An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens: In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of Further Undertakings, Are Considered by William Carey

This short work (although the title is insanely long... why didn't he just call it "Some Thoughts on Missions"?) was an insightful work about the need and importance of global evangelism in the Christian church. Carey emphasizes that the need to preach the gospel to all nations is a command a Christ and that believers are bound to this responsibility to take the gospel into the world. Cary uses Scriptural examples from the apostolic ministry passages in Acts and leads through an overview of early church history and mission work, up to post-Constantine times when "popery"(Roman Catholicism) introduced propagation taking place by force of arms, a strictly non-Scriptural practice, where, as Carey observes, “the confessors of Christianity needed conversion as much as the people they ministered to”. Carey then gives an overview of the reformation of the church, starting in 1369 with Wycliffe teaching Biblical Christianity, and how his teachings eventually spread through reformers like Huss, Jerome and eventually through Luther, Calvin, etc, in which the church returned to the authority of Scripture and Biblical orthodoxy. In the following centuries persecution Roman persecution followed, and many sought religious freedom in the new colonies, which eventually leads the overview of history up to Carey's own time frame (late 18^th century).

Carey also addresses some of the objections and complaints to global missions, including the barriers such as distance, language difficulties, concerns of safety within other nations, etc. He remarks on all of these with sound responses, and while admitting that missions can mean a sacrifice of affluence and splendor for that of hard work miserable accommodations, potential punishment and imprisonment, etc. he identifies that for many it is primarily a love of ease that stands as an inconvenience to ministry work, and although difficult conditions may be a part of missions, the obligation of believers is to share the gospel message with the world. Rightly referred to as the "father of modern missions", Carey's biography is a fascinating one, and there are few better to address the topic of missions.

Various Random Sermon Notes

I'm not sure where these notes came from, but I think they are worth jotting down here:

Under what circumstances do you leave a church?

• When there is heresy being taught or committed by the leadership (and don't leave a church without indicating to leadership where and how heresy has been taught.)
• Unqualified leadership (and I'd add UNDER-qualified leadership.  We left a church over this issue, and one of these days I will jot down notes in terms of why I think that ALL teaching elders need to be seminary-educated or actively pursuing a seminary education.)

Can a man with an unbelieving wife who leaves him become an elder?

• Is this man above reproach?
• Does he "stay with" his wife, even when she's gone? (staying committed to HIS marriage vow, til death does them part, and not remarry?)

The Lord's Supper, as observed by denominations like Methodists

• Methodists allow for a strange teaching along the lines of a "half-way covenant", allowing people thinking of becoming believers to eat the meal.  Believers should actually iron out the implications and decide for themselves prior to taking of the elements.

Church Membership

• I Cor. 12 speaks of being "members" of Christ's body.
• In the book of Acts, there are examples of the church knowing it's numbers and people.
• In the Old Testament, there is a clear demarcation of God's people.

Transubstantiation

• " Re-sacrifice" never appears in Ignatius and the early fathers.
• The 11th century sees the first appearance of transubstantiation.
• Aquinas took from Aristotle the idea that the inner "essence" changes into Christ.
• Per Catholic teaching, the elements still maintain the look and taste of bread, which is part of the "double miracle" of transubstantiation.

Baptism

• The paedobaptist view was challenged by credobaptists in the first few centuries. 
• The 1st century saw the baptism of believing children (notes are a little sketchy here - I didn't grab a source.)
• The Didache talks about baptism taking place in flowing water following fasting (hence implied it was intended for an adult.)

Reasoning from the Scriptures with Catholics

At Oak Ridge we've recently started a series on Reasoning from the Scriptures with Catholics by Ray Rhodes.  It's a fairly interesting book, and I'm about half-way through it so far.  The book is a well-written overview of some of the principle Catholic beliefs and why these often do not jive with Scripture, and while it can be read straight through it also serves as a nice reference resource when you need to look up certain topics like the Apocrypha and so on.

