Re:visiting Richard Baxter

One of the first books I read as a seminary student was Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor. Baxter utilized the title, not to refer to a theological persuasion, but to designate a regenerated ethic that should accompany the pastor. Written in a day where pastors were known to be drunkards, brawlers, and fornicators, Baxter issues a plea for the Christian pastor to renew a movement of doctrinal education leading to moral transformation.

A practice I have had for numerous years is to keep a regular reading schedule of preaching and pastoral ministry books. Not so much focused on method (for they are countless) but ones focused on a foundational theology developed from Scripture. Today, as I sought to update my reading list, I was persuaded to pick up Baxter's classic work for another read, now a few years and many experiences since my first exposure to it. I have spent much of the day meditating on Baxter's "character of the pastor," for which he lists twelve.

1) Purity of Motive - "hard studies, much knowledge, and excellent preaching are more glorious but still hypocritical sins when they are done for our glory."

2) Diligence and hard work - "[I]t is of infinite importance to others and to ourselves. It is our task to save ourselves and others from temptation, to overcome the devil, to demolish his kingdom, and to set up the kingdom of God."

3) Prudence and efficiency - "The work of conversion, of repentance from dead works, and of faith in Christ, must be taught first and in a frequent and thorough manner." Baxter emphasizes the teaching of basic doctrines over and above speculations, that each might grow in the meat of the word.

4) Certainty about basic doctrines - Similarly, "To teach Christ to our people is to teach everything... Thus the great and commonly acknowledged truths are those that men live by, and which are the great instruments that raise men's heart to God."

5) Plain and clear teaching - "All our teaching must be as plain and evident as we can make it. He that would be understood must speak at the level of his audience. He must make it his business to be understood. Truth loves the light."

6) Dependence upon God and docility before others - "Our whole work must be carried on in a humble sense or our own insufficiency. We need a pious, believing dependence upon Christ for all things. We must go to Him for light, life, and strength. For it is He who sends us into our work."

7) Humility - "Where there is pride, all want to lead and none want to follow or agree. Hence is the cause of schisms, apostasies, arrogant usurpations, and other forms of imposition. Hence also is the concern of ineffective ministry of far too many ministers, who are simply too proud to learn."

8) A balance between severity and gentleness - "If there is no severity, then there will be contempt of our reproofs. If all is severity, then we will be taken to be domineering rather than persuaders of the truth."

9) A zealous and affectionate spirit - "The importance of what we are commissioned to teach will condemn any coldness or sleepy dullness which we may be tempted to indulge in. Let us then be wide awake. Let us then be in such a state that we awaken others."

10) Reverence - "The more God appears in the midst of our duties, the more authority they will have before men. For reverence is that affection of the soul which comes from the deep apprehension of God. It reveals a mind which is intimately conversant with God."

11) A caring love for people - "Be sure that your love is not carnal, coming from pride; let it not be as from a suitor of self-esteem, rather than coming from the lover of Christ. Take heed, then, that you do not connive at secret sins under the pretense of love. So friendship must always be cemented by piety. For a bad man can never be a true friend."

12) Patience - "We must bear with many abuses and injuries from those for whom we are doing good. When we have studied their case, prayed with them, and besought and exalted them, and spent ourselves for them, then we may still need more patience with them. We can still expect that after we have looked upon them as our own children, that there may be some who will reject us with scorn, even hate and contempt. They will cast our kindness in our teeth with disdain, and look upon us as their enemies. They will do this simply because we told them the truth. Yes, even the more we have loved them, the more they will hate us. All this has to be accepted, and yet we still need unswerving and unwearied desire to do good on their behalf."

I have enjoyed my fellowship with Baxter today, probably even more so than I did the first time. In a day of leadership principles, success models, and product promotions, it is good to be reminded that the work of the pastor is not selling his message, but exalting his Lord.

A Holy Voice

For close to two years the Lord has been dealing in my heart about a return to the pursuit of holiness and the lack thereof in the life of Christians on the grand scale. Infighting, divisions, gossiping, slander, and power struggles are all fruits that reveal a root that could not be tapped for the commodity of holiness. Just as a diseased root is a silent creeper that quietly kills a tree, so our unholy root will eventually be the death of many churches and denominations.

As people clamor for more relevance in a younger generation and lament the loss of fellowship in the older, the personal calling we have been given to a pursuit of holiness has given way to the voice of those crying about the sky falling on our churches for a void of relevance. Seminars are offered, sermons are preached, lessons are taught, all for the purpose of seeking to revive that which has yet to have even had life.

