In response to Chuck Smith’s worldly and utterly unbiblical counsel to Nikki, I offer this video of baby Elliot who (according to doctors) wasn’t supposed to make it to birth. I pray that this video finds its way to Nikki before it’s too late.
First posted on DefCon on July 7, 2008
The primacy of the Word of God during [the early decades of the 1700s] was seen in the highly doctrinal sermons, which were addressed to both the heart and the mind. The plain-style worship services ensured that the focus was neither on the minister nor on the surroundings but on the God who addressed them in the Word.
– Gary Gilley
Your sermon of the week is No Graven Images by Phil Johnson. This is the next installment of Johnson’s series on the Ten Commandments that will be featured on DefCon every other week as your Sermon of the Week (on Thursdays).
Rick Warren’s Daniel Plan has begun and Jennifer Pekich was there for its inception. Her report from inside the lion’s den (pun intended) can be found here.
Here’s a quote from her article:
Following Dr. Hyman’s talk my best friend arrived to observe the day with me, only to hear Dr. Amen mention in his presentation that he did a brain scan on one of his clients who had a habit of cheating on his wife. The brain scan showed that there were “holes in the pre-frontal cortex of his brain” which controls the impulses. In other words, this man wasn’t sinful, he was “mentally ill.” All he needed was to get on the “Change Your Brain, Change Your Body” program and his personal struggles with sin were remedied. Once again Jesus was removed from the equation. My friend and I were dumbfounded when we listened to the Saddleback crowd cheer. My best friend couldn’t contain it any longer and let out a, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
The best quote from Jennifer’s article, however, was when she made this observation of the event:
I have to admit that visions of the masses being manipulated by Adolf Hitler’s oratory skills came to my mind, only this particular crowd had just been manipulated by a really bad infomercial.
You can listen to Jennifer’s interview about her visit to Saddleback here on the Crosstalk radio show. You can also read an article on this event by Lighthouse Trails here and another article by Marsha West here.
David Brainerd (1718-1747) was a missionary to the American Indians in New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania. Born in Connecticut in 1718, he died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-nine. Many people know of his work among the Indians, but in reading his diary (as edited by Jonathan Edwards), I was most struck with the work the Lord did in David Brainerd. 
Early in his short life, Brainerd admits, in his fallen state, to being irritated by 4 specific doctrines of God (pgs 64 & 65):
In all his vexation at his condition, Brainerd records that he “never once prayed from any respect to the glory of God.” (pg 68) All of his religion had been “nothing but self-worship, and a horrid abuse of God.” (pg 69)
A short time later, having been saved and experiencing manifold witnesses of the Lord working in his life and those of the Indians, he had learned to trust God: “I have been too much laboring for spiritual life, peace of conscience, and progressive holiness, in my own strength; but now God showed me, in some measure, the arm of all strength, and fountain of all grace.” (page 194)
We also see a helpful attitude towards his work and that of God: “Although I could not but continue to use the means by which I thought proper for the promotion of the work, yet God seemed, as I apprehended, to work entirely without them. … I found myself obliged and delighted to say, “Not unto us,” not unto instruments and means, “but to thy name be glory.”” And, “Thus God has begun, thus He has hitherto surprisingly carried on a work of grace amongst these Indians. May the glory be ascribed to Him, who is the sole Author of it!” This is a man who has found the peace of working with his whole heart and soul for the right reason, trusting wholly in God for the work only He can do.
As one reads about the short life of David Brainerd, we see the young man maturing, yet always falling short. Progressive sanctification, this is called.
And we see, a few months before his death, a deep understanding of the doctrines of grace that once caused him to hate God. He, weak in body, “Discoursed before the administration of the sacrament from John 1:29 – Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” Where upon he considered three points that are well our attention:
I. In what respects Christ is called the Lamb of God and is so called (1) from the purity and innocency of His nature; (2) from His meekness and patience under sufferings; (3) from His being that atonement which was pointed out in the sacrifice of lambs, and in particular by the paschal lamb.
II. How and in what sense He “takes away the sin of the world: not because all the world shall actually be redeemed from sin by Him, but because (1) He has done and suffered sufficient to answer for the sins of the world, and so to redeem all mankind; (2) He actually does take away the sins of the elect world.
