Evangelism

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Education is evangelization—always and forever...

In response to this post, one FB reader asked, "Can you elaborate on the transition in the middle of this article?"

I responded: Thanks for the question... I say the battle for freedom in raising our children is almost the only battle worth fighting because commanding our children to do righteousness and keep the way of the Lord is at least half of obedience to the Great Commission. We talk about evangelism and being missional and overseas missionaries and witnessing and such-like because it's much more glamorous than the hard work of fatherhood and motherhood. We can claim we're doing random acts of kindness and being unselfish when we give our time or money to foreign missions while giving our time or money to raising up a godly seed is said to be entirely selfish. 

But taking a wild guess, I'd say...


The church's witness on sexuality: too cute by half...

Remember, the goal of my writing on sexuality is not to demean women and promote male privilege. Every brash woman and effeminate man who hates Baylyblog never stops repeating these accusations, but they couldn't be further from the truth. Manhood is not privilege, but its opposite: responsibility. As Christ died for His Bride the Church, so man takes up his own cross and dies for the mother of his children, his lover, his bride.

The story of marriage is man dying so woman may give life and nurture it. Where that story is not told, marriage doesn't exist. It's not a private story for Christians. It's the timeless, transcultural story of sex written by God in the very DNA of His universe. To preach and live this story is to preach and live the Gospel.

Among the perishing, this Gospel witness is the stench of death. This is why worldlings outside and inside the church never stop scorning, mocking, hissing, and shaming those who try to be faithful witnesses to God's holy heterosexuality.

There can be no middle ground on sexuality, although many of us are frantic...


Phil Jensen talks about his mistakes...

Here's a good interview with my friend, Phil Jensen, of Sydney, Australia. Phil and his wife, Helen, spent a weekend with us in Bloomington twenty years ago, and we've often been helped by our conversations then as we have done the work of ministry in a university community.


Learn to share the gospel like Jesus...

The weight of the law is crushing. And Jesus used that weight all the time. (Image credit: peasap)This guy comes up to Jesus and asks him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus' initial response is sort of a shock: "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone." He does not say this as though to contrast Himself with God, but rather to make a point about man vs God, generally. Nobody is good. Only God is good. This is a huge hint to help us understand where Jesus is going with the next part of his answer: "You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’"

Now let's be honest. This isn't anything like the answer you were expecting, is it? This guy just wants to know how to be saved. In our thinking Jesus is supposed to share the Gospel now. This man is open to instruction now in a way he might never be again. His question was like a giant lob in slow-pitch softball, just waiting for Jesus to connect with "the Gospel bat." All Jesus needed to do to make us happy was tell him to "believe" or maybe "repent and believe." Instead, Jesus whips out a can of law, and starts laying it on thick. Murder. Adultery. Theft. Lying.

If somebody did that today, we'd tell them it was a terrible waste of an excellent opportunity to share the Gospel. But we don't really feel free to do that with Jesus. So what do we make of this, and how do we apply it as we seek to learn from Jesus and become more like Him? Before we can answer that, we should probably read the rest of the story.

The man responds to Jesus with, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." Then it says, "Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him..." (Here we all breathe a sigh of relief. Aha! Here comes the good news, right?) "...and said to him, 'One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.'"

Did you catch that? Jesus felt love for him. So He... gave him more law. Ugh. Jesus just doesn't seem to have the same "gospel centered” message we have, does He? But wait. It gets worse. The story continues: "at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property."

Here was a man who wanted to know how to be saved. He asked Jesus how to be saved. Jesus' answer was, "keep the law." When the guy says he's been keeping it, Jesus shows him where he hasn’t been, and how to change it. Jesus discourages the man so much with all the talk of the law that the man walks away sad.

There are a few choices for how to understand this:


Rome is anti-Semitic...

On December 10, 2015, one month ago, the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews released a statement on the relationship of Roman Catholicism and Judaism titled, The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable (Romans 11:29): A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of "Nostra Aetate" (No. 4).

What is this document whose 50th anniversary is being celebrated?

Nostra Aetate is a statement on interreligious relations which came out of Roman Catholicism's most recent ecumenical council, Vatican II. Nostra Aetate is most notable for laying a groundwork for the Vatican's recent and growing repudiation of evangelism of the Jews. Nostra Aetate exhibits the typical post-Holocaust pandering to the Jews in its declarations that "what happened in [Christ's] passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today."

Tell that to the Apostles preaching in the book of Acts.

Nostra Aetate also declares: "the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God." Also, "the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself."

Since Nostra Aetate, the Vatican has been undercutting the Church's historic call to Jews to repent of their part in the persecution and murder of their Messiah, and to turn and believe in His Name. Historically, the Christian Church has patterned our witness to the Jews after the Apostolic sermons preached to the Jews which are recorded for us in Acts. Take, for instance, this record of the sermon preached by the Apostle Peter...


The Paris slaughter...

