Taste and See: An Invitation to Read the Bible

Men are renowned the world over as the best cooks yet quite the reverse of this notion holds true in Ghana where women, typically mothers, are regarded as the paragon of home and professional cooking. Thus it isn’t uncommon to hear many say that their mother is the best cook in the world especially so on Mothers’ Day, and this was the imagery that the cover image and title of the book TASTE AND SEE: AN INVITATION TO READ THE BIBLE, aroused in my mind piquing my enthusiasm to dig into the book right away!

The author, Annabel Robinson, in this small book calls for people who haven’t read the bible to give it a try and in my view, she does this brilliantly well. She employs twelve historical bible narratives (5 from the OT with 7 from the NT) and masterfully weaves a concise overview of God’s covenantal redemptive plan in clear and crisp language.

Very impressive also is the matter-of-fact tone she employs in the whole narrative very reminiscent of an impartial arbiter. This in my view portrays her as a credible author who means business and won’t toy with the reader’s sentiments. So for instance she says rather expectantly that “you will no doubt have lots of questions as you read this. You are meant to.” She then goes on to suggest that skeptic readers write down any boggling questions or better still discuss them with their Christian friends for answers assuring such ones that “God welcomes honest questions” yet issuing a helpful caveat that faith does not require that we know all the answers before we believe. This approach gives the book a very realistic feel which in my view is crucial if anyone wishes to reach a serious and thinking audience.

In addition to the above observation, the author also provides very helpful subsections under every chapter where she attempts to situate all the narratives in their proper contexts while suggesting several practical applications and offering useful how-tos on growing in the Christian faith.

However let me add that I did not find every part of the book agreeable and even more frustrating were portions that were too choppy for my liking. Anyway, I guess this may be due to the fact that I am already a Christian and somewhat familiar with the bible more than the targeted readers she has in mind. Yet I am convinced this ‘flaw’ is purposive and is meant to goad the skeptic reader to actually pick up the bible to ascertain for herself the veracity of the author’s claims and to embark on further research starting with the numerous article/book suggestions the author provides at the end of every chapter for further reading in which case I think is a brilliant strategy.

On the whole I would say (while utilizing the same analogy from the start) that Annabel, unlike your typical stereotype of a doting mother who treat her children with excessive indulgence thereby spoiling them rotten on sweets and other confectionery, in a motherly manner invites her readers to feast on the banquet of scripture which does not comprise only of sweets and cereals but a wholesome balance of not so tasty vegetables and other essentials that every good mother knows is critical to the healthy development of her children.

TASTE AND SEE is a good book and I recommend it to all.

The Reformed Faith by Loraine Boettner

In my short time of embracing Reformed Theology with its strong biblical emphasis, Loraine Boettner’s The Reformed Faith is one of the few books that I have found to clearly and concisely address this worldview. Not intended as an exhaustive treatise, Boettner dilates on some of the key tenets of the reformed faith (popularly known as Calvinism) while hinting at other topics in six brief chapters.

In the first chapter, the author deals with the attribute of God’s Sovereignty which he explains this way that “by virtue of the fact that God has created everything that exists, He is the absolute Owner and final Disposer of all that He has made.” Boettner further elaborates that “He [God] exerts not merely a general influence, but actually rules in the affairs of men. He appoints the course of nature and directs the course of history down to the minutest details. His decrees therefore are eternal, unchangeable, holy, wise and sovereign.”

This doctrine does not sit well with many professing Christians because they hold to an unfounded notion of man’s free-will which they regard as highly inviolable to the extent that even God must pander to it and can only interfere when permitted by man. Such a view of God is the product of man’s imagination in which puny man is elevated to the status of deity, inadvertently belittling the Almighty to the lowly levels of the creature. How very demeaning of God’s majesty! Yet Boettner faithfully depicts the biblical view of a sovereign God who “…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?” Dan.4:35ESV

In the second chapter, Boettner deals with man’s totally helpless condition as a consequence of the original sin. He notes with disappointment that the “first and perhaps most serious error [of Arminian writers] is that they do not give sufficient importance to the sinful rebellion and spiritual separation of the human race from God that occurred in the fall of Adam.” This is sadly true of the many who approach man’s grave sin problem as nothing more than a mere failure to achieve perfection or as missing the mark to enlightenment and hence only require some dose of positive motivational influence to reinstate him to the path of perfection. Is it any wonder then that a lot of pastors today are more of motivational speakers than shepherds?

