around-the-block-around-the-world-march-april-2005

MISSIONS MAPPED ❘ TRIED AND TRUE STRATEGIES ❘ MISSIONARIES ON THEOLOGY

MODERN REFORMATION

AROUND THE BLOCK, AROUND THE WORLD EVANGELISM AND MISSIONS VOLUME

14, NUMBER 2, MARCH/APRIL 2005, $6.00

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AROUND THE BLOCK, AROUND THE WORLD: EVANGELISM AND MISSIONS

16 Evangelism Starts at Home Many children who are raised in Christian homes and churches will say, “Jesus lives in our hearts.”

They can tell you that Jesus died to save them from their sins. But few children understand how Christ’s death is related to sin. How much of the gospel do children really comprehend? Here is a case for catechizing our children.

by Starr Meade Plus: 10 Ways NOT to Defend the Faith and Recommended Reading List

Special Center Pull-Out Reformation Missions Around the World Plus: Popular Evangelism Programs: Defined and Compared

25 Using the Gospel to Share the Gospel Rico Tice is founder of the evangelistic program, Christianity Explored. Tice explains how the Gospel of Mark can serve as an effective tool to teach the identity, the mission, and the call of Jesus Christ.

Interview with Rico Tice Plus: How We Do It

33 Teaching and Making Disciples COVER PHOTO BY LONELY PLANET IMAGES/TONY WHEELER

Theological education is a key means for mission work. The gospel is spreading in Africa and Latin America through academic institutions that are instructing and inspiring its students. While progress is being made, we are reminded of the challenges that remain in the work of missions.

by Brenda Choo Plus: Where Theology and Ministry Intersect

In This Issue page 2 | Letters page 3 | Between the Times page 5 | Speaking of page 9 Preaching from the Choir page 10 | Open Exchange page 12 | Ex Auditu page 13 We Confess page 38 | Reviews page 39 | Always Reforming page 44 M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 0 5 | M O D E R N R E F O R M AT I O N 1

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MODERN REFORMATION Editor-in-Chief Michael S. Horton

From Guilt to Gratitude

“D

o yourself a favor, take it off the streets.” The guy was huge. It was dark.

And I was inclined to take his advice. My friend and I decided to spend

Managing Editor Eric Landry Assistant Editor Brenda Choo Department Editors Brian Lee, Ex Auditu, Reviews Shane Rosenthal, Between the Times William Edgar, Preaching From the Choir

the rest of our evening street witnessing someplace else other than the

front of the biker bar where we ran into the large man dispensing unsolicited advice. The three teenagers sitting in the grocery store parking lot, high on marijuana, seemed more favorable prospects.

This scene, though nearly fifteen years old now, is what I always think of when someone talks about evangelism. But I’m not sure why.

Why don’t I think of the time I spend sitting in the chair witnessing to the woman who cuts my hair? Why don’t I think of the people I talk to on the phone who call with tragic stories of loss and suffering? What about the people I meet at parties who ask me what I do for a living and end up telling me their life story?

Why don’t I think about friends, family, and neighbors whom I see and interact with every day? It’s not as exciting as that dark night on the street, but those are the people with whom God has led me to share the gospel. Your experience is probably very similar.

But typically, when we hear the word “evangelism,” we cringe with guilt because we never feel as if we’re doing enough. We’ve heard too many sermons, “mission’s minutes,” and testimonies of lives being changed by someone’s faithfulness in sharing the gospel to feel comfortable with our own, meager efforts. Of course, such guilt can only do so much to motivate us. Maybe we’ll grit our teeth and try to strike up a conversation with the guy we’re seated next to on the plane. Or,

Next Issues: May/June: In Search of Fathers July/August: Emergent Church: Evangelicalism Redux?

September/October: Does Jesus Like NASCAR? November/December: First Aid for Burnout

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we’ll appease a guilty conscience by writing a check to the church’s missionary.

In this issue of Modern Reformation, we’re endeavoring to give you the resources to share your faith—not out of guilt for a job undone, but out of gratitude for God’s great love demonstrated through the work of Christ on the cross. The place we should all start is in the home with our children. Baptist author and educator Starr Meade challenges parents to work through the basics of the Christian faith with their covenant children so that they know both the content of the faith and the Person in whom their faith is placed. Anglican minister Rico Tice takes evangelism out of the home and into the neighborhood and office by showing us how we can use the Gospel of Mark in our work with friends and family who are interested in knowing more about the faith. Assistant editor Brenda Choo introduces us to the evangelistic frontier in her survey of the work being done in Africa and Latin America. In addition to these feature articles, we’re providing another center feature: a fold-out map showing where various Reformation churches are working to spread the gospel in our world. Please use this map as you pray for the work of the church around the world.

Eric Landry Managing Editor

Check out our website where you can find even more resources, reviews, and articles to help you share your faith with a watching world.

Visit www.modernreformation.org today.

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You asked for an opinion on the obsolescence of the word “evil” (in “Between the Times,” November/December 2004). The example you cite, as well as the disdain that those in the media and the academic world reveal when they speak about evangelicals, President Bush, or really anyone who has strong convictions on right or wrong, certainly show how much evil is becoming a term employed by people of lesser faculty (according to those who do not use the term). However, it is unreasonable to assume a convergence of views between those people we hear from (i.e., Kathleen Madigan) and the majority of Americans. I have not read it yet, but from what I have read about it, Samuel Huntington’s book Who Are We? addresses the divergence of beliefs in the United States. He even offers this: “The greatest surprise might be if the United States in 2025 is still the country it was in 2000 rather than a very different country (or countries) with very different conceptions of itself and its identity.” So to get to the point, yes, I agree that evil is leaving the public discourse of American society, as far as television, newspapers, and movies define our discourse. But I believe the drive to euphemize our vocabulary is part of a larger struggle in America.

Jeremy Brandenburg Unites States Military Academy Via Email

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I always look forward to receiving Modern Reformation. It is (in my opinion) one of the best Reformed-based magazines that deals very pertinently with today’s church related issues. My compliments. I do wish to express my concern over a portion of Rev. Harold Senkbeil’s recent article, “When Peace Seems Out of Reach” (November/December 2004). Commenting on Luke 2:14 he writes, “‘Those with whom He is pleased’ includes the whole suffering world, including many who are too busy to notice. There is not one man, woman, or child left out of the plan of God to rescue and redeem mankind; it is His gracious pleasure to save them all. There is not one person left forsaken and unloved, not one sin that Jesus left unpaid. Peace is now established between God and all his rebellious children.” Now I read this several times to makes sure I was not reading it out of context. Rev. Senkbeil’s statements are either very Amyraldian in flavour or else universalistic in intent, and quite out of context with the very verse he is commenting on. Remember “There is no peace”, says my God, “for the wicked.” (Isaiah 48:22; 57:21) Kevin Carter New Minas, Nova Scotia

It appears that Rev. Harold Senkbeil’s recent article, “When Peace Seems Out of Reach” (November/December 2004), was misplaced, and should have appeared in Modern Arminianism. He cites Luke 2:14,”Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.” (his emphasis added), and goes on to say “Those with whom He is pleased” includes the whole suffering world, including many who are too busy to notice. There is not one man, woman, or child left out of the plan of God to rescue and redeem mankind; it is his gracious pleasure to save them all….” Has this Universalist? Unitarian?

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Arminian? point of view slipped through your editorial process, or is the magazine headed off on some new non-Reformed doctrinal agenda?

Jim Weaver Helena, Montana

Harold Senkbeil responds: In MR's defense, the editorial board has embraced neither Arminianism nor Universalism. They merely invited a Lutheran to write an article on the peace of Christmas. If Jesus did not atone for the whole world's sins in His suffering and death, peace with God rests on shaky ground. St. John points to the heart of the matter: "...Jesus Christ the righteous...is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:1b-2) The earliest reformers followed the Bible on this point. The Augsburg Confession teaches that the incarnate Son of God "...was truly born, suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried in order to be a sacrifice not only for original sin but also for all other sins and to propitiate God's wrath.(Article III, emphasis added) Saving faith brings peace because it clings to Christ alone as the sole cause of our forgiveness. Such faith God the Father imputes as righteousness.

"Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1)

Dr. Kim Riddlebarger’s summary of the Amillennial view of eschatology is clear and cogent, as is usual in all your spoken and written comments (“Keeping Watch,” November/ December 2004). I do think, however, that he should take note of the apparent increase in the numbers of Amillennialists who are Partial Preterists. I am one, and though I do not have survey results to back up my contention, it seems to me that this view of eschatology has increased in the past decade. Your piece doesn’t take Partial Preterism into consideration. Amillennialists who take that position don’t regard “wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, and false teachers…” to be signs which precede the return of the Lord, as you know. They (and I) regard these events as descriptive of the days just before the fall of Jerusalem, in 70 A.D. If one disagrees with that interpretation, which period of world history would you choose which has not been riddled with such adversities, including much of the modern era? So if those are “markers” of the end times, they have not served to delineate the end of the age at all clearly. Jesus’ comments in the Olivet Discourse were answers to his disciples’ questions not a lecture which he initiated or embarked on as a final instruction to them. His answers were obviously within the time frame of their lives, not predictive

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of the distant future. It seems to me that it is no more irrational to treat the Sermon on the Mount and the parables as applicable only to the millennium, and not to the time in which they were given (as the classical dispensationalists treat our Lord’s teaching) than it is to treat the content of the Olivet Discourse as having nothing to do with the lives and events of those who heard Jesus then.

Peter C. Black Via Email

Kim Riddlebarger responds: First, anecdotal evidence for the increase in the number people holding to partial preterism does not constitute an argument in favor of partial preterism. It is only a personal observation, which may indeed be correct. Since so few people have held this position historically, the publication of several significant books in the last ten years or so by Reformed authors advocating this position can only but increase the number of adherents.

Second, I think both preterists and futurists err when reading the Olivet Discourse, by attempting to resolve the obvious tension in the passage between our Lord's words directed to the disciples about the immediate future, spoken alongside our Lord's warning to keep watch, in case the master's return is delayed. Futurists err by pushing these signs off into the future, just before our Lord returns. Preterists err by tying them too closely to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

It is not an either/or situation. I see the passage as largely directed to Jesus' disciples, including the warning about the impending destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. In holding this view, some have labeled me a partial preterist! I interpret the passage through the lens of double fulfillment along the lines advocated by Caird, Cranfield, Ridderbos, Hoekema and others.

When Jesus answers the disciple's questions, he is correcting their erroneous view that the destruction of the city and the temple is the end of the age. Speaking as God's final prophet, the signs which Jesus describes as birth pains seem to indicate alternating cycles of tumult and peace until his second advent. While the disciples would see all of these things come to pass in their lifetimes, these things are also indicative of what God's people will face until the Lord's return. The signs don't tell us when the Lord will return.

They tell us that the Lord will return.

I am writing with regard to Rev. John Nunes’s article, “Trusting God through Impossibilities” (November/December 2004). I appreciated his article but was startled that he attributed words of Scripture to Abraham and Mary which were spoken, respectively, by the Lord and the angel Gabriel. In Genesis 18:14, it was the Lord who [ C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 4 3 ]

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The Islamization of Europe

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urope is headed for a big conflict over its own identity. In the last few decades, as birthrates across the continent have plummeted, Europeans began to rely more and more on immigrants to supply manpower for various industries. Most of these immigrants have come, are coming, and will continue to come from Islamic countries.

Since World War II, most Europeans have moved away from any concept of national pride, since this was seen to be the great cause of strife in the world.

David Pryce-Jones, senior editor of National Review and author of The Closed Circle, recently said in an interview that the European Union “is built on this idea that wickedness comes, not from the human animal, not from Hitler or from utopian ideas that have been perverted, but from nationalism.” But this move away from national and religious identity into the realm of radical pluralism across the European landscape has become the open door for Islam, as Pryce-Jones explains: Into this land with no identity comes a whole bunch of people who know exactly who they are, what they want, and how to get it. They are a community of believers, and boy do they believe. And they’ve come here to show us what belief really looks like. And what do we oppose them with? Social Security and welfare and benefits, and please love us, we’re really very decent people.

Current estimates, which are not easy to calculate because many immigrants remain unregistered, place the total number of Muslims currently living and working in Europe somewhere between 15 and 20 million. France alone is home to 5 million Muslims, and there are an estimated 3 million in Germany. As TownHall.com columnist Jonah Goldberg puts it, these Muslims who are coming from all over the world, “aren’t buying into the

European model of peaceful assimilation, tolerance and another round of kumbaya.”

Islam is now the fastest growing religion in England, which is home to more than 2 million Muslims, 1,500 mosques, and 100 Islamic schools.

According to The London Times, on the third anniversary of Sept. 11th, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams spoke from the pulpit of an Egyptian mosque saying that Christianity shared with Islam the common inheritance as “children of Abraham.” Plans are in the works to have Islam taught in English schools, which is also the case in Denmark where, according to the The Copenhagen Post, legislation recently passed making it compulsory for Danish high school students to read sections from the Koran, though there is no such regulation pertaining to the Bible.

In Holland, according to the Calgary Sun, the most common name for boys is currently “Mohammed,” and there are some reports that this is the case in Belgium as well. The paper also asserted that in Holland, “there are more observant Muslims than either observant Catholics or Protestants (but not yet all Christians combined),” and there are reportedly 30,000 Dutch converts to Islam. In Spain, 192 people were killed in a train bombing in Madrid by members of Al Qaeda this past November, and one of the demands of the terrorists was the removal of an historic statue of Santiago Matamorros at the cathedral in Compostella, because it was seen as offensive to Muslims. Spaniard officials caved in to the terrorists’s demands and removed the statue.

Italy is now home to between 700,000 and one million Muslims. As a result, Islam is the second most dominant religion in that country. The city of Bologna in recent years, according to a London Times article, experienced a controversy over a 600 year old fresco inside the town’s cathedral. Painted

by Giovanni da Modena in the fifteenth century, this fresco

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depicts Dante’s Inferno, and part of this image includes a representation of the prophet Mohammed being tortured in the ninth circle of hell. Islamic extremists have been so offended by this that they have demanded that the fresco be either painted over or destroyed, or else they will blow up the cathedral.

Writing for the London Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore asks an interesting question: “Christians want the whole world to be Christian, so what is the difference?” The difference, he argues, is that Muslims are attempting not merely to convert the world by changing minds, but they are also prepared to take what they want by force, since religion and politics in their worldview are one and the same. “Mohammed did not only preach in Mecca,” Moore observes, “he also ruled in Medina, and he conquered.

The Sharia is a code of law to be imposed, in all societies, by the public authorities.” Historian Paul Johnson noted similarly in a National Review article that it is untrue that “Islam” means “peace.”

In fact, “Islam means ‘submission,’ a very different matter, and one of the functions of Islam, in its more militant aspect, is to obtain that submission from all, if necessary by force.” Johnson went on to suggest that if the flow of Islamic immigrants into Europe continues at its current pace, then it is conceivable that Catholic countries such as France, Italy, and Spain will be predominantly Muslim within a generation.

Have Evangelicals Been Misrepresented? n December 2004, David Brooks, author of Bobos in Paradise, wrote an opinion column for the New York Times in which he asserted that Jerry Fallwell or Pat Robertson were not to be considered the true spokesmen for the evangelical Christian movement. So who did he suggest as a replacement?

John Stott.

Brooks gave an example of a respectable journalist such as Tim Russert inviting Jerry Falwell and Al Sharpton to discuss religion and public life. He remarks, “Inviting these two bozos onto Meet the Press to discuss that issue is like inviting Britney Spears and Larry Flynt to discuss D. H. Lawrence. Naturally, they got into a demeaning food fight that would have lowered the intellectual discourse of your average nursery school.”

Brooks points out in the article, “There is a world of difference between real-life people of faith and the made-for-TV, Elmer Gantry-style blowhards who are selected to represent them.” This, he argues, is one of the reasons many people are so ill-informed about evangelicals. “Falwell and Robertson are held up as spokesmen for evangelicals, which is ridiculous.

Meanwhile people like John Stott, who are actually important, get ignored.” And according to Michael Cromartie of the Ethics

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and Public Policy Center, Brooks noted, “If evangelicals could elect a pope, Stott is the person they would likely choose.”

The article goes so far as to point out Stott’s theological emphasis, which according to Brooks “is to pierce through all the encrustations and share direct contact with Jesus.” We are told the central message of the gospel, according to Stott, “is not the teachings of Jesus, but Jesus himself, the human/divine figure.” And with a touch of humor, Brooks decides that being under Stott’s influence is “like being in Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood, except he has a backbone of steel.”

Part of that backbone of steel that Brooks admires is Stott’s unwavering interest in truth. “He does not believe truth is plural. He does not believe in relativizing good and evil or that all faiths are independently valid, or that truth is something humans are working toward. Instead, Truth has been revealed,” said Brooks. The article concludes with Brooks comment that one cannot understand “this rising global movement if you don’t meet its authentic representatives.”

