Revolution Update and Don't Waste Your Time

Later today, check out my bro Justin Clark's post on what you can do to help Revolution. Link is below. Be sure to make it one of your favorites.

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/





Ryan Rolfe, leader of the World's Most Dangerous Praise Band, will post tomorrow.





Revolution launches August 31st in Portsmouth, Ohio at a location to be disclosed later.





Check back soon for updates.





Finally, many of you know that I think it is largely a waste of time to read most of the stuff that Christian book publishers are pushing these days. I've already begged and pleaded with you to put down McLaren and Bell and dig into a good Bible, like the ESV Literary Study Bible, or something that will help you better study your Bible like Fee and Stuart's "How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth."





May I also humbly recommend anything and everything by John Piper. Even Rob Bell writes in a footnote in Velvet Elvis that everyone should read everything by Piper!





The good news is that many of Piper's books are online for free! Go to Desiring God (http://www.desiringgod.org/) and click on "Resource Library" and look to the left for "online books." I recommend that you start with the modern classic "Desiring God" and then peruse "What Jesus Demands From The World" and "Don't Waste Your Life" but its all good and its all free.





God bless.

River City Revolution and Dwight Schrute

Check out my bro Eron Elswick's post re: Jesus and the poor over at the new River City Revolution Blog. Posts forthcoming from Justin Clark and Ryan Rolfe this week.

Click over to

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

Be sure to add it to your favorite list as it will be updated every weekday by a member of the leadership team of Revolution which launches on August 31st in Portsmouth.

Once again, I will be shutting down River City Redemption in the next few weeks but in the meantime I'm going to have some fun.

For example, here are my favorite quotes from one of my personal heroes, Dwight Schrute from The Office.

1) "I am faster than 80% of all snakes."

2) "Women are like wolves. If you want one you must trap it. Snare it. Tame it. Feed it. "

3) "I don't have a lot of experience with vampires, but I have hunted werewolves. I shot one once, but by the time I got to it, it had turned back into my neighbor's dog."

4) "If I could menstruate, I wouldn’t have to deal with idiotic calendars anymore. I’d just be able to count down from my previous cycle. Plus, I’d be more in tune with the moon and the tides."

5) " I am not a security threat. And, my middle name is "Kurt", not "Fart.""

6) "Why tip someone for a job I'm capable of doing myself? I can deliver food. I can drive a taxi. I can, and do, cut my own hair. I did however, tip my urologist, because I am unable to pulverize my own kidney stones. "

7) "I have been Michael's number two guy for about five years. And we make a great team. We're like one of those classic, famous teams. He's like Mozart, and I'm like...Mozart's friend. No, I'm like Butch Cassidy, and Michael is like...Mozart. You try and hurt Mozart, you're gonna get a bullet in your head, courtesy of Butch Cassidy."

The Gods Aren't Angry? and a Shout Out to Mrs. Pistole

I just finished watching The Gods Aren't Angry, which is the new Rob Bell DVD. Where do I begin?

Charles Colson told a pastor friend of mine that he believes Bell to be the most dangerous teacher in America today. He may be right.

I'm sure that Bell means very well because I did when I believed and taught exactly the same thing to several churches and youth groups while I was an Emergent.

Bell very subtly denies the great Christian doctrine of propitiation (Rom. 3:25 and 1 John 2:2 and 4:10...look them up in a good translation like the ESV or the NASB) and, therefore, the awesome doctrine of double imputation. Bell takes the Abelardian position that everything is about expiation i.e., that God doesn't need blood and that sacrifice is all about your conscience. Such a view greatly waters down the holiness of God and the great evil of sin.

Now, like I used to do, Bell is simply following the proponents of the New Perspective on Paul set forth by one of his heroes N.T. Wright. Read 2 Corinthians 5:21 and think about it a very long time. I can tell you that the adherents to the New Perspective, like Wright (and Bell) have never adequately dealt with it.

Bell also trumpets the theory of religion outlined most notably by another Bell hero, Ken Wilbur, who is a tantric, Mayan Buddhist. The Bible is very clear that other religions are not the product of organic responses to "forces beyond our control" but are, in fact, demonic (see Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:17; 2 Chron. 11:15; Psalm 106:35-37 and 1 Cor. 10:20-28).

Bell goes on to deny that God is angry because He is a "god of love" but is that Biblical? Romans 5 and Colossians 1 teaches that before repentance and faith we were "enemies" of God and Philippians 3 teaches that He will crush all of His enemies under His feet. Revelation 14 teaches that the judgment of the unrepentant by Christ will be as if they were stomped in a giant winepress until the blood runs as high as a horse's bridle. Sounds pretty angry to me, Rob!

Bell fails to see that anger and love can and must be reconciled. For example, I hate abortion because I love children. One is often contingent upon the other. God must be just and the justifier (Romans 3:26).

Pray for Rob Bell. Pray that he repents from the culturally acceptable, narcissistic "gospel" that is really all about us and doesn't seriously factor in the great and awesome holiness of God and justice of the sovereign ruler of creation. It is, as R.C. Sproul wrote, as if Bell has only been converted to one person of the Trinity and that is tragic.

Okay, all that heavy stuff aside, here is a shout out to my sister in Christ (and Revolution core member) Mrs. Tiffany Pistole who is having oral surgery this week. Get well soon and I'll be praying for you.

ALSO please note that the River City Revolution blog is up and running with a post from yours truly and the one and only Pastor Dave Dunham on being a dude for Christ. Coming soon, posts by my bros Eron Elswick, Justin Clark and Ryan Rolfe (i.e., the heralded leader of The World's Most Dangerous Praise Band). Check it out here:

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

Revolution and Xenos Summer Institute

River City Redemption will be shutting down very soon but fortunately you can click on to the new River City Revolution Blog here.

http://rivercityrevolution.wordpress.com/

Thanks to my bro Dave Dunham for getting it up and running.

