A Couple of Movie Reviews

I am not a big movie man. Most of what Hollywood places either on television or on the big screen is not worth a dime in my estimation. Most of it is full of ungodliness, immorality, violence, hatred, liberalism, and is anti-Christ. However, from time to time Hollywood will produce some good films that I believe are worth mentioning for Christians to see though I don't advocate wasting your money on movies. Wait till they come out on DVD and watch them for $1 from your supermarket instead of the outrageous prices at movie outlets.

Yet this week I saw two films that I thought were decent though not perfect. The first film I watched was the 2003 film, Luther starring Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther. The film focuses on the crisis point in Luther's life when he nailed his 95 Thesis to the church door at Wittenberg. The movie portrays the struggles of Luther as he begin to see just how far adrift the Roman Catholic Church had become and how the Church needed a mighty reformation.

Overall Luther was quite a clean movie despite a few violent scenes and some crude language (although using KJV type references). Fiennes portrays Luther well. My main problem with the film as that the issue of salvation by faith in Christ is sadly missing. The film makes the watcher believe that the Reformation launched by Luther was over the Catholic practice of indulgences. While that is partly true, the film fails to portray Luther's personal struggle over salvation and fails to show that Luther was as much hated by Catholic clergy for his teaching against indulgences and his teaching on justification by faith. The movie does a good job of showing Luther's love for the Bible and his boldness in translating the New Testament into German. If the movie had portrayed Luther's passion for justification by faith as well as they focused on his preaching against indulgences, the movie would have been much more of a success.

The next film I saw was the Disney release of A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carey as Scrooge. The film was an incredible film made from computers that was a masterpiece to behold. The technology films have today is incredible. Most people know the story by Dickens so I won't spend time going over the story itself but I will point out a few things. First, the movie is dark so beware of taking children. We took our children and they were scared several times in the film. I would not take our children again. Second, the movie is clean. No cussing and no violence. The movie stays true to Dickens story although it spends too much time on scenes of Scrooge running around especially in the ghost of Christmas future. Third, the redemption of Scrooge always is a wonder to watch but sadly this film doesn't do as well as others before it of portraying Scrooge's transformation from the visit by the ghosts. In fact, in the end I didn't know why Scrooge had changed at all as it seemed he had simply had a dramatic dream more than visits from spirits to change his life. Greed is shown for what it is and stays true to both Dickens and Scripture. I enjoyed this film more than Luther I guess simply because I am a kid at heart.

I, by no means, am a film critic and I don't watch many films. I do believe that Hollywood is full of sin and needs our prayers and for salvation to come to Hollywood. It is amazing to me that Hollywood can put out filth and then put out great films such as A Christmas Carol and A Christmas Carol will outsell nearly all the R-rated films that Hollywood will put out this year yet Hollywood will continue to put out garbage. No doubt, Satan controls much of Hollywood and his sinfulness is seen on most of the films that come out today.

God is God

God's ways are so much higher than our own (Isaiah 55:8). God's ways are beyond our finite understanding (Romans 11:33-36). I wrestle and wrestle with trying to know God (John 17:3) and to obey Him in all that I say and do (John 14:15) but so often I fall short and yet God loves me and He forgives me through His Son (1 John 1:9). Our God is not like the false gods of this world and its religions. Our God reigns and He controls all things by His word (Hebrews 1:1-3). God created all things (Genesis 1:1; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16) and all things exist by His will and power (Revelation 4:11). What an awesome God!

The Arminian

If you are not receiving The Arminian Magazine published by the Fundamental Wesleyan Society, let me encourage you to visit their website and sign up for the publication. The magazine comes out quarterly and I must say that I love it. I literally read and re-read this magazine and I try to keep all my copies to go back to refer to them. The magazine is full of biblical content and both defends and defines Arminianism quite well. It is well worth getting!

The Fundamental Wesleyan Society also has a great resource of sermons and Bible teachings on their website. Vic Reasoner's sermon "Arminius: Scapegoat of Calvinism" has long been one of my favorite teachings on the life of Arminius and his theology.

