Exegetical Precision

If you please God, it does not matter whom you displease. And if you displease Him, it does not matter whom you please. (Steve Lawson)

I recently responded to a post on Face Book. There was a picture of a young lady wearing a long sleeve green t-shirt. One word was printed on the shirt – ‘Whosoever’ in large letters. In much smaller letters under that word was the reference John 3:16.

I responded to that post and pointed out that there is no such word (whosoever) in the text in the original language in John 3:16. WOW! The free-willers went ballistic. Hundreds of people cited the NIV, the KJV, etc. as proof that whosoever is indeed in that passage.

It mattered not that I gave the following interpretation from the text in the original language:

In this manner, God loved the world that he actually gave his unique one of a kind son with the express purpose that the believing ones will not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Emotions and tradition trump exegesis. Many virtually attacked my person for even stating such. I graciously thanked each person for their response and once again cited the textual evidence for this interpretation.

Why do I share this incident? Because our culture is swimming in biblical illiteracy and it is evident that no amount of sound interpretive evidence changes anyone’s mind. Private interpretations (2Peter 1:20) rather than the authority of the text reign supreme in what they want to believe the Scripture says. Take note of this pastor as this is what you are facing.

God uses the message of Special Revelation to transform people. He does not honor the distorted and privatized preferences of ill-informed people clinging to their traditions.

Weigh Not Thy Life

http://www.hymnary.org/text/my_soul_weigh_not_thy_life 

I post this hymn to encourage and lift up those faithful men who are weary in the battle. Read the words of this hymn over and over. Sing them in the night season. Let them penetrate the deepest fiber of your pastoral being. And remember, JOY comes in the morning!!

Author: Leonard Swain

Swain, Leonard, D.D., was born at Concord, New Haven, Feb. 26, 1821, and educated at Dartmouth College and Andover. In 1847 he became a Congregational minister at Nashua, New Haven; and in 1852 of Central Church, Providence, Rhode Island. He died July 14, 1869. His hymns, "My soul, it is thy God" (The Christian Race), and "My soul, weigh not thy life" (The Good Fight of Faith), appeared anonymously in The Sabbath Hymn Book, 1858, and their authorship has only recently been determined. The second hymn is the more widely used of the two. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907).

Weigh Not Thy Life

 My soul, weigh not thy life

Against thy heavenly crown;

Now suffer Satan's deadliest strife

to beat thy courage down.

With prayer and crying strong,

Hold on the fearful fight,

And let the breaking day prolong

The wrestling of the night.

The battle soon will yeild,

If thou they part fulfill;

For strong as is the hostile shield,

Thy sword is stronger still.

Thine armor is divine,

Thy feet with victory shod;

And on thy head shall quickly shine

The diadem of God.

New Year’s Resolutions & Commitment

I recently received a request from a Missionary in Zambia Africa. He expressed interest in the ‘Leadership Is’ material that I offer. At the close of his message he said - - “commitment is a problem in Africa”!

I responded by stating that commitment is a problem in America as well and particularly in the evangelical church. People seem to have forgotten or perhaps never considered the Biblical Principle ‘Let Your Yes be Yes’ and do what you agreed to do. Service is not an option. It is both a privilege and an obligation.

The following chart shows the failure of most in honoring this tradition?

Percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s Resolutions	45%
Percent of Americans who infrequently make New Year’s Resolutions	17%
Percent of Americans who absolutely never make New Year’s Resolutions	38%
Percent of people who are successful in achieving their resolution	8%
Percent who have infrequent success	49%
Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year	24%
People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions

How do you measure up? Happy New Year!!

Leaders & Listening

In 1962 I served on the USS Independence, CVA 62, an air craft carrier. In April we deployed to the Mediterranean  for what was to be a period of nine months. Near the end of August we returned to Norfolk, crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 3 days, a trip that under normal circumstances takes 8-10 days for a carrier.

In early September we deployed to the Caribbean. We circled Cuba for 6 weeks. We now have learned the reason for our rapid return to the East Coast - Russia had deployed missiles on Cuban soil, 90 miles from the USA.

We had 96 planes and a crew of 5,000 on that ship. One afternoon in late October we went to General Quarters, a condition of battle readiness. The launch of those planes was scheduled for 4 PM. Normally such drills ended after one hour. 3:15 - still on. 3:30 - still on. At 3:40 the launch was canceled. We came within 20 minutes of nuclear war with Russia! John F. Kennedy was our President at that time. He crafted a deal with Khrushchev that prevented the outbreak of war.

Fast forward to November 6, 2015. We visited the Arlington National Cemetery.  Kennedy is buried there. We viewed his grave site and the flame, etc. Several weeks ago I watched Bill O'Riley's movie Killing Kennedy. I relived much of what took place in 1962. In the mid 90's Peggy & I visited Key West Florida. I stood by the pylon that marks the southern most point of land in the USA. It is 90 miles to Cuba from that spot. It was then that I grasped some of the geographical significance of the missile crisis.

It is no secret that Jack Kennedy was a carouser and an adulterer. At one point Bobby Kennedy is speaking to Jack in his office. He covers several issues and then says - - 'Jack, you have a 'woman problem'. It is a matter of record that some of the females in Jack's philandering very well may have presented security risk to our country.

Jack turned his back, walked over to his desk and said indignantly - - 'is that all'? In that scene he was dismissing Bobby's rebuke and demonstrating a lethal flaw in the character of any leader. The refusal to hear and respond appropriately to a well placed rebuke.

Real leaders listen. What kind of listener are you?

Transcendent Authority & The Public Square

When any community of people loses a Transcendent and Authoritative “Center” that governs all morality and institutions, it has then embarked on the road to disintegration.

When the USA launched a deliberate and intentional campaign to rid the Public Square of God and His Truth, the seeds of our destruction had been sown. No prayer in the schools. The elevation of the individual over the community. The persistent elevation of man with unlimited ‘freedom’ to make rather than abide by any transcendent Law doomed us to fragmentation of the loss of community.

The onslaught persists. The Freedom From Religion folks are now trying to tell the football coach at Clemson University that he may not guide his players, albeit voluntarily to engage in Christian worship and activities.

The FFR folks tried that here in Cullman. The community response, we still have community here, was 5,000+ turned out for an impromptu Prayer Meeting.

Ask yourself this question – - ‘Are we better off today than we were in 1950?’

That deeper issue was the vogue of moral relativism specifically, Lippmann was concerned that there were no longer any transcendent moral standards to which to appeal in guiding either the government or the people. In the first half of the 20th century, there had been a trend to separate the law from reference to any higher moral system. Lippmann had now come to see that as a dangerous innovation. Institutions of free societies, the observed, had been founded “on the postulate that there was a universal order on which all reasonable men were agreed.” In the era of the America’s founding, even if the more secular thinkers and the traditional Christians may have differed on the exact source of that order and its content, “they did agree that there was a valid law which, whether it was the commandment of God or the reason of things, was transcendent.” Speaking of such essential principles as “freedom of religion and of thought and of speech,” Lippmann affirmed that “the middle of the seventeenth and eighteenth century who established these great salutatory rules would certainly have denied that a community could do without a general public philosophy.” But the idea, so essential to establishing democratic institutions, that there was such a higher moral order had not survived modern pluralism,” and “with the disappearance of the public philosophy–and a consensus on the first and last things–there was opened up a great vacuum in the public mind, yawning to be filled.” (George Marsden, The Twilight Of The American Enlightenment, p. 46 quoting Walter Lippmann in Essays In The Public Philosophy, 1955).

I vote NO! What about you?

Words & Their Importance

To ensure my status as a ‘Grumpy Old Man’ I offer the following:

The majority of people succumb to what I label as the ‘lemming syndrome’. Lemmings are those creatures that run as a crowd. What one does, they all do. Your children come home from school. They say ‘I need a pair of X shoes because “everyone” has them’. That means 2 or 3 other people. Suddenly, the entire class room is shod with that particular foot wear.

This same principle applies in the speech patterns for our culture. This is also true of those who claim to be Christians. People seek acceptance and so they adopt the cultural and behavior patterns of those around them. The text of Scripture warns about this scrum. Words and their relationships give meaning to language. Of all people, those who claim the Name of Christ should exercise a high degree of integrity in their speech patterns. Scripture has much to say about our words, speech. This is so regarding both the content and substance of what we say.

