Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

What We Should Do with Our Money

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This morning my pastor, Mike Bullmore, finished his sermon series on 1 Corinthians with a sermon on 1 Corinthians 16 entitled “What We Should Do with Our Money” (37:48 long). Mike hit a home run with this one. It’s an excellent example of how to preach on giving. He approaches it with just the right tone and spirit, and he avoids the errors of both legalism (e.g., “Christians must give exactly 10% of their gross income or else they are robbing God!”) and libertinism (e.g., “Christians are not required to tithe” with the implication that giving is optional).

Here’s a brief overview/paraphrase of the sermon: [Read more…] about What We Should Do with Our Money

Book Recommendations from Mike Bullmore

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Last Sunday morning my pastor, Mike Bullmore, included a bulletin insert with twenty-six book recommendations and brief comments. I’ve published it here with Mike’s kind permission, and I’ve updated it in several ways:

  1. combined it into one list: The bulletin insert has two sides. One recommends old standards: “If you are relatively new to CrossWay, these resources are selected with you in mind as they represent values that are foundational and particularly dear to us.” I’ve placed an asterisk (*) by these books. The other side highlights new additions to the CrossWay bookstore.
  2. added ten more books from a similar, previous bulletin insert: Again, I’ve placed an asterisk (*) by books under the category “Old Standards.”
  3. added bibliographic information (e.g., author, subtitles, publisher, year)
  4. added book covers
  5. arranged the books in alphabetical order
  6. added some comments in brackets [Read more…] about Book Recommendations from Mike Bullmore

“Forgiving oneself is, quite frankly, incoherent.”

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And what biblical warrant is there for this easy way many have of talking about “forgiving myself”? In the domain of pop psych, we all know, more or less, what we mean. But in the matrix of Wright’s discussion of what forgiveness is and entails, you have to have two parties to talk about forgiveness: the offender and the offended. Forgiving oneself is, quite frankly, incoherent. One can accept God’s forgiveness, and the forgiveness of others, and press on in various ways. But talk of forgiving oneself merely has the effect of muddying the crispness of the earlier discussion.

-D. A. Carson, review of N. T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God, RBL (April 23, 2007): 7-8 (emphasis added).

Ossified Orthodoxy

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Although I think it extremely dangerous to pursue a second blessing attested by tongues, I think it no less dangerous not to pant after God at all, and to be satisfied with a merely creedal Christianity that is kosher but complacent, orthodox but ossified, sound but soundly asleep.

-D. A. Carson, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12–14 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987), 160.

Bob Jones University “Profoundly Sorry” for Being “Racially Hurtful”

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Excerpt (emphasis added):

Bob Jones University has existed since 1927 as a private Christian institution of higher learning for the purpose of helping young men and women cultivate a biblical worldview, represent Christ and His Gospel to others, and glorify God in every dimension of life.

BJU’s history has been chiefly characterized by striving to achieve those goals; but like any human institution, we have failures as well. For almost two centuries American Christianity, including BJU in its early stages, was characterized by the segregationist ethos of American culture. Consequently, for far too long, we allowed institutional policies regarding race to be shaped more directly by that ethos than by the principles and precepts of the Scriptures. We conformed to the culture rather than provide a clear Christian counterpoint to it.

In so doing, we failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves. For these failures we are profoundly sorry. Though no known antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism on a personal level have ever been tolerated on our campus, we allowed institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful.

On national television in March 2000, Bob Jones III, who was the university’s president until 2005, stated that BJU was wrong in not admitting African-American students before 1971, which sadly was a common practice of both public and private universities in the years prior to that time. On the same program, he announced the lifting of the University’s policy against interracial dating.

Read the whole thing.

Bauckham on Separating from False Religion

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Richard Bauckham concludes The Theology of the Book of Revelation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) with a section entitled “Revelation’s Relevance Today” (pp. 159–64). His eighth of eleven “theological directions for contemporary reflection” calls for the church to separate from false religion (pp. 162–63):

Revelation’s prophetic critique is of the churches as much as of the world. It recognizes that there is a false religion not only in the blatant idolatries of power and prosperity, but also in the constant danger that true religion falsify itself in compromise with such idolatries and betrayal of the truth of God. Again, this is the relevance of Revelation’s theocentric emphasis on worship and truth. The truth of God is known in genuine worship of God. To resist idolatry in the world by faithful witness to the truth, the church must continuously purify its own perception of truth by the vision of the utterly Holy One, the sovereign Creator, who shares his throne with the slaughtered Lamb.

Mike Bullmore’s 2008 Rom Lectures: “The Heart of Preaching and the Preacher’s Heart”

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Dr. Mike Bullmore delivered the annual Rom lectures on October 7-9, 2008 at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School on “The Heart of Preaching and the Preacher’s Heart.” Q & A followed each of his three outstanding lectures:

  1. Session 1: The Functional Centrality of the Gospel in Preaching | 42:56
  2. Session 1: Q & A (beginning with responses from an M.Div. student, a Ph.D. student, and Pastor Lee Eclov) | 58:32
  3. Session 2: The Five Greatest Heart Challenges in Preaching | 41:18
  4. Session 2: Q & A (beginning with responses from Andy Naselli and Dr. Dick Averbeck) | 42:24
  5. Session 3: A Passion for the Gospel (Philippians 1) | 38:15
  6. Session 3: Q & A | 36:03

I was humbled that Dr. Scharf asked me to respond to Mike’s second lecture. [Read more…] about Mike Bullmore’s 2008 Rom Lectures: “The Heart of Preaching and the Preacher’s Heart”