Many of you know of Dr. James White and his ministry at aomin.org. He is a well known Christian author and apologist, as well as an elder at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. He is also the busiest man I know. I am profoundly thankful for his ministry and count him as my friend. Here’s something of his personal story:
When it comes to how we preach when unbelievers are present to hear us (which I assume is any time we preach), there is a big difference between the approach of Ken Ham (of Answers in Genesis) and that of well known pastor, Andy Stanley (son of Charles Stanley).
For the record, I am 100% with Ken Ham on this.
Ken Ham:
Last week as I was giving a presentation I said, ‘In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul said….”. Then I stopped myself and said I wanted to reword this because of shocking trend I see in the church. I see more and more people looking on the Bible as just the word of humans–but it is not! As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 “…you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”
So I reworded my statement to make the point this way–“God, through Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:3 instructed us that…”
I had a few people comment to me about this because they are also noticing that increasing numbers of Christian academics/church leaders treat the Bible as if it is just the fallible words of men the somehow contain some ‘truth’ about God!
When I read this Christian Post article I’ve linked to, this reinforced for me that this is a problem in the church. I always warn that news articles don’t always give accurate accounts–though the Christian Post in the past has given quite accurate accounts of interviews with me etc.
We are waiting on the videos to become available so we can watch this particularly presentation by Andy Stanley for ourselves. But the way it is written here makes me very concerned indeed.
I am reminded of God’s Word in Luke 16:31–“But he said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
And God’s Word in Luke 24:27 concerning Jesus: “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
We also need to remember : “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
And also: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
I do give a talk that a Christian cannot give up our starting point of God’s Word when witnessing to non-Christians. There are only two starting points–God’s Word or Man’s Word. (Light or Darkness; For or Against Christ). There is no neutral position. When one gives up God’s Word as the starting point, then one has already lost the argument.
And we also need to remember that the ONLY INFALLIBLE RELIABLE WITNESS WE CAN TRUST IS GOD! And yes–He was a witness to the creation of Adam and Eve!
It is because increasing generations do not believe the history in Genesis concerning a literal Adam and Eve and a literal Fall that they do not understand what sin is, that they are sinners (as we are all descendants of Adam) and that is why God’s Son stepped into history to become our relative to pay the penalty for our sin. The gospel message comes from God’s Word and is rooted in the history concerning a literal first Adam and a literal “last Adam.”
Here’s the newspaper account of Andy Stanley’s message to pastors where he outlines his approach.
(1) Please be praying for the Sproul family. Shannon Macfarlane Sproul, daughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. and granddaughter of Dr. R.C. Sproul, went to be with the Lord on Wednesday. She was just fifteen years old. It was only a year or so ago that R.C. Sproul Jr. lost his wife to cancer. Update here.
(2) “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things; that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.” – John Newton (1725-1807)
(3) There’s a variety of resources in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale worth considering, especially the Alaskan Cruise extensive series on election (eleven 45 minute messages) and the doctrines of Grace in John series by Dr. Steven Lawson (both are downloads). Other resources include material on preaching, Jonathan Edwards, Islam, Nehemiah, worldviews, God’s holiness, missions, and joy. They can be found here.
(4) Update: There is currently a 50% discount available on my new book, direct from the publisher here in the USA, Solid Ground Christian Books. For those who wish to order 10 or more copies there is a 54% discount. Both deals can be found at this link.
(5) Excerpt from THE NECESSITY OF THE SPIRIT’S WORK, NO. 251, DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, MAY 8, 1859, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.
“And I will put My Spirit within you.” Ezekiel 36:27.
