The Gospel Coalition

The life and ministry of Francis Schaeffer has been a keen interest of mine for many years. As I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago, my dad was born and raised in Villars, Switzerland, only a couple of miles from L’Abri. I remember going to hear Francis Schaeffer preach on Sunday mornings when we would visit my father’s family. I also remember seeing the Schaeffer’s at my grandparents home on a fairly regular basis. There’s so much about the man and the calling God placed on his life that continues to intrigue me some 23 years after his death.

Anyway, I found this article tonight (I don’t how I missed it before) by Jerram Barrs that I hope you enjoy. There’s so much we can still learn from Schaeffer: his love for God, for truth, for people, for culture. This article will help you get to know Schaeffer. Read it. You’ll be glad.

A while back I solicited some help from my former professor John Frame. Dr. Frame is, in my humble opinion, one of the most capable theologians in the world today and I am grateful to the Lord for allowing me to learn from him both as a teacher and a friend.

I came across this quote and asked him to comment on it:

It should not be too hastily concluded that one can find a distinctively “Christian” philosophy, political theory, or aesthetic. If these are indeed realms of common grace and natural revelation, they do not require a specifically Christian explanation. Looking for one will only tend to polarize Christians from non-Christians until believers are at last exiled again from the public square, forced to pursue their “Christian” philosophy in their own spiritual ghetto.

This was his very insightful answer:

As for the quote, I just disagree with it. The reference to “common grace” suggests that it comes out of a certain school of thought that I just don’t think is biblical. I certainly believe in common grace, and I believe that natural revelation is available to all. But unregenerate people reject natural revelation, and they despise the blessings of common grace, until God calls them into fellowship with Christ. So Calvin says you cannot understand nature rightly without the spectacles of Scripture.

Scripture never hints that there is some kind of common-grace realm (e.g. politics, economics, aesthetics) where the gospel makes no difference, or where people can ignore special revelation with impunity. I argue that point at some length in my forthcoming Doctrine of the Christian Life (now at www.reformedperspectives.org under Hall of Frame, for the 2006 ethics course).

Hope this is of some help.

I would be interested in your thoughts on both the quote and Frame’s comments. Again, as I continue to wrestle with the writing of Unfashionable, these are the sorts of things that need to be taken into consideration.

As I prepare to begin writing my next book tentatively titled Unfashionable: How to Live Against the World for the World, I have been reading numerous articles (some helpful and some unhelpful). I came across this one the other day written by Marcia Segelstein and found it to be a little bit of both. You can read it here.

Check out this excellent little statement on Reformed Theology written by Dr. Richard Pratt in answer to the question, “What is Reformed about Reformed Theological Seminary?”

Towards the end, under a heading labeled “Our Reformed Hope”, Dr. Pratt shares this mobilizing vision of what it means to be the church in our world:

We also call ourselves Reformed because of our hope for the future. All believers look forward to that great day when Jesus will return in glory. We share this vision with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet, throughout the centuries the Reformed branch of the church has sought ways to bring the Gospel to all areas of life.

Our Reformed Hope motivates us to expand the Kingdom in two ways. First, RTS prepares men and women to bring the Gospel to all people in every part of the world. Our faculty and administrators regularly involve themselves in a variety of cross-cultural ministries. We encourage our students to serve every segment of American society. We prepare international students to build up the body of Christ in their homelands. Moreover, we challenge our students to consider the call to foreign missions. We are told that Christ purchased people for God “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). Therefore, the proclamation of the Gospel to all people is one of the chief aims of our seminary.

Second, our Reformed Hope looks beyond preaching and the building of the church. We believe that the Lordship of Christ extends to all areas of life. Christ is Lord not only of the church; He is supreme over the family, the arts and sciences, and human society at large. For this reason, we do not withdraw from the world. Rather, we prepare our students to bring the Word of God to bear on every dimension of human culture. As the Gospel spreads, believers are to transform their cultures to the honor and glory of God. We are the bearers of God’s image. We are to fill the earth, every aspect of the earth, with the knowledge of God our creator and redeemer, and thus fulfill the mandate given to Adam and Eve so long ago (Gen. 1:27-28).

Over the summer I mentioned that Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, was finishing a book. Well, it’s done. It’s scheduled to be released in February. It’s entitled The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Penguin Press). He’s been working on it for a few years and it’s, essentially, an apologetic for the Christian faith. Uniquely, it is not a book on apologetics but an actual apologetic. Doubt, he contends rightly, is as much of a faith committment, as believing the Gospel is. And he persuasively argues for the intelligibility, plausibility, and beauty of the Gospel. Given the rise of popular atheism, this book promises to be a tour de force and a true “a word in season” for the public. In fact, he so wants to reach the world of unbelief, skepticism, and doubt, that he went with a large, secular publisher. You can read Tim’s own description of the book and why he wrote it here.