Sadly, many pastors and teachers fail to highlight the intensity of man’s total depravity and his dire spiritual status as dead and utterly blind to God’s truth and thus in desperate need of a savior mainly because of their low view of man’s helplessness to please God. As Boettner noted, many even avoid the subject altogether as these do not actually believe it. Yet true to Reformed Theology, the author doesn’t downplay the gravity of the fall on mankind but aptly handles it in the light of God’s sovereignty making the gospel even more precious to the sinner!

In the third chapter, the author deals with the foreknowledge of God which many Arminians appeal to as basis for the election of the saints unto salvation yet these somehow fail to comprehend its corollary of divine foreordination, which they oddly reject. He skillfully dispels this false notion by displaying the inconsistencies and absurdities that will result if this belief were to be followed to its logical conclusion while at the same time making a cogent case for divine foreordination and foreknowledge which are really two sides of the same coin.

He goes on in the next chapter to address many of the biblical texts that seemingly lend support to a Universal Atonement by situating many of these texts in their proper context and which in the end gives credence to the Reformed doctrine of Definite Atonement. Contrasting the Reformed with the Arminian view, Boettner states that we “have to choose between an atonement of high efficiency which is perfectly accomplished, and an atonement of wide extension which is imperfectly accomplished” because “if we had both we would have universal salvation,” which idea is most disagreeable even from an Arminian perspective.

The final chapter summarizes the crux of the discourse using the traditional TULIP acrostic to concisely state the distinction between Reformed and Arminian Theology where T – Total Depravity, U – Unconditional Election, L – Limited Atonement, I – Irresistible Grace and P – Perseverance of the Saints.

This book is available for free online here at monergism.com which is a treasure trove of free Reformed Theology materials. I highly recommend this book to every Christian especially those unfamiliar with the distinctive of the Reformed faith as an excellent primer.

Indeed, Loraine Boettner is spot on in saying that “Christianity comes to its fullest and purest expression in Reformed Faith.”

Soli Deo Gloria!!!

Is That Worship Or Entertainment?

Today I got into a discussion with a brother on one of my pet topics. It was about the place of emotions in worship and my contention was and has always been that a lot of what we call “worship” in many of our churches these days (especially among Charismatics) is nothing of the sort but rather just plain emotional manipulation at worse or entertainment at best!

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not denying the involvement of our emotions in worship and quite frankly, it’s impossible to worship God without any form of emotional expressions. Christianity certainly isn’t an offshoot of ascetic Stoicism. Indeed, worship is properly an emotional response to the radiant beauty and splendid majesty of the perfections of God, yet it is not sentimental!

There is a proper place of emotions in our worship but it needs not be romanticised. It is true that the scriptures do exhort Christians to “love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength” but it doesn’t end there. It also enjoins us to love the Lord with all our minds and when one considers these qualities that we are to engage in our worship, one finds that they are not in isolation but do share some form of a cause-effect relationship. Just think about it.

One can only properly love what one knows and admires and this knowledge should incite one to do acts of love and service all borne out of the affections for one’s object of worship which affections is engendered by the knowledge of said object! Vincent Cheung aptly stated that “Worship does not first consist of our songs and postures, but of our thoughts regarding things of God.” Therefore, it is our conception of God’s attributes and perfections that inform the depth of our expressive devotions to him.

Unfortunately, a lot of what we call “worship service” these days is nothing more than a concert with a Christian theme where the singer’s aim is to satisfy the audience by giving their best performance while claiming all along that the whole gathering is about Jesus. If only that were true but it’s not! The songs sang at such gatherings may contain exclusively Christian lyrics yet these only serve as a façade to conceal the real purpose which is to entertain the audience.

It is not uncommon to find that at such shows, the venues are usually dimly lit with some having smoke on stage like a typical rock concert with the aim of giving the audience a kick akin to the emotional highs experienced by drug addicts. Is it any wonder then that the ads to such shows often contain such catchphrases like an “experience of a lifetime”? Like some sort of emotional therapy.

How can anyone truthfully call such an event “worship” when it is clear that the aim is for the audience (I wouldn’t even call them congregation) to enjoy themselves and not to venerate their Maker? It should be called “concerts” or “shows” as some are doing nowadays, and rightly so. It is a misnomer to call these shows “worship.”

Sometimes the organizers of these shows fail to live up to their hype often due to unexpected power outages (dumsor dumsor) or some other equipment malfunction or just very bad performance by the singer, the aftermath of which is endless complaints ( about not getting their money’s worth of satisfaction) from the audience saying, often in pidgin, “worship no be” or “I no feel am.” Such complaints betray their selfish motives and is nothing short of idolatry.

