2012? - The Bible, and The End of the World

Prophecy scholar and author of many books on the subject, Mark Hitchcock, was invited to speak at Credo House of Parchment and Pen blog about the Hollywood movie coming out before Christmas, entitled "2012", and the supposed end of the world. This adventure movie directed by Roland Emmerich stars John Cusack and Amanda Peet and has a plot that has to do with the alignment of the planets predicted by the Mayans and apocalyptic disaster.
Mark has a new book out on the subject with a Biblical perspective and below is a video where he speaks out about it.

Mark Hitchcock - 2012, The Bible, and the End of the World from Michael Patton on Vimeo.

Is a World Government Coming?

My sister-in-law posted this video, "Obama Poised to Cede US Sovereignty" on Facebook.

On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change expert, gave a presentation at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN in which he issued a dire warning regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty which is scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009.

This is a call for prayer for America and the World!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6uSUuF22zo

The Case For Life

Jusin Taylor has a link to a new web-site that makes an excellent case for the pro-life position. Its based on the premise that there is only one over-riding issue and the debate turns on one key question. The commentary is from Life Training Institute and its at "The Case For Life".

Separation of Church and Sports?

Why are some elitist sports reporters like Sam Cook from the Fort Myers Fl News-Press and columnist Tom Krattenmaker from USA Today so offended by Heisman trophy winning Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow? What many Christians admire about Tim next to his extraordinaire talents on the football field is his zeal for Christ and for his altruism and passion and his big time involvement in evangelism and world missions. Back in July I posted an article here on Tim Tebow, entitled "A Man on a Mission" which shows how amazing his life story really is. Now, in recent days he has been slammed for his stand on the exclusivity of Christ as the only way to God and salvation. He wears his faith on his sleeves (or should I say on his eye-black) and this is his ministry in the sports world and I say "Yay, go for it Tim, all the way in football and evangelism!

Denny Burk has posted an article on this on his web-site along with many other Christians in the blogosphere. Below is Denny's article:

Tebow's Narrow Religion
Tom Krattenmaker has taken a whack at Tim Tebow in a recent article for USA Today. He complains that Tebow’s conservative Christianity has afflicted sports culture in general:

“Jesus’ representatives in sports aren’t just practicing faith. They are also leveraging sports’ popularity to promote a message and doctrine that are out of sync with the diverse communities that support franchises, and with the unifying civic role that we expect of our teams.”

The problem, Krattenmaker argues, is that Tebow’s brand of religion is too narrow and exclusive for pluralistic American sports fans.

“Tebow does his missionary trips to the Philippines under the auspices of his father’s Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association. The Tebow organization espouses a far-right theology. Its bottom line: Only those who assent to its version of Christianity will avoid eternal punishment. The ministry boldly declares, ‘We reject the modern ecumenical movement.’ . . . The Bob Tebow organization is working at cross purposes with the majority of Americans — indeed, the majority of American Christians — and their more generous conception of salvation.”

Krattenmaker also alleges that Tebow’s Christianity is abusive to non-Christians:

“This exclusiveness sometimes morphs into a form of chauvinism and mistreatment of non-Christians. Witness the incident with the Washington Nationals baseball team in 2005, when the Christian chaplain was exposed as teaching that Jews go to hell. Then there was the New Mexico state football team, which was the target of a religious discrimination lawsuit in 2006 after two Muslim players reported being labeled ‘troublemakers’ and were kicked off the team by their devoutly Christian coach. The case was settled out of court and the students transferred.”

What are we to make of Krattenmaker’s charges? Are Krattenmaker’s complaints valid? In short, the answer is no. Here’s why.

Tim Tebow didn’t invent the idea that Jesus is the only basis for eternal salvation. That idea is the 2,000 year old teaching of the Christian church. Jesus himself said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6). The apostles taught this as well saying that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Tebow is no innovator on this point. He’s merely holding forth the ancient faith in hopes that others might come to Christ. If that’s too narrow, then so be it. Culture may change, but the gospel doesn’t. Faithful Christians must never trim their theological sails to accommodate the prevailing winds of a godless culture.

That is what makes Krattenmaker’s examples of “mistreatment” appear pretty lame. The Christian message is not that “Jews go to hell,” but that everyone apart from Christ will go there—including Jews, Baptists, Muslims, and all others who do not know Christ. There is no singling out of any particular group. Every person is spiritually destitute apart from faith in Christ. Krattenmaker makes it sound like conservative Christianity singles-out Jews for persecution. That is simply not the case.

At the end of the day, Krattenmaker’s problem is not with Tebow, but with Christ. Christ is the world’s true King to whom we all owe our allegiance. Christ was crucified and raised to provide forgiveness and eternal life for humanity in rebellion against Him. That’s the message that offends Krattenmaker. This should be no surprise, for unbelievers often find Jesus to be “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (1 Peter 2:8). Krattenmaker is tripping all over the stumbling stone, Jesus. Nevertheless, God’s arm is not too short to save. I’m living proof of that. I hope and pray that somehow Krattenmaker might be too.

Read Al Mohler's post "Time to Separate Church and Sports? A New Agenda Takes Shape"

Check out "A Separation of Church and Sports?" by Kevin DeYoung

Evangelicalism and The Gospel Coalition

Subsequent to my last post on the subject of evangelicalism I would like to post a good, objective video on it from The Gospel Coalition entitled "What does Evangelicalism look like in America today?" with Mark Dever, D.A. Carson, Phil Ryken and C.J. Mahaney.

