CatholicVote.com – Must See Video

Even if you are not Catholic or even Christian, this video is a must-see for all American voters, given that the November elections are so close. This is a powerful video, and deserves to be viewed and widely circulated.

Something Tragic

(The following news piece is not for the faint of heart)

An Ohio mother has been found guilty of killing her 1 month old daughter, MSNBC reports. This is a horrific case, one that took two trials to return a guilty verdict. Apparently there was an argument between 28 year old China Arnold and her boyfriend over just who the biological father was, and in a rage Miss Arnold put one month old Paris into her microwave oven and cooked the little girl to death. One month. I am days (perhaps hours) away from the birth of our third child and first daughter, and such news leaves me stunned, horrified, outraged, and truly at a loss.

The report reads,

When the verdict was read Friday, Arnold showed no reaction and then lowered her head, looking down at the defense table. Relatives in the courtroom cried and covered their faces with their hands.

It adds,

She was found guilty of aggravated murder and faces the death penalty when sentenced.

This is, in my view, why the death penalty exists. This kind of case, in which an infant child is effectivley tortured by being roasted to death, is the strongest of arguments for exacting the ultimate penalty. All around, this is a tragedy.

The Loss of the Tragic

When we no longer see life and humanity as a precious thing, then we will fail ever to see the loss of it as a horrific and tragic thing.

Is there such a thing as a tragic even any more? What constitutes something “tragic”? Do we use such a term merely as rhetoric, or do we as a society still have the capacity to feel something to be truly tragic? In a recent blog, John Piper cites from Soren Kierkegaard, who said, “When the age loses the tragic, it gains despair.” Piper noted that this sounds profoundly right.

He added,

For tragedy to be real there has to be something hugely precious, and there has to be the capacity to feel a great emotion. When these are both present, tragedy can happen. Despair is the horrible blankness that settles over us when nothing is seen as precious anymore and there is no capacity to feel it anyway.

When we no longer see life and humanity as a precious thing, then we will fail ever to see the loss of it as a horrific and tragic thing. Despair’s hollow depth is the result of the vanquished capacity to value something as precious, such as the life of the unborn.

Such is noteworthy at all times, but especially in an election year. 

Obama and The Support of Infanticide

Given that the 2008 election will more than likely produce a president who nominates multiple Supreme Court justices, it is essential that as many people as possible know about Obama’s record. Here is a first-hand telling of what his radical view of abortion promotes. If such an issue is “above his pay grade” (as he has recently stated), then he is not fit to be president. (His skirting the question that Rick Warren ought not get him off the hook one whit.)

I pray that for the sake of the millions of babies that Obama’s judicial nominees will have a bloody hand in killing, for their sake, I pray that Obama is defeated in November.

Happy Birthday President Reagan (1911-2004)

With so much talk about the Reagan coalition among the GOP talking heads and presidential candidates, I thought it a good idea to remember the former president’s birthday. Ronald Wilson Reagan was born this day, February 6, 1911 in Tampico, IL to John (“Jack”) and Nelle Reagan. He rose to political stardom in the 1960’s when he became California’s governor in 1966, and again in 1970. He was originally a registered Democrat, but changed his political affiliation to Republican back in 1962. When asked why he left the Democratic party he replied with the now-famous quote, “I didn’t leave the Democratic party; the Democratic party left me.”

For me personally, as a child of the 80’s, he simply was “the President” in my most formative years. I still remember the day he was shot (I was in elementary school, I think 2nd grade). I remember my Dad talking about him and saying good things, and I remember his strength, even as a kid.

After serving two terms as president (anyone remember the election of ‘84?) he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the early 1990’s. He died at the age of 93 in 2004, but his influence lives on and is truly palpable in this year’s election. Today, he would have been 97.

Church Discipline Matters

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, the practice of church discipline comes under fire. To be sure, the examples given are largely bad examples of discipline, but for believers who love the Church and Christ’s word (see Matt 18), the practice cannot be dismissed and merely regarded as “antiquarian.” (Click on Denny Burk in the “Blogroll” over to the right, as well. Denny recently posted about this very thing.)

I want to argue that biblical church discipline cannot occur unless we get our minds around the fact that church membership matters. The following is a short article I recently wrote for the Southern Seminary Magazine 75.3 (2007): 12-15.

“The Importance of Church Discipline”

I grew up in a small Louisiana town that was at one time known for, among other things, having the most churches per capita of any town our size. I grew up in the local First Baptist Church where my father led worship and mother taught children’s Sunday School. Like many others, I was much older before I ever heard the words “church” and “discipline” brought together, and whenever “church discipline” ever came up, it was always tied to a very unsettling situation, one whose details were always shrouded in secrecy.

Perhaps this is a familiar scenario. It seems that few churches teach on the issue of church discipline, and fewer still practice it. On the one hand, this is understandable since most think of “church discipline” as putting someone out of the local church. To be sure, the practice of biblical church discipline has become somewhat of a rarity in today’s churches, yet this is most unfortunate since this demonstrates a certain negligence of a church’s purity and gospel witness. As I teach the doctrine of the church, I ask my students to define church discipline and to provide an example when they have seen it carried out, either rightly or wrongly, in their home churches. Sadly, over time I have grown accustomed to their blank stares and silence. The absence of this biblical practice is to the Church’s detriment.

Baptist theological J. L. Dagg once contended, “When (the practice of church) discipline leaves a church, Christ goes with it.” To be sure, the practice was once common in our Baptist churches. In fact, Dr. Greg Wills notes in his book, Democratic Religion, “Through discipline, Baptists sought to repristinate the apostolic church and to stake their claim to primitive Christianity. Through discipline, they would, moreover, sweep the nation, for they believed that God rewarded faithful pruning by raining down revival.” He also notes that after the Civil War, it began to fade from practice, when the pursuit of church purity began to be replaced by the quest for efficiency. Baptist churches had lost their resolve in these matters, and “It simply faded away, as if Baptists had grown weary of holding one another accountable.”

What is it and why is it necessary? Is it necessary? Is it merely putting an unrepentant member out of a church? No. Church discipline has both positive and negative aspects, and the purpose here is to sketch a few answers to the questions of its nature, biblical warrant, and the Church’s need.

I. The Presupposition of Church Discipline: A Committed Church Membership

In his very helpful book 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, Dr. Mark Dever drives home the point that one very practical reason why discipline has eroded is because there is so often a downplaying of what it means to be a member of a local church. The reason why we see so little church discipline, with the resultant effect on the church’s purity, is because we have lost what it means to be a member of the local church. Membership matters, and one will not see the biblical practice of church discipline where there is a low view of commitment to a local body. This is why church membership is the presupposition of church discipline. If membership carries no obligations either for the church or the member, then church discipline becomes a moot point and impossible to practice. Recall that in 1 Cor 5, in order for Paul to tell the church to exclude the immoral man, he at first had to be included in that local body in some kind of fashion.

But being part of a local body of believers does matter. Being a member of a local church should mean commitment to a local church, coming together regularly for worship, as well as the taking of communion. It is the locale where believers exercise their spiritual gifts for the glory of God and edification of Christ’s body. It means taking responsibility. “The practice of church membership among Christians occurs when Christians grasp hold of each other in responsibility and love.” We in fact are one another’s keepers in a very real sense and the only way that this kind of “keeping” occurs is in the context of the community of faith. One must be part of this community (a local church) in order for accountability to take place. To be sure, this kind of accountability among believers is not strong-armed micro-management, rather, it is one of the many practical ways that believers love one another. Jesus’ words are recorded in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Loving one another and humble accountability between committed believers demonstrates the power of the gospel to a watching world. What does the world see? It sees a group of people committed to one another under the lordship of Jesus Christ who love one another enough to take a vested interest in one another’s ongoing commitment to Christ.

The local church is the manifestation of this group of people living under the lordship of Christ in loving accountability to biblical truth. For instance, in Heb 10:22-25 the writer avers,

“let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

Notice that, among other important things, the writer of Hebrews emphasizes the role of the Christian community in the context of one another’s lives. They not only draw near together, but they hold fast their Christian confession together, and they are to give purposeful thought and attention as to how they might stir up each other to live Christ-honoring lives. This occurs in the context of the local church, and is therefore the opposite, according to Hebrews, of “forsaking the assembly.” In addition, the little phrase “as you see the day drawing near” contains an implicit warning: Christ is coming and we all must be found faithful at His return (Heb 3:12; 4:1-2, 6, 11; 9:27-28; 10:36-39). From this text we see that we are to “draw near,” “hold fast,” and “consider” within the context of a local body of believers who anticipate the Lord’s return.

Further, the writer of Hebrews exhorts his readers, “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13). The encouragement spoken of here rightly occurs in a body of believers who place great value on being committed and responsible to the gospel and to one another. This has immediate implications for our Southern Baptist churches, where the average membership is 233, yet only 70 attend on any given Sunday. Further, a recent Christianity Today editorial states that convention records indicate that of our 16 million reported members, fewer than 6 million people attend Southern Baptist churches each week. This ought not be the case. Before biblical church discipline can be implemented, we all must first commit ourselves to an understanding of church commitment that is responsible, accountable and meaningful. Church membership matters. This is the presupposition of biblical church discipline.

II. The Biblical Basis for Church Discipline

To be sure, there is not enough space here to do a full treatment of the Bible’s teaching on the topic of church discipline, but the practice can be found in several key texts such as Matt 18:15-20, 1 Cor 5:1-13, 2 Cor 6-11, Heb 12:4-14, Gal 6:1, 2 Thess 3:6-15, 1 Tim 1:20; 5:19-20, and Titus 3:9-11. Matthew 18:15-20 is perhaps chief of these, since it sets forth the paradigm for how church discipline is to be carried out, step by step. Matthew records Jesus’ words in vv. 15-18,

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

As we read of the earliest churches (particularly in Paul’s letters) we see that this is the pattern followed by the earliest Christians. Paul’s Corinthian correspondence contains perhaps the most well-known example in 1 Cor 5:1-13. You will recall that there was a member of the church who was having a sexual relationship with his father’s wife. Paul admonishes the Corinthians for their failure to maintain the purity of the church, and calls for church discipline. Sin that is left confronted will ruin a church’s witness because it is no longer pure. This is Paul’s concern when he compares sin to leaven. This man’s sin was not merely confined to himself; when the church in Corinth failed to follow the rule of Christ on this matter it called into question the purity of the entire Corinthian church. They should have grieved over this man’s sin, yet instead they boasted (v. 6). Out of a love for Christ and deep concern for the purity of the church, they should have confronted the man with an eye to repentance and restoration, and be prepared to put him out of the church were he not to turn from his sin. This divinely-authorized punishment is inflicted by the church (Matt 18:17). Paul writes, “Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority” (2 Cor 5:6). As Jesus said, if a brother refuses to listen to the church and repent, he is to be put out of the church and treated as an unbeliever. We see that something along this very line occurred in Corinth. I am reminded of a sermon last year at my own local church preached by one of our members, Dr. Russell Moore, in which he implored us as a body to excommunicate him from our congregation should he ever get to the point of willful unrepentance. Dr. Moore is quite correct: unrepentant sin can ultimately lead to excommunication, a decision that none should desire but one for which all should be prepared.

But we should also note that church discipline is not always negative, in the sense of sin committed and then confronted. There is positive church discipline that is preventative, yet “the remedial side of discipline, like the proverbial squeaky wheel, gets all the grease.” As Jay Adams notes, we have a tendency to focus on the sensational acts in which grievous sin is committed and excommunication may occur. Yet we should more closely focus on preventative church discipline. For instance, faithful preaching of the Scriptures one kind of preventative discipline. Jay Adams, in his helpful book, Handbook of Church Discipline is exactly right when he states that the best thing that can be done in a church is for both leaders and laity to “promote good order and true belief.” This is both the formal and informal responsibility of a church and its members. The teaching of truth promotes godliness and purity. Church discipline is a two-edged sword, and Adams asserts that “when Christians are fed a regular diet of truth from the Scriptures in such a way that they grow by it, there will be far less need for remedial discipline in a church.” The emphasis for all local churches, therefore, ought not be on “rooting out troublemakers,” but on preventative discipline that takes the form of biblical preaching, godly order, and true belief. As stated above, all of this is to occur within a church whose membership soberly assesses the eternal investments each make in one another’s lives out of love for Christ and one another.

III. Conclusion

I will conclude with five brief reasons for the practice of church discipline. First, church discipline (in the corrective sense) should be for the good of the specific individual. Second, it is good for other Christians to see the dangers of sin. Third, it is for the health of the church as a whole. Fourth, it shows love for the corporate witness of the church, which can either make or break a church’s evangelistic purpose. Fifth, yet certainly not least, it shows a love for the glory of God since the church’s purity and holiness should reflect God’s own holiness. Church discipline ought not to be, at best, an afterthought in the life of a local church. Would that all of us think rightly about what it means to be in fellowship with other believers in a local church since being woven into the fabric of a local church matters. Would that God would help us all understand the biblical basis for church discipline in both its corrective and preventative forms. As Dever rightly warns, if we can’t, as a church, “say how a Christian should not live, how can we say how a Christian should live?”

