Monthly Archives: August 2015

I love the Valley of the Sun

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I first visited the Phoenix area on a ministry trip back in October of 1987 and was very much drawn to the rugged and raw beauty all around. Moving out to Arizona (from England) back in September 1992, the Valley of the Sun has been my home since March, 1993. I love the place and the people.

High schooler, Michael Heiland put this outstanding time lapse video together as a six month school project.

The Valley from Michael Heiland on Vimeo.

As I watch the video, I am reminded of the Scripture in Acts 18. Verses 8-11 read, “And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Commenting on this phrase “I have many in this city who are my people” (verse 10), C. H. Spurgeon writes, “They are Christ’s property, and yet perhaps (right now) they are lovers of selfish pleasures and haters of holiness; but if Jesus Christ purchased them, He will have them. God is not unfaithful to forget the price that His Son has paid. He will not suffer His substitution to be in any case an ineffectual, dead thing. Tens of thousands of redeemed ones are not regenerated yet, but regenerated they must be; and this is our comfort when we go to them with the quickening Word of God.”

What was true for the ancient city in Paul’s day is no doubt true of Greater Phoenix in our own. Surely, the Lord has many in this city who are His people. That is why I stay, pray, preach and teach, reaching out to the people here, knowing that God has ordained to use means to achieve His ends – the rounding up of His precious sheep. The cry of my heart is, “O Lord, help me play my part in seeing them brought safely home to You.”

Calvinist Baptists are not new

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At the desiring god blog site Thomas S. Kidd early Baptist historian John Asplund estimated that there were 1,032 Baptist churches in America. Out of those, 956 were Calvinist congregations. These were “Particular Baptists,” for they believed in a definite atonement (or “particular redemption”), that Christ had died to save the elect decisively. “General Baptists,” who believed that Christ had died indefinitely for the sins of anyone who would choose him, accounted for a tiny fraction of the whole. Even some of those, Asplund noted, believed in certain Calvinist tenets such as “perseverance in grace.”

How did this preponderance of Baptist Calvinists come about? Both Calvinist and Arminian (General) Baptists had existed in the American colonies since the early 1600s. But the Great Awakening of the 1740s, the most profound religious and cultural upheaval in colonial America, wrecked the General Baptist movement, and birthed a whole new type of Calvinist Baptist — the “Separate Baptists.”

A New Kind of Calvinist

The Separate Baptists of New England were typically people who had been converted during the Great Awakening, often under the itinerant preaching of (Calvinist) George Whitefield or other zealous evangelicals. The Separate Baptists were almost uniformly Calvinist in their convictions, as were the pastors who led America’s Great Awakening (like Jonathan Edwards). The converts often discovered that their own churches and pastors were not supportive of the revivals, so they started meeting in “Separate” churches.

But doing so was illegal. New England’s colonial governments prohibited the creation of unauthorized congregations, and Separates fell under persecution. Some of the Separates — already among the most radical-minded evangelicals — also took a second look at the Congregationalists’ stance on infant baptism, and found it lacking biblical justification. Continue reading →

Looking Ahead

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Upcoming Ministry:

2015

1. Sovereign Grace Bible Church Phoenix Conference 2015, Friday October 16 – Saturday October 17. Pastor John is one of a number of speakers on the theme of “Spiritual Warfare.”

2016

2. Reformed Bible Conference in Globe, Arizona – Saturday, March 12, 2016 –– Guest speakers are John Samson and Dennis Gundersen (head of Grace and Truth books). The theme – “Grace Conquers All – The way out of heresy and depression.”

3. Grace Covenant Church Summer Family Camp, Sedona, AZ – Friday, July 22 – Sunday, July 24, 2016. John Samson is the speaker, ministering 4 times.

The Sovereignty of God

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Justin Taylor writes:

Charles Spurgeon:

I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—

that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens—

that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses.

The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—

the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.

Does Scripture really teach this? I believe the answer is yes. Here is just a tiny sampling:

God Is Sovereign Over . . .