An Evangel-less Evangelicalism

I have sometimes struggled with how to describe my "religious views" in the profile section of social networking sites. I have used the term "evangelical" because I think it describes and puts one amongst a broader group within the "body of Christ" than just one denomination. Now in North America it seems that it has become so broad that many are claiming the term and fewer and fewer people understand the history behind and can define the meaning of it. I certainly would not claim to be "fundamentalist" anymore because the meaning of that has changed so much too and the same thing is happening with "evangelical" but going in the opposite direction. In the online dictionary Wikipedia, "evangelicalism" is defined as follows:
Most adherents consider its key characteristics to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion (or being "born again"); some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for biblical authority; and an emphasis on the death and resurrection of Jesus.

That is actually pretty close, as the word "evangel" comes from a Greek word meaning "good news" or "Gospel". It is that we all were lost in sin and Jesus Christ the true God , true man took on Himself the whole penalty and guilt of our sin that we could have eternal life through faith in Christ alone and his atoning work on the cross.

Now this past week Rob Bell from Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids MI does a quite notorious interview in the Boston Globe where he redefines "evangelical" to suit his own preferences. The interview is with Michael Paulson, the Globe's religious reporter who entitles it "Bell aims to restore true meaning of evangelical."

I had thought that probably the label "follower of Jesus' would be a good one to adopt but if you read the whole Boston Globe interview it seems that Bell is redefining that also. With him it is more about man renewing the creation than about Jesus renewing the heart.
Below is what Phil Johnson from Team Pyro wrote about the interview and Bell's answers:

"Performance Artist"
See, this kind of stuff is why I keep saying the historic meaning of the word evangelical will probably never be recovered. (You might want to read The Boston Globe's religion section and then come back here. The rest of this post will be more relevant if you have the full context.) I do agree with Rob Bell about one thing. (Quick. Somebody wash my mouth out with soap. Please.) He's right when he points out that the way the secular media usually employ the term evangelical—as a synonym for religious right-wing politicos—is a misnomer. Bell says, "For many, the word has nothing to do with a spiritual context." Well, yeah, OK. I suppose that's part of the problem. More precisely, the term evangelical has been systematically evacuated of any reference to its historic doctrinal roots. People today therefore feel free to assign it any meaning they fancy—religious or non-religious. Practically everyone in the world of popular religion now claims to be "evangelical" in one sense or another. That includes not only old-line Moral Majority types who think the Republican Party agenda is gospel truth; hip middle-class Willow Creekers who couldn't care less about either doctrine or politics but just want to be entertained; crypto-Socinians like Bell and McLaren; crass socialists like Jim Wallis and Sojourners; heavily politicized left-wing wingnuts who think Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, and Al Franken are all good medicine—or whatever. In fact, listen to Bell's own cockamamie claim about what the term properly describes:
"I embrace the term evangelical, if by that we mean a belief that we together can actually work for change in the world, caring for the environment, extending to the poor generosity and kindness, a hopeful outlook. That's a beautiful sort of thing."
So is that what Bell considers "a spiritual context," or did he already forget what he had just been saying about how the term became politicized and corrupted in the first place? Hmmm.

An interviewer at The Boston Globe evidently wondered the same thing. He tells Bell, "I'm struck by the fact that I don't hear a lot of explicitly religious language, or mentions of Jesus, from you."Bell's answers to that question and others in a similar vein are instructive. Among other things, he admits, "I have as much in common with the performance artist, the standup comedian, the screenwriter, as I do with the theologian. I'm in an odd world where I make things and share them with people."

One thing is clear: Bell himself is no true evangelical in any historic sense of the term. The Boston Globe's headline ("Bell aims to restore true meaning of 'evangelical'") is exactly backward. Bell has no agenda to "restore the true meaning" of the term evangelical, much less encourage a revival of true evangelical belief. In fact, Bell has made a career of attacking historic evangelical convictions—laying siege to the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, the wrath of God against sin, the authority and
perspicuity of Scripture, the necessity of the virgin birth, the coherence of
the biblical testimony about the Resurrection, the exclusivity of Christ, and
whatever other historic Christian doctrines Bell finds politically
incorrect.

In fact, if you have the stomach to read the complete version of The Boston Globe interview, don't miss Bell's arrogant skepticism about the sovereignty and omniscience of God: "For a lot of people, dominant questions center around, 'Why is this happening? Why me? Why now?' Unfortunately, the religious voice often enters into the discussion at an inappropriate time—'God just planned this.' Really? Your God planned this, not mine."

If any popular figure "in the evangelical movement" (or on its copious fringe) deserves the label "heretic," it is Rob Bell. The guardians of evangelical politeness don't like that kind of candor, but when a secular newspaper like The Boston Globe is publishing pieces implying that the best, most promising alternative to right-wing civil religion is a mish-mash of Open Theism and performance art—and that whatever "evangelicalism" is, it must be one or the other of those two abominations, it's time for people with historic evangelical convictions to speak up clearly and make the biblical message heard again.

Other responses to the interview:

Jared Wilson from "The Gospel-driven church" blog : "A Rant: Rob Bell and an Evangel-less Evangelicalism" Click HERE

Todd Pruitt of 1517: "Rob Bell finds himself in the weeds again" Click HERE

"Give Me Jesus" - Fernando Ortega

Here is a tune that will stick with you and most importantly it's about the One who sticks closer than a brother. Jesus certainly was that for Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham. "There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother" Proverbs 18:24


Fernando Ortega - "Give Me Jesus" from Adamson.TV on Vimeo.

