What Christ-Centered Preaching Endeavors to Do

“Where did this man get these things?” (Mark 6.2b)

People are much more comfortable with a Jesus who is tame, explainable and pliable. He is a problem the minute he looks, feels, or sounds confident, complex or authoratative.

Why?

Because he shatters our personally crafted lord and saviors.

When the biblical Jesus shines through the fog of our imaginations he is seen as a King instead of a puppet. He is a Savior instead of an advisor. He is God instead of ‘this man’.

Nothing in the life of Jesus is accidental. Jesus’ preaching in Mark 6 (and Luke 4) must be seen as a calculated effort to chase out their unbelief. Indeed all Christ-centered preaching endeavors to unfasten our clinging fingers from the idols we create and cling to the Savior that God gives.

The Church History ABC’s

(note: this is a guest review from my wife, Christie, who offers a different, and I’d argue, better perspective than I)

The Challenge
Between changing cloth diapers, trying to keep perfectly arched eyebrows and making some homemade vanilla how will I ever find time to teach my children (and myself!) some basic church history? And why(!) would I want to submit myself to said task? It seems like a daunting, boring and unnecessary burden amidst all my other domestic goddess responsibilities. I would never entertain the idea unless our very hip homeschool curriulum penned it in or some really rad mom were to fawn all over the idea thus inspiring me to be just as cool as her. BUT (and you knew that was coming) Erik brought me home this witty little hardback book titled, The Church History ABC’s by Stephen J. Nichols and Ned Bustard.

You Can Judge this Book by Its Cover
The cover is alluring! “OOO,” was all I said as I cracked the stiff cover for the first time. And if the snazzy cover isn’t enough to bait you and keep you hooked, reading even one of the entries will. Each of the 26 memorandums of a church history pioneer is organized in alphabetical order, hence the title “The Church History ABC’s.” They’re short, perky and visually appealing.

The Content
For example for the the letter ‘E’ is says, “E is for eggs, elephants and Johnathan EDWARDS”. A small paragraph follows that tells shorts snippet facts like  his having 10 sisters, pinning scraps of cloth to his jacket for memory’s sake, being part of the great awakening, being a missionary to the Mohicans, being president of Princeton and then ends with a thoughtful purpose statement of what Edwards was all about: “Everywhere I went I wanted people to enjoy God and to enjoy what God has made – even spiders.” Each entry is written in first person which easily lends itself to drama or reenactment to completely captivate an audience.

The page dedicated to Edwards has a huge ‘E’ font with him peeking out from behind it chomping on a chocolate bar and a completely gross (LARGE) spider running across the bottom of the page. The font for each letter of the alphabet and person in history is so large that it’s excellent for engaging your little ones! They can trace it with their fingers allowing you to reiterate their abc’s in a kinetic way. While Edward’s page pictured chocolate and a spider each church history hero has pictures which are meant to spur you on to read further than the concise paragraph on the page of that particular person. In the back of the book each individual of the diverse group of men and women are expounded upon. You’ll have to pick this book up to find out why Edwards is pictured with a chocolate bar instead of a diary and quill (plume for you Fancy Nancy readers).

The Conclusion
Amidst sewing my girls some ruffle pants for fall, helping with Algebra II and preparing chicken tikka masla for dinner it turns out I do have time to teach some church history! And I want to! This spellbinding, brisk paced book makes it easy, piques curiosity and allows ones heart to easily submit to learning. All of this while reflecting “the breadth of church history and reminding children that theses great figures of the past were living, breathing people who lived and died for the glory of God.”.

p.s.   I don’t think I said that I like the illustrations…I really like the illustrations. There’s the coolest unicycle on the inside cover and, well…you just need to get the book and see for yourself

Discounted copies are available at Westminster Bookstore or trusty old Amazon.com

This Church Had A Man Crisis…A Must See Video on Church, Gospel, & Men

Great video. Convicting and motivating. I’ll get out of the way and give you the video. My Amen is echoing.

You can preorder Patrick’s book at Amazon here.