God Calling n January 3, 2005, Pat Robertson revealed on the 700 Club program that God had spoken to him. Well, at least he thinks God spoke to him. Actually, he’s not quite sure. Nevertheless, he decided to broadcast the prophetic announcement, dazzling his viewing audience with special things to come in 2005.

“I get up at five in the morning,” Robertson began, “which is a good time when it’s quiet, and you can sort of listen to the Lord.”

Really Pat? The God of the universe is speaking to you, and you only “sort of” listen? Perhaps this is the first problem. The second problem is that Robertson is not really sure that what he heard was the Lord. “I am always reluctant to say, well ‘God said this.’

Sometimes it’s unmistakable; the voice like shakes you.

Otherwise, you believe you’re hearing, so I put that out with great trepidation,” said Robertson. The key lesson here is that Robertson is being cautious because he is aware that he is possibly mistaken. And if he is mistaken, then the words he heard are not God’s but his own delusions.

“I have some very encouraging news,” he went on to report.

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“The first thing I think, Terry, is that again, 2005 is going to be a year of extraordinary prosperity for this nation and for CBN. And I think the American stock market is going to surge upward, if I heard from the Lord. Again, ladies and gentlemen, don’t go and buy stock on my recommendation, but that’s what I feel in my heart. The Lord was saying it’s going to be a super good year.” Sounds super great, that is, “if” he heard from the Lord. But at least here we’re given a little more assurance: though he wasn’t “shaken,” Robertson did “feel” something in his heart.

Robertson went on to talk about the President: “What I heard is that Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory and that his second term is going to be one of triumph, which is pretty strong stuff.” Actually, this is pretty weak. Bush’s party gained seats in the House and Senate, so he’ll have an easier time putting through his agenda this term. But Robertson’s prophetic announcement got a little more specific: “He’ll have Social Security reform passed...he’ll have tax reform passed...he’ll have conservative judges on the courts...They don’t have to be timid in this matter because the winds are blowing at his back, and he can move forward boldly and get results.” Now we have something to sink our teeth into. We’re going to get tax reform, social security reform and conservative judges, all in 2005. But wait, there’s more. We’re also going to see an “explosion of miracle power” in America, and the acceleration of Muslims converting to Christ “that will really amaze the world.” The terrorist threat will diminish, many nations including Israel will experience peace (though it will be an illusion), God will quickly remove justices from the Supreme Court and “their successors will refuse to sanction the attacks on religious faith.”

Terry Meeuwsen, the co-host of the 700 Club, asked Robertson, “Did you feel like God gave you a word for the church, his own people, in this hour?” “Well he gave me plenty of words,” Pat responded. “It’s always, Terry, a time of humility, a time of responsibility. As far as CBN, he said he’s going to supply the resources we need to reach out to the world, but what we do, we ought to do quickly.” Interesting, isn’t it, that a question about the church was answered with information about the evangelist’s own television network?

Robertson also pulled out his note pad and said, “I wrote a lot of things down, as you can see. I take notes and ladies and gentlemen you can assess it any way you want to, and so far my track record has been pretty good. You know, last year I said that George Bush would win by what would look like a blow out, and indeed he did.” There are a few problems here.

First of all, though George Bush did at least win the popular vote this time around, one could hardly refer to the win as a “blow out.” As Media Matters for America reported, “Bush’s margin of victory was the smallest for a reelected incumbent president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.” In addition, according to the Washington Post in 1988, Robertson said, “I heard the Lord saying…I want you to run for president of the United States.”

The paper also recorded him telling a New Hampshire audience, “I assure you that I am going to be the next president of the United States.” So perhaps there is a little spin in Robertson’s idea of a good track record.

Secondly, there is a hint of relativism in the lines, “you can assess this any way you want to.” The problem is, if God is speaking, do we have the right to dismiss him? Which of the Old Testament prophets ever said, “I think, uh, that is, I feel, that God is speaking to me, but, you can accept the message if you want to, or not.” One of the marks of a true prophet was bold utterance such as, “Thus saith the Lord!” Another mark was recorded for us

by Moses: “You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously” (Deut. 18:21-22). God’s people in this theocratic arrangement were instructed to put such false prophets to death (18:20). Thus, the prophetic texts found in the Old Testament, are the exclusive collection of the writings of all the prophets whose words always came true. So, leaving aside the debate over whether or not God still speaks today, here we have a solid way of determining whether or not Robertson is hearing from God, beyond our private speculations.

Will Robertson’s pronouncements actually occur in 2005?

If they do, would CBN be willing to print new editions of the Bible with his revelations following the Book of Revelation? If his predictions do not come true, will they be willing to call him a false prophet?

Famous Atheist Now Believes in God he Associated Press reported in December that renowned British atheist philosopher, Anthony Flew, recently abandoned his former strongly held convictions, and now believes that God does exist. The primary reasons for his new found faith? The scientific evidence compelled him. Flew, 81 years old, told one interviewer, “I think that the most impressive arguments for God’s existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries.” In particular he mentioned that the Intelligent Design argument had become “enormously stronger” than it was when he first encountered it, and that “a super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature.”

Though his conversion is in itself interesting, Flew’s new outlook is far from the territory of Christianity. He has said that he does not believe in the God of any particular “revelatory system,” and he likened his view to Aristotle’s concept of the “unmoved mover,” or the Deism of Thomas Jefferson. In fact he has stated, “I’m thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins.” Flew did

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mention, however, that he was open to the idea, though not currently enthusiastic, of potential revelation from God. Flew, a Methodist minister’s son who studied under C. S. Lewis at Oxford, began writing and speaking on atheism as early as 1950. He told reporters that his conversion was not an instantaneous change, but rather a gradual shift in his thinking over a period of months. According to the Associated Press article, the first hint of his shift was in the August/September 2004 issue of Philosophy Now magazine, in which Flew wrote, “It has become inordinately difficult even to begin to think about constructing a naturalistic theory of the evolution of that first reproducing organism.”

When asked whether or not his recent conversion might be frowned upon by many in the skeptical world, Flew retorted, “That’s too bad. My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato’s Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads.”

The Religious Lives of American Teens n a recent interview with Books & Culture magazine, author Christian Smith discussed some of his findings from his book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford University Press, 2005). In the article, Smith claims that the generation gap model from the sixties is no longer adequate to explain modern youth culture. “For the most part,” Smith says, “young people have a great deal in common with their parents and share their values.” In fact, most kids, according to Smith, “are quite happy to go with whatever they are raised to believe; they are not kicking and screaming on the way to church. On the contrary: most teenagers have a very benign attitude toward religion.”

Smith’s book, which is co-authored by Melinda Lundquist Denton, is based on the findings of a 2001-2005 study by the National Study of Youth and Religion, which limited their scope to 13-17 year olds. Smith concedes that this limited age rage should be factored in to the discussion, saying, “It could be that when kids go to college, they engage in more spiritual seeking. But high schoolers and middle school kids are extremely conventional in their religiosity.”

One of the things that Smith discovered was that the buzzword “spirituality,” which has a lot of weight among the boomer generation, is not nearly as important among today’s teens. According to Smith, this idea “isn’t even on their radar screen.” But what was clear in the study was that teens “emphatically don’t want to be ‘too religious.’ They want to be religious, but they don’t want to be perceived as overzealous, uncool, embarrassingly intense about their faith.”

Smith also found that the vast majority of the teens they

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interviewed were “incredibly inarticulate about their faith, their religious beliefs and practices.” He compared the issue to taking the time to learn a second language and remarked, “It really struck us in our research that very few teens are getting a chance to practice talking about their faith. We were dumbfounded by the number of teens who told us we were the first adults who had asked them what they believed. One said: ‘I do not know. No one has ever asked me that before.’”

Smith added that while very few of today’s teens are relativistic in their moral outlook, most cannot explain why they happen to believe this way or that on a particular moral issue. “To some degree,” Smith suggested, “I think public schools don’t want to get into that. So what you have is a generation of young people who don’t know how to explain why they think what’s good and bad is good and bad.”

In the early 1800’s Alexis de Toqueville once quipped that it was hard to tell from Americans whether the main point of religion was to obtain “eternal felicity in the other world or prosperity in this.” And according to Smith, this attitude is still with us: “What legitimates the religion of most youth today is not that it is the life-transformative, transcendent truth, but that it instrumentally provides mental, psychological, emotional, and social benefits that teens find useful and valuable.” And according to Smith, this is not only true for today’s teens but also for their parents, who argue, “If I get my kid involved religiously, he will be less likely to do drugs, he’ll get better grades, and will wear his or her seat belt.”

The basic religion, of most American teens, Smith calls, “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” Unpacking this, Smith suggests that the basic religious assumption is, “God exists...God wants me to be nice...wants me to get along with people. That’s teen morality.

The purpose of life is to be happy and feel good, and good people go to heaven. And nearly everyone’s good.” In his book, Smith challenges the implications of these findings. He states, “This God is not Trinitarian; he did not speak through the Torah or the prophets of Israel, was never resurrected from the dead, and does not fill and transform people through his Spirit. This God is not demanding. He actually can’t be, since his job is to solve our problems and make people feel good. In short, God is something like a combination of Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist.”

When asked whether this view was common even among evangelical teens, Smith replied, “It’s unbelievable the proportion of conservative Protestant teens do not seem to grasp elementary concepts of the gospel concerning grace and justification. Their view is: be a good person.” Smith found this attitude across all religious traditions and backgrounds, whether Mormon, Catholic, mainline or conservative Protestant.

Stay tuned to the White Horse Inn for a provocative interview on April 3 with Christian Smith. Join the hosts of the Inn as they discuss Smith's research and its implications for evangelical and Reformation churches.

Speaking of...

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said I’d make a bargain: if [Billy Graham] would stop the general sponsorship of his campaigns—stop having liberals and Roman Catholics on the platform—and drop the invitation system, I would wholeheartedly support him and chair the [World Congress on Evangelism]. We talked for about three hours, but he didn’t accept these conditions.

— D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

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f you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

— St. Augustine

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od writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.

— Martin Luther

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nfortunately, evangelicals in mission still tend to proceed as though their major problems are methodological. They are not. They are theological. It would be to their everlasting credit if evangelicals would devote themselves, their organizations and their conferences to frequent and thorough studies of the Christian mission as set forth in the biblical text. By its very nature, biblical mission entails clear biblical priorities. When we set agendas in accordance with human preferences and interests, the idea that we either have, or obey, a Great Commission is belied. When we redefine mission so as to encompass anything and everything the church and believers actually do, or even ought to do, we surrender the distinctive priorities of the Christian mission and risk assignment of the word to the terminological dustbin. Rather than setting still newer agendas as some are already doing, evangelicals should first set the boundaries of evangelical mission.

— David J. Hesselgrave

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issions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.

— John Piper

he mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity.

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— Mike Stachura ill the heathen who have not heard the Gospel be saved? It is more a question with me whether we who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not, can be saved.

— C.H. Spurgeon

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Authentic Modernity

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hile most everyone knows and loves Brahms’s A German Requiem, many

Brendel organized the General German Music people have no idea what a prolific choral composer he was. The reasons Society, the purpose of which was to promote modern for this are not clear. Perhaps one of them is the bias towards instrumental German music. In an issue of the Society’s organ, the Neue music prevalent in the nineteenth century, known Zeitschrift (“The New Journal”—ironically, originally as the “symphonic ideal.” And yet Johannes founded by Schumann, Brahms’s mentor, who no Brahms (1833–1897) was committed to choral longer shared its views), Brendel announces that music throughout his career. He bucked the trend. they will identify all the “progressive” elements of Not including some of his arrangements, nor the German music, and compare them unfavorably large anthologies of German folk music he with its adversaries. The designated leaders of this published, we may count nearly one hundred “New German School” were Wagner, Liszt, and Berlioz. The young Brahms was so annoyed at this individual choral works by the master.

Choral music gave him a unique opportunity to approach, especially the inclusion of Berlioz, whose make a statement. What were his compositional music he thought had nothing to do with German techniques? What musical problems did he set culture, that he wrote a rebuttal, accusing the New about to resolve? What styles did he love most? We German School of a nearly total ignorance of the know some of the answers to these questions from foundations of music.

What were these foundations? Brahms answers the books he held in his personal library. We know others from his vast correspondence. Mostly, we in his choral music. Begun in 1860 and finished may know them from the musical works themselves. four years later, Es ist das Heil uns kommen her What we learn is fascinating. His mentor, Robert (“Salvation Has Come to Us,” Op. 29, No. 1) is a Schumann, had proclaimed the young Brahms to be motet based on a chorale tune composed for the a German eagle, the wave of the future. And yet the same text by Paul Speratus (1484–1551). This center of Brahms’s own studies was the German contemporary of Martin Luther was a master of the Renaissance, in which he hoped to find the art of contrafactum, whereby one takes a principles that set German music apart from others. previously existing melody and incorporates it into He was convinced that Palestrina, Isaak, Hassler, a new composition with a new text. Here, Speratus and many of their contemporaries had discovered had used a well-known Easter song, Freut euch (“Let the marvels of polyphony, the interplay between Us Rejoice”). Bach himself had written a chorale many voices, in ways that would culminate in J. S. based on the tune, found in his Cantata 86.

In this motet, then, Brahms shows himself to be the Bach, whom he revered greatly. Brahms drew deeply from the well of tradition, mastering the consummate master of polyphony and of the kind of inventiveness required to be the worthy heir of styles of his predecessors.

At the same time, he was not nostalgic for a German Renaissance music. The structure of the piece better day, but wanted to be on the cutting edge of is symmetrical and shows a great control to achieve his times. Indeed, his reasons for searching the past diversity stemming from the unity of the central theme were to stay in the proper tradition which was and rhythms. And yet, this is a profoundly modern continuing to bear fruit in the present. An event in piece of music! Its inspiration is contemporary. The his life illustrates the point. In June 1859, Franz way he uses phrases, the unexpected flexibility, the

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hints of Mozart and Haydn, the complex harmonies—none of these would have been possible in the Renaissance, or in the works of Bach.

Brahms’s choral music is modern because it is rooted in tradition. His manner of composing is, among other things, a polemic in sound against the pretensions of the New School. Over a decade later, he wrote the great motet, Warum ist das Light gegeben? (“Why Is Light Given … to Those in Misery?”). Op. 74, No. 1 has rightly been compared with the German Requiem for its depth of feeling and its musical richness. Published in 1878, it is a work in four unequal movements. Again, the inspiration for the piece was various parts of a Palestrina Mass, which Brahms had personally recopied from the manuscript. Transformed, the Agnus Dei became the first movement of the motet.

A haunting elaboration on Job’s anguished question, “Why?”, this first movement is both ancient and modern. It is ancient because of the supremely skilled counterpoint and polyphony, and the reliance on an older piece. But it is modern because of its structure. The question Why? is a ritornello, a recurring theme which makes the listener almost ask the question in his or her spirit. And it is the same throughout: The successive movements of the motet build on the different parts of Palestrina’s work, in a creative dialogue with it.

Do we not need to emulate Brahms? So often, the music of our churches is either a nostalgic imitation of the past, or innovative without roots. The Scriptures encourage us to be neither stuck in the imagined good old days, nor addicted to novelty. Our tradition may not be the German Renaissance, nor Bach, although we could do far worse! Our music ought to be rooted in good tradition, yet creatively and skillfully interacting with it, so that we are indeed singing the Lord’s praises in communion with the saints.

Seasonal Music Since we have thought about Brahms’s choral music in this article, it seems appropriate to consider using some of it in relation to Lent and Easter. The monumental German Requiem may be more than many choirs would be ready to handle, although every singing group ought to treat itself at least once in a lifetime to Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth! (“How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place, O Lord of Hosts!”). It is the fourth movement, intentionally at the center of the Requiem, but it stands on its own as an anthem. It is a setting of Psalm 84, and strongly affirms our resurrection hope. (G. Schirmer has a decent English version of it, though nothing comes close to the original German.) The same goes for Brahms’s motets. In addition to the two mentioned in the article here, Brahms wrote twenty-four others.

Though challenging, they are exquisitely musical, and once a choir works its way through them, they stay hardwired in the soul. The beloved, Ach, arme Welt (“Ah, Poor World”), is one of the simpler ones, a hymnlike “farewell song” based on the poem of an unknown lyricist. Another favorite is Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz (“Create in Me a Clean Heart, Oh Lord”). It is possible to sing only the first twenty-five measures, which stand on their own as a song of humiliation before communion (although the two great fugues would be missed). Several motets have an “Amen” that stands on its own as a way to conclude a part of the service. The best-known, sometimes called the “Brahms Amen,” is from his arrangement of Paul Flemming’s Geistliches Lied (“Spiritual Song”) Op. 30. For the congregation, try the hymn, “We Are God’s People,” a setting of a poem by Bryan Jeffrey Leach based on the theme from the fourth movement of Brahms’s First Symphony.

Resources and Reviews Two rather different websites are worth consulting. The first is www.musical-arts.net/, a resource for organists, church musicians, ministers, and anyone concerned for good music in church.