III. How we are to behold Him in order to have our sins taken away: (1) not with our bodily eyes; nor (2) by imagining Him on the cross; but (3) by a spiritual view of His glory and goodness, engaging the soul to rely on Him.
Would that you and I saw such wondrous Truth in such a simple verse! This is a mark that God has changed the man. No one can be saved and left without a mark from this mighty work of His Spirit. Let the Christian examine himself and see if there be any marks from of the saving grace of Holy God in his life and on his soul. If you be in Christ, rejoice! And know that it is God Himself that wills and performs His good pleasure in and through you – for the glory of His name.
John Piper keeps getting himself into hot water with the reformed folks he has been among for decades. Latest is his comfort with the unbiblical quasi-scientific perspective on the age of the Earth.
As asked in the article below, “why would there be a need to harmonize the creation account with modern science? To prove it’s true ….or false? Why, to prove it is false of course.” The child of God knows the Bible is true. The Bible tells us not to trust the “wisdom” of man, as the “foolishness” of God is above (better than) the “wisdom” of man. Yet we tend to trust men when they speak with the authority given them by other men – even when it cannot be reconciled with Scripture.
On whatever the Bible speaks, it is Authoritative and trustworthy. Nothing man can discover or develop is able to disprove the Word of God. Be careful what you believe. You say you believe in Christ – believe in the Word of God.
What follows is from: http://5ptsalt.com/2010/07/16/piper-sailhamer-the-offense-of-biblical-creation-the-false-authority-of-science/#comment-4457
Biblical truth is always offensive. The Biblical narrative on creation is certainly no exception. Scripture is quite explicit in how the universe and all that it contains came into being, and since the fall of man it’s description as recorded by God for us has been hated.
Creation is recorded as a series of totally supernatural, perfectly executed, final acts in 6 literal days. Modern philosophy and all social sciences of men have long attempted to refute the biblical account, and were in fact, created for that very purpose, to deny God’s truth.
In so-called modern times, the biblical teachings of creative, final acts by the God of Scripture have been superceded by scientific ‘processes’ so that the results of creation are placed within and are products of history and time (time itself viewed as a process, not a creature of God). In fact, much of modern historical geology is based on the philosophical assumption that the biblical account of creation ex-nihilo is false.
By the early nineteenth century the central presupposition of uniformitarianism that “the key to the past” had been popularized by James Hutton and Charles Lyell (who in turn influenced Darwin). (Douglas F. Kelly, Creation & Change, p. 163)
Perhaps placing some general creation assertions of the Bible against modern philosophical sciences will be helpful:
| Bible | Modern Sciences |
| All things, seen and unseen, are the creative final acts of the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, Triune God, ex-nihilo. | All things are result of processes, placed within and products of history. |
| Meaning of history is to be understood in God. Time and history are determined and governed by God. Foundation of history is eternity, not time. | Meaning of history is to be understood in the progress of man. Time and history are products of natural processes. |
| God is Sovereign in all things and holds the very life and breath of created man at His disposal and according to His good pleasure. | The only god tolerated is a god working with man for a common purpose, to conquer and control time and history. |
John Piper has been greatly influenced by a book on old earth theories entitled Genesis Unbound by John Sailhamer. In a critical review of the book over at Answers in Genesis, we’re told that Sailhamer “adopts a unique view of the creation account in order to harmonize it with the claims of modern science.”
We are further told in this review that:
“Despite his plea to allow the text of Genesis to speak for itself, Sailhamer fails to take his own advice. He writes: ‘Given what appears to be true about the age of the earth, it is likely that millions or billions of years transpired during this time of “the beginning”’ (p. 105). Such a comment clearly indicates that Sailhamer has allowed the claims of modern uniformitarian science to determine what the text is saying.”
Now why would there be a need to harmonize the creation account with modern science? To prove it’s true ….or false? Why, to prove it is false of course. If it were believed to be true there would be no need for proof. Belief vs. Unbelief.
Another question: What is this uniformitarianism? If John Piper is ‘most at home’ with Sailhamer’s view on creation, as he has stated in his recent video, what does that really tell us? More importantly, what are the ramifications for those who sit under Piper’s teaching at Bethlehem Baptist and the internet?
