Church Issues

Classic Posts of Cerulean Sanctum 2003-2004

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Having crawled up from the primordial sludge of N.Z. Bear’s blog ecosystem to become a full-fledged “Marauding Marsupial” (uh-oh, did I just use a Darwinian analogy?), I thought now would be the time to catch some newer readers up on what I consider to be the classic posts of Cerulean Sanctum. A few readers are commenting on old posts, so I thought I’d make that easier by unearthing previous well-hit posts and expose them to the light of new readers’ insights.

So here they are for your reading pleasure…

September 2003 saw the start of Cerulean Sanctum and the background I laid for my quest to find the real Church in 21st century America. Most all of my talking points for this blog have their roots in these posts:

Of those six posts, the one that is most heavily linked to from other sites in the one on charismatic churches. I believe that for anyone who is a charismatic, it is essential reading.

After that, we have two posts that show what we need to do to help the Church be all She can be:

After the post on charismania, this one is probably the next most-heavily-linked-to post. It caused a bit of a stir in the Christian blogosphere at the time:

I talk about rethinking our community in the following:

Here a look at the weakness of the “Emerging Church” model:

The current Gospel of the Lord not good enough? Try this:

Has our definition of being broken been co-opted by another Gospel?

On the bland uniformity of churches today and what it means for tomorrow:

And just why are so many Christians bored?

And that brings us up to the close of last year.

Those are the cream of the 2003-2004 crop, folks, the ones with the most outside links and inside comments. Enjoy!

The 25 Who Should Be Most Influential on Modern Evangelicalism

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I was thinking after my post on who is truly influencing modern-day American Evangelicals, perhaps I should post on who I believe SHOULD be the most influential. All the men listed here (sorry ladies, there were a few I thought of, but I had only twenty-five spots and felt these twenty-five were essential—they just happened to all be men) lived since the founding of our country because I felt they best informed American Christianity. Not all are Americans, but all should be influences on us, no matter the countries of origin.

The Pastors

A.W. Tozer—Tozer is “my C.S. Lewis,” the one I go to whenever I need to be uplifted, provoked, or stirred in any way. I believe him to be the greatest of 20th century preachers and teachers, but always with a pastor’s heart. He loved the Church like few others and his habit of spending the first five hours of his day in prayer is an example few can match. Everything he wrote is a gem—each prophetic, challenging, and Spirit-filled.

Andrew Murray—Few writers of the 19th century had the beautiful loving heart that Murray did. His ability to gently lay out truth is unmatched. Every book of his is a classic.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones—The bastion of England during the WWII years and beyond, Lloyd-Jones’s words cut to the soul with their wisdom and insight. His bridges the Reformed tradition and charismatic, penning one of the only good books on the discerning of spirits that exists today.

Jonathan Edwards—Still a powerhouse force and a voice to complacent Evangelicalism. We need s serious dose of Edwards in the American Church today.

Jack Hayford—I have a lot of respect for Hayford and it is sad that he does not get more credit for his no-nonsense approach to Christian living. He may be the only sane voice for the charismatic branch of Evangelicalism that exists today (with the possible exception of Wayne Grudem.)

The Revivalists

Leonard Ravenhill—I think that no man in the 20th century did more to stir up Christians to deeper faith and more compelling service than did Ravenhill. “When are we going to get serious about getting serious?” and “One of these days someone’s going open the Bible, believe it, and then we are all going to be ashamed.” Ravenhill’s fiery wisdom is essential reading and listening for today’s complacent Evangelicals.

C.H. Spurgeon—The “Prince of Preachers,” Spurgeon wrote extensively on revival and oversaw some great ones. His no-nonsense approach to fanning the flames in the hearts of sleepy believers is desperately needed in the American Church

George Whitefield—I believe it was Jonathan Edwards that said of Whitefield, “They go not to see a preacher, but a man aflame.” Whitefield’s preaching almost singlehandedly undergirded faith in early America, even though the great revivalist himself was not from here.

The Intelligentsia

Francis Schaeffer—Francis Schaeffer was not only a man of great wisdom, but his prophetic words about postmodern man are startling as we see the fruit of that worldview come to ripen. Schaeffer addressed the whole man, body, soul, spirit and mind. In an age when Evangelicals are eschewing things of the mind, Schaeffer is needed more than ever.

Alistair McGrath—An apologist and Bible teacher of the highest order, McGrath is sadly overlooked by most Evangelicals, though he certainly will carry the mantle of J.I. Packer some day.

