be used profitably in a variety of situations, as an introduction, a refresher, or an aid in apologetics.

An interesting interview with J. Ligon Duncan, parts one and two.

Martin Downes has been waxing strong concerning penal substitution in recent days: he gives us Warfield & Machen on the same; some gold from Herman Bavinck; thoughts on the victory over Satan; makes some helpful connections with the broader Biblical narrative; and, addresses its relationship to divine love.  All good and insightful stuff.

Update: John Owen and Martin Luther have joined the gang.

For those interested to hear the preaching of this experienced and esteemed servant of Christ, a new website is compiling his sermons.

Justin Taylor points us to Rebecca Grace interviewing Paul Tripp.

Jim Savastio suggests that we should pursue just this, and delight in doing so.

Sine nomine 10 10. 10 4

Through Christ our Saviour, God made all the earth;
He gave the sun and moon and stars their birth;
The whole creation tells its Maker’s worth:
To God be glory! To God be glory!

[ Forth came the prophets, speaking of a King,
A Priest and Prophet, who they knew would bring
God's peace to earth, through his own suffering:
To God be glory! To God be glory! ]

Our Lord came down, with will and power to save,
And of himself a sacrifice he gave,
Then rose from death – to glory from the grave:
To God be glory! To God be glory!

[ Apostles join with the prophetic throng,
Who for salvation looked and waited long,
And - seeing Jesus! - add their voices strong:
To God be glory! To God be glory! ]

Because our Saviour died on this poor earth,
His Spirit grants his chosen ones new birth;
The new creation tells its Maker’s worth:
To God be glory! To God be glory!

And now on high, almighty still to reign,
Enthroned we see the Lamb who once was slain,
To guide his saints till we to heaven attain:
To God be glory! To God be glory!

O Holy Spirit, grant that we may bring
All that we are and have – an offering,
And with full hearts and lifted voices sing:
To God be glory! To God be glory!

©JRW

See all hymns and psalms.

Engaging with the Holy Spirit: Six Crucial Questions by Graham A. Cole

Apollos, 2007 (138pp, pbk)

This volume collects the substance of six lectures delivered at the annual theology conference of Oak Hill College.  The author suggests that in some forty years the doctrine of the Holy Spirit has gone from being a neglected concern to an issue awash with writer’s ink.  Yet, he says, significant questions remain, especially concerning our relation to the Spirit, not least with regard to sin.  His aim is therefore to address six critical questions, answering them from Scripture, taking into account the witness of church history, working in a world of human predicament, employing wisdom that only God can give, and pressing home his conclusions to the heart.  That’s all, then.

His six questions are as follows: What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?  How may we resist the Holy Spirit?  Ought we to pray to the Holy Spirit?  How do we quench the Holy Spirit?  How do we grieve the Holy Spirit?  How does the Holy Spirit fill us?

Each question demands a subtly different approach – perhaps a different starting point or method of progressing – but one welcome feature of Cole’s labour is his determination to be true to Scripture.  Thus no chapter is complete without a careful, thorough exegesis of the relevant texts, usually clear but with an evident weight of technical ability lying behind it.

Though the author is not a cessationist (completist!), mercifully he is not riding a hobby horse.  He gives no indication of setting out to prove points of which he is already persuaded, but rather he graciously guides us through the data he has assembled.  He is ready to interact with writers past and present (although the brevity of the book sometimes means that he takes one representative of a particular school, and is forced into a somewhat curtailed explanation of that opinion – at least when he does this he usually deals with the big guys: Calvin and Owen and the like).

More contentious issues – apart from the whole question of the precise nature of the present operations of the Spirit of God – include the matter of anthropopathism (the attribution of human feeling to the Godhead, with the related issues of whether or not God can truly be said to feel), and the extent to which, for example, the filling of the Spirit is a corporate as opposed to an individual matter and experience.

Each chapter ends with a brief set of conclusions.  In this section, rarely more than a page in length, Cole binds together the key threads of his chapter, each time not only explaining what he believes the intent of God was in the Scriptures with which he has wrestled, but also making clear what it means – what it looks and sounds and feels like – when we make the same mistakes or fall into the same sins today.

