Uncategorized – Page 207

When Are We Going To Start Refusing to Obey Illegal Laws?

The death of Eric Garner at the hands of Staten Island Cops is a good example of somebody not knowing when it is right to disobey orders. The Cops were ordered by their superiors (who were ordered by their superiors) to do something about Garner and his selling of individual cigarettes. As that order ran downhill people at several levels missed the opportunity to tell their superior giving that ridiculous order that the superior could go “beggar themselves,” because they were not going to obey a illegitimate order to arrest a guy simply because he was horning in on the Mafia State’s piece of the action. The State, via that illegitimate and confiscatory Tax law, was running a protection racket and Eric Garner got in the way of their profits and so like all protection racket “businesses” the Cop thugs, following the orders of the Statist Mafia Dons, took Garner down.

One thing one learns when working for Corporate America is that “you don’t touch the money.” Eric Garner was touching the money of the State by selling individual cigarettes (Loosies) and so the Statist Government Mafia, “made an example of him.” Think about it … how many people do you suppose will be selling Loosies in light of what happened to Garner? Everyone knows now that in NYC you can kill your unborn babies, you can purchase your high brow hookers, you can libel in the News Studios that dot New York, all with relative safety, but don’t you dare get caught selling Loosies or it could be your life.

Every legislator in the State of New York who voted to put an confiscatory sin tax on cigarettes in the State of New York, by all that is just, ought also to be charged with involuntary Manslaughter in the death of Eric Garner. Why only see the Cops fingerprints on this? Why not hold accountable the Statist Politicians and bureaucrats who pass and enforce the kind of dumb-ass laws that eventually find Cops choking to death people for selling single cigarettes? Eric Garner was murdered by Statists. The Cops were merely the executioners employed to that end.

Somebody along the chain of command should have stood up and said to whatever link in the chain that was passing on the order, “This is a illegitimate order and I’m not enforcing it.”

Disobedience to Tyrants is obedience to God.

Seminary Course — Revival; Fact or Fantasy?

Main Texts

1.) Revival and Revivalism — Iain H. Murray
2.) Jonathan Edwards: On Revival — Jonathan Edwards

Assignment — Read text 1. Write a 15 page paper clearly mapping out the distinctions Murray makes between legitimate revival and illegitimate Revivalism.

Assignment — Read text 2. Write a 15 page paper demonstrating that you understand how Edwards distinguished between real revival and pseudo revival. What were the sign of genuine revival that Edwards gives.

Supplementary Texts

1.) A Survey of 20th-Century Revival Movements in North America — Richard Riss

Assignment — Riss writes as a non-Christian giving kind of a sociological view of Revival. Riss is also a Marxist historian. Write a 7 page paper giving the reasons for Revival as Riss views those reasons. Even though Riss writes as a Sociologist and Marxist historian for Revival are there any insights on Revival that Riss includes that you find valuable. Include those observations in your paper.

2.) The Methodist-Revolution — Bernard Semmel

Assignment — Write a 7 page paper detailing how the Methodist Revival was institutionalized in Wesley’s England. Explain how Wesley’s revival rescued England from the fate of the French Revolution. Spend time in your paper examining how the Revival was channeled into a denomination.

3.) Cambuslang Revival — Arthur Fawcett

Assignment — Write a 7 page paper detailing how the Cambuslang Revival differed from the Wesley Revival as described in “The Methodist Revolution.”

4.) The Invitation System — Iain H. Murray

Assignment — Write a 5 page paper examining the weakness of the Invitation system.

5.) Revival — Martyn Lloyd Jones

Assignment — 1.5 page chapter summary of each chapter of Lloyd-Jones book.

6.) Rut, Rot or Revival: The Problem of Change and Breaking Out of the Status Quo – A. W. Tozer

Assignment — 5 page paper explaining Tozer’s view of Revival.

