Graham Kendrick shares some thoughts as a worship leader about the doctrine of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Access all areas! Sometimes we can lose the wonder and the awe of the fact that we can worship God at all – that we are welcomed into His presence. We must understand that our only access to be able to come before God is through Christ – The Worship Leader.
From the 2014 Semper Reformanda conference: “What Are Christians to Do In History?: John Knox, the British Reformation, and Oliver Cromwell” – Dr. Bruce Shortt
as Dr. Steven Lawson explains in a blog article at Ligonier:
William Tyndale (ca. 1494–1536) made an enormous contribution to the Reformation in England. Many would say that he made the contribution by translating the Bible into English and overseeing its publication. One biographer, Brian Edwards, states that not only was Tyndale “the heart of the Reformation in England,” he “was the Reformation in England” (Edwards, God’s Outlaw: The Story of William Tyndale and the English Bible [Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 1999], 170). Because of his powerful use of the English language in his Bible, this Reformer has been called “the father of modern English” (N. R. Needham, 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power, Part Three: Renaissance and Reformation [London: Grace Publications, 2004], 379).
John Foxe went so far as to call him “the Apostle of England” (John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2000], 114). There is no doubt that by his monumental work, Tyndale changed the course of English history and Western civilization.
Tyndale was born sometime in the early 1490s, most likely in 1494, in Gloucestershire, in rural western England. The Tyndales were an industrious and important family of well-to-do yeoman farmers, having the means to send William to Oxford University. In 1506, William, age twelve, entered Magdalen School, the equivalent of a preparatory grammar school located inside Magdalen College at Oxford. After two years at Magdalen School, Tyndale entered Magdalen College, where he learned grammar, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy. He also made rapid progress in languages under the finest classical scholars in England. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1512 and a master’s degree in 1515. Before leaving Oxford, Tyndale was ordained into the priesthood.
Cambridge and the White Horse Inn
Tyndale next went to study at Cambridge University, where it is believed he took a degree. Many of Martin Luther’s works were being circulated among the instructors and students, creating great excitement on the campus. In this environment, Tyndale embraced the core truths of the Protestant movement. Continue reading
Heinrich Bullinger, and John Calvin, the most important early Reformer was Ulrich Zwingli. A first-generation Reformer, he is regarded as the founder of Swiss Protestantism. Furthermore, history remembers him as the first Reformed theologian. Though Calvin would later surpass Zwingli as a theologian, he would stand squarely on Zwingli’s broad shoulders.
Less than two months after Luther came into the world, Zwingli was born on January 1, 1484, in Wildhaus, a small village in the eastern part of modern-day Switzerland, forty miles from Zurich. His father, Ulrich Sr., had risen from peasant stock to become an upper-middle-class man of means, a successful farmer and shepherd, as well as the chief magistrate for the district. This prosperity allowed him to provide his son with an excellent education. He presided over a home where typical Swiss values were inculcated in young Ulrich: sturdy independence, strong patriotism, zeal for religion, and real interest in scholarship.
The elder Ulrich early recognized the intellectual abilities of his son and sent him to his uncle, a former priest, to learn reading and writing. Thanks to his prosperity, Zwingli’s father was able to provide his son with further education. In 1494, he sent the ten-year-old Ulrich to the equivalent of high school at Basel, where he studied Latin, dialectic, and music. He made such rapid progress that his father transferred him to Berne in 1496 or 1497, where he continued his studies under a noted humanist, Heinrich Woeflin. Here Zwingli was given significant exposure to the ideas and Scholastic methods of the Renaissance. His talents were noted by the Dominican monks, who tried to recruit him to their order, but Zwingli’s father did not want his son to become a friar.
Universities of Vienna and Basel
In 1498, Zwingli’s father sent him to the University of Vienna, which had become a center of classical learning as Scholasticism was displaced by humanist studies. There he studied philosophy, astronomy, physics, and ancient classics. In 1502, he enrolled at the University of Basel and received a fine humanist education. In class, he came under the influence of Thomas Wyttenbach, professor of theology, and began to be aware of abuses in the church. He also taught Latin as he pursued further classical studies. He received his bachelor’s (1504) and master’s (1506) degrees from the school. Continue reading
At the Ligonier blog, Steven Lawson the one God first used to spark a transformation of Christianity and the Western world. He was the undisputed leader of the German Reformation. In a day of ecclesiastical corruptions and apostasies, he was a valiant champion of the truth; his powerful preaching and pen helped to restore the pure gospel. More books have been written about him than any other man of history except Jesus Christ and possibly Augustine.
Luther came from hard-working stock. He was born in the little town of Eisleben, Germany, on November 10, 1483. His father, Hans, was a copper miner who eventually gained some wealth from a shared interest in mines, smelters, and other business ventures. His mother was pious but religiously superstitious. Luther was raised under the strict disciplines of the Roman Catholic Church and was groomed by his industrious father to be a successful lawyer. To this end, he pursued an education at Eisenach (1498–1501) and then at the University of Erfurt in philosophy. At the latter, he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1502 and a master of arts degree in 1505.
