Packer Leaves the Anglican Church of Canada

J.I. Packer a hero of mine has recently left the Anglican Church of Canada and for good reason.  Below is an excerpt from The Christian Post.  Click here to read the whole article.

Excerpt:

J.I. Packer, one of the world’s most renowned evangelical theologians, left the Anglican Church of Canada, citing “poisonous liberalism” in the church body.

Packer, 81, who was named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in the world by Time magazine in 2005, quit the Canadian arm of the global Anglican Communion with 10 other B.C. Anglican clergy last week, he said, according to The Vancouver Sun. They joined the more conservative and orthodox Province of the Southern Cone in South America.

The Oxford-trained theologian said he can no longer serve under Vancouver-area Bishop Michael Ingham, arguing that he “appears heretical.” Ingham had sanctioned in 2002 same-sex blessings in the British Columbia diocese of New Westminster, sparking international uproar.

(HT: Tullian Tchividjian)

A Primer on the Gender Debate

Parchment and Pen has given a brief overview on complementarianism and egalitarianism along with each ones advocates. For those unfamiliar or new to the gender debate this may be a good place to start. Click here for the whole post. Below is an excerpt.

Excerpt:

Men and women are different. I would not think that anyone really wants to argue against this statement. I would not think that anyone wants to argue with this statement, but my thinking does not rule the debate. In fact, there are those who would argue against what I believe. Let me back up.

There are some things that women are better at than men.

There are some things that men are better at than women.

These two presuppositions help form my understanding of the great gender debate. I am a complementarian. Really, I am what you might call a soft complementarian. I believe that God has created the sexes uniquely. This uniqueness contributes to individual uniqueness.

Glorifying God Through the Economic Stimulus

John Piper has posted a brief challenge for us on how to approach the up and coming economic stimulus payment. 

John Piper:

For a moment, forget the political puzzle of getting money back when the country is nine trillion dollars in debt. The more immediate question is: How will you make much of Christ with your “economic stimulus payment”? The president says it will be in the mail in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Clue: Nobody in the world will see you spend your money on yourself and conclude that Christ is your treasure. They will assume you are just like them, no matter how loudly you thank God for this boon. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend it on yourself (the way we do with most of what we earn). Not everything we do can look different from the world—eat, pay utilities, fill up the car, wear clothes (even thrift-store clothes). And yes, we hope (somehow) that spending on ourselves in some way contributes to our being more Christ-exalting people.

But do we really need this money? Very few do. We would have gotten on fine without it. If we didn’t know it was coming, we wouldn’t even be feeling the desires we are feeling right now.

May I encourage you to be radically creative and hedonistic. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And those crazy Macedonians in a “severe test of affliction” and in “extreme poverty” had an “abundance of joy” that overflowed in a “wealth of generosity.” They even begged Paul “for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:2-4). They really believed what Jesus said. Really.

Before the check comes dream of some person or ministry which might make much of Christ because you treasured him above your next home project.

The reason God created money and enabled us to earn it is so that we could show by the way we use it that money is not our treasure, Christ is. That’s why the checks are coming. So we can make Christ look great.

“Be content with what you have, for he has said,
‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

Bart Ehrman and N.T. Wright Debate on the Problem of Pain

Beliefnet:

Is our pain God’s problem? If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow so much suffering? These kinds of questions—sometimes called the problem of theodicy—have long bothered believers and nonbelievers alike. These questions are especially pressing now as we face the AIDS pandemic, widespread hunger, and environmental degradation—not to mention the grief that humans can cause one another. Our two guests for this new Beliefnet Blogalogue have devoted part of their lives to addressing these issues. Bart Ehrman is James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the author of God’s Problem and Misquoting Jesus, among many other titles. N.T. Wright is the Bishop of Durham for the Church of England and has taught at McGill, Oxford, and Cambridge. His books include Surprised By Hope, Evil and the Justice of God, and several other titles.

• Bart Ehrman: How the Problem of Pain Ruined My Faith
• N.T. Wright: God’s Plan to Rescue Us
• Bart Ehrman: What About the Actual Suffering?
• N.T. Wright: What it Looks Like When God Runs the World
• Bart Ehrman: God’s Kingdom Has Not Come
• N.T. Wright: The Bible Does Answer the Problem–Here’s How

Our Brief Time in Louisville

Yes, one of my all time favorite games on the side of my head. MAD GAB!!

