Jesus As Yahweh
Veli-Matti Karkkainen points out that Philippians 2:9-11 alludes to Isaiah 45:22-23, where Yahweh declares Himself to be the one and only God, before whom “every knee will bow” and by whom “every tongue will swear.” Thus, “for Paul the resurrected and exalted Christ enjoys the same status as the God of Israel.”
Peter Leithart, www.leithart.com
“Stealing ideas from contemporaries is rude and tasteless. Stealing from the long dead is considered literary and admirable. The same is true of grave-robbing. Loot your local cemetery and find yourself mired in social awkwardness. But unearth the tomb of an ancient king and you can feel free to pop off his toe rings. You’ll probably end up on a book tour, or bagging an honorary degree or two.”
Nate Wilson, ndwilson.com
The Biblical doctrine of regeneration is not the same as that used in systematic theology. Theology uses the term “regeneration” to refer to the invisible onetime renewal of the elect, which brings about their faith and salvation. In the Bible, regeneration is a continual work, with peaks and valleys, and applies not only to individuals but also to society and the cosmos as well. Thus, the elect can experience turning points (conversions) or regenerations at a number of crisis points in their lives, in addition to the fact that every day brings with it the need for continual conversion and renewal.
James B. Jordan, The Sociology of the Church, p. 6
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“The Psalms are not full of citations from the Torah. The Prophets are not full of quotations from the Torah and the Psalms. But the New Testament is filled with quotations and paraphrases of the earlier Scriptures. What does this mean?
It means that the renewal of civilisation comes only when we become totally saturated with the written Word of God. This is always true, of course, generation after generation. But it is particularly true at times of crisis, when the wineskin breaks in a dramatic way. Jesus ushered in His New History by calling on men to become radically and totally steeped in the Bible. This is the fountainhead of the whole cycle of civilisation. It all flows from the Grand Imperative of God’s Word. God’s Imperative produces history, and recharges it at every crisis.”
– James B. Jordan, Crisis, Opportunity and the Christian Future.
Booklet available from www.biblicalhorizons.com
‘Evolution is promoted by its practitioners as more than mere science. Evolution is promulgated as an ideology, a secular religion—a full-fledged alternative to Christianity, with meaning and morality. I am an ardent evolutionist and an ex-Christian, but I must admit that in this one complaint—and Mr [sic] Gish is but one of many to make it—the literalists are absolutely right. Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today.
‘… Evolution therefore came into being as a kind of secular ideology, an explicit substitute for Christianity.’
Reference: Ruse, M., How evolution became a religion: creationists correct? National Post, pp. B1,B3,B7 May 13, 2000.
Michael Ruse was professor of philosophy and zoology at the University of Guelph, Canada (recently moved to Florida), He was the leading anti-creationist philosopher whose (flawed) arguments seemed to convince the biased judge to rule against the Arkansas ‘balanced treatment’ (of creation and evolution in schools) bill in 1981/2. At the trial, he and the other the anti-creationists loftily dismissed the claim that evolution was an anti-god religion.
“We are not born desiring truth, but rather milk. Truth is not found primarily through the reflections of trained philosophers and scientists. It is found primarily through faithful mothers diligently spanking bottoms. We are designed and created by God to grow up into truth. The idea that we could ever dispassionately approach the search for truth with a detached Cartesian spirit is an idea which dies hard. We must learn our theology and worldview from the high chair, and, more than this, we must learn that this is how we are supposed to learn them.”
Angels In The Architecture, by Doug Wilson and Doug Jones, p. 188-189.
“…one of the most important Christian virtues possessed by the effective evangelist is hospitality. The practice of household hospitality by Christian saints and elders is an image or copy of God’s hospitality, seen as He invites us into His house to eat at His table. Because the modern church does not understand the importance of the Lord’s table, and because Christ’s supper is not visibly displayed week by week, the virtue of hospitality is not clearly understood in our day. As a result, numerous less-than-effective evangelistic techniques have developed that do not take advantage of the Biblical model. In order to reform our evangelism, we need to reform our churches, so that God’s hospitality is made visible to all.”
James B. Jordan, The Sociology of the Church, p.221
“It fails to make men God-centred in their thoughts and God-fearing in their hearts because this is not primarily what it is trying to do. One way of stating the difference between it and the old gospel is to say that it is too exclusively concerned to be ‘helpful’ to man—to bring peace, comfort, happiness, satisfaction—and too little concerned to glorify God. The old gospel was ‘helpful’, too – more so, indeed, than is the new—but (so to speak) incidentally, for its first concern was always to give glory to God… Its centre of reference was unambiguously God. But in the new gospel the centre of reference is man… Whereas the chief aim of the old was to teach people to worship God, the concern of the new seems limited to making them feel better. The subject of the old gospel was God and his ways with men; the subject of the new is man and the help God gives him. There is a world of difference. The whole perspective and emphasis of gospel preaching has changed.”
–J.I. Packer
“Worship is not a cozy time with Jesus. Worship is a ritual act that involves bringing all creation into God’s presence and asking Him to change it.”
James B. Jordan, The Offertory, Rite Reasons No. 97. www.biblicalhorizons.com
“I am a Christian. Every sermon I preach should be a Christian sermon. If a Jewish person, a Muslim person or a Hindu person likes my sermon, I did something wrong. Christ is to be exalted in this church, all the time, and not ambiguously.”
- John Piper, Songs That Shape the Heart and Mind, podcast sermon 25/5/08. www.desiringgod.org
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