Luther’s life took an unexpected turn in July 1505, when he was twenty-one. He was caught in a severe thunderstorm and knocked to the ground by a nearby lightning strike. Terrified, he cried out to the Catholic patroness of miners, “Help me, St. Anna, and I will become a monk.” Luther survived the storm and made good on his dramatic vow. Two weeks later, he entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt. His father was furious over Luther’s apparent wasted education, but Luther was determined to follow through on his vow.
Lost in Self-Righteousness
In the monastery, Luther was driven to find acceptance with God through works. He wrote: “I tortured myself with prayer, fasting, vigils and freezing; the frost alone might have killed me… . What else did I seek by doing this but God, who was supposed to note my strict observance of the monastic order and my austere life? I constantly walked in a dream and lived in real idolatry, for I did not believe in Christ: I regarded Him only as a severe and terrible Judge portrayed as seated on a rainbow” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 24, eds. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann [St. Louis: Concordia, 2002], 62). Elsewhere he recalled: “When I was a monk, I wearied myself greatly for almost fifteen years with the daily sacrifice, tortured myself with fastings, vigils, prayers, and other very rigorous works. I earnestly thought to acquire righteousness by my works” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 12, 273).
In 1507, Luther was ordained to the priesthood. When he celebrated his first Mass, as he held the bread and cup for the first time, he was so awestruck at the thought of transubstantiation that he almost fainted. “I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken,” he confessed. “I thought to myself, “Who am I that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine majesty? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin, and I am speaking to the living, eternal and true God’” (Luther, cited in Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995], 238). Fear only compounded his personal struggle for acceptance with God. Continue reading
Reformed Theological Seminary Orlando gathered to hear renowned preacher Dr. John Piper deliver the Inaugural Spurgeon Lecture on Wednesday, April 10, 2013.
The Life and Ministry of Charles Spurgeon with John Piper – April 10, 2013 from RTS Orlando on Vimeo.
Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, delivered the second annual Spurgeon Lecture at the Nicole Institute for Baptist Studies at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando (March 10, 2014), setting C. H. Spurgeon within his intellectual and cultural context:
Spurgeon Lecture with Albert Mohler – March 10, 2014 from RTS Orlando on Vimeo.
Dr. William Lane Craig answers the Jesus-mythers who deny the existence of the historical Jesus (original source found the man?
There exists not a single contemporary reference to such a character. Not a single genuine artifact. Nothing to substantiate that he ever walked the earth.
We don’t even really have any evidence that those particular individuals – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – actually lived.
He leaves no trace in the historical record.
There is absolutely no historical evidence that Jesus existed, period. Not a single person wrote a single word about him in the time he supposedly lived. Not a single painting. Not a single artifact. He didn’t write anything himself down.
Kevin Harris: Dr. Craig, we are taking a look at something that is making the rounds and haunting the blogosphere, and that is that Jesus never existed. One of the articles that is often quoted on this is from Valerie Tarico who writes for AlterNet – “5 Reasons to Suspect Jesus Never Existed.”[1] The leading headline is “A growing number of scholars are openly questioning or actively arguing against Jesus’ historicity.” This is from September 1, 2014.
Dr. Craig: My initial response to that claim is that if the number grew from 0 to 1 then it might be true to say a growing number of scholars doubts Jesus’ existence. The trouble is, when you read the article, this is one of those things that you just have to roll your eyes at. It hasn’t even increased from 0 to 1. It is still 0. The people that she talks about in this article are people like David Fitzgerald who has written a new sensationalist book on Jesus. He is no scholar. His best credentials is that he has a degree in history from Fresno State, and that may well be a B.A. He is an atheist activist and speaker. So the fact of the matter is that there are no scholars who deny that Jesus of Nazareth existed. People like Robert Price and Richard Carrier that are named in the article do not hold professorships at academic institutions or read papers at scholarly societies or publish with academic presses. There aren’t any bona fide scholars that hold to this extreme and, frankly, silly view.
Kevin Harris: It really is a ridiculous notion. Talk about sensationalist. I would hate to besmirch people’s motivations, but if you say something sensational like this you do get invited on a lot of talk shows and it could help your book.
Dr. Craig: Yes, it is the old man-bites-dog notion. That’s what makes the news.
Kevin Harris: Fitzgerald says that he wanted to correct the errors in the Zeitgeist movie that gave the mythic background and tried to eradicate the existence of Jesus and show “young people interesting, accessible information that is grounded in accountable scholarship.”
Dr. Craig: Even he acknowledges that things like that Zeitgeist movie are irresponsible and inaccurate.
Kevin Harris: It still makes the round, so I’m glad at least there he is saying, “Come on.”
