(Re)forming Disciple

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Why I Am a Calvinist (And a Lot of Other Christians Are, Too)

Great post from Rev. Kev DeYoung:

Several weeks ago the Christian Research Journal was kind enough to ask me to write a brief opinion piece about the rise of the New Calvinism. My article is in the current issue which comes out this week. You should be able to buy a copy of CRJ at your local Christian bookstore, if you aren't already a subscriber.

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Here are the two most important things you need to know about the rise of the New Calvinism: it’s not new and it’s not about Calvin. Of course, some of the conferences are new. The John Piper–packed iPods are new. The neo-reformed blog blitz is new. The ideas, however, are not. “Please God, don’t let the young, restless, and reformed movement be another historically ignorant, self-absorbed, cooler-than-thou fad."

And while I’m praying: “Please God, don’t let the New Calvinism ever, ever be about the New Calvinism.” Don’t get me wrong. I’m not afraid to be called a Calvinist. I’ve read the Institutes multiple times, most of Calvin’s commentaries, and was voted “Calvin Clone” by my peers at seminary. I thank God for Calvin. But if the New Calvinism is to continue as a work of God, which I think it has been, it must continue to be about God. Young Christians have been drawn to Calvinism not because they were looking for Calvin or an “ism,” but because they were drawn to a vision of a massive, glorious, fall-down-before-Him-as-though-dead kind of God who loves us because He wants to.

The influence of Calvinism is growing because its God is transcendent and its theology is true. In a day when “be better” moralism passes for preaching, self-help banality passes for counseling, and “Jesus is my boyfriend” music passes for worship in some churches, more and more people are finding comfort in a God who is anything but comfortable. The paradox of Calvinism is that we feel better by feeling worse about ourselves, we do more for God by seeing how He’s done everything for us, and we give love away more freely when we discover that we have been saved by free grace.

I’d like to think that we are Calvinists because of what we see in the Bible. We see a God who is holy, independent, and unlike us. We glory in God’s goodness, that He should save miserable offenders, bent toward evil in all our faculties, objects of His just wrath. We rejoice in God’s electing love, which He purposed for us before the ages began. We are grateful for God’s power by which He caused us, without our cooperation, to be born again and enabled us to believe His promises. We take comfort in God’s all-encompassing providence, whereby nothing happens according to chance, but all things—prosperity or poverty, health or sickness, giving or taking away—are sent to us by our loving heavenly Father.

As Calvinists and Christians, we praise God for His mercy, shown to us chiefly on the cross where His Son died, not just to make a way for us to come to Him, but effectually for us such that our sins, our guilt, and our punishment all died in the death of Christ. We find assurance in God’s preserving grace, believing with all our might that nothing—not even ourselves—can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We delight in the glory of God and in God’s delight for His own glory, which brings us, on our best days, unspeakable joy, and on all other days, still gives purpose and order to an otherwise confusing and seemingly random world.

What draws people to Reformed theology is the belief that God is the center of the universe and we are not, that we are worse sinners than we imagine and God is a greater Savior than we ever thought possible, that the Lord is our righteousness and the Lord alone is our boast.

The attraction of the New Calvinism is not Calvin, but the God Calvin saw—not some new fad, but something old with new life blowing through it from the Spirit of God.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Some gold from Jerry Bridges

Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace (p. 19):

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.

And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.And from pp. 22-23:

Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God’s blessing through their behavior.

Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God’s blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience.

Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

So true...watch this youth ministry people!

From Student Life: This is a video we (Student Life) produced for a free youth minister event called Refuge. It was conceived as a satire for what I consider to be an unhealthy "rock star" culture that has been growing inside Christendom, as well as an encouragement for the unheralded heroes on the front lines of ministry. Our friends at the event seemed to get a kick out of it. Shot by Taylor Robinson and George Wiley, with video post by Jason Poole and audio by Eric Chapman and Nate Dregger. The role of Ignatius is played by our friend Josh Keefer.

Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Back from Chicago...

Last week I went with some good friends to Chicago to sit under some incredible men of God as they preached through 2 Timothy. The Gospel Coalition conference was incredible...life changing. While all of the plenary messages were impactful, my top 3 were: Piper on "Feed the flame...", Keller on "The Grand Demythologizer", and Bryan Chapell on "Preach the Word." I have attached links to all of the plenary sessions. Download them. Listen to them. Be fed. Be challenged...and then go do something in response to what you have heard for the glory of God.

(To check out ALL of the sessions, including the workshops [audio and video], they are available online HERE for free.)

Tim Keller, "The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry" (Acts 19:21-41)
John Piper, "Feed the Flame of God’s Gift: Unashamed Courage in the Gospel" (2 Timothy 1:1-12)
Phil Ryken, "The Pattern of Sound Words" (2 Timothy 1:13-2:13)
Mark Driscoll, "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth" (2 Timothy 2:14-26)
K. Edward Copeland, "Shadowlands: Pitfalls and Parodies of Gospel-Centered Ministry" (2 Timothy 3:1-9)
Bryan Chapell, "Preach the Word!" (2 Timothy 3:10-4:5)
Ajith Fernando, "Gospel-Faithful Mission in the New Christendom"
Panel Discussion: Tim Keller, John Piper, Ligon Duncan and Crawford Loritts (chair: Stephen Um)
Ligon Duncan, "Finishing Well" (2 Timothy 4:6-22)
Don Carson, "That By All Means I Might Win Some': Faithfulness and Flexibility in Gospel Proclamation" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)