Who cares about heresy?
Martin Downs at Against Heresies writes,
“Guy Davies draws my attention to the soon to be released Heresy: a history of defending the truth by Alister McGrath and published by SPCK (with a foreword by Rick Warren). I will look forward to reading it.
But here’s a curious line from the Amazonian blurb:
‘McGrath’s provocative thesis is that the categories of heresy and orthodoxy must be preserved by the church today.’
Go on, read it again, only this time slowly. Provocative? Would that not have received a blank stare, or a furrowed brow, from the apostles, early church fathers, medieval schoolmen, reformers, and the puritans?…”
– Read the article here.
Sermon Preparation by Bishop Paul Barnett
“At our recent Tasmanian Clergy Conference (4 – 6 November 2009), our guest speaker Bishop Paul Barnett presented excellent “Studies in First Peter” and also his notes on Sermon Preparation. I have his permission to share them with you…”
– John Harrower, Bishop of Tasmania, writes at his blog.
Geneva Push website launched
The Geneva Push church planting network has launched their new website. (h/t Craig Schwarze.)
The existence of God, the reality of Evil, and the terror of Hell
Three brief video clips by Don Carson answering three common questions —
* How do I know God exists?
* How can God allow suffering and evil in the world?
* How can God be loving and yet send people to Hell?
See them via Between Two Worlds.
Challies and Challies on ‘Sexual Detox’
Over the last two weeks, Tim Challies has been blogging on the theme of ‘Sexual Detox’ – and has now made his posts available as two free e-books – Sexual Detox: A Guide for the Single Guy (PDF) and Sexual Detox: A Guide for the Married Guy (PDF). In addition Tim’s wife, Aileen, is guest blogging some articles especially directed at women (False Messages I: What he really wants).
Worth reading in conjunction with the discussion going on at SydneyAnglicans.net (Pornography’s “silenced sufferers”).
Article XVIII
They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of Nature. For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.
“The sequence of articles on the subject of individual salvation that began with Article XI ends here with this very strong statement against the view that it is sincerity and diligence that matter most in the religious life.…”
– Michael Jensen is up to Article XVIII at Thirty Nine.
Help and encouragement in sharing the gospel
“Paul E. Little’s book How to Give Away Your Faith was first published in 1966, a few years before the popular evangelist was killed in a tragic car accident. Since his untimely death, his wife Marie has overseen two revisions of Little’s book (1988, 2008). It is sometimes described as ‘the classic guide to evangelism,’ perhaps because of the way in which the book addresses practical issues surrounding personal evangelism.”
– Trevin Wax offers some good reasons to dust off your old copy – or perhaps to get a revised edition. At The Discerning Reader.
Of course, Chappo’s Know and Tell the Gospel, written for Australian conditions, is essential reading! (Photo of Paul Little: Ake Lundberg.)
The Influence of Liberalism upon Evangelicalism — ‘the Curate’s Egg’
“When a term is used frequently enough it can become over used and so end up being abused. We may think, for example, of the word, ‘awesome’. A mobile phone can now be described as ‘awesome’ and pretty soon everything is awesome which means nothing is so. We have a similar problem with the term ‘evangelical’. It can now mean little more than indicating that one prefers guitars to organs in public worship…”
– Church Society has just reprinted this 2007 Churchman article (PDF file) by Melvin Tinker.
A gift-wrapped community
Here’s a great idea for Christmas –
“The Emmanuel Church in Glenhaven is gift-wrapping 1900 Essential Jesus Gospels in preparation for Christmas this year. Church members will door-knock homes in the local area over 2 Sundays, to give out their special gift…” – Story here.
Remembering B. B. Warfield
“At important moments in the history of the church God, in kind providence, has raised up men to give voice to His Word. And so there is Augustine, the theologian of sin and grace. He did not invent these doctrines, of course. But in his battle with Pelagius he gave them such clear and cogent articulation that forever since he has been recognized as the one who gave these doctrines to us. He was the high water mark. So also there is Anselm, the theologian of the doctrine of the atonement. And there is Luther, the theologian of justification. And Calvin, the theologian of the Holy Spirit.
In this sense exactly Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield of Old Princeton is the theologian of the doctrine of inspiration…”
– At Between Two Worlds, Fred Zaspel writes on the significance of B B Warfield, who was born 158 years ago today.
As Night follows Day?
“The premise is wrong, the logic is wrong and the conclusion is wrong, but who cares so long as we can make the Bible say what we want it to say?”
– Church Society’s David Philips on the slippery-slope of making the Bible teach whatever you want. (90kb PDF file.) From the Autumn 2009 edition of Cross†Way.
Where now, after October 20th?
“As long ago as 1971, Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote a book titled, What is an Evangelical? John Stott addressed the same issue in 1977, as did Mark Thompson as recently as 1995 in a book titled Saving the Heart? subtitled, What is an evangelical?
However, in recent years the evangelical identity has become even more diffuse, even within Anglicanism…”
– John Richardson gave this address at Forward in Faith’s Manchester branch last weekend. (It was on October 20th that the Vatican made its offer to Anglo-Catholics.)
Church discipline: a good idea?
The latest version of the 9Marks eJournal is devoted to the often-difficult question of church discipline. It’s available as a PDF file here.
A tip for the Melbourne Cup
Last year, Kel Richards and Dean Phillip Jensen discussed the topic of gambling at The Chat Room.
Watch it at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Stott on Anglican Evangelical Identity
“First and foremost, by God’s sheer mercy, I am a Christian seeking to follow Jesus Christ.
Next, I am an evangelical Christian because of my conviction that evangelical principles (especially sola scriptura [Scripture alone] and sola gratia [by grace alone]) are integral to authentic Christianity, and that to be an evangelical Christian is to be a New Testament Christian, and vice versa.
Thirdly, I am an Anglican evangelical Christian, since the Church of England is the particular historical tradition or denomination to which I belong.
But I am not an Anglican first, since denominationalism is hard to defend. It seems to me correct to call oneself an Anglican evangelical (in which evangelical is the noun and Anglican the descriptive adjective) rather than an evangelical Anglican (in which Anglican is the noun and evangelical the adjective).”
– Quoted in R. Steers, The Inside Story, p. 191. (h/t Mark Thompson.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…