Understanding the beautiful gospel of a majestic God who sought a rebellious people at the cost of his beloved Son ought to give rise to a feeling of profound love and admiration, leading to an implicit devotion of this God which expresses itself in overwhelming gratitude through heartfelt singing and prayer and other joyous services all to his glory!

Now that is worship!!! 

Aren't We Seeking To Sanctify Our Greed?

The lack or near absence of expositional preaching in our churches gives a cause for concern. Week after week, many Christians are bombarded with all manner of fancy messages ranging from the sentimental to rhapsodic outbursts and to creepy fear mongering about witches and other adversaries in the spiritual realm.

As can be expected, many of these fancy beliefs usually lack any solid biblical basis but rests heavily on the dreams and visions of the man of God. Though some attempt to establish a link between these beliefs and the bible, such connections tend to be rather lose at best or a downright misreading and misinterpretation of the biblical text. Simply put, most of these so called ‘revelations’ are nothing but impressions (hopefully, godly ones, in which case they’re acceptable) or a product of their hyper active imaginations.

One can list a litany of reasons for this lack of expositional preaching where the pastor leads the congregation in the diligent study of the scriptures in their proper context while showing other possible practical applications for living arising from the study. Among the many reasons that can be cited for this unfortunate phenomenon is the increasing demand by the congregation to hear ‘nice things’ instead of the plain biblical truth. This unhealthy craving manifests itself in many forms depending on the demographic of the congregation among other factors.

For the polished and elitist Christians, this phenomenon usually takes the form of a motivational speech where the pastor is usually expected to unravel certain mysterious secrets of success which have eluded the common people for so long. Hence, the pastor’s major task is to help his congregation attain the pinnacle of their financial and economic achievements. The message delivery style is usually pompous with the aim of giving it a novel feel though in fact these ‘secrets’ are nothing more than a rehash of some elements of Eastern Mysticism given a little twist through the use of Christian terminology.

For the zealous and usually restless young Christians, the demand manifests itself in the form of spiritual warfare with the aim of attaining the status and comforts of the polished Christians. The delivery style of such message is usually akin to a harangue that incites an intense martial psyche in the congregation. Hence it is not uncommon to find such congregation all sweaty and busily engaged in very loud prayers with thunderous tongues amid firing of spiritual antiballistic missiles and bazookas aimed at their numerous enemies and the many unseen territorial and marine spirits. To such people prayer is literally a fight hence such titles as ‘prayer warriors.’

A lot more could be said but the upshot of the above is to show that many pastors today are being forced to pander to our unholy demand to satisfy our soulish desires thus turning them into sanctified con men, refusal of which will result in losing a majority of the congregation to the next church down the road.

Though this phenomenon isn’t entirely new it s nonetheless damnable! This attitude is typical of the Israelites when they sought an alliance with Egyptians against God’s orders. “They tell my prophets, “Shut up – we don’t want any more of your reports!” or they say, “Don’t tell us the truth; tell us nice things; tell us lies. Forget all this gloom; we’ve heard more than enough about your ‘Holy One of Israel’ and all he says.” Isa.30:10 – 11 TLB

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Such is the stubborn rebellion we are displaying in the sight of God as we are (unwittingly?) forcing our pastors to tickle our fancy! Doesn’t this attitude betray our lack of repentance showing how we (the congregation) may not be truly converted but are just seeking to use God and Christianity as a means to our selfish ends? Aren’t we only seeking to sanctify our greed?

Let us beware and repent of our soulish ways and set our affections on God lest we become like the people the scriptures warn about who “…go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear. They won’t listen to what the Bible says but will blithely follow their own misguided ideas.” 2Tim.4:3 – 4 TLB. We ought also to pray for our pastors for the boldness to proclaim God’s unadulterated truth unashamedly at all times especially at the threat of loss and intense persecution.

Ten Indictments Against The Modern Church

In Paul Washer’s Ten Indictments Against The Modern Church, Washer lays out ten markers of a pernicious malaise plaguing the modern church. In this book one comes face to face with some hard diagnosis that rings too close to home.

Washer examines such pertinent issues as The Denial of the Sufficiency of Scripture, An Ignorance of God, A Failure to Address Man’s Malady among others in a sermonic format that adds to the confrontational forcefulness of the truths expounded in this small book.