7.) Why Revival Tarries — Leonard Ravenhill

Assignment — Ravenhill writes as a Charismatic – Pentecostal. Write a 7 page paper that compares and contrasts Ravehill’s insights with what you found in the Cambuslang Revival.

8.) The Anxious Bench — John Williamson Nevin

Assignment — 7 page paper demonstrating that you understand Nevin’s opposition to Revival techniques

9.) George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival (2 Volumes) — Arnold Dallimore

Assignment — 15 page paper examining the impact of George Whitfield and Revival during his lifetime. In the last 3 pages explain why you think or do not think that Revival is consistent with Reformed theology.

Seminary Course; Biblical Theology

Main Texts

1.) http://www.bsmi.org/download/vos/BiblicalTheology.pdf

2.) When the Time had fully Come — Herman Ridderbos
3.) Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments — Geerhardus Vos

Assignments — Read the main texts.

1.) 7 page paper answering the question “What is Biblical Theology.”
2.) 7 page paper explaining what the “Now, Not Yet” hermeneutic is and how the future is in the present
3.) 10 page paper highlighting some of the main themes of Vos’s work

Supplemental Texts

1.) Pauline Eschatology — Geerhardus Vos
2.) Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos –Geerhardus Vos
3.) The Eschatology of the Old Testament — Geerhardus Vos
4.) The Coming of the Kingdom — Herman Ridderbos
5.) Paul: An Outline of His Theology — Herman Ridderbos
6.) A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New — G. K. Beale
7.) We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry — G. K. Beale
8.) The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative — Christopher H. Wright
9.) God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology — James M. Hamilton Jr
10.) The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament — Edmund Clowney
11.) A Theology of the New Testament — George Eldon Ladd

High School students must read the main texts and supplementary texts 2, 6, 8, and 10.

College Students must choose reading one of two following supplementary sets. Seminary Students must read all 11 supplementary books.

Set 1 — 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11,
Set 2 — 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10

Assignments

1.) None of these books are written by a Postmillennialist. Write a 15 page paper giving an overview, based on the principles of interpretation you’ve learned in this reading, on what a Postmillennial Biblical Theology of Dominion would look like.

2.) 5 page paper probing what the student sees as potential weaknesses in Biblical theology.

3.) Provide 1.5 page Chapter summaries for each book demonstrating that you’ve understood the material you’ve read

4.) Write a 7 page paper setting forth what you see as the macro story line of Scripture. Support your conclusions from Scripture and your reading. (for example, Hamilton sees the macro story line as “Salvation through Judgment.” Wright see’s the macro story line as Missions. Others have argued that the macro story line is Covenant, or Redemption, or God’s Glory, etc.)

5.) 4 page paper distinguishing Systematic Theology from Biblical theology. Spend 1 page explaining whether you think that Systematic theology or Biblical theology should be prioritized and why.

The Charismatic Leaven Of Marinov

The Gypsy, Bojidar Marinov, continues to steer the Theononmic movement into paths that are completely contrary to what either the Reformed Church or Theonomy specifically speaking, has ever believed except perhaps among assorted cranks, crackpots, and innovators. In this case Mr. Marinov is seeking to turn the Reconstructionist movement into a haven for Charismania.

“… the Bible is full with support of what is called by some “continuationism,” that is, the view of the continuing validity of the spiritual gifts of 1 Cor. 12-14 in our present times. Not because my position is not supported by historical theology; to the contrary, cessationism as a systematic doctrine didn’t appear until long after the Enlightenment hit the church, in the second half of the 19th century. Before that, there were only isolated statements gleaned out of context from isolated names here and there, while the practice and the teaching and the beliefs of the church were in favor of God continuing to lead and guide His people throughout history by all means He has given in the Bible, including miraculous and revelatory gifts. Contrary to the cessationist claims, the question is not “Where were the Charismatics for the last 19 centuries?” but “Where were the cessationists before the second half of the 19th century?” Not because my professed theological tradition—the theology of the Reformation—doesn’t support the view of the continuing validity and operation of the gifts today. To the contrary, Calvin very clearly rejects the nonsense and ignorance of cessationism in his commentary on 1 Cor. 13, and a careful reading of 1 Cor. 12-14 shows that he expected specifically the gift of prophecy to be operational in the church today. The practice of the Reformers and their heirs is also on my side, given the multitude of prophecies and miracles performed by Reformed ministers from John Knox to Charles Spurgeon, and reported by many Reformed missionaries….”

