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Church Gospel Membership

Why Church Membership? The Gospel

Philippians 2:8 – “And being found in human form, he, that is Christ, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Ephesians 1:3-14 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

What is one of the greatest expressions of humility we can make? How can we express our identity with Christ and His humility to its fullest extent? Christ’s expression of humility is still evident because He rose bodily from the grave and He is seated (physically) at the right hand of the Father. We can express the Gospel by following Christ, Who became a member of humanity, by becoming a member of His body via Church Membership in a local body of believers.

Categories
Eschatology

Eschatological Aside – Preterism

We have discussed the four major views of Eschatology in previous articles. Today, we will take a quick aside to look at Preterism.

Preterism believes the various events of Eschatology have already happened. There are various degrees of Preterism for which we must take account.

Preterism comes from the latin word for past i.e. Past-ism. Preterism views the many of the prophecies in the New Testament as typically understood to be in the future (the end of the world) have been fulfilled in our past.

For instance, many Evangelicals see the events of Revelation are yet to be in the future (Futurism) but the Preterist sees many of the events as happening in our past but John’s (the writer of Revelation) then future.

The historic Christian church’s only statement on Preterism speaks against Hyper-Preterism (aka Full-Preterism).

  • Preterism (Orthodox Preterism)
    • Tribulation happened in the past (70AD)
    • Millennium occurring now between Christ’s Advent and Christ’s Second Advent (Second Coming)
    • Christ’s Second Advent yet future
    • New Creation yet future

Every view, except Dispensational Premillennialism, can have leeway within the scope of Partial Preterism. Dispensational Premillennialism is strictly a futurist view.

  • Hyper-Preterism (Heterodox Preterism)
    • Tribulation happened in the past
    • Millennium happened in the past
    • Christ’s Second Coming happened in the past
    • New Creation happened in the past

Full Preterism denies any passages of Scripture which point to events still in the future. It is considered heterodox (not conformed to historic Christian beliefs) by orthodox (historically accepted) Christianity. In other words, Full Preterism is heresy.

Full Preterism possesses no significance historically speaking. C. Michael Patton explains, “Full- or hyper-preterism is the belief, in essence that Christ has already come, we are in the New Heaven and New Earth, and the resurrection has already happened. It is not taken seriously (at least full-preterism) in any academic circles. There are only outspoken fringe groups who would claim the doctrine. … Hyper-preterism is simply not something that deserves the time. (BTW: I think that everyone would do the same if the flat earth society set up a booth).”

Categories
Christianity Gospel Kingdom of Heaven Religion

Jesus: Prophet, Priest, and King in His Resurrection

John Stott once wrote, “The resurrection is God’s decisive demonstration that he had not died in vain.”

Do you know what makes Christianity unique? The resurrection of Jesus.

Do you know what sets Christianity apart from all other religions? The resurrection of Jesus.

‎”The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s public signature that all that Christ taught was true!” ~Mark Dever

Jesus the Great Prophet

Jesus was a great prophet, yet he was unlike any other prophet of God. He not only proclaimed the very words of God, He was the very Word of God made flesh (John 1:1-4). He was God’s Word Incarnate. He came to do the will of the Father (Luke 22:42), to reveal the Father (Matthew 11:27), and to speak the things of the Father (John 8:28; 12:49). See also, Luke 13:33, Matthew 13:57.

Jesus the Great High Priest

Jesus was not only the greatest Prophet of God, He was also the Great High Priest of God. “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:5-10). Jesus who is the True Priest offered himself as a sacrifice (Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 9:26-27; 10:12). “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation” (Hebrews 9:11). As a priest, Jesus is our mediator between God and ourselves (1 Timothy 2:5).

Jesus the King

“A king is someone who has authority to rule and reign over a group of people. Jesus is just such a king. He is called the King of the Jews by the Magi (Matthew 2:2), and Jesus accepts that title in Matthew 27:11, “Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned Him, saying, ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘It is as you say.’” Matthew 21:5 speaks of Jesus and says, “Behold your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey.” Remember, Jesus is King in that he rules and judges. “And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war,” (Revelation 19:11). The armies follow him (Revelation 19:14).

The phrase, “Kingdom of God,” occurs 66 times in the NASB, most of them in the synoptic gospels. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel,” (Mark 1:14). Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” (Matthew 6:10). Is there a kingdom of God without a King? No. Jesus is that king: “‘Are You the King of the Jews?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘It is as you say,'” (Matthew 27:11). See CARM.

The resurrection is God’s stamp of approval of Jesus’ finished work as the Great Prophet, Priest and King.

As Paul proclaims in Philippians 3:10-11, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:13ff).