With this as a brief context I offer the following. Examine the following words thoughtfully. Are you a ‘Lemming’?

Peep – When I was a young man ‘peeps’ were little chickens that the mail man delivered in a card board box. They often provided eggs or even ‘chicken dinners’ depending on the purpose for which they were purchased. I am NOT a ‘peep’.

Chill – We have a gas log fire place in our living room. With the push of a button we have a toasty warm fire that takes ‘the chill’ off the temperature in that room. This is a great place to read a book with a steaming hot cup of coffee. I do NOT ‘chill’.

Hang – Hanging was abolished decades ago. This practice tends to truncate your longevity. The intended meaning is almost always a deleterious waste of time. Not an acceptable investment for believers to engage on any consistent basis. I do NOT ‘hang’.

OK – enough already. You get the drift. Try abandoning the ‘lemming syndrome’ and introduce your friends and associates to the language of redemption; sin, salvation, Savior, and eternity. Those words have substance and real meaning. Your speech reveals your heart. What are your words telling people about who you are?

How To Choose A Seminary

This post was written by Kevin DeYoung and is very beneficial in answering the question 'Where should I go to Seminary?'

Here are seven questions to ask before choosing a seminary.

1. What do I want to do with a seminary degree? I am a firm believer in the value of a seminary education. But I don’t encourage Christians to jump into seminary simply because they are eager to learn the Bible. It’s an expensive way to study the Scriptures if you don’t have a definite end goal in mind. So think to yourself, and talk to other people, and try to determine if you need seminary? If so, what for? To be a pastor? To be a missionary? For some other kind of vocational ministry? To go into the academy? What you are looking for will help determine where you go.

2. Is the seminary fully committed to the authority of the Bible at every level of the institution? I suppose in rare instances you could make a case for going to a mainline school if your end goal is to get a PhD and serve in a secular environment (although there are many evangelical schools whose degree would not hurt your chances of getting into the best doctoral programs). But in almost all cases, you will do much better to go to a school firmly rooted in the inerrancy of Scripture and the doctrines of the Reformation. This is not the time for testing out new theories, especially if you are studying to be a pastor. Find a school whose theology you trust, from top to bottom.

3. Have you thought about the tradition you want to be a part of? Seminary does not set your trajectory for life, but it will immerse you in a certain culture and tradition. Southern is a good seminary, so is Westminster, so is Trinity. But one will put you in the middle of SBC life, another into the Presbyterian and Reformed world, and another more broadly into evangelicalism (and the Evangelical Free Church). Think about where you’re from and where you want to end up. The people you train with in seminary may be your ministerial traveling companions for life.

4. What is the community like? No seminary aims for lousy community, but some schools are largely commuter campuses while others have a dorm atmosphere that feels like an extension of college. Do you want to share meals with other students in a cafeteria? Do you want to go to chapel regularly? Would you prefer married housing? Are you fine living off campus and driving in for class three or four or five days a week? Know what you’re looking for.

5. Who will be teaching you? It’s hard for seminaries to be much better (or much worse) than the faculty they employ. Think about whom you respect and want to be with for 3-5 years. Find out not just who the big name scholars are, but who actually teaches the classes and whether they are accessible to students. If you can, try to talk to current students and find out whether the famous faculty are effective classroom instructors. Good scholarship, good writing, and good teaching are three different gifts that don’t always reside in the same person. If you are training for pastoral ministry, you’ll want to see how many of the professors have real world experience in the nitty-gritty of local church life.

6. What courses will you be required to take? Seminary catalogs don’t always make for scintillating (or simple) reading, but it’s well worth the effort to try to make sense of each school’s basic requirements. The curricula can vary widely, both in total credit hours and in emphases. I would look for a school that is strong in the original languages, can teach exegesis, doesn’t skimp on systematic theology, and knows how to translate academic preparation into ministry readiness.

7. What are their graduates like? Granted, no seminary can be responsible for the way in which every student turns out. But on the whole, you should be able to get an excellent idea of how well a school will train you for ministry by looking at those it has already trained. Are they men of character? Are they biblically sharp and theologically sound? Are they doctrinally balanced? Are they good with people? Can they preach? Can you think of several graduates you’d gladly have on staff at your church? The proof is, as they say, in the pudding. Or, in the case of seminaries, in the pastors.