We’ll take these questions one at a time, but first, let’s define uniformitarianism and show why it’s important that you understand the idea behind Sailhamer’s views:
Uniformitarianism is the belief that the origin and development of all things can be explained exclusively in terms of the same natural laws and processes operating today…Uniformitarianism has been the backbone of modern historical geology and is responsible for the current widespread assumption that the earth is billions of years old…[The Uniformatarians] insist that all geological features and formations, once attributed to geologic cataclysms, can now be satisfactorily explained by ordinary processes functioning over long periods of time. (Scott M. Huse, The Collapse of Evolution, pp 7,8)
Processes. Sound familiar?
1) Why would anyone want to harmonize the creation account with modern science?
Because on some level they reject the biblical account. An argument could be made for curiosity I suppose, but curiosity can be a form of doubt. Either way, it is unbelief isn’t it?
2) If John Piper is ‘most at home’ with Sailhamer’s view of creation, what does that really tell us?
It tells us he is ‘at home’ with allowing modern science (uniformitarianism) to determine what the Bible is saying. In other words, the ‘science’ of natural processes has taken a position of a higher authority than the Word of God itself.
3) Finally, what does this mean, in general, for those who sit under Piper’s preaching and instruction at Bethlehem Baptist and those who follow his teachings on the internet?
It means that there is at least one area of John Piper’s belief system that is not grounded in Scripture: Creation. For the Christian, creation is to be understood as a series of supernatural acts, not processes. Every attempt, either by Sailhamer or Piper, to read or force process philosophies into any Biblical text, to allow the possibility of days being turned to ‘ages’, to allow room for ‘scientific’ interpretations is to yield the authority of God and His inerrant Word to process philosophies of unregenerate man. It is, at the gist, an abandonment of the absolute Sovereignty of God and of the Biblical principle of sola scriptura.
To allow this type of teaching, as harmless as it may seem to so many, is to give a nod of approval to a lie. It is to attribute supernatural powers to ‘natural processes’ rather than final creative acts of God.
This issue my friends, is not about men, it’s about biblical doctrine. It’s about the truth of God. Please do not willingly compromise it. Reject error. Find this error in your own local churches, if it exist, and root it out for the glory of God and His Son Jesus Christ.
John Piper:
Now, when it comes to the more controversial issues of how to construe Genesis 1-2 about how God did it and how long it took him to do it, there I’m totally sympathetic with a pastor who is going to lay his view down, having studied it, and is going to say to his people, “Here is my understanding of those chapters. These six days can’t be anything other than six literal days, and so that’s how long God took to do it. And this universe is about 10 or 15,000 years old. Though it looks old, that’s the way God made it. He made it to look old,” or something like that.
Or he might take another view that these days are ages.
Or he might take Sailhamer’s view, which is where I feel at home. His view is that what’s going on here is that all of creation happened to prepare the land for man.
In verse 1, “In the beginning he made the heavens and the earth,” he makes everything. And then you go day by day and he’s preparing the land. He’s not bringing new things into existence; he’s preparing the land and causing things to grow and separating out water and earth. And then, when it’s all set and prepared, he creates and puts man there.
So that has the advantage of saying that the earth is billions of years old if it wants to be—whatever science says it is, it is—but man is young, and he was good and he sinned. He was a real historical person, because Romans 5 says so, and so does the rest of the Bible.
That’s where I am, and I think every pastor should go ahead and say what he believes. [emphasis mine, ed.] (Online Source)
Chuck Smith’s advice: God will be with you while you kill your child and He won’t condemn you for it.
Voddie Baucham’s reaction to this ungodly counsel (from Facebook):
I must admit that this one made me ANGRY! I’m on the road preaching at a pro-life banquet and someone sent me this YouTube video of Chuck Smith (founder of Calvary Chapel) giving abortion advice that made me want to throw something (or someone). This woman is agonizing right now over this decision, and a pastor just told her Jesus would be alright with her killing her children. Please pray for her.