Gregory A. Wills, Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South 1785-1900 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 8.

Gregory A. Wills, Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South 1785-1900 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 9.

Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 95.

Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 96.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/august/17.21.html accessed online August 17, 2007.

Jay Adams, Handbook of Church Discipline (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 22.

Jay Adams, Handbook of Church Discipline (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 25.

Jay Adams, Handbook of Church Discipline (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 22-23.

Mark Dever, What is a Healthy Church?, 106.

Mark Dever, 9 Marks of a Healthy Church, 170.

Salutations for the Holiday Season (according to one’s political party)

To all my Democratic friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To all my Republican friends:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

You Don’t Have to Be a Member of “Gator Nation” to Appreciate Tim Tebow

I love college football, and more explicitly SEC football. I know that there are other conferences, but I just don’t think that any conference is as strong as the SEC. While being from Louisiana makes me a fan of LSU (Geaux Bayou Bengals! Wahoo!), I have to give mad props to Tim Tebow of UF. I have great respect for this man, both on and off the field. On the field, who can deny his stats? Off the field, he demands respect for his work ethic and Christian character.

Consider his life story: He was born in the Philippines to Christian missionary parents. His mother contracted a significant illness while pregnant with him, and was told to abort the 2007 Heisman winner lest he face irreparable damage due to the treatment of her illness. Of course they did not abort. After a tour of duty in the Philippines, the Tebow family moved to a farm outside of Jacksonville, FL, where they were taught hard work and Christian discipline by Bob and Pam Tebow. Tim was homeschooled by his mother, yet allowed to play public high school football, where he threw for over 10,000 yards. Now, as a sophomore and a mere 20 years of age, he is a record-setting Heisman winner. This kid’s life is a made-for-TV-movie.

Give a listen to his Heisman acceptance speech. Two things emerge: he is a Christian and a proud member of “Gator Nation.” He loves his Lord, his family, his coaches, and his teammates. While I am not a member of “Gator Nation,” I have to admit–he is going to be fun to watch.

Tied to Cribs; Left to Die

Prepared to be shocked at the piece from CNN that I have linked HERE. I heard about it in Dr. John Piper’s sermon from this past weekend. It is a brief expose of the less-than-humane-treatment of the disabled in Serbia. Government is not the answer, though one can hope that the recent exposure of these conditions will put international pressure on the Serbian government to make real changes. My hunch is, however, that we need not go all the way to Serbia to find such neglect. Boys and girls, men and women, tied to their beds and neglected, doing only one thing–awaiting death. I pray that God would provide them with the eternal peace and care that this world has not afforded them, and that the Church as a collective whole would act to controvert such injustice.

Old School CCM – My Early Favorite: David Meece

Did anyone else grow up on the early CCM music? Back when Amy Grant recorded one of the first ever Christian videos? You know, the video for “Angels” that looked like it was filmed at a local Baptist church. Good times.

But before Amy made her splash, and before Michael W. Smith “Project” and “Project 2″ (great argyle Smitty!) there was my first CCM fav: David Meece. To this day I have every word to his 1977 “I Just Call on You” album memorized. I also recently acquired (ahem, borrowed) his 1980 album, “Are You Ready?” and sang every song to my wife on the way home from this friend’s house. After not hearing it for 20+ years, it was still all there.

David Meece is well known for many songs, but the one that is familiar to most is “We Are the Reason.” I remember playing that album (yes, 33RPM vinyl) over and over on my parent’s Sears record player/8 track combo when I was 5 or 6. Wow.

Sadly, most of David Meece’s albums are out of print, and finding them used is both difficult and expensive since it seems that there are others just like me who love his stuff, yet can’t find it. I would give a king’s ransom (or about 25 bucks) for a CD of his 1985 album “7.” I have been all over EBay etc., and have just recently purchased a vinyl album of one of his early works, and I don’t even own a record player anymore.

I found a great web site, his official one in fact. You can click here. He is still a great musician, and can still be booked today. He wrote and recorded all through the 90’s as well, but my attention is still more drawn to the late 70’s-mid 80’s early material. He has a great life story. Maybe I will post more info on him if anyone at all responds to this post.

So, am I the only one, or are there some other 30-somethings that just had their memories jogged? C’mon! Who didn’t listen to this on the bus trips of 1983 or thereabouts? (My Dad was the music minister, so youth choir tours = family vacation for a long time.) Great memories and great music from an early Christian music pioneer (when Christian music was still actually Christian).