Seemingly random things:

The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the LORD.
(Proverbs 16:33)

The heart of the most powerful person in the land:

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
he turns it wherever he will.
(Proverbs 21:1)
Our daily lives and plans:

A man’s steps are from the LORD;
how then can man understand his way?
(Proverbs 20:24)

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
(Proverbs 19:21)

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. . . . Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
(James 4:13-15)

Salvation:

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
(Romans 9:15-16)

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
(Acts 13:48)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
(Romans 8:29-30)

Life and death:

See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
(Deuteronomy 32:39)

The LORD kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
(1 Samuel 12:6)

Disabilities:

Then the LORD said to [Moses], “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”
(Exodus 4:11)

The death of God’s Son:

Jesus, [who was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
(Acts 2:23)

For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
(Acts 4:27-28)

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief. . . .
(Isaiah 53:10)

Evil things:

Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city,
unless the LORD has done it?
(Amos 3:6)

I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the LORD, who does all these things.
(Isaiah 45:7)

“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. . . . “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
(Job 1:21-22; 2:10)

[God] sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. . . . As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
(Psalm 105:17; Genesis 50:21)

All things:

[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will.
(Ephesians 1:11)

Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
(Psalm 115:3)

I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
(Job 42:2)

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”
(Daniel 4:35)

And since compatiblism is true, none of this contradicts the equally biblical teaching that Satan is “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4) and that human choices are genuine and significant.

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2015/07/22/just-how-sovereign-is-god/

The Reformed Doctrine of General Revelation

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What It Is and What It Isn’t by Keith Mathison

Original article starring Paul Newman, the warden utters one of the most memorable lines in film history when he says, in his deep southern drawl, “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” I am often reminded of this line when reading about or participating in discussions of the Reformed doctrine of general revelation – particularly when that discussion touches on contemporary debates about science and Scripture.

In one of the Q&A sessions at Ligonier’s 2012 National Conference, Dr. Sproul was asked his opinion on the age of the universe. His answer, which should be carefully listened to by all Christians who are involved in discussions of science and Scripture, may be viewed here. Because his answer was so helpful, Ligonier posted an eight-part blog series explaining the theological and hermeneutical basis for what Dr. Sproul said. At the heart of these blog posts was an attempt to outline the Reformed doctrine of general revelation.

Some, who are either not familiar with the traditional Reformed doctrine of general revelation or who disagree with the Reformed doctrine, have expressed concerns that it entails placing fallible scientific theories on the same level of authority with Scripture – or worse, on a higher level of authority. Such a concern stems from a failure to understand the Reformed doctrine of general revelation. This failure to understand may be the fault of Reformed Christians for not stating the doctrine clearly. It may be the fault of critics for not listening carefully. It may be the fault of both to one degree or another. In any case, what we have is a failure to communicate that is leading to serious misunderstanding and misrepresentation.

The purpose of this brief post is to explain what the traditional Reformed doctrine of general revelation is, and just as importantly, to explain what the traditional Reformed doctrine of general revelation is not.

What General Revelation Is

In order to understand the Reformed doctrine of general revelation, it is necessary first to have a clear grasp of what Reformed theology means by the term “revelation.” The word “revelation” simply refers to “revealing” or “unveiling.” In Reformed theology, it can refer to God’s act of communication to man or to the content of that communication.

Reformed theologians have also traditionally defined general revelation in contrast to special revelation. Article 2 of the Belgic Confession (on the means by which we know God) states the distinction in the following words: Continue reading →

The Reformed Approach to Science and Scripture

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Keith Matthison

“How old is the universe?”

During the second Question and Answers period at the Ligonier Ministries 2012 National Conference, the speakers were asked this question in connection with the ongoing debate between Christians who think the universe is less than 10, 000 years old and those who think it is much older. Dr. R.C. Sproul took about five minutes to answer the question, and what he said in that brief period of time should be heard by every Reformed Christian who is interested in this subject and by every Reformed Christian who is discussing and debating it.

Please take a few minutes to watch Dr. Sproul’s entire response.

Science, Scripture, and the Age of the Universe from Ligonier Ministries on Vimeo.

The importance of what Dr. Sproul says in this response lies in the fact that he reminds us of certain issues that are necessary to a proper approach to this question, issues that are routinely mishandled, neglected, or simply ignored. Dr. Sproul, for example, reminds us of the source of both general and special revelation, the difference between God’s revelation (general or special) and our interpretation of that revelation, and the fallibility of our interpretations of both kinds of revelation. In doing so, he reminds us of several aspects of a distinctively Reformed approach to questions of science and Scripture that have been largely forgotten in the debates of the last several decades. Continue reading →