Don’t Waste Your Coffee

Most of us enjoy a hot cup of coffee each morning. Some of us really enjoy the coffee and others are hopelessly enslaved to the jolt it provides. Wherever you find yourself coffee drinker, this post is for you. It’s for us.

Whether you eat or drink…
I wake up and start my french press. I boil the water, grind the beans, and wait anxiously for those 4 and a half minutes to pass until I can enjoy the near perfect morning cup.

As a Christian who is trying to do all things to the glory of God (1 Cor 10.31), even eating or drinking, this is an exercise in worship. I praise God for being the good creator who gives such gifts for us to enjoy. We see something of his creative kindness to us in making coffee beans. We also see that he knows our frames are weak.

Our Lives are vapors
But further, I find myself captivated by the steam. I am eagerly awaiting this cup. It is steaming hot. I add my cream and sugar and hold this hot drink in my hands. But I am captivated by the steam as it continues off my little caffeinated smokestack. I am reminded again of the Scripture:

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (Jam 4.14–NASB)

My life is a vapor. It is a blip on the screen. I am here for a little while and then I vanish away.

Surely the problems and hardships of the day ahead and the days behind are not interpreted in light of this. In my mind every day is like a thousand years; I am living forever. But this is simply not true. My life is a vapor and my coffee reminds me of what the Scriptures shout to me.

You should see here how my second observation (my life is a vapor) helps with my first (do all to the glory of God). In light of the fact that life is short I don’t have time to jack around being stupid, immature and selfish. Instead, I need to grow up, serve Jesus and have fun. I only have so many rocks to throw into the pond to make a splash for his kingdom, so it’s time to put the mirror of self-admiration down and get to chucking.

The gospel beckons me to hear the Scripture. God numbers my days so I should number my days. Because Christ lived and died for me I need (get) to, today, live for him.

So, don’t waste your coffee. Drink, worship, and live.

Enduring with Joy Because we Exist in Joy

Thankfully we have brothers and sisters in Christ who are faithful to remind us of our responsibilities and privileges in Christ. This is often sweetly experienced when we encountered various trials in life. Our faithful kin in Christ remind us of that familiar passage in James 1:

(Jam 1.2) Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds

The purpose, we are reminded as we keep reading, is to make us stronger and more like Jesus. This is good and right.

But I wonder if we would have to make such a jump to light speed in the joy department if we lived our lives with responsive happiness to the God of all grace? In other words, we wouldn’t have such a hard time enduring with joy if we were already existing in joy.

How different would we be if our daily practice is to wake up, remind ourselves of our sin, God’s grace in the giving of Jesus for us and our salvation, and his victorious resurrection?

The gospel is the Father giving the One who gives him eternal joy. He gives him to rebels like us, that we might be made to rejoice in him. This happiness then reverberates through us unto God in praise and thanksgiving. All of this serves to magnify the giving and receiving of Jesus. There is joy in the giving of Jesus by the Father. There is joy in the receiving of Jesus by his people. And it is the Holy Spirit who communicates this blessed gospel symphony to us, through us, and for us, all to the glory of Christ.

When I am lacking joy I am living with gospel amnesia. All I have to do is revisit Calvary and meditate upon the goodness of God in giving Jesus for me. This puts life in complete perspective. And in the knowledge of Christ in the gospel there is a happiness that puts all seasons in perspective, whether we are being afflicted or relieved; all is intended to abound for the glory of Christ.

This reminds me of a section of a favorite hymn. (note: repine = complain)

Soul, then know thy full salvation

Rise o’er sin and fear and care

Joy to find in every station,

Something still to do or bear.

Think what Spirit dwells within thee,

Think what Father’s smiles are thine,

Think that Jesus died to win thee,

Child of heaven, canst thou repine.

Let the gospel help you and others not only to endure with joy but to also exist in joy. In doing so we magnify Jesus’ infinite beauty and worth.

Evangelical Polygamy: The Conservative Honeymoon with Glenn Beck

How does a Mormon talk show host get hundreds of thousands of Americans, many of them evangelicals, to gather together for a “non-political” revival?

Simple. He preaches the unifying message of morality and opportunity.