The managing director of the site is J. David Hart, a renowned church organist and hymnologist. It includes an online store, numerous resources for organ and choir, helps in liturgy and worship, and a special announcement of conferences and new publications. One useful feature is a monthly hymn arrangement. Although international, with perspectives from Africa and Asia, it is definitely geared to a more highbrow readership. One publisher with a link on their front page declares themselves to be “good, cheap and snooty.”

The other is http://igracemusic.com, which looks at numerous aspects of music from a Reformed point of view. For examples, its subset, http://igracemusic.com/igracemusic/hymnbook/ sponsors the Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) hymnal and many other useful publications and resources. The main organizer of this site is the Rev. Kevin Twit, a sometime contributor to this magazine. The group publishes CDs by university groups and songbooks that can be downloaded. The site’s Reformed character does not mean it is locked into the seventeenth century.

Thoughtful presentations of contemporary music are intertwined with the classical hymns.

Dr. William Edgar, professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia, PA) is the author of Reasons of the Heart (Baker/Hourglass, 2004).

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The Crisis in Latin America

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orgeGomez’s1996bookGrowth and Desertion in the Costa Rican Evangelical Church was ignored by

many pastors. They should have listened. Recent studies have confirmed that things are

not going well for the evangelical churches in Latin America.

The best polls that have been conducted recently suggest that, if anything, there has been a decline in the number of evangelical Christians in Latin America: • 16% of Chile’s population is evangelical (up from 12.4% in 1992) • 15.4% of Brazil’s population is evangelical (down from 21.6% in 1993) • 25% of Guatemala’s population is evangelical (down from 50% in the early nineties) Where is the increase in the evangelical population? Despite the reports of mass conversions, the numbers have not changed. Why? A study on church attendance in Chile showed that less that half of Pentecostals attend church services once a week and a third of them hardly ever attend. The growth of nominalism within Chilean Pentecostalism is similar to that in other denominations and countries.

In Mexico, for instance, less than half of self-identified evangelicals are active in the church.

There is also evidence that many people not only stop practicing their evangelical faith, but are leaving it altogether. Across Latin America, forty-three percent of those who were raised in evangelical churches are not Protestant in adulthood. The number is even higher in Mexico where sixty-eight percent of those who were baptized in Protestant churches in the 1980s left the church less than ten years later.

We can not continue to talk about “conversions” without talking about “desertion.” There is no sense in talking about “growth” if we do not talk about “nominalism” or “exodus.” There is no sense in talking about “evangelism” if our own children

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are leaving the church!

There are two important reasons for the decline:

Conversion Without Repentance The predominant practice today among evangelical churches is to ask for ‘a decision for Christ’ at the expense of true repentance. By preaching a gospel without repentance, the evangelical church itself has produced distorted Christians and distorted churches. It is no wonder then that an unrepentant person arriving at a church full of more unrepentant people will soon realize that he doesn’t need the church to live an unrepentant life!

A Godless Gospel The “gospel” that one hears in evangelical churches in Latin America too often a message focused on a person’s happiness, prosperity, personal therapy, or life purpose.

The therapeutic, man-centered messages of the churches have turned God into a capricious pagan deity who is swayed by the offering and clamoring of humans.

Why have we left the biblical testimony, the faith of the early church, and the reformers? I believe that many times we do not completely believe in the power of the Word of God and we want to help the foolishness of the Word, by adding to it our techniques. It is of utmost importance that the evangelical church in Latin America change not only the way it evangelizes, but also the message itself. We dare not be like the disobedient children of Israel, but should heed the words of the prophet Jeremiah, “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls” (Jer. 6:16).

The Rev. Bill Green is a missionary in Latin America with the United Reformed Churches of North America. This article has been translated, edited, and abridged from the original Spanish version.

For an unabridged version please visit www.modernreformation.org.

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2 Corinthians 3:4–11

The Confidence of a Competent Minister O Spirit, who didst once restore Thy Church that it may be again The bringer of good news to men, Breathe on thy cloven Church once more, That in these gray and latter days There may be men whose life is praise, Each life a high doxology To Father, Son, and unto Thee. Amen.

Ordination Day Today the Lord has answered the prayer of Martin Franzmann’s majestic hymn as a man is given to the church as a pastor, to be your pastor.

Every ordination service reminds us that even in these gray and latter days, the Lord has not forsaken his church but sends men whose life is praise, a high doxology to the Holy Trinity.

Therefore today is a day of deep thanksgiving both for the candidate, Chad Hoover, and the congregation. For you, Chad, this day marks the culmination of years of study and reflection, of prayer and work. Indeed it is a time to pause in thanksgiving to the Lord who has brought you to this time and place as you recall all the people and events that have shaped your life and in the providence of God have made this day a reality. It is no less an occasion of gratitude for Trinity [Lutheran Church] congregation. Now another servant is entering into the pastoral office so that God’s flock in this place might be cared for with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ordination day is a day of thanksgiving but also of anticipation. Who is this man fresh out of seminary and what will he be like? That is a question—even if it is unspoken—that might be on the minds of many of you today. And Chad, you might have some questions yourself. What will

this congregation be like?

Am I ready for the challenges of being a pastor?

From JOHN T. PLESS We turn to God’s Word, which we heard from 2 Corinthians 3:4–11, the epistle appointed to be read Assistant Professor of in the ordination service.

Pastoral Ministry and This Word of God addresses Missions Concordia two issues for both the pastor Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, IN and the congregation: competence and confidence.

Much is made these days of pastoral fitness. The pastor is rightly expected to be competent both in character and in ministerial crafts of preaching, teaching, and the caring of souls. After dozens of classes, two years of field work, and a year of vicarage, the man who is about to become your pastor has been examined and declared competent.

We may be tempted to think of that as achievement. Knowledge has been acquired.

Skills have been honed. Impressive as that is, it is not yet the competency of which the apostle speaks. Paul says, “Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us to be competent ministers of a new covenant (that is, the New Testament), not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:5–6).

It is God who makes men competent ministers of the New Testament. In a few minutes your pastor-elect will make some vows. They are Godsized promises. He will pledge faithfulness to the Scriptures as the very Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions as correct expositions of that divine Word. He will promise to conform his

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teaching and pastoral work to their doctrine. He will promise to minister faithfully in all the circumstances of living and dying. He will pledge to adorn the office of the ministry with a holy life.

These are the things that you can count on your pastor for. The weight and all-inclusiveness of these vows ought to cause you, Chad, to tremble a bit. Left to your own resources they would be impossible. If it depended on you it would be doomed from the beginning.

Your learning, your personality, your people skills, the strength of your Christian commitment, even your ardent desire to be a pastor are insufficient grounds. Your sufficiency is in Christ Jesus and him alone. By his gospel, he called you out of darkness to light, from unbelief to faith, and from death to life in your Baptism. Now through his church, he has called you into the office of the holy ministry.

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glory that belongs to him alone as the only Savior and troubled consciences of blood-bought peace.

Christ does it all. The Large Catechism puts it like this:

Neither you nor I could ever know anything about Christ, or believe in him and receive as Lord, unless these were first offered to us and bestowed on our hearts through preaching of the gospel by the Holy Spirit. The work is finished and completed; Christ has acquired and won the treasure for us by his sufferings, death, and resurrection, etc. But if the work remained hidden so that no one knew of it, it would have been all in vain, all lost. In order that this treasure might not remain buried but be put to use and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to be published and proclaimed, in which was given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply to us this treasure, rdination does not make of you a different man, but it does put you under orders as this redemption.

servant sent by the Lord as his mouthpiece.

The Action of the Verbs A young boy once attended an ordination service with his parents. When it came to the point of the laying on of hands, the inquisitive lad asked his father, “What are they doing now?” His dad replied, “They are taking out his brains.” No, ordination does not remove your brains. But it does put your brains, your mouth, your hands, and your heart into the service of Jesus’ gospel. Ordination does not make of you a different man, but it does put you under orders as servant sent by the Lord as his mouthpiece. Every thought is taken captive to Christ. Your tongue is given to speak not your words, but his words. Your hands will bless with his blessing as he uses them to baptize in his name and to feed sinners with his body and blood.

Christ Jesus carries the action of the verbs. Only when Christ does it can we be sure and certain. The Catechism’s declaration “This is most certainly true” can be said only of what Jesus does. It is not our gospel, but his, for he is the One who lived under the law for us, was put to death for our trespasses, and raised again for our justification. It is his ministry, for it is Christ “who has made us competent to be ministers of the New Testament.” There are those who commandeer the verbs for themselves and so speak for doing the gospel. Some pastors speaking of doing ministry. If we are left with the verbs, it is unsure. Luther diagnoses it as robbing Christ of the

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The work of redemption is done. The death Christ died, he died for sin once and for all. Raised from the death, he lives to give life and salvation to all those who trust in him.

Redemption done on the cross still needs to be delivered. The risen Lord sets that delivery in motion on Easter evening. We heard of that in today’s holy gospel reading from John 20.

Standing in the upper room where the disciples were held up in fear, the Lord Jesus speaks his words of peace, showing them his hands and side, breathing on them the breath of his Spirit, he makes of these men apostles, sent ones. Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you…. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. With Jesus’ Word and Spirit, the gifts of Calvary—forgiveness of sins— are now delivered.

A Minister of the Gospel Paul puts the gospel in contrast with the law.

The law, the written code carved in tablets of stone, had its own glory. Moses, the minister of the law, glowed with its fading light luster. The law kills, but the Spirit who works in the gospel gives life. The law dispenses condemnation. The gospel dispenses righteousness. Yes, Brother Chad, you will proclaim Moses. You will preach the law in all of its severity to expose sin and put sinners to death. But you are not a minister of Moses, a servant of the old covenant with its everdiminishing glory. You are a minister of the New

Testament, put here to proclaim the forgiveness of sins in the blood of God’s own Son. You are a minister of the gospel, the gospel that completely eclipses the law with its splendor. No one is ever saved by the law. It is the splendor of the law that it reveals our sin. It is the glory of the gospel that it reveals the fatherly heart of God in the face of Jesus, a heart that beats with mercy and compassion for broken sinners.

This gospel is the source of your confidence.

You are delivered from the burden of a “do-ityourself” ministry. That is only law. And the law always accuses and crushes. Today you are put into the office of the gospel. In a few minutes, we’ll wrap a stole around your neck. The stole is your yoke. Just like an ox was put under a yoke, you are now under a stole. But the yoke that you will bear is not the burden of the law but the yoke of Christ, the gospel. Your confidence is fixed in him and not in yourself. Remember the words of our text: “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5).

It All Hangs on Christ That was true for Paul, and it will be true for you also. It all hangs on Christ. That is why Paul wrote, “For I decided to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

Luther called it the theology of the cross. Crux sola est nostra theologia—the cross alone is our theology.

Hidden under the shame and suffering of the cross is the splendor of God’s glory to justify the ungodly, to give righteousness to the unrighteous, to bring life where there was only death. Only Christ can do that. In his good and gracious will to be our Savior, he has chosen and called you to be his instrument. And you, the good people of Trinity rejoice today because God in his mercy has given you such a servant. Your new pastor comes to you as a gift from the Ascended Christ. The Lord has put him here in your midst to serve you with his Word and Sacraments, to be your shepherd in Christ.

To be on the receiving end of Christ’s gifts is how both pastor and congregation live. That is where God locates us today. In the confidence that it is the Lord’s doing that this man, Chad Hoover, is called to be one of your pastors you can receive him as Christ’s servant for your sake, supporting him, encouraging him, praying for him, and working with him And it is in that confidence, Brother Chad, that you now take up the office to which you have been called, knowing that your diligence is not lost

for it is the work of Jesus Christ. He promises to be with you through it all. In those high points of unspeakable joy as you watch the Word at work in the lives of the people committed to your care. In those hours of monotony and drudgery that are also part of pastoral work. In times of deep sadness and disappointment for heartbreak is no stranger to faithful pastors. Preaching the Word in season and out of season, Christ Jesus will be with you ever true to his promises of producing through you fruit that will abide for time and eternity. What Christ does, he does for keeps. It is permanent. The glory of his gospel never fades away in the dust of human history. Your confidence is in him for he has made you to be a competent minister of the New Testament. So “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

And so we pray in the words of the Reformation hymn writer: The cause is yours, the glory too.

Then hear us, Lord, and keep us true.

Your Word alone our heart’s defense.

The Church’s glorious confidence. (Selnecker) Amen.

John T. Pless (M.Div., Trinity Lutheran Seminary) is assistant professor of pastoral ministry and missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

This sermon was preached at the ordination service of Chad Hoover at Trinity Lutheran Church, Traverse City, Michigan.

In this sermon Rev. Pless cited Luther’s Large Catechism (II:38, Kolb/Wengert, 436).

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Evangelism Starts at Home o doubt about it, the boy’s life had been rough. In his ten years, he had known more suffering than the camp counselor had seen in her whole life. He was unable to live at home because of the regular abuse he suffered there. No wonder, then, that the counselor was looking for reasons to hope wherever she could find them. With relief, the young woman shared with the rest of us the conversation she had had with this child. When she had asked him if he had ever “asked Jesus into his heart,” he had replied that, yes, he had done that when he was six. Then, as they had flipped through the pages of the boy’s Bible, they had come upon a picture of the crucifixion. The boy had paused to look.

“What’s that story about?” he had wanted to know. He evidently did not know that Christ had died on a cross. I found myself wondering how this boy could have any idea of how the death of Christ applied to him if he did not even know the basics of the crucifixion story. The counselor’s confidence, however, was unshaken. The child had asked Jesus into his heart when he was six, so he certainly must be saved.

This child had not been raised in a Christian home with the benefit of Christian instruction. However, children growing up in our churches often reveal a similar lack of understanding regarding the biblical gospel. Certainly our church children know the crucifixion story. But could they give any kind of clear (even if simple) explanation of what it has to do with them? I have worked with children of elementary and junior high age for many years, almost all of them from Christian homes. It might surprise you to listen in when I ask these children about the gospel.

The conversation usually goes something like this.

Me: “What do we need to do to be right with God?” Child: “Ask/accept Jesus into our hearts.”

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Me: “What does that mean? How does that help?” The child often falls silent at this point and cannot go on.

Or, I might ask: “Why did Jesus come to earth?”

“To save us from our sins.”

“How did he do that?”

“He died on the cross to save us from our sins.”

“How does that help? What does Jesus dying on the cross have to do with your sins?” That is often as far as the conversation can go. From this point on, the child will usually keep repeating that Jesus saves us from our sins and we need to accept him into our hearts. Very rarely can an elementary or junior high student explain to me that Jesus died in our place, to take the judgment of God our sins deserved. Almost never do I find a child who understands that Jesus also lived in our place, fulfilling God’s commands since we could not. My consistent experience has been that children raised in Christian homes and Christian churches do not clearly understand the gospel. Yet it is the gospel God uses to save people of whatever age. Our church children, like everyone else, must understand the gospel.

Lest you think I expect too much of children’s capabilities, try asking the same children about their favorite sport or computer game. You may have to fish a little and you will need to use vocabulary they understand, but they will answer your questions in intricate detail. Why are our churches’ children so incapable of explaining the basics of the gospel? My observation is that Christian parents tend to assume that Christianity will sort of “rub off” on their children. They sign their children up for formal instruction in computer, sports, or music, and, in many cases, they insist that their children spend time practicing these disciplines.

When it comes to Christian truth, however, we fail to provide our children with the deliberate, thorough instruction they receive for other things.

Random Sunday school lessons and whatever they pick up from the pastor’s sermons will do—and this in spite of the fact that the gospel contains some of the most complex, mind-boggling concepts known to man. It is our responsibility to study these concepts, graciously revealed to us by God in Scripture, and make every effort to understand them and to communicate them to others, including children.

When it comes to evangelizing our children, I suggest that the best thing we can do is to provide diligent, systematic teaching, both of redemption history (Bible stories) and doctrinal truth (what God meant to communicate through those stories).

It will take years to evangelize children through such involved teaching—but then, God entrusts

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them to us for years, doesn’t he? Great trees require years to grow, but they stand strong, resistant, and fruitful through decades.

Reading or telling our children the stories God gave us will not seem too difficult a task. But how do we glean from a book as large and as adult as the Bible those doctrinal truths our children need to know? And how do we go about explaining those truths in simple, concise language? And then how do we arrange those simply explained truths in some kind of logical order where one doctrine builds upon another and the sense of the whole becomes clear? I have good news for you: all that work has been done for you, and by some of the best Bible scholars the church has ever produced.

The fruit of their labor goes by the name of a “catechism” (or “instructional guide”). A catechism contains a number of important questions about basic Christian doctrine, all arranged in a logical, orderly fashion, to which children (or adults!) memorize the answers. Two of the very best are the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Heidelberg Catechism. Either of these makes an excellent and effective tool for evangelizing and teaching children and teens.