THE miracles of Christ are remarkable for one fact, namely that they are, none of them, unnecessary. The pretended miracles of Mohammed and of the Church of Rome, even if they were miracles, would have been pieces of folly! Suppose that Saint Denis had walked with his head in his hand after it had been cut off—what practical purpose would have been served thereby? He would certainly have been quite as well in his grave, for any practical good he would have conferred on men! The miracles of Christ were never unnecessary. They are not freaks of power. They are displays of power, it is true, but they, all of them, have a practical end. The same thing may be said of the promises of God. We have not one promise in the Scripture which may be regarded as a mere freak of Grace. As every miracle was necessary, absolutely necessary, so is every promise that is given in the Word of God! And hence from the text that is before us, I may draw and I think very conclusively, the argument that if God in His Covenant made with His people has promised to put His Spirit within them, it must be absolutely necessary that this promise was made and it must be absolutely necessary, also, to our salvation that each of us should receive the Spirit of God! This shall be the subject of this morning’s discourse. I shall not hope to make it very interesting, except to those who are anxiously longing to know the way of salvation.
We start, then, by laying down this proposition—that the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary to us, if we would be saved.
I. In endeavoring to prove this, I would first of all make the remark that this is very manifest if we remember what man is by nature. Some say that man may of himself attain unto salvation—that if he hears the Word, it is in his power to receive it, to believe it and to have a saving change worked in him by it. To this we reply—you do not know what man is by nature—otherwise you would never have ventured upon such an assertion! Holy Scripture tells us that man by nature is dead in trespasses and sins. It does not say that he is sick, that he is faint, that he has grown callous and hardened and seared—it says he is absolutely dead! Whatever that term, “death,” means in connection with the body, that it also means in connection with man’s soul—viewing it in its relation to spiritual things. When the body is dead, it is power- less; it is unable to do anything for itself. And when the soul of man is dead, in a spiritual sense, it must be, if there is any meaning in the figure, utterly and entirely powerless and unable to do anything of itself or for itself! When you shall see dead men raising themselves from their graves; when you shall see them unwinding their own sheets, opening their own coffin lids and walking down our streets alive and animate as the result of their own power—then, perhaps, you may believe that souls that are dead in sin may turn to God, recreate their own natures and make themselves heirs of Heaven, though before they were heirs of wrath! But mark, not till then. The drift of the Gospel is that man is dead in sin and that Divine Life is God’s gift. And you must go contrary to the whole of that drift before you can suppose a man brought to know and love Christ apart from the work of the Holy Spirit! The Spirit finds men as destitute of spiritual life as Ezekiel’s dry bones. He brings bone to bone and fits the skeleton together and then He comes from the four winds and breathes into the slain and they live and stand upon their feet—an exceedingly great army—and worship God! But apart from that, apart from the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God, men’s souls must lie in the valley of dry bones, dead and dead forever!
But Scripture does not only tell us that man is dead in sin; it tells us something worse than this, namely, that he is utterly and entirely averse to everything that is good and right. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither, indeed, can it be” (Rom 8:7). Turn all through Scripture and you find continually the will of man described as being contrary to the things of God. What did Christ say in that text so often quoted by the Arminian to disprove the very Doctrine which it clearly states? What did Christ say to those who imagined that men would come without Divine influence? He said, first, “No man can come unto Me except the Father which has sent Me draw him.” But He said something more strong—“You will not come unto Me that you might have life.” No man will come! Here lies the deadly mischief—not only that he is powerless to do good—but that he is powerful enough to do that which is wrong and that his will is desperately set against everything that is right! Go, Arminian, and tell your hearers that they will come if they please, but know that your Redeemer looks you in the face and tells you that you are uttering a lie! Men will not come! They never will come of themselves! You cannot persuade them to come! You cannot force them to come by all your thunders, nor can you entice them to come by all your invitations! They will not come to Christ, that they may have life! Until the Spirit draws them, they neither will come, nor can they!
Hence, then, from the fact that man’s nature is hostile to the Divine Spirit; that he hates Divine Grace; that he despises the way in which Grace is brought to him; that it is contrary to his own proud nature to stoop to receive salvation by the deeds of another—hence it is necessary that the Spirit of God should operate to change the will, to correct the bias of the heart, to set man in a right track and then give him.
HT: Thom Cole