Are You Easily Offended?

From Justin Taylor:

Kevin DeYoung’s post today is worth reading in its entirety. Here’s a snippet:

As Christians, we worship a victimized Lord. We should expect to suffer and should have particular compassion on those who hurt emotionally and physically. But we do not resemble the Suffering Servant when we take pains to show off our suffering. I’m not thinking of the Brit Hume ordeal now. I’m just thinking in general how we are tempted to gain the culture’s approval by playing the culture’s offense-taking game. If a law is broken or a legitimate right taken away, let us protest with passion. But if we are misunderstood or even reviled let’s not go after short-lived and half-hearted affirmation by announcing our offendedness for the world to hear. Every time we try to make hay out of misplaced calumnies, we hasten the demise of Christianity in the public square. As offendedness becomes the barometer of acceptable discourse, we can expect further marginalization of Christian beliefs.

(My emphasis.)

Read the whole thing.

Evangelical Academics Need a New Kind of Ambition

In April, the Grove City Evangelical Scholarship Conference will be most pleased to welcome Dr. Carl R. Trueman, professor of church history and academic dean at Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) and council member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Below are excerpts of a recent writing by Trueman, in which he offers some very timely and pithy musings on evangelicals in academia, namely their pitfalls.

I, for one, will be very grateful to welcome Dr. Trueman here in a few months and hope that he sheds some light (if not some godly conviction) on us self-appointed academics (and the pomp and arrogance thereof) and cause us to re-think how our efforts are aiding the cause of the gospel or whether they are simply feeding our egos.

From Justin Taylor:

Carl Trueman, writing for 9Marks on The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, writes about the kind of ambition that evangelicals should have:

[T]oo few evangelical academics seem to have much ambition. Perhaps this sounds strange: the desire to hold a tenured university position, to publish with certain presses, to speak at certain scholarly conferences, to be in conversation with the movers and shakers of the guild—these seem like ambitions that are all too common. Yet true ambition, true Christian ambition, is surely based in and directed towards the upbuilding of the church, towards serving the people of God, and this is where evangelical academics often fail so signally. The impact evangelical scholars have had on the academy is, by and large, paltry, and often (as noted) confined to those areas where their contributions have been negligibly evangelical. Had the same time and energy been devoted to the building up of the saints, imagine how the church might have been transformed.

He explains what he is and isn’t saying:

This is not to say that high-powered scholarship should be off-limits, nor that the immediate needs of the man or woman in the pew should provide the criteria by which relevance is judged; but it is to say that all theological scholarship should be done with the ultimate goal of building up the saints, confounding the opponents of the gospel, and encouraging the brethren. The highest achievement any evangelical theological scholar can attain is not membership of some elite guild but the knowledge that he or she has done work that strengthened the church and extended the kingdom of God through the local church.

Then he offers a prediction for the future of evangelical elites:

The day is coming when the cultural intellectual elites of evangelicalism—the institutions and the individuals—will face a tough decision. I see the crisis coming on two separate but intimately connected fronts. The day is coming, and perhaps has already come, when, first, to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, inspired, authoritative, and utterly truthful, will be seen as a sign at best of intellectual suicide, at worst of mental illness; and, second, to articulate any form of opposition to homosexual practice will be seen as the moral equivalent of advocating white supremacy or child abuse. In such times, the choice will be clear, those who hold the Christian line will be obvious, and those who have spent their lives trying to serve both orthodoxy and the academy will find that no amount of intellectual contortionism will save them.

Conclusion:

Years ago, Mark Noll wrote a book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, in which he argued that the scandal was that there was no such thing. When it comes to evangelical scholars and scholarship, I disagree: the scandal is not that there is no mind; it is that these days there is precious little evangel.

Read the whole thing.

In Defense of Proselytism: Talking Points for Brit Hume

The furor surrounding Brit Hume’s encouragement to Tiger Woods to convert to Christianity shows us that the prevailing sentiments of our culture is adamantly opposed to the idea of evangelism.

As Christians, we must recognize that before we can make a robust defense for the Christian faith, we may have to clear the air by making a case for evangelism in general. After having listened to some of the remarks made about Brit Hume, I have compiled a list of common objections to “proselytism” and why each of them are unpersuasive.

Objection #1: “Brit Hume’s remarks indicate that he thinks Christianity is superior to Buddhism.”

