"Christianity and Liberalism" by J. Gresham Machen

J. Gresham's "Christianity and Liberalism" addresses the topic of heretical, revisionist teachings and the damaging effect these bring within Christian churches. By 'liberal' Machen isn't referring to political liberalism but rather the introduction of revisionist, distorted views of the Scripture, such as questioning Biblical innerancy and the historicity of the Scripture. What's remarkable is that Machen wrote this back in the 1920's, but all of the liberal heresies that he addresses are just as much alive and well today. It isn't uncommon to find the pastor at a supposedly "Christian" church that denies important Biblical truths such as the virgin birth or even the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm reminded of a message I heard recently from pastor Phil Johnson, in which he rightly observed that the greatest threat to Christianity today isn't the raving atheist on the street, but rather the internal corruption of liberal teachers from within the church itself (the quote comes from Johnson message on the topic of pastoral shepherding, that's available here)

Machen draws the clear distinction between "Christianity" and "liberalism", identifying there is no such thing as liberal Christianity, but rather there is orthodox, confessionally-centered Biblical Christianity, at the core of which is gospel-centered faith in repentance and belief in the resurrected savior Christ Jesus, and any supposedly “christian” religious approach that detracts from that, or throws doubts into the historical claims of the Bible, particularly those that undermine the fundamental, historical tenants of Christianity, Machen rightly distinguishes as something other than Christianity, as another religion.

Machen addresses numerous liberal arguments made about the historicity of Scripture, miracles, teachings such as of the "universal fatherhood of God", attacks on the Pauline epistles, the work and person of Christ, the importance of doctrinal standards in the church, etc. It's a fascinating and relevant read for laypeople. Consider Machen's closing remarks, "There are congregations, even in the present age of conflict, that are really gathered around the table of the crucified Lord; there are pastors that are pastors indeed. But such congregations, in many cities, are difficult to find. Weary with the conflicts of the world, one goes into the Church to seek refreshment for the soul. And what does one find? Alas, too often, one finds only the turmoil of the world. The preacher comes forward, not out of a secret place of meditation and power, not with the authority of God's Word permeating his message, not with human wisdom pushed far into the background by the glory of the Cross, but with human opinions about the social problems of the hour or easy solutions of the vast problem of sin. Such is the sermon... Thus the warfare of the world has entered even into the house of God, And sad indeed is the heart of the man who has come seeking peace." (p. 179-180)

Reading Machen should spawn good questions for all Christians, and one should not be afraid to bring these up with your pastor. Ask the pastor/elders if the church is confessionally-centered, if it adheres to the historical creeds (such as the Apostles creed/Nicean creed) and the truths defined therein. Ask the pastor if the church adheres to the inerrant authority of the word of God. Ask if the church believes in and teaches the miracles of Christ, and especially the resurrection. If you don't get clear answers on any of these, then give careful consideration if you're actually a part of a Christian church, or instead within a liberal false-church that actually has no part of the true body of Christ.

"Christianity and Liberalism" is available at most online bookstores, but since it's in the public domain its also freely available electronically at sites like this.

You can also hear a free MP3 recording of the book here: http://reformedaudio.org/machen.html

For another example of the detrimental damages done by liberalism in the Christian church, also check out the recent testimony of a German Christian named Anita Kupferman and her exposure to “higher critical methodology” in some of German “theological” schools (her testimony can be read in HeartCry magazine, available for free here)

Batholomew's Passage

My review of Batholomew's Passage, a book we read recently during the Christmas season.  It's themed around Advent, which I don't get big into (feels too much of works righteousness) but the book was ok:

We read through this as a family during the Christmas season, and while it's a tame adventure story inter-woven with Biblical places and characters, it also tends to feature plentiful eye-rolling sequences that really push the boundaries of plausibility (I realize the author was aiming for a cliff-hanger after each section, but some of these were just ridiculous: avoiding snake pits, nearly being trampled by Romans, fleeing along the top of aqueducts, etc.)  Another point of contention would be some of the grimace-worthy bad theology nestled into the story (p.44 - "But the price of freedom is that He(God) has no control over some of the storms and tragedies we face."(!!)  That's a wacky Arminianism edging almost into the realm of deism (the kids and I had a good laugh at that part, though).  If you celebrate Advent and are looking for a mildly-entertaining yet flawed bit of reading for the kids, this is worth it.  Just use a little discretion with some of the wonky theology.

