Taking a Day Off Because of Illness

Gang,

I feel terrible in two ways.  Physically, what’s ironic is that I had a complete physical yesterday afternoon and got a clean bill of health.  Then, I got fever, chills and the typical stomach symptoms last night.  So, I’m in no shape to write any more than this.

Secondly, though, I feel terrible about Wade Burleson, a man of true integrity whom I have been privileged to get to know in the past year, being censured by the Board of Trustees of the International Mission Board.  While the occasion to reflect in writing on this low-light in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention may present itself in the future, I am too wiped out this day to do anything beyond what has to be done.  If you would care to read more about this, please go to www.wadeburleson.com or www.sbcoutpost.com.

Coming Friday: Fridays are for Newpaper Articles

The Holy Spirit and the Southern Baptist Convention Today (XXI): An Applicational Review of J. P. Moreland’s ‘Kingdom Triangle’ (Conclusion)

I am going to force myself to complete this review in the present post.  It has extended long enough and I do not want it to become so lengthy as to leave the false impression that anything about this book is boring or overlong at all.

Before dealing with what remains to be completed, however, I must ‘fess up to a mess-up.  In the comment stream of my last post, it was pointed out that I had overstated the true case about Third Wave theology vs. the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.  That is correct.  At least with the less theologically flamboyant wing of the Third Wave movement, most–if not all–could probably sign off on BFM2000.  My apologies to Sam Storms and others like him.

What happened?  I overstated a legitimate point–although that is not an excuse.  I blew it and this is my mea culpa.

What was the “legitimate point” I was attempting to underscore?  It was that it is not necessary to speak in tongues or have a private prayer language to be a continuationist.  In fact, unless I am completely misreading things in the SBC, the vast bulk of the quite large and less and less silent ”continuationist middle ground” do not possess these gifts.  On top of that, most that do have those gifts are not pushing them on others.

While it certainly remains to be seen what will happen as these positions emerge face to face over SBC issues in the time ahead, it is unlikely that things will ever retreat to anywhere close to where they were before the last couple of years.  And, how could they?  The minority cessationist position is desparately moving to set in concrete their views from a power standpoint while the slight majority continuationist position, now having realized its numbers, is seeking to resist the expansion of the cessationist steamroller effect of the past couple of years engineered by a relatively small cadre of hard-core cessationist entity trustees.  Further clashes are inevitable, and necessary from the continuationist perspective, given that the impact of cessationist policies is nothing more or less than the further (i.e., it’s already far down the line in certain sectors) quenching of the Spirit in the SBC.

Now, back to the review…

Moreland’s Conclusion chapter is entitled “Confronting the Crisis of Our Age,” which, of course, is exactly what he is hoping and praying that his readers will do!  In order to do so, he has called for three things that I will summarize as “admit,” “embrace” and “adjust.”

According to research by George Barna, Moreland asserts: “There is a growing hunger among believers (and unbelievers) to have intimate worship, to have an authentic relationship with the Triune God, to be a real disciple, and to experience community in the way the New Testament describes it” (p. 195).  He is right.  The time of going through the motions in “playing church” is winding down quickly.  And, we will either soon admit these widespread spiritual longings and act to see them come to pass in the power of the Spirit, or we are going to be closing down a lot of evangelical churches within the next decade or so.

The way forward from our present spiritual predicament is to embrace the “threefold cord” Moreland has laid in Kingdom Triangle.  To quote his summary on p. 196:

- “the development of the life of the mind, learning what and why one believes, acquiring a thoughtful Christian worldview

- the cultivation of the inner life, developing emotional intimacy with God, engaging in classical spiritual formation practices, absorbing the great formative literature in the history of the church

- learning to live and use the Spirit’s power and the authority of the Kingdom of God, developing a supernatural lifestyle, receiving answers to prayer, learning to effectively pray for healing and demonic deliverance, growing to heart God’s voice through impressions, prophetic words of knowledge and wisdom, dreams and visions.”