Response: Of course, he thinks Christianity is superior. Otherwise why would he remain an adherent to the Christian faith?

In the same way, I would expect a Buddhist man to think that his religion to be superior to Christianity. If the Buddhist doesn’t consider Buddhism to be superior, then why not convert to whatever religion he thinks issuperior?

It is not arrogant to believe that your religion is superior to others. We should assume that religious people believe their faith to be superior.

Furthermore, if you believe no religion is superior to another, you are putting forth a viewpoint that you believe to be superior than the “religious superiority argument” you condemn. Thus, you fail to live up to your own demand.

Objection #2: “Christianity looks bad when Christians talk this way. Christians should not publicly and actively proselytize people of other faiths.”

Response: If Jesus calls us to make disciples of all nations and to preach the gospel, then Jesus is calling us to evangelism / proselytism. The issue is not about the way Christianity looks before the world. The question is whether or not someone can be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ and not evangelize.

To the person who says, “It’s arrogant to proselytize”, I say, “I consider it more arrogant that you think I should follow you in this area rather than Jesus Christ, who I claim as Savior and Lord.” It is the height of arrogance (and prejudice) to tell a Christian, “You should not follow Jesus Christ in this area.”

Objection #3: “Brit Hume implied that Buddhism is deficient in some way.”

Response: The assumption behind this objection is that all religions are equally valid. But that assumption is not so easily proven.

Do we really want to argue that no religion has any deficiency? That every religion is equally good (albeit in its own way)? Such a view is very disrespectful to the adherents of other religions. Buddhists know that they are not Christians. Christians know that they are not Muslims. By assuming that every religion is equally valid and good, you are downplaying the significant differences between these faiths.

Don’t patronize people and act like their differing views don’t matter. They do. They know they do. We know they do. Let’s agree on the fact that there are substantial disagreements and leave aside this nonsense that we all believe the same thing.

Objection #4: It is arrogant for Brit Hume to assume he believes in the only true religion and to try to lead people to the Christian faith.

Response: Is it? Most people in the world today do not believe that all religions are equally valid. In fact, most people believe that their religion is the correct one.

So by saying that it’s arrogant to insist your religion is right… well, that’s an arrogant statement too. You’re telling me that the majority of the world is wrong and you are right. Sounds oppressive. It’s also ethnocentric and prejudiced to believe that we in the enlightened West have figured out that all religions are the same and the poor, mindless Christians, or Muslims, or Hindus, or Buddhists across the world are still in the dark, thinking they have the only light.

Objection #5: Brit Hume’s attempt to evangelize Tiger Woods shows how exclusive and narrow-minded fundamentalist Christians are.

Response: Actually, no. True evangelism takes place because the call of salvation is radically inclusive. We are to call all people everywhere to repentance and faith: people from every tongue, tribe, and nation; people of every color, ethnicity, and background; yes, even people who claim other religious identities.

The truly narrow-minded, prejudiced Christian looks at a Buddhist like Tiger Woods and stays quiet about Jesus. Their silence says this: Jesus isn’t for you.

On the other hand, the evangelistic Christian recognizes the radically inclusive call to salvation. It is because of the exclusive nature of Christianity that the offer of the gospel is so radically inclusive. Christ calls all peopleeverywhere to repentance. Forgiveness in Jesus Christ is available for all… even Buddhists like Tiger Woods.

(via Trevin Wax)

Twenty Six Golden Rules for writing well

Iain D. Campbell posted 26 "Golden Rules" for writing well over at the Reformation21 Blog. For your convenience I've reproduced them below:

1. Don't abbrev.
2. Check to see if you any words out.
3. Be carefully to use adjectives and adverbs correct.
4. About sentence fragments.
5. When dangling, don't use participles.
6. Don't use no double negatives.
7. Each pronoun agrees with their antecedent.
8. Just between you and I, case is important.
9. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
10. Don't use commas, that aren't necessary.
11. Its important to use apostrophe's right.
12. It's better not to unnecessarily split an infinitive.
13. Never leave a transitive verb just lay there without an object.
14. Only Proper Nouns should be capitalized. also a sentence should begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop
15. Use hyphens in compound-words, not just in any two-word phrase.
16. In letters compositions reports and things like that we use commas to keep a string of items apart.
17. Watch out for irregular verbs that have creeped into our language.
18. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
19. Avoid unnecessary redundancy.
20. A writer mustn't shift your point of view.
21. Don't write a run-on sentence you've got to punctuate it.
22. A preposition isn't a good thing to end a sentence with.
23. Avoid cliches like the plague.
24. 1 final thing is to never start a sentence with a number.
25. Always check your work for accuracy and completeness.

