IS YOUR LOCAL CHURCH FEEDING SHEEP or ENTERTAINING GOATS?
By Dr. Daniel B. Wallace
Editor’s note: church advertisements, all claiming to be “evangelical,” here in the Valley of the Sun, made me wonder if their services are an evangelical version of Saturday Night Live! I thought Jesus said, “Feed my sheep,” not entertain them. The following quote by Daniel B. Wallace, Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary, is telling.
Even with the proliferation of Bibles today, Christians are reading their Bibles less and less. I believe the evangelical church has only fifty years of life left. Fifty years left of evangelicalism because of marginalization of the Word of God. We need another Reformation!
The enemy of the gospel is not religious hierarchy but moral anarchy, not tradition but entertainment. The enemy of the gospel is Protestantism run amuck; it is an anti-intellectual, anti-knowledge, feel-good faith that has no content and no convictions.
Part of the communal repentance that is needed is a repentance about the text. And even more importantly, there must be repentance with regard to Jesus Christ our Lord. Just as the Bible has been marginalized, Jesus Christ has been ‘buddyized.’ His transcendence and majesty are only winked at, as we turn Him into the genie in the bottle, beseech God for more conveniences, more luxury, less hassle, and a life without worries or lack of comfort. He no longer wears the face that the apostles recognized.
The point is worth underscoring: The God we worship today no longer resembles the God of the Bible. Unless we return to Him through a reading and digesting of the Scriptures through a commitment to the text, the evangelical church will become irrelevant, useless, dead.
-Dr. Daniel B. Wallace
Staley Bible Lectureship, Lancaster Bible College, March, 2001
New Testament Concepts of Biblical Faith
By Ron Merryman
- Faith is the human response that God/Christ expects from His person, His word, His promises.
Heb.11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
- Faith is initiated by hearing God’s message (the Gospel).
Rom. 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing (lit. “the thing heard”), and hearing (lit., “the thing heard,”) by the word of God.
Gal. 3:2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Eph. 1:13 in Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Note the chronological order of the verbals in this verse:
- You heard the gospel
- You believed the gospel
- You were sealed by the Holy Spirit
3. Faith therefore demands truth / content as its object.
Faith looks to facts, not to experience.
-1Peter 1:23
-1Cor. 15:1-4
4. Faith’s value is en toto in its object. The issue is not HOW MUCH faith, rather in what or in whom it is placed.
1Cor. 15:1-4 Note the 4 verbs in Paul’s explanation of the Gospel (historic, empirical facts):
1. Christ died (aorist tense) – for (as a substitute) our sins
2. Christ was buried (aorist tense) – proof of His death
3. Christ was raised (perfect tense) – proof of the value of His death
4. Christ was seen (aorist tense) – historic substantiation of His resurrection
5. Personal faith in the Gospel produces eternal life (Phase 1 of Salvation) and confident action (in Phase 2)
-Gospel of John
-Hebrews 11
6. Saving faith is not a gift, nor is it a good-work: it is simply a non-meritorious response to grace.
-Eph. 2:8, 9
-Saving faith in Eph. 2:8 is not the same as the “gift of faith” in 1Cor. 12:9 and Rom. 12:7.
7. Personal faith is therefore in harmony with the grace way of salvation. As such it completely destroys any basis for human merit or boasting.
-Rom. 3:27-28 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
-Rom. 4:16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all
BIBLICAL FAITH IS NOT:
- Psychosis (retreat from reality)
- Credulity (belief contrary to reality)
- Indoctrination (parroting second hand knowledge)
- Conformity (acquiescence to pressure tactics)
BIBLICAL FAITH IS:
- Confidence, or trust, in a reliable object: God’s character, ability, promises, words, acts.
- The human response that God expects from His Person, His Revelation, His Promises, Heb. 11:6.
- The only act of appropriation that is excluded from a works classification, Rom. 4:2, 5.
After starting a new diet, I altered my drive to work to avoid passing my favorite bakery. I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning, and as I approached there in the window were a host of goodies, I felt this was no accident, so I prayed...
“Lord, it’s up to you, if you want me to have any of those delicious goodies, create a parking place for me directly in front of the bakery.” And sure enough on the eighth time around the block, there it was! God is so good!
Beginning January 2008, read the Musing with Merryman Newsletter at www.merrymanministries.com
To continue receiving the newsletter by mail, email us at rcmerryman@gmail.com If we do not hear from you, your name will be dropped from the mailing list.
- Why does round pizza come in a square box?
- What disease did cured ham actually have?
- Why are you IN a movie, but you’re ON TV?
- Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane?
- Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.
- Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
- Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
- Why do you have to “put your two cents in” ... but it’s only a “penny for your thoughts?” Where’s the extra penny going?
- I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.
- How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
- Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at the things on the ground?
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