Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

22 May, 2007   comments: (0) Today's Methods   Pulpit Ghost Stories, Bug Eating, Repent & Believe Here's a grab bag of stories too small for their own post and too big for the news ticker. Meet the seeker church that testified of a ghost encounter with a dead civil war chaplain. Is error in doctrine always sin? What is required for salvation, and a reader's email asking what to say when evangelizing. Also a book recommendation and a look at the fearless eating escapades of one popular blogger. Tim Challies recently asked "is error in doctrine always sin?" As if answering from the grave, Charles Spurgeon says: "every deviation from truth is a sin" and "Error in doctrine is as much a sin as error in practice". Challies further ponders whether that may not be the case on difficult issues such as baptism. Spurgeon again answers that question and more: "if baptism be not by immersion, I commit a sin every time I practice it; and if it be, my brother commits a sin who does not practice it. If Election be true, I am committing a sin if I do not believe it". Continue reading the rest of Spurgeon's excellent sermon. Of course Spurgeon was not mystically talking directly to Challies from the grave, but here's a seeker church where you might expect that kind of thing. This sandal-wearing pastor tells of his recent lengthy coffee shop encounter with the Civil War chaplain EM Bounds. Although we don't know whether EM ordered one of those $5 flavored cappuccinos at the coffee shop, we do know that this is what we can expect from the pulpit of a church that has lost (or never had) a doctrinal footing. Fast forward ahead 54 minutes into either the audio or video clip from 4-29-07 to hear the story. What a fitting example of the superstition that Ichabod Spencer warned about from the 19th century, in his post here earlier this week. Well, Spencer didn't actually post something here, you see, he is dead; you know what I mean! If you have kids ages 9 and up, here's a great idea for your family time. I've been reading some classic short stories to my kids from this set of books. Themes include salvation, truth, sin, true martyr accounts, and more. I'm benefiting as much from them as my kids are. At $10 for this entire set of books - you can't go wrong. Joel Beeke also recommends them. Remember Jim and Tammy Bakker? It's really sad to read the words of a 65 pound Tammy near death, saying: "The doctors have stopped trying to treat the cancer and so now it's up to God and my faith". I'll bet there used to be some Old Testament law that prohibited this very troubling behavior by Phil Johnson. (paging through my bible . . . it's in here somewhere . . . I'll find it.) Never mind, I just remembered what John The Baptist ate. My latest StrangeBaptistFire.com article is posted, and I talk about the theological inconsistencies of some megachurch pastors, focussing in particular on a strange book by Chuck Smith - Founder of the Calvary Chapel line of churches. While men like TD Jakes and Billy Graham teach that there is hope for non-Christians to be saved without conversion, Tom Chantry offers this biblical reality check on what must be known in order to be saved (part 1 and part 2). He follows this up with a post on what must be done in order to be saved. On a related note, a reader in Malaysia named Joshua recently emailed me this question. I'll close-out this post with my response to him. "Here is a common phrase.....Ask Jesus to come into your heart or life.....is that how calvinists do it? ... From a calvinist point of view..... When a sinner is convicted by the Holy Spirit, is there any "sinner's prayer" to recite? If not...what would be the normal reformed way of doing this? Does "accepting Jesus into our heart" in line with reformed teachings? If not...how would you explain the steps of salvation? I know that it is GOD who chose and justified the sinner...how do you explain to the sinner that he needs to accept Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior? At this point of conversion, from my old arminian school, I am confused that we 'invite' Jesus into our hearts....and later was told it was the Holy Spirit... Could you explain this part? As I am now leaning strongly to reformed doctrine, I do not know how to explain this part from the reformed view..." Joshua, as you may know, some of the most noteworthy soul winners in church history have been Calvinists, and you can look through the writings of many of them including George Whitefield and Charles Spurgeon to see the kinds of things they said. The emphasis is much the same as the Apostles as they preached that people should obey the Lord's command to repent and believe. Unlike much of today's evangelism however, considerable time was invested by these men to use the law to communicate the 'bad news' before going on to the good news (the Gospel). Classic Calvinists avoid "come to Jesus because God loves you" as the Apostles never witnessed that way. There is a sense in which we do "accept Jesus" (those who are God's elect are the ones that will eventually accept Him), but there are numerous problems with the "sinner's prayer". If you scroll down on this page, you'll find an instance of how Charles Spurgeon closed out one of his church services. Notice his emphasis on sin and trust, and how he encourages the unbeliever to ask God to save them, rather than saying "pray this prayer" followed by "congratulations, now you are Christian!!!" as is painfully common today. I hope that gives you a better understanding, if not - feel free to write back. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.692   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism