Adultery

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Vice President Pence and the Billy Graham rule...

A FB friend just asked my thoughts on the thrashing Vice President Michael Pence has been receiving for observing "the Billy Graham rule" in his relations with women other than his wife. What is the rule? I mention it in this Baylyblog post from January 20, 2005. First the post, then some comments on the present controversy...


Response to inquiries concerning the Sam Allberry post...

Last week I wrote Gay priest Sam Allberry is LivingOut... warning against the errors bound up with Rev. Sam Allberry and his LivingOut.org movement now quite popular here Stateside. Since that post, men who read the post through FB links have been quite angry. 

I understand the frustration these men feel at criticisms leveled against a pastor who is committed to foregoing sexual intimacy outside heterosexual marriage, and to speaking against such sin to his liberal synod’s bishops, most of whom are themselves full-blown homosexualists. At this point in Western culture’s normalization of sodomy,  it seems wacko to get technical about our witness against the movement. Something like the enemy of my enemy can’t be anything other than my friend, right?

Trouble is, we can witness to Biblical sexuality in a way that undercuts Biblical sexuality. Which is to say winning isn’t everything; how we fight is an integral part of our witness. Yes, I get it: we’re very weary of the battle. We see the growing marginalization of Christian sexuality and it would be very helpful right now to have...


Hillary Clinton: follow the money...

But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. (Revelation 2:20)

President-elect Donald Trump says he's worth billions and Hillary is worth around $350 million. So who spent what in their respective presidential campaigns, and where did it come from?

Trump raised $340 million and he himself gave $66 million of it. Clinton raised $581 million and she herself gave none of it.

This is the soul of that species who have usurped for themselves the name "Democrats." They love you and have a wonderful plan for your life.

Not their lives. Your life.

You give them money and they...


Is Hillary Clinton religious?

Pew Research ran the above headline on the Google news page just now and the correct response is, "Of course she is!" Everyone's religious—absolutely everyone. What's worth asking is not whether Hillary Clinton is religious, but who is her god?

Then things get interesting, as in interesting-scarey. Mrs. Clinton's god commands her to remain married to a notorious serial adulterer, for starters. He also requires the bloody sacrifice of unborn babies.

Don't get me started on Donald Trump's god...


Dear Paul Tripp...

Dear Paul,

I was surprised that you wrote to tell us how we should view the end of Tullian Tchividjian's marriage. But since you addressed us publicly on your web site, I thought I'd write back and publicly say a few things that have occurred to me as well.

I must confess that for many years I confused you with your brother Tedd, never being quite sure which of you was the one doing or saying what. Sorry. I know it can sting. Perhaps it's the mustaches... (For years, for us it was the bow ties.)

More recently, I've been clear on the distinction. Tedd wrote the book my mother commended to me years ago, Shepherding a Child's Heart. Tedd was the pastor my friend Stephen Baker trained under. You're the PCA Tripp who's done the counseling for years. So I think I've got you straight, and my appreciation for your family's ministry is real. Moreover, there are people in the church I pastor who remember you from the Alliance church you attended in the 1950s and 60s. 

It's recently struck me that we've lived for years as each other's kind of reverse doppelganger, swooping back and forth across the same landscape like ships doomed to pass in the night. For instance, the church I pastor is attended by a daughter of the pastor who led the church you attended throughout your childhood, and even the granddaughter of that man's predecessor, pastor of that church when you were born. You were a kid together with people I'm approaching senior citizenship with. 

You were born and raised in Toledo, moving to Philadelphia as an adult. I was born in Philadelphia (with ties to Tenth Presbyterian) and moved to Toledo when I was thirty.

You went to college at Columbia Bible College. I went to college at Macalester. You went to Reformed Episcopal Seminary. I went to Gordon-Conwell. You were at Tenth under Jim Boice. I interned at Fullerton Ev. Free under Chuck Swindoll. Your name is Paul David and mine David Jeremy.

I could go on... You wear glasses today like those I wore in my college years. It was the punk rock era; I cut my hair short and found the frames of my dreams at an optical shop that sold safety glasses to industry...


Running with the wolves...

You couldn't make this up. A couple days ago Paul Tripp (publicity photo, Mr. Rogers returns as a hipster) announced to the world it was his considered judgment that it was time for Tully Tchividjian to "move on" from his marriage by filing for divorce. He assured us there are unspecified others who agree with him. And then, today, I read an announcement by WillowCreek Church in Winter Park, Florida that they have brought Tully on their ministerial staff as their Director of Ministry Development.

Their web site tells us they are "Reformed," and with good reason...


Ashley Madison and the Apostle Paul's "gospel"...

