Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Why A. J. Gibson Is a Missionary

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gibson1My friend A. J. Gibson is a missionary in Monterrey, Mexico. Why?

A. J. explains in a comment he posted re Chris Anderson’s perceptive “Advice for My Angst-Ridden, Non-Calvinistic Friends” (which weighs in on the issue I raised in “An Example of a Fundamentalism Not Worth Saving“):

Excellent comments, Chris. I’m a missionary for several reasons.

  1. Because I believe with all my heart that God has a chosen people in Latin America and that he’s given me the privilege to help call them out from the nations for his name.
  2. Because my theology tells me that God’s glory is the chief end of all his eternal decrees and that the greatest thing I can do in this life is live to that end.
  3. Because many years ago I tearfully and brokenly read Piper’s Let the Nations Be Glad and my man- (and self-) centered worldview was devastated by the beauty and greatness of the God I found there. Never in all my years growing up in fundamentalism had I heard or read such words. I decided that I had to tell others about Him.

Soli Deo Gloria

(BTW, in the interests of historical accuracy, those Latin words were the battle cry of a group of flamboyant Calvinist leaders whose ministries continue to bear fruit 500 years later.)

Tim Keller on Luke 15

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I just listened to seven short sermons by Tim Keller on Luke 15, which convey the message of his book The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith (audio). Thoughtful. Stimulating. Convicting.

The first sermon is from Sept. 2005, and the latter six are from fall 2008:

  1. The Prodigal Sons (Luke 15:11–32)
  2. Give Me Mine (Luke 15:11–14)
  3. He Came to Himself (Luke 15:11–20)
  4. To Be Called Your Son (Luke 15:21–24)
  5. And Kissed Him (Luke 15:11–24)
  6. We Had to Celebrate (Luke 15:17–32)
  7. The True Older Brother (Luke 15:17–32)

Update: Cf. my brief review.

An Example of a Fundamentalism Not Worth Saving

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Danny Sweatt‘s sermon entitled “Young and Restless” (preached on April 7, 2009 at a regional FBF meeting in North Carolina)

A good friend asked me to listen to it last week, so I did (with my wife) early on Sunday morning. Not a good start to Mother’s Day.

Cf. Bob Bixby’s thoughts.

(The title of this post is a play on Kevin Bauder’s thoughtful paper.)

Update:

  1. Perceptive advice from Chris Anderson
  2. Bauder to FBF Leaders: “If you wish to model the kind of fundamentalism that really is worth saving, then the time has come”

“Please God, don’t let the New Calvinism ever, ever be about the New Calvinism”

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A good word from Kevin DeYoung:

Here are the two most important things you need to know about the rise of the New Calvinism: it’s not new and it’s not about Calvin. . . . “Please God, don’t let the young, restless, and reformed movement be another historically ignorant, self-absorbed, cooler-than-thou fad.”

Read the whole thing.

Cf. my review of Collin Hansen’s Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists.

Koukl-Chopra Debate

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My last post highlights a book I read last night:

Gregory Koukl. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009.

In the foreword Lee Strobel recounts this story:

When I hosted a national television program called Faith Under Fire, which featured short debates on spiritual topics, I decided to invite best-selling New Age author Deepak Chopra to be a guest. The topic would be the future of faith. To offer a different perspective, I asked my friend Greg Koukl to represent Christianity. The idea was to tape them as they interacted for about fifteen minutes via satellite, the typical format for a segment of the show.

That plan quickly went out the window.

Greg was simply so engaging and so effecting in poking holes in Chopra’s worldview that I had to keep the cameras running. Time after time, Greg was able to expose the faulty thinking underlying Chopra’s amorphous theology and correct his inaccurate claims about Jesus and the Bible. Before I knew it, we had consumed the entire hour of the show. Chopra—who was accustomed to spouting his opinions unchallenged on television and radio—was left thoroughly defeated and deflated.

As soon as the taping was over, I turned to my producer. “That,” I said, “was a textbook example of how to defend Christianity.” For the only time in our show’s tenure, we decided to devote an entire program to airing one debate.

Why was Greg so incredibly successful in that encounter? He wasn’t belligerent or obnoxious. He didn’t raise his voice or launch into a sermon. Instead, he used the kind of tactics that he describes in his book: winsomely using key questions and other techniques to guide the conversation and unveil the flawed assumptions and hidden contradictions in another person’s positions. (p. 13)

Koukl’s website lists many video resources and other resources on apologetics, including a link to the Chopra-Koukl debate. (I also searched on “Koulk” at LeeStrobel.com and discovered ten videos, including the Chopra-Koukl debate in smaller segments.) Here’s a 36-minute video of the Chopra-Koukl debate: