They refused to love the truth?

Reports of events at Lakeland have offered some reasons for thanksgiving and many for concern and sadness over the summer. John Piper offers sobering reflections on the underlying problem that creates such hype "they refused to love the truth". He cites Lee Grady's lament and critique in Charisma magazine. To Grady's credit it's not the first time he's raised questions about it, having written several other columns on it over the summer.

Piper:

"Discernment is not created in God’s people by brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance. It is created by biblical truth and the application of truth by the power of the Holy Spirit to our hearts and minds. When that happens, then the brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance will have the strong fiber of the full counsel of God in them. They will be profoundly Christian and not merely religious and emotional and psychological."

The problem here is that there are two issues, on the one hand everything that happened that seemed not to accord with sound doctrine,and on other other hand the issues of Todd Bentley's marriage. No doubt there is some interaction between the two problems, but I'm not sure they should be over connected. My problem with Lakeland, back in May, was with doctrine quite apart from anything in his character. His problems in marriage seem to me to compound the problems rather than to expose the doctrinal issues - they were already evident.

It's 'easy' now to call the problems, should have happened a long way back. My first thought in May was to dive for my copy of Sam Storms' "Signs of the Spirit" which modernises Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections.

These events serve as a sober warning to watch our lives and doctrine. Let any service I'm involved in benefit my marriage. Whatever it is that has happened could happen to me. Let any service I'm involved in be saturated with the Word of God. Let us watch our hearts, watch our lives and our doctrine.

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More from Phil Whittall on Todd Bentley, calling for some Biblical reality:

• We should let history give a name to what is God is doing.
• This was the first 'revival' in a media age.
• TV inflates and exaggerates.
• What is the deal with the nightly meetings?
• We made it about a man. Again.
• Charismatics want revival the easy way. Still.
• Why can't we have good doctrine and great power?
• Wacky, is well, wacky.
• Sadly, we love being fighting to be right.

Atheism, grace and death... and the local church

A few things from around about....

Chris Oldfield reports on a debate in Edinburgh between John Lennox and Christopher Hitchens 'the new europe should prefer the new atheism'. Report by Simon Wenham for Zacharias Trust.

Ed Goode writes on Grace in isolation. All our study and knowledge is meaningless unless we live it out with those around us. Unless we really do all things for the glory of God...meaning all things, then we're contextless American gymnasts plodding round without really doing anything meaningful.

Watch the trailer, read a sample chapter or get the art work from Mark Driscoll's next book DEATH BY LOVE

Josh Harris reports that Louie Giglio is going to church plant: There's something very cool about the ultimate "conference guy" becoming the pastor of a local church.

The human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator

I know Marcus has a great passion for things like Beowulf and Lord of the Rings, so maybe writing a bit about stories might lead him to write about them when he gets back. Abraham Piper's 22 words asks:

Redemptive stories show what is. Namely, hope. Non-redemptive stories show what if… It increases appreciation for redemption to imagine life without it.

The comments there are worth a read, amongst them John Calvin (Institutes, II. ii.15), commenting by proxy:

Therefore, in reading profane authors, the admirable light of truth displayed in them should remind us, that the human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator. If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as we would avoid offering insult to him, not to reject or condemn truth wherever it appears. In despising the gifts, we insult the Giver.

• How, then, can we deny that truth must have beamed on those ancient lawgivers who arranged civil order and discipline with so much equity?
• Shall we say that the philosophers, in their exquisite researches and skilful description of nature, were blind?
• Shall we deny the possession of intellect to those who drew up rules for discourse, and taught us to speak in accordance with reason?
• Shall we say that those who, by the cultivation of the medical art, expended their industry in our behalf were only raving?
• What shall we say of the mathematical sciences?
• Shall we deem them to be the dreams of madmen?

Nay, we cannot read the writings of the ancients on these subjects without the highest admiration; an admiration which their excellence will not allow us to withhold. But shall we deem anything to be noble and praiseworthy, without tracing it to the hand of God? Far from us be such ingratitude; an ingratitude not chargeable even on heathen poets, who acknowledged that philosophy and laws, and all useful arts were the inventions of the gods. Therefore, since it is manifest that men whom the Scriptures term carnal, are so acute and clear-sighted in the investigation of inferior things, their example should teach us how many gifts the Lord has left in possession of human nature, notwithstanding of its having been despoiled of the true good.

Make me a Christian? Make me a whitewashed tomb...

Tonight on Channel 4 George Hargreaves introduces some people to 'Christian life'. The programme blurb suggests that those involved are "not obvious candidates for such an experiment". But it sounds to me exactly like the kind of people Jesus would be revealing himself to, exactly the kind of people he lived for and died for, exactly the kind of people who should be welcome in our church:

• a biker who's a tattooist and a militant atheist,
• a young man who was brought up Christian until he was 12, and now has a girlfriend who is 10 weeks' pregnant,
• a lap-dancing manager who can't live without continually acquiring expensive designer shoes, middle-class parents who are so professionally busy that they have hardly any time to spend with their children
• a man in his 20s who, unbeknown to his girlfriend, goes out every week drinking and womanising
• a man who found Christianity unfulfilling and has converted to Islam
• a lesbian who sometimes sleeps with men.

Christian Party leader George Hargreaves invites them to read the Bible and take it seriously. The problem is that Revd George leads with lifestyle rather than leading people to Jesus first. I fear that this lifestyle first approach obscures the truth and seems to lack compassion. Nice one for trying it, but this Christianity comes across as an anti-sex moralism makeover show. The approach seems to be to break people by taking out the sin - it's sad to observe what happens to the lapdancer - George removes doing that and she runs to her boyfriend as an alternative help for her self-image struggles. Kevin tries to resist drunkeness and flirting and more - self-reformation fails quickly. This smells of a law-first approach. This smells pharisaic and looks about as effective.

Could we just start with Jesus? Let his light shine and expose things that need to change, starting with 'you're not a Christian' and then getting on to life transformation, by the Holy Spirit, one step at a time.

Like the atheist Martin says - persuade me, explain why the Bible is true. Reading the Bible for three weeks has the potential to help, but with all these mentors around someone might want to do some apologetics and Bible teaching that could engage his questions and direct him to Jesus rather than imposing 'make me moral and religious'.

Charlie Brooker from The Guardian notes: "the broadcast will doubtless be accompanied by the percussive sound of thousands of Christians enthusiastically smashing their foreheads against the wall with delight at the way they're represented."

More at Channel4.com - Make me a Christian. Also on C4 at the moment Tom Price highlights The Genius of Dawkins. Articles & mp3s arguing for the truth and reality of Christianity can be found at bethinking.org

Graced-up people should be humble people

Jared Wilson reports on an incident involving 'Mr Your Best Life Now', Joel Osteen and his wife on plane... illustrating that 'the prosperity gospel' seems to produce an assumption of entitlement that can only really be called arrogance. The gospel should produce the opposite - deep humility, service and thankfulness. Woe betide us if it doesn't. Christian life should adorn the gospel, making grace strangely attractive - not because it makes us uppity but because it makes us like Jesus, servant-hearted and self-sacrificing. The same Jesus who on the subject of people who think they deserve greatness put it plainly:

"You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10v42-45, ESV)

And that looks more like a very different kind of best life: Humility: True Greatness - CJ Mahaney