Music in Worship

Some of you may have already heard or seen that I will be speaking at The Worship of God Conference of the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches. This conference will be held October 31-November 2, 2013 at the Ridgecrest Conference Center near Asheville, NC.  I am excited to take the two slots that Scott Brown has asked me to fill.  The subjects are ones that I care passionately about.  I will be speaking once on the subject of The Worship of God in the Great Confessions of the Church and once on the important question Is There a Regulative Principle?  In this session I will show that, while all of life is addressed by the sufficient Scriptures, the sufficiency of Scripture has a special and detailed relevance and application to the church and its worship that is different than its application to the rest of life. This special application of the Scriptures to the church and its worship is historically known as the regulative principle of worship.

My concerns about the Family-Integrated Church movement are no secret. And I have not ceased to be concerned about the theological and practical issues I have raised.  Over the past few years, however, I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that men like Scott Brown, Jeff Pollard, and Voddie Baucham are heartily confessional and truly and firmly convinced of the system of doctrine (including the ecclesiology) taught in the 1689 Baptist Confession.  Whatever contradictions of the Confession some who identify themselves with FIC movement may believe and practice, these men love the 1689 Baptist Confession. Particularly encouraging to me are their clear and correct views of the Christian Sabbath and the Regulative Principle.

This is why we will be featuring a series of videos created by the NCFIC on The Worship of God on our website for the next few weeks.  You will here men like Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Conrad Mbewe, and others sharing convictions and perspectives about the worship of God to which I can give a loud Amen! and which I can only pray will increasingly spread through the global church of God.

Preparing for Corporate Worship

Some of you may have already heard or seen that I will be speaking at The Worship of God Conference of the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches. This conference will be held October 31-November 2, 2013 at the Ridgecrest Conference Center near Asheville, NC.  I am excited to take the two slots that Scott Brown has asked me to fill.  The subjects are ones that I care passionately about.  I will be speaking once on the subject of The Worship of God in the Great Confessions of the Church and once on the important question Is There a Regulative Principle?  In this session I will show that, while all of life is addressed by the sufficient Scriptures, the sufficiency of Scripture has a special and detailed relevance and application to the church and its worship that is different than its application to the rest of life. This special application of the Scriptures to the church and its worship is historically known as the regulative principle of worship.

My concerns about the Family-Integrated Church movement are no secret. And I have not ceased to be concerned about the theological and practical issues I have raised.  Over the past few years, however, I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that men like Scott Brown, Jeff Pollard, and Voddie Baucham are heartily confessional and truly and firmly convinced of the system of doctrine (including the ecclesiology) taught in the 1689 Baptist Confession.  Whatever contradictions of the Confession some who identify themselves with FIC movement may believe and practice, these men love the 1689 Baptist Confession. Particularly encouraging to me are their clear and correct views of the Christian Sabbath and the Regulative Principle.

This is why we will be featuring a series of videos created by the NCFIC on The Worship of God on our website for the next few weeks.  You will here men like Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Conrad Mbewe, and others sharing convictions and perspectives about the worship of God to which I can give a loud Amen! and which I can only pray will increasingly spread through the global church of God.

A Podcast Interview on Mormonism

Last night, I was interviewed on the internet podcast “Theology Matters.” For an hour and a half, I gave a brief overview of Mormonism. We covered the historical origins of Mormonism, the LDS worldview, as well as the Mormon doctrine of Scripture, God, and salvation. My interview started about 30 minutes into the show, and you can listen to it here. May Christ use this podcast to glorify Himself and draw more believers to reach out to Latter-day Saints with the true gospel of Jesus Christ!

Worship in the Family

Some of you may have already heard or seen that I will be speaking at The Worship of God Conference of the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches. This conference will be held October 31-November 2, 2013 at the Ridgecrest Conference Center near Asheville, NC.  I am excited to take the two slots that Scott Brown has asked me to fill.  The subjects are ones that I care passionately about.  I will be speaking once on the subject of The Worship of God in the Great Confessions of the Church and once on the important question Is There a Regulative Principle?  In this session I will show that, while all of life is addressed by the sufficient Scriptures, the sufficiency of Scripture has a special and detailed relevance and application to the church and its worship that is different than its application to the rest of life. This special application of the Scriptures to the church and its worship is historically known as the regulative principle of worship.