As far as what we need to adjust to proceed forward along Moreland’s suggested path, he lays out two widespread areas of skepticism among evangelicals: 1) “We have a stereotype that people involved in [the life of the supernatural described above] are wierd, uneducated, and in extreme cases, frauds” (p. 197).  I freely admit to this almost everytime I watch TBN.  However, I am willing to adjust my perspective from being judgmental to discerning in such matters.  What about you?  Even that can make a big difference!

Secondly, Moreland asserts: “We have a fear of risking and looking foolish if we pray for the sick and nothing happens.“  He’s right.  And, that is nothing but fleshly pride!  After all, the Lord can always say No to our prayers.  But, he cannot say Yes if we do not pray… and He will not say Yes if we do not pray in faith, expectantly!

At this point, I need to ask and answer what are the greatest strengths and weaknesses of Kingdom Triangle.  Beyond that, I will offer my feeble attempt at assessing its wider contribution. 

As far as strengths are concerned, I will limit myslef to what I think is most important: In my opinion, Kingdom Triangle is the message that needed to be laid out, right now, by someone of J.P.’s impeccable scholarly credentials.  Message–timing–messenger–a powerful confluence… if we will but listen!

Besides the above, the way in which J.P. laid out his case was superbly balanced.  Deep enough when needed, but not too deep.  Not just intellectual, but passionate–and compassionate at key points.  Enough evidence to make his points, without getting weighted down by the data.  In other words, he thought carefully about who he wanted to read this book and how it would have to be crafted to make it accessible to that readership.  Well done!

As far as weaknesses are concerned, I don’t see anything glaring, given what Moreland was seeking to accomplish.  Each chapter could easily have been expanded to become an entire book, had J.P. chosen to do so. 

At this point, I am also going to bring up a couple of ideas that are not really weaknesses in Moreland’s book, but things that I think might help to maximize its impact: 1) Since some cessationists long for the moving of the Spirit, but are in no position to become continuationists without serious economic consequences, there needs to be exploration as to how cautious continuationists can reach out across the divide to open cessationists for the good of both groups in regard to balanced, Spirit-led ministry; and 2) Much as Dan Wallace and Jim Sawyer have edited Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?, seeking to galvanize a “pneumatic Christianity” perspective among open cessationists, someone–or group of persons–needs to write a theology of the Spirit that develops the cautious continuationist position.  This may be needed even moreso in the SBC, given that the cautious continuationist view is emerging as far more signficant than previously realized, while those holding the increasingly hardened cessationist position still desire to paint all continuationists with the broadest possible paintbrush: as nutty charismatics or at least those who don’t know any better than those views from 30 plus years ago.

In conclusion, as far as Moreland’s overall contribution is concerned, after carefully reading Kingdom Triangle, I cannot help but think in terms of comparison and contrast to the latter ministry efforts of the late Francis Schaeffer.  Maybe it’s just me, but it seems to me that Kingdom Triangle is parallel in certain ways to Schaeffer’s A Christian Manifesto, notably in the probing cultural critique it provides roughly a generation after Schaeffer’s piercing and passionate appeal. 

However, there is also a huge difference between the two authors and their two timely volumes.  Schaeffer’s appeal was for evangelicals to proceed to reclaim the culture from the standpoint of having the proper view of truth and the gospel.  Moreland rightly says the church not only possesses the truth and the gospel, but also the power of the Spirit.

As I close, it is worth asking: Was Francis Schaeffer’s challenge in A Christian Manifesto largely greeted by yawns because the evangelical church had become so worldly and comfortable, or because it had become so fleshly (i.e., out of touch with the Holy Spirit)?  My answer is “Yes”–it was worldly and comfortable, without a doubt; but it was, and has largely remained, under the control of the flesh, not the Spirit.

Like Francis Schaeffer before him, J.P. Moreland has laid out why our culture is philosophically bankrupt and religiously confused.  But, unlike Schaeffer, he has offered not just a clarion call to get off our collective spiritual rear ends, but also a power source that can sustain any individual and corporate transformation that must take place. 