Worship: Passing the Baton

Bob Kauflin, from Sovereign Grace Ministries, reflects on passing worship to the next generation. He takes some comments from a track and field coach, about the relay race, to offer four points:

The race is about the baton, not the runners.
The relay brings out the best in every runner.
Practice until the handover becomes instinctual.
The baton exchange should occur at very close to maximum speed.

At WorshipGod09:From Generation to Generation, I gave the last message on The Future of Worship, based on Ps. 78:1-8. The previous messages had dealt mostly with the biblical values of worship we want to pass on to future generations - the nature of God, the importance of the heart, the role of leadership, the significance of the local church, and more. The question I asked in my message was: What do we need to keep in mind as we seek to transfer these and other biblical values of worship to the next generation?

In preparing for the message I came across some comments from Nigel Hetherington,the Scottish National Sprints and Hurdles coach. He described what is most important for runners in a relay race to remember. A number of his recommendations relate directly to how we pass on the biblical values of worship from one generation to the next.

The race is about the baton, not the runners.

If you run without the baton, no matter how fast you’re running, your race is in vain. For worship leaders, the baton is the gospel. The gospel - Jesus’ substitutionary death for sinners that reconciled us to God - must always inform everything we pass on. It is the gospel that transforms our dead works into acceptable offerings (1 Pet. 2:5) and draws our attention to the glory of the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5:6-10).

The relay brings out the best in every runner.

Oddly enough, a properly-trained 400 meter relay team will post a time that is faster than the four runners’ combined 100 meter times. We will serve our churches better and pass on biblical values more effectively if we’re more conscious of those running before and after us. Bryan Chappell, in his excellent book Christ-Centered Worship, says:

We should not ignore the wisdom of church forebears just because it’s old, or automatically reject it just because we didn’t’ think of it. We consider the history because God does not give all of his wisdom to any one time or people (16).

Practice until the handover becomes instinctual.

Athletes must learn to trust one another. Rather than looking back, the outgoing runner should be trained to respond to a ‘hand’ command. Both runners are looking ahead, but it’s the responsibility of the previous runner to make sure the baton is passed. If I’m part of the “passing” generation, I want to be sure that I’m not always looking back to what’s worked for me or the practices that I’m most comfortable with. I want my eyes on what
God might be doing in the future, and make sure the next generation really
catches what’s most important.

The baton exchange should occur at very close to maximum speed.

The incoming athlete should not be overstretched, or he will be off-balance when making the exchange. The outgoing runner must focus on reaching full speed and only put his hand back when he receives the ‘hand’ command. This means that we must intentionally stay close to and learn from generations before and after us.

The Legacy of Asaph: Learning to Sing in the Same Room HERE

Music, Singing and Missions Today

From Desiring God Ministries and John Piper:
"Declare His Glory Among the Nations" June 29, 2008

Marking the Watershed

It has been exactly a year now since I was in South Korea and I have such wonderful memories of our time there and also of our three day trip that our son's new in-laws took us on to the east coast and in the Taebaek mountains of the northeastern part of the country. While we were there we visited L'Abri Fellowship, a Korean branch of the Christian retreat ministry started by Dr. Francis Schaeffer and his wife, Edith, originally when they lived in Switzerland. We were treated to a delicious meal by the hosts, Inkyung and KyungOk, a wonderful Korean couple, missionaries, who had spent some years in Britain, so were quite fluent in English. Also, there were some young Korean pastors who came for the meal, a Bible study and discipling. They were from surrounding towns in the mountains, from small local churches, carrying out a difficult ministry amongst a predominantly Buddhist population.

Yesterday, I was thinking about the watershed issues of Christiandom and within evangelicalism and I found a great article on it. What better man would there be to define the term, watershed, than Francis Schaeffer, who lived in the Alps of Switzerland for seven years and was a great Christian theologian and philosopher? The article is from a book, he wrote 25 years ago and it's pretty applicable for today.

A Watershed
by Francis Schaeffer

Not far from where we live in Switzerland is a high ridge of rock with a valley on both sides. One time I was there when there was snow on the ground along that ridge. The snow was lying there unbroken, a seeming unity. However, that unity was an illusion, for it lay along a great divide; it lay along a watershed. One portion of the snow when it melted would flow into one valley. The snow which lay close beside would flow into another valley when it melted.

Now it just so happens on that particular ridge that the melting snow which flows down one side of that ridge goes down into a valley, into a small river, and then down into the Rhine River. The Rhine then flows on through Germany and the water ends up in the cold waters of the North Sea. The water from the snow that started out so close along that watershed on the other side of the ridge, when this snow melts, drops off sharply down the ridge into the Rhone Valley. This water flows into Lac Leman — or as it is known in the English-speaking world, Lake Geneva —and then goes down below that into the Rhone River which flows through France and into the warm waters of the Mediterranean.

The snow lies along that watershed, unbroken, as a seeming unity. But when it melts, where it ends in its destinations is literally a thousand miles apart. That is a watershed. That is what a watershed is. A watershed divides. A clear line can be drawn between what seems at first to be the same or at least very close, but in reality ends in very different situations. In a watershed there is a line.

