Speaking of Christ & Exclusivity

What I like about Alistair Begg is that I've sat in a pew at Parkside Church and shook my head at his approach to Acts 1:6 and Revelation 7. We disagree on eschatology. Yet he doesn't linger on these eschatological divisions. Instead, he consistently wraps his sermons around the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It's that attitude that gets him invited to places like Calvary Chapel. You can watch a Q & A with Alistair Begg and CC's David Guzik HERE

At the end of the video in my previous post, Begg touches upon a scene in C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair.

Jill is dying of thirst and needs to drink at a stream. The great Lion Aslan is between it and her. She asks Aslan to move aside because she fears him. When he refuses, she asks him to promise not to eat her. Again, he refuses to promise. She tells Aslan that she dares not drink and he responds that she will then surely die. Jill then supposes that she must find another stream. The Lion tells her that:

"There is no other stream."  

I'd begun preparing this blog post on Saturday, but got sidetracked and put it off. Coincidentally, Pastor Begg's sermon was on 2 Timothy this Sunday morning. He talked about the need to prepare the next generation of church leaders to preach the gospel, and growing the current congregation's children in the knowledge of that gospel. He pointed to Paul's passing the baton onto Timothy, with that sense of urgency in knowing that his own time in the world was short.

Begg also touched upon the sad fact that some people become ashamed of the gospel - which brings me to the original motive for my post. Why aren't some leading church leaders shouting the gospel whenever the cameras and microphones are trained on them?

Why does Pope Francis dabble in political speeches, social agendas and ecumenism when he has the opportunity to proclaim Christ? Why has the ELCA taken Christ's work on the cross out of their church? See also HERE

Why does someone like Sojourners' Jim Wallis prefer thinking of the Last Supper as a Table-Fellowship scene rather than an Altar scene? See HERE and HERE 

From the link:

Notice that Wallis doesn’t connect the Passover meal, or the fact that Jesus is the perfect sacrificial Passover Lamb, to this scene. Instead it’s just a regular dinner, more of a friendly meal for fellowship and conversation. A place to plan how we can change the world.

Are they ashamed of The One and Only Stream?

Matt Waymeyer preaches II Timothy 4:1-4