Tim Keller 'Generous Justice'

Man, I'm out of date with updates on this blog. Need to get back up to speed.

 Just finished listening to Tim Keller's "Generous Justice" and, initial thought, I much prefer hearing Keller speak and share his ideas rather than someone else talking (the guy narrating the audio sounded to me like Steve Martin). The book was, as I expected, exceptional. Keller carefully lays out a case for the need for a greater outpouring, support and involvement with the poor and disadvantaged in society from a Christian perspective, citing among other places passages from patriarchs like Job and the compassion for the needy that was part of their life.

 The scope and detail of the book was comprehensive, but I would have liked to hear a little more about how compassion is shown to the orphan by means of adoption. I didn't catch much of that in the message, and think the cause of the fatherless has a natural connection to Scripture's frequent example of the theme of adoption (Abraham/Israel, Jesus, and even US!). Minor quarrel - the book was exceptional and heady enough in passages - namely dealing with the philosophical questions of the value of human life from a Scriptural perspective - that the book could almost use a second listen in places.

John Wycliffe: The Morning Star

My Amazon review of the life of John Wycliffe:

Admittedly, the production is a little bit cheesy at times, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this brief overview of the life of John Wycliffe. Principle to this man was the centrality of the Scripture and his radiant faith in Christ, even when standing in situations of his life's peril. There are many valuable lessons that can be brought away from this film, namely Wycliffe's compassion and vigilance for the rights of the poor peasants of 14th century England, his love of teaching his students, as well as the beauty of Wycliffe's love of the Scriptures and his desire to see it translated into English. This is a wonderful piece of history, easy to follow, and ideal for a small group study or a family worship time (the film is very tame, with the only questionable content being a couple dead men following one of the peasant revolts.)

Side-note (not part of the review): this was my first disk received from Puritan Picks, and I'm really glad to have found this service.  Basically it's an alternative to NetFlix, but with good films and theology DVDs (so it's not just the material you find at the local LifeWay, but rather reaching by Sproul, Keller, etc.)  I'm looking forward to receiving more from this service.

PleaseConvinceMe Podcast 235

I enjoyed the recent Please Convince Me podcast (#235), although it was more of one of his side-topics that caught my attention.  Jim was discussing some of the Facebook comments about "Wealth and Prosperity" gospel teachers, and made some good points about the manner in which a pastor should be living. With someone in a pastoral role, there is a level of prosperity a pastor should not exceed, as it hurts our testimony and causes a weaker brother to stumble. With new cars, expensive clothing, etc - the question becomes, are we in it for the right reason? Megachurch pastors are frequently living large, and although they might give away thousands, they are making millions,
and are living in a way dramatically larger then they ought to live. These people are the billboard that others will see and use (correctly or falsely) judge the faith. Coming from Jim Wallace, who was a strong non-believer for many years, I think he makes a fair point with this.
If you want a voice with everyone that you want to have a voice with, you can't trot around with bling and hope to convince people who might question your true motives.
Rather, it's how the twelve apostles lived is how we should live, with the understanding that we don't expect things to get easier but to get harder.

Some of the other topics covered, such as Tebow, didn't really capture my attention, but not being a football fan I guess I just don't follow the hype.

Voddie Baucham - Family Shepherds

(my Amazon review of Voddie's latest book 'Family Shepherds')

Voddie Baucham’s “Family Shepherds” gives a good amount of really good material for fathers who want to step up in taking the initiative in leading their wives and children spiritually, and while I really enjoyed the various steps offered in the book, and usually enjoy everything I read from Voddie, with this I came away feeling that it didn’t go quite far enough or deep enough.

