William Penn: Liberty and Justice for All

I just finished reading William Penn: Liberty and Justice for All by Janet and Geoff Benge, and found this to be an excellent account of the life of William Penn and his work in establishing the Pennsylvania colonies. Penn had a remarkable life, filled with religious persecution, conflicts with his father, the English courts, and numerous struggles over establishing the Pennsylvania colonies, or "the holy experiment", as he referred to it.

The book chronicles Penn's life through his childhood in England, and describes how Penn, at a young age, was affected by hearing an influential Quaker minister speak. Penn himself becomes a Quaker during his lifetime, and experiences firsthand the harsh religious persecution that the Anglican government of England imposed (including unfair convictions, trials and imprisonments.)

Later Penn is given a providentially amazing opportunity to establish the Pennsylvania colonies, and his aim was to establish this land as one of liberty, fairness, and religious freedom. It's a remarkable story and can be a real page-turner during some of the momentous times of Penn's life.

However, William Penn's life wasn't without its troubles. Beyond just the religious persecution that Penn experienced as a Quaker, his family also saw the loss of a number of their own children and, potentially most devastating, was the account of Penn's oldest son who (perhaps from having his father absent so much due to persecution or working on Pennsylvania) turned in much different direction of alcohol addiction and gambling. In fact, the book doesn't go much further into what happened to Penn's son, but this serves as a tragic indicator that Penn, for all his remarkable contributions should have also keep his focus on shepherding his own family with the same level of dedication.

The life of William Penn was an amazing one, and his strong stand for religious freedom, both in England and in the Pennsylvania colonies, serve as an excellent example of a man faithful to God in his life efforts.

The Permanence View of Marriage

Voddie preached a message not long ago on the Permanence view of marriage. Its a fascinating and challenging view that a marriage vow should never be broken under any circumstance, even unfaithfulness. Voddie lays out in detail from scripture the reasoning for this viewpoint. Personally I think this could be difficult, especially in mind of abusive relationships, etc, but at the root of this its all about a solid commitment to the covenant of marriage, even when the partner breaks it. Here's the link:



And in a strange semi-related note, here's a link to a song by Frehley's Comet that I posted in my music blog, with lyrics that curiously (ironically) remind me of the permanence view:

You will never hear me say the words
Never feel the pain that hurts
Never hear me say Its over now

Not sure that Ace Frehley or Todd Howarth had the permanence view in mind when they wrote the song, but it does fit in an odd sort of way.

The Alliance for Church & Family Reformation | Excellent Resource for Family Ministry and Integrated Worship

The Alliance for Church & Family Reformation site offers some excellent resources, including audio sermons and links, related to the subject of family integrated worship. Per the site description:

The Alliance for Church and Family Reformation was born out of a need to help the greater Christian community understand and apply the biblical principles of family discipleship and age-integrated church and to strategically promote both family and church reformation.

Additionally, Grace Family Baptist offers a number of excellent messages by Voddie Baucham.

The King James Only Movement

I've just started researching and digging into the mountain of documentation out there about the KJV-Only "controversy". I wonder if there's really anything to this, or if the KJVO stance is really just based around pastors who didn't want to bother learning Hebrew and Greek in seminary.

Regardless, here's a collection of good links that challenge the KJVO stance.

Dr. Thomas Schreiner on Credobaptism

Here is an excellent mp3 message by Dr. Thomas Schreiner in defense of Credo baptism. Worth checking out, as it's an excellent defense packaged into a 30 minute time frame. Some notes I took from this message:

In the baptist view, believers are clothed with Christ at baptism. Peter's message at Pentecost was "Repent and be baptised". Numerous NT scripture references all cite baptism following belief. In the Presbyterian paedobaptist model, the baptism provides no benefit unless it's followed by later faith. Faith MAY occur later in life, or may never occur at all.

I Cor. 12:13 - All believers are baptised in the body of Christ in one spirit..." All believers drink of the spirit and are equal members at baptism. Have infants received the spirit at baptism? (baptismal regeneration).

Baptism is also described scriptually as a "washing". I Cor. 6:11 - makes it clear that washing of sin and justification take place at the same time, yet justification involves faith. Justification is for those who believe.

"Household baptisms" of scripture (Acts 16) does not support the notion that this included infants. The household is contextually limited to those who could understand and believe. Evidence for this is that the household is described as "rejoicing". This joy implies understanding the significance of what had happened. Those who had rejoiced were those who believed - no compelling evidence that this included infants.

Acts 18 - Belief of the household meaning mental understanding. Maybe children included. Acts 2:39 - Often used in defense of infant baptism. Peter states "The promise is for you and for your children..." A careful reading of this does not include infants. The groups are Peter's listeners, the children, and those far off (the gentiles). It's not all those listeners, but only for those from every group who believe in the Gospel. This is justified by the last clause in the verse, "that is everyone that the Lord has called to himself." How would baptized infants who turn from faith later in life apply to this group?

Baptism as covenental sign (col. 2:12) continuing circumcision. "In him you were circumcised..." The parallel, however, doesn't work for a number of reasons: it lumps the plans of God together. There is one plan of God from scripture, but there is no evidence from scripture that we have one covenant of grace. The Abrahamic covenant is clearly distinguished from the Mosaic covenant. It is also clear that the new covenant and the Abrahamic covenant are not the same. There are elements unique to the Abrahamic covenant. For instance, Ishmael receives the covenental sign of circumcision. There is a genealogical principle to the Abrahamic covenant that does not continue in the new covenant. There is continuity and discontinuity in both covenants. The old covenant was a nation and a church. This is no longer true in the new covenant - the new covenant is composed only of those who believe in Jesus Christ. There is no special chosen nation. Heb. 8-10 make it clear that all members of the new covenant are forgiven of their sin and filled with the Holy Spirit. People from every people group.

The new testament supports a credobaptist position.

Genesis 26: 34 - 27: 45

Missed worship last week, so there's a gap in the Genesis notes, but here's where it picks up again. Pastor Paul spoke more on the unraveling narrative of Issac, Jacob and Esau. He spent a lot of time more so on the topical side of things, addressing themes of God's election and various viewpoints of God's interaction with the world, then touched on the passages more specifically.

Genesis 26: 34 - 27: 45 talks about the stolen blessing. Isaac had planned to bypass God's will and just give Esau the blessing, but Rebbecca schemed to have Jacob get it instead. It's all a big mess, but as pastor said, God's will is accomplished in spite of us. God's election is at work here, and in Gen. 25 we God's election at work in the two nations in the womb, Jacob and Esau.

Pastor Paul went on to elaborate some of the misconceptions of God's role in the universe. Some of the worldviews that he pointed out and spoke about were:

• Deism - God created everything and left it all alone.
• Pantheism - God is in everything and not distinct from the creation.
• Everything just by chance (as opposed to providence)
• Impersonal faith - "Things just happen. That's just how the world is", etc.

So Pastor spoke about the errors of these various views, and identified how God's providence means that He is continually involved with all things. He also identified the idea of preservation, that God holds all things together. All things are created through Him and for Him. If it wasn't for this, the rules of the universe wouldn't be constant and things would just fall apart.

Another question addressed was that, if God in in control, then why is there evil? Pastor Paul pointed out that often bad things, or things that seem bad to us at the time, are there as part of God's direction leading to good. He pointed out the example of Joseph, who was taken from his family and brought into slavery. From this "bad" situation, Joseph, given the ability from God to interpret dreams, was able to rise in prominence to being second in command of Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh, and from this position, he was able to not only save his family but also ultimately the people of Israel.

Genesis 26: 6-11

Greg Parker spoke on Genesis 26: 6-11, and continued the theme of God's multi-generational faithfulness narrative through the life of Isaac. Again the theme apparent here is God's faithfulness in working through sinful individuals as we see here Isaac repeating the sin of his father Abraham - namely that of lying about his wife Rebecca (as Abraham did in Gen. 12:10). The text tells us that Abimelech, believing Rebecca to be Isaac's sister was both of them laughing (and in some translations, in "intimate dialog") with one another and knew he had been told a lie.

It's easy to perceive Isaac as a bridge between Abraham and Jacob, as we don't know much about his life. We know of the miraculous situation of his birth, the sacrifice, and his marriage, but otherwise not much else. From the previous week, we also know that he had a fondness for wild game, and exercised a favoritism towards Esau.

Looking ahead to the book of Hebrews, we read about how Isaac was identified as one of the "by faith" individuals and how Isaac invoked the future blessings of Jacob and Esau. His sin of lying is not mentioned by the writer of Hebrews. In spite of his shortcomings, God forgave them and Isaac was remembered as an inportant member of the Messianic line.

I missed some details of the message as I needed to care for a crabby baby during the service (it's integrated worship, so no nurseries here) but I thought that Greg did a good job with the message. As I understand it, he's done speaking before but this was his first sermon at Gfbc, and he's clearly been blessed by God with the ability to teach from the Word.