J.I. Packer—The grand old man of modern Evangelical thought. He was on Time’s list and belongs here, too.

Ravi Zacharias—An apologist supreme and with a Third World perspective, too, Zacharias is a powerful speaker every Evangelical should know and follow.

C.S. Lewis—No list would be complete without Lewis. His writings inform more Evangelicals in America than possibly any other figure.

The Examples

E.M. Bounds—Prayer, prayer, and more prayer. Evangelicals would be wise to follow his admonitions that it all starts with prayer.

John Hyde—”Praying Hyde” of India. If a case is made for modern apostleship, Hyde would be at the top of the list. A life wholly surrendered—and powerful as a result.

George Mueller—Another great man of prayer who lived only by what God gave him through prayer. Also saw great needs and met them—again through prayer.

Hudson Taylor—The great missionary to China. Tragedy never overcame triumph in Taylor’s life and the modern Chinese church owes everything to this man who heard the call of Jesus and surrendered all.

Jim Elliot—Cut down before thirty, but his journals should be required reading for all young Evangelicals. The fruit of his work in South America continues to prosper and grow. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

David Brainerd—Again, cut down young, but what a life! Wholly given to the Lord; every thought taken captive. Saw the need to preach to the native peoples of America and met that need, pouring his life out so that they might know Christ.

Richard Wurmbrand—A modern day martyr who spent years locked away in Communist prisons. No one this century did more (with possibly the exception of Alexander Solzhenitsyn) to promote the plight of the persecuted church worldwide. He has much to teach Evangelicals today about the plight of our brethren worldwide.

The Challengers

Watchman Nee—Brings a uniquely Asian worldview to the Church. His mysticism is needed in an Evangelicalism too rooted in the practical and mundane.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer—Hard-hitting and uncompromising. His book The Cost of Discipleship is the antidote to the crossless preaching of modern Evangelical megachurchianity.

Keith Green—Who has taken up the gantlet that this fiery young prophet threw down to Christians via songs that convict and yet bring joy? It’s been almost twenty-five years since his death, and still we wait for a successor to Green. One song by Green carries more punch than an entire day’s listening on most Christian radio stations today.

George Barna—He holds the mirror up to the face of modern Christianity better than anyone. We truly need to see how we are and Barna is the only one doing it religiously.

Folks, these people are the ones we should be listening to and modeling. I encourage you to find out more about all of them. Seek out their books and teachings. Some links are to the right. Please think about what these men say and let them be influential your life, too.

On the Brink of a Quantum Singularity with Calvin and Arminius

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Last year, the well-known physicist Stephen Hawking admitted he was wrong about one of his pet theories concerning black holes. In the rarefied academic air, this amounted to a near recanting of biblical proportions. But Hawking’s admitting that his formulas can’t accurately describe what takes place in the physics world within a black hole was no death knell for his career. The truth is, no one has been able to accurately describe what happens on the brink of a quantum singularity.

If you don’t already know, black holes form when very large stars die and collapse in upon themselves, creating an incredibly dense piece of matter—a quantum singularity—whose mass is so enormous that it warps the fabric of space itself into a giant, nearly bottomless well. If you’ve ever seen one of those parabolic coin games where you roll a coin along the edge and it progressively travels in tighter and tighter circles until finally falling into a hole at the end of the funnel, then you’ve seen the basics of a black hole at work. Once matter gets trapped beyond a certain point of the black hole’s tug of gravity (the “event horizon”), that matter, be it dust or even a massive star, can’t escape the gravity grip of the singularity, in the process possibly being totally destroyed even down to the subatomic level.

Physicists for years have tried to explain the physics behind black holes and their singularities with astonishingly little success. The problem is that all the physics we hold dear (from Einstein’s relativity theories to Maxwell’s equations) cease to work the closer one gets to a quantum singularity. Physicists see cracking the physics behind a black hole as one of the true Holy Grails in physics. Whoever manages to do it will join the pantheon of greats right up there with Albert E. himself.

This brings us to John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius.

You’ve probably heard those names tossed about if you’ve been a Christian longer than a year or two. Both of these men proffered different takes on the “quantum singularity” of Christian theology, how people technically come to (and stay with) Christ.

Let’s take a look at the basics of each:

Five Points of Arminianism

  • Conditional Election – Election is based on the faith or belief of men.
  • Universal Atonement – The atonement is for all, but only believers enjoy its benefits.
  • Saving Faith – Man, unaided by the Holy Spirit, is unable to come to God.
  • Resistible Grace – The drawing of the Holy Spirit can be resisted.
  • Uncertainty of Preservation – This doctrine was left open to inquiry.