“But wait!” someone objects. “Catechisms are written by men. Is it right to have our children memorize catechisms instead of the Bible?” We certainly do not want to replace Bible memorization with memorization of catechisms. There is no reason, though, why we cannot use both. In the Bible, an important doctrine may be taught without ever being stated in so many words. Take the doctrine of the Trinity, for example. The Bible’s teaching about three persons in one God can only be found by comparing multiple passages, none of which actually says “the one God exists in three persons.”

To memorize the Bible’s teaching on the Trinity in the Bible’s words would require memorizing a number of different verses. The catechisms state this important doctrine and others like it in short simple statements, that are easy to understand and memorize. Godly men who studied the Scriptures with extreme diligence created the catechisms.

Profiting from the fruit of their labor is like profiting from the fruit of the pastor’s labor when we sit under his preaching. In fact, if we insist upon using nothing but our Bibles to study and to teach, so that we ignore what godly, gifted men have produced, we run the risk of despising the spiritual gift of teaching God has given his church.

How does a biblical catechism help us to faithfully evangelize our children? First, a catechism provides an excellent dictionary of terms used in the Bible itself when the Bible presents the gospel message. One of the clearest presentations of the

gospel found in Scripture is the third chapter of Romans. This passage, however, cannot be clearly understood without a grasp of the terms it uses.

The twenty-third verse tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Well, what is sin? That is precisely the question asked in question 14 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The answer: “Sin is disobeying or not conforming to God’s law in any way.” Surrounding question 14 are questions and answers that deal with how sin entered the world, how it was passed on to all humans from Adam, what its results and consequences are, and what is God’s reaction to it. All of these answers would assist greatly in helping a child to understand why sin is a problem that demands a solution. Romans 3 also tells us that we are justified as a gift, by God’s grace, and not by works of the law. Justification is one of the most important concepts of the gospel. Our children must understand what it means. Question 33 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks “What is justification?” then goes on to give an excellent answer.

“Justification is the act of God’s free grace by which he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight. He does so only because he counts the righteousness of Christ as ours. Justification is received by faith alone.” Again, in Romans 3, we find that “faith in Jesus Christ” is necessary for justification. The catechism asks, “What is faith in Jesus Christ?” (Q. 86) The answer: “Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, by which we receive and rest on Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel.” We could continue this exercise for quite some time, finding in the catechism clear, concise explanations of most of the terms used when the Bible presents the gospel. There is a series of questions explaining the nature of God, another explaining the process of redemption, yet another series explaining at length the nature and work of Christ—all key concepts that must be understood if the good news of the gospel is to be clearly grasped. “But isn’t it possible to have all that head knowledge as just so many intellectual facts?” someone might wonder. “Isn’t it the response of the heart that really matters?” Of course it is. A child (or an adult) could have an intellectual grasp of gospel truth and fail to respond to it. On the other hand, can anyone respond to truth he or she does not know? Our goal for our children should be that they clearly grasp the important truths of Scripture in order that they may then faithfully respond to them.

A second benefit of a good catechism as a tool in evangelizing children is the use the Holy Spirit can make of it in bringing conviction of sin.

Children are just as self-righteous as the rest of us.

Top Ten Ways Not To Defend the Faith Originally broadcast on the White Horse Inn’s series, “Apologetics 101.”

10. Tell people the story of the “vanishing hitchhiker.”

9. Wear a T-shirt or use a bumper sticker with a catchy anti-intellectual slogan on it, such as “God said it; I believe it; that settles it.”

8. Present evidence for “Joshua’s ‘Long Day,’” the classic urban legend being circulated by e-mail that asserts that NASA has stumbled across some computer-generated evidence that a day is missing from the calculation of previous history and has traced it back to the story of the sun standing still in Joshua 10:13.

7. Use weapons of mass destruction: jihads, crusades, conversions at the point of swords, and confusing kingdoms.

6. Explain to people that your favorite celebrity or politician is a Christian so Christianity must be true.

5. Present this as recent evidence for the discovery of hell: Russian scientists were conducting deep drilling experiments in Siberia and broke through the earth’s crust at more than fourteen kilometers. They found it unusually hot at that depth. As part of their effort to listen to the movements in the earth’s crust they dropped a microphone down in the drilled hole and were horrified to hear the voices of millions of people crying out in torment.

Terrified, they give up the project but not before a scary batlike apparition emerged from the hole.

4. Show how many Bible prophecies came true with the founding of Israel.

3. Give the pragmatic defense: Statistics show that Christians are happier, healthier, and more successful than other people.

2. Preach the gospel at the expense of defending the faith.

1. Say you know it’s true because he lives within your heart!

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They tend to believe that knowing the Ten Commandments is the same thing as keeping them. Children cheerfully rattle off “Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery,” confident that they are in fine shape with God since they have not done any of these things. In those sections where the catechisms discuss the Ten Commandments, they ask questions designed to get at the heart of each one. The resulting answers provide excellent expositions of the commandments, based on the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. These explanations of the commandments show us just how rigorous God’s holy standard is. They also show us how far short we fall.

For example, the Heidelberg Catechism asks for a recital of the Ten Commandments, including the first one “You shall have no other gods before me.” It does not allow a child (or an adult!) to feel smug about how he or she has never bowed to a little statue.

Instead, it goes on to ask what the Lord requires by that first commandment. Part of the answer is this: “That I sincerely acknowledge the only true God, trust him alone, look to him for every good thing humbly and patiently, love him, fear him, and honor him with all my heart. In short, that I give up anything rather than go against his will in any way.” Whew! That’s a high standard. But it’s God’s standard. Church children especially need to see that the standard is hopelessly high. They have not attained it, nor will they ever be able to. Only the person who has despaired of ever saving himself sees the need for a Savior. A diligent and careful study of the Ten Commandments as explained in the catechisms can be of great use for helping a child to see something of the sinfulness of his or her heart. Of course, this will prove helpful not just in evangelizing but in day-to-day parenting as well. A big part of parenting is correcting sinful behavior and training in godly behavior. If our children are learning the Ten Commandments in all their fullness, they know God’s standard and we can constantly point them back to it as we correct and train.

Third, the cut-and-dried clarity of the catechisms provides a refreshing antidote to the religious thought of our relativistic culture. The catechisms spell out in clear and scriptural terms the nature of God and of the salvation he has provided. For instance, unlike most religious teaching of our day, the catechisms describe salvation as God’s work, not man’s. To understand the catechism is to understand that God saves us; we do not save ourselves. One series of questions and answers in the Westminster Shorter Catechism describes the effects of the fall on human nature. The answers then go on to show that God not only offers salvation but

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applies it to each person he saves, doing for us what we are not able to do for ourselves. “Effective calling,” explains the catechism, “is the work of God’s Spirit, who convinces us that we are sinful and miserable, who enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and who renews our wills.” To know one of the reformed catechisms is to understand the process of salvation well enough to clearly see that God alone gets all the credit for it.

One reason for using catechisms to teach is that a catechism fits the way children learn. This is true for both children of elementary age and for children in their early to mid teens. Elementary-age children have an astounding capacity for memorizing. There have been times when I have worried that I was requiring too much memorization of the children with whom I was working. The children, however, just kept on memorizing and reciting it back, in a way that appeared almost effortless. Of course, consistent drill and repetition are required, and, no, these are not always fun; but children of elementary age memorize wonderfully well, better than they ever will again. In early to mid teenagers, the thinking process is becoming more complex. Their minds have begun to analyze.

Young teens are starting to understand how all the random bits of information they possess relate.

They come up with questions about why things are the way they are and begin to wonder how fact A can be true if fact B is also true. The catechisms use a question-and-answer format ideally suited to this kind of thinking. Each question follows logically on the answer of the last one. This format fits the critical, analytical thought processes that children of junior high age are developing. As parents encourage their teens to study a catechism and its related Scriptures, they can see how logically Christian doctrine fits together. A useful study for children of this age might be the comparison of two of the good catechisms with each other. How are they alike and how are they different? Does one address issues the other omits? How do their answers on a particular topic compare? Is one more biblical or more thorough than the other? This can provide excellent training in the use of those wonderful minds God gave our children for the consideration of truths worth pondering.

“I don’t know,” a parent may still hesitate. “Isn’t memorizing a catechism just rote repetition? What if children can recite answers back, but their Christianity doesn’t go any deeper than that?

That’s not what I want for my children.” Of course it isn’t. No faithful parent would be satisfied with a child who could merely rattle off correct answers.

But keep in mind that before a child can build his life upon the truth, he must possess the truth. The

children whom I have interviewed about the gospel rattle off answers by rote as well, but in their case, their rote answers are wrong. I advocate encouraging our children to memorize answers that have substance and biblical accuracy, making sure, as we do so, that they understand what they memorize. We should look up supporting Scripture with them.

We should read Bible stories with them that illustrate the point of the doctrine under consideration.

We can use one of the devotional or study guides available that explain the catechism on a level the child understands. We teach, teach, teach, explain, explain, explain. Then, as we live with these children of ours (in the family or in the church), we encourage them to apply what we know they are learning in every situation where it is appropriate.

An added bonus will be that, as we send our children out into the world, they will have not only a solid biblical foundation for their own faith: They will have the means of clearly explaining the gospel and other points of doctrine to someone else.

Having done all this, can we trust that our children are rightly related to God? If they can correctly answer questions about the gospel or accurately explain Christian teaching, can we have confidence in their faith? Our confidence is never in our children, or in their understanding, or in our teaching, but in the Lord. We trust him to use our efforts as we use the instruments he has provided.

Likewise, we trust him to use every circumstance he brings into the lives of our children to accomplish his purposes in his time. One of the principal writers of the Westminster Catechisms wrote this: “Duties are ours; events are the Lord’s.” Let us be found faithful to carry out our God-given duty to our children, praying for God’s gracious ordering of the events of their lives for his glory. ■ Starr Meade (B.A., Arizona College of the Bible) is the author of Training Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Shorter Catechism (P&R Publishing, 2000).

In writing this article, Mrs. Meade quoted from the Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1986), as well as from the Heidelberg Catechism (Grand Rapids, MI: CRC Publications, 1988), and from The Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1984).

Recommended Reading List An Introduction to the Science of Missions by Johan Herman Bavinck (P&R, 1960) An Urban Strategy for Africa by Timothy M. Monsma (William Carey Library, 1979) Cities: Missions’ New Frontier (2nd ed.) by Roger S. Greenway and Timothy M. Monsma (Baker Book House, 2000) Going & Growing: Is Cross-Cultural Mission for You? by Dick and Thea Van Halsema (Baker Book House, 1991) John Eliot’s Mission to the Indians Before King Philip’s War by Richard W. Cogley (Harvard University Press, 1999) John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides (Autobiography) Edited by James Paton (Banner of Truth, 1965) Letters from the South Seas by Maggie Whitecross Paton (Banner of Truth, 2003) Personal Life of David Livingstone by William G. Blaikie (Harpers, 1881) Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testimony of Jim Elliot by Elisabeth Elliot (Harper, 1958) The Hispanic Challenge: Opportunities Confronting the Church by Manuel Ortiz (InterVarsity Press, 1993) The Life of David Brainerd by Jonathan Edwards (Yale University Press, 1984) The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches by John Livingston Nevius (P&R, 1958) The St. Andrews Seven: The Finest Flowering of Missionary Zeal in Scottish History by Stuart Piggin and John Roxborogh (Banner of Truth, 1985) The Urban Face of Mission: Ministering the Gospel in a Diverse and Changing World by Harvie M. Conn and Others (P&R, 2002)

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Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church http://www.worldwitness.org Mexico 8 Pakistan 1 Germany 4 Russia 5 Wales 2 Turkey 3

Orthodox Presbyterian Church http://www.opc.org China 6 Eritrea 2 Ethiopia 1 Japan 6 Kenya Korea 1 Quebec 1 Sruiname 1 Uganda 3

Presbyterian Church in America http://www.mtw.org Australia 7 Austria 3 Belize 9 Brazil 4 Bulgaria 11 Canada 1 Chile 11 Cote d’Ivoire 3 Croatia 1 Czech Republic 5 Ecuador 11 England 5 Ethiopia 1 France 12 Germany 6 Guam 3 Honduras 6 Hong Kong 1 Hungary 1 Ireland 1 Jamaica 1 Japan 23 Kenya 5 Korea 1 Mexico 33 New Zealand 2 Nicaragua 1 Papua New Guinea 1 Peru 21 Philippines 14 Portugal 3 Romania 1

Scotland 8 Slovak Republic 5 South Africa 11 Spain 5 Sweden 2 Taiwan 7 Thailand 5 Uganda 5 Ukraine 19 Zambia 1

United Reformed Churches of North America http://www.urcna.org Costa Rica 1 Honduras 1 India 1

Evangelical Lutheran Synod http://www.evangelicallutheransynod.org Chile 2 Peru 4

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod http://www.lcms.org Argentina 2 Botswana 2 England 1 Germany 6 Ghana 2 Guatemala 8 Guinea, West Africa 6 Hungary 3 India 15 Indonesia 6 Jamaica 5 Japan 21 Kazakhstan 9 Kenya 6 Kyrgyzstan 8 Mexico 2 Nigeria 7 Panama 9 Papau New Guinea 13 Philippines 2 Poland 1 Puerto Rico 4 Russia 3 Sierra Leone 3 Slovakia 8 South Africa 2 South Korea 3 Taiwan 21 Thailand 6 Togo 8 Venezuela 13

Reformed Baptist Mission Services http://www. 65.71.233.194/arbca/ Jamaica 1 Republic of Ireland 1 Argentina 1 South Korea 1 Columbia 1 Israel 1 Quebec 1

Kenya 1 France 1 Scotland 1

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Popular Evangelism Programs: Defined and Compared SIMPLY CHRISTIANITY

ALPHA

COMING ALIVE

Publisher Number of Sessions

Matthias Media 5

Cook Communications 15

Rutherford House 10

Session Topics

Is the Bible true?

The Authority of Christ Sin and Our Need for Rescue Jesus’ Death Our Response

Intro, Who is Jesus, Atonement, Assurance, Reading the Bible, Prayer, Guidance, Who is the Holy Spirit?, What does the Holy Spirit Do?, How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit, How to Resist Evil, Evangelism, Healing, The Church, Make the Most of Life

New Life, Son of God, Death, Resurrection, Faith, Holy Spirit, Worship, Quiet Times, Giving, Discipleship

Gospel

Luke

No particular

No particular

Presentation

Monologue, questions

Videos or monologue, workbook

Workbook

User Friendly?

Yes. Well-presented information and teaching material. For the student, good handouts that follow the content of the talks.

Somewhat. If you use the videos, very easy. If you prepare the sessions yourself, you’ll have to read a long book and write your own material from it. For the students, it has a good workbook that follows the talks with room to take notes.

No. Confusing for the the teacher and for the student. A student unfamiliar with Christianity would be lost. First session says, “Read Jeremiah 31:33. Try putting in your own words what lies at the heart of this great promise.” That’s a tough question to start an evangelistic Bible Study with.

Supplementary Info

Handouts. Assume no familiarity with Christianity.

Could be more deeply theological. If people are going to take extra time to read, it should be on a deeper level.

Books by Gumbel for the leaders. Tract for students.

None.

Sin “has to do with the relationship (or lack of it) that men express toward God.” “God is personally insulted by our refusal to honor him in our lives.”

We deserve wrath and judgment. We are “lost.”

Sin is “rebellion against God.” It causes pollution in our lives, has power over us, and involves a penalty, namely separation from God.

Discussed little. Not well defined.

We are “not rescued by pulling up our socks and being good.” Salvation “is not a matter of working hard at being religious.” That is the closest it comes to a clear statement that our own works are not saving.

It’s clear, but brief. “It depends not on what I do, but on what Jesus did on the cross.” That’s the only sentence dealing with that topic.

Not clearly dealt with.

Substitution is clear. “Jesus is about to accept upon himself the judgment that we deserve.” It repeatedly says that Jesus died for “our sins.” The referent of that is unclear.

Clearly substitutional. “Jesus died instead of us.”

Uses good illustrations of substitution, and deals with it at length.

Substitution is dealt with, but not clearly or sufficiently. Moral example is also discussed. “Jesus modeled how to love. In his death, more clearly and starkly than anywhere else, we see what that love is.”

Our response must be to repent and to ask for forgiveness. The last point is very vague.

Response is asked for after Session 3 of 15 in the form, “Here is a prayer that you can pray to begin the Christian life.” Neither repentance nor faith is discussed until Session 4. They are dealt with cursorily, and under the heading, “How can I be sure of my faith?”

Doesn’t seem to be the best place to discuss those.

Response is asked for after Session 3 of 10.

Admit need for forgiveness, put yourself under His control.

Means “to stop going in one direction, to turn around, and to go in a completely new direction.”

Dealt with well.

Repentance gets one sentence: “turning away from [sin] is what the Bible calls ‘repentance.’”

Repentance is “putting yourself under God’s control.”

Repentance

Faith

Never mentioned. The closest concept is that of “asking for forgiveness,” but there’s no discussion of it as an abiding principle in life.

“Faith is leaning our whole weight against Jesus and what he has done for us on the cross.”