It is therefore rather curious to come to the final portion of the book, and to find a summary of summaries which leaves the reader feeling rather flat.  It is a helpful reiteration of what has gone before, but it lacks a concluding punch.  This is disappointing, because there was scope to drive home some of the issues that the book had helpfully raised.

We walk away with a greater and more careful awareness of the divine person who is God the Holy Spirit, of our relationship with him in himself and with all three persons of the Godhead.  We are made more sensitive to his work, more conscious of the grace that he brings and his responsiveness to righteousness and sin.

This book is more a gentle prompt than a vigorous poke.  Various issues drift to the surface, the tone being more conversational than confrontational.  This can help to engage with the matters under discussion, but it sometimes lacks an edge when at times an edge might cut a little deeper.  It is by no means an exhaustive treatment, and the format of the original delivery preclude it being so.  There are many more questions left to answer, and much truth to speak, but those wrestling with these particular questions will find much to guide, challenge, and direct their thinking on these issues.

[Interestingly, it looks like Crossway have now picked this up with a slightly revised title.]

Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears

Crossway, 2008 (335pp, hbk)

Reading this book reminds me of one of the particular things I appreciate about Mark Driscoll.  Never backward in coming forward, it is generally clear what Mark – the primary author of this book – believes, and usually so is the basis on which he believes it.  In common with many others, I do not always agree with his conclusions.  Nevertheless, the value of clearly-stated convictions is that one knows when and how much to agree or disagree.  Unlike so many of their contemporaries, one is not left beating at the air when reading Driscoll & Breshears.  I enjoy this upfront honesty.  One may disagree with the Driscoll principles or practice or both, but there is also an integrity in Mark’s outworking of his principles in practice, and that again is rare and welcome.

It is also a delight to see the doctrine of the church being firmly established, especially in an age in which “doing church” seems to be a free-for-all, an unholy pick’n'mix in which the individual reigns supreme and the truth of God is discarded or received on the whim of the moment or the church is made in man’s image.  Detail aside, hurrah and huzzah for someone of Mark’s stature planting his flag in this regard.  Books like this – alongside other efforts and emphases like 9Marks – do much to turn the mind of the church in a healthy direction.

There is much that will be familiar to Driscoll aficionados as well as those who frequently come across his sermons, writings, or fans.  The missional emphasis is front and centre, woven into the opening chapters on the Christian life and the Christian church, and with a later chapter all of its own.  The authors are keenly aware of the general ignorance that prevails with regard to the identity, purpose and life of Christ’s church in many genuinely Christian circles.  In these early chapters they offer a cheap and cheerful overview of various attitudes and approaches to this issue.  It will undoubtedly infuriate (for what is left out or skated over or misrepresented) as many as it instructs.

The teaching on church leadership rightly identifies male eldership as a sine qua non, although Driscoll’s complementarianism extends to women deacons.  Helpfully, the role of those too often dismissed as ‘ordinary members’ is also made positively plain.  There is a helpful chapter on the importance of preaching, almost a mini-pastoral theology by Driscoll on the topic.  Again, a few casual statements are easy to identify (e.g. expository preaching is not simply and only verse-by-verse teaching), but there are plenty of helps and challenges, especially in the practical section.  The treatment of the sacraments comes next.  Driscoll is an unashamed credobaptist, and by no means a sacramentalist at this point.  His take on the Lord’s supper traces out five meals – forbidden fruit, Passover, the Last Supper, Communion, and the heavenly wedding feast – and is Calvinian rather than Zwinglian.  (As I understand it, Mars Hill is happy to baptise people at the moment of their profession, and communion is celebrated weekly in the services, but also seems to be observed in house groups: clearly there questions that could be quickly raised here).

Chapters on unity, discipline and love follow, and it is refreshing to find a robust and thorough treatment of both the formative and corrective and restorative discipline in this book.  The list of issues identified in Scripture for which some form of pastoral response is considered necessary will act as a wake-up call to many believers in more traditionally Reformed and/or evangelical churches about the seriousness of pursuing holiness and shunning sin.  The chapter on love is a smorgasbord, with lots of suggestions for fomenting true fellowship given.  Interestingly, one of these is observance of the Sabbath.  Again, while Mark’s is not a typically Puritan take on the matter, it is at least a relief to see a man of this profile calling for the day to be set aside to God.