The Historical Demise of Arminianism

In the recent edition of The Arminian a statement was made about the triumph of Wesleyan-Arminianism at the end of the 19th century in the United States and Europe. Had their been blogs in those days many Arminians would have been able to rejoice that Arminius and his theology had soundly defeated Calvinism in many ways. From church planting, missions, systematic theology, and commentaries, the vast majority at the end of the 19th century were Arminian. Adam Clarke's commentary on the Bible as well as Daniel Whedon's were much more popular than their Calvinist company.

Yet what happened? Here we now find ourselves living in the 21st century and Calvinism is on the rise. John Piper, Michael Horton, Albert Mohler, and many others are leading a resurgence of Calvinism in both the church, colleges and universities, and in books. Most commentaries today tend to lean Calvinist in their theology. Even among non-Calvinists such as the large portion of the Southern Baptist churches their is still to be found Bible teachers and Christians holding to a Calvinist version of eternal security and while they are largely 4-point Arminians, many of them identify in heart with Calvinists.

I believe the biggest reason for the resurgence in Calvinism lies not in marketing nor in the inability of Arminians to exegete the Scriptures nor does it lie in the lack of skilled theologians from the Arminian perspective but I believe that the source of our demise is found in the history of the Arminian movement at the beginning of the 20th century.

By the end of the 19th century the large portion of Southern Baptist churches were Arminian. The Methodist church had been largely successful in evangelism in the Eastern part of the United States and had spread like wildfire through Europe through Wesleyan preachers. The rise of the Holiness movement would see the creation of new Wesleyan churches such as the Church of the Nazerene (which would be a unification of several smaller holiness churches). The Pentecostal movement bust onto the scene with the Azusa Street revival in 1906 and soon the Assemblies of God, the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) and the Pentecostal Holiness as well as the Church of God in Christ would spread both the Pentecostal message but the message of Arminianism as well. The Restoration movement from Alexander Campell and Barton Stone, while largely calling themselves Christians only and avowing to be non-Calvinist, they were largely (and remain largely) Arminians. The Free Will Baptists and many Congregational churches were evangelising all across America and around the world the gospel as well as Arminianism.

Meanwhile, the Calvinist churches were dying. The "missions" pushes by the Methodist churches in the 19th century had led to many Presbyterian churches to either close or be nearly gone as many of their members had forsaken Calvinism for the Arminian message found in the Methodist churches. The large portion of the Baptist churches who embraced Calvinism during the early days of the 19th century had either been swept in by the Restoration movement or by the Free Will Baptists. Even as B.B. Warfield and the Princeton Seminary were writting on Calvinism at the close of the 19th century, most colleges and professors were Arminian.

And then came the 20th century and the demise of Arminianism as we know it from the writings of Arminius.

What Led To The Demise?

1. The Loss of Bibilical Authority and Inerrancy

Modernism flowing from Europe begin to attack the Bible through rationalism. Skeptics came into the Church (Acts 20:29-30) and begin to question the Bible's authority and accuracy claiming that science had disproven this or that in the Bible. The modernist led an attack on Princeton Seminary itself that resulted in the J. Gresham Machen leaving Princeton to start Westminister Seminary over the inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of the Bible.

In the Methodist church many leading theologians begin to embrace the modernist view of the Bible. This led to the rise of the social gospel that still dominates Methodist churches today. The defense of the authority and inerrancy of the Bible that was so strong in the 19th century was now abandoned by 20th century Methodist teachers.

Sadly, many churches continue today to embrace the modernism and now postmodernism that attacks the authority and inerrancy of the Bible. When a movement embraces such views, it is destined to die. How can a church do great things for God apart from His Word? How can we claim to speak for God about His salvation or His grace if we fail to believe His Word? How can we have a heart for the lost if we don't believe people are lost apart from Christ through His Word? How can we soundly defeat the lies of the enemy or the world if we have no authority by which to speak?

Calvinism, on the other hand, has grown because it upholds a strong view of the authority and inerrancy of the Bible. I own nearly 10 books on inerrancy and all but 1 are written by Calvinists. This strong view of Scripture and a strong foundation on the Word of God will only lead to more and more people turning to Calvinism. People want truth even if postmodernists deny they do. People want absolutes even if postmodernists deny they do. We want to know right from wrong, truth from error, and whether this is from God or not. The only way to know God's ways is through God's Word (Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV).