I salute this Spirit-led calculated risk of one of evangelicalism’s great minds and hearts (thank you, J.P.!).  He has spoken the truth in love, knowing full well that, since those who short-sightedly cling to the fleshly status quo cannot adequately answer his powerful message, they will (and already do) savagely attack the messenger.  Why has he done so, then?  Because he is trusting the Lord to use his Spirit-led message to awaken many others who will choose to walk in faith, in the power of the Spirit, seeking to be spiritual transformation agents in the spheres of influence where the Lord has placed them.  May the Lord multiply their–our–tribe!

Fridays are for… Newspaper Articles

The following is my weekly article from the Canyon Lake (TX) Times-Guardian:

(Note: My brother, who is an elder in a Bible church in Jackson, MS, has already read this to make sure there are NOT inadvertent “golf fibs” [i.e., the parallel to "fishing stories"].  My bad!  I just caught my mistake!)

    “An Unforgiving Game, a Forgiving God” 

I played golf last Saturday afternoon at the Landa Park course in New Braunfels.  I hadn’t played for a long time and was fortunate to card a 99 (without the mulligan, I don’t break 100!).

It was a ton of fun!  I had never played Landa Park, a beautiful old course (built in the late 1930s).  It has some sand and a surprising amount of water—very picturesque water hazards, by the way—for a municipal course.  Also, they use doglegs very well to make relatively short holes much tougher.

The strangest thing about the round was that the greens were almost as long as the rough.  The staff overseeded with winter grass recently and were not going to mow it until Monday.  As a result, our approach shots held the greens and you could putt the ball straight and hard. 

 The best part of that golf game was that it was with my younger brother, Bill.  He had flown in on Saturday morning to visit for a couple of days.  And, in an attempt to do something that reminded both of us of very happy times in our childhood, we decided to play golf.  

We were quite successful in that regard!  It did conjure up memories of us playing the local nine-hole course back home in Mississippi at all times of the year, in all kinds of weather.  It also reminded me that he almost always played it safe—he totally “got” course management before course management was cool!—while I had a bad habit of trying to hit impossible shots like Phil Mickelson (but with a much lower percentage of success.

I did have some highlights in my round.  I made a number of pars and I must say that I hit more good shots than I had ever expected to pull off.  However, I also have to admit the unrivaled lowlight of the round: I hit three balls in the water in front of the green on one par 5 hole.  That led to my 51 on the front side, even though I had shot amazingly well on the first four or five holes.  And, my cautious brother hit two balls into the same water hazard, explaining his 46 on the front nine (though he rallied for a terrific 36 on the back nine!).

Reflecting on what happened with that one water hazard reminded me of something I knew very well from past years.  However, since I have played very little golf in recent decades—maybe 10 times in the last 30 years—my memory needed jogging.  What was that bit of renewed old insight?  It is that golf is a highly unforgiving game!

That is no shock to anyone who has spent any time at all on a golf course—even a putt-putt course, for that matter!  Still, it is an important point for us to consider.  The most grace you ever get on a golf course is a mulligan do-over shot once per round (or possibly front and back side) and conceded short “gimme” putts.  Otherwise, one really bad hole almost always will destroy a promising round, no matter how hard you struggle to make up for it.

In regard to its unforgiving nature, golf is very much like a person trying to be saved by good works or trying to keep the Old Testament Law, or any set of rules, to be good enough to be acceptable to God.  The problem is that, like in golf, nobody is perfect.  Everybody fails from time to time.  As Romans 3:23 declares, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

So, the key question is: Is close to perfect good enough with God?  No.  God does not grade on the curve.  As James 2:10 says, “Whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all.”

Fortunately for every person alive, God is not like golf.  He is always gracious and forgiving.  As Ephesians 2:8-9 makes clear: “By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.  It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” 

Thank you, Lord, that you don’t hold the balls we all hit into the spiritual water hazards of life over our heads forever!  Thank you for forgiving and accepting us through faith in Jesus!

Coming Monday: The grand finale of my multi-post review of J.P. Moreland’s Kingdom Triangle