Pretty good treatment for what it gives, but it’s not highlighted.

Not really mentioned, unless as belief, commitment, doing things “His way.”

Assumes hostility to the gospel, and perhaps goes too far in accommodating that by avoiding important words, like faith.

3/4 of the course assumes salvation. It’s very Arminian in its discussion of our response. “There’s a door that Jesus knocks on. But that door has only one handle, and that’s on the inside. Jesus will never force His way into our hearts.” The Holy Spirit gets three sessions, Jesus two. The theology in the Holy Spirit sessions, especially “How can I be filled,” is not tight. There are also heavy presumptions made in “Does God Heal Today?”

Half the course assumes salvation. Holy Spirit, worship, quiet times, tithing. Really bad format, not very useful at all.

Sin

Grace and Works

Atonement

Response

Other Comments

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This chart was developed by the staff of 9Marks Ministries, an outreach of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, whose purpose is to help local church pastors and leaders in the discovery and application of the biblical priorities that cultivate health and holiness in the local church. More information on the resources made available by 9Marks can be found at www.9marks.org.

DISCOVERING CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIANITY EXPLAINED

CHRISTIANITY EXPLORED

Publisher Number of Sessions

Intervarsity Press 10

Scripture Union 6

Paternoster 10

Session Topics

Jesus’s Claims, Resurrection, Sin, Atonement, The Choice—Relieving Life, Savior of the Whole World, Bread of Life, Spiritual Blindness, Relationship with Christ, Living in the World

Authority of Christ, Crucifixion—Substitution, Resurrection—Lordship, Grace not Works, Repentance, Faith

Intro— Meaning of Life Who is He?—Authority, Why Jesus Came—Sin, Crucifixion/Atonement, Grace, not Works, His Resurrection, Weekend—Church, Bible, What is a Christian?, Assurance and the Devil, Choices—Herod, Choices—James and John

Gospel

John

Mark

Mark

Presentation

Monologue, some handouts

Monologue, questions.

Monologue, Study Guide

Yes. Material laid out nicely for teacher and for student. Uses handouts for students.

User Freindly?

More or less. Good essays on questions of John’s historical integrity and the difference between other religions and Christianity.

Yes. Includes a CD of the talks as well as a transcript. No outlines of key points. You’d just have to adapt the transcripts to your situation, since they include illustration from the author’s life.

Handout for the first three sessions. Very useful information on Johannine manuscripts, etc.

Students are asked to read through the Gospel of Mark, a few chapters per session. Tracts “Me? A Christian?” and “Just for Starters.”

There are Bible studies that are meant to help the student read through Mark. They are asked questions about it, unlike Christianity Explained, in which they just read it.

Reluctant to use the word “sin.” Lightly deals with sin as “rebellion” and “evil,” but the dominant sense is that we are “moral failures.” I don’t think it’s very strong. One sentence on judgment.

Not dealt with directly, only in conjunction with the cross. That’s the biggest disappointment in this study.

This had the best treatment of sin, giving it a whole session. Sin is “rebellion against God.” It is treated well. Judgment, though, is described as God saying “with great sadness and a heavy heart, ‘Ok, I will leave you alone. I will confirm the decision you’ve made.’”

“Trying to get ourselves right with God is like a bankrupt criminal trying to pay his own fine.”

Okay, but not dealt with at any length.

Dealt with extensively and well. Uses easy-to-understand illustrations to explain it. No one will be confused about that after this session.

Done well. Uses Les Miserables to illustrate grace, saying that we are “utterly guilty, with no resources.”

It’s a good treatment.

Substitution articulated, but not really clearly. It does say, “Jesus takes on himself the death that we deserved,” but a sentence or two on Jesus bearing our sin would help hugely. Substitution gets lost amid unnecessary discourses on secondary questions like “How can death be loving?” Not clearly Reformed.

Jesus died for “us,” “our sins,” etc. Referent is unclear.

Substitution is clear. “Explain the concept of substitution, that Jesus took both our guilt and our punishment.” Not clear if it is self-consciously Reformed in understanding.

In one sentence, it uses excellent language “God imputed to Christ the sins of believers in every age.” But in the next sentence, it says, “God poured out wrath on Christ that belonged to you and me.”

Deals with substitution well. It is careful not to profligately say “Jesus died for everyone.” One of the main points is “God is angry…at Jesus, not us!” That’s a little theologicaly loose, though the point is that sin is imputed to Christ.

“Believe.” “Are you willing to take the final step of faith?” It’s not helpful.

What exactly is required is unclear.

“God’s forgiveness is not automatically conferred on everyone. If a person does not accept what Jesus has done, he is virtually saying to God, ‘I don’t want anyone to bear my sins—I’ll bear them myself.’ We must individually accept by faith the Jesus on the cross.” One class each on Repentance and Belief.

Asks for faith and repentance through a sinner’s prayer at the end of session 7. The Study Guide moves immediately to saying,“If you have prayed this prayer,” then Jesus lives in you, your sins are forgiven, and you can know for certain that you have eternal life.”

The word is never used. Concept is weakly described as “living a new life in Him.” “New birth” is also discussed, but not explained well.

An entire class is given to this. “Turning from sin.”

Good treatment. Based on Mark 9, “Take up your cross and follow Me.”

Good on repentance under sections called, “A Change of Allegiance” and “A Call to Die.”

Faith

Everyone needs to “take that step of faith.”

“Put your life personally into Jesus’ hands.”

That’s about it.

One whole class. Faith is trusting, publicly reaching out to Christ. Uses good illustrations of faith.

Deals with faith best of any.

The chapter on response is not very clear on faith.

The sinner’s prayer doesn’t talk about relying on Christ’s atonement for forgiveness. But chapter 5 says, “I have faith in—I am trusting in—what Jesus did on the cross to pay for my wrongdoing.” Pretty good, but not the best explanation of it.

Other Comments

I like the first session about Jesus’ teaching that He is God, and the resultant conclusion that we should listen to Him. The second on the resurrection is also good. It’s a little bothersome that in one session of John 6, verses 36–40 and 44–51 are conspicuously avoided.

Supplementary Info

Sin

Grace and Works

Atonement

Response

Repentance

24 W W W. M O D E R N R E F O R M AT I O N . O R G

I like the extra session on sin. The use of the sinner’s prayer with immediate assurance is a little disappointing. Also, I think the sessions that are taught in the weekend away and the last three sessions are best taught in and by the church. In my opinion, the purpose of an evangelistic program is to present the gospel clearly. Don’t ask people to stay for any more.

Church-life, assurance, and sanctification should be taught as someone responds to the gospel by becoming involved in the church.

A R O U N D T H E B L O C K , A R O U N D T H E W O R L D | Evangelism and Missions

Using the Gospel to Share the Gospel: An Interview with Rico Tice Editor’s note: Michael Horton sat down with Rico Tice in the spring of 2004 to discuss Tice’s evangelistic program, Christianity Explored. Rico Tice is associate minister at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London.

MR: During our Oxford days at Wycliff Hall, Rico was running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to meet all of his pressing evangelistic engagements. Sharing the gospel is the passion of his heart and I wanted him to explain a new program he’s developed. It isn’t a cookie-cutter

process; it isn’t “four steps to this” or “three steps to that.” It’s using the Gospel of Mark and making it accessible to even the least prepared layperson so that anybody can really share the gospel by going through the Gospel of Mark. Rico, it’s just a pleasure to have you with us.

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RT: It’s lovely to be here. I think we need to get back to this issue of letting the Gospel tell the gospel. God has given us the Gospels. The reason I’ve chosen Mark is because it’s the shortest. And I just found that as I was working with rugby players, if you kept it short it was quite helpful. Mark is a short, very simple Gospel, and the longing of my heart is that every member of the church family, literally from the 13 year old to the 87 year old will feel, “D’you know? I could open up Mark’s Gospel with my next door neighbor. It’s simple enough for me to be able to pray that they will be spiritually hungry and then pray that I will have the courage to say, ‘Would you like to have a look?’ And in the privacy of our own home I can get the Gospel open.” So Christianity Explored, like any other course, will come and go; I don’t mind if people put that in the bin, but what I’m longing for is that they’ll be equipped for life to share the gospel.

MR: And say, I can do this.

RT: And say, I can do this, exactly. What I found, working on staff at a church as an evangelist, is that my job is not just to proclaim the gospel myself, but to be equipping the church family to do it. So I’m speaking from the front, but I’m also wanting to get them into small groups, and above all to get them to be able to operate one to one. And I’m not going to be able to equip them to teach Mark’s Gospel, I’ve found, unless I put them in the training simulator which was running Christianity Explored, this course for non-Christians. So non-Christians would come, and we’d say ask any question you want. We’re going to look at Mark’s Gospel. We begin the course with a question, “If God were here and you could ask him any question, what would it be?” So we’re listening to them, but then we’re presenting Mark’s Gospel. As the church family helped me present Mark’s Gospel, they then grew

How W The Goal of Evangelism think everybody agrees that evangelism should be done in every church, but the difficulty often stems from that fact that many people have not seen evangelism done and so aren’t really sure where to start. At Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church in Laguna Beach, we begin with the idea that Sunday morning worship is the goal of evangelism, not the means. Entrance into the communion of saints through Holy Baptism is entrance into the marriage supper of the Lamb, or at least a foretaste of the feast to come. The means of evangelism is something very old and very simple, the gospel of Jesus Christ, his sacrificial death to save rebel sinners, all of us. How this gets accomplished is by realizing that each one of us has exactly what the apostles had: a knowledge of the gospel and what it is (for clarity, see 1 Cor. 15), the means for sharing this gospel (a mouth), and the means for spreading this gospel (two feet). We encourage all of our members to do something very radical in this regard. We encourage them to speak to unbelievers about the gospel (gasp!). We encourage them to invite people to church. At Saint Paul’s we know that the organ of faith is the ear (“faith comes by hearing…”

Rom. 10:17) and that when God speaks through his Word, faith is created in the heart. God’s Word is powerful and does not come back void. We do not have fancy materials, nor do we have elaborate programs. What we have is what the first Christians had, a

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deep concern and love for those not yet of God’s kingdom. Ours is a simple methodology, “Do what you can to share the gospel beginning with those closest to you.” The power of evangelism rests in God’s Word. To this end, the Word of God is all we have, and honestly, it’s all we need.

Rev. Charlie Mallie Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church Laguna Beach, CA

Dedicated to Evangelism enth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia does not have a ministry of evangelism, per se. Rather, all of our ministries proclaim the work of God, and therefore we consider all of them to have an evangelistic aspect. Our worship is evangelistic: we preach the gospel in all of our public services, with the prayer that God will bring people to faith in Jesus Christ. Our Sunday school is evangelistic: as we teach the Bible to children and adults, we call them to trust in Christ for their salvation. Our missionary work is evangelistic: we send missionaries to places far and near with the purpose of sharing the gospel. Our church planting is evangelistic: as we plant new churches in and around Philadelphia, our goal is to bring new people into the church, and

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the confidence to think “I could do this alone, one to one. I could do this in my workplace. I could meet with someone at 9:30 in the evening when they’re free, whatever their schedule, and open the Gospel up.”

MR: A lot of our readers probably have heard of the Alpha Course. It was the cover of Christianity Today, “The Alpha Brits are Coming” was the title.

Niki Gumball and others at a church in center city London, Holy Trinity Brompton, have developed a course that reaches out, has had a massive impact.

Now a lot of people are comparing and contrasting Christianity Explored and Alpha. Christianity Explored is having an enormous impact now in the United Kingdom and is now coming to the States.

What are some of the differences that our listeners probably should know about?

RT: Well, we’ve learned a great deal from Alpha,

and Niki Gumball has been gracious and came to the Christianity Explored launch. I hugely appreciated that. I think what Niki has tried to do with Alpha is say here is a helicopter ride around the Christian faith: this is who Jesus is, this is why he died, week three, week four, how can I know I’m a Christian, what about the Bible, a weekend away on the Holy Spirit, prayer, healing. I’ve come along and I’ve said, well there are lots of lessons— particularly relationship lessons—to learn from Alpha, but what I want to do is walk through Mark’s Gospel with people.

And there are only three questions that I want to address: Who do you think Jesus is? (His identity.) Why did he come? (His mission.) What does it mean to follow him? (His call.)

My aim is to get people to make one move as we go through Mark’s Gospel. I want them to understand that they are no longer good people going to heaven, but they’re sinners going to hell.

We Do It not simply to move Christians from one church to another. Our mercy ministry is evangelistic: as we show the love of Christ through feeding the homeless, visiting prisoners, tutoring city children, and caring for people who are separated or divorced, we always combine deeds of mercy with words of gospel truth.

Possibly the only ministry in the church dedicated exclusively to evangelism is a small prayer group that meets in my study during lunchtime on Friday afternoons. The sole focus of our intercession is to pray by name for people who do not have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Often we find ourselves praying for people whom we have met through one of the ministries of the church.

Rev. Phillip G. Ryken Tenth Presbyterian Church Philadelphia, PA

Equipped with Joy t Bethlehem the chief aim in everything we do is summed up in our vision statement: “to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.” In a day when evangelism has seemingly become more about method than message we teach that evan-

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gelism is “commending whom we cherish.” That is to say, before any technique is taught we seek to express to the church people that loving God and his gospel is ultimate in evangelism. From the pulpit to seminars on evangelism training, we teach about the beauty and glory of God so that God makes much of himself in the lives of his people and, out of that satisfaction, they communicate to the perishing the place where infinite joy is found (Psalm 16:11). We talk this way because sin is not simply a rejection of the law of God — though it cannot be less than that — but it is also seeking satisfaction in things that cannot ultimately satisfy (Jeremiah 2:12, 13). So our primary strategy in evangelism is equipping the church in pursuing hard after an ever-increasing knowledge and delight in God through Christ, in saturating their minds with the gospel and its implications, prepared to speak when prompted by God (Acts 17:16ff), and, in being able to contend for the faith (Jude 3; 1 Peter 3:15).

Rev. Sherard Burns Bethlehem Baptist Church Minneapolis, Minnesota

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And I think we hit that much harder than Alpha does. Not that Alpha doesn’t speak of judgment; it does. But what we’re trying to say is, look it’s not just that sin is a problem and it leads to judgment.

But the real problem is I’ve got God angry at my sin. So we want to have a course that is really Godcentered in terms of saying, “I may be very comfortable with my sin, the issue is that God is not comfortable.”

MR: And the atonement makes sense in that context.

RT: It does indeed. I have to understand that God loved Jesus, but also at the cross God was punishing Jesus for my sin; that is how serious my sin is.

And I will spend eternity in hell paying for my sin if I reject the death of Jesus. And particularly, I think the battle is to persuade people that right at the heart of sin is not believing in Jesus.

Now I have two nephews, Dolton and Patrick, and they’re lovely little boys. If they walked into

the room now and you ignored them, cut them down, or were unpleasant to them in any way, we’d be enemies. We must get people to understand that they may think they are living thoroughly pleasant lives, but in holding God’s Son at a distance when he sent him to die makes them God’s enemy. It’s the heart of sin. We find in England (and it’s probably because we’re quite Pelagian), we really don’t have a big enough view of sin. It takes weeks to persuade people that sin is the problem.

We’re saying to people, “Jesus didn’t come for good people but for bad people” so the qualification for being a Christian is not are you good enough, but are you bad enough? Jesus said, “I didn’t come for the righteous, but for sinners.” And if they still think they’re okay, we say let’s look at Mark chapter 7. And see that the heart, Mark 7 in verse 20, is a fountain of evil. It’s what’s within us, and no good work can cover up. That would be like using a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.

MR: So this isn’t exactly a feel-good sort of …

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irk Cameron is fearless. The actor, best known for his role as “Mike Seaver” on the sitcom Growing Pains, walked up to four tattooed street toughs and asked them if they had ever heard of the Ten Commandments! This isn’t a scene from Cameron’s recent Left Behind movies, it is part of a new evangelism program called “The Way of the Master.”

Cameron lends some star power to this program developed by well-known evangelist Ray Comfort (also author of Hell’s Best Kept Secret and God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists). The eight thirty-minute programs and accompanying course books spell out the missing ingredient to modern day evangelism: the use of the law in convicting sinners of their own unrighteousness. Comfort and Cameron use the acronym “WDJD” to help students in their course remember the key steps in properly sharing the gospel: W: Would you consider yourself to be a good person?

D: Do you think you have kept the Ten Commandments?

J: If God judges you by the Ten Commandments on the Day of Judgment, will you be innocent or guilty?

D: Will you go to heaven or hell? (Destiny) There is much in this course to commend. Ray Comfort has long been a lonely voice in the evangelical wilderness calling for

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greater attention to be paid to the Law of God in preaching and evangelizing. Some of the most “cringe-inspiring” moments of the DVDs were when Comfort or another interviewer would talk to Christians about the message they used when they shared Christ with an unbeliever. Almost universally the answer would be therapeutic-oriented: do you want happiness? peace? true love? Jesus is being presented as a life-enhancer, rather than the life giver. So, when the sinner responds to the modern gospel of life enhancement and finds that life hasn’t changed or gotten any better, it’s no wonder that he casts off his experimental conversion to find something else that works.