Oddly, this has led to the rise of the KJV-only movement as well. Despite their fallicies, the KJV-only movement continues to grow because people want to embrace "truth" and they want to know that the Bible they are reading is truly the Word of God. The KJV-only movement strongly believes in inerrancy and while they defend inerrancy in only the King James Version, the movement grows because they give people answers from the Word of God and not from the traditions and bankrupt philsophies of men.

Unless the Arminian movement embraces inerrancy and the final authority of the Bible, Calvinism will continue to grow and will overtake the Arminian churches as the Arminians overtook the Calvinist churches in the middle part of the 19th century. Early Arminians such as John Wesley, John Flecther, Richard Watson, Adam Clarke, and Daniel Steele all embraced the authority and inerrancy of Scripture. Sadly, many churches today still have no statements about the inerrancy of the Bible (the Church of the Nazarene for example) and many colleges such as the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary now enlist emergent teachers on staff who do not embrace inerrancy. This can only led futher to the Arminians demise.

2. The Acceptance of Evolutionary Theories

The second major factor at the turn of the 20th century that had led to both the demise of Arminianism and the rise of Calvinism was the acceptance by Arminians of the higher cricism sector to embrace Darwinian evolutionary theories about creation and Man. Simply put, a belief in inerrancy and the authority of the Bible will lead to a rejection of such false notions. Genesis 1:1 destroys Darwin's view of evolution.

Because many in the Arminian movement begin to embrace science above the Bible, this led to not just a rejection of inerrancy but it led to the social gospel that we now find within the Salvation Army and among many United Methodist churches. If humanity is evolving, we need to help humanity evolve became the rallying cry. No longer was mankind depraved but now they need eductation and socialised education and healthcare. The issue turned from the Arminians seeking to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) to seeking to help people become better people (Romans 3:10-18).

The strongest defenses against evolutionary theories have come from Calvinist minds. Their embracing of the inerrancy of the Bible as well as its authority leads them to conclude rightly that God made the world out of nothing (ex nihilo, Hebrews 11:3). Calvinists such as John MacArthur embrace fully Genesis 1-11 as true (as I do as well) and reject the notion that we have to read into Genesis 1-11 modern science. We need to simply embrace what the Bible says about God and His creation and allow science to sort it out. I reject evolution and accept the Bible's clear teaching on creationism. I firmly believe that God created the world in six literal days and that He created the world out of nothing but merely by speaking the worlds into existence. I believe that God not only created all that we see but that He upholds it by His sovereignty and by His word (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Embracing evolutionary theories only leads to problems in the Bible. Genesis 1-2 have to be rejected. In fact, much of Genesis 1-11 has to be either rejected or reinterpreted to fit into an evolutionary grid. This leads to a rejection of other major doctrines as well. For instance, since the Fall of Man occurs in Genesis 3 and since evolutionary theories show that death occured before the Fall then both the Fall has to be misplaced or rejected (which it often is) and Romans 5:12 has to be twisted. Further, God's promise of a Messiah from Genesis 3:15 sets the tone for the rest of the Bible yet an embracing of evolutionary theories will force one to ignore this major passage of Scripture. Jesus' acceptance of the literal Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4-5 notice that Jesus also says "from the beginning" accepting that Adam and Eve were created at the dawn of time) will lead one to have to either see Jesus as less than God or deny inerrancy.

Either way, the acceptance of evolution by Arminians and the rejection of it by Calvinists has led to our demise and their rise. I applaud Calvinists for rejecting evolution and I believe that unless Arminians stand on the Bible and reject evolution, we too will continue our demise.

Conclusion

Much more could be written about the demise of Arminianism. I believe that the current rise of Calvinism lies not completely in the doctrines of Calvin nor in their correct exegesis of the Scriptures but in the loss of truth among Arminians. We need to reject false teachings by filtering them through the Word of God and this will not happen if we don't believe first and foremost that the Bible is the Word of God, that it speaks for God, and that it is inerrant. Furthemore, we must accept the fact that God speaks through His Word and that nothing will contradict His Word. We don't need new "words from God" or a prophet to come to us but we need a return to Scripture as the final and absolute authority given to us by God Himself (2 Peter 1:16-21).