I can’t wait to start back up again this Fall. SBTS Holla!

Dave (Jess’s lil bro) and Jessy. Great couple! This was taken at Thunder of Louisville.

The one and only thugologian Dr. Bradley Cochran. Look out for his new rap album coming out next year called Thugology. He’ll be rapping at my wedding this July (j/k).  He’s got a great blog that you should check out when you get the chance.  Click here to check it out.  Watch your back….

My favorite drive through joint in Louisville…Smoothie King!  I was inspired by Smoothie King and actually bought a blender last week.  I’ve been drinking smoothies for five days straight now.

Knock, knock…..

Today was an interesting day for me. It was about 6pm and I was just waking up from a two hour nap when I heard a knock on my door. It usually takes me about 10-15 minutes to get myself out of bed and I was actually thinking about leaving the door unanswered. I then heard the door bell ring and finally decided to get myself up to find out who it was at the door. Opening the door I was met by a couple of well dressed, tie rocking, gentlemen. They were a couple of Mormon missionaries hitting up the local apartment complex that I lived in.

I was a little groggy but decided to invite them in anyway and asked them to have a seat. I then went into the restroom to pray for my time with these guys as well as splash my face with some water to wake myself up. It started off great as we discussed a little about where we were from and why I was in Virginia. I told them about Jessica and where I worked. They were three weeks new to Lynchburg just coming from Bluefield, VA. One guy was from Utah and the other was from Arizona.

After getting to know each other one of the guys began to talk about the love of God and asked me what I thought about God’s love. I talked about my spiritual pilgrimage and my background and conversion to Protestant Christianity. I then began to talk about my thoughts on God’s love and briefly discussed some of his other attributes such as his kindness, mercy, grace, justice, and wrath. I began to unravel the Gospel of Jesus Christ and noted that no one seeks God and that no one is righteousness due to our innate sin in our hearts. I then talked about the justice of God and how the love of God has to meet the demands of His justice by sending His one and only son to die for undeserving sinners. I won’t go into detail about everything we discussed but will mention that the Gospel and the doctrine of substitutionary atonement was explained to them from an evangelical protestant point of view. To my surprise they did not have anything to say but one of the guys started to talk about faith. He stated that faith was believing and trusting in Christ. In response to this I asked him how one is saved to which he said by believing in Jesus and his work and following him and his commandments. This sounded good on the surface when I first heard this after all it is partly true we are saved by trusting in Christ although I would have drawn out even further the nature of faith and emphasized that it is by grace alone through faith alone that we are truly saved and as a result there is a spilling forth of works in glad obedience. At the time it was a little difficult for me to see the difference between my view and theirs. Hopefully my presentation of the Gospel earlier was clear enough for them to see the distinction. Now that I think back some of the implications of what they stated supported a view of works righteousness.

For the most part it was a friendly and God glorifying dialogue. We talked about some other secondary issues. I did feel that I asked more questions then they did due to the fact that I wanted to know more about their faith considering how little I knew about Mormonism.  I also asked more questions to better articulate their position.  Hopefully I gave them equal room to express their paradigm of life and of God. At the end of our discussion he asked if he could leave The Book of Mormon with me to read. I told him yes that would be fine and thanked him for coming over. They gave me their phone number and they asked if we could end in prayer. To my surprise he actually asked me to pray of which I happily said yes. Much of my prayer was thanking God for His kindness and goodness in our lives. I also asked God that he would reveal himself to these individuals and to keep them safe during their travels.

I later talked to a couple of friends about the encounter and one friend mentioned Keller’s approach to those of differing views. From my encounter I would have to say that I have been somewhat influenced by Keller’s kind and sincere approach to others of different faiths. A simple, personable, sincere dialogue is typically the best platform to share your faith. As Christians we have the tendency to throw up barriers of defense any opportunity we have just to make sure we get the point across that we are in no way going to compromise our faith,which usually turns out to be a turn off to most. We may also have the tendency to think that if we did not give an apologetic treatise on the Christian faith that we have in some way failed to be an effective witness. This of course is not true.

Please pray for seeds of curiosity to be planted into these gentlemen as they go door to door. Pray that other believers in particular would take up the challenge to discuss their faith with them. What an honor it is that God would use broken vessels like myself to proclaim His Gospel.  This encounter was an encouragement and a humbling time for me.