The on-the-street interviews with non-Christians were also very interesting. Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, and the other interviewers gave great examples of grace under fire (when talking to a drunk or an atheist) and persistence (when questions or statements were made to sidetrack the conversation). I was surprised by how willing some of the individuals were to engage with the probing, personal questions Comfort posed.

I think that Christians would be well-served to watch these interactions (both with Christians and non-Christians). It would help to disabuse them of the false gospel they may have been sharing and it will give them good examples to follow when

RT: Well, it becomes a very feel-good course once you’ve seen the horror of your sin, you understand God’s grace, and you understand imputed righteousness—by which I mean, you understand that today God is delighted with me and it’s because I am relating to God through his Son, Jesus, and he’s delighted with Jesus. Once I live by Jesus’ performance and not my own, well, it’s absolutely overwhelming because then the unconditional love of God flows through. But the root to that is to understand sin, judgment, wrath, and hell. And in England that is what the churches have lost their nerve about. We have to teach those four. So, if people still think they’re okay, we say, let’s have a look at Mark 12. Have you loved God with heart, soul, mind, and strength? And if you don’t, Jesus says, cut off your hand, pluck out your eye, cut off your foot rather than go to hell for your sin. Week by week we tell people, they’re not good people going to heaven, they are sinners going to hell, and then we long for them to understand that they are more wicked than they ever realized, but more

loved than they ever dreamed, and it’s because of the gospel. So the wonder of the gospel comes through as I see the horror of my sin.

MR: It’s so clear, so simple that you would think that any layperson could use this course.

RT: Well that’s exactly the issue.

MR: Or any pastor.

RT: Any pastor. The issue on using this course, Mike, honestly, is believing in the Holy Spirit. You must believe the Holy Spirit as you say these things that are totally politically incorrect. I tell people that you’re a rebel not a victim. But in so much of Christian preaching today, people are addressed as victims. And I stand up and I say, you know it’s wonderful that you’re here, I’m sure that you’ve been very hurt….So the opening question is, if you have a question for God and he’d answer it right now, what would it be? There’ll be many

eview of The Way of the Master engaged in a conversation about God with an unbeliever. But despite these good features and Ray Comfort’s needed corrective to the evangelical gospel, I don’t think that this course is ultimately useful in Reformation churches. There are several primary reasons: Evangelism, despite the overwhelming emphasis in the course books and DVDs, is not the most important activity in which a Christian (or the church) can be engaged. Activities of public and private worship are presented in the course as distractions to the “real work” of the church, which is sharing the gospel. To be sure, we cannot excuse our inability or unwillingness to share the gospel on our busy lives of worship (such hypocrisy would be more damning than not sharing the gospel!) but we should not, in the name of evangelism, forget that we were created for worship, that our chief purpose is to glorify God, and that the church’s most important activities are the ministries of Word and Sacrament. These activities compel us to share our faith, they should not ever be treated as secondary activities, or even worse, as activities that detract us from sharing the faith. Evangelism is one activity among many to which a disciple of Christ should set himself, but to elevate it to the most important work warps the motive and the method one uses in sharing the gospel.

The motive presented in this course for sharing the gospel is terribly legalistic. An opening anecdote about a firefighter who neglects his duty while a family perishes in the midst of a burning home is applied to Christians as a method for discerning whether they have a passion for the lost. This passion, we are told, should be so overwhelming that evangelism becomes the most important activity in which a Christian can be engaged. This, of course, means that the gospel must be shared at every opportunity with anyone whom we come into contact with. Any emphasis on developing a relationship with an individual and actually knowing the person to whom you are sharing the gospel is turned around as a guilt-inducing example of a passionless approach to sharing the gospel.

The method that is presented, though admirable for its emphasis on the law driving men and women to Christ, is akin to what I would call “drive-by evangelism.” Over and over Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron press the demands of the law to the unbeliever, present the cross as the solution to the problem of sin, and then ask the subject if they are concerned about their precarious situation. Usually the answer is yes and the response it to go home and pray and read the Bible. Good directives, but not nearly sufficient [ C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 4 3 ]

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questions on suffering, but once we have listened to people, which is so important in evangelism, we’re then saying, this is Jesus; he came because we’re rebels. Will you please allow him to pay for your sin at the cross rather than pay yourself in hell? Please do not pay for your sin yourself in hell.

The only way to get to hell is to trample over the cross of Jesus. So he stands before us and he says don’t go there, I’ve died, I’ve paid in death and blood so that you don’t have to go there. What people need is the courage to say that and a real love for people as they say that. We pray that people will know we’re saying that because sin is seri-

RT: Well, two things. The ultimate aim of this course is that you help lead the course with your pastor in charge of evangelism. You become a helper to answer people’s questions and to befriend them. And as you do the course and teach Mark’s Gospel, and teach the identity, the mission, the call of Jesus, you become equipped to open Mark’s Gospel yourself. So that’s the first way in which it reaches people.

The second way it reaches people is that you just ask your non-Christian friend to come along.

And the key thing you say is, “You know what?

We’re not taking anything for granted on this course. You can just come and ask any question you One of the great tensions in the film is that the identity of Maximus is unknown. want.” So they feel that they can come into an environHe’s not just a gladiator or a slave, he is a general. Well, Mark’s Gospel is the ment….By the way, don’t necessarily run this in a same. Jesus is a general that came to die. He came to judge and to save. church. Run it in a home, run it in a hotel, run it in a place where you know your friend will feel secure because it’s on his or her territory. ous.

MR: And because we care about them.

MR: We’ve talked about pubs. Inviting people to …

RT: We do care about them. I think it’s a wonderful time for gospel preaching these days, because people here are sick of “spin.” I don’t know if they spin over here in the states, but in England….

RT: Absolutely. I have a friend back in England who ran Beer and Bible. And as they arrived in the door he gave them a bottle of beer! It was a men’s evening, and they’d come and they’d just look at the gospel together.

MR: Just a little.

RT: The politicians are accused of spinning everything, and people are sick of being manipulated.

So when you stand up and you say, “Let me tell you, this is sin, this is judgment, this is wrath, this is hell, and this is the glorious cross of Jesus. . . . Do you believe me or not?” You know, time and again I’ve sat down and people look at me and they say, well thank you for being honest.

MR: No one would have invented this.

RT: Well that’s right, and the Spirit of truth will do his work and convict people of this truth.

MR: A lot of people reading our exchange will probably say, we’re onboard, this is exactly the kind of message that we embrace. Modern Reformation and The White Horse Inn talk about this stuff all the time, and all that’s great. But how do we—practically speaking—reach the lost? How does the Christianity Explored course try to do what perhaps we have not done as effectively in our own churches and in our own personal practice?

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MR: That’s great. And instead of trying to turn the church service into something that is neither feeding the sheep nor reaching the lost, this allows you to do on the Lord’s Day what should be done on the Lord’s Day with the people of God, and yet reach out on other occasions to bring people to an earshot of the gospel on their turf.

RT: And that’s right. And what a lot of churches do is have the pastor preach through each week of Christianity Explored so the church family knows what they are bringing their friends to.

MR: Isn’t that a big part of it? We don’t know what we believe and why we believe it. We have all of the seminary notes in our binders. And that’s in the best-case scenario, but we don’t know how to summarize what we believe to non-Christians.

RT: I think that’s exactly right, and that’s why we say that there are three great questions in Christianity Explored. The first is, Who do you think Jesus is? Was he just a man or was he Lord and God, the one who could calm a storm, raise a

dead girl, and ultimately rule the universe? This is Jesus. What do you think of his identity? And I ask people to score themselves.

If he’s just a man, it’s a 1; if he’s Lord and God it’s 10. And people will say, well I’m here now. I’m 3, 5, 7, and gradually, as we teach Christ, the Holy Spirit causes their belief in him to grow.

The second question is, Why did Jesus die?

Why did he come? Was his death a waste? Or was it a rescue? So as we teach about the death of Jesus and explain the cross, we’re saying, what do you think happened? Do you think your sin was paid for, or is this just the tragedy of a Galilean convict getting slaughtered?

And third, what does it mean to follow Jesus?

Will you obey his call to take up your cross and deny yourself? It’s uncomfortable! Will you hear that call, and stand for Christ in a world that stands against him, or will you walk away from the call, and live for yourself?

MR: Now I’ve just heard you do a brief thumbnail sketch—a twenty-minute summary—of that here in chapel at Westminster Seminary California. You were able, even in twenty minutes, to summarize all of what you’ve just said from the Gospel of Mark. It didn’t seem to me that those were three questions that one might have come up with and then superimposed on the story.

RT: Mike, that is so important. I’m saying this is simple but not simplistic. Mark’s aim was to answer those three questions. You see the issue in Mark’s Gospel is the disciples cannot see who Jesus is, they’re blind. So in Mark 1:1 it’s as though we’re in an Agatha Christie detective novel that begins with the words, “The butler did it.” We’re told at the start that Jesus is not just a man, he is God. The drama is that the disciples can’t see that. So we walk through Mark’s Gospel, getting the evidence, layer upon layer, put before us, and the disciples not knowing what to do with it. So there comes a storm and they say, “Who is this? We’re terrified!”

He raises a dead girl, but they still don’t know that he’s Lord and God. But eventually, in Mark 8, Peter says, “You’re the Christ.”

So you could get a highlighter and go through most of the first eight chapters and see that the disciples’ blindness to identity is the big issue. But once they’ve seen he is the Christ, they ask, “Why did he die?” Peter knows Jesus is the Christ and when Jesus says “I have to die” Peter says, “You mustn’t do that.” A king can’t die; a king must sit on his throne. Peter can’t see that Jesus’ throne is his cross. What does Jesus say to Peter? “Get behind me Satan. You don’t have in mind the

things of God, but the things of man.” In other words, “Peter, you’re still half-blind to my mission.

You can’t see it.”

MR: One of the things that is obvious in the way you’re going about this is that you are telling a dramatic narrative.

RT: That’s right.

MR: Most of the evangelistic programs people are used to are these very abstract propositions about 2 + 2 = 4. It’s not that they’re not true, but the Bible itself doesn’t present Christ that way.

RT: Mike, if I may say, this is so important for the postmodern generation. I know that word is used so often. It’s a story and you discover the truths yourself as you walk with the disciples and see how blind they are but see the penny gradually dropping. They gradually get it. So, the wonderful thing for a generation that is quite antiauthority, they walk through Mark’s Gospel and encounter Jesus, not just propositions. They encounter the person.

MR: They see for themselves.

RT: And they begin to say, “He died for me.” And then they begin to say, “What does it mean to follow him?” And the answer in Mark’s Gospel is: You serve. So even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life for many.

That’s comedic writing!

MR: Lots of sarcasm.

RT: In Mark 9, the disciples are on the road and they say, “Well, who’s the greatest?” while they are in the company of the greatest person! He’s just done a teaching on his own death, and they ask, “Well, which one of us is the greatest?” Then, in Mark 10, he again does another study on his own death, and James and John walk up and say, “We want you to do whatever we ask.” Their blindness is amazing!

MR: Dorothy Sayers, the great British playwright said, “This is the most exciting drama ever staged.

And it only takes clergymen to ruin it.”

RT: Well, you’re quite right. I think it’s quite interesting that in the film Gladiator Ridley Scott picked up the metaphor of a general becoming a slave who becomes a gladiator to free Rome, but in the process dies. Well, he was picking up the Christ

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story in that film and that’s, I think, one of things that makes Gladiator so appealing. It is redemptive myth. One of the great tensions in the film is that the identity of Maximus is unknown. He’s not just a gladiator or a slave, he is a general. Well, Mark’s Gospel is the same. Jesus is a general that came to die. He came to judge and to save.

MR: A great reversal.

RT: It is a great reversal. Just as in the film Gladiator Maximus says to Comodos, “The time for honoring yourself will soon be past,” Jesus says the same to the authorities in Jerusalem. And we have to make a decision. Will we stand with Jesus or against him? Will we take advantage of his death or not?

MR: What kind of practical steps can people take who are listening, pastors or laypeople, who perhaps want to see about bringing Christianity Explored to their church? They’re probably wondering what kind of materials are available and what the next step is if they’re interested. They may also be asking, how does this actually work?

You’ve given us a lot of content here, but practically speaking, how does this work? Are we talking about great meetings where we bring a lot of people? Or are we talking about things that happen in our homes?

RT: Well, the first thing I think you should do in the Reformed tradition is get three highlighters, go through Mark’s Gospel, and ask whether what I’m saying about Identity, Mission, and Call is right or not. Go through and ask, Is this about Jesus? Why did he die? What does it mean to follow him? Do that first. Go back to the Bible and test out this theory.

Then, once you’ve established whether I’m telling the truth or not, get hold of the materials and see how we explore it. We have a study guide for the non-Christian who attends, a leader’s guide to train the church family with all the answers to the questions on Mark, and then a course leader guide that includes the talks. Those are the three materials. I’ve also put all the material on video, so you can have the talk on video if you want a stupid Englishman to give the talks. We go around England, from Buckingham Palace to Big Ben, and I give the talks from there. So you’ll get a bit of the tour of England in the series as you get the seventeen-minute talks. So check Mark out and then check out the material.

MR: By the way, that is probably a good thing to do especially for people who say, I’m a little nerv-

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ous about having my neighbors over. I’m not nervous about talking one on one, but if I have five or six friends over for dinner, I could put that video in and then talk about it. I’m not just going to mindlessly press play….

RT: That’s right. We will set up the discussion on Mark’s Gospel. The video forms the key talk. So people can arrive and have a look at a passage.

You’d have the talk, and then there’d be a discussion.

What I do want to say, though, is that we are absolutely unashamed of the Bible. So from week one we say, look, Christianity is Christ, and it’s Christ as he walks off the pages of Mark’s Gospel.

So what I am asking people to have the courage to do is say, Look, we are going to have a look at a Gospel. Please ask any question you want, but we want to give you the authentic document.

Now if I were investigating Islam and I was looking at the Muslim faith, I’d want to look at the Koran myself. I’d want to form my own opinion.

So I think unashamedly I’d say to a neighbor, pray that they’re spiritually hungry, but say that we’re all going to be looking at Mark’s Gospel. There’s an English guy on video, and we’re going to get the talk from him, but there is going to be a bit of a study of Mark.

I have one story I need to tell. In week 2, we look at the passage in Mark 2 about the paralytic.

About four years ago there was a photographer in the group. He was nowhere spiritually. He said, as we looked at Mark 2:1–12, “So this boy is paralyzed because of his sin.” Now, there was another man in the group, an atheistic doctor, who had come only because he was in love with a Christian girl who said she would have nothing to do with him unless he was a Christian! After this photographer made his comment, this atheistic doctor looked down and said, “No, I don’t think that is what it’s about.” He said, “I think Mark is saying that Jesus can forgive sin because Jesus is God.” He looked up and said, “I can’t believe I just said that.”

MR: He got caught up in the story.

RT: He was just looking at the story and saying, “What do I think this means?” It’s very exciting.

The questions with the material are there to draw this out.

For more information on Christianity Explored please visit www.christianityexplored.com.

A R O U N D T H E B L O C K , A R O U N D T H E W O R L D | Evangelism and Missions

Teaching and Making Disciples hat kinds of questions are being asked on the global mission field? The same kinds your neighbors are asking you.

“Was Jesus truly the Son of God? Is the Bible true? How can God be good with so much suffering in the world?”

How do pastors and missionaries address questions like these in a cross-cultural context? By drawing on the theological training they received, and applying biblical principles to meet the given need. But in places where theological training is weak and Christianity is confused with traditional beliefs and practices, who will provide the answers to life’s most important questions?

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Theological Education any missionaries say theological education and training are central to effective mission work. “Theological education plays a very important role in missions, as it is the primary supplement of all missionary efforts. We could also think of theological education as the key agent of discipleship, the main objective of missionary work,” says Manuel Kamnkhwani, a profes-

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sor at African Bible College in Malawi. As men and women study the faith in Bible colleges and training centers, they are compelled by the gospel to join Christ in making disciples of all nations.

Africa One educational institution providing theological training for ministers is Westminster Theological College (WTC) in Uganda.

It was founded in 1996 by the Presbyterian Church in Uganda (PCU) and is one of the few places in Africa where one can be equipped for ministry. Dr. Emma Kiwanuka, dean of WTC, reports the success the college is experiencing, including an increase in student enrollment.

“Our residential students have grown to twentyone, and that is the biggest number we have ever had on campus. There is a need for teachers to cater to the growing student population. WTC will not enroll new students this coming year due to the big load that our instructors have,” says Kiwanuka.

Graduates of WTC have been planting churches, health clinics, and Christian schools that are associated with the PCU.