The chapter on missional church tries to straddle the gap between contextualization while remaining countercultural.  Again, there is a lot here that is simple and practical, and much which ought to be assumed in any church that imagines itself genuinely evangelical.  Some of these emphases are picked up in the final chapter on transforming the world, which is where Driscoll’s model of a city within a city – with all that means for being upstream, and therefore generating the cultural current, rather than floating on it, and with what that means for urban church planting – gets its big airing.

However, before we get there, there are two fairly contentious chapters on multi-campus church and technology in church.  Mercifully, Mark avoids – and conscientiously stands against – the casual ‘internet church’ notion.  The Leadership Network supply a lot of the data and modelling that lie behind this chapter, but it is a powerful plea for multi-site church.  I think there is a degree of confusion here: by distinguishing between a spiritual “air war” and “ground war,” a rationale is developed for a high-level strategic ministry (usually vodcast, often in real time) to a number of campuses where the tactical efforts are taking place. We are assured that multi-site is the way forward, as smaller, struggling churches come under the preaching umbrella of a particular church or man, while continuing to undertake pastoral labour and pursue fellowship primarily on the smaller scale.  There seems to be a ‘have your cake and eat it’ mentality at work.  Although “we repudiate the idea that a group of people can gather to watch a sermon on a screen and call it church” (252) there is nevertheless an uneasy balance between the identity of each campus as almost-a-church-in-its-own-right-but-not-quite (with property, personnel, congregation, style of worship and the regular conduct of ‘family business’) and the fact that they all hear fundamentally the same sermons at slightly different times in any given week.  What are these gatherings?  Are they one church?  Many churches?  If they have their own pastors, why are those men not preaching to them each Lord’s day?  There is a fishy distinction between preaching and pastoring (grounded, it seems, in the triperspectivalism that seems to govern pastoral division of labour in many Acts 29 churches i.e. the distinction between prophetic, priestly, and kingly ministry).  For a “charismatic wearing a seatbelt,” it is curious that Mark seems to overlook the Spiritual dynamics of being gathered together in one place (e.g. Acts 2.1; 1Cor 11.18) at this point.  The best technology cannot compensate for the eyeballs of the preacher and of the congregation locked into each other as God works simultaneously along the axes of his relationship with the preacher and with the congregation as their humanities interplay with one another in the powerful reality of Spirit-filled preaching and hearing.  I find no Scriptural evidence that this can be fully replicated by the employment of technology.

That brings us to the following chapter on technology itself, in which – based on a breakneck hurtle through history (20 centuries in four pages!) – we are given some essentially pragmatic suggestions that sound like they might have come from a marketing course on how to maximise your impact by means of technology.  There is no doubt that the aim is to encourage the use of technology to bring glory to God, but there is lots of human counsel and not much divine foundation in evidence.

The whole volume closes with an appendix containing the Mars Hill Church Member Covenant, a document that will surprise (and probably trouble) many as much for what it includes as for what is omitted.  For example, confessional churches will quibble at what they believe to be an insufficient statement of doctrine, while the rampant individualist will bridle at the obligations stated for members.

Where does all this leave us?  It leaves us with a very stimulating book.

Part of me would love to sit down and knock many of the issues in the book back and forth with Mark or someone of similar perspective and character, pushing and being pushed on vital issues.  I willingly applaud a man who takes his ecclesiology seriously and seeks to do it Scripturally, even if I disagree on several significant points.  Mark’s writing demands engagement and response from the intelligent reader.

That said, I would not want the very general overview above to give the impression that I am satisfied with all the details and nuances of Mark’s treatment, much as I appreciate a lot of the broad brushwork.

I have a few more deep-rooted concerns.  As one would expect from the pastor of a large church, Mark sometimes assumes bigness, and that is fair enough.  What is slightly more discomfiting (and I hope I do not say this with the jealous or dismissive sneer of a small-church pastor) is the underlying suggestion that big is best and most beautiful.  I am not sure whether or not that is simply the overflow of a capitalistic or consumer culture, or related to the idea that “reaching the most people for Jesus” demands bigness as a specific aim, but I am not persuaded that this is a justified assumption, even while I long to see more people being saved and added to the church.  This also plays in to the question of why you cannot have a multitude of smaller churches rather than one multi-site monster.