Daughter Heather Ummel forwarded a link to this piece on the Paris slaughter by Fr. George Rutler, pastor of St. Michael's church in New York City. As always, today, Roman Catholics have a much better understanding of history and culture than Protestants, particularly Reformed Protestants. I say it to our shame. Thus someone like Fr. Rutler is able to put Paris in its proper historical context. He also points out the decadence of the end of Christendom which Muslims use to justify their present bloodlust—decadence to which R2K men and their willing helpers at LivingOut.org, the Gospel Coalition, and Covenant Theological Seminary have made significant contributions both past and present.

Culture doesn't lead the church. The church leads the culture, and each of these groups have led and still lead the church into compromise and silence concerning the wickedness of homosexualists. It's no accident, then, that Muslims see Christianity as morally repugnant. We've done what Covenant Theological Seminary's Professor David Jones said we should, making sodomy legal. It's time now to follow the footsteps of Gospel Coalition and their LivingOUT buddies in solidifying Professor Jones' revolution by commending the "gay Christian," "LivingOUT" Trojan horse. We'll also cave to the passage of pro-homosexualist laws by our civil magistrates because Two-Kingdom men want their shame at the Lord's commands to be affirmed and adopted by all churches to the end that no pastor or elder ever is so foolish as to preach publicly against any perversion, no matter how wicked.

So here we are, putting French flags up on FB and praying for the victims while pastors and preachers of the Gospel are silent about the destruction carried out by homosexualists and Islam.

Never forget that the atrocities committed by Islamic jihadists are only the present manifestation of the bloodlust that has characterized their Christian heresy from its inception. Muslims evangelize by the sword. Christians evangelize by the preaching of God's Word. Sadly, though, the victims of this particular Islamic bloodletting were not men and women who, with their deaths, entered Heaven to hear their blessed Master's words, "well done, my good and faithful servants."

The very opposite. There are only two masters of souls here on this earth, Almighty God and Satan. So says Jesus (Acts 26:16-18).

Satan was the master of those who died in the Bataclan concert hall...


We have treasure to impart...

For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves...  - 2Corinthians 4:6, 7

Since the onslaught of multiculturalism, the humanities have been in a death spiral. What are the humanities? They are the disciplines that focus on human culture, including languages, philosophy, religion, music, theatre, history, law, and literature.

Last month in the New Criterion, Mark Bauerlein, an English prof at Emory, made an effort to to show why recent efforts to reverse the decline have failed. Rather than selling the great works of Western Civilization for their beauty and wisdom, they're being sold as a means to help men...


The prophetess, Mother Theresa...

Every abortion causes two deaths: the death of the baby and the death of the mother's conscience.  - Mother Teresa

‪#‎defundPP‬ ‪#‎prolifesummer‬ ‪#‎PPsellsbabyparts‬ ‪#‎anotherboy‬


Bekah Merkle on the Planned Parenthood videos...

Last Saturday over on Femina Girls, Bekah Merkle posted on "these horrific Planned Parenthood videos." Read the piece titled "Victims and Perpetrators." It's excellent.

A couple excerpts...


Speaking of preaching...

Building on Pope Francis's commendation of Evangelical preaching, I thought it was telling that the talks I heard at this year's Auburn Avenue Pastors Conference did not mention preaching. The subject of the conference was "Salt and Light," but there was nothing about preaching. This is the state of preaching in the Reformed church today; we're forsaking preaching for the sacraments, liturgy, and culture (art, music, poetry, etc.) and these are the means of grace we trust for bringing in the Kingdom of God. 

Meanwhile Pope Francis calls Roman Catholics to know their people and to give themselves to preaching.

If you attend the worship services presided over by most Reformed celebrities today, you'll find the sermons are either vacuous exercises in redemptive-historical technique or yawn-inducing lectures on this or that theological truth. The sort of stuff coming from the pulpits of the men who have been called to tall-steeple churches to preach to the Reformed bourgeoisie today in these United States, at least, is never noteworthy for its dependence upon...


It's all too difficult...

[Note: Original post on the Christ Church Cincy website written at my fathers suggestion and reposted here at his request.]

Ross Kaminsky, a radio personality in Colorado, recently received an email from a Christian man tempted by same sex attraction. As the email comes to its conclusion, this Christian man says, "...sodomy is a deviancy. The healthiest thing for me is when a wise man can warn me of the horror, perversion, and abomination of the practice, and save my soul..." Kaminsky responded by email, "I feel terrible that society or the Bible, which I call an old book, are making you feel terrible about yourself." After sharing this response on the air, he then added the following comment:


Tim Keller reveals "the heart of good Christian ministry"...

Frankly, the heart of good Christian ministry is to accommodate without capitulating. - Tim Keller to a room full of the chattering class

Yes, this is a perfect summary of Tim's philosophy of shepherding God's flock. And yes, it is entirely wrong.

I've often said that, beyond his specific doctrinal errors, our main objection to Tim Keller should be his take on contextualization. If you read or listen to him...


The death of Evangelical missions...

There was a time when missions meant preaching the Gospel to all the world and being a missionary meant being sent to all the world to preach the Gospel. The Auca martyrs went to the Aucas to preach the Gospel. They went from love of their fellow men to tell them about sin and righteousness and judgment, then the hope of forgiveness and eternal life through the cross of the Only Lord Jesus Christ.

