September 2016

Sola Scriptura Examined and Defended

by Dr. James White

Dr. James White writes: Went 135 minutes today (hence the “uber-mega” designation) covering two primary topics: sola scriptura defined and defended against a recent attack upon it by Karlo Broussard of Catholic Answers (first 90 minutes), and then a “live” review of a new video against the deity of Christ from a Muslim perspective. A lot of foundational, basic teaching today that we think is very, very important for all believers!

Dr. James White: “We continued our series on sola scriptura today, looking at what sola scriptura is and is not. Touched on the issues raised by charismatic claims of “thus says the Lord” a bit as well. We really believe this is an important series, and hope our listeners will find it foundationally edifying.”

Major Update to our 'Five Solas of the Reformation' Section

Image Adapted from Tim Challies' Visual Theology

We just completed a major update to the content in our Five Solas of the Reformation subsection There are 100s of free resources for download

Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature ... God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient cause of salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace. We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life. We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature. - Cambridge Declaration

Doing Math with Dice and Atheism’s Destruction of Knowledge

Guest post by Jimmy Li

Apologetics Sermon Illustration

Point: Doctor Cornelius Van Til, the father of Presuppositional apologetics, is famous for asking the following question to those who would attack the Christian faith: “On what foundation rest the guns which he directs against the Christian position?” Cornelius Van Til was insightful to note that the presuppositions one bring to the discussion about the truth of Christianity matters. In fact presuppositions are very crucial. Elsewhere Van Til said,

The issue between believers and non-believers in Christian theism cannot be settled by a direct appeal to “facts” or “laws” whose nature and significance is already agreed upon by both parties to the debate. The question is rather as to what is the final reference-point required to make the “facts” and “laws” intelligible. The question is as to what the “facts” and “laws” really are. Are they what the non-Christian methodology assumes that they are? Are they what the Christian theistic methodology presupposes they are?” (Source)

10 Things to Remember When Reading the Bible

This post is adapted from Reading the Word of God in the Presence of God: A Handbook for Biblical Interpretation by Vern Poythress.

1. The Bible is God’s own word.

That means that what the Bible says, God says.

2. God governs the whole world through his divine speech, which specifies and controls what happens (Heb. 1:3).

The Bible indicates that God speaks to govern the world, but we do not hear this speech; we only see its effects (for example, Ps. 33:6, 9; 147:15–18). The Bible, by contrast, is the word of God, designed by God to speak specifically to us as human beings. All divine speech, whether directed toward governing the world in general or directed toward us as human beings, has divine character. In particular, it displays God’s lordship in authority, control, and presence.

3. God speaks his words to us in covenants (Gen. 9:9; 15:18; 17:7; Ex. 19:5; etc.).

A “covenant” is a solemn, legally binding agreement between two parties. In this case, the two parties are God and human beings. In the Old Testament, God’s covenants with human beings show some affinities with ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaties. These treaties show five elements, which also appear either explicitly or by implication in God’s covenants in the Old Testament: identification of the suzerain (Ex. 20:2); historical prologue (Ex. 20:2); stipulations (Ex. 20:3-17); sanctions (i.e., blessings and curses) (Ex. 20:7; see also v. 12); recording and passing on (Ex. 31:18; Deut. 31).

What Do You Understand by the Providence of God?

Heidelberg Catechism

27. Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?

A. God's providence is
his almighty and ever present power, ¹
whereby, as with his hand, he still upholds
heaven and earth and all creatures, ²
and so governs them that
leaf and blade,
rain and drought,
fruitful and barren years,
food and drink,
health and sickness,
riches and poverty, ³
indeed, all things,
come to us not by chance ⁴
but by his fatherly hand. ⁵

1. Jer 23:23, 24; Acts 17:24-28.
2. Heb 1:3.
3. Jer 5:24; Acts 14:15-17; Jn 9:3; Prov 22:2.
4. Prov 16:33.
5. Mt 10:29.

28. Q. What does it benefit us to know that God has created all things and still upholds them by his providence?

Is Jesus our Sanctification or does the Word of God Sanctify Us?

The answer is yes. Recently someone took issue with a quote I posted by Art Azurdia: "The word is the God appointed means by which you will be sanctified...." - Dr. Arturo Azurdia III

Visitor: Not very helpful in then long run. Jesus is my Sanctification, not my adherence to the Bible.