The author decries how many in the modern church are undermining the absolute authority and sufficiency of the scriptures for faith and life by resorting to psychology and social culture for possible solutions to what they often perceive as problems too big for the church to adequately handle. Such people unwittingly render the scriptures merely supplementary to life and faith thus tends only to approach it in addition to sociology or anthropology or some other clever schemes and traditions of men. So in effect, the author notes that “it does little good for men to cry out for extra-biblical manifestations when biblical principle is violated all around us.”

The violation of these biblical truths and the eager quest of many for illegitimate religious experiences, the author observes, are often due to a lack of knowledge of the God who is. Many carry an erroneous belief of a God who is akin to a cosmic Santa Clause whose sole desire is to dote on his children by showering countless goodies on them at their every request so long as they remain good boys and girls. He warns then that, “There can be no fear of the Lord among us, because there is no knowledge of the Lord among us!” So many are caught between the notion of the God they want and the God who is simply because of ignorance of the true nature and attributes of the God who is!

Perhaps, the most shocking portion of the entire book for me was his treatment of what he titled An Unbiblical Gospel Invitation where he deals with the dangers of Decisionism and the Sinner’s Prayer saying among other things that, “The sinner’s prayer has sent more people to hell than anything on the face of the earth.” He defends this rather outlandish position saying, “Men today are trusting in the fact that at least one time in their life they prayed a prayer and someone told them they were saved because they were sincere enough.” I totally agree with this assertion. Instead of examining the presence of the fruits of the spirit in our lives in keeping with our salvation, many rely on the memory of a decision they once made as proof of their salvation while wallowing unrepentantly in sin. The modern church must repent of this sin of formulaic salvation that is so prevalent today.

Amid all the dreary diagnostics the author highlights, one would have expected a backlash of the culprits peddling these falsehoods yet the author graciously avoids all overcritical language and instead adopts a firm yet reassuring pastoral admonishing and compassionate appeals for repentance with an obvious aim to restore who or what has gone wayward. This is highly commendable of the author as it is a very godly and biblical approach!

In the end, he appeals to his fellow pastors and elders from the scriptures to “take heed unto thyself and thy doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.” He further urges them to have “courage to change everything, even if it is the last day of your life.”

Though this book isn’t entirely new (originally a sermon preached on October 22, 2008 at the Revival Conference in Atlanta, Georgia and can be heard at www.tenindictments.com), its message is timely and if heeded will serve as a good guide for godly stewardship for pastors and elders for all time. This book is available for free online and I highly recommended it to all especially church leaders. 

Ogyacious Christians!

One of the most popular words in the christianese lingo is ‘spiritual’. Its usage is especially common among Charismatic Christians who employ this term to depict one who exhibits certain quaint characteristics deemed to be quintessentially Christian. It would be fair to say the term is also used to denote a standard (which presumably for the Christian is Jesus Christ) or a scale of measuring one’s growth and level of maturity.

Usually, one relies on certain outward characteristics to determine if another is a spiritual Christian. Some of these features include adopting certain intonations and voice inflections (preferably a deep baritone) during and especially at corporate prayer sessions with a peculiar way of pronouncing words (usually very loudly) in a manner very reminiscent of attempting to speak with a severe chili-peppery burning sensation in the mouth, the resultant effect being that, certain words like ‘spirit’ are pronounced “shpirit” (emphasis on the SH) and ‘Jesus’ pronounced “Jai-sus”. I dare say that it has even become an unwritten yet enshrined criteria for a prospective prayer head/leader to posses such words abundantly in their repertoire of christianese diction if they are to be successful in certain charismatic circles as prayer heads.

Another of these quaint features of a ‘spiritual’ Christian is their odd fashion sense – or lack thereof. Hardly would one find a typically ‘spiritual’ Christian brother dressed down. They are usually spotted in oversized long sleeved shirts over black trousers regardless of the occasion with their favorite shirt colour being light (or is it faded?) blue. And for the sisters, rarely would one see them wearing makeup. They usually settle for drab coloured tops over maxi skirts. Simply put ‘spiritual’ Christians are typically unfashionable and often purposely so. I must state though that this trend is fast changing. Nowadays, many pastors wear fancy suits and other expensive designer attires.

However caricatural my depiction of a ‘spiritual’ Christian may be, that is the notion one gets especially when such are referred to in the local parlance by the term “ogyacious”. It leaves me wondering, who is a ‘spiritual’ Christian anyway? Indeed, what does it even mean to be spiritual?

Is one spiritual because one attends church meetings every Sunday? Does habitual praying and bible study make one spiritual? Or does rote recital of memory verses and in-depth bible knowledge make one spiritual? Whichever it may be, one can be certain that being spiritual isn’t synonymous with being religious thus the term isn’t exclusive to Christianity. Freethinkers and New Agers also employ the term thus it is not uncommon to hear Yoga and Transcendental Meditation practitioner describe themselves as ‘spiritual’ because they claim through these activities, they get in touch with their inner and higher non-physical self or some other non-material being.

In the context of Christianity, however, the word can be found in many places in the bible including 1 Corinthians 3:1 where “spiritual” is used in the sense of one who is mature in the Lord, as opposed to one who acts less responsibly i.e. a “babe”. The same sense of maturity is employed in Galatians 6:1 where the spiritually matured brethren are admonished to gently restore an offending brother.

From the above, it can be concluded that a spiritual Christian is one who by dint of obedience to God’s word has developed and reached a high level of maturity. Let us cast off any affected notion of who a spiritual Christian is because it only breeds hypocrisy and sin.

SDG!

Pursuing God's Will...Really?

I am a Christian. I believe in the existence of a sovereign God who rules in the affairs of men for his good pleasure. The very idea of sovereignty presupposes that it is only what God has decisively planned that shall come to pass. However, no man exhaustively knows what God has specifically planed to do in any and every situation. Indeed many are cavalier about the whole concept with even fewer bothering to ascertain what this will is but only gets to find out after it has occurred. But this is not so with the children of God who are eager to please their Father in all they do so it is not uncommon to hear Christians asking, among others, such questions like: What is God’s will for my life? What is God’s will concerning my prospective spouse? What is God’s will concerning my job?

The frequency of this concern expressed in these musings suggests that finding the will of God is deemed very crucial or at least that is the notion I get. So in perusing this issue, I will be asking a series of questions and proffering my answer(s) to them in the hope of clarifying the matter. Here I go!

Firstly, are we even supposed to know what God’s specific will for our lives is? I can imagine this question will take many aback because the very idea of seeking God’s will is so ingrained in us that it is taken for granted. So much so that, right from the word go, we set out to find what this will is without even bothering to establish if it is even permissible to know it in the first place. My answer is NO; we are not to ALWAYS know God’s specific will in every situation. Attempting to peek into one’s future is nothing short of soothsaying and is tantamount to prying into God’s privacy which exposes our discontent and distrust of him and that is a definite no-no!

Secondly, and following from the above, how then does one pursue what one does not (and indeed isn’t supposed to) know? Isn’t the whole exercise then rendered pointless? Not quite! God has given us his precepts defining our code of conduct and moral obligations. Even though these revealed precepts do not provide what would have been desirable specificities, they serve as guidelines giving us a fair idea of what is ultimately God’s will in any situation. Therefore continuous and consistent obedience to these precepts will most assuredly land us in God’s intended end in all situations.

Thirdly, can we ever miss God’s will? No we cannot! The very idea of sovereignty implies God has the right to do as he pleases and in fact always does what he pleases without failing so he will always see to it that his will is accomplished in our lives. Some Christians have an unfounded suspicion that it is possible to miss God’s ‘perfect’ will only to settle for his ‘second best’. Not only is this idea unscriptural but is also unconvincing. To miss God’s will implies that God is neither sovereign nor almighty to accomplish his desires. It will also imply God has failed at something which idea is very unorthodox and heretical. Again, claiming to know God’s ‘second best’ implies one has an exhaustive knowledge of God’s will yet we know that to be impossible unless one were actually claiming divine omniscience (which no man possesses). Simply put, saying that one can miss God’s will suggests God lacks the power or forcefulness to accomplish his desire. That doesn’t paint a picture of a mighty God does it? And who would want to trust such a deity? Certainly not me!

Isn’t it absurd then to want to pursue God’s will? Why pursue what one cannot miss? It is undeniable that God’s will shall always done. To put it bluntly, one cannot not do God’s will because God is absolutely sovereign over all. Yet this truth does not warrant a nonchalant attitude on our part because God not only determines his desired ends but also the very means to attaining those ends! Thus an active (dis)obedience of his precepts simultaneously work to the attainment of his desired ends! Some may wonder, does it then mean no one is culpable for their (in)actions? We certainly are; for how else can we call those actions “ours”? How about the notion that the inevitability of God’s will makes us nothing more than puppets in his hands? To answer this, I wonder which puppets can exercise their volition (do puppets even possess this?) to (dis)obey a command?

I realize this topic isn’t one to trifle with and I will be deluding myself if I were to claim to have figured it all out. But this one thing I know for certain that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.”(Westminster Shorter Catechism)