Beck estimates that the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday reached as many as 600,000 people. This is particularly impressive in light of the way Beck promoted his event with such a spiritual, non-political tone:

Overtly Spiritual
On the August 26 edition of his radio show, Beck told his audience,

“You’re going to see the spirit of God unleashed, unlike you have probably ever seen it before, at least at a public function. You are going to see the power of God.”

I think this statement is intriguing as it is uncomfortable.

Further, Beck dropped the $100 revival word. And, as one who makes his living with words, we can be sure that there was no accident when he referred to what we’ll see at the event as an “awakening”.

Doesn’t it seem somewhat odd that Beck, a Mormon, and so many evangelicals could yoke together in this venture so overtly spiritual in nature?

Not so according to this pastor who was featured on CNN:

Despite the pre-rally discussions of Beck’s Mormonism, the rally’s litany of evangelical speakers gave it the Jesus-centeredness of a Billy Graham Crusade. All theological references were clearly evangelical and biblically based.

Covertly anti-Gospel
Christians can agree with Mormons (and others outside the bounds of historic Christianity) because we agree on the Law. We agree on what condemns us. We agree on the 10 Commandments, we agree (for the most part) about morality, and we agree on many family related social issues. The issue here is that these matters of agreement are not what makes Christians distinctly Christian. In other words, these things reveal the problem but they do not reveal the solution.

The solution to the problem of sin is the gospel. The gospel is what Jesus did in history for sinners (1 Cor. 15.3-5). He did this for us, that is, in our place. It was Jesus who lived a perfect life of obedience to his Father. It was Jesus who suffered a wrath-satisfying, sin atoning death on the cross. It was Jesus that rose from the dead. Jesus obeyed the Law and satisfied the Law’s penalty by dying for us. Therefore, it is Jesus who is to be our unifying identity and message.

Americans will find great unity in morals but they will not find great unity in Jesus. There is great unity in law but not in gospel.

The Apostle Paul warned about this:

(2Co 6.14-15) 14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

Therefore, it is sinful for Christians to hold hands (literally) with people who believe a different gospel in the context of a spiritual endeavor.

Another Babel?
The rally/revival may have been intended to showcase unity, resolve, and passion for more of God in our country but sadly it serves to be an indictment of evangelical disunity, ignorance and indifference with the gospel. So, instead of more of God it is more of us and less of Jesus.

Many American Evangelicals were outraged over the plans for a mosque to be built near the site of Ground Zero in New York City. However, we are not so outraged about building a tower of morality on the sacred site of the church. This rallying pole of morals, God and country is a lot like the old city’s motto to reach the heavens with our hands and building (Gen 11.4). In so doing this new construction of a monument to ‘Moralanity’ is obscuring the cross, which is the gospel monument to Christ, and his Christianity.

God calls the church to be a faithful bride to Jesus, his Son. Sadly, evangelicals are taking page out of the old Mormon playbook and practicing polygamy. American evangelicals need to repent and return to their first love. This running around with other lovers is unbecoming, embarrassing, and nauseating (Rev. 3.16)

Let us Hate Sin with a Godly Hatred (J.C. Ryle)

“How marvelous it is that we do not hate sin more than we do! Sin is the cause of all the pain and disease in the world.

God did not create man to be an ailing and suffering creature. It was sin, and nothing but sin, which brought in all the ills that flesh is heir to. It was sin to which we owe every racking pain, and every loathsome infirmity, and every humbling weakness to which our poor bodies are liable.

Let us keep this ever in mind. Let us hate sin with a godly hatred.” –J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark, p. 99

How can God allow suffering and evil in the world?

This is a great answer to a very tough question. I really appreciate how Dr Carson acknowledges the tension and the difficulty and then works through what has been revealed in the Scripture. Ultimately, his (our) standing place is at the solid footing of Calvary.

“When I don’t have all the answers I return again to the cross. And there I see the God-Man (JESUS) suffering and dying on my behalf. I can worship and trust a God like that.”

How can God allow suffering and evil in the world? (feed readers may have to click thru to the site to watch) from A Passion for Life on Vimeo.