A House Divided

What does this illustration have to do with the evangelical world today? I would suggest that it is a very accurate description of what is happening. Evangelicals today are facing a watershed concerning the nature of biblical inspiration and authority. It is a watershed issue in very much the same sense as described in the illustration. Within evangelicalism there are a growing number who are modifying their views on the inerrancy of the Bible so that the full authority of Scripture is completely undercut. But it is happening in very subtle ways. Like the snow lying side-by-side on the ridge, the new views on biblical authority often seem at first glance not to be so very far from what evangelicals, until just recently, have always believed. But also, like the snow lying side-by-side on the ridge, the new views when followed consistently end up a thousand miles apart.

What may seem like a minor difference at first, in the end makes all the difference in the world. It makes all the difference, as we might expect, in things pertaining to theology, doctrine and spiritual matters, but it also makes all the difference in things pertaining to the daily Christian life and how we as Christians are to relate to the world around us. In other words, compromising the full authority of Scripture eventually affects what it means to be a Christian theologically and how we live in the full spectrum of human life.

-Chapter 2 from The Great Evangelical Disaster (Crossway Books, 1984)

Read the whole chapter HERE

L'Abri Fellowship International HERE and L'Abri newsletter HERE

Four Great Quotes on Idolatry

Here is a good reminder on idolatry and I know I definitely need this brought to mind for myself. It comes from Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of New City Church and also, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale FL.

Four Great Quotes On Idolatry
Posted August 21st, 2009 by Tullian Tchividjian

“It is the normal state of the human heart to try to build its identity around something besides God.” Soren Kierkegaard

“Spiritual pride is the illusion that you are competant to run your own life, achieve your own sense of self worth, and find a purpose big enough to give you meaning in life without God.” Tim Keller

“Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that is meant to be worshipped.” St. Augustine

“An idol is anything we trust in for deliverance in the place of Jesus and his grace.” Scotty Smith

By the way, idolatry is not just a problem for non-Christians; it’s a problem for Christians too (read 1 John 5:21). We Christians are also guilty of trusting in something–or someone–smaller than God to give our lives meaning and significance. We look to our achievements, our reputation, our relationships, our strengths, our place in society, our
stuff, our smarts, our good looks, and on and on it goes.

So, let’s not make the mistake of thinking the above quotes don’t apply to Christians. They do. What are your idols? What are you trusting in other than Jesus to gain acceptance and approval–to give your life meaning and to make life worth living?

How Did We Get The Bible?

It seems that there are a lot of skeptics out there these days saying that The Bible was just written by men and not God inspired since it didn't drop out of the sky from heaven. That's an excuse in their minds not to believe it. Others are claiming that what we have today is not what was originally written by the authors.

If you're looking for a good introductory answer to this question on the Bible's origin (in 12 pages), here's a helpful presentation by Matt Harmon, delivered at the No Doubt Apologetics Conference in Indianapolis last week as posted on Justin Taylor's blog.

Just as a side-note, the Dead Sea Scrolls and other artifacts of the period are on display at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto until January 3, 2010. Becky and I saw the exhibition when we were there almost two months ago and for the most part we found it helpful apologetically and quite instructive.

Impressive 12 Year Old Acoustic Guitarist Prodigy from Korea

Sungha Jung from South Korea. His web-site is at http://sunghajung.com/xe/home

Sungha Jung (Born in South Korea on September 2, 1996)

Hi, I'm Sungha Jung from South Korea. My dream is to become a professional acoustic fingerstyle guitarist.

I had been watching my dad play the guitar for awhile before I finally jumped on it myself three years ago.

Currently, I am taking drum lessons and teaching myself fingerstyle guitar.
I used to not have tabs for the music that I played in my videos.
I just listen and pick them up directly from the sound source in
videos available on the internet.
However, recently, I have started playing with original tabs whenever they are available to me by courtesy of the authors. My old guitar is custom made by Selma to fit my body size, and on it, Thomas Leeb wrote "Keep on grooving to my friend."

As of Jan. 1st, 2009 Lakewood acts as sponsor for my guitar officially. I'm very grateful to those prominent guitarists who have had a great influence on my guitar playing. I'll continue to study them and learn more about interpretation of music and various playing techniques. My daily practice routine lasts for one to two hours when school is open, but I play up to three hours a day during the school breaks. It usually takes me two to three days to practice and videotape a new piece but sometimes up to a week for more difficult ones.

Last, but certainly not least, I can't thank Ulli Bogershausen enough for being my musical inspiration.

Randy Alcorn on Suffering and Evil

Last week a rather lengthy interview of Randy Alcorn by Andy Naselli, guest blogger on "Between Two Worlds", was posted on the subject of suffering and evil. It's about a new book that Randy has written that will be coming out next month. It attempts to deal with a most difficult issue and judging from other books that Randy Alcorn has written and the amount of comprehensive research that he does usually, (i.e. - 25 years on his book, "Heaven"), it should be interesting to see his insights on it. We certainly won't know all the answers until that day when our faith will be made sight! This is part of it from Andy Naselli:

Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching biblical truth and drawing attention to the needy and how to help them. He has authored over thirty books ranging from popular theological works to best-selling novels and children's books. His most recent book addresses what is probably the most difficult theological issue: the logical and emotional problems of evil:

If God Is Good . . . : Faith in the Midst of Suffering
and Evil.

Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Multnomah,forthcoming on September 15, 2009. 528 pp. Also available as an abridged audiobook and unabridged download.

"One hundred percent of the royalties from this book will be given to promote good, oppose evil, and relieve suffering around the world."