The only thing notable absent from the book, that I would have liked to have seen more information about, is the topic of birth control and family size, but I have a feeling that Rhodes deliberately avoided this topic simply because it is such a massive can o' worms.  The dichotomy seems to be one of: most Protestants settle for "two kids and a vasectomy", while most Catholics find curious loop-holes like NFP (or just blatant disregard of papal teaching on birth control), and in both scenarios the Biblical mandates to be "fruitful and multiply" are more or less dismissed as contextual (or inconvenient.)  I would have liked to have seen this issue covered more.  My own observation is that in recent history there was a trend of seeing "large Catholic families", but I think this practice was based more on papal-writ on avoiding birth control as "evil", and not as much on the Biblical blessing of a full quiver (Psalm 127.)

Yet to me, when I consider Roman Catholicism, although I consider such a tremendous amount of their teaching so heretical and contradictory to Scripture, I do admire their strong pro-life position, which often feels more vocally powerful than that of the protestants.  I also respect how Catholics often seem to have stronger grasp on Church history and the writings of the early church fathers, a study that it would do many Protestants good to investigate further.  But beside this, there can never really be true ecumenical union with Protestants and Catholics because at the core of true Biblical Christianity is one key, consistently backed by Scripture: Salvation by faith alone, in Christ alone, by God's grace alone, according to Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone.

Finding Christ Between the Testaments

Fascinating message by Dr. John Barnett on the Intertestamental Period (the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew.)  The message of this silent period is that the Jews were victorious when they were obedient to the Word and defeated when they fell away from the Word.  The intertestamental period also presents the timeframe when the four main religious groups of Christ's day (the Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees and Zealots) came into development, and also gives more background into the very dark and violent times of the life of people like Joseph, Mary, Simeon, Anna, Elizabeth and Zacharius, etc.

Dr. Barnett discusses how Daniel (in Dan. 11) prophesied about Alexander and the four kingdoms (prophetic words that were indeed fulfilled), as well as a little more background into the some of the Apocryphal books.  Although for Protestants we can sometimes be a little quick to dismiss the Apocrypha as non-canonical "Catholic" books, even though these are not cannon they do offer some interesting insight into the dark times between the testaments, including details of events such as the Maccabean revolt.


Some of the Apocryphal works, such as the Ezras books, need to be taken with a grain of salt:  per Dr. Barnett, I Ezras is basically just a copy of the Old Testament book of Ezra with extra stuff added in about "don't mistreat the Jews".  II Ezra's is a "flaming apocalyptic" with various inaccurate prophecies.  Its noteworthy that Jesus nor any of the New Testament ever make mention of the Apocrypha.  Rome clings to these, primarily because of fringy passages like 2 Maccabees 12:43, that talk abotu how Judas Macabees, when his soldiers died, shacked them up and made a sacrifice for them.  The entire Catholic system of purgatory was built around this one verse.

Dr. Barnett gives an excellent overview of this Intertestamental Period, and it helps give an little more background into the lives of those in Luke's gospel and the rough, violent time that they were coming out of.

Polity (and Baptism) in the Local Church with Mark Devers

Recently listened to Mark Dever of 9Marks deliver an excellent message on the topic of church polity, what what caught my notice the most was his closing comments on the topic of baptism, that literally capped off the last final moments of the message.  I'm jotting a few notes down here because I think Pastor Dever is right on about this.

Dever identifies how there is no teaching of infant baptism in the new testament, nor are there any parallels of it to circumcision in the new testament.  The Apostle Paul denies the connection in Colossians 2, and rather parallels spiritual circumsicion to physical baptism, with the idea being that when you are born again you are to be baptized.

There is no mention of baptizing infants in the Didache, and there is no record of infant baptism in the first or second century.  By the third century there are a few disputed cases, but by the end of the third century the baptisms are Rome-style "saving" baptisms.  Until the time of Zwingli and Calvin, there is no infant baptism articulated that is not saving.

Dever's presented a summary that the oldest opinion would be that of believers baptism, the second oldest opinion that of the "saving" baptisms of the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholics, and the third oldest  being 1,000 years later with the reformers.

In Romans 6 Paul is assuming that all those who have the new life have been baptized (again, being born again then baptized).  There is an implies acceptance of the cognitive gospel prior to baptism.

Here's the link to the message:  Polity in the Local Church with Mark Dever