My concerns about the Family-Integrated Church movement are no secret. And I have not ceased to be concerned about the theological and practical issues I have raised.  Over the past few years, however, I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that men like Scott Brown, Jeff Pollard, and Voddie Baucham are heartily confessional and truly and firmly convinced of the system of doctrine (including the ecclesiology) taught in the 1689 Baptist Confession.  Whatever contradictions of the Confession some who identify themselves with FIC movement may believe and practice, these men love the 1689 Baptist Confession. Particularly encouraging to me are their clear and correct views of the Christian Sabbath and the Regulative Principle.

This is why we will be featuring a series of videos created by the NCFIC on The Worship of God on our website for the next few weeks.  You will here men like Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Conrad Mbewe, and others sharing convictions and perspectives about the worship of God to which I can give a loud Amen! and which I can only pray will increasingly spread through the global church of God.

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Lessons about True Conversion to Be Learned from Augustine’s Conversion: Our Seventh and Eighth Lessons

We must never allow church history in general or any part of church history in particular to exercise a divine authority over our faith. Nevertheless, there are some persons and events of church history that are so close to the core of what historical Christianity is that to deny their legitimacy seems close to denying the faith. One such event might be the conversion of Luther via his understanding of justification by faith alone. Another such event is the conversion of Augustine. We may well say, “If Augustine was not a Christian, and if his conversion was not true conversion, then whose conversion is?” Thus, we may well ask, indeed, we must ask, What lessons about true conversion can we learn from Augustine’s conversion?

Our Seventh Lesson: The Reality of the Mixture of Error in Conversion

Another important practical truth about all true conversion illustrated by the conversion of Augustine is that we must expect a mixture of misconception and error both in doctrine and practice in true conversions. Of course, this is not to say that such error is a matter of indifference or justifiable, but it is to say that in a fallen world and in an imperfectly redeemed church such error must be expected to be mixed in with even true conversions. Such error, assuming it is not an error which overthrows the foundation of the Christian faith, does not mean that the conversion in question is false. We know of two such serious errors which accompanied Augustine’s conversion.

Misconception about the Necessity of Celibacy

It was the example of St. Antony and the Egyptian monks which fired his imagination and deepened his conviction. It is clear that Augustine could contemplate no Christian life for himself which did not involve a commitment to celibacy. It is clear that he did not make this a standard for everyone else, but he certainly required it of himself. By rights his teachers and his conscience should have told him to go find Adeodatus’ mother and marry her! Sadly, this was not even on Augustine’s radar. This glorification of the monastic ideal including celibacy was not Christian, but it colored Augustine’s vision of Christianity.

Misconception about the Sovereignty of Grace

As becomes clear in the anti-Pelagian writings of Augustine, and as we will see in a later lecture, Augustine later confesses that he was not at first clear about the sovereignty of grace in salvation. While Augustine had never been Pelagian, he will tell us that he was for a while as a Christian semi-Pelagian in his views. That is to say, he believed, if we only take the first step, then the grace of God will intervene for our salvation. Of course, Augustine should have known that this was wrong from his own experience. It was, however, only his gradually maturing understanding of grace that showed him the error of semi-Pelagianism.

I have spoken to certain Christians who think that an Arminian cannot be a Christian. I have been asked by others who wonder if Arminians can be saved. Much can be said in response to those with such questions and such views. It is, however, certainly important to realize that the first Christian to affirm the sovereignty of grace in salvation and predestination in unmistakable terms was not himself a believer in these things when he himself was converted.

All of this teaches us the requirement of divine forbearance and mercy in the conversion of every sinner. Every sinner comes into the Christian faith with many misconceptions about both doctrine and practice from which he must be weaned by progressive sanctification. If God exercises such merciful forbearance towards his children, then so must we.

Our Eighth Lesson: The Consequence of the Seal of Baptism in Conversion

Paedobaptists will, of course, find all sorts of ways to explain away the fact that Augustine was not baptized as an infant. It is, however, clear that he was only baptized as a believer some months after the time of his conversion and only after a period careful instruction in the Christian faith had been completed.

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