Five Points of Calvinism

  • T = Total Depravity – Man is completely a sinner, without any hope of helping himself.
  • U = Unconditional Election – God elected saints to salvation when they had no merit at all. God did not look down upon the earth and see some sinners believing, therefore elected them to salvation, but He looked down upon the earth, and saw all were sinners, therefore elected some to salvation.
  • L = Limited Atonement – The atonement is limited to the elect.
  • I = Irresistible Grace – It is impossible for a sinner to resist salvation once the Holy Spirit begins drawing him.
  • P = Preservation – A saved person will be saved forever, and will live a holy and Godly life.

(Thanks to Pastor Wayne Reynolds for the quick overviews of Calvinism and Arminianism.)

These two streams of belief divide the Protestant world almost in half (there are other belief systems that don’t adhere perfectly to either stream, but they are not majority groups.) Most American denominations that arose out of the Second Great Awakening follow Arminianism and, technically at least, are the Evangelicals we hear so much about. Churches like The Assemblies of God or Methodists are representative. The “Old Line” Presbyterian or Reformed churches are Calvinist, but have muddied the water by occasionally assuming the title “Evangelical” in order to sound like they are up to date with the rest of the Protestant churches out there.

These two streams have slugged it out for a long time. Interestingly enough, the blogosphere is becoming a battleground for these two points of view, with blogrolls developing that highlight bloggers who ascribe to one view or another. I have read so many blog posts lately that can be condensed to “Only Calvinism is Truth” that I have lost count. Anyone who has stumbled into such a debate can attest to the viciousness that often results in defense of one position or another.

Now comes the point in this post where I alienate every single one of my readers.

A physicist like Stephen Hawking is brilliant enough to be able to describe the way virtually all of the universe works from a physics standpoint. He can tell you how it is possible to hit a kilometer-wide target on a moving planet, something NASA does effortlessly (most of the time). He can tell you how gravity works, and light, and the weak force, and electromagnetism…in short, virtually everything we know about how the universe works, he can explain. But he can’t explain what happens on the brink of a quantum singularity.

Likewise, I wonder if John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius are not in the same bind as Hawking when it comes to theology. I contend that perhaps what Calvin and Arminius are trying to describe are the edges of where Jesus wants His true followers to be. It is possible I think, that God never intended us to be hanging out at the brink of the theological quantum singularity Calvin and Arminius address.

Another way of looking at this: If you have teenagers or have ever worked with them, you know that on the issue of sex it is inevitable that you will get asked the question, “Well, how far is too far?” Wise people understand that this is actually the wrong question, but the kids don’t. I suspect that this may be the case in the Calvin/Arminius debate, too.

Take a look at the issue of Preservation of the Saints, for instance. Arminians typically believe it may be possible to wander away from God and lose one’s salvation. Calvinists would argue that this is impossible, contending that if such a thing were to happen the original nature of a person’s “conversion” would be suspect.

But isn’t this like the black hole issue? Jesus calls us to be His disciples and the point of being a disciple is to stay at the Master’s feet, not to toy around with “How far can I wander away and still be saved?” Nor is it a matter of saying, “I can get away with just about anything because He won’t cast me out.” Don’t we see how both of those are skirting the edges of where we need to be as disciples? Those are “brink of the quantum singularity” thoughts—not where the Lord wants us to focus. Sadly, a lot of people get sucked out of the rest of the Christian universe and get stuck at the event horizon of such ideas, forever trapped by the power of one stream or the other. This results in a great number of causalities out there in the pews.

We all know people who have been crushed by their struggles at the brink of this theological quantum singularity. But there is a whole universe of faith as a disciple where those forces don’t have to tug us down a hole. In truth, they may very well be moot points for a person who seeks only to please the Lord in all he or she does.

Ours is a love relationship with the Lord of the Universe. This is more important than the mechanisms that get us there and keep us there. Discipleship is like a marriage between Christ and the disciple—divorce is out of the question and the engagement is merely a formality once the marriage is consummated. We can’t live like the man who asked to bury to his parents, or the one who looks back over his shoulder at what is being left behind.We simply cannot live at the brink; true disciples want to be in the center of the Lord’s will. We do what the Lord asks and are content in doing so.

And maybe that is where the Lord would prefer we all be.

I know this is a contentious issue. R.C. Sproul is probably already scratching my name off his mailing list. So if you have comments, please feel free to leave them—with all humility and love for the brethren, of course. (In other words, take a deep breath and count to ten before you post!)