...on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.  - Romans 2:16

They say pornography has been the engine driving technological advances the past few decades, starting with the VCR and DVD, but continuing to the present with the latest video codecs of pornography sites. Add to this the superficiality of tweets (esp. from Christians) and the extreme narcissism, vanity, and deception at the heart of FB, and it's easy to understand why believers would view technology as only evil.

But yes, there are good things about the internet, and one that may not be mentioned very often. Among the infinite number of Scripture's warnings, that one about "every idle word" makes me tremble. You too?

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36)

Incomprehensible, isn't it; that our Lord keeps track, not just of every hair on our head (comforting), but every thoughtless word? And this is where the internet is helpful...


Setting Captives Free repents of focus on sin and repentance...

The problem with my original writings was the focus on sin, the labeling of people according to their sin, the sharing and discussing of sin, and the constant reminders of the sin. This is Old Covenant law-oriented, problem-focused doctrine and not according to biblical truth, and it hurt many people to whom I’ve recently been apologizing.

- Mike Cleveland, announcing his repudiation of thirteen years of work with Setting Captives Free

One change in the past quarter-century that has been terribly destructive within the Church and Her households is the ubiquity of the internet through smartphones, tablets, and laptops. These tools have enabled the private consumption of horrendous moral filth and Christian men and (increasingly) women have found this wickedness almost irresistible. The percentage of young Christian men who have succumbed to internet fornication on a regular basis is likely close to ninety percent, and now women have joined men and are consuming thirty percent of the internet filth.

At Clearnote, we've given ourselves to working closely with men and women repenting of this sin. A critical part of our work with those repenting of this sin is that each man and woman has been required to enroll in an internet discipleship program called Setting Captives Free (SCF).

For this reason we were quite sad to be notified recently by several men of our congregation that SCF is now repudiating and will no longer be offering their former courses, including the Way of Purity (for heterosexuals who are struggling with sexual sin) and Door of Hope (for homosexuals in the same position). After a preliminary investigation, one of our elders wrote "it would appear [they] are watering down the gospel by shifting focus away from sin and the need to repent from it."

We contacted SCF to express our concern and this was their...


The Church is responsible for Obergefell v. Hodges, and now we must get it right...

With our Clearnote Fellowship Conference a few hours away, I won't have much time the next few days to engage with this issue, but I've had some nagging thoughts as I've read the debates going on among church officers in the wake of Obergefell v. Hodges.

Any stand Christians take in opposition to the enforcement of Obergefell v. Hodges across the nation must be in light of God's Creation Order in its entirety. If we single out sodomy as the place we draw the line of civil disobedience concerning sexuality, we must ask ourselves why there? Is it really because sodomy has taken our culture to a whole new level of rebellion against God? Yes, but also no...


Lewis on narcissistic sexuality...

Although not as elegantly, we frequently say this to men who fornicate by means of pornography. Pornography is the sexuality of a Facebook generation in bondage to self.

For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back: sends the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides.


Erskine College trustees bend the knee...

A couple days ago Google News had a headline about a "small Christian college in South Carolina" coming under fire for a statement its trustees issued concerning sexuality. The headline and story, though, weren't about the original statement, but a second statement the college issued responding to the backlash their first statement produced.

Curious which "small Christian college in South Carolina" they were talking about, I read the story and found it was Erskine College. You remember Erskine? For several years, recently, there was a nasty fight for the soul of the college led partly by my friend, Dick DeWitt. Dick had served for a time as the senior pastor of the historic and rich First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South Carolina, and First Pres. being a member-church of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and Erskine being the ARP's denominational college meant the work of Dick DeWitt and friends toward the college's reform could not easily be dismissed.

My curiosity piqued, I read Erskine's second statement. Keep in mind this second statement was Erskine's attempt at placating all the foes of its first statement, which in fact was quite short and mostly composed of Scripture references. Here is the part of that first statement the pagans found...


An open letter to a dear soul caught in transsexualism...

There's been a discussion with a transsexual named "Phoebe" going on in another place on this blog, and just now I posted this comment there that I also want to post here for your (I trust) edification.

* * *

Dear Phoebe,

Really, as others have said, the central issue is whether you are a follower of Jesus Christ and, therefore, a member of His Church? From that everything else flows, and in one of two directions—to Hell or to Heaven. By "follower" we mean "disciple" who is under the discipline of obeying everything He commands. His commands pertaining to the sexuality He gave us are particularly important for us to obey because sexuality is our very core. Nothing is more fundamental to God's creation of us than the sexuality He assigned us from our conception and to rebel against His gift is to repudiate His authority.

There are churches where you'll be accepted just as you aren't. To your face they'll be really sweet and try really really hard to overlook your deformities, acting as if everything is natural, so what's the biggie?

But what you really need and should want is a church where people don't accept you, but rather...