Interview with Randy Alcorn on Suffering and Evil

1. There are dozens of useful books on "the problem of evil." (Last year I recommended twenty-two of them [pp. 8-10], and you told me then that you had already read all but two from that list.) These range from books that focus on weighty theological and philosophical arguments to others that are preoccupied with giving pastoral care. What is your view of the books on this subject that are already out there?

I've read about a hundred substantial works (plus countless articles) on the problem of evil and suffering, ranging from the biblical and theological to the philosophical, pastoral, and experiential. Many of these don’t hold to a biblical perspective, but a number do. Some of the biblically sound books aren’t well written, but others are wonderful, including works by Carson, Piper,Bridges, C. S. Lewis, Henri Blocher, Michael Card, Ken Gire, Michael Horton,Peter Kreeft, Peter Hicks, and Joni Eareckson Tada. Even many Sinclair Ferguson fans are unaware of his out-of-print but excellent Deserted by God? Yet all these books are remarkably different. (And no, I don’t agree with everything in all of them, e.g., Kreeft comes to mind!)

The ways in which the books overlap are quite helpful and don’t feel at all redundant. While every biblically oriented book on the subject will share a common core, citing some of the same Scriptures, there are very different ways to develop this subject. And remarkably different styles and emphases. You can watch five movies about family conflict without feeling redundancy. The same subject matter, but very different setting, characters, events, and relationships. And different actors and directors who bring their own unique voice to the theme. So with books.

By the way, since BetweenTwo Worlds is one of the few blogs I read regularly (I see and welcome those notifications via Twitter when there’s a new post), I know the readers of this blog are book lovers. So I’ll say this. If people were going to read only two books about evil and suffering, it would be a tough choice, but I would recommend to them "How Long, O Lord?" by D. A. Carson and "When God Weeps" by Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes. These books share the same biblical and Christ-centered orientation, and both are full of sound and robust theology; but they are substantially different in content, tone, and style. They complement each other beautifully.

2. What distinct contributions does "If God Is Good" make to the existing body of books on this subject?

I labor hard on research and writing, and I made a commitment years ago never to waste my time writing a book if anything remotely close to what I wanted to write was already out there. But the more I studied the subject over the past two years, the more convinced I became that there was much I wanted to say, and in a particular way, that had not been said in one book.

I shaped the book to have a very distinctive approach and feel. I did this with my earlier books Money, Possessions and Eternity (a biblical and practical theology of money) and my big book Heaven (much of which is a biblical theology of the New Earth, then moving to imaginative aspects based on my biblical understanding). I sought in both books to say not just what had already been said, but what hadn’t been said, and to do it in a way that might reach readers who would normally not pick up a big book full of theology. In fact, If God Is Good is filled with theology, but my desire is to reach both those who love theology and those who can and need to learn to love it, and see loving it as part of loving God.

The structure of "If God Is Good" is reflected in its Table of Contents. Those familiar with other books on the subject will see some of its distinctives.

One distinctive is its scope. I write a lot of nonfiction, including many short books that deal with small subjects or with big subjects in a small way. But occasionally I sense God leading me to set aside a few years to research and write on a subject in a more comprehensive way. This applies to the two books I mentioned above, as well as ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments.

At first, I envisioned doing a short book on evil and suffering, built around a presentation on the subject I had done on a secular college campus, and later a modified one at my church. But because my book Heaven had surprised the publisher and the booksellers through its sales, it seemed to have proved that people were willing to read 500 pages full of Scripture and theology. This helped me decide to tackle a subject of such weighty and immense proportions as the problem of evil.

I freely admit that in the process of research and writing I was continually aware that it was beyond me to pull this off, just as I had realized with the Heaven book and one of my novels (Dominion, which features an African American character in an African American context, and here I was, the writer, a white guy from the suburbs). But when you realize that apart from Christ you can do nothing, the continuous sense of dependence on the Holy Spirit yields benefits in your own walk, and hopefully in the book itself.

Distinctives of If God Is Good are reflected in many of the individual chapters, including the one on the health and wealth gospel, which has permeated the theology of countless Christians in churches who consider themselves not to embrace prosperity theology. It’s like a cancer that quietly eats up and takes over a Christian worldview and leaves people dismally unprepared for suffering. They are set up to feel let down by God, who appears to have not kept his promises that we’ll be preserved from suffering in this life (promises, of course, that He has not made). As I say in the book, any faith that leaves us unprepared for suffering is a false faith that deserves to be lost. By God's grace, we must turn away from the idols of false worldviews and turn to the true Christ of Scripture,not the false Christ of our fallen imaginations.

Read the whole interview HERE

Emergency Landing: An Unforgettable Experience from Randy Alcorn

Subsequent to the story I last posted, about the tragic event in Kenya with AIM AIR, I've decided to post another story about an aviation incident that occurred twenty years ago today, but with a much happier ending. This story comes from Randy Alcorn at Eternal Perspectives Ministries and it's about an event that happened to him and his daughter while he was in Alaska speaking at a missionary conference.

This story again brought back memories of a similar event that my brother-in-law related to us some years ago. He was flying by himself in a New Tribes Mission plane in Mindanao in the Philippines and had just taken off when an oil line on the engine broke. He was able with God's help to make a silent and safe landing.

Randy Alcorn actually has a video of when almost the same thing happened while he was in a plane near Palmer Alaska.

Twenty Years Ago Today: Rescued in Alaska

Today is the twentieth anniversary of an unforgettable experience.