And again elsewhere,

“The early Puritans… prophesied, and they did not despise prophetic utterances. Kings and barons and bishops trembled at the sound of their prophesies, and the church didn’t compromise, and no one cast off restraint. That’s why we have America and the West today: because of those prophecies.

But that was before the Enlightenment explained to the church that the supernatural is out of vogue and that an enlightened person doesn’t care for prophecies.

Mr. Marinov is well known for making statements that are not factual. This is another such case.

Above Mr. Marinov wrote, “Calvin very clearly rejects the nonsense and ignorance of cessationism in his commentary on 1 Cor. 13, and a careful reading of 1 Cor. 12-14 shows that he expected specifically the gift of prophecy to be operational in the church today.” and yet Calvin very specifically says just the opposite of Mr. Marinov as evidenced below,

“For in [Christ] ‘all treasures of knowledge and wisdom are hid’ (Col. 2:3) with such great abundance and richness that either to hope for or to seek any new addition to these treasures is truly to arouse God’s wrath and provoke him against us. It is for us to hunger for, seek, look to, learn, and study Christ alone, until that great day dawns when the Lord will fully manifest the glory of his Kingdom (cf. I Cor. 15:24) and will show himself for us to see him as he is (I John 3:2). And for this reason this age of ours is designated in the Scriptures as ‘the last hour’ (I John 2:18), the ‘last days’ (Heb. 1:2), the ‘last times’ (I Peter 1:20), that no one should delude himself with a vain expectation of some new doctrine or revelation. ‘For at many times and in many ways the Heavenly Father formerly spoke through the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken in his beloved Son’ (Heb. 1:1-2), who alone can reveal the Father (Luke 10:22); and he has indeed manifested the Father fully, as far as we require, while we now see him in a mirror (I Cor. 13:12)” (Institutes 4.18.20).

“This, however, remains certain: the perfect doctrine he has brought has made an end to all prophecies. All those, then, who, not content with the gospel, patch it with something extraneous to it, detract from Christ’s authority. The Voice that thundered from heaven, ‘This is my beloved Son; … hear him’ (Matt. 17:5; cf. Matt. 3:17), exalted him by a singular privilege beyond the rank of all others. Then this anointing was diffused from the Head to the members, as Joel had foretold: ‘Your sons shall prophesy and your daughters … shall see visions,’ etc. (Joel 2:28). But when Paul says that He was given to us as our wisdom (I Cor. 1:30), and in another place, ‘In him are hid all the treasures of knowledge and understanding’ (Col. 2:3), he has a slightly different meaning. That is, outside Christ there is nothing worth knowing, and all who by faith perceive what he is like have grasped the whole immensity of heavenly benefits. For this reason, Paul writes in another passage: ‘I decided to know nothing precious … except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (I Cor. 2:2). This is very true, because it is not lawful to go beyond the simplicity of the gospel And the prophetic dignity in Christ leads us to know that in the sum of doctrine as he has given it to us all parts of perfect wisdom are contained” (Institutes 2.15.2).

