Pearcey Report

Pearcey Report

Friday, March 27, 2009

Valuable Tool

Christianity In Crisis-21st Century.

Much needed tool for the believer.  I give it five stars.

Not having read the earlier edition, I did not find this current volume too large.  The bibliography, chapter notes, scripture index, and numerous mnemonic devices make it a terrific resource for personal use along as well as assisting others subjected to this sort of theologically dangerous pap.

Hanegraaff is to be commended for his perseverance in documenting in reasonable detail this material.  For over forty years now, I haven’t had the stomach to endure listening to these supposed teachers for more than a few minutes without experiencing a driving need to regurgitate.  Yet their tribe continues to increase!  Might this not be a commentary on the state of Bible teaching in our churches, along with the absence of equipping the saint to study their Bible?

For those grounded in the word of God correctly handled, the patent foolishness of these teachers is readily apparent.  Sad to say, far too many are not adequately grounded nor handling the text correctly; hence they are susceptible to the “spin” and twisting of these false teachers.  It is here the Acronyms Hanegraaff presents are so helpful.

Eliphaz the Temanite condemned Job on the basis of what Job had said: surely Hanegraaff has demonstrated a similar indictment of these false teachers.

Kudos to Hanegraaff and his team.  May their tribe increase!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Love Worth The Wait

Sometime in the near future a book will appear with the above title.

The Author will be Sandy Weyeneth.

When it does, snatch it up.

It will be a terrific resource for singles trusting God for their future partner!

It is the personal chronicle of some friends of mine who believed God for their future and were willing to trust Him and His word!

By no stretcgh of the imagination am I a romantic, but this tale gripped me.  It even brought tears to my eyes!

As an FYI, it will be a terrific, pragmatic resource.



My Daily Jericho

This morning, during my devotions and reading of Israel's encounter with Jericho, the thought struck me: daily I am encountering some sort of "Jericho".

Am I compassing the city by faith, or am I, as Achen, one prone to secretly apporpriate what seems to be a treasure, only to hide it in my tent?

How much easier, seemingly, is it to walk by sight versus faith?




Life's Direction

For  far too many of us, our propensity has been toward an "immediate" encounter with God relative to life's directions.

We desire a "burning bush"  or a "Damascus road" experience!

Granted, those were the will of God for those specific individuals!  

But, are they the normative experience for you and me in the age of the New Covenant?

Not hardly, IMHO.

On our part, we rebel against the "mediated" experience!

In the "flesh" we argue, "...if God met with Abraham, immediately...why not with me?..."

Simple enough: we have "...the perfect..." (1 Cor. 13:10).

We have "...the mind of Christ...: (1 Cor. 2:16)

This, then,  ought to be more precious to us than any subjective "experience" (2 Peter 1:16-21).

The "inscripturated word" is objective; though the interpretations are often subjective!

Still, bottom line: God expects us to live on the basis of what has been objectively revealed versus subjectively experienced!


He expects us, as Adult children, to wrestle with The Word

Just as our salvation is grounded in the objective work if Christ, so too is our sanctification to be grounded in His objective revelation.  (John 6:63 and 17:17).

Rather than be children of an Old Covenant, let us grow up as children of The New.











Life

I believe it was John Stott who said:

"...Life is a pilgrimage of learning, a voyage of discovery in which our mistaken views are corrected, our distorted notions adjusted, our shallow opinions deepened, and some of our vast ignorances diminished..."

For the life of me, I have been unable to ascertain the source in the midst of the 1000s on hard copies in my library!

Somehow, my library program was corrupted and I am crippled.

Yeow!

Still, it is an apt metaphor for life!

bob

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Haunting

Daisy Chain

Daisy Chain: A Novel (Defiance Texas Trilogy)

For certain, I’ll be visiting Defiance TX again!  The ring of true to life circumstances and characters with theology always in the background.  Loved the metaphor of life as a winding path bounded by two deep ditches on either side; one being our full-fisted rebellion and the other our response to someone else’s rebellion!  Only put the book down once!  Bring on volume 2!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Sinners In The Hands of An Angry Church

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Church by Dean Merrill, 183p, Zondervan (1997)

 

Merrill does terrific service in illustrating the manner in which the Evangelical community of the decade of the 90s put confidence in an Old Covenant model of relying on Law to manage society.  The decade since publication only serves to magnify the illustrations!

 

Without question, Evangelicals appear to have lost confidence in the power of the gospel (Romans 1:16,17) as well as the New Covenant ethical focus on the heart.

 

The Old Covenant focused on external behavior with centuries of divinely inspired evidence as to the failure of such focus. 

 

Paul tells us The Law was a schoolmaster in God’s program with Old Covenant Israel with the express purpose of pointing them to Christ (Gal. 3:24).  Now that Christ has come, The Law no longer serves that purpose.

 

Early in His ministry, Jesus would say, “…but, I say unto you…” (Matt. 5) laying the initial groundwork for the coming New Covenant in which His saints would live lives functioning as illuminators and preservers with a leavening influence, so manifesting the power of the Gospel.

 

Spurgeon said it best:

 

 “…To attempt national regeneration without personal regeneration is to dream of erecting a house without separate bricks….” (One Lost Sheep,” No. 2083, MTP 35 (1889), 310.)

 

“…The practical point is, brothers and sisters, since we want to do good, let us preach up our Lord Jesus Christ as the sovereign balm for every sinner’s wound. If you want to be philanthropists, be Christians. If you would bless your fellow-men with the best of all blessings, convey to them the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Do not believe that there is anything you can do for your children which will be more effectual than teaching them about Jesus. Do not think that anything in the workshop can soften the vulgarities, silence the blasphemies, and end the profanities of your fellow workmen, like setting Jesus Christ before them.… Oh, let us keep on with the subject of Christ crucified! Whatever there is not in our shop window, let us always have Christ as the chief article of our heavenly commerce. Whatever there may lack of grace and beauty in our speech, and our outward appearance, may there be no lack of Jesus Christ, set forth among the sons of men; for “men shall be blessed in him,” and not without him.  (Jesus: ‘All Blessing and All Blest,’” No. 2187, MTP 37 (1891), 92–93.)

 

The thesis of the book seems best expressed in James’ admonition in James 1:20 “…for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God…”