David Wells - Prophet??

David Wells, Professor of Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Seminary has written a series of five (5) titles. The time line for this was 1993-2008. He rightly challenged the approach to ministry that is more marketing than theology. He repeatedly challenged the corruption of the Gospel. His thesis was and is - the Gospel is not Therapy.

Fast forward from 1993 to April 13, 2013. A NY Times article by T. M. Luhrmann titled When God Is Your Therapist. She is writing from the perspective of one who has spent 10 years inside an evangelical church in Chicago. Her observation:

One way to see this is that the books teaching someone how to pray read a lot like cognitive behavior therapy manuals. For instance, the Rev. Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life,” one of the best-selling books of all time, teaches you to identify your self-critical, self-demeaning thoughts, to interrupt them and recognize them as mistaken, and to replace them with different thoughts. Cognitive-behavioral therapists often ask their patients to write down the critical, debilitating thoughts that make their lives so difficult, and to practice using different ones. That is more or less what Warren invites readers to do. He spells out thoughts he thinks his readers have but don’t want, and then asks them to consider themselves from God’s point of view: not as the inadequate people they feel themselves to be, but as loved, as relevant and as having purpose.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/opinion/sunday/luhrmann-when-god-is-your-therapist.html?_r=1&

Here is a listing in chronological order of publication of David Wells titles. They are a treasure of sound doctrine and historic evangelical orthodoxy. He writes with passion and exegetical precision. Any Leader who reads this series will be well equipped to accurately analyze the contemporary theological landscape.

                                                                                   
    

 Thank YOU Dr. Wells for this labor of love for the Truth once delivered to the saints. May we hold fast and stand on this foundation. (contend for the faith once delivered to the saints - Jude 3).

Altars East of The Jordan

In the Book of Joshua we read of an altar being erected by the Tribes of Reuben, God and the half-tribe of Manasseh. This action brought much to the consternation of the other Tribes of Israel. They prepared to go to war over this incident.

War was not necessary. The motivation for building the altar was not to provide an alternative place to offer sacrifices. It was rather a sincere effort to preserve the identification of these 2 ½ Tribes with the majority of the nation. The concern was that future generations would be excluded and shunned. The text says on this action:

No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, 'What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?  For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.' So your children might make our children cease to worship the LORD. Therefore we said, 'Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, "You have no portion in the LORD."' And we thought, If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, 'Behold, the copy of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.'  Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD and turn away this day from following the LORD by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the LORD our God that stands before his tabernacle!" (Joshua 22:24-29)

Perhaps the evangelical church in America needs to re-visit this principle. The younger generations are abandoning the faith in significant numbers.

The church needs Leaders with the conviction and integrity to embrace history and restore the remembrance of the ‘faith of our fathers’!