Note: Dr Carson answers the question more exhaustively in his book, How Long O Lord: Reflections on Evil and Suffering (I highly recommend this book!)

(ht: Tim)

Xenophobia is Good for You!

In his book The Holiness of God Sproul combines transcendent theology with passion and delivers it in a clear, lucid manner that is engaging to the soul.

“To be undone means to come apart at the seams, to be unraveled…. [It is] personal disintegration…. [Isaiah] was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man in the nation. He was respected as a paragon of virtue. Then he caught one sudden glimpse of the holy God. In that single moment, all of his self-esteem was shattered. In a brief second he was exposed, made naked beneath a gaze of the absolute standard of holiness. As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to maintain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed—morally and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. His sense of integrity collapsed.”

“There is a special kind of phobia from which we all suffer. It is called xenophobia.Xenophobia is a fear (and sometimes hatred) of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. God is the ultimate object of our xenophobia.He is the ultimate stranger. He is the ultimate foreigner. He is holy, and we are not.”

This is just great stuff. And it serves as a timely tonic for our current age that seems to have chiseled a God who looks and acts more like our little buddy than the transcendently enthroned King of kings.

Hit the Mute Button on Yourself & Revel in Christ

“The world encourages us to focus an inordinate amount of attention on ourselves and our concerns. We are coaxed by countless voices to ‘stay true to ourselves,’ to ‘focus on me for a while,’ to ‘not let anyone tell me what to do.’

The study on (Jonathan) Edwards’s material on Christ hits the mute button on the world and allows us to break free from our self-interests and revel in the glory of Christ. It shows us that our central need is not to become psychologically satisfied, but to treasure Jesus Christ above all things by bowing in repentance and worship before Him (Heb. 3.1-6).

Each day that we live is an opportunity not to glorify our sinful selves, but to glorify the one who bled and died for our salvation, our liberation from Satan’s shackles.

Let us clear space in our hearts for adoration not of ourselves, but of Christ. Life is not about us. It is about Jesus Christ and a fixed, unrelenting, soul-satisfying pursuit of Him.”  –Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards on Beauty–The Essential Edwards Collection, p. 93-94

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder

This hymn by John Newton has been getting a lot of time in our house. I love the richness of it. These two verses in particular are heart stirring. I pray that I never grow tired of the unique intersection of grace and justice at the cross.

Let us love and sing and wonder

Let us praise the Savior’s name

He has hushed the law’s loud thunder

He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame

He has washed us with His blood

He has brought us nigh to God

Let us wonder grace and justice

Join and point to mercy’s store

When through grace in Christ our trust is

Justice smiles and asks no more

He Who washed us with His blood

He Who washed us with His blood

He Who washed us with His blood

Has secured our way to God

…

Some Personal Convictions on Preaching from a Young Guy

I am a young pastor. Which means, I probably don’t know a ton and haven’t made enough mistakes to know the difference. I realize this. I get it. I am 34 and have been in full time ministry for 5 years. I have been working on a church plant for 2 of those years where I have been preaching every week. Prior to that I filled the pulpit on an occasional basis. My mindset was always that of trying to make the most of each opportunity. At the foundational level it is because I think that preaching is a stewardship from God. We do not know how many sermons we will actually get. This is sobering, humbling and dependence forging.

This is why, as a young pastor, I am almost militant about how I approach my preaching schedule. I want to be at our local church gatherings as often as possible (excluding of course the needed vacations). I want to plan the books to preach through, the various schedules of completion, and even the coordination with the music ministry. I also want to talk with our other shepherds to identify particular areas of emphasis that we may need to cover as a church.

In light of this I cannot understand why guys jump from church to church. I don’t get why pastors travel to conference after conference about ministry and then don’t preach on Sundays. I can’t get behind filler or repreached sermons. Our people and our pulpits are a ministry that are given. We are stewards (1 Cor 4.1-2). They are Christ’s people and Christ’s pulpit.

