Christ Community Church Blog

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

This book draws from the works and sermons of classic theologians such as Whitefield, Luther, Spurgeon, and Augustine, and from leading contemporary communicators such as Skip Ryan, John Piper, Ligon Duncan, Randy Alcorn, John MacArthur, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, and Joni Eareckson Tada to help readers enter into the wonder of Jesus’ incarnation and birth.

To learn more, you can view the contents or some sample chapters online.  It is available for purchase at our book table.

Brian McLaren is a very popular “Christian” personality today, especially among those in the Emerging Church movement.  He has published several widely read books, such as A New Kind of Christian and A Generous Orthodoxy, which have been very influential among many Christians.  So, why say his ideas are dangerous?  Because his theology is an old kind of liberalism.  See the list of his ideas below:

1. Living like Jesus is more important than believing in him
2. People are basically good and free from original sin
3. Objection to penal substitution
4. Unite Christians and non-Christians and emphasize our common journey with God
5. Inclusivism: extends salvation to include those who have not believed in Christ
6. Focus on this life rather than the afterlife (and hell)

For further reading on McLaren, see Michael Wittmer’s article entitled “Machen on McLaren: a New Kind of Liberal?“, which was presented at the Evangelical Theological Society’s recent conference.

Ralph Davis, in his article Why is the Old Testament Shut Out of Church?, gives a reason:

“We do not have the right approach.  I am not convinced that there is a ‘problem’ with the OT.  I do not think the ’strangeness’ or ‘distance’ or the language of the OT is much of a problem; nor is our difficulty with the OT mainly a matter of techniques.  Rather we get off track in our interpretation of the OT because our eyes are fastened on the wrong ‘object.’   I do not mean that we cannot consider methods and genre and criticism and problems, but for crying out loud there is a living God waiting to reveal himself in the OT and we so easily take our eyes off of him!  If he is my exceeding joy (Ps. 43:4) then I should delight in seeing him in the OT.  If he is the fountain of living waters (Jer. 2:13), I should be thirsting and craving for him as I read its texts…”

Phil Johnson gives the following characteristics of what is called “hyper-calvinism” (to read his full explanation, click HERE).

A hyper-Calvinist is someone who either:

1. Denies that the gospel call applies to all who hear, OR
2. Denies that faith is the duty of every sinner, OR
3. Denies that the gospel makes any “offer” of Christ, salvation, or mercy to the non-elect (or denies that the offer of divine mercy is free and universal), OR
4. Denies that there is such a thing as “common grace,” OR
5. Denies that God has any sort of love for the non-elect.

For further reading, here is a good book on the subject.

A father of one of my wife’s students put together this project to recover the beautiful Solomonic-like poems of the early church.   The link to the website can be found HERE and song samples can be found HERE.

Christopher Hitchens (non-Christian) and Doug Wilson (Christian) recently debated on the existence of God.  The video of this debate can be viewed HERE.

Here is what all the cross references in the Bible look like visually.

Read Christianity Today’s review of the book HERE.

If you ever watch Fox News, you’ve probably seen Brit Hume offering political analysis.  Recently he decided to semi-retire and the reason is very interesting.  Justin Taylor writes the following…Brit Hume, the Washington managing editor at Fox News and one of the best in the business, is retiring from his position. Starting in 2009 he’ll become senior political analyst and work 100 days in the year.

When public figures retire at the top of their game they often cite wanting to spend more time with their family. And that’s the case here. But Hume offers an additional reason–one rarely cited in these situations:

I certainly want to pursue my faith more ardently than I have done. I’m not claiming it’s impossible to do when you work in this business. I was kind of a nominal Christian for the longest time. When my son died (by suicide in 1998), I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me. If a person is a Christian and tries to face up to the implications of what you say you believe, it’s a pretty big thing. If you do it part time, you’re not really living it.

From another interview:

And since my son died, I have been, really, I felt rescued by God and by Christ. I have an intense desire to pursue that more ardently and have it be a bigger part of my life than it has been.

When asked how that will translate, Hume responded, “It’ll translate into Bible study.”