“And when he speaks of the last times, he intimates that there is no longer any reason to expect any new revelation; for it was not a word in part that Christ brought, but the final conclusion. It is in this sense that the Apostles take ‘ the last times’ and ‘the last days.’ And Paul means the same when he says, ‘Upon whom the ends of the world are come’ (I Cor. 10:11). If God then has spoken now for the last time, it is right to advance thus far; so also when you come to Christ, you ought not to go farther: and these two things it is very needful for us to know. For it was a great hindrance to the Jews that they did not consider that God had deferred a fuller revelation to another time; hence, being satisfied with their own Law, they did not hasten forward to the goal. But since Christ has appeared, an opposite evil began to prevail in the world; for men wished to advance beyond Christ. What else indeed is the whole system of Popery but the over-leaping of the boundary which the Apostle has fixed? As, then, the Spirit of God in this passage invites all to come as far as Christ, so he forbids them to go beyond the last time which he mentions. In short, the limit of our wisdom is made here to be the Gospel” (Comm. on Heb. 1:1).

Note that Calvin wrote long before the Enlightenment which Mr. Marinov insists is the fountainhead of all Cessationism.

In a lecture recently Mr. Marinov says, “Cessationist has never been the Historical position in the Church” and again, ” It was an accepted wisdom that every age and place had its apostles and prophets, including the Reformed nations after the 16th century. Puritan England and Presbyterian/Covenanter Scotland had their prophets, healing ministries, miracle workers, etc., and no one saw a problem with that. Reformed missionaries in America and South-East Asia reported about Biblical miracles, and no one back home saw any problem with that. Supernatural healings were everywhere and taken for granted by the church. Even women prophesied to the Puritan government in England in the 17th century, and the government took their prophesies very seriously, without a single trace of theological dismissal. There’s hardly a successful missionary whose ministry didn’t start with supernatural, direct, and very concrete revelation about what he must do. Mr. Marinov makes the wildest of claims in the face of the direct record. Here is just a bit from two Church historians and scholars,

“The Quaker movement was a product of the turmoil of the English Civil War (1642-1651), when familiar social, political, and religious boundaries were swept away by the tides of the conflict and when tried and true religious practices and beliefs no longer seemed to carry their former weight. Numerous individuals, many of them raised in a Puritan environment with its emphasis on radical depravity and the need for the sovereign, converting work of the Spirit, had begun seeking for a work of God to bring peace to their souls in the midst of the massive upheaval of the times. Some of these so-called Seekers longed for a restoration of the charismatic vitality and simplicity they believed to be true of the apostolic church. As J. F. McGregor points out, they (the Quakers) regarded the sign of the true Church to be ‘its possession of the grace given to the Apostles and demonstrated through miracles.’ since none of the Puritan congregations claimed to be in possession of such charismatic or extraordinary gifts, the Seekers felt that they had to withdraw from those churches and wait for what they hoped would be a divine dispensation. For many Seekers, that divine dispensation appeared with the advent of the Quakers and their message.”

Beeke & Jones
A Puritan Theology; Doctrine for Life — pg. 431

Finally, the founder of the Theological movement that Mr. Marinov is infecting reflected on this subject during a question and answer session,

“Now, the so-called speaking in tongues is something that is very ancient, it is pagan in origin. You had it in the Frisian cults and in various African cults, cults of Asia and of Europe, long before Christ; this babble of meaningless syllables. In the modern age, it has sprung primarily from influence of non-Christian groups. Negroes have been prominent in the revival charismatics. The origin in this century was in … a negro church incidentally.”

[Audience] What is to be our attitude towards charismatic people? Do we treat them as Christians?

[Rushdoony] Unless they give specific evidence of being Christian our first attitude towards charismatics should be that it is paganism. Now there are charismatics who in spite of that are Christians, but we should make it clear that the charismatic movement is pagan. It is occultist.

Beware the leaven of the Gypsy Marinov.

Also, one wonders where are the denunciations of the high profile Theonomists and Reconstructionists against this theology that Rushdoony referred to as “pagan?”

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends … Dr. Mark Hamilton on Psychology

The seminary in my area has been into Christian Counseling for years. They have not invited me to speak there since the mid ’90’s when I gave a chapel talk there entitled “Saved by Christ, Sanctified by Freud”. I was being a bit facetious needless to say. Here are some of my notes I use now when critiquing Christian therapy.

