Mike Horton wrote a great post on the Resurgence blog about 5 common myths about Reformed Theology. These myths include:
1.) Reformed theology is arrogant and prideful.
2.) Reformed theology makes us robots in God’s plan.
3.) Reformed theology has no grace and love.
4.) Reformed theology kills genuine, heart-felt piety.
5.) Reformed theology kills community and mission.
To read the whole post, click here.
Every redeemed soul, knowing himself reconciled with God through His Son, and quickened into newness of life by His Spirit, turns alike to Father, Son and Spirit with the exclamation of reverent gratitude upon his lips, “My Lord and my God!” If he could not construct the doctrine of the Trinity out of his consciousness of salvation, yet the elements of his consciousness of salvation are interpreted to him and reduced to order only by the doctrine of the Trinity which he finds underlying and giving their significance and consistency to the teaching of the Scriptures as to the processes of salvation. By means of this doctrine he is able to think clearly and consequently of his threefold relation to the saving God, experienced by Him as Fatherly love sending a Redeemer, as redeeming love executing redemption, as saving love applying redemption: all manifestations in distinct methods and by distinct agencies of the one seeking and saving love of God. Without the doctrine of the Trinity, his conscious Christian life would be thrown into confusion and left in disorganization if not, indeed, given an air of unreality; with the doctrine of the Trinity, order, significance and reality are brought to every element of it. Accordingly, the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of redemption, historically, stand or fall together.
B.B. Warfield, “The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity” (as published in Sermons and Essays from the Works of B.B. Warfield)
Lots of great videos today. Check this one out. It’s a wonderful reminder of who God is and why who God is matters more than anything—in God’s being everything else we believe is held together.
Awesome article on the need for pastors to also engage their congregations as theologians, and for theologians to intentionally serve their local congregations.
A Call and Agenda for Pastor-Theologians
by Douglas Sweeney, professor of Church history and the history of Christian thought and director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
There have never been this many Christians around the world, yet few know much about God, the actual contents of the Bible, or the ways in which God’s people have interpreted and applied the Bible historically. Many Americans, at least, still go to church and read the Bible–as their social lives permit. Even more in the Global South do so with fervency and zeal. Still, despite our apparent esteem for the Bible’s status and authority, few believers know as much about its contents as they do about Hollywood movies, popular music, or athletics.
Indeed, as anyone who teaches in our churches can attest, few today know the Ten Commandments (I mean all ten, in proper order), the twelve apostles, the letters of Paul, or even the titles of the books included within the biblical canon. A basic grasp of Bible doctrine is also hard to find today. How many Christians do you know who can articulate what Scripture teaches about our Lord’s two natures, the ministry of the Spirit, or the nature of the church? Even first-year seminarians have trouble with these things.
The church wants education and needs theological leaders. In this day when many pastors lead non-theologically, and academics work in a way that is lost on the people of God, we need pastor-theologians who can minister the Word in ways that edify the saints and offer a winsome public witness to the goodness, truth, and beauty of the Lord and his will for us.
The time is ripe for dialogue, even charitable debate, regarding the best way forward. So I offer the following theses in the hope that they will incite a large number of church leaders–in congregations and divinity schools–to think together with me about how we can serve God’s people more effectively as preachers, teachers, and Christian educators.
1. Our churches and our world desperately need pastors to lead and teach theologically.
We clearly can’t rely on families to raise their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (though a minority of them are doing so). We can’t rely on television or radio preachers to feed us (though, again, some are trying). We shouldn’t assume that people are finding theological nourishment in their local Christian bookstores. Our pastors truly need to give themselves far more fully to a ministry of the Word that is profound and systematic, as well as personally, ecclesially, and socio-culturally relevant.
2. Not all pastors are able to function as big-hitting theologians (serving the church and world at large).
Some don’t have the time. Many are serving churches that won’t allow this kind of stewardship. Some don’t have the intellectual gifts or writing skills. Many pastors in large churches have assignments that include very little preaching and teaching. So let’s be honest about this: the kind of theological leadership that the world so desperately needs is not for everyone engaged in pastoral ministry.
3. All pastors should lead and inform their people theologically.
Not everyone can be a great theological leader. Not everyone can write books or make a splash in the media. But ordained clergy are called to the sacred ministry of the gospel and the eternal Word of God—not to motivational speaking, popular psychology, folk wisdom, life coaching, or marketing the faith (though we often engage these other things in ancillary ways).
4. Some pastor-theologians should recognize that God has called, prepared, and equipped them for the serious, sustained, theological leadership of their own congregations, denominations, and the Christian church at large.