Prayer has become a good luck charm seeking a material blessing instead of a holy pleading for the presence of God. Ministries have become territories to be protected instead of lives to be shared and desires to be sacrificed. As we gain more stuff we lose our sense of the God who in His nearness is quite distant (Jeremiah 23:23-34).

Recent days have seen a practice of ‘sex-talk’ from the pulpit in order to captivate a younger audience. Preacher’s have shed “holy jargon” and adopted “street talk” so that seekers can understand – all in an effort to get more to attend. Church divisions are at an all time high. Music wars (of whom both the young and the old are guilty) continue to rule the day and a generational clash of epoch proportion looms large at the intersection of yesteryear and tomorrow. All the while we fail to notice the One who is not present during our worship, a sure indicator of self-worship as opposed to God-worship, for worship can only occur if the One worshiped is the One known (John 4:21-24).

I suppose there are many reasons why this has occurred. I will mention two. First, the Pastor has become more interested in filling the Fellowship Hall with chatter instead of filling the Pulpit with vigor. He has abandoned the desk in the study for the coffee table in the living room, and in doing so, has allowed his heart to grow quite timid in the face of opposition instead of being flamed with passion and courage that is ignited by prayer and Scripture.

Second, the congregation has come to enjoy the desserts of sweet anecdotes of therapy and abhor the main course of the exposition of Scripture. Therefore our churches have become quite obese and lazy instead of being equipped to run the race of ministry. That is both the fault of the one serving the meal and the one demanding the meal.

When a pursuit of holiness is regained and the root is restored to health, we will see the restored root through a healthy fruit. No longer will the 15 minutes between Bible Study and Worship be filled with complaining and lamenting, but there will be an awesome sense of the presence of God. When God is present in our worship, there will be a profound sense of the Holy One. In His presence, chatter will be stopped, gossip will be rejected, the sinner will feel quite uncomfortable, and the saved will be awed. God often captures the attention of the masses not by a booming voice, but by His silence. Perhaps His silence is our lecture.

His is often a still-small voice that cannot be heard over the chatter of the mocker. Why does God use a still small voice with His children? So they will be close enough to hear. Where the voice of God is not heard, there is an indication of the distance between the mouth of God and the ear of a man. Whose voice you seek this Sunday will determine whose voice you hear. My sheep hear my voice (John 10:27). Holiness is not so much of a practice, as it is an awareness of a presence: His.

Evangelistic Atheists

As Christmas time dawns, we can depend on the age-old debate regarding “religion in the public square” like clockwork. The most recent upheaval, at least in the DFW area, involves the transportation system in Fort Worth commonly referred to as the T (read about at http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/30/2669603/atheist-themed-ads-appear-on-fort.html#my-headlines-default). A gathering of like-minded atheists have taken to evangelism by purchasing advertising on the city buses with the slogan “Millions of Americans are good without God.” Though they say their goal is not to “convert anyone,” one must wonder their reason. The implication “we don’t want converts, only acceptance” seems duplicitous at best. But that is beside the point.

First, let’s examine the statement that people can be “good without God.” Is this a true statement? Not to play semantics, but that depends on one’s definition of ‘good.’ It is true that there are countless professing atheists who follow a system of morals, they love their wives, love their children, and do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. It is also true that history is replete with the moral failures of Christians, and even ministers of the Gospel. In these far-too-often-heard-of-cases, the tragedy of the people with faith in God is that they could learn a thing or two from the people who have faith in a non-god.

A Christian should not be opposed to the message that a non-Christian, or even an atheist, could live a life of goodness. The Bible teaches that man has been made in the image of God, and though that image has been tarnished, it has not been destroyed, even in the life of a non-Christian (see James 3:9). To be made in the image of God may mean many things, but certainly it has in part to do with the fact that all men and women have an inherent knowledge of right and wrong. Marred as that knowledge may be, it is still existent.

On the other hand, the Bible teaches that “no one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12 ESV). So does this make my above statement contradictory; that an atheist can do good things? Quite to the contrary. Once again, the crux of the issue is what does it mean to be ‘good’? Man’s definition of ‘good’ is obviously lower than God’s definition of ‘good.’ For Man, being good is more a matter of being responsible – taking care of our families, being honest with our neighbor, and not intentionally causing harm to others. All things an atheist can accomplish.

However, God’s definition of ‘good’ means much more than this. The reason the above referenced verse in Romans rejects the notion that a man can be good is not because they can’t do good things, but because they don’t the Good Thing – namely, seek God. In other words, it is not enough to do good things, but one must do the best thing, seek God. Something an atheist obviously does not do. Thus the question is not “can an atheist be good?” This question makes an assumption of the definition of ‘good.’ The question at hand is “can an atheist be good enough?” The obvious answer is ‘no.’

The specific controversy over posting these signs on the bus is whether or not they have the right to do so. I believe they do. I believe their signs are misleading and misinformed, but I believe they have the right. The tragedy is not they would have the ‘right’ to post these signs; the tragedy is that we have come to a point where they would want to post these signs. But, I believe even an atheist has a right to evangelize. They have a right to communicate their message freely. So do I.

Strength for the Message

Much of preaching focuses on the congregation - the hearers. However, I have discovered that preaching has a profound effect on the messenger as well. There have been times where worn and forlorn I have stepped up to the pulpit questioning my strength to complete the exposition. Yet, in an attitude of prayer, God shows himself faithful to give strength for a new day. We can truly say "when I am weak, then I am strong." He is the God of abundant mercies.

"Karl Barth - His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts" by Eberhard Busch

A man with the complexities of Karl Barth requires a biography that is as complex. Busch attempts to bridge the gap between biography and autobiography by developing this work from Barth’s own letters, correspondence, and conversations. As Barth’s assistant in his final years, Busch occupied a unique position which allowed him to see the man as few have. In this work, Busch chronicles the life and development of Barth by examining him as the consummate student, pastor, theologian, political activist (or lack thereof in a few cases) and person.

Busch has written a brilliant biography in that it uniquely demonstrates the life and thought of Barth on all levels of existence. One finds themselves cheering the heroics of Barth on one page while subsequently casting stones at his treacherous thoughts on the page that follows. The approach of using Barth’s own words with very little intrusion from Busch is brilliant in that it shows what otherwise would remain hidden, yet the brilliance is at times dulled due to the virtual impossibility of being able to smoothly transition from one thought to the next.

All things considered, Busch's biography of Barth should be considered by all students of theological history for the purpose of seeing Barth as a dogmatician who was not developed in a vacuum. The struggles, both internal and external, along with the victories, made Barth the theologian we know him as. Busch shows that to know Barth by his magnum opus is not to Barth at all.

The Evidential Error of Postmodern Christianity

Christianity Today has posted a brief article here entitled Obscene Bible comments reflect failure of church. The article speaks of a particular Bible placed on display in Glasgow inviting those who have been marginalized by faulty interpretations of the Bible to "write your way back into it."

Of course, giving a postmodern a pen and asking him to adjust the Bible to his liking is akin to giving a thief a thousand dollars and telling him to deliver what he doesn't want to the local orphanage. We ought not be surprised at the decision he makes. The visitors took the pen and wrote in the Bible, "I don't want a fascist God," among other phrases that I will not repeat.

As surprising as this may be to some, even more surprising is the reaction of Eddie Arthur, the Executive Director of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Taking an opportunity to respond to the actions of those who defaced the word of God, Arthur says, "Sadly, it is a failure of the wider Christian church to adequately live and demonstrate the message of God's reconciliation which is the issue."

Arthur's error is in misplacing the blame. Is the reason people deface the word of God really the fault of believers, or is it simply evidence that people without the Lord Jesus Christ feel no need to reverence the Bible beyond some historical document that is now irrelevant to culture? Authur's problem is that ultimately, he pandered to the whims of postmodern culture. The Bible was defaced because there are people without Christ, and people without Christ have no regard for the revelation of Christ. The implication is that the people of Christ should be offended when people desecrate His word. Jesus fully expected to be desecrated, and even told us He would be, and we in turn.

Arthur's statement reveals a mentality of "if we do it right, they will like us." The idea that "if the church can join hands with the culture then the culture will accept us" is naive in regard to culture and ignorant in regard to Scripture. Postmodern Christianity is simply an invitation for those who feel marginalized to write their own scripture. We ought not be surprised when culture rejects the word of God. We should be surprised when Christians ignore the word of God.

Misunderstandings, Monikers, and Misrepresentations Part 4:

“You shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:32 NASB

“The whig historian thinks that the course of history, the passage of centuries can give judgment on a man or an age or a movement.” The Whig Interpretation of History, Herbert Butterfield, p88.

Many of the issues that we see within the Southern Baptist Convention today are as much a battle for the history of the SBC as they are a battle for her future. It is innate within human consciousness that the one who writes the definitive history directs the future. Therefore, controlling the purpose of the Conservative Resurgence is key to controlling her future.