I look at it like this. I am the soldier. We are under fire. I am reaching my hand behind me and pulling out clip after clip to load in my weapon. The clips are the sermons. I don’t know when the ammo will run out. But when it does I will be not be looking at the congregation any longer but at Jesus. And on that day I want to know that I have exhausted myself in the ministry of the word of God and prayer (Col. 1.28-29; Acts 6.4). These are the people and this is the community where I am called. So as a result, I am reaching fast and furious for another clip and firing away with the zeal that aims to advance the flag of the King’s army.

K. Scott Oliphint on Calvin’s Influence on Reformed Apologetics

Here is an excellent summary by K Scott Oliphint of Calvin’s influence on reformed apologetics in just a brief amount of time (approx. 6min). Oliphint reminds us that Calvin was a pastor/theologian who was burdened for the people in the pew to ‘get it’.

He gives three points of influence of Calvin on apologetics:

1.       Creator/Creature relationship

2.       Sensus Divinitatis

3.       Self-Attestation of Scripture

Stirred Again to Value Jesus

We read of a surprising revelation at the conclusion of the construction of the first temple. The gold is shiny. The furniture is new. Solomon is on something of a spriritual high. Things really couldn’t be better for Israel.

However, in the context of hope, excitement, and something of a spiritual arrival, we read this:

(1Ki 9.6-9) But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’

Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this disaster on them.’”

The people have not arrived. They must obey, trust and serve God. If they turn away from him and cling to other Gods then he will discipline them. He will discipline them to the tune of destruction of this very temple. They will become a prompting for the nations to hiss at them.

Sobering.

Notice the picture: If they abandoned the LORD their God and cling to other gods then God will bring destruction on them!

In order for God to be just and holy he must punish sin and sinners. It is as simply as that. But also, in order for God to be gracious and merciful he must provide a substitute.

And it is here that we see Jesus and his work jumping off the page.

It was us who abandoned God. It was us who turned aside and laid a hold of other gods to worship and serve them. It was us that incurs and deserves all of the destruction to come upon us. It was us that deserves to be abandoned by God. It was us that should receive the hissing from the passerbys.

However, God has punished Jesus.

(Isa 53.6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

It was Jesus that was abandoned by God. It was Jesus that received the disasterous, fully mixed, unmitigated, unbearable wrath of Jehovah. It was Jesus who was crushed. It was Jesus that was hissed by the crowd. It was Jesus that took the blame. In our place condemned he stood.

But at the same time, it was Jesus who obeyed the commandments. It was Jesus who loved his Father. It was Jesus who loved his neighbor. It was Jesus who was absolutely perfect in every required manner. It was Jesus who lived for us. It was Jesus who died for us. It was Jesus who was raised from the dead for us. What a Savior!

In order for God to be both gracious and just he must crush Jesus. And he did. And so we stand forgiven because of the perfect obedience of Jesus, even to the point of death on a cross.

May this eternal truth stir your heart to value, love and serve this beloved Jesus today.

MacArthur Study Bible in the ESV is now available

I have had some people asking about the ESV-Macarthur Study Bible, well I found out that it begins shipping from Amazon at the end of this week.

The initial editions are listed below and available from Amazon (hardcover & TruTone Leather)

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Hardcover with Jacket

List Price:	$44.99
Price:	$29.69 (free shipping)
You Save:	$15.30 (34%)

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Blue TruTone Leather

List price:	$74.99
Price:	$47.24 (free shipping)
You Save:	$27.75 (37%)

You can download for free a PDF of the book of Romans with Dr. MacArthur’s introduction, outlines, notes, etc.

More information can be found here.

(ht: Justin Taylor)

What is the Bible Really About?

This is a great video. Tim Keller is looking back over the Scriptures through the lenses of Luke 24.27 and articulates how it points to Jesus. I love the way it ends, “The Bible’s not about you!” Well said and well done. I trust this will be encouraging.

(Ht: Colin Hansen)

John Piper on the Context for the Miraculous Gifts

I thought this was interesting. I have never heard John Piper speak to this specific issue. The omellete of 1 Cor 11-14 is tough to unscramble. I think the video is helpful in understanding how this church has wrestled with the issue.

