Blogging Break
The next two weeks are busy ones.
I think I’ll take a bloggin break and only post randomly instead of M, T, W, F.
Don’t forget to enter the giveaway.
Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.
Amazing Opportunity to Win A High Dollar Bible
Logos is giving away finely bound Bibles to celebrate the launching of Bible.Logos.com!
Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.
Meditation on Justification
So many people live their lives in fear and doubt. They are unsure of their standing with God.
They struggle to please Him.
They work diligently to gain His approval.
They knock themselves out seeking to hear “well done.”
The sad thing is that all their labors are in vain.
God does not look upon us with pleasure because we are good. We are not. (See Rom 3:1-28)
God looks upon the believer with pleasure because of grace. Because God has chosen to show grace and mercy, He receives us in Jesus. We are not accepted in any way other than through Jesus.
Yet, what that means is that God looks at us the same way that He looks at Christ. We are accepted in the beloved One. (See Eph 1:3-6)
We are in Christ. That means we are accepted upon the basis of Christ’s merits, and not our own.
The struggle is over.
The work has been done.
God shall indeed say “well done”, because He treats us as He treats Jesus.
Alleged Biblical Inconsistencies
GE 16:15, 21:1-3, GA 4:22 Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
HE 11:17 Abraham had only one son.
Once again we find that there is nothing inconsistent about the passages above.
Abraham did indeed have two sons.
Isaac, however, was called his only begotten son.
Only begotten comes from the Greek monogené̄s which means “unique, one of a kind.”
Isaac was indeed one of a kind. He was a different sort of son than Ishmael. Ishmael was born through fleshly effort, while Isaac was given according to promise.
Isaac was also viewed by God as unique in that God’s promises to Abraham would be fulfilled through Isaac.
Once again we find that God’s Word stands against the critics.
It always has.
It always shall.
More on Driscoll’s “Religion Saves”
In the spirit of fairness I must offer this as an addendum to my review of Religion Saves.
Justin Taylor interviewed Driscoll and discussed RS.
Driscoll said:
“The birth control chapter was especially difficult because some of the sanctity of life issues are so incredibly complex and unclear. It took a lot of research to arrive at a conclusion on things like the pill, and I felt I packed a ton into the chapter that will really help pastors guide people through the tough decisions around family planning and birth control.
Also difficult was the chapter on the Emerging Church and some people I consider friends but have serious doctrinal differences with. That chapter was painful to write personally and I was careful to include a wide breadth of research that is well footnoted.”
It is no surprise that the two chapters that were the hardest to preach/write were two of the three singled out for special mention in my review.
One (birth control) received a negative comment, and the other (emerging church) received a positive comment.
It is that way when one works hard.
Some feel ministered to by the work done and others are affected negatively.
The reality is that many have probably been ministered to by the sermon/chapter on birth control. In Driscoll’s context there were probably more who profited from that sermon than the one on the emerging church.
I can understand that. Whether in the pulpit or in print things work that way.
It often points to the fact that one is doing his job as he should be.
Book Review: Religion Saves by Mark Driscoll
Religion Saves
by
Mark Driscoll
- ISBN-10: 1433506165
- ISBN-13: 9781433506161
Religion Saves should be a shocker for many people. Subtitled “nine other misconceptions”, Religion Saves (henceforth RS) is hard-hitting, classic Driscoll.
One can almost hear him preaching. Driscoll’s personality does not ooze through this book. It rushes through it like white water rapids. The book is blunt, to the point, funny, at times course, and very relevant.
Driscoll deals with Calvinism (he is a Calvinist), birth control, humor (he loves it and uses it well), grace (he loves it but struggles with it as most humans do), sexual sin and bondage to it (very empathetic to those who struggle, yet he stands firmly against sin), faith and works, dating, the emerging church (what is is and is not), and the regulative principle of worship.
My favorite chapters were the ones on the emerging church and the regulative principle of worship. Driscoll covered the emerging/emergent issue well. I believe he covered it fairly and with class. The regulative principle of worship is one that most people would never consider. RS certainly gives it good coverage. There’s a certain appreciation Driscoll expresses for the regulative principle, but shows that it is logically inconsistent and almost legalistic.
One thing hit my funny bone and still has me laughing: Driscoll’s balancing of kindness with firmness. “Indeed we are to be ‘kind one to another,’ which means that Christians should be kind to other Christians, but apparently if someone wants to say that we need Jesus plus something else for our justification (e.g. circumcision for the Judaizers in Galatia) then we should also mock them and ask them to cut their whole pickle off and attend Bobbit Bible Church as a sign of true varsity religious devotion.”
That being said, I think Driscoll becomes a little too plain at times. I do not think his joke about masturbation is a good one. I also think that he goes beyond the bounds of propriety with that. I also found myself feeling that he went into overkill with his information on birth control. He could have stated his case better with the same amount of information, but less detail.
In the end, the book is a good one. I shall give it four out of five stars.
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