In The Whig Interpretation of History, Herbert Butterfield realized that his fellow historians, both contemporary and past, had constructed their own metanarrative wherein select facts were the instruments by which they had constructed their story. Facts that proved not to be beneficial, or even contradictory to their own reckoning, became obsolete materials that inhibited the progress toward the desired destination, and therefore the facts were only beneficial as they were relevant to one’s goal. The facts became pawns upon the chessboard of ecclesiastical life which could be shifted to and fro for the defense of one’s own territory.

These facts became categorized as manipulations of the loser in order that the winner might emerge as the champion. Of course, the winner of history ultimately becomes the writer of history. The one who wins the battle for history gets to choose the hero of his story. Butterfield writes to call his fellow historians to an historical ethic where it is recognized that history is guided by Providence and the ethical historian simply reports the facts and allows Providence to guide the events where He may.

I believe we are seeing a whiggish interpretation of the Conservative Resurgence in some sectors of SBC life. We are passing judgments of value as if value is conveyed by our bestowal. We are prone to honor the successes of those from five centuries ago, while ignoring his failures, yet we dismiss the successes of those who are our own and critique him for his failures. Postmodernism improperly grants one the intellectual freedom to reconstruct the facts into his own perception of reality either by magnification or marginalization. By magnification we make major that which was minimal; by marginalization we make irrelevant that which was central.

Perhaps one of the largest detriments to a postmodern philosophy is its neo-existential undertones. By this I mean that history is accepted only as far as it is profitable. Where it does not serve our desired conclusion, it is dismissed as being irrelevant and therefore unimportant. Where history is spoken of, it is often done so only as far as it is beneficial to one’s preconceived agenda. In other words, postmodernism is not only evidenced in how a person views the present, but it is evidenced in how they view history.

The first error of postmodern historical observation is a lack of historical objectivity. This is seen in conversations that celebrate the greatness of a man or movement without taking into account his errors. If, indeed the heart is an “idol factory,” we must be wary that great men not become idols. Study of any historical movement of the past must take into account both one’s successes and their failures. This is true of all men and their movements. Should we celebrate a man’s birthday for his successes without lamenting his failures then our objectivity will be clouded by an idolatrous mist.

A second error in historical observation that postmoderns commit is historical ignorance. In many places, this is more prone to occur in the investigation of recent history than in the investigation of ancient history. We are prone to view the history of 5 centuries ago through rose-colored glasses while simultaneously viewing the past 3 decades through a kaleidoscope. One shades reality to our comfort, the other distorts reality to our detriment. Both are erroneous.

I find it quite ironic that some will champion a man for a particular shared soteriological outlook and turn a deaf ear to his cry for the death of the “heretics.” Simultaneously some dismiss the giants who walk in our own day as irrelevant, not because of different methodological boundaries, but because of different methodological practices. In other words, they see no problem with it being done differently; neither do they see a problem with it being done the same.

Is it not a contradiction in terms to want to put the first generation of the Conservative Resurgence to bed with the accusation of irrelevance while simultaneously wanting to resurrect the men of the Protestant Reformation as heroes of the faith? Do not misunderstand: I believe Luther, Calvin, etc. deserve a great deal of our gratitude for the contributions made to theology at great risk to themselves. I have greatly benefited from biographies and theological writings of the ancients. But death is the ultimate evidence of irrelevance in theological development. We learn from them, but their death testifies to their frailty. Let us honor the heroes who contributed to the Kingdom of God in centuries gone by. Let us also honor the heroes who contribute to the Kingdom of God who remain among us.

I am not raising a question of superiority, only of recognition. The Reformation was a needed correction within God’s Kingdom. The Resurgence was a needed prevention. The first resurrected the Bible from the grave of pontifical suffocation; the second prevented its death from liberalism’s acidic affects. The act of correction always seems more magnificent than prevention, not because of how much it rescued, but because of how close in proximity was its destruction. We are prone to glorify the acts of correction yet slightly dismiss the acts of prevention, but in the end, both are equal in what has been rescued.

As young pastors, we should be cautious not to develop whiggish interpretations because of postmodern judgments and existential interpretations. There is great danger in offering a corrective procedure while ignoring the preventative measure. The only reason that something would need correction is because prevention has been ignored. Let us honor the corrective efforts of the Reformation, but let us not ignore the preventative efforts of the Resurgence. Let us, as young pastors, be students before we are physicians. We must be careful that we not claim credit for correcting that which has already been prevented. Should God grant us a resurgence of the Great Commission, we should remember that the preventative measures that were taken in the Resurgence are the only reason we even care what the Great Commission says.