(ht: Z)

Give us to have a heart pierced even as His was (Spurgeon)

Below is a portion of a prayer before one of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons. It drips with a love for Christ and a realization of personal sinfulness that does not respond to such infinite grace in kind. Hence the prayer for help.

The words ring true and appropriate in preparation for this Lord’s Day.

We lie in the very dust before Thee in utter shame, to think that we have sometimes heard this story without emotion and even told it without tenderness. The theme truly has never become stale to us. We can say in Thy presence that the story of Christ’s death still brings joy and makes our hearts to leap.

But yet Lord, it never has affected us as we could have expected it would. Give us more tenderness of heart, give us to feel the wounds of Jesus till they wound our sins to death. Give us to have a heart pierced even as His was, with deep sympathy for His griefs, and an all-consuming love for His blessed Person. –Charles Spurgeon, The Pastor in Prayer, p.9

I Would Like About $3 Worth of Gospel Please

“I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much—just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races—especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of gospel please.” (D.A. Carson, Basics for Believers, an exposition of Philippians), pp.12-13.

Once again sarcasm makes a great point and here even with a French-Canadian accent. Too often, in effort to maintain a semblance of autonomy, we become man-centered in our view of the gospel trying to mitigate the powerful transformation that comes through the God-centered gospel of Jesus. The gospel truly is radical. It makes radical sinners radical Christians.

Younger Evangelicals, Prop 8, & Contextualization

Why don’t young ‘conservative’ evangelicals care about Prop 8 or gay marriage?

Relevant Magazine asked and attempted answer this question recently. They gave 3 reasons:

1)  More Gay Friends

2) Tired Rhetoric

3) Neglected Hypocrisy

Basically this boiled down to younger Christians not wanting to be perceived as hateful, uncool or offensive. It is less about being young and Christian and more about being young and liberal.

Relevant, Cool but Distinctly ‘unChristian’?
Phil Johnson, responding to the article, observed:

Evangelical young people have been systematically indoctrinated with the notion that being cool is infinitely more important than being doctrinally sound or morally upright.

Johnson sees the heart of the issue as a choice between the doctrine of ‘coolness’ and the doctrine of Christianity. I think he is hitting the nail on the head here.

…regular readers of Relevant are relentlessly force-fed topics, values, and perspectives borrowed from sources like People and Us. They aren’t being taught the importance of having a biblical position, even on something as central to our faith as the gospel—much less on a moral issue like gay marriage.

This is the issue. The abandonment of Christian doctrine has led to an eradication of any essentially Christian distinctives. The biblical world view is lacking. The intersection of how the gospel deals with this is absent (note: being calibrated by the gospel would mean that Prop 8 & gay marriage would not be your issue. People err on the other side too, obscuring the central message of Christianity).

The young evangelicals just don’t look very evangelical.

Is Contextualization the Problem?
Johnson concludes his article with a warning against radical contextualization:

That’s the inevitable trajectory of radical contextualization. It’s been a dangerous drift for three decades or longer. Now it’s a deadly rip tide. And yet the Internet and the airwaves are filled with more voices than ever demanding more radical contextualization and an even more reckless and worldly quest for “relevance.”

This is where I think Phil might get misunderstood. I read this to say that when you abandon the gospel (justification by faith) and replace it with a desire to be ‘cool, hip, & relevant’ then you are sliding down the slide into the dreadful pool of apostasy.

But, I think that many will say, “There goes Johnson again lambasting contextualization.” There are some who reach out to and engage the culture with the gospel. They have a firm grasp of justification by faith alone. It is firmly clung to in their being. And they communicate this message to people in all different contexts. And they do not fumble the gospel. I don’t think that he is taking a shot at them, but instead the aforementioned gospel fumblers.

My Conclusion
And so once again it is what you do with the gospel that is at hand. If you lose it then you are lost. No matter how cool, progressive, or relevant you try to be you still end up being a hollow spiritualist that looks really irrelevant.

But on the other hand, engaging the culture in various contexts with the gospel should be applauded and encouraged. There are many young people who are ‘reaching out without selling out’ as the book title goes. And this is not a path to the liberal morass but evangelical revival.

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