In 1989, I’d spoken at a missionary conference in Palmer, Alaska. Afterward, we were headed north to Galena, on the Yukon River, by small plane. My ten-year-old, Karina, and I were flying with our missionary friend, Barry Arnold, and his daughter, Andrea, also ten. Nanci and our daughter Angie were leaving with the rest of Barry’s family an hour later in another plane, tak­ing a different route.

Well into the flight we were cruising over a beautiful waterfall at three thousand feet, when suddenly the engine lost power. We saw smoke. Realizing that there was no oil pressure, Barry had to shut off the engine, which looked like it was about to burn. Suddenly we were descending rapidly in a rough mountain pass where there was no place to land. It looked like we wouldn’t make it.

Read the entire story HERE

AIM AIR Accident- Request for Prayer

Missionary pilots put their lives on the line just about every day and we as a family certainly were made aware of that when my brother-in-law was a pilot in the Philippines for 15 years and we saw pictures and heard about all that he did. They constantly need our prayers. Yesterday there was an accident in Nairobi, Kenya where an Africa Inland Mission Air pilot was killed and two passengers were injured. Please pray for the pilot's family and for those who were injured and their families also.

AIM AIR Accident- Request for Prayer
August 02 2009

An accident occurred on August 1, with an AIM AIM Cessna 206. It occurred around 2:30PM (EAT) near the Nairobi Wilson Airport. There were four people on board; AIM AIR pilot Frank Toews, AIM AIR mechanic Ryan Williams and two Americans. At this time there is still medical evaluation being done but this is what we know: The two passengers have some broken bones, minor burns, cuts and bruises. They are both being kept in the hospital for treatment and further evaluation. Ryan Williams' injuries currently include a fractured pelvis, multiple contusions and some significant burns. However, his prognosis is good and he is receiving good medical attention in Nairobi. Frank Toews, the pilot, did not survive the accident and has gone to be with the Lord and Savior whom he loved dearly and served well.

Please pray with us, specifically for the timely return for health of those who are injured, their families, and particularly for Frank's wife and 4 children as they trust God for strength and comfort during this difficult time.

We are trusting God, with all of you, to show Himself to be good, even beyond our expectations and understanding of what good could mean, in a situation like this.

Denny Dyvig -
AIM AIR General Manager

Story on AIM AIR web-site and CNN
See AIM AIR ministry Video- Click HERE or below

A Man on a Mission

I've always liked hearing stories about missionaries and also just listening to all that they had to tell about their lives and experiences, ever since I was young and they would on occasion visit us when on furlough. It is such a rewarding and educating experience and usually their zeal for The Lord rubs off on others. Last week there was a story in Sports Illustrated magazine about Heisman Trophy winner and two-time national champion, Florida quarterback, Tim Tebow, and it just gave me goose bumps as I read it!
Here is an excerpt from the SI story:

The man on the other end of the line is calling from the Philippines. He has taken time from his missionary work to reply to a reporter's e-mailed questions. Now Bob Tebow has a question of his own: "Have you heard the story of Timmy's birth?"

Even if you have, it's worth hearing from the mouth of his father: "When I was out in the mountains in Mindanao, back in '86, I was showing a film and preaching that night. I was weeping over the millions of babies being [aborted] in America, and I prayed, 'God, if you give me a son, if you give me Timmy, I'll raise him to be a preacher.'" Not long after, Bob and Pam Tebow conceived their fifth child. It was a very difficult pregnancy. "The placenta was never properly attached, and there was bleeding from the get-go," Bob recalls. "We thought we'd lost him several times." Early in the pregnancy Pam contracted amebic dysentery, which briefly put her in a coma. Her doctors, fearful that medications they had given her had damaged the fetus, advised her to abort it. She refused, and on Aug. 14, 1987, Pam delivered a healthy if somewhat scrawny Timothy Richard Tebow.

"All his life, from the moment he could understand, I told him, 'You're a miracle baby,'" Bob recalls. "'God's got a purpose for you, and at some point I think He's going to call you to preach.'I asked God for a preacher, and he gave me a quarterback."
"It's a good line, and a welcome injection of levity from a man who takes his religion very seriously. But it's fast becoming obsolete. Having covered Tim for three years, I would say he's the most effective ambassador-warrior for his faith I've come across in 25 years at SI.

The Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association web-site

Read the whole story at SI Vault HERE

What Matters Most: The Good News

It's always good to look at and review what matters most in this life, from time to time and from reports in the news last week, a church leader from one of America's major denominations is missing it.

A lot of publicity had been given to the Episcopal Church of America (ECUSA) national convention in Anaheim California and in particular, to the statements made by it's presiding bishop, Dr. Katherine Jefferts Schori.

Richard Mouw, from Fuller Theological Seminary in his article last week in "Christianity Today" entitled, "The Heresy of 'Individualism'?" writes:

"In her opening address to the Episcopal Church's recent General Convention, the Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the church's presiding bishop, made a special point of denouncing what she labeled "the great Western heresy"—the teaching, in her words, "that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God." This "individualist focus," she declared, "is a form of idolatry."

And also:

In all of this, however, the presiding bishop would discover an important nuance. We evangelicals never downplay the importance of individuals—as individuals—coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. We never say that an individual's very personal relationship to God is not important. What we do say is that individual salvation is not enough.
........Call that "individualism" if you want. But for us not only is it not heresy, it is at the heart of what it means to affirm the gospel of Jesus Christ."

As a young boy, before the age of seven, I came to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour and the Book of John in the Bible was a major key that helped me understand the Gospel. I learned of John chapter three early and the story of Nicodemus. Jesus' reply to this religious ruler of his day was that "no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again"....Do not marvel that I say to you, 'You must be born again'. This leads up to the sixteenth verse and John 3:16 is well-known by true Christians and is displayed on road signs and has been on display at many sports venues. It is as much for the individual as it can possibly be and it's for the whole world too!

It is always good to recommend and to read the "Gospel of John" because of the very words of Jesus and how He has made them simple enough for even a child to understand! I think that the story of the "Good Shepherd" really demonstrates this in chapter 10 and aren't the events of last week ironic in light of what Jesus says that anyone that does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs up another way is a thief and a robber! He goes on to say, "Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep" and "If anyone enters by Me he will be saved". Today we hear so many so called "learned" people saying that all the major religions lead to God and eternal life even without Jesus. In fact, last week I was listening to a Christian radio station where they played some audio clips from a few years ago of Mrs. Jefferts Schori saying this very thing about three major religions of the world aside from Christianity. This has to be a major departure from Christian orthodoxy on her part and truth is not determined by what seems right in the mind of a religious leader but by what has been plainly written in God's Word, the Bible.

Are we being idolatrous or even boastful? The apostle Paul says "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Gal. 6:14 (Boasting Only in the Cross -by John Piper)
Can we know and have complete confidence that the Gospel is really true?
("I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." I John 5:13)

Theologian R. C. Sproul has a good presentation of The Gospel - on his Ligonier Ministries Web-site:

The Gospel

"There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, 'you can have a purpose to your life', or that 'you can have meaning to your life', or that 'you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.' All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.

The Gospel is called the 'good news' because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.

The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity."

R.C.Sproul-

If you still have some questions about this please read the excellent post by Dan Edelen from over at Cerulean Sanctum blog from a week ago. I think it is helpful and the link is below.

How to Become a Christian HERE

Commemorating a Reformer

Is everyone as tired of all the adulation of Michael Jackson from the media as I am? Maybe it's time to turn off the television and just look back at some people who have gone on, but who have made a real positive difference in the life of society and of the church too. One such person was John Calvin and today, July 10th, is his 500th birthday!

Illustration by Krieg Barrie, courtesy of World Magazine. All rights reserved

Here are a few comments on Calvin that were posted today by some that I like to follow on Twitter:

Albert Mohler: Reading Bruce Gordon's massive new work on John Calvin, whose 500th birthday is today. http://bit.ly/owo5Z

John Piper: CALVIN: WHY WE EXIST: “Set before [man], as the prime motive of his existence, zeal to illustrate the glory of God."

The best 128 page biography of John Calvin only $2 just today at Desiring God. The first one I ever read. http://ow.ly/gZ9T

Tom Ascol: Happy Calvin's birthday--one benefit of being in Indonesia...we get it first

Jason Smathers: Reading Calvin the Evangelist, thanks @hereiblog for the link: http://bit.ly/2qknkJ

Paul Edwards: How different the church would be today were it not for 500 years of John Calvin. In honor of his 500th birthday I say, "Soli Deo Gloria!

Made In Detroit: A South of 8 Mile Memoir

I noticed a book on Al Mohler's Reading List that caught my attention and brought back a lot of great memories. My experience was more about "Cruising Woodward", hearing the thrilling sounds of the hot machines and checking out the latest "stuff" out of motown and the auto companies and the local speed shops! Living right across the border in Windsor though, there was a lot of similarities in our neighborhoods with those of us working in the auto industry and on our cars back in the 70's and 80's. Race relations was not a problem for us on this side of the river though. My.... how times have changed for the auto industry and it's sad to see what is happening today. Anyway this is a review below by Al Mohler of a book about a father and son that hits close to home.

That is what makes Made in Detroit: A South of 8 Mile Memoir by Paul Clemens such a refreshing surprise. Clemens, who grew up in one of Detroit's transitional neighborhoods during the 1970s and 1980s, saw the city transformed before his eyes and came to know his father as the great Gibraltar that held his family together. Clemens's father appears as a normal dad in the context of his working-class neighborhood. Dads were just there and they did what they had to do for their families. They may have been short tempered at times, but they were occasionally capable of much fun with their children and they showed their absolute dedication to family by the fact that they gave themselves to such hard work under such difficult circumstances. More often than not, they were tired to the bone, even as they had to patch a wall or discipline a son. As Paul Clemens relates, fathers in his neighborhood demonstrated a central task of manhood by doing what, under almost any circumstance, just had to be done.

He writes: "Families were fundamental to the way the area was organized, which is not to say that anyone spent much time getting sentimental over them as a concept. Families were viewed like most other things in this life, which is to say as sometimes dreary and ultimately disappointing, but preferable to a long list of even less desirable alternatives. . . Though they cursed aloud while doing so -- and, internally, likely cursed the days they'd wed our mothers and fathered us -- the men in our neighborhood, whether in hats and gloves during the dead of winter, or sweating and swearing up a storm in the middle of the summer, somehow manage to fix broken carburetors, replace drafty windows, and keep basement furnace is going a little bit longer, while their wives bought box after box of whatever was on sale and saw to it that their children didn't waste all their money at McDonald's. . ."

In his own way, in Made in Detroit, Paul Clemens demonstrates a model of respecting and honoring his father while telling the story, warts and all. His book is unique in being both gritty and sweet. I would suggest that Christian men -- and fathers in particular -- would do well to read this kind of literature. These secular memoirs, filled with both pain and promise, tell us a great deal about the world around us and, at the same time, remind us of our own calling -- even as we hear that voice through words of pain.

Happy Father's Day. Let's be sure our children hear our voices and know our love.

Broken Down House: Living Productively in a World Gone Bad

Read the Online Book Introduction HERE

Christianity and the Global Culture

My mother was a war bride who came to Canada from Holland right after the second world war and was married to my Dad, just after she got here early in 1947. She may not have been a war bride in official terms like others married overseas during the war, but our government had made special provision to facilitate soldiers' fiancees to come to Canada to be married right after the war ended. She left a country that in many respects was considered "Christian".

During the war there were Christian services started at Fellowship Houses and many families in Holland opened up their homes also for fellowship meetings for the allied soldiers who were liberating the country from Nazi Germany. My grandparents had such a home and it's where my Dad, a Canadian soldier, met the family and went for worship times and fellowship after meeting my Mom earlier at one of the Fellowship Houses. There was a family history in the Christian Reformed Church and also in the "The Brethren", similar to the Plymouth Brethren in America.

In the country, there was a strong historical influence of the reformers, Martin Luther and John Calvin and later theologians like Dr. Abraham Kuyper and then in the war years Christian heroes arose like Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank.

Since then the country and the culture has changed and I can't even say that of the relatives in my generation that are still there that to my knowledge any even claim to be Christian. Marriage isn't even what it was and in many cases isn't even practiced anymore. Today, the Netherlands, like much of Western Europe is spiritually just a cold, empty shell now, compared to what it was in previous generations.

I can say with some confidence that our family, that is now in North America, is still predominantly Christian. Things have been changing in our country though, in recent years. A case in point is, in the province of Quebec, which was solidly Roman Catholic and today, is pretty much agnostic. I talked to a church planter who went there with the Southern Baptist Convention and he told me that he pretty much has to start teaching the very basics about faith and Christianity like you would in pagan societies in the third world.

Justin Taylor from "Between Two Worlds" has recently posted an interview and a review of the latest book by Mark Noll, entitled, "The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith". Noll raised a lot of eyebrows when he went from Wheaton College to Notre Dame, and I certainly can't say I concur with all of his views but he is one of the most respected historians of evangelicalism today and brings out some interesting facts on the demographics of Christianity in the world.

This leaves me with a definite tension concerning our faith and the impact of the different cultures of the world. Some scholars often cite the passage from Galatians 3 and especially verse 28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek", and relate it to calling for exclusively "one people of God". I definitely believe that in that specific context concerning the "law" and faith and salvation that we are one in Christ. I also believe that there is a context where God works in countries and cultures in various and diverse ways to bring about his sovereign will and plan, both in the ages past, now and in the future. We are to be engaged in that too, carrying out the "great commission", striving to reach every tongue, tribe and nation!

I would like to share an observation that impressed us when my wife and I were in South Korea last summer. We noticed a real vibrancy, enthusiasm and growth of the church there and it is worth noting that the largest church in the world, is Yoido Full Gospel Church, a protestant church on Yeouido Island in Seoul, with about 830,000 members. Also, everywhere you look where people live and do business you see lighted crosses of different colours; on apartment buildings, on top of commercial buildings and on conventional church buildings. These all mark out Christian churches.
In a country where more than a third of the population is Christian, the South Korean churches send out almost as many missionaries as the US churches, to Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Oceania. We thank God for the early Presbyterian missionaries back in the mid to late 19th century that reached Korea with the gospel!

This is the review of Mark Noll's book by Justin Taylor:

The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith:
It is as if the globe had been turned upside down and sideways. A few short decades ago, Christian believers were concentrated in the global north and west, but now a rapidly swelling majority lives in the global south and east. As [a Christian] Rip Van Winkle wiped a half-century of sleep from his eyes [after awaking this past week] and tried to locate his fellow Christian believers, he would find them in surprising places, expressing their faith in surprising ways, under surprising conditions, with surprising relationships to culture and politics, and raising surprising theological questions that would not have seemed possible when he fell asleep. [pp. 19-20]
Noll observes that "the Christian church has experienced a larger geographical redistribution in the last fifty years than in any comparable period in its history, with the exception of the very earliest years of church history. . . . More than half of all Christian adherents in the whole history of the church have been alive in the last one hundred years. Close to half of Christian believers who have ever lived are alive right now" [p. 21]. To give some teeth to these "mind-blowing realities," here are a few of the examples Noll gives, showing the magnitude of these recent changes:

•This past Sunday it is possible that more Christian believers attended church in China than in all of so-called "Christian Europe." Yet in 1970 there were no legally functioning churches in all of China; only in 1971 did the communist regime allow for one Protestant and one Roman Catholic Church to hold public worship services, and this was mostly a concession to visiting Europeans and African students from Tanzania and Zambia.

•This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined--and the number of Anglicans in church in Nigeria was several times the number in those other African countries.

•This past Sunday more Presbyterians were at church in Ghana than in Scotland, and more were in congregations of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa than in the United States.

•This past Sunday the churches with the largest attendance in England and France had mostly black congregations. About half of the churchgoers in London were African or African-Caribbean. Today, the largest Christian congregation in Europe is in Kiev, and it is pastored by a Nigerian of Pentecostal background.

•This past week in Great Britain, at least fifteen thousand Christian foreign missionaries were hard at work evangelizing the locals. most of these missionaries are from Africa and Asia. [pp. 20-21]

Also read the interview with Mark Noll HERE