We need to not just accept the Bible as our inerrant authority but we need to return to preaching the gospel of Christ Jesus as taught in the Bible. Reject human teachings and reject false notions such as naturalistic evolution. There is nothing wrong with wanting to help others by feeding them, clothing them, providing shelther for them but let us not forsake the fact that human beings are lost without Christ (Romans 3:23). Jesus is the only way to God (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:1-6) and without repentance and the forgiveness of sins, people are helpless and lost (Acts 2:38-39; 3:19; 17:30-31; Romans 10:9-17). Jesus' blood alone cleanses us from sin (Ephesians 1:7) and without faith in Him we can not be forgiven (Romans 5:1; Hebrews 9:22, 27-28). A time is soon coming when judgment will take place (2 Thessalonians 1:5-12; Revelation 20:11-15) and we must proclaim the truth that only Jesus saves because that is what the Bible proclaims!

May God be glorified in His Church (Ephesians 3:21) and may the Lord Jesus Christ be taught in truth. May the Lord alone be exalted!

Trusting in the Sovereignty of God Over His Church

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
- Matthew 16:18

One need only look around the local Christian bookstore or even among the blogs on the Internet before you realise that there is much to complain about in the modern Church. From the rise of the emergent church to the seeker church to the health-wealth gospel to the non-Lordship debate, there is much to find that wrong with the modern Church. I sometimes feel like I want to do just what many in the fundamentalist Baptist movement have done and pull away from society and the modern Church in general.

And yet what offers me hope is that Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church. What gives me hope is that I believe in the sovereignty of God over His Church and I believe that none of the errors from the emergent church to the seeker church to any other errors will prevail against God's Church. Jesus has promised to build His Church and we need to trust that He is more than able to guard His Church (Philippians 1:6). Jesus' words here in Matthew 16:18 are spoken not in a defensive posture against the attacks from hell but as an offensive against the kingdom of darkness. God is not passive in His building of His Church nor does He sit by and allow the enemy to attack His Church without His full knowledge and control. God is building His kingdom one person at a time and He does this by His sovereign grace (Acts 2:47).

And while I do believe that we should heed the warnings from both Scripture and from faithful Bible teachers around us concerning the errors confronting the Lord's Church, I believe that God will lead His people by His grace and by His Spirit. Are these dark times? Yes but God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9). Are there many theological errors around us? Yes but God's truth will overcome for God's truth is eternal (Psalm 119:89-90; John 17:17). Jesus is Lord over His Church and nothing in heaven or earth will ever prevail against Him (Colossians 1:16).

So my friend take heart today because Jesus is sovereign over His Church. There are no doubt many false churches around us and we should remain close to Jesus and His Word during these dark times (Matthew 24:4-5; Acts 20:28-32). The Bible alone is able to open our eyes to discern truth from error (Hebrews 5:11-14 NIV). May we hide ourselves in the Word of God and be the salt and light God has called us to be to the glory of His name (Matthew 5:13-16; 1 Peter 2:11-12).

Not Much To Add To This One

Found this off Fred Butler's blog and I all I could say after reading this site is wow. No doubt Bible translations have been an issue for nearly 1500 years in the history of the Church and possibly will be 1500 years from now. However, I find few way out there is much as this site is. It's one thing to prefer a translation over another (which is my case with the ESV) but I would not go so far as to say that all translations are works of Satan as many from the KJV-only camp do. I know several believers who prefer the King James Version but they would not question someones salvation over them using the NIV or the NASB or the NKJV.

Perhaps after visiting this site you too will simply say what I said, wow. You can do directly to this site here.

Pragmatism and Building the Church

I have a friend of mine who is endeavouring to plant a church. He is a good brother who is faithful and God honours his faithfulness over and over again by meeting his needs and by seeing lives transformed. However, this brother has been traveling the world in preparation for planting this church. He has visited various denominational churches ranging from charismatic to reformed. He has been to several church growth seminars and conferences. He has met with literally dozens of pastors from around the world to get wisdom from them about planting a church.