Voddie outlines the importance of the role of family shepherd and lays out, among other things, the importance of family worship, the primacy of the marriage relationship, training and discipline of children, as well as regular corporate worship. All of these are great, but so many of these sections seemed superficially breezy without really packing in material that men need to hear. The assumption I had with this book is that shepherding is a responsibility that many men have neglected in recent years, thus the importance of this book was calling and guiding men back to this task. An excellent intention, but so many parts of the book, such as the importance of catechism, left me a little dry, as Voddie speaks of the importance of catechism, but then leaves the section with “do your research to find the best catechism to fit your doctrine.” What? This struck me as a cop-out. Again, in today’s world Dad’s aren’t doing this, so why would he leave this point so open-ended? So, are fathers just supposed to jump onto Google and look up whatever catechism they can find? Rather, instead of skimping, Voddie could have easily jumped into the importance of something like the 1689 London Confession, or the Westminster standards, or any Biblically-solid catechism to help men get started, instead of leaving them dry. I would have loved more here, even as an appendix, with a sage hand pointing to some sound sources to get started.

Likewise, addressing the importance of singing hymns as a family: an excellent point, yet WHAT hymnals? Why does Voddie leave it to fathers to know what song books to use? Should we just go to Lifeway and pick up a generic “hymnal” on the shelves, just because some of the songs look “Biblical”? Why not offer up some specific examples, such as the Trinity hymnal, and justify it with some of the many reasons that back this a solid, Scripturally-sound hymnal to incorporate? We use, and love, the trinity hymnal, but it’s details like that which would have really served to help point men to the right resources. Our Trinities are a little worn, and I’m always open to find other Biblically-solid hymnal to incorporate, so why couldn't there be more specific examples here?

I do agree with Voddie’s remarks about the “3-legged stool, and think that is a good outline, but I found his second requirement for church leaders as being “Godly, manly pastors and elders” to be a little bit skimpy in his description. “Manly” elders? Pastor/theologians who come to mind that I greatly appreciate, such as Wayne Grudem and Edmund Clowney, aren’t exactly the model of what I consider “manly”, but rather as examples of well-educated teachers with an extraordinary understanding of the Bible. I think one of the issues I have with this Voddie’s comment on elders, as well as with Grace Family church in general, is the practice of lay-eldership, or men without formal seminary training, serving as elders and teaching. “Manliness” isn’t that big of a concern to me as much as men serving that are “not a novice” (1 Tim. 3:6 - νεόφυτος) if I'm expected to submit myself and my family to their training. Lay elders who work full-time in the market and then are expected to teach on weekends is no different than asking a guy who read a bunch of books on heart surgery to do your triple-bypass. Maybe this sounds harsh, but I don’t believe that deacon-qualified men should serve as elders, and Voddie could have put a little more Scriptural backing into what the Bible really says about the role of an elder, above and beyond just “manliness”.

The Michael Pearl/pelagianism discussion (p. 116-118) was an entertaining detour. I’m amused (and a little alarmed) by this bearded, knife-throwing arminian, so it was interesting to to read Voddie’s attack on Pearl’s skewed behaviorism model. Voddie was right on spot regarding discipline, and this day and age, there can’t be enough said about the need for Biblically-consistent discipline of children. The extensive references to Cotton Mather’s teaching were a perfect outline to follow, and I really gained a lot from that particular section.

Family Shepherds is definitely worth the read, but again, it didn’t go far enough for me. Sadly, I was also disappointed that there was virtually NOTHING about the father as the homeschooling leader. This was a notably huge absence, as I firmly believe that one of the family shepherd’s principle responsibilities is to be actively involved in the homeschooling of the children - and I don’t mean necessarily teaching every subject, but rather being extremely well-aware of what the curriculum is, including the worldview of the curriculum and the Biblical orientation it follows, and offering as much support as possible to the mother who labors to educate the children. A family shepherd, on a day off for example, should be completely capable of sitting down, picking up a teachers instruction manual, and jumping right in to be able to help guide and instruct their child, just as competently as the wife does, without excuse. A family shepherd should actively be seeking out ways to incorporate additional education after work, on weekends, etc, whenever possible, with a positive, engaged interest in the love of learning in their children. As a personal aside, I also believe that a family shepherd should be capable of picking up a spatula every now and then, being able to navigate a grocery store, and also change a diaper or two (thousand.) Family shepherds should loathe the Asherim that is television.