A Hard Look at the Social Sciences Christianity and Contemporary Psychology
Dr. Mark Hamilton

Theoretical Issues

1. Do the views of human nature, including the basis of human value, the nature of human corruption, and the proposed solution to the human dilemma (sin and evil) have the ability to be reconciled to each other? Can biblical perspectives of human nature remain in tact when merged with Freud, Jung, Maslow, etc.?

2. The most common concept of contemporary counseling is low self-esteem. How ought Christians to think of the self-esteem issue? Is it at all congruent with Scripture? Furthermore, there is no significant data found in secular material to support the linkage of self-esteem to social problems. Isn’t self-esteem and self-love part of the fallen, sinful nature?

3. Can there be substantial psychological or emotional healing through means other than Christ? Or if Jesus is the answer, then why look elsewhere?

4. If we make life more bearable, comfortable, or livable for a non-Christian without giving them Christ, could we find ourselves actually working against God if he is trying to move that person to a point of need?

5. Is our contemporary Christian therapy preventing us from finding our identity in Christ? Paul in Phillippians 3. “I count all things as loss for the sake of Christ.”.

6. Does therapy which indulges in past experience contradict the Pauline concept of “forgetting what lies behind?” also in Phil. 3.

7. Is it an industry justified which creates its own artificial categories of illness then supplies the means of healing by charging outrageous costs often justified by third party payments (insurance), and yet we pay the high costs of insurance?

8. Can therapies which are historically rooted in the occult or occultic practices (meditation, visualization, guided imagery, hypnosis, etc.) be used by redeemed Christian therapists and counselors and still call the therapy “Christian”?

Are Galatians 3:1-3; 5:1, 13,15; Romans 5:1-5, 1Cor. 10:13, 1Jn. 2:15-16, Mt. 28:19-20 – given to us to teach that we need humanist Psychology in order to be whole?

Mt. 22:37-39 contains 2 commandments not 3, though the atheist Eric Fromm sees that the commandment there is three; Love God, Love Neighbor, and Love thyself. John MacArthur has stated in, “Our Sufficiency in Christ,” that, “Human therapies are embraced most eagerly by the spiritually weak—those who are shallow or ignorant of biblical truth and who are unwilling to accept the path of suffering that leads to spiritual maturity and deeper communion with God. The unfortunate effect is that these people remain immature, held back by a self-imposed dependence on some pseudo-Christian method or psychoquackery that actually stifles real growth.”

Practical Issues

1. Is there anything immoral about the practice of faking empathy when one is not really intentionally empathic, just acting empathic?

2. What makes one qualified to be a Christian therapist? Is it education? Theological understanding? Character? Could one be a Christian therapist without being a church leader?

3. Is there a difference between wise Biblical counsel and counseling?

4. Is there a moral problem of charging for counseling if one is basically providing Christian Counsel? Is this a “selling of the gospel?”

5. Has the role of Christian therapist replaced discipling in the church and thereby adding to the professionalization of ministry and to the lessening of the ministry of the congregation? Is it a way of “buying friendship?”

6. Does counseling using the methods of non-Christians actually add to the sanctification process? Donald Matzat has asked, “Could it be true that Sigmund Freud received revelation that opens our eyes to the manner in which sanctification is able to be accomplished among God’s people today, revelation that was hidden from Paul, Peter, James, and John?

7. How ought we to think of the issue of therapy provided from someone of the opposite sex? How do we think of the lack of monitoring and reporting of the misconduct of sexual behavior?

8. Ought the practice of Christian Counseling be covered by and directed by the local church or should it be autonomous?

9. Are the contemporary methods addictive in that they indulge the counselee in the opportunity to focus on themselves for an hour?

10. Have we elevated the therapist to a position of unquestioned authority? Can one counsel as a Christian and still retain the ideal of being value neutral?