It is something of a cliche to say that ‘God loves us unconditionally’. But what does this mean, and how true is it?
If it means that…
…then we can enthusiastically agree that God’s love is unconditional.…
C.H. Spurgeon had a portrait of John Gill, Baptist preacher and commentator, in his vestry. The portrait, says Spurgeon, ‘represents him after an interview with an Arminian gentleman, turning up his nose in a most expressive manner, as if he could not endure even the smell of free-will.’ (Commentating and Commentaries, p9)
Spurgeon himself, as a good Calvinist, had a similar distaste for the notion of ‘free will’. I must say that I sometimes feel that an appeal to free will is used too glibly by preachers in order to explain away some of the tougher points of Christian doctrine and experience.…
It would be difficult to find a more universally celebrated virtue in modern Western culture than the virtue of tolerance.
The trouble is (writes D.A. Carson) that a new (but not necessarily improved) definition of tolerance has crept up on us and is now accepted virtually without question.
According to the old definition, tolerance meant something like ‘recognition and respect for the views of others without necessarily sympathising or agreeing with them.’
According to the new definition, tolerance means something like ‘acceptance as equally true and valid the views of others.’…
When it comes to involvement in our world, two options are available: escape and involvement. Many evangelicals seem to have opted for the first option. They have withdrawn from the world, pulled up the drawbridge, and, apart from occasional evangelistic excursions, been blind and deaf to those in need. After all, the Bible teaches us to separate from the world (doesn’t it?), and to wait for the new age that will be ushered in by the return of Jesus Christ. …
How can preachers secure the attention of their hearers?
What follows is based on the sage thoughts of that master-preacher, C.H. Spurgeon.
To be able to command attention is no trivial matter. Sin cannot be taken out of people, as Eve was taken out of Adam, while they are fast asleep. And yet some preachers seem not to care very much about it: some of them stare up at the ceiling, as if they sought the attention of the angels, while others have their heads buried in their notes, as if they were talking only to themselves.…
Recent re-thinking about the doctrine of justification throws up a related question about the final judgment:-
Are we warranted to say that we are justified by faith, but are judged by works? The very idea seems to undermine the grace of God and to take away with one hand what has so freely been given with the other.
…‘Here [in Rom 2:1-16] is the first statement about justification in Romans, and lo and behold it affirms justification according to works!
A major publishing event has recently taken place. A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life is a large-scale work by Joel Beeke and Mark Jones. In 60 chapters, it summarises Puritan teaching on Christian truth, from principles for Biblical interpretation to ‘theology in practice’.
Beeke and Jones were recently asked to highlight those aspects of Puritan teaching that might be most helpful for today’s church. They mentioned the following:-
It was J. Gresham Machen, in Christianity and Liberalism, who commented that thorough-going theological liberalism is actually a different religion from orthodox Christianity. It is, in fact, a different kind of religion.
This observation was borne out in a recent discussion on Premier Christian Radio’s Unbelievable? show between Ben Witherington III and Stephen Thornton. Ben is an evangelical biblical scholar, Stephen a retired URC minister of liberal persuasion.
The topic under consideration was the narratives of Jesus’ birth as recorded in Matthew and Luke. …
John Calvin deals with this doctrine fairly early on in the Institutes – in Book 1, Chapters 16-18.
In Chapter 16, he begins by asserting that ‘we see the presence of divine power as much in the continuing state of the universe as in its inception.’ In other words, God’s power is as apparent in his works of providence as it is in his work of creation. The One who made the world sustains and governs it.…
“You nearly found your preaching voice today.”
Those were the kindly, but slightly troubling, words of an elderly Christian gentleman after he heard me preach recently.
What he meant was that in my preaching I tend to be too tied to my notes, and to speak more to the head than to the heart. In other words, in his view I tend to lecture, rather than to preach.
A number of somewhat random thoughts occur to me as I try to reflect on this:-