At the close of Family Shepherds, I found that even the resources in the appendix were disappointing, as these “tools” seemed more like copy-and-paste excepts from Grace Family’s weekly bulletin, and felt more like a promotional vehicle for the church, and less of actual family shepherd tools. While I respect all that is put into the Grace Family church bulletins, to me, far more practical that simply seeing the list of family names to pray for would be to see, for instance, how do some of the different families of Grace Family conduct family worship? What are some of the general outlines that they follow? What songs do they use? Any Biblical study material they could recommend? Particular catechism? If (according to the appendix) the officers of Grace Family supposedly call/visit their members once a month, then there should be a wealth and bounty of practical examples to share of family worship framework examples, right? (e.g. “Jim and Tammy” follow this particular model: Jim opens with prayer, their oldest daughter plays a solo hymn on the piano, the oldest son reads a chapter from Old Testament, father then reads a study guide based on the chapter, etc, etc. Another model is the Smith family, that uses this general outline: etc, etc...) Again, this book exists because Dad’s aren’t naturally performing as family shepherds today - so give Dad’s more resources and actual tools and examples to help them! I seriously don’t think Voddie could have overdone it with examples. Pack in more punch, instead of leaving me dry, which is how I felt at the end of reading.

A side-note on the graphic design, when I took the book out of the Amazon envelope, I was studying the lower middle portion of the book for awhile, as it appeared initially that mold spots were growing on the cover (had the book been damaged at the Amazon factory with moisture?) Apparently that’s the design, but the seeming appearance of mold dots on a smooth paperback cover didn’t make a great initial impression.

Luke 10:25-37 and Richard Baxter

I've been reading Richard Baxter's 'The Reformed Pastor' recently, and even from a lay perspective I'm just amazed at the wealth of value in this book.  What I find so fascinating is Baxter's focus on the pastor who visits, teaches and knows his congregation on a personal level, which is something so uncommon with so many churches that I've been to.  Baxter emphasizes personal catechizing and instructing of the flock, and this particular book addresses not only the many benefits of this approach, but even takes the time to respond to common objections to this approach.  Do pastors even do as Baxter suggests, and keep a book with a list of their people, with "notes of their character and necessities?"


This could be a misapplication, but I thought of Baxter during the reading of Luke 10:25-37 this weekend on the Lord's day.  The text describes the priest that walks past the mortally-injured man, crossing by on the other side so as to avoid personal contact.  Is it that much of a stretch to apply that to pastors who teach once a week yet distance themselves from personal contact during the week with laity?

Baxter also emphasizes to me the problem I see with lay elders leading a church.  Our previous church planted a sister congregation, pastored by two non-seminary educated men.  And while I do agree there are occasionally rare exceptions of remarkable men who have pastored without seminary (Spurgeon) the bigger problem I see with this model is, these two men both have full-time jobs, a commute, and wives and children to devote time to (in addition to sermon preparation, in addition to the administration of the church.)  How on earth could they practice a Richard Baxter-level of attention to the members of their congregation when their days are already packed full?  They couldn't, and I think this speaks to the negative aspect of expecting laity to pastor, when it should be the responsibility of a full-time dedicated elder/teacher.

Baxter has really shaken the pastoral paradigm for me, and I'm really wondering why there isn't more shepherding of church members like this.  Maybe there are just no shortage of objections, like "I do not thing that God doth require that we should thus tie ourselves to instruct every person distinctly, and to make our lives a burden and a slavery."