This wider ministry often requires strong encouragement from those who know us well. People who fit this description are often tempted to believe that insofar as they serve the Lord in trans-congregational ministry they are shirking their main duty to their local congregations. Sometimes this is true; but it is not always true. It is possible to serve well in a local congregation and to serve the church at large. And people called to both assignments are actually sinning against the Lord if they neglect the larger church.
5. We will always need schools for the training of ministry leaders.
There are many churches one can serve with little or no advanced training. But it would be difficult today to become a theological leader without the benefit of a solid theological education. Seminaries, especially, offer such a rich and varied menu of specialized studies in fields related to Christian ministry—ancient languages and history, church history, philosophy, psychology, hermeneutics, intercultural studies, and so on–that it is impossible to replicate what they do outside the academy. History teaches that reformation in the church is usually led by intellectuals—people who understand the past and know how to chart a different course for the people of God moving forward. One doesn’t need much education to maintain the status quo. But to reform and improve the church one needs to understand its problems and have access to the tools by which we can solve them.
6. But this does not mean that we will need the very kind of schools we now have.
American Protestants have only had such schools for a couple hundred years. They are relatively new. And, in the main, the theological life of our churches has declined during the years they’ve been around. I suggest we move toward a seminary model in which thoughtful, seasoned pastors play a greater role on campus (not just in preaching and polity classes) and, correlatively, that seminary professors play a greater role in the educational ministries of their region’s congregations.
To continue reading the next 9 points, click here:
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/04/26/a-call-and-agenda-for-pastor-theologians/
I wanted to post my recommended reading list (the list is also found next to the “About” page above), as I know that many people will be searching for new books to read during the new year! Each of the books I have listed have been extremely helpful in my own walk, and I wholeheartedly recommend them all.
*All the links will take you to Amazon.com to make things easy if you want to check any of them out!
ESV Study Bible
Anything written
Particularly: Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus
Knowing God
Keep in Step with the Spirit: Finding Fullness in Our Walk with God
After Darkness, Light: Distinctives of Reformed Theology: Essays in Honor of R. C. Sproul
Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts
Redemption: Freed by Jesus from the Idols We Worship and the Wounds We Carry
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit
Humility
Absolute Surrender
Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine
The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way
Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist
Christianity and Liberalism
The Holiness of God
Institutes of the Christian Religion
The Bondage of the Will
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God
Today, browsing Monergism Books, I came across an advertisement for two books discussing the debate between Reformed and Arminian theology. For Calvinism
As one who is firmly convicted of the total assent of the Scriptures to the reality of God’s complete sovereignty and the biblical correctness of the doctrines of Grace, I found Mike Horton’s conclusion to his forward in Against Calvinism to be a serious reminder for those with serious theological conviction, regardless of the perspective:
I am grateful to Roger for the candor, passion, and informed argumentation that this book represents. At the end of the day, Roger and I share the most important agreement: namely, that the crucial questions involved in this or any other debate must be brought to the bar of scripture. We both believe that scripture is clear and sufficient, even if we are confused and weak. We are all pilgrims on the way, not yet those who have arrived at our glorious destination. only by endeavoring more and more to talk to each other as coheirs with Christ instead of about each other and past each other as adversaries can we engage with serious disagreements— and with the hope that we may also be surprised by felicitous agreements along the way.
It’s extremely easy to resort to creating straw men in our caricatures of those who differ from us theologically (or in any other way), but this is intellectually dishonest and usually results in greater hostility towards them than serious consideration. And while it is true that differing views are, in many cases, utterly irreconcilable (of which the Arminianism-Calvinism debate is one of them), we must be careful to treat those who love the Lord Jesus as our spiritual family instead of enemies.
Resources:
The attempt to define any theological movement can be difficult, and Evangelicalism is no different. While both Roman Catholics and liberal Protestants have at times referred to themselves as having an Evangelical spirit, Evangelicalism has always been a movement throughout history that was distinct from Catholicism, concerned by the theological compromise of liberal Protestantism, while also being opposed to the anti-intellectualism and cultural separation of Protestant Fundamentalism. Evangelicalism, as a movement and theological identity, has always been concerned with loyalty and fidelity to the Scripture as God’s revelation, the historic reality of Christ’s miracles, resurrection, and Divine nature, but also an engagement with culture, rather than retreat from the world. Evangelicalism stands as a testament to the reality that one need not choose dogma over intellectual engagement and that deep theological conviction is not antithetical to thoughtfulness, as some might suggest.
Dr. Albert Mohler, in the following article, discusses some of the history of Evangelicalism, and the challenges of defining the movement that, although preexisting American society, has had far-reaching effects on the American church.
