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