This is our hope.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!!

Categories
Just for Fun News and Views

News, Views, and Whatnot for 4/7/2012

NPR interviews Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina. She talks about “Ann Romney Is Mitt’s ‘Golden Ticket'” and her conversion to Christianity.

“My husband and I have decided Christianity is the way we want to raise our kids, but everyone has to find their own path to God.”

Matt Rawlings is Reading through the Constitution-Article I, Section 6.

“The reason members of Congress were originally paid per diem instead of a salary was that it was envisioned as a part-time gig! The Founding Fathers wanted a citizen legislature with members who still worked the fields, drafted their neighbors wills and maintained businesses in their own communities. They were only expected to be in Washington for a few months a year at the most. In fact, as I wrote two weeks ago, Founders Gouverner Morris and Rufus King wondered aloud at the Convention if it was even necessary for Congress to meet every year. They didn’t expect Congress to have enough to do to justify meeting annually!”

Categories
Glory of God Media Videos

[Music] God is God

And the pain falls like a curtain
On the things I once called certain
And I have to say the words I fear the most
I just don’t know

And the questions without answers
Come and paralyze the dancer
So I stand here on the stage afraid to move
Afraid to fall, oh, but fall I must
On this truth that my life has been formed from the dust

God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God

And the sky begins to thunder
And I’m filled with awe and wonder
‘Till the only burning question that remains
Is who am I

Can I form a single mountain
Take the stars in hand and count them
Can I even take a breath without God giving it to me
He is first and last before all that has been
Beyond all that will pass

[chorus]

Oh, how great are the riches of His wisdom and knowledge
How unsearchable for to Him and through Him and from Him are all things

So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone

[chorus]

Categories
Gospel Quotations Videos

Good Friday – Glorious Sunday

Are you pouring crimson regret and betrayal, dying, praying, bleeding and screaming, “am I too lost to be saved? am I too lost?”

“Consequently, [Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he (Jesus) always lives to make intercession for them.” ~Hebrews 7:25

Ross King ‏@rosskingmusic:
“I’m the kind of person that yells “save me” on Sunday and “kill him” on Friday. He’s the kind of person that dies for both.”

Tim Gaydos ‏@timgaydos:
“As humans we fear being exposed for who we are or are not. Jesus, on the cross, was exposed & received all the shame due to us.”

Logan Gentry ‏@logangentry:
“Good Friday is a reminder that my sins are many, I have no ability to fully pay for them & Jesus paid it all for me and the whole world.”

Matt Chandler: Redemption

“The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.” ~Tim Keller

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

It’s Friday but Sunday is coming!

Categories
Ministry Spotlight Orphan Care

Orphan Care Ministry Spotlight – Amazima

This new series highlights organizations that, in my estimation, are on the frontlines of mercy ministries, but not just any mercy ministries. They are ministries focusing on orphan care. They’ve taken James 1:27 to heart.

Amazima Ministries? What does Amazima mean?

Amazima Ministries was founded by 19 year-old Katie Davis in 2008. The organization, based out of Brentwood, TN, feeds, educates, and encourages orphaned and vulnerable children and the poor in the country of Uganda. In the Lugandan language, Amazima (uh-mahz-i-muh) means “truth.” Amazima desires to reveal the truth of God’s unconditional love through Jesus Christ to the Ugandan people.

Here is the Amazima promo:

You can check out a video interview with Katie Davis over at Together For Adoption.

Continue reading “Orphan Care Ministry Spotlight – Amazima”
Categories
Love of God

A Gospel Reflexion On The Love of God

God created mankind in the image and community of the eternally existing Trinitarian God (Genesis 1:26) producing an inherent need and desire for “community” displayed in love by loving God with our whole being and loving others as ourselves (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37-39). God created us so that we may know Him. His creative work of mankind was the act of drawing near to us which was an act of love When God acts, He acts in love because God is love.

“…God’s nature is the grammar of God’s will, which is a Wittgensteinian way of saying that God’s being and acts are one. God is love (I John 4:8) – that is the defining divine perfection – and God is love from tip to toe. God’s only power is the power of love, in which there is no domination, coercion, or violence. Such is the imminent perichoretic, self-giving, non-rivalrous love of the Trinity, economically embodied in the cross (and, as Luther said, crux robat omnia). ‘Omnipotence,’ T. F. Torrance urges, ‘is what God does, and it is from His ‘does’ rather than from a hypothetical ‘can’ that we are to understand the meaning of the term. What God does, we see in Christ …” (HT: Curt).

