Calvin: Why He Still Matters

W. Robert Godfrey, author of the new biography of John Calvin entitled John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor, wrote an inspiring article on Calvin’s significance to ministers today.  Here is an excerpt:

Calvin exemplified in his life and work a determination to seek to bring every thought captive to Christ. That was his passion, such was his confidence in the Word of God. That is also what he wanted to teach others. To quote Calvin, “Whoever, therefore, would desire to persevere in uprightness and in integrity of life, let them learn to exercise themselves daily in the study of the word of God; for, whenever a man despises or neglects instruction, he easily falls into carelessness and stupidity, and all fear of God vanishes from his mind” (Commentary on the Psalms, on Ps. 18:22). Calvin was certain that many people tended very naturally to carelessness and stupidity. That is surely a lesson that does not need to be taught from Scripture; it is a lesson that pastors learn by experience! Calvin recognized, and we should recognize because it is even truer today, that we are surrounded by voices that are blaring lies. The only way to sort that out is to be sure that the Bible is constantly speaking to us, that the Bible is in our hearts and in our ears and in our mind so that that authority of the Word of God is a living and vital authority for us. The Bible must constantly challenge the way we look at the world, the way we look at our fellow men and women, the way we think about God and his world.

Clowning around in the Pulpit…literally.

Clowns in the Pulpit

A recent column by Josh Rottenberg in Entertainment Weekely sighted the awkward and many times blasphemous crossroads where Hollywood and faith have met.   In it, he discusses the failure of Christians to attend movies primarily for religious reasons.  Attempts to make Christian-targeted films resulting in massive box-office smashes have failed.  This was Hollywood’s pragmatic attempt to use the pulpit to find a market for its movies.

“‘After The Passion, there was a gold rush,’ says Phil Vischer, a co-creator of the Christian-themed cartoon franchise VeggieTales.  ’Hollwood thought, ‘This is great! We can market movies to pastors and they will get up on Sunday and tell their whole congregation to go see them! It’s a new button we can push, and money will fall from the sky! It was doomed from the get-go.”

As a result, though somewhat successful, Christian-themed movies (however blasphemous or vague)  like The Chronicles of Narnia, Evan Almighty, The Da Vinci Code, The Golden Compass, and The Nativity Story, have largely fell short of expectations in this theory. Instead, the Christian community has found identification with the Edenic-themed WALL-E, the amoral The Dark Knight and the strangely pro-life comedy Juno.  Why can’t Hollywood capture Christian audiences when it means to?

“Hollywood still hasn’t quite figured out how to crack the Christian code. ‘With a snap of his fingers, [mega-church pastor] Rick Warren could deliver hundreds of thousands of people to a movie,’ says Matthew Crouch, producer of the 1999 Christian film The Omega Code, ‘Hollywood is trying to figure out how to reach them.  But how do you get Rick Warren to sign on to a script? That’s the six-million dollar question Hollywood’s trying to answer.  But they don’t know how easy it is to offend that faith. You have to realize you’re playing with fire.”

Could I suggest something?  The reason Hollywood cannot reach the Christian community is the reason that Rick Warren can reach so many people.  Nominal Christians want the gospel and _________. Hollywood fails to understand the power of the gospel.  That though they classify us as a “faith,” our faith is real because it has an object–the person and work of Jesus Christ, the only name given under heaven whereby men may be saved.  Rick Warren does not understand this, hence EW ’s citation of his success. Rick Warren wants a faith-based program ministry that forgets that we are a people who are not of this world.  Though we want to help alleviate the ailments of this world, we understand that the most important ailment is sin, and its only remedy is the gospel of God.  Rick Warren does not get this.  Hollywood does not get this.  We are not of this world. We are passing through; the gospel is not. God has a purpose for the gospel in this world–to save sinners for himself and therefter to hear the praises of his glory in his Son.

What we have here in this article is a sad realization of the modern liberalism that has crept so pervasively into our churches–a watered-down version of Christianity that defines itself merely on a works-based mantra-”follower of Christ.” Any attempts to “reach people” are found in sweeping them through a gospel doorway right onward to an unoffensive life of service.  Before I continue, let me be clear: I believe that we are called to a life of service to mankind.  I do not believe that we are called to this life of service apart from a clear and uncompromising proclamation of the gospel.  This is our purpose: to lift up the Son for all to turn to and so be saved. Christians are the only people in the world who have a reason to do service–namely, to testify to the power of God to save sinners because of the person and work of Christ.

I have made quite certain that I am at odds with Rick Warren.  His gospel is watered-down, empty, and cursorily.  He has “bigger fish to fry,” namely, the PEACE plan. A acronym that basically stands for the gospel + good works.  We note the way he popishly declares people saved who read his book if they said that prayer at the end of his book.  “Welcome to the Family of God!”  He then ushers them on to service as if to say, “Now that you considered the gospel (a very thin one at that), you need to move on to bigger things, like service to mankind.” Foolishness…

There is no experience of weight under the law of God, there is no sense of shame for sin before a holy God, there is no mediating advocate through the finished and complete work of Christ, there is no repentance, there is no faith.  The gospel of Rick Warren is dead because it is natural.  It not the supernatural faith once for all delivered to the saints. It is pragmatic and cursorily.

