Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

“The Word Became Flesh” CD, Narrated by R. C. Sproul

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Jenni and I recently enjoyed listening several times to a new CD by Ligonier Ministries: “The Word Became Flesh,” created by Dan and Heidi Goeller and narrated by the familiar voice of pastor-theologian R. C. Sproul.

This new album is a musical interpretation and celebration of the incarnation of the Son of God. The biblical narrative from creation through the fall to redemption is retold as familiar hymns, Christmas carols, and new choral pieces are performed, resulting in an epic presentation of salvation that resonates in mind and heart.

Available November 28, 2008

The traditional music is beautiful, and Sproul’s Scripture readings seamlessly weave throughout the moving 46-minute story. (It’s available for pre-order now for $12.)

Bullmore on Confidence in Human Government

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Yesterday morning, Mike Bullmore prefaced his sermon with an outstanding 135-second pastoral exhortation in light of the upcoming election on November 4.

An excerpt:

Let there be no loss of security, whoever is in office. . . . There’s no cause no matter what happens—ever—for those who belong to God to worry or complain or whine.

Listen to the whole thing (2:15 min.).

The Altar Call

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An altar call is an “invitation” to “come forward” after a sermon to make a spiritual decision or commitment. I’ve endured hundreds of emotionally charged invitations characterized by man-centered manipulation. Unfortunately, my experience is not unusual.

Christian History just published a brief, impartial history of the altar call by Doug Sweeney and Mark Rogers: “Walk the Aisle.”

The most thorough treatment I’ve read on the altar call is this:

David Bennett. The Altar Call: Its Origin and Present Usage. New York: University Press of America, 2000. 261 pp.

Mark Noll describes Bennett’s work in the foreword as “the best sort of engaged history . . . . thorough . . . . fair . . . . unusually stimulating” (pp. v–vi). This work is a revision of Bennett’s (b. 1942) M.Th. thesis entitled “The Public Invitation System in Evangelism” for the Australian College of Theology in Sydney.

  • Part 1 examines the evangelistic practices of John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards and concludes that they did not use the altar call. Bennett then traces the altar call’s origins and early history in the final sixty years of the 1700s, its development into the invitation system in American camp-meetings, and its popularization by Charles Finney.
  • Part 2 examines the altar call’s modern usage, rationale, counseling and follow-up, results, and problems. Bennett makes calculated recommendations and conclusions.

Here are some useful and brief analyses of the altar call:

  1. Iain H. Murray, The Invitation System (1967).
  2. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Altar Call (early 1970s).
  3. Paul Alexander, “Altar Call Evangelism.” This article ends with recommended reading: “If you’d like to read more about method in evangelism, go to Mark 5 on Evangelism at 9Marks Ministries. For more on the invitation system … read Iain Murray’s booklet entitled The Invitation System, published by Banner of Truth. For a historical treatment of evangelistic method and its role in the ecumenical movement over the last 50 years, read Iain Murray’s Evangelicalism Divided (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2000). If you are interested in the historical roots of the invitation system, read Iain Murray’s Revival and Revivalism (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1994).”
  4. Ryan Kelly, “Ten Reasons We Don’t Do Altar Calls”
  5. Jonathan Leeman, “Should Churches Perform Altar Calls?”

Updates:

1. Sadly humorous:

2. How to Manipulate People to Make (Fake) Professions of Faith

Carson and Piper on Training the Next Generation of Evangelical Scholars and Pastors

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On November 20, 1998 in Orlando, Florida at the annual meeting and fiftieth anniversary of the Evangelical Theological Society, D. A. Carson and John Piper gave back-to-back hour-long plenary addresses to about 1,000 ETS members (mostly college and seminary professors):

  1. D. A. Carson, “Training the Next Generation of Evangelical Scholars” (MP3)
  2. John Piper, “Training the Next Generation of Evangelical Pastors and Missionaries” (MP3 | manuscript)

James A. Borland reported this in the next issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society:

On Friday afternoon, two plenary sessions were held. In Don Carson’s message, “Training the Next Generation of Evangelical Scholars,” he painted the landscape of the future for Christian higher academics. John Piper then addressed the subject of “Training the Next Generation of Evangelical Pastors and Missionaries.” He pointed out that one may learn much, but if the main thing is ignored or missing, all is lost. That one thing is to know God and to delight in him above everything else. Several questions succeeded Carson’s speech, but a holy hush of meditation followed Piper’s challenge before the large audience began to sing “Fairest Lord Jesus,” a capella (JETS 42 [1999]: 175).

On April 23, 2009 (over ten years later), D. A. Carson and John Piper will once again give back-to-back hour-long addresses on the same topic, only more focused: “The Pastor as Scholar, and the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry with John Piper and D.A. Carson.”

Update: Mike Bird reflects on DAC’s lecture.

Obama is “the most extreme pro-abortion candidate to have ever run on a major party ticket.”

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Robert George’s “Obama’s Abortion Extremism” is moving.

For a summary of Robert George’s impressive background as well as a summary of the article, see Justin Taylor’s “Robert P. George: ‘Voting for the Most Extreme Pro-Abortion Political Candidate in American History Is Not the Way to Save Unborn Babies.’”

Update (10/16/08): Robert George and Yuval Levin’s “Obama and Infanticide” argues, “Obama’s latest excuse for opposing the Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act is that the law was ‘unnecessary’ because babies surviving abortions were already protected. It won’t fly.”

Piper: “Turn off the television”

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In “Preaching as Worship: Meditations on Expository Exultation” (Trinity Journal 16 [1995]: 29–45), Piper ends with six pointed applications, including this one (p. 44):

2. Turn off the television.

It is not necessary for relevance. And it is a deadly place to rest the mind. Its pervasive banality, sexual innuendo, and God-ignoring values have no ennobling effects on the preacher’s soul. It kills the spirit. It drives God away. It quenches prayer. It blanks out the Bible. It cheapens the soul. It destroys spiritual power. It defiles almost everything. I have taught and preached for twenty years now and never owned a television. It is unnecessary for most of you, and it is spiritually deadly for all of you.