An Open Letter to the Depressed Christian at Christmas

David Murray:

Dear Friend,

Depression is tough at the best of times. Perhaps it’s the best of times, such as holiday times, when it’s especially tough. The thought of mixing with happy people fills you with dread. The thought of remembering lost loved ones fills you with gloom. How can people be so happy when you are so sad? How can people celebrate when you are in mourning? It jars your soul and scrapes your tender wounds, doesn’t it?...keep reading

Fourth Member of the Trinity?

Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age recently put up a post about Richard Rohr on her Facebook page. The name immediately rang a bell (not Rob Bell but close). I've seen Rohr's name favorably mentioned by proponents of, what I call, progressive Christianity (PC). He's one of its go-to people. Rohr operates on the fuzzy feel-good level. PC dumbs down Scripture and enthrones the interpreter - as long as that interpreter derives positions sanctioned by proponents of PC. Of course, it's hard to pin these people down unless one follows them on Twitter and reads their books and blogs.

Fred Sanders mentions a few (I could add to the list) in an article reviewing Rohr's book which alleges to be about the Trinity. Sanders' review is worth a read.

Father Richard Rohr believes in the flow. Sometimes it’s Flow with a capital F, sometimes it’s “the Divine Flow.” Sometimes it’s “the flow who flows through everything, without exception, and who has done so since the beginning.” But with more than 150 occurrences of the word “flow” in his new book, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House, 2016), it’s always the flow that Rohr is pushing, praising, and preaching.

The flow is a self-giving exchange of love and life. If you were to ask Rohr whether the flow is primarily something about God, the world, or the human person, he would no doubt answer with an enthusiastic “Yes!” and his twinkling Franciscan eyes would twinkle Franciscanly. The flow overflows the distinction between the Creator and the creature. It flows from God as God empties Godself; it circulates among creatures and binds them together with each other and the absolute; it flows back to God, enriching and delighting that Holy Source who loves to see finite spirits awaken to their true, divine selves. The flow sounds like a noun, but it’s really a verb. Flow verbs all nouns as they flow with its flowing. And everybody is flowing, if they would just realize it; the book is dedicated “to all the unsuspecting folks who do not know they are already within the Divine Flow.” The flow is divine and cosmic and human all at once, always together. For Rohr, that’s the point...keep reading

Excerpt:

Fourth Member of the Trinity...The Divine Dance relativizes the three persons of the Trinity. They’re not even islands in a larger stream; they’re swirling patterns in an ocean of relationality. Once you accept this premise, Rohr invites you to receive the next insight: there’s room in the ocean for more swirling patterns. The flow can accommodate a fourth. It must.

Watchfulness Requires Wakefulness

Article by Brian G Hedges:

When I was eighteen, I fell asleep at the wheel. My dad was preaching at a church two hundred miles from the farm where we lived in Tokio, Texas. We left early enough that morning to make the three-hour drive and arrive before the hymns began. I was driving while Dad went over notes for his sermon, prayed, and took a brief nap.

We both woke up at the same time, as the minivan careened right, then bounced along the wide shoulder of the straight (and mercifully empty) Texas highway. 

Both of us were startled. 

No one was hurt...keep reading

PS Prayers needed for Alan Kurschner (Eschatos Ministries)

The Master's Seminary Journal Dec 2018

The latest Master's Seminary Journal can now be read HERE

Groaning for Glory

We are to groan for glorification, but we are to wait patiently for it, knowing that what the Lord appoints is best. Waiting implies being ready. We are to stand at the door expecting the Beloved to open it and take us away to Himself. This groaning is a test. You can learn a lot about a man by what he groans after. Some men groan after wealth - they worship money; some groan continually under the troubles of life - they are merely impatient. But the man who sighs after God, who is uneasy until he is made like Christ - that is the blessed man. May God help us to groan for the coming of the Lord and the resurrection that He will bring us. ~ Charles Spurgeon (Morning & Evening, Edited by Alistair Begg)

Telos Theological Ministries' Videos on the Resurrection:

01 – Resurrection in the Ancient World

02 – The Resurrection of Jesus

03 – Further Explanation of Christ’s Resurrection

04 – Jesus’ Resurrected Body

05 – Jesus’ Resurrected Body and the Renewal of Creation

On Facebook "Discussions"

I should begin my rant by pointing out that I've been an admin for several Facebook groups over the years. One of them was David Reagan's Christ in Prophecy. Since then, and most recently, I've tried very hard to reduce my Facebook footprint, with very limited success.

My stint at CiP involved sorting out arguments and trying to make peace - not always successfully. There was always someone who'd ask that apparently innocuous (yet tricky) question. Often it was an excuse to unload on people. They weren't always easy to spot and were often asked by proponents of cults like Seventh-day Adventists, or Young and Restless Amils and non-pretribbers.

The debates didn't have to be about eschatology. Someone would post something about Genesis or the "real" location of the Old Temple etc. They'd make some comment about "iron sharpening iron." Frequently you'd find they'd bought into whatever they posted and didn't want to "sharpen iron." They really wanted to enlighten the less-informed. If challenged or contradicted, they'd often spit the dummy and cry foul.

More recently I was conscripted into another Facebook group and started getting the feeds. Last week someone posted a long comment - actually it was a 900 plus word essay - inviting discussion regarding whether creation really occurred in 6 days, or longer periods. Not only was there nothing new in his epic polemic but he managed to employ the words "hogwash" and lame" of the 6 day position. I read part of it out to my wife. She forbade me to go there.

Anyone who spends time to spin out 900 word comments has to be pretty dedicated. My eyes tend to glaze over after 300. And what an inviting way to encourage a sharpening discussion - just call the other view hogwash. When the guy was ignored he churned out a long complaint - it was a pity people didn't get more involved and that no one bothered responding. But he wasn't offended, not really. Someone finally engaged him and he quickly churned out another 940 word saga.

Don't be that person everyone tries to avoid at parties. Personally I don't like parties so I'm safe to be that person. And yes, my wife thinks my articles are way too long.

Luke 24 and the Christological Hermeneutic

Matt Waymeyer:

In Luke 24, the resurrected Jesus engaged in a fascinating conversation with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. During this dialogue, “beginning with Moses, and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). Later, Jesus told the Eleven that “all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44).

For many today who believe that the Old Testament must be read in light of the New Testament, these verses in Luke 24 justify a “Christological Hermeneutic” for interpreting the Hebrew Bible. For some, this means a full-blown allegorical method of interpretation that sees pictures of Jesus and His work of redemption hidden throughout the Old Testament...keep reading