Here is a video for Nikki to help encourage her to do the right thing in her decision; and this same video is for Chuck Smith to encourage him to repent and retract his worldly, unbiblical position:
If you have read any history of the church, you should be aware that the Church of England went through an extended period (after their separation from Rome) wherein they had difficulty finding regenerate pastors. Wesley and Whitefield and Spurgeon all rubbed up against this. One such pastor in the Church of England discovered this in a rather unique way. Read and enjoy this tale of our Sovereign Lord saving a man.
From: http://www.williamhaslam.org/
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The Rev William Haslam was an English country parson whose story is told in two autobiographical volumes – ‘From Death into Life’ and ‘Yet not I’. One Sunday in 1851 following a period of deep conviction of sin, Haslam ascended into the pulpit of Baldhu church near Truro with the intention of telling his congregation that he would not preach again to them until he was saved and to ask them to pray for his conversion. However, when he began to preach on the text ‘What think ye of Christ’ he saw himself as a Pharisee who did not recognise that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. At that moment, the Holy Spirit breathed new life into him and the effect was so obvious and marked that a local preacher who was present stood up and shouted ‘the Parson is converted’ and the people rejoiced ‘in Cornish style’. Others were also converted on that day, including members of his own household, others fled from the church in fear. A revival followed that blessed Sunday that lasted for three years during which time souls were saved weekly, often daily. You can visit the discussion board if you want to add any comments, or you can just email us directly. |
“More charming than any novel…..This is a narrative that must do great good. It is after our own heart in almost every respect, and we wish that thousands may read it” “I felt sure, as I said, that if I had died last week I should have been lost for ever. This was a startling and an alarming word to many of my earnest people, who said, “What then will become of us?” I replied, “You will be lost for a certainty if you do not give your hearts to God.” |
What message would you deliver to your congregation if it was your final sermon after twenty years as their pastor?
Find out what candid words of exhortation and warning Pastor Sanchez has for not only his congregation but also for the pastor taking his place in the message A Final Word.
This message delivered to his congregation after two decades of service is very revealing and should be heard by all pastors and their congregations, especially new pastors entering into ministry.
1st Corinthians 1:1-3—Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God…with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1st Corinthians 1:4-10—I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him…so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
1st Corinthians 2:7-8—But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
I feel it a duty to bear my solemn testimony against the spirit of the day we live in, to warn men against its infection. It is not Atheism I fear so much, in the present times, as Pantheism. It is not the system which says nothing is true, so much as the system which says everything is true. It is not the system which says there is no Savior, so much as the system which says there are many saviors, and many ways to peace! It is the system which is so liberal, that it dares not say anything is false. It is the system which is so charitable, that it will allow everything to be true. It is the system which seems ready to honor others as well as our Lord Jesus Christ, to class them all together, and to think well of all. It is the system which is so careful about the feelings of others, that we are never to say they are wrong. It is the system which is so liberal that it calls a man a bigot, if he dares to say, “I know my views are right.” This is the system, this is the tone of feeling which I fear in this day, and this is the system which I desire emphatically to testify against and denounce. From the liberality which says everybody is right, from the charity which forbids us to say anybody is wrong, from the peace which is bought at the expense of truth – may the good Lord deliver us!
– J.C. Ryle
1816 – 1900
Your sermon of the week is No Other Gods by Phil Johnson. This is part one (minus two preludes found here and here) of Johnson’s series on the Ten Commandments that will be featured on DefCon every other week as your Sermon of the Week (on Thursdays).
This is a great series that you won’t want to miss.
A preacher may induce a man to believe what Scripture says about his lost condition, persuade him to bow to the divine verdict, and then accept Christ as his personal Savor. No man wants to go to Hell, and if he is assured intellectually that Christ stands ready as a fire escape, on the sole condition that he jump into His arms (“rest on His finished work”), thousands will do so. But a hundred preachers are unable to make an unregenerate person realize the dreadful nature of sin, or show him that he has been a lifelong rebel against God, or change his heart so that he now hates himself and longs to please God and serve Christ. Only the Spirit can bring man to the place where he is willing to forsake every idol, cut off a hindering right hand, or pluck out an offending right eye (see Matthew 5:27-30).
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
Christ Alone Wyoming 