They did not go as a publicity stunt to "raise awareness" about the "marginalized."

Today, though, we have a different kind of missions and a different kind of missionary. Christian missions has evolved and has little to do with preaching the Gospel. And yet every Christian missionary and Christian mission non-profit organization claims to be...


Clearnote Christmas Spectacular! This Friday and Saturday

How many instruments will Philip Moyer play...and will one of them be a kazoo? Will Curtis finally sing "O, Holy Night?" I'll grant, these questions are important, but they are irrelevant if you don't make plans right now to attend the 8th annual Clearnote Christmas Spectacular this Friday or Saturday at 7:00 PM. More than anything else, it's a beautiful opportunity for your friends and neighbors to hear The Gospel. Will you take a few minutes right now to invite them?

Here's a playlist of several videos from previous years:


Pope Benedict XVI and the limits of papal infallibility...

In the meantime, Israel retains its own mission. Israel is in the hands of God, who will save it ‘as a whole’ at the proper time when the number of Gentiles is complete. - Pope-Benedict-XVI-writing-under-the-pen-name-Joseph-Ratzinger in his Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two, page 46.

Under another post, a longtime Roman Catholic correspondent called into question the accuracy of Calvin's frequent use of Bernard of Clairvaux in his Institutes.

To which I respond:

Pope Benedict XVI wrote Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two under his former name, Joseph Ratzinger, so readers would feel free to disagree with him despite the doctrine of papal infallibility. He says his book "is precisely not a book of the Magisterium. It is not a book that I wrote with my authority as Pope...," but that he "very intentionally wanted the book to be, not an act of the Magisterium, but an effort to participate in the scholarly discussion." Thus Joseph Ratzinger tells those reading his book:

everyone is free... to contradict me.

Interesting, that.

It is in this Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two that Pope Benedict quotes Bernard of Clairvaux in support of his own opposition1 to the evangelization of the Jews, today. Here's the text from Bernard that Benedict/Ratzinger claims in support of...


Jeffrey Fowle arrested...

A man's enemies will be the members of his household. - Matthew 10:36

Imagine having retreated into the radical two kingdom (R2K) posture toward the state, then waking up to find you are a citizen of North Korea. Your civil magistrate is Kim Jong-un and he's just arrested Jeffrey Fowle, an American missionary in his seventies on a group tour through North Korea, for leaving his Bible behind in a hotel room. You have many brothers and sisters in Christ who have been executed by the state for testifying to Jesus Christ and you're a pastor of a house church. What do you do?

Maybe...


China comes to faith in Jesus Christ...

Back in 2010, the number of Protestant Christian believers in China had grown to 48,000,000. Projections indicate that, by 2030, China will have slightly under 250,000,000 Protestants and Roman Catholics—more than any other nation. We are seeing confessions of Christian faith by Chinese men and women in Clearnote Church, Bloomington, and we praise God as we watch the Holy Spirit working in Chinese students bringing them to faith.


Peter Hitchens talks about how he came to faith...

A short interview filled with wisdom. The pride of intellectuals. The difficulty of backing down from public positions. The burning horror of the memory of one's past wickedness, leading others astray. And the fear of God.

The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, That one may avoid the snares of death. (Proverbs 14:27)

The Church is starving for want of pastors who preach the fear of God; who proclaim original sin, the Law, death, judgment, and Hell. God's grace to a man begins with the man being scared.


Scholars and the Fall...

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.  - 1Corinthians 2:12-16

Regularly, I warn academics that reason is not the one faculty of man that has escaped the Fall. To err is human, and institutions of learning both lower and higher are equally subject to this fruit of Adam's sin.

Reason and logic have been corrupted by the Fall. So, although we can say that all truth is God's truth, we must keep in mind that all man believes to be true is not. True.

The Fall's determinative impact on man's intellectual work is quite obvious to readers of Paul Johnson's Intellectuals. Again and again, Johnson demonstrates the connection between famous intellectuals' private sins...


Nye vs. Ham: Witnessing to scientists...

After watching the recent Creation/Evolution debate between Bill Nye, an atheistic scientist, and Ken Ham, a young-earth creationist, I was challenged to think about how I, as a scientist, should witness to my colleagues. As a six-day creationist working at a secular University, what is my "strategy?"

First, I want to thank God for the work of Ken Ham and others. While I don’t agree with much of his approach, I was reminded recently that the “wrong” evangelism that he does is better than the “right” evangelism that I don’t do.

With that said, though, there are some dangers in trying to learn lessons for our own witnessing from what Dr. Ham and Answers in Genesis do.  It is easy to come away from a debate like that and think, “I wish I knew a lot more science! Then I could really witness to a scientist. Oh well, I better leave it to the experts.” But the truth is that none of that science is needed in witnessing. In fact, it is a hindrance. God has given us all we need in His Word.

Here are a few Biblical points to keep in mind if you want to witness to a scientist...