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Xenos Christian Fellowship's 2008 Summer Institute focused on the Emergent Movement and contained a few surprises including Mark Driscoll rebuking the crowd for not praying for Brian McLaren and Rob Bell. Gary Breshears, a professor of theology and co-author of Vintage Jesus, gave a seminar on the works of McLaren (who he has met and conversed with) and spent a good deal of time congratulating McLaren on energizing so many for social justice. The biggest surprise was that the best and most moving speech was given by D.A. Carson on Thursday night. His lecture (really a sermon) entitled Experience and Truth from Psalm 1 and 1 John was amazing. I encourage you to get the CD from Xenos.

The speakers did indeed take Bell, Pagitt, McLaren and others to task in the mold of John the Baptist, Paul and King Jesus himself but there was a great emphasis on praying for these brothers who have gone astray.

I agree and repent of the harsh language I have often used to describe them. I remember when I was Emergent and downplayed the holiness of God, scoffed at the the need for atonement and portrayed sin as largely corporate and political. It helped me feel independent at first but an empty smugness followed that nearly destroyed my faith and my family. I thank God that His Spirit is working on me and helping me to repent every day and to say that Jesus is Lord.

We must still strongly contend for the faith for Satan has always been more successful at twisting God's Word then outright denying it but we, and especially I, must do so with a better attitude.

Taking A Break...

No real post today. I'm taking most of the day off to listen to Mark Driscoll talk about Emergent this morning (which is great because I'm preaching about it this weekend at CCC as Dad, Rick and I take a tag team approach to the sermon) and then I get to listen to D.A. Carson speak twice about postmodernism and Emergent and then sit in on a workshop re: the works of Brian McLaren with Prof. Gary Beshears. Driscoll and Dennis McCallum did a good job last night and I'm really looking forward to hearing Don Carson. I'll blog about the conference tomorrow. Until then....

Part Two of Books You Must Read RIGHT FRIGGIN' NOW!!!

Okay, so you go out and buy a good Bible (ESV or NLT) and you dig in only to discover that you don't know what in the frick is going on. I mean, you get over the talking donkey and some dude opening a can with the jawbone of an ass (don't send me emails that's a quote from ye ole King James Version) but then you get into the prophets and really weird crap is happening and you read the Gospels but you can't figure out who Jesus is pronouncing judgment upon and then you get to the book of Revelation and you haven't heard anything like it since your roommate in college rambled on after hitting his wizard shaped bong and a VHS copy of Fantasia. So if the Bible is God's inspired word then what do you do?

Fortunately there are number of great resources available to help a dedicated Christian study Scripture without chucking a spaz. I recommend "How To Read The Bible For All It's Worth" by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart. The little book gives Christians an overview of each applicable ancient genre contained in Scripture so that they can better understand their Bible.

However, if you really want to dig in deep then I recommend "Grasping God's Word" by Duvall and Hays, which is a great textbook designed for Bible college students.

So, if you are dedicated and willing to let your geek flag flythen buy one or both and be the first kid on your block to actually understand what the @#!* the book of Daniel is about.

Part One of "Books You Must Start Reading RIGHT NOW!!!!"

Okay, so anyone who reads this blog knows that I cannot stand "Pagan Christianity" or "The Shack" or most emergent drivel.

So, in my estimation, what books don't suck?

How about we start with the Bible? Heard of it? I know, I know...a little long, some of the characters are hard to care about, you feel like you're reading a children's book when animals start talking, etc. etc.

Yet, if you truly have God's Spirit working within you to slowly "depervertifisy" you (does that sound George Bush like?) then you cannot go long without reading Scripture.

Yet, if you walk into a Christian book store (not that I recommend it! So much crap in there makes me want to go Jesus in the Temple and...okay, I digress...sorry) then you will notice a hundred different choices and some of them not even ye King James! I would recommend a good study Bible and access to Biblegateway.com, which has dozens of English translations available. I think that every serious Christian needs a good study Bible and access to other translations in order truly dig deeply into the Word of God.

The best reader friendly translation available is the New Living Translation. If you can afford it then you should grab a copy but if not then don't fret you can find it online at Biblegateway. I always recommend that Christians read whole books of the Bible in as few sittings as possible and not just engage in "read a verse and pray devotionals." In fact, the best way to study a book of the Bible is to read it through in one sitting beginning with a reader friendly but theologically accurate translation like the New Living Translation. Eventually, however, you need to slow down and study the book by breaking it down into smaller chunks and this requires a good literal translation and I define "literal" as a work that strives to stick as close to the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek as possible.

I think that the English Standard Version (or ESV) has surpassed the New American Standard as the best literal translation on the market and the best version out there is the Literary Study Bible. You should find one in a store and flip through it or peruse one online and see what you think but keep in mind that two new study Bibles will hit the market this fall and may easily rank as the best one-two punch out there--they are the ESV Study Bible and the New Living Translation Study Bible, which, by virtue of the scholars working on them, promise to be extraordinary.

So, if you decide to wait on one of the two study Bibles or if you feel the need to grab the ESV Literary Study Bible today then please...please...please...put down your crappy Tim LaHaye, Ted Dekkar, William Young stink pickle and just start reading a good version of the Bible!

Because if I run across one more so-called Evangelical Christian pushing some pile of poo that they think is "revolutionary" then I'm going to have to resort to extreme measures...think something like the picture to your right...I mean it...don't mess with me...I'm a lawyer and therefore have no heart!!!