Response: Jesus cannot be bifurcated from His word. The Jesus of the Bible is our sanctification, not the Jesus of our imaginations. You cannot know God or Jesus apart from His revelation. We don't come to know Jesus in a void or through some mystical personal channel of revelation. Even Jesus himself testifies of the Scriptures own importance in the sanctification of the believer.

"Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. " (John 17:17)

And at the same time the Bible also declares that Jesus is our sanctification:

"...because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and SANCTIFICATION and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor 1:29-31)

This is why we lay so heavy an importance of the means of grace (such as preaching). The Jesus we worship cannot be cut off from His word.

Also I want to point to some other words Jesus spoke which stress the true authority of the word. After the resurrection when speaking to the two disciples on the road (their eyes hidden from knowing who he was), notice that Jesus does not say "tada, look here I am". No He first points them to their astonishingly slow belief in the SCRIPTURE'S testimony about him.

Using Public Funds to Establish Atheist Beliefs

by Lenny Esposito

What counts as state-sponsored indoctrination? That's a question that has increasingly come under examination, especially with regard to the establishment of religion. In the United States, the First Amendment to the Constitution declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise." The amendment limits the power of the Federal government from creating or giving favor to a specific religious entity or belief system.

Atheist advocacy groups have taken the first portion of that statement, known as the establishment clause, and interpreted it very broadly. Organizations such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Americans for the Separation of Church and State continue to file lawsuits against cities or public agencies for displaying crosses on hilltops or Nativity scenes at Christmas. They complain that these displays amount to an endorsement of one kind of viewpoint, and since their content is religious it violates the establishment clause.

Such charges have followed into even the public school system, where attempts to teach the problems with neo-Darwinian evolutionary models have been shut down. Neo-Darwinism has at its core unguided and purposeless changes in the genome, which are then established and propagated through natural selection. If one were to challenge this viewpoint, one must presuppose some kind of non-purposeless process; we call such causes intelligent and the challenging idea is labeled intelligent design.

There's No Evidence for Atheism

a Guest Post by Steve Hays

The debate between atheism and Christian theism has such a stereotypical form that it's easy to overlook the radical disparity: when you think about it, there is no positive evidence for atheism. The case for atheism boils down to an argument from silence.

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with an argument from silence, but that's a very vulnerable argument. Atheists don't really present any positive evidence for atheism; rather, they argue against theism.

The case for atheism boils down to the alleged lack of evidence for an interventionist God. Claiming that we can explain the origin of the universe naturalistically. We can explain the origin of life naturalistically. We can explain every illness and recovery naturalistically.

Or take the claim that answers to prayer are random. Likewise, the argument from evil is an appeal to randomness. The distribution of weal and woe seems to be random. By the same token, mass extinction seems to be random. What species survive or perish seems to be random.

Some atheists allege that biological organisms exhibit design flaws. Suboptimal adaptations. That allegation is refutable on different grounds, but in any event, it's not a positive argument for atheism.

A few atheists say God-talk is meaningless. That poses a bit of a dilemma inasmuch as it is no longer clear what the atheist is denying. In any event, that's not a positive argument for atheism.

Some ambitious atheists say the existence of God is not merely improbable but impossible: the very idea of God is incoherent (e.g. "paradoxes of omnipotence"). That generally depends on arbitrary, stimulative definitions of the divine attributes, or dubious postulates about a best possible world.

Helpful Resources on the Doctrines of Grace

General Overview

What the Bible Says About the Doctrines of Grace - Monergism (.pdf)
Calvinism Fact Sheet - Joel Barnes
God's Part and Man's Part in Salvation - John Reisinger
The Five Points of Calvinism – R.L. Dabney
The Five Points of Calvinism – John Piper
The Reformed Faith – Loraine Boettner
The Reformed Faith – B.B. Warfield
More Than A Calvinist – John Newton
Why Can’t They See This – Tom Nettles
A Defense of Calvinism – C.H. Spurgeon
More articles like this....

The Predestinating Love of Christ: A Foundation of Christian Community

by John Hendryx

“…every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights…” (James 1:17).

September 2016

by Dr. James White

Guest post by Jimmy Li

1. The Bible is God’s own word.

2. God governs the whole world through his divine speech, which specifies and controls what happens (Heb. 1:3).

3. God speaks his words to us in covenants (Gen. 9:9; 15:18; 17:7; Ex. 19:5; etc.).

Heidelberg Catechism

by Lenny Esposito

a Guest Post by Steve Hays

General Overview

by John Hendryx

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