Now to be fair toward this brother, he would not endorse every church that he has visited nor does he agree with all that he has seen or heard. He simply is wanting to gleam from these various churches how they begin and how they go to where they are today. He knows that the road to success is not found in a conference or in a book but in faithfulness, loving, and serving others. Yet he also wants to learn from as many churches and their leaders as much as he can and he wants to put into practice what he finds useful and discard what he believes would not work in his situation.

In plain English: my church planting brother is a pragmatist when it comes to planting a church. No doubt he wants to be faithful to teach sound doctrine and he wants to stand upon the Bible but his main concern is not to plant a biblical church (because he believes by virtue of his denomination he will be biblical) but he wants to plant a successful church. He wants to sow seeds that will generate growth and will ensure that he does not fail. He strongly feels that church planting today is not the same as in the book of Acts though we need not discard Acts but simply must contextualize our methods and message to this postmodern generation.

Here is the problem I have with this. First, my friend is more concerned about success as defined by the world than by God. God grants the Church growth (Acts 2:47; Colossians 2:19). It is our duty to be faithful before God and not merely men. Who cares what men think about our church so long as we are being faithful to God! My friend got to this point by being faithful and I urge him again to simply be faithful to God. If by faithfulness that means preaching against sin knowing that people will leave his church, so be it. Be faithful!

Secondly, my friend takes no regard to the soundness of the theology of the various churches he has visited. He admits this but being a pragmatist, he simply is trying to learn what they are doing right and avoiding what they teach. In reality, theology doesn't matter much to postmoderns nor to pragmatic church planters. Results are what counts. Numbers, money, power, etc. count and not theology. In fact, most of the churches that he has visited (though not all) are low on theology. For example my friend visited Rob Bell's church in Michigan. Bell's church is not big on theology yet my friend went because Bell's church is growing and that is enough for him. My friend has visited numerous seeker and emergent churches and no doubt his church plant will resemble an emergent, charismatic feel to it. Theology will matter little. Growth is the issue. This view, of course, will not line up with Scripture but sadly Scripture has been replaced in the postmodern church with human reasoning (Jeremiah 17:5-9).

Third, pragmatism leads to a loss of truth. I had a friend of mine who I debated once over the "sinner's prayer" and altar calls. I pointed to the Scriptures and asked him to show me in the Bible where the sinner's prayer or altar calls was taught. He couldn't answer me but he said this to me, "Look, it works and that is the bottom line. When a person comes up to me and wants to get saved what am I suppose to do? It is how I was taught, it worked for me, and God still uses it today." That is pragmatic reasoning. It doesn't matter if the doctrine is found in Scripture or not. The bottom line is results and this often leads to errors.

My friend comes from a Pentecostal background. I am not asking you to agree with him or not but his denominational distinctiveness that he holds to (baptism in the Spirit, speaking in tongues, healing, the second coming of Jesus Christ) are all now non-essentials. Gone are the days when doctrine mattered. Gone are the days when you could actually go to a church and you knew where they stood on issues. Gone are the days when believers stood for their faith and their beliefs even to the point of death. Now church planters like my friend don't want to be known as Pentecostal or Arminians or Calvinists but simply they want success. Doctrinal teaching, whether it be from a Baptist or Restoration position, does not matter anymore. What matters now are numbers.

In conclusion, I am not saying that we can't learn from others. I am not saying that visiting Rick Warren's church or visiting Mark Driscoll's church or visiting any other churches are wrong. I do believe we can learn from others and we should. However, what seems to be missing is biblical authority. We seem to be embracing what Warren says about the Church of Christ over what the New Testament says. In fact, my friend can quote more from various church growth books and lessons than from the Bible. He has never been strong on preaching and his sermons are more and more becoming "keys to a happy life" above faithfully teaching the inerrant Word of God. Gone are the days of Acts 6:4 where the Apostles applied themselves to teaching the Word and prayer. Now church planters spend their time in meetings and conferences learning what to do and how to do it in order to make yourself a great name.

And sadly what is also being lost in all this is the glory of God. I pray that when I die I hear those words that I was faithful to Jesus (Matthew 25:21). I want to hear Him say "Well done good and faithful servant." Oh to please Jesus above others! Oh to know that I am being faithful to Him and Him alone! I am so far from being like Christ but oh to be like Him in all that I say or do (Colossians 3:17). Oh to please God!