One of my favorite devotional books is entitled The Valley of Vision. It is a collection of Puritan prayers that were put together and edited by the late Arthur Bennett. I first discovered this literary treasure while I was in college browsing through a seminary bookstore. At the time I was experiencing a spiritual drought in my life. I was desperately longing for a spark that would set my heart on fire for God once again. That spark came surprisingly from these rich words found at the beginning of this book that I had never heard of before:

Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lowly,
You have brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see you in the heights. 

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Let me find your light in my darkness,
your life in my death,
your joy in my sorrow,
your grace in my sin,
your riches in my poverty,
your glory in my valley.

And with those words, “I woke and the dungeon flamed with light.” At the time, I didn’t know what it was about those words that moved me so deeply; I just knew that God used them to set my heart ablaze once again.

Reflecting some 9-10 years later now, I have come to realize that the reason those words so passionately moved me toward God is because those words so passionately moved me toward the cross. It was Jesus who came from the heights of heaven to the depths of earth. It was Jesus who came low in order to bring me high. It was Jesus who became nothing so that I could possess all. It was Jesus who bore the cross so that one day I could wear the crown. It was Jesus who gave so that I could receive: his darkness gave me light, his death gave me life, his sorrow gave me joy, his poverty gave me riches, his valley gave me glory.

Let that hit you deeply! Let it move you the way it still moves me! Without Christ there is no hope. But with him, hope is both certain and never ending. To be without Christ is to be without life. To be with Christ is to have life eternal. Indeed, he is our life and our salvation.

Check out this great Christianity Today article by my buddy Collin Hansen on The Gospel Coalition. This is an effort we ought to be both excited about and praying for.

Check out this video dialogue between Alister McGrath and Richard Dawkins. My friend West Breedlove had this to say about the video:

After reading much of Dawkin’s “The God Delusion”, I was surprised at the rather genteel way Dawkins handled this debate. The uncut video is an hour and 10 minutes, and worth the time to watch. As far as a “winner” goes, this debate has been going on for millennia. However, in this debate, I find McGrath’s arguments compelling. Maybe it’s his demeanor, or his accent. It just sounds intelligent. Dawkins also has some “excellent” questions, as McGrath often says. At any rate, when talking about the cross of Christ, McGrath fails to mention anything about the substitutionary death of Christ; that the wrath of God was poured out on Christ. Dawkins was left feeling that McGrath was talking about the cross as an example for Christians or something. He could have done better than that, I think.

I grew up in a church that pressured people to identify a particular time and place when God saved them, when they were adopted into God’s family. In fact, I grew up believing that if I could not recall the moment God saved me, then I was at best a second-class Christian or at worst not a Christian at all.

I really wrestled with this about seven years ago. My mom told me that I prayed and asked Jesus to come into my life when I was five years old, but I don’t remember anything about it. What I do remember is how drastically my life changed when I was twenty-one.

It frustrated me not knowing for sure whether my relationship with God began when I was five and “prayed the prayer” or when I was twenty-one and my life clearly changed. Did I become a Christian when I was five and then simply rebelled until I was twenty-one, at which point I rededicated my life to God? Or did I become a Christian for the first time at twenty-one? I didn’t know, and it really bothered me. I wanted to pinpoint the time and place. My spiritual life depended on it, or so I thought.

About that time I had lunch with Arnie, one of my wisest, most godly friends. As I shared my struggle with him, he looked at me and said, “Tullian, does it really matter? The Bible has a lot more to say about how the Christian life ends than how it begins.”

I dropped my fork. He was right. I thought about all those places in the Bible that speak about finishing the race, obtaining the prize, pressing on, and straining forward. I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. Pinpointing the time and place I became a Christian didn’t matter. What did matter was my daily pursuit of God. What did matter was my need to continue in the faith from that day forward.

John Stott said, “He who stands firm in the faith to the end will be saved, not because salvation is the reward of endurance, but because endurance is the hallmark of the saved.” Arnie helped me see that my ongoing endurance, not my ability to isolate a moment when my relationship with God began, is what helps me be certain about my relationship with God.

The truth is, there are different types of testimonies. Everybody’s story of how God saved them is unique. True, salvation happens in an instant, a single moment in time. But some people are able to remember that moment, and others aren’t. That’s okay. What really matters is that all of us can know we are God’s children, adopted into his family, if we are currently pressing on in the faith.

Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College and the man many call a modern day C.S. Lewis, has been a prolific author for many years now. He has written a number of books on apologetics that have served me well over the years. Up until now, his book Christianity for Modern Pagans: Reflections on Pascal’s Pensees, has been, hands down, my favorite. But, I just recieved notice of his newest book that will, I’m sure, become my new “Kreeft Keeper.” 

Kreeft, a life-long surfer (the guy is in his 70′s, I believe), has written a book to be released soon entitled I Surf, Therefore I Am: A Philosophy of Surfing.  Maybe this little book will provide us surfers who have degrees in philosophy with the intellectual and existential rationale we need to justify our reasons for skipping school and work to surf. I’ve been waiting my whole life for this book. Thank-you Professor Kreeft!