A lá Carte

1) The conservatism of Pixar movies. (HT: Trevin Wax)

2)What hath Bach to do with Japan? Much, for the sake of the gospel. (HT: JT)

3) A note for critics (not of me per se, just critics in general):

It’s not the critic who counts, not the one who points out where the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood, and who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spend himself in a worthy cause, who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

His place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat!

- Theodore Roosevelt

4) Another peril of social networking

5) 2010: Should we be optimistic?

6) For all you feminists ("biblical" or otherwise) out there

7) A new study shows that children who were spanked are more likely to grow up happy and successful. Perhaps parental instinct and biblical command aren’t so bad after all.

According to the research, children spanked up to the age of 6 were likely as teenagers to perform better at school and were more likely to carry out volunteer work and to want to go to college than their peers who had never been physically disciplined.

Charity

Tiger Woods

From The First Epistle (newsletter of the First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, MS) and Ligon Duncan:

Al Mohler has a terrific article on the very sad story of Tiger Woods (The Travail of Tiger Woods - Lessons Not to Be Missed). And C.J. Mahaney has a short piece called "Hunting Tiger Woods" that is well worth all of us pondering - particularly us, Christian men. Here's an excerpt of C.J.'s article (you can read the whole thing at www.sovereigngraceministries.org):

"Hunted by the Media - As expected, the allegations of adultery involving a public figure are attracting a media pile-on. This is a big story with a big audience and it's a story that will not disappear soon. Tiger Woods is being hunted by the media.

"But let us make sure we do not join the hunt. A Christian's response to this story should be distinctly different. We should not be entertained by the news. We should not have a morbid interest in all the details. We should be saddened and sobered. We should pray for this man and even more for his wife.

"And we can be sure that in the coming days we will be in conversations with friends and family where this topic will emerge. And when it does, we can avoid simply listening to the latest details and speculations, and avoid speaking self-righteously, but instead we can humbly draw attention to the grace of God in the gospel.

"Hunted by Sin - But Tiger is being hunted by something more menacing than journalists. Tiger's real enemy is his sin, and that's an enemy much more difficult to discern and one that can't be managed in our own strength. It's an enemy that never sleeps. Let me explain.

"Sin Lies - The Bible in general, and the book of Proverbs in particular, reveals an unbreakable connection between our character, our conduct, and the consequences of our actions. These three are inseparable and woven by God into His created order.

"Deception is part of sin's DNA. Sin lies to us. It seeks to convince us that sin brings only pleasure, that it carries no consequences, and that no one will discover it. Sin works hard to make us forget that character, conduct, and consequences are interconnected. And when we neglect this relationship-when we think our sins will not be discovered-we ultimately mock God.

"Sin Hunts - We've all experienced it: Sin lies to us. We take the bait. And then sin begins to hunt us. One commentator on Proverbs articulated this truth like this: "The irony of a life of rebellion is that we begin by pursuing sin.and end up being pursued by it!..You can 'be sure your sin will find you out' (Num. 32:23.)."* In other words, sin comes back to hunt us.

"In light of this fact, sin is an enemy Tiger can't manage. He can't shape this story like he does a long iron on a par 5. Tiger doesn't need a publicity facelift; Tiger needs a Savior. Just like me. And just like you.

And if by God's grace he repents and trusts in the person and work of Christ, Tiger will experience the fruit of God's promise that "whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy" (Proverbs 28:13).

"Conclusion - Tiger cannot intimidate this enemy like he can Pebble Beach or any of the field of professional golfers. And there is no privacy he can claim from this enemy, regardless of his resolve, his silence, or the name painted on his yacht. It's likely Tiger only perceives the press hunting him out of a vain "curiosity about public figures." But Tiger is being hunted and hounded by a far greater foe: the consequences of his sin.

And this story should humble and sober us. It should make us ask: Are there any so-called "secret sins" in my life? Is there anything I have done that I hope nobody discovers? Is there anything right now in my life that I should confess to God and the appropriate individuals?

And this should leave us more amazed by grace because there, but for the grace of God, go I.