Dr. Craig: So he backs away from that but then continues to make claims just as extreme in the sense that he thinks Jesus never existed and that it is to be explained in some way mythologically, which Valerie never goes into in this article. She never actually gives what their positive account is of how all of this evidence for Jesus of Nazareth came to be if there never was such a person. The article is completely negative in offering what they think are reasons to doubt Jesus existed. Continue reading
Here are two resource articles answering the claims of Jehovah’s Witnesses that Jesus died on a stake rather than a cross:
1. An article by Bill Mounce entitled “Did Jesus hang on a pole?”
2. I would not normally point to anything at Catholic Answers (and am hesitant to do so now) but I believe the research and arguments made here in this particular article by Trent Horn is sound.
I beg to differ. Often times it takes precisely “a revelation from the Holy Spirit” to see that I have failed. All of us (I trust I’m not alone in this) are prone to self-deception. It is all too easy for us to drift from the path of righteousness and convince ourselves that we are doing God’s will. We are prone to self-justification, self-righteousness, and often are blind to the clear teaching of Scripture. Beware of self-delusion. The “conviction” for which I will argue below is the work of the Spirit in awakening me to the ways in which I have sinned and restoring me to the path of righteous living.
Now, back to my main point. The man whom I quote above then points to Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 where the apostle tells us that Scripture has for one of its purposes our “training in righteousness.” This he says “is believing that you have been justified or made righteous by faith in our Lord Jesus.” The only way God “corrects” us is by reminding us that we are already righteous in Christ. To be trained in righteousness, he contends, is to learn how to look backwards at your justification by faith in Christ. But Paul clearly is describing something that is yet future in our lives. We are instructed by God’s Word and empowered by the Holy Spirit to learn how to live righteous lives day in and day out. We are trained to say no to the passions of the flesh and yes to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the commands of the NT.
Again, he says:
“The bottom line is that the Holy Spirit never convicts you of your sins. He NEVER comes to point out your faults. I challenge you to find a scripture in the Bible that the Holy Spirit comes to convict you of your sins.”
Advocates of this view argue that the only verse where the Spirit is said to “convict” someone of sins refers to non-believers (John 16:8). Undoubtedly it is true that John 16:8 is describing what the Spirit does among and in unbelievers. But that hardly settles the issue.
The reason they give for this is that God has already fully and finally forgiven us of all our sins, so why would the Holy Spirit continue to remind us of them or bring to our hearts a sense of guilt for having committed them. But conviction is not condemnation. The purpose of conviction is to lovingly awaken us to where we have strayed and to restore us to vibrancy and joy in our walk with Christ.
Are these individuals correct? Does the NT teach that the Holy Spirit never convicts a Christian of his/her sins? No.
I may be wrong, but I get the sense that they draw their conclusions based on what they find in their English translations of the NT rather than on the Greek text. Perhaps what has happened is that they looked through a variety of English translations and discovered that the word “convict” nowhere else appears with reference to what the Holy Spirit does in the lives of believers. Does this settle the matter? Hardly.
The word in John 16:8 translated “convict” is elencho. We find it in several other NT texts that describe how the Spirit uses the Scriptures and the ministry of other believers. Here are some examples.
“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove [2nd person plural, aorist active imperative of elencho], rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2). We could just as easily have translated this, “convict, rebuke, and exhort.”
“This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke [2nd person singular, present active imperative of elencho] them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:13). Again, this could easily have been translated by the word “convict”.
“Declare these things; exhort and rebuke [2nd person singular, present active imperative of elencho] with all authority. Let no one disregard you” (Titus 2:15).
“But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted [a participial form of elencho] by the law as transgressors” (James 2:9). Here James is addressing Christians who are discriminating in the church based on socio-economic factors.
Perhaps the advocates of Hyper-Grace would respond by saying that in none of these texts is it explicitly the Holy Spirit who does the work of conviction in our hearts. But it is the Holy Spirit who inspired these very biblical texts and who fills and energizes the preacher/teacher who is called upon to “reprove” or “convict” everyone by the application of such texts to their lives. Surely if it were out of line for the Holy Spirit to bring conviction it would be equally inappropriate for Christian ministers to do so who operate at his urging and under his influence.
Of course, there are still other texts where it is specifically said to be God who brings conviction.
“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved [participial form of elencho] by him’” (Heb. 12:5).
“Those whom I love, I reprove [1st person, present active indicative of elencho] and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19).
This final text in Revelation 3 is especially important because it ties the Lord’s work of bringing conviction to our hearts to the love that he has for us!
In summary, it is, of course, quite true that the Holy Spirit never “condemns” a Christian for his/her sins. That condemnation has been endured and exhausted by Jesus. As Paul says in Romans 8:1, there is therefore now “no condemnation” for those in Christ Jesus. Praise God for that. But the Holy Spirit most assuredly does “convict” us or “reprove” us or “rebuke” us or bring to our minds and hearts the realization of the ways in which we have disobeyed and fallen short of God’s revealed will.