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Another educational institution that serves to train ministers is African Bible College (ABC) in Malawi. “God has provided, through ABC, a means of training African indigenous teachers and preachers who are able to communicate the truths of the gospel in the local language in their own unique cultural setting,” says Reverend Jay Stoms, who has been teaching theology at ABC for the past four years. “Our graduates are pastors in city churches and in remote villages. Others are ministering to both the physical and spiritual needs of the growing orphan population due to the AIDS epidemic.”

While a student at ABC, Fletcher Matandika was exposed to orphan children whose parents had died of AIDS. The college had offered weekly outreaches, and he was struck by the needs of the children. ABC inspired Matandika to help the orphans in Malawi, which he estimates to be between 800,000 and one million. “One day I was sitting

outside a church and I heard a ‘voice’ that said to me, Where will hope for these children come from if you don’t bring it to them? This nudged me to keep persevering in ministry, even though I was a 22-year-old, full-time student with no money and no resources to help the orphans.” Alone in his dorm room one night, Matandika prayed and Isaiah 41:10 came to his mind, even though he did not remember having read it before. “I felt it was God’s promise to me: ‘So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’”

Matandika took his desire to help the orphan children to his father, a pastor in Matapila. His father’s church elders proceeded to gather the names of several orphans from the surrounding villages. “When I met all the children for the first time, I was overwhelmed,” says Matandika. “I said to them, ‘I have no money, no food, no clothes to

Where Theology an How much does your theology matter on the mission field? We asked missionaries to share the ways theology influences their work of evangelism.

David Okken (Karimojong region, Uganda)—I don’t believe that I would be able to continue were it not for my knowledge that the sovereign God has his elect among every nation, tribe, and tongue, including the Karimojong. I am encouraged to continue preaching the Word boldly and faithfully, by the promise that Christ knows which are his sheep and they will listen to his voice and follow him. Reformed theology rightly affirms and emphasizes the current presence of the kingdom having come in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It also recognizes that its glory is hidden, as it has not yet come in its fullness. Living amidst such deep-rooted paganism as well as suffering, it is encouraging to know by faith in God’s Word, though we cannot see it with our visible eyes, that God has caused the light of his glory to shine in Jesus Christ. Recognizing that the church is not simply a parenthesis in God’s plan, but the fulfillment of all his covenant promises, gives me great encouragement to labor diligently as God uses me to build his church here.

Patrick Bukenya (Kampala, Uganda)—Covenant theology has made such a great difference in the lives of many people in our churches. It teaches of God’s sovereign dealings with humanity—that our God is the sovereign King, Lord, and Savior who both initiates and sustains his chosen people throughout their

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covenant relationship with him. Blessings come to those who are faithful, but also judgments come against those who violate his covenants.

Neal Hegeman (Miami, Florida)—Reformed theology is worth preserving and propagating, but its cultural mold needs to be critically reconstructed. Reformed missiology subdivides into three modalities: traditional Reformed, ecumenical Reformed, and evangelical Reformed. All modalities appeal to the classical model, but differ in their definition and association of the church.

The traditional Reformed tend to be exclusivist. The Body of Christ is defined in terms of the Reformed tradition alone. The ecumenical Reformed position forces one to compromise on fundamental issues in order to cooperate, which is problematic. The evangelical Reformed value the biblical, theological, and historical importance of the Reformed ecclesiastical tradition, but do not limit themselves to Reformed ecclesiastical and cultural expressions. The doctrines of grace have extended beyond the Reformed churches. I believe the Voetian mission tradition is the finest representation of Reformed missiology. Gisbertus Voetius saw missions as the extension of the kingdom of God. Tony Curto (Greenville, South Carolina)—I would agree with the criticism that says Reformed churches do not do enough mission work. We should be doing a lot more. If we believe that the doctrine of election is not a hindrance but a guarantee of saved souls,

give to you, but I have the love of God to give to you.’” On April 11, 1999, the Ministry of Hope (MOH) was launched in Matapila. “It is a great joy to see our students catch a vision for working with Malawi’s ever-expanding orphan population. Now we have two ABC graduates and two students that are working for MOH,” says Stoms. Since the initial launch, four more MOH locations have opened, in the Mponela, Katondo, Selengo, and Khwamba villages. They are all being supported by churches in Malawi. “You can give these children the best food, the best clothing, the best education; but if you don’t give them Jesus, they will still die hopeless,” says Matandika.

Latin America Not only in Africa, but also in Latin America, the gospel is advancing largely through theological education.

A partnership between World

Reformed Fellowship (WRF) and Miami International Seminary (MINTS) provides bachelor, master, and doctoral programs, as well as conferences, educational literature, and a theological journal, Reforma Siglo 21. Currently, there are more than 1,300 MINTS students in thirty-five countries. MINTS professors travel throughout Latin America to open “study centers” in cities where discipleship relationships take the form of professor and student.

MINTS offers both bachelor and master’s programs which require a well-rounded curriculum of courses, including Systematic Theology, the Doctrines of Grace, and Christology. Dr. Neal Hegeman, Hispanic Program Director for MINTS, says, “Reformed theology is worth preserving and propagating, but its cultural mold needs to be critically reconstructed. The Reformed evangelicals value the biblical, theological, and historical

nd Ministry Intersect why aren’t we going out to the mission field? Why is the multitude of missionaries non-Reformed? As much as our theology teaches us the power of God, we have a hard time believing it.

Matt Baugh (Haiti)—There are huge advantages of having a Reformed view in the area of missions. You are more purposeful because of your eschatological perspective. If you have a premillennial/dispensational view of eschatology, then you are not going to approach missions with a long view. On the other hand, if you have an amillennial eschatology, you believe Christ is reigning right now, and he already owns his kingdom. You are optimistic and expect to see individuals and families converted and transformed. That is what we expect to see. Even though broad evangelicals are doing great mercy ministries, their practice is not consistent with their eschatology. Your theology will influence your expectations of the mission field.

Two summers ago, while teaching the five points of Calvinism (Doctrines of Grace) in Haiti, I was teaching on limited atonement. There was some skepticism, but Haitians have a high view of Scripture, and I began to prove the doctrine from Scripture.

Afterward, an elderly man approached me and began weeping. I was thinking, I wasn’t even preaching! He said to me, “I always knew this was true but was never able to express it. My father was a Baptist minister and I heard him say that Jesus died for the sins of the world, every individual. But I knew Christ’s death was effectual, and I could never square those two doctrines.” He

thanked me for clearing it up for him. He was so grateful to be corrected and to better understand the Scriptures at his ripe age.

We usually have a defensive posture when we talk about limited atonement. But I was reminded what a rich heritage we have in Reformed faith. As we go through our catechisms, we should not forget or take for granted the standards and doctrines that God has given to us throughout history.

Timothy Monsma (Africa)—If you believe that it is ultimately up to the individual to accept or reject the gospel, then if you present the gospel to a person and he rejects it, you may think it is your fault that he rejected it. We need to rest in the Lord and trust that he will do the work.

George Scipione (Uganda)—Your theology, good or bad, dictates your ecclesiology and missiology, which have long-term effects. Theology, ecclesiology, and missiology must all be Reformed, since they inform each other. Reformed theology exposes people to historic Christianity and defends the historic faith, so as not to create our own religion. What Reformed theology lacks is a confessional standard for mission work, as well as church growth and practical theology.

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importance of the Reformed ecclesiastical tradition, but do not limit themselves to Reformed ecclesiastical and cultural expressions. The doctrines of grace have grown beyond the Reformed churches.” Hegeman reports of a Roman Catholic priest, who after studying the Bible’s teaching on the doctrines of grace, “threw away his clerical collar.” According to Hegeman, this priest reasoned that Christ’s complete sacrifice and fulfilled priesthood left him without a job as a dispenser of grace.

He renounced the priesthood and declared he wanted to become a Protestant pastor. Several of last year’s MINTS graduates testified to replacing their previous commitments to Roman Catholic, Arminian, and charismatic traditions with a new commitment to the doctrines of grace.

Despite individual victories, the mission field continues to face significant challenges, especially in the efforts to plant self-supporting churches.

Dependence on missionaries is a problem for many new ministries. The issues are layered and interwoven with greater needs than many missionaries are equipped to meet.

Challenges to Self-Support im Nickel, a missionary with The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), says dependence on missionaries is the greatest challenge he faces in Kyrgyzstan. “The churches here are dependent on the Mission for everything,” says Nickel, “talent, personnel, money, facilities and general support.” Helping church plants to become self-sufficient is a long-term goal that takes time to establish. Dr. Tony Curto, professor of evangelism at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in South Carolina, does not believe a church can thrive without a support system. “‘Church planting’ includes setting up synods, presbyteries, and a general assembly. That is my understanding of ‘church,’” says Curto.

“Too many people see the church as just another means to ‘get’ something and get on with life,” says Marcos Kempff, a missionary with the LCMS. Kempff identifies attitudes of indifference and apathy as great challenges on his mission field in Panama City, Panama.

Fred Kabenge also sees self-sufficiency as a great need in his church, Mutungo Community Church in Uganda, planted in 2000. Kabenge says missionaries need to understand the context in which they are working in order to engage the local people in the mission work of planting independent churches. “There has been a tendency for nationals to tell the local people what needs to be done,” says Kabenge. “This deprives the people of opportunity to learn what the missionaries are

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doing. If everything is dictated by the missionaries, it makes people feel incompetent.” Kabenge calls this the “dependence syndrome,” an unbreakable cycle that can cause tension between indigenous churches and their missionaries. “If the missionaries should leave one day, we need to be able to carry on without them,” says Kabenge. “There have been projects that were totally dependent on missionaries, and when they left or their contracts ended, everything fell apart.” Kabenge recalls the African Foundation, an orphanage that began in Uganda in 1979. When American and Dutch donors could not continue supporting the orphanage after almost twenty years, the organization folded and hundreds of orphans were scattered. “It was a sad situation,” says Kabenge.

Self-sufficiency is especially crucial for lowincome congregations like Mutungo Community Church. Most congregation members make their living as peasant farmers or coffee growers. By Ugandan government standards, their income is 70,000 Ugandan shillings per month, or approximately $41. “It is not that the people don’t want to give to the church,” says Kabenge, “the problem is that they have nothing to give.” Kabenge believes the challenge in his community is to help his congregation members find ways to support their own families as well as the church ministry. “There are Christians who are not skilled in teaching theology or in running youth camps, but are skilled in business. We need businessmen and women to come and help us develop small businesses that will enable our congregation members to survive financially.”

Low-income communities also face the threat of impermanence. “If you do not own a piece of land, you will be driven out once you cannot pay the bills,” says Kabenge. “It doesn’t make sense to launch an evangelistic campaign in a place where the people may not continue to meet.” According to Kabenge, one of the most effective ways to help plant a church in a low-income community is to help them buy a piece of land that will safeguard the congregation from being relocated and losing members in the transitions. In this way, internal and external financial contributions will remain within the church body.

Purchasing permanent property and starting up small entrepreneurial enterprises to create jobs for congregation members may not be the most intuitive way to contribute to mission work. Yet these are real needs of the global church that await attention.

Next Steps According to David Okken, a missionary in Uganda with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church,

the church needs to keep proclaiming God’s truth faithfully. “The strength of the Reformed church is its high view of the Word,” he says. “There is a great temptation today to compromise that word for the sake of reaching the lost.” Okken says his mission is to proclaim the gospel of God’s sovereign salvation through the work of Christ and the operation of the Holy Spirit, to warn of eternal punishment, and to establish self-supporting, selfgoverning, and self-propagating churches who are committed to the Reformed standards.

Other missionaries second Okken’s concerns.

“What is needed is for the West to get behind the African Church by helping to train African leaders with biblically sound theological education,” says Stoms.

“We’ve lost faith in God’s ability to change the hearts and lives of men,” adds Curto. “This is evidenced by the lack of missionaries we have to send out. As much as our theology teaches us the power of God, we don’t believe it.” Curto says the next step we need to take is to revive teaching in the church on understanding its role and function in the missionary enterprise. Again, it comes down to theological education—a biblical doctrine of the church. “The step we need to take is a step backwards,” says Curto. “We need to understand our foundation. We need to labor together to reach nations with the gospel. As long as we do this in an individualistic way, we misunderstand the Great Commission that came to us not as individuals, but as a church.”

Christ is reigning in the local and global mission field. His word to Peter in Matthew 16:18 is being fulfilled: “[O]n this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The Great Commission continues to call the laborers out, saying, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” It is still the church of Jesus Christ who must give an answer to the asking world.

Brenda Choo (M.A. cand., Westminster Seminary California) is assistant editor of Modern Reformation magazine.

SPEAKING OF J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) hristian evangelism does not consist merely in a man's going about the world saying, "Look at me, what a wonderful experience I have, how happy I am, what wonderful Christian virtues I exhibit; you can all be as good and happy as I am if you will just make a complete surrender of your wills in obedience to what I say." That is what many religious workers seem to think that evangelism is...But they are wrong. Men are not saved by the exhibition of our glorious Christian virtues; they are not saved by the contagion of our experiences. We cannot be the instruments of God in saving them if we preach to them thus only ourselves. Nay, we must preach to them the Lord Jesus Christ; for it is only through the gospel which sets him forth that they can be saved. If you want health for your souls, and if you want to be the instruments of bringing health to others, do not turn your gaze forever within, as though you could find Christ there.

Nay, turn your gaze away from your own miserable experiences, away from your own sin, to the Lord Jesus Christ as he is offered to us in the gospel. It is the same old story, my friends—the same old story of the natural man. Men are trying today, as they have always been trying, to save themselves—to save themselves by their own act of surrender, by the excellence of their own faith, by mystic experiences of their own lives. But it is all in vain. Not that way is peace with God to be obtained. It is obtained only in the old, old way--by attention to something that was done once for all long ago, and by acceptance of the living Savior who there, once for all, brought redemption for our sin. Oh, that men would turn for salvation from their own experience to the cross of Christ; oh, that they would turn from the phenomena of religion to the living God!

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— Education, Christianity and the State, 21-22

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We Confess…

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All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by His almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.

II. This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it.

— Chapter X, “Of Effectual Calling,” Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)

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f how many parts does the true conversion of man consist? Of two parts; of the mortification of the old, and the quickening of the new man.

What is the mortification of the old man? It is a sincere sorrow of heart, that we have provoked God by our sins; and more and more to hate and flee from them.

What is the quickening of the new man? It is a sincere joy of heart in God, through Christ, and with love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works.

— Questions 88, 89, & 90, Heidelberg Catechism (1563)

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e know [God] by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20. All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse.

Second, he makes himself known to us more openly by his holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for his glory and for the salvation of his own.

— Article 2, “The Means By Which We Know God,” The Belgic Confession (1561)

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BOOKS | Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail

On the Road

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n Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail, one finds a motley of notable authors—academicians,

orthodoxy,” defined by symbolic faith and practice, ministers, and theologians—weighing in on American Christian heritage and the in order to divert its present trajectory toward liberalism, implications of Christianity’s present global situation in the search for evangelical identity. abject personalism, and cultism. Pilgrims on the Sawdust Mark Noll first offers an obliging Trail is to be commended as a useful means of foreword that quickly rehearses the entrance into the broad corridors of discussion on evolution of American Evangelicalism. In Christian identity within Evangelicalism. seven pages Noll takes you to the heart of Many of the essays that follow Noll’s the matter: American evangelical identity illuminating foreword and Timothy George’s remains elusive because there is no complementary introduction do in fact reflect a existing evangelical ecclesiology. Indeed, visceral sensitivity to the southern world’s there are only sectarian ecclesiologies or, exploration of symbol adherence as a means of better, ideologies. So what are we left ecumenical progress and solidification of with? A fluid contemporary religious evangelical Christian identity. Other essays do “movement” or “style” that, in large part, not. There is partisanship present here; several suffers from historical amnesia, writers tote the party line and trumpet their intellectual fatigue, the driving force of constituency’s distinctives as a reveille for others to individualism and consumerism and, fall into formation instead of surveying possibilities hence, a propensity toward for authentic ecumenical negotiations or creedal fragmentation and subjectivity.

Generally and confessional orientation. Case in point are the speaking, today’s evangelical identity tends toward three essays on Pentecostalism by George D. Pilgrims on the a polarity: contemporary evangelicals either McKinney (“The Azusa Street Revival Revisited”), Sawdust Trail: distinguish themselves by their enslavement to the Cheryl Bridges Johns (“The Pentecostal Vision for Evangelical idol of “being relevant” or, alternatively, uttering Christian Unity”), and Glenn E. Davis (“Who Is Ecumenism and shrill cries from the wilderness of separatist the Holy Spirit for Us Today”). Aside from Davis’s fundamentalism. highly questionable, nontraditional exegesis and the Quest for Noll, however, optimistically sees a new trend exposition of John 20:19–23 to substantiate a Christian on the rise. The future of American evangelical charismatic vision of Holy Spirit gifts as the Identity identity, he believes, will likely be tied more closely panacea to ecclesiological ills, these essays offer

by Timothy George to what happens in the rest of the world, especially little by way of interesting or constructive dialogue Baker Academic, 2004 224 pages (paperback), $19.99 the Southern Hemisphere, where confessional regarding Christian identity or ecumenicalism.