Likewise, God’s love is what God does, and it is from His ‘does’ rather from a hypothetical ‘can’ that we are to understand the meaning of the term. What God does, we see in Christ. P.T. Forsyth explains,

What ought we say about the love of God? In the cross, God’s love for himself, his name and his authority, and his love for his creatures, is taken up and met in one action wherein God exhibits the very nature of his being as unconditional Holy Love. That’s why not only is the doctrine of the Trinity necessary to make sense of the atonement, but the atonement is necessary to reveal the Trinitarian fellowship of God. The Holy Love that defines the perichoretic life of the Triune God has, by the grace of the Father in the action of the incarnate Son and by the mission of the Spirit, overflowed freely towards those outside of God’s community that creatures may enter into the Holy Love communion that the Triune God has ever known and spoke creation into being for participation in.

In Jesus Christ, God has shown not only that he does not want to be God without us, but that he does not want us to be without him. And in the action of the Holy Spirit, the Triune God is present and active among us to hear and answer our prayers, to sustain us in all the happenings of life, and to continuously bring home to us afresh the good news of the Father’s sanctifying action in Jesus Christ, guaranteeing our inheritance, and empowering us to live in the reality of being ‘holy and blameless’ before God (Ephesians 1:4).

We must not think of ourselves higher than we are. We possess nothing special, nor do we offer any benefit to God for God to choose us. Deuteronomy 7 explains, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping [His] oath…” We are God’s treasured possession; not because of anything good we possess but because God loves us. And God loves us because He loves us. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

This great love with which God loves us can not truly be experienced without our setting love upon others. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21). I believe C. S. Lewis says it well,

“When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” – Letters of C.S. Lewis (8 November, 1952)

“… May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. … May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. … The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, 3:5, 2 Corinthians 13:14).

Categories
Church Membership

Why Church Membership? Accountability

Accountability is getting help in taking responsibility for our actions.

Accountability is comprised of listening (James 1:19), humility in relation to others sins and faults (Matthew 7:1-2) with the thought, “if not for the grace of God, there go I,” demonstrating love because God loves us, and Whoever loves God must also love his brother. ( 1 John 4:21, 1 John 4:19)

What greater expression of true accountability than to purposefully covenant with others for the sanctification of each other?

True accountability allows people the freedom in sharing their circumstances and provides the feeling of total acceptance without fear of rejection. Why? Because God has completely and unashamedly accepted us in the beloved (Ephesians 1:3-10).

We are accountable to God (Romans 14:12, Hebrews 4:13)

We are one body in Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12ff)

Galatians 6:1-2 gives a helpful principle, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” If your accountability friend has done something contrary to the Bible, you are called to confront him gently, forgive him, and comfort him. It also admonishes you to consider yourself because no one is above temptation.

Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says to, “…encourage one another and build each other up…”

How do I know you truly are placing yourself under accountability if you have not demonstrated your covenantal commitment to such a serious endeavor? Specifically expressing this accountability within the bounds of church membership?

Categories
Eschatology Hermeneutics

Eschatology 101 – Hermeneutics

The discussion of Eschatology isn’t so much about Eschatology as it is hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is essentially how you read Scripture. For example, the person who is a Premillennialist views Scripture through one lens, while the Amillennialist views Scripture through another lens.

These lenses through which we view Scripture are established by which presuppositions we bring to Scripture. These presuppositions establish each view as mutually exclusive.

Presuppositions are the assumptions you make before you arrive at the text. For instance, a Dispensationalist presupposes the Old Testament takes a certain amount of precedence over the New Testament, while the Amillennialist presupposes the New Testament takes a certain amount of precedence over the Old Testament.

However, all views see a certain amount of continuity (what’s the same) between the Old and New Testaments, and all views see a certain amount of discontinuity (what’s different) between the Old and New Testaments. For instance, we do not offer sacrifices as was done in the Old Testament (discontinuity), yet we believe in one God that is represented in both the Old and New Testaments (continuity).

The difficulty is answering the question, “to what extent is there continuity and to what extent is there discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments?”

Due to the mutually exclusive nature of these views, if one view is true, the others cannot be true. Further if, for example, the Premillenial view is true, then the way the Premillennialist reads Scripture is the correct method of interpretation. This is, in my opinion, why Eschatology can be such a volatile subject. To discredit a particular Eschatological view essentially discredits the method or way someone reads Scripture.

Great effort and due diligence must be the key because this study is not for the faint of heart.

When you dive into Eschatology, you will be forced to seriously evaluate your hermeneutics (the way you read Scripture). This is why many folks do not go too deeply into this discussion, nor do I blame them.

With all this said, we will be explaining the what, why and how these different Millennial views read various passages of Scripture the way they do.