And so to the matter of pragmatism.  I am sure that Mark and others would call it a principled pragmatism (I still need that satisfactorily defined and explained, for one needs to know in every instance in which it is used the principles that govern the pragmatism which almost by definition is willing to override principle in order to accomplish its goal).  Mark sometimes seems to go looking for principles to justify his practice, finding them where he will in Scripture and history; it may be that – given the speed at which things have happened in Seattle – Mark has sometimes had to work up, at speed, a principle that fits what has been thrust upon him and his fellow-elders.  Under such circumstances, it is doubtlessly easy to validate what is, especially if it is adding to your bigness.

Joined with this seems to be a somewhat reactionary habit.  Often we read that Mark has seen or experienced this or that and the other, and it was bad (and in many instances it was undoubtedly so), but often the assumption seems to be that, because one extreme on the spectrum was bad, the safest place is the opposite end of the spectrum.  Such a radical view often carries men past the Scriptural point of righteousness (not simply the middle point on the spectrum) in which, under a holy tension, different principles meet and are worked out.

Mark’s tendency to absolutise is very refreshing when you agree, and very frustrating when you do not, or when you wish to see a more finely-nuanced or theologically- or historically-aware argument.  For example, some of the theological and historical sketches and summaries are painfully naive or shallow or unbalanced at points, but couched in such a way as to demonstrate or support the point that Driscoll is making.  That’s his prerogative – it’s his book, after all – but some of those conclusions are open to significant debate.

Finally, we are assured more than once that churches are messy, because change is messy and mission is messy and people are messy.  I think I understand and appreciate the point, and I may even have used the vocabulary, but I am not a fan of the terminology (even if I cannot readily think of an alternative).  I appreciate that too many churches are overly-obsessed with being ‘neat’ and keeping everything under control, demanding the absence of everything that upsets their cherished notion of perfection without allowing for the radical, uneven, sometimes profoundly uncomfortable process of individual and corporate sanctification that we often see in Scripture.  This pursuit of perfection is only accomplished when things are increasingly static: the last thing you want is new believers with all their baggage coming in at the bottom of the chain and messing up the smooth upward trajectory.  At the same time, the language of messiness is too easily abused and made an excuse for not pursuing a more complete obedience to God’s revealed will.  It was, after all, to one of the messiest churches of the New Testament period that God said, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1Cor 14.40) (and, yes, the apostle said that primarily of worship, but I think that there is a wider principle at work, because God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints).  The mess is not a reason to rejoice, even when we recognise it and embrace it as a necessary part of church life as imperfect sinners rub up against among other imperfect sinners in a world tainted by sin.  I get the point, but perhaps it is better to speak of the church as God’s unfinished business, and not imply that mess is the goal, even though it may be the norm.

It is important to recognise that for many up-and-coming young pastors, this may very well be the first and perhaps only ecclesiological textbook they take, swayed by Mark’s powerful personality, effective ministry, and winsome style.  Relying only on this volume would be an error on their part, but it is a possibility that we must recognise.  Vintage Church is by no means the sole textbook that I would take for ecclesiology, even while I appreciate that there are many worse.  It does have a place on the shelf, not least because of its vigorous interaction with cherished or discarded notions, and its currency in dealing with issues all the rage in the wider evangelical sphere.  There is much in it with which I wholeheartedly agree.  It reminds us of many of the first things that are often lost among the minutiae of closely-argued and finely-detailed ecclesiological debates.  Nevertheless, my aim would be not simply to pick and choose – as I think Mark sometimes does when seeking to prove his own assumptions – but to compare Mark’s book with other similar volumes addressing similar issues, comparing all those sources with Scripture, and seeking prayerfully to discern the mind of the Spirit with regard to these things.  Vintage Church is not the final word; it does not deserve to be, and should not be taken as such.  It does deserve to be read carefully and thankfully and wrestled with vigorously, and I hope that readers will do Mark and Gerry the honour of such an approach.

Challies started it.  Camp and Johnson joined in, and they have been slugging it out on this one for a couple of days.  The iMonk has now got involved.  I am not sure if I care, but it has some interesting points underneath it.