First let me say that my last post seems a bit more preachy than I intended it to. I was hyped up for our trip to the Ukraine!
Secondly, I have some developing ideas floating around in my head on the topic of adoption and missions which I hope to be posting in the near future. So stay tuned.
Also, I just realized that I overlooked linking up to our adoption journal. If one is not familiar with our blogs, it may have seemed as if the worldview ministries blog had been abandoned. It has not. We have primarily been posting our adoption endeavours at kristinasstory.blogspot.com. Sorry for any confusion.
Finally I want to say that after a year and a half we have finally completed the adoption process! Kristina Hope Landrum is formally and practically a member of our family.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Adoption as Missions
The Worldview Ministries "team" (my wife and I) are going to Ukraine for a few weeks next Sunday. I want to answer the question why? We are not going to vacation though that would be nice. We have work to do. I have only been out of the country twice and that was a country in close proximity to the US. In fact, I have only been to seven or eight states. So why would we travel five thousand miles from home? We are going because we are commanded by God to go. Jesus said "Go make disciples of all nations" (Mat. 28:19). This is a command not a suggestion!
All are called to do missions. I would not say that the bible mandates everyone in particular to leave the soil of their homeland. One can do missions by contributing financially so another can go. By the way thank you again to all that helped to support us in this endeavor whether big or--I was going to say small, but your support was no small matter. Also, one can do missions by giving prayer support for those on the mission field. If you cannot go then pray. Pray that god will send laborers into the field (Mat. 9:38). In one way or another we all should and can participate in missions both foreign and domestic.
In this particular case we are trying to adopt. I want to urge everyone to consider adoption in light of missions. What better way to do missions than to bring someone into a covenant family? I do not make mention of this to make me look good. I fall short on more accounts than I get things right. I say this to exhort those of you that may read this to consider adoption as an act of missions. Not that one must adopt as such, but to be involved in some way!
If I have missed the mark by relating adoption to missions, forgive me. I don't thing I have though. God has always had a soft spot for a few particular groups of people, the elderly, blind, stranger in the land, foreigner, and I think especially the fatherless.
Regardless the scripture is clear that pure religion consists of visiting the fatherless (James 1:26). I am convinced that this is the greatest area of concern for missions in our day. We hope to set up a continuing mission to Ukraine even after the adoption. Join Worldview ministries in making this a reality.
All are called to do missions. I would not say that the bible mandates everyone in particular to leave the soil of their homeland. One can do missions by contributing financially so another can go. By the way thank you again to all that helped to support us in this endeavor whether big or--I was going to say small, but your support was no small matter. Also, one can do missions by giving prayer support for those on the mission field. If you cannot go then pray. Pray that god will send laborers into the field (Mat. 9:38). In one way or another we all should and can participate in missions both foreign and domestic.
In this particular case we are trying to adopt. I want to urge everyone to consider adoption in light of missions. What better way to do missions than to bring someone into a covenant family? I do not make mention of this to make me look good. I fall short on more accounts than I get things right. I say this to exhort those of you that may read this to consider adoption as an act of missions. Not that one must adopt as such, but to be involved in some way!
If I have missed the mark by relating adoption to missions, forgive me. I don't thing I have though. God has always had a soft spot for a few particular groups of people, the elderly, blind, stranger in the land, foreigner, and I think especially the fatherless.
Regardless the scripture is clear that pure religion consists of visiting the fatherless (James 1:26). I am convinced that this is the greatest area of concern for missions in our day. We hope to set up a continuing mission to Ukraine even after the adoption. Join Worldview ministries in making this a reality.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
The Element of Mystery in John Owen
"It is a basic proposition that God can only be known through God" (John Owen, Biblical Theology, Pg.8).
The monolithic principle of all true theology is that God is the source of all knowledge of himself and of his creation. This is true both immediately when God makes himself known directly to our understanding through regeneration, and mediately when we use methods of science, philosophical reasoning, natural theology, natural revelation, and apologetics as instruments of knowledge for the advancement of our own understanding, persuasion towards belief of unbelievers, and for proofs of various sorts. In all of these things it is God that appropriates knowledge of himself to the heart.
We must be cautious not to stumble at this point. Good theology and apologetics are good only insofar as they accurately reflect the true character and nature of God, as well as our nature as fallen man (It is on this subject that Calvin notes in the opening of the Institutes that "without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God."), as seen in the light of and in accordance with scripture. There is much thought that does not harmonize with the authority of scripture, and so far as this sort of knowledge is unfaithful to scripture, it is not true knowledge. There is much learning, but never the attainment of divine truth.
It is a foundational and fundamental truth that it is God who awakens us in our knowledge of him, his attributes, and what he requires of man. There is danger in taking too high of a view of man's faculties of reason. No natural man has ever attained to a true knowledge of God by mere intellectual ability, no matter how grand one's science is or how magnanimous one's quality of genius may be.
There are none that have attained to such a high level of insight that they are among a privileged esoteric and even academic priesthood of some unusual sort. Such a notion resembles that of the ancient pagan priesthoods. Arrogance has poisoned the the roots of this tree and though it seems to be alive it is in reality dead.
The origin of Christian knowledge as regards theology is mysterious, but only in that the mystery is revealed to us all by God. No element of a cultic mysticism of any fashion can be found in Christian theology. Owen says, "It is for no such reasons as this that the gospel is ever called a 'mystery,' but rather that the reality of the gospel, as revealed to us men, exceeds all our human reason (1Corinthians 2:7, 14). In order for a man to receive and understand this 'secret and hidden wisdom,' it is first necessary that he himself become a Christian initiate" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg. 11). We are convinced by scripture that in the final analysis it is God who gives sight to the blind. It is God that convicts the heart, awakening us to the reality of his divinity, the beauty of his goodness, and the blessings that are in store for those that know him. Unless we are born again we cannot see the kingdom of God.
The matter of a theology secular to scripture falls short and is in the final analysis inert. "This may be scholastic, but it is not founded in faith" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg. 12). Good theology, is summarized by Owen in these words: "All of our theology, therefore, flows from that act of divine will by which He wishes to make known this truth to us" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg.15). Furthermore he says, "No one can speak or feel worthily about God, or about divine matters, unless he is aided by God, and neither does anyone know God except by His own self-revelation through God the son: nor yet does God wish to be worshipped in any manner but that which He has ordained" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg. 16). And again I quote, "True theology is of heavenly origin, declares its own pedigree from above, and must have nothing of man admixed (Matthew 21:25)" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg. 16).
The monolithic principle of all true theology is that God is the source of all knowledge of himself and of his creation. This is true both immediately when God makes himself known directly to our understanding through regeneration, and mediately when we use methods of science, philosophical reasoning, natural theology, natural revelation, and apologetics as instruments of knowledge for the advancement of our own understanding, persuasion towards belief of unbelievers, and for proofs of various sorts. In all of these things it is God that appropriates knowledge of himself to the heart.
We must be cautious not to stumble at this point. Good theology and apologetics are good only insofar as they accurately reflect the true character and nature of God, as well as our nature as fallen man (It is on this subject that Calvin notes in the opening of the Institutes that "without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God."), as seen in the light of and in accordance with scripture. There is much thought that does not harmonize with the authority of scripture, and so far as this sort of knowledge is unfaithful to scripture, it is not true knowledge. There is much learning, but never the attainment of divine truth.
It is a foundational and fundamental truth that it is God who awakens us in our knowledge of him, his attributes, and what he requires of man. There is danger in taking too high of a view of man's faculties of reason. No natural man has ever attained to a true knowledge of God by mere intellectual ability, no matter how grand one's science is or how magnanimous one's quality of genius may be.
There are none that have attained to such a high level of insight that they are among a privileged esoteric and even academic priesthood of some unusual sort. Such a notion resembles that of the ancient pagan priesthoods. Arrogance has poisoned the the roots of this tree and though it seems to be alive it is in reality dead.
The origin of Christian knowledge as regards theology is mysterious, but only in that the mystery is revealed to us all by God. No element of a cultic mysticism of any fashion can be found in Christian theology. Owen says, "It is for no such reasons as this that the gospel is ever called a 'mystery,' but rather that the reality of the gospel, as revealed to us men, exceeds all our human reason (1Corinthians 2:7, 14). In order for a man to receive and understand this 'secret and hidden wisdom,' it is first necessary that he himself become a Christian initiate" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg. 11). We are convinced by scripture that in the final analysis it is God who gives sight to the blind. It is God that convicts the heart, awakening us to the reality of his divinity, the beauty of his goodness, and the blessings that are in store for those that know him. Unless we are born again we cannot see the kingdom of God.
The matter of a theology secular to scripture falls short and is in the final analysis inert. "This may be scholastic, but it is not founded in faith" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg. 12). Good theology, is summarized by Owen in these words: "All of our theology, therefore, flows from that act of divine will by which He wishes to make known this truth to us" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg.15). Furthermore he says, "No one can speak or feel worthily about God, or about divine matters, unless he is aided by God, and neither does anyone know God except by His own self-revelation through God the son: nor yet does God wish to be worshipped in any manner but that which He has ordained" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg. 16). And again I quote, "True theology is of heavenly origin, declares its own pedigree from above, and must have nothing of man admixed (Matthew 21:25)" (John Owen, Biblical Theology Pg. 16).
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Evidence Truth and Persuasion
There are a few posts on my personal blog that are more appropriate for the Worldview Ministries blog now that it is up and running, and so I will be linking up to them.
http://religiouscontemplations.blogspot.com/2007/05/evidence-truth-and-persuasion.html
http://religiouscontemplations.blogspot.com/2007/05/evidence-truth-and-persuasion.html
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Hello, Robert
Robert, thanks for inviting me to join the blog. I'm pretty busy now, but I'll drop in from time to time.
Discourse With a Pagan
This is a dialogue that I wrote as an example of how one might use apologetics in the defence of the faith.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)