I find in this interesting article from EW an indication that many clergy are reaping what they have sowed.  By ignoring the supernatural power of God’s purpose in the gospel, we have turned to all manner of natural elements to reach the carnal mind.  We will even dress up like clowns to entertain it. Note the interesting testimony Rottenberg uses to begin his article:

“It’s one thing for some nerdy fanboy who lives in his parents’ basement to show his enthusiasm for The Dark Knight by dressing up as the Joker. But for a pastor to stand before his congregation in full Joker regalia, complete with ratty wig and gruesome makeup, and deliver a sermon on good and evil–that’s something else altogether.  Last summer, in a radical attempt to engage his young congregants at the Christ Chapel Mountaintop Church in Manassas, Va., pastor Rob Seagears did exactly that.  Each Sunday, Seagears dressed up as a character from that weekend’s top-grossing film and used the movie–no matter how vulgar, violent, or ungodly it seemed–as the basis for a discussion of Christian morality.”

Reading this with as much charity as possible, I acknowledge that I don’t know this pastor’s heart and intention.  I also don’t know the content of his message (or even if there was one).  He might have had a clear presentation of the gospel in his message, but based on this information, it was probably what it said-”a discussion of Christian morality.” 

This is not the gospel.  This man, literally, was clowning around in the pulpit.  This is not the charge of the pastor.  The pastor is called to preach the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8-14; 2:15; 4:1-2).  Paul himself refused to turn from it in the name of “contextualization.” 

As Mark Dever once so wisely proposed:  “Here’s a good measure to see if your contextualization is a good contextualization that honors God.  Does it make the offense of the gospel clearer or does it disguise it?”

For the Corinthians, Paul refused to talk to them in the style of some Greek orator and so titillate their carnal intellectualism.  For the Galatians, he refused to have them think the gospel must be added to circumcision and other Judiaic laws and so massage their carnal desire to be self-righteous.  For the Colossians, he refused to allow them to think that wisdom, knowledge and spiritual experience was found anywhere but in Christ–not in the worship of angels, mysticism, or aceticism–and so “transcend” to the upper realms of spirituality.  Paul wanted to know nothing among his people but Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).  Indeed, this was of first importance to Paul (1 Corinthians 15:1-3).

My first reaction to the story given of this pastor is to call him a false teacher who is disqualified from the ministry, but after I calm down, I remember this quotation he gave to EW:

“Pop culture is the language they speak…This was about meeting them where they are and trying to build a bridge back to God.”

I will trust what he said and take it to mean that he truly wants to reach people.  But what does it mean when we say “reach people”? Does it mean that we want to help them live their best life now and so ignore their need for Christ’s righteousness? Does it mean we want them to have a purpose-driven life and so forget the cross in the dust of our service projects?  Or does it mean that we want to reconcile them to God through faith in Christ by an open and pleading proclamation of the gospel (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)?

My purpose here is not to attack cultural engagement.  My purpose here is not to attack this pastor (though I still will contend that he requires church discipline for mocking the pulpit).  My purpose here is to call pastors back to their charge in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus: Preach the Word! (2 Timothy 4:1-2).

This man wants to discuss Christian morality by dressing up like a clown, or by dressing up like Indiana Jones, or by driving up to the pulpit in a motorcycle dressed up like Batman.  What foolishness, what a shame, what a mockery to that sacred desk…

Paul wants to know nothing among his people but Christ’s death and resurrection.  Don’t ever assume that your people know the gospel.  Unpack all of its glorious facets for the rest of your preaching ministry.  This is your charge.  People will respond to the gospel because this is where God has placed his power.  Either they will respond to it with derision or they will respond to it in faith.  This is what we have been promised from the beginning (2 Timothy 4:3-4; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6).

Hollywood can’t reach the carnal mind for Christ–the gospel can. The Men of God, however, must guard that good deposit entrusted to them (1 Timothy 6:20).  Don’t make a mockery of that good deposit.  We are not clowns; we are preachers. Let Hollywood mock the Cross, but we will stand by it until our Master returns.

Working with you for the gospel,

Vince R.

Youth, Discipleship, and the Centrality of the Home

Several articles in the April 6 issue of the Southern Baptist Texan impacted my affections as I read them.  They exhibit a major passion of mine: the centrality of the family in discipling children.

Tammie Reed Ledbetter addresses the research related to youth who prefer expository preaching. Even though this article is not directly related to the centrality of the home, it does relate to the importance of good doctrine and the sufficiency of Scripture in discipling young people.

One Texas church is turning toward a more family-integrated approach.  This article relates the major success of that church.

The newsjournal also included a post  from Eric Bridges, an IMB correspondent, who discussed the rise of formerly evangelical young people who now claim to have no religious affliation.  He examines the idea that this tragedy lies at the feet of parental failure to disciple their children.

I am greatly affected by these articles because they go the heart of my calling toward biblical manhood.  They strike the alarming chord reminding me of my call to prepare to disciple my children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  It is not the youth pastor’s job to teach my kids.  That lies at my feet.  May we all tremble at the responsibility and weight the Lord calls on Fathers, and may we awaken to God’s intended purpose for the family.

Working with you for the Family and for our children,

Vince R.

He Became a Curse!

Dr. R.C. Sproul delivered this message at Together for the Gospel 2008.  This powerful excerpt really captures the dymanic impact it had during his session.  The first time I heard it, I broke down in tears.