Supergirl

 The failure of Supergirl is no surprise. Does anybody really want to see an alcoholic Supergirl? People want heroes that are truly heroic. Virtuous heroes. Hollywood, and the broader world of celebrities and popular artists, are increasingly losing a grasp of good and evil, to the point where they can’t imitate the good at all.

Getting Dispensationalism Right

 “Dispensationalism isn’t a heresy,” friends have reiterated lately. I agree. In the history of the Church, that is technically true. But it gets the overall message of Scripture, Old and New Testaments, so wrong, that it gets awfully close. It blatantly contradicts the big picture of what the New Testament authors, echoing the Old Testament, teach.

One friend notes that some in the Church have taught that the Sermon on the Mount is Law and not Gospel. This radical Law-Gospel contrast completely misses Jesus’ point in those verses, which is that righteousness goes far deeper than an external conformity to OT Law. No, keeping the Law does not justify. On this all have to agree. But true righteousness, a righteousness that is a part of salvation, is of the heart. Yet beyond this, there have always been those in Dispensationalism who have taught that the Sermon on the Mount doesn’t apply to the Church at all, but only to Israel, before its rejection of Christ when He was on earth, and not again until its reestablishment after the Rapture. And I’m not only talking about Ultradispensationalism here, but old school, classic Dispensationalism.

In like manner, there have always been Dispensationalists who taught that none of Jesus’ parables were for Christians or the Church, but only applied to Israel after the Rapture. And again, I’m speaking of Classic Dispensationalism, not Ultradispensationalism. One of the things John MacArthur caught a lot of flack over from Dispensationalists was that, even though he was a pretrib Rapture man, in his Bible commentaries he interpreted the parables as applying to the Church and not just Israel.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” We all line up on this basic glorious fact. But go too far down the road in the history of interpretation in mainline Dispensationalism, and things get really crazy really fast, in areas that can’t be considered merely side issues.

Trans Obfuscation and the Sovereign King

  There were two different terms used prior to the term “transgender”. “Transvestite”, which is a cross-dresser. And then there was “transsexual”, used for somebody who had been going through chemical and surgical procedures to try to change their biological sex. The term “transgender” simply obfuscates, which seems to be its intention. It’s an attempt by the unbeliever to defy God and His Law, and to create one’s own reality.

“Hath God said…?” the serpent asked. “Is this the reality He spoke into being? Or can you be gods, rebel against His rule, and create your own universe? Can you have ‘your truth’?”

There is one God, and one world made in accord with His being. All that stands contrary to Him is in vain and will fail.

Death By Christian Liberty

 Yes, we Reformed defend smoking and drinking as extensions of Christian liberty. Spurgeon told a Methodist minister once that he would know he was smoking too much if he was smoking two cigars at the same time. Hooray for freedom. Down with legalism.

Of course, John MacArthur died at 86. Chuck Swindoll just retired at 91. David Jeremiah is still going at 85. All Fundies and non-smokers.

It’s hard to preach with emphysema. It’s worth questioning whether your family and congregation wouldn’t rather have you depositing a life of learned wisdom into them for as long as you can, and whether it’s worth sacrificing those blessed golden years for cigars.

Expository vs. Topical Preaching

 If you grow up in a church without verse by verse exposition in sermons, then expository preaching, when encountered for the first time, can be like a cup of cold water in a desert. But expository preaching only, and the complete absence of topical sermons, can result in gaps in the knowledge of a congregation. Sometimes you need, not only sermons on theological topics like justification and predestination, but sermons that are detailed as well on basics like love, joy, and gratitude. 

Foreknowledge

 If, as the Arminian thinks, “foreknowledge” and “election” are God looking down through the corridors of time, seeing who will choose Him, and then choosing them based on their choice of Him, then this is still to say that the choice is predetermined. God in that scenario is seeing a choice that will not alter and is therefore in some sense and by somebody predetermined. Therefore there is no free will in the Arminian sense. If then the choice is unalterable and inevitable, then it must be made by an unalterable or unchangeable being, whether God or some other. If it is by some other, then one winds up in some variation of pantheism. If by God, then one simply ends up back at Calvinistic and Biblical predestination.

To then suggest, as some will, that the variation comes with God standing outside of created time, is still a false lead. God is still seeing a choice that will be made only one way, and is therefore predetermined.