Christianity is beginning to surge. American Likewise, the essays by Fuller President Richard Evangelicalism must look beyond itself and outside Mouw (“What Evangelicals Can Learn from of itself if it is to find itself. Perhaps Noll has it Fundamentalists”) and Kevin Bauder (“What’s That right: a time may be looming on the horizon when You Smell?”) read like apologetic infomercials for American evangelicals will consciously align fundamentalism. Neither Pentecostalism nor themselves with what Oden calls “paleo- fundamentalism have much to contribute to the

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present conversation, and no wonder: both are modern movements of specific contextual moments, addressing specific contextual circumstances. What is more, they frequently profess (typically over-against sacramental, liturgical, and covenantal traditions) that to be their kind of evangelical—Pentecostal/charismatic or fundamentalist—is to be iure divino Christian.

Assurance of Christian identity and status lies within the peculiarities of these communities, notwithstanding their transdenominational/ nondenominational reach. Exclusivity prevents these two from being a key source to uncovering pan-denominational, multigenerational Christian identity.

There we find Joel Carpenter representative of the more constructive essays toward the quest for Christian identity.

Carpenter contemplates whether there is in fact an “essentialist” Evangelicalism that can cover all varieties. He concludes that Evangelicalism’s historic, essential identity bares an altered face. The movement spoken of today, which has its roots in German Pietism, Puritanism, and revival/revivalist theologies and methodologies, differs greatly from the “evangelical churches” of Luther’s day: “The evangelical persuasion now included a lessening emphasis on the creedal and sacramental channels of faith, a preference for voluntary religious affiliation and interdenominational cooperation, aggressive evangelization, conversionist views of salvation, earnest and abstemious living, and revivalistic and millennial expectations about God’s work in the days to come” (31). Today it is “experimental religion”—the stressed need to know Jesus personally that begins with an experienced conversion—which theoretically stands as a shared element in all forms. Increasingly, this essential trait alienates sacramental Lutherans, Episcopalians, and some Presbyterians for whom paedobaptism avails as a gracious means of Holy Spirit’s application of Christ’s accomplished salvation. Standing in the evangelical tradition of Martin Luther, such denominations have argued that the witness of consensual Christianity testifies that essential Evangelicalism, as identified by Carpenter, is not Christian enough: hence the inherent divisiveness of evangelical Christianity, particularly the fundamentalist variety. Conscious of this and other dividing factors within Evangelicalism (e.g., lack of recognizable leadership; evangelical piety downplaying the meaning and significance of denominations; parachurch organizations making hash out of traditional ecclesiology), Carpenter suggests that evangelicals “cannot change who we are, but

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should recognize that our strengths can also be our deficiencies, and try to address our shortcomings” (40). He outlines four shortcomings: a missing evangelical theology of the church and the sacraments; parachurch (and, one might add, mission agency) subversion of denominations; evangelical isolation and estrangement from other Christians; and a respectful recognition of the Global South’s Christian voice. Carpenter has his finger on it but doesn’t seem to realize it. If evangelicals address these shortcomings, then they change who they are and gain an essential Christian identity, such that resonates with paleoorthodoxy and the wider Body of Christ.

Where Carpenter leaves off, the essays from Roman Catholic spokespersons, Richard John Neuhaus and Jeffrey Gros, editor Timothy George, and seasoned ecumenists Gabriel Fackre and Thomas Oden begin.

Notwithstanding evangelical suspicion of Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox communions, Neuhaus sets forth an argument—hard for Augustinian ears to ignore—for a more circumspect evangelical ecclesiology with the Church of Rome situated in the background, doing so with clear insight that evangelicals are unable to (a) come to a consensus on Christian identity and (b) formulate a meaningful, historical ecclesiology. The question quickly becomes, Is visible unity important or not?

It is a question both Neuhaus and Gros answer in the affirmative, appealing to none other than the words of Jesus himself in John 17, fortified by passages from St. John’s First Epistle. Neuhaus then gets at the heart of ancient Christian ecclesiology when he writes, “In Catholic theology the way we put it is to speak of the church not simply as having sacraments, but as itself being a sacrament to the world” (105). There must be unity for the church to exercise itself with maximal salvific effectiveness in the world. Just as Word and sacrament cannot be divided so, too, the church— which harbors the Word—cannot, or at least should not, be divided. From this perspective Neuhaus and Gros articulate a full-orbed doctrine of corpus Christi mystericum as their ecumenical answer to American evangelical identity. The way forward, then, is backward; not to 1516, but to the Great Catholic Church of the Nicene and AnteNicene Fathers, yet always with an eye on the great contributions of Luther, Calvin, and others, in the better articulation and promulgation of the gospel of Christ. To be sure, this would be an enormous pill for low-church (or no-church), PurposeDriven-Life minions to swallow, and an impossible one for Banner of Truth devotees.

Though Neuhaus’s essay does not represent the

best of his work, it is well worth considering simply because Evangelicalism has reached a centrifugal point. Entropy is beginning to take place. Many of us see it every week on the campuses, in the workplaces, and in the churches at which we work—disenfranchised evangelicals joining the exodus into Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, with no apologies attached and ecclesiastical tradition to leave behind. They have opted for a narrative grander than autobiography; a history more expansive than the moment; and a tradition of greater antiquity than Billy Graham.

Ad hominem abusive arguments about papists and Mary worship is no longer cutting it. Both camps stand to benefit from shared Bible study and a convivial partnership reexamining historical theology and church history.

The idea of “tradition” shapes Timothy George’s essay. He starts by identifying four basic characteristics of Evangelicalism: conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism. But George adds a fifth: Evangelicalism as a renewal movement. It is this last distinctive that begins and hallmarks the “evangelical tradition.” That this is the “tradition” of Evangelicalism gives one reason to celebrate and lament. Celebrate in that the Reformation itself was a renewal movement of the gospel, albeit one that Luther and Calvin saw as a tragic necessity. Lament in that “some of their latter-day champions appreciate the necessity but fail to discern the tragic element in that great rupture” (129). George remains positive in his outlook because evangelicals are showing “a renewed and growing interest in the history of biblical exegesis, the issue of doctrinal development, and the ecumenical context of spiritual theology” (137). And it is where these interests should ultimately lead that Christian identity and authentic ecumenism may be found, which is a point defended by Gabriel Fackre and Thomas Oden.

Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail succeeds in presenting a number of worthwhile essays on “Evangelical Ecumenism and the Quest for Christian Identity.”

Ultimately, however, it is a Spruce Goose and must be recognized as such. It fails to get off the ground because, unlike Eastern Orthodoxy or Catholicism, evangelicals lack a passion for unity and authority.

This is why ecumenism is looked upon askance and sacramental theology and historical ecclesiology will not be genuinely reconsidered. Unity in the church is a secondary, nay, tertiary doctrine for evangelicals who are, by very definition, indoctrinated to be more concerned about themselves than the community, even the community of the redeemed. And when “self” is

the authority, well then, ecumenism will just sit in the water as a curious conversation piece. Still, Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail provides a valuable service by prompting its readers not to be content with a floating museum.

John J. Bombaro Dickinson College Carlisle, PA

One Faith: The Evangelical Consensus

by Thomas C. Oden and J. I. Packer InterVarsity Press, 2004 216 pages (hardcover), $17.00 Both the strengths and weaknesses of Oden’s vision for a rebirth of orthodoxy are on display in One Faith: The Evangelical Consensus, a compilation of extracts from evangelical statements of faith gathered by he and J. I. Packer. The strength is a desire to seek true ecumenical unity that is grounded on truth on something of a creedal model. Thus materials are gathered under fifteen chapters, beginning with “The Good News” and running through a list that includes the classical theological topics of “The Bible,” “The One True God,” “Human Life Under God,” “Jesus Christ,” and “Justification by Grace Through Faith.” Also included are important contemporary issues not typically represented in the creeds, including chapters on religious pluralism and Christian social responsibility. Each one of these chapters is comprised of selections from faith statements representing a startling array of parachurch or “transdenominational” organizations — over fifty by my count.

The compilation is meant to show the convergence of two streams of Evangelicalism, the Calvinist/Lutheran/Baptist and the Arminian/ Wesleyan/Holiness/Charismatic/Pentecostal, and it is precisely here that the weakness of Oden and Packer’s vision comes to the fore. Like transdenominational Evangelicalism itself, the goal of consensus is reached only via a necessary softpedaling of traditional distinctives and a significant expansion of — surprise — matters concerning evangelism, the Christian life, and social action.

Thus, under the heading of “Observing God’s Ordinances” Evangelicals are called to “awaken to the sacramental implication of creation and incarnation,” but a mere ten lines of text are given to a strongly memorialistic definition of these “sacraments” — a definition strangely drawn from

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the International Pentecostal Church of Christ. Apart from this clearly one-sided definition, the minor role afforded these ordinances clearly represents a wholesale swallowing of the magisterial Reformation by holiness elements. A convergence this is not.

So while a great deal of sound material is on display here, in and of itself often edifying, the reader is left with the same sinking impression given by Oden’s Justification Reader. While a consensus is constructed from a sea of snippets, would the agreement remain if each source text were read as a coherent whole? Does the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America (previously Pentecostal Fellowship of North America) Statement of Faith really agree with the Faculté Libre de Théologie Evangélique Profession de Foi on the matter of justification by grace alone through faith alone?

Don’t we really have to read each in its entirety to know? The answer to this question is not asked, because Oden and Packer see Evangelicalism as a “movement,” not a church, and a movement is apparently happy to take agreement where it finds it in order to keep moving along.

Dr. Brian J. Lee Reviews Editor Alexandria, Virginia

SPEAKING OF J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) hristian evangelism does not consist merely in a man's going about the world saying, "Look at me, what a wonderful experience I have, how happy I am, what wonderful Christian virtues I exhibit; you can all be as good and happy as I am if you will just make a complete surrender of your wills in obedience to what I say." That is what many religious workers seem to think that evangelism is...But they are wrong. Men are not saved by the exhibition of our glorious Christian virtues; they are not saved by the contagion of our experiences. We cannot be the instruments of God in saving them if we preach to them thus only ourselves. Nay, we must preach to them the Lord Jesus Christ; for it is only through the gospel which sets him forth that they can be saved. If you want health for your souls, and if you want to be the instruments of bringing health to others, do not turn your gaze forever within, as though you could find Christ there.

Nay, turn your gaze away from your own miserable experiences, away from your own sin, to the Lord Jesus Christ as he is offered to us in the gospel. It is the same old story, my friends—the same old story of the natural man.

Men are trying today, as they have always been trying, to save themselves—to save themselves by their own act of surrender, by the excellence of their own faith, by mystic experiences of their own lives. But it is all in vain. Not that way is peace with God to be obtained. It is obtained only in the old, old way--by attention to something that was done once for all long ago, and by acceptance of the living Savior who there, once for all, brought redemption for our sin. Oh, that men would turn for salvation from their own experience to the cross of Christ; oh, that they would turn from the phenomena of religion to the living God!

C

— Education, Christianity and the State, 21-22

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Letters [ C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 4 ]

saying, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” And in Luke 1:37, it was the angel Gabriel who responded to Mary’s query, “How can this be since I am a virgin” with the words “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Yes, Gabriel was right: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Paul says it so powerfully in Romans 4:16-22, Abraham, “…in the presence of Him whom he believed – God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations….”

read, and even understood. So context—the piece was written for a wide and theologically diverse readership—is key here.

Now on Jesus’ being the “first Christian”, that phrase is a reply to the German neo-orthodox theologian Rudolf Bultmann, who refused to allow the predicate “Christian” to Jesus of Nazareth, thereby making the church and not Jesus himself the founding entity of Christianity. Mr. Pfaff, Herr Bultmann would have agreed entirely with your point!

for one who is suffering the terror of the law. Who will follow up with these people? Kirk Cameron?

Where is the church in this process? Where is the The Hound of Heaven cont. [ C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 2 9 ]

Charles E. Hunt Holland, Michigan

I was troubled by Paul F.M. Zahl’s “A Meditation at Christmas” (November/December 2004) with its references to the “historical” Jesus. I do not understand why this adjective would ever be needed in a publication dedicated to the inerrancy of the Bible. What other Jesus is there? The references are particularly distressing when combined with statements such as, “there is no proof, beyond strong and early tradition, that Christ was born at Bethlehem,” and “it [Christmas] has for many hundreds of years carried, inside the long train of its tradition, signals of Christ ‘as he really was.’” No proof? A mere “signal” of who Christ really was? God’s word plainly states that Jesus was born at Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-7; Matt.

2:1). We have inerrant proof of where he was born, along with a breathtaking revelation who he “really was” (see Luke 2:10-14). Please tell me that you are not permitting a theologian with a neoorthodox view of Scripture to serve as a contributing scholar for Modern Reformation. I also question the biblical basis for calling Jesus a Christian or “the first Christian.” I was under the impression that the term, “Christian” made reference only to his followers.

process of discipleship? The Great Commission is much more than just sharing the gospel, it is the grafting in of those formerly alienated to the life of the church through discipleship, baptism, and teaching. That takes time and an emphasis on personal relationship that the course does not endorse.

Ray Comfort’s materials are filled with references to writers and theologians those in our circles respect: R. C. Sproul, A. W. Pink, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Charles Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle and so forth. One wishes that Comfort’s discovery of the Reformation principles that underlie much of this course would fully permeate the motive and the method for presenting the gospel to unbelievers.

Until then, the course, while useful, cannot be commended in its present form. Use it carefully, even sparingly, adapting its insights in ways that will benefit your congregation or evangelism class.

More information on “The Way of the Master” can be found at www.wayofthemaster.com.

Eric Landry (M.Div., Westminster Seminary California) is managing editor of Modern Reformation and a church planter in the Presbyterian Church in America.

Alan Pfaff Wichita, KS

Paul Zahl responds: I agree that the term “historical Jesus” is not necessary for an “in-house” crowd, in other words, for believing Christians.

But the excerpt is taken from a book that seeks to reach the world of academic theology and beyond. That is a world where I need to use some of their parlance simply in order to be

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Ninety Minutes and Counting

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ow will the members of your church grow in their understanding of the faith?

wider community of Washington that surrounds Is an hour to ninety minutes on a Sunday morning enough time to pass on the the church with the goal of inviting people who know historical and doctrinal teachings of Christianity? Will you trust that they will nothing about Christianity into an ongoing dialogue of find the right book at their local Christian bookstore faith. In a time and place where Christianity is often to guide their growth? Considering the types of caricatured, and even helped along in that caricature books that are given the most prominent shelf- by its own adherents, the Quarterly provides a glimpse space, you may not be too happy with the ideas and into the profound and passionate dialogue that takes practices they adopt. What if you could provide an place at Fourth Presbyterian Church. in-home resource for your church members to turn The Adult Education program at Fourth to and from which they could learn about different Presbyterian Church is using the Quarterly as an topics from the church’s own ministers and teachers? extension of the spirit and discussion of the classes Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland into the congregation’s homes. It not only functions (a congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian as an opportunity for further reflection, but it is an Church) decided that such an in-home resource was invitation to join and participate in the classes.

The response, according to Rev. Grisham, has been the best way they could extend the teaching ministry of the church into the busy lives of their members. overwhelmingly positive. The Quarterly is meeting the They developed The Fourth Quarterly, a topical journal pastoral staff’s goal to deepen the congregation’s published by their adult education ministry. Each issue understanding of the faith and it’s leading to long of the Quarterly focuses on “issues of interest” to the discussions among friends and small groups.

Grisham advises other pastors and churches congregation’s “lives as Christians, toward the twin ends of edifying and enriching” the congregation and who might wish to adopt some similar vehicle for “inviting others” to join the “ongoing dialogue of faith,” adult education to “plan ahead.” Knowing what according to Pastor of Adult Education and Evangelism topics will be covered and soliciting articles in advance of the publication date will ensure a more Jules Grisham.

The Quarterly provides a forum for the congregants inviting and useful publication. to “think more deeply, and with more sustained focus With the publication of the first issue of the than usual, on a given topic of importance” to their life Quarterly, the pastors and teachers at Fourth as a believing community. It intentionally straggles the Presbyterian Church have found a way to extend the life boundary between the academic and the devotional and teaching of the church beyond the ninety minutes For more information: while exploring all the issues it deals with from a of public worship. They are carrying on the great Rev. Jules Grisham pastoral perspective. This dual focus, while difficult to Reformation tradition of encouraging an educated laity Fourth Presbyterian Church maintain, ensures that the Quarterly is a true resource for who are able to understand and wrestle with issues of (301) 320-3434 growth in understanding more about the key doctrines faith and life throughout the week. www.4thpres.org and dynamics of the Christian faith and life.

In addition to being an in-house resource for adult Eric Landry (M.Div., Westminster Seminary California) is education, the staff of the church also hopes that the the managing editor of Modern Reformation magazine Quarterly finds its way into the hands of people in the and a church planter in the Presbyterian Church in America.

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