Leftovers...

We went into the restaurant and the hostess directed our group to a table. We sat down. A waitress came and took orders for drinks.

"Coffee with cream. Thank you."

I looked through the menu, There were the familiar items this particular restaurant chain always has, and there were a few new things I may have seen, but never tried.

Then I noticed the stir fry dishes. Stir fried veggies and your choice of meat over rice. OK... Sounds healthier then some of the usual stuff. Maybe I'll try it.

The waitress returned with our drinks and then proceeded to take our orders. I ordered the stir fry and choose chicken as the meat selection for the stir fry.

It was the banana bread, biscuits, and dinner rolls that did me in. The bread is always brought out first so you can munch on it while waiting for the main dish. Problem is it fills you up and then dinner is served and the portions are relatively large.

The stir fry was actually ok, though the seasoning sauce on the rice was a little to much. I ate the veggies and the chicken pieces, and even managed some of the rice, but finally came to the point where the adage to "clean your plate" has to give way to the concerns for un-necessary over-eating... I was plain stuffed, and made the decision to not finish the remaining rice that was still upon the plate.

I looked at that rice. There was more food left over on that plate then many people in this fallen world eat in a given day let alone at a single meal. In fact there are people in the world who would consider that amount of rice to be a real feast. I also sadly reflected on the fact I was not going to be able to package that leftover rice up and send it to those hungry people....

Yes, I could have asked for a box, and taken the leftovers home with me, but this particular time I chose not to.

What's the answer... Whatever it is, the answer is NOT socialism... Historically Socialism gets an "F" when it comes to feeding hungry people...

We were done eating. The waitress came and cleared the dishes. I doubt very much that my leftover rice was going to be "recycled". The Health Department would make sure of that.....

My leftover rice gets thrown out, and somewhere in this fallen world a child is literally starving to death... I utter the "D" word to myself....

Maybe next time, I'll make my choice from the senior citizen part of the menu... But even then someone will still go to bed without having had anything to eat that day... Again I utter the “D” word to myself.

Come quickly Lord Jesus....

No Place for Complacency
David Wells on The Courage to Be Protestant. Interview by Collin Hansen

During the last 15 years, David Wells has cried out like a voice in the wilderness against the ills of modern evangelicalism. His latest book, The Courage to Be Protestant, conveys the essence of his argument in four preceding books: No Place for Truth (1993), God in the Wasteland (1994), Losing Our Virtue (1998), and Above All Earthly Pow'rs (2005). Wells, the Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, spoke with CT editor at large Collin Hansen about "truth-lovers, marketers, and Emergents in the postmodern world."

Click on link above for full article from Christianity Today.

Chicken/Road and Imperialistic Order

[Satire] To ask why the chicken crossed to road is to miss the point, and any answer given is an irrelevancy. The only truth-reality in the incident of the chicken crossing the road is that which the chicken constructed for itself. What comes to us from that reality-perception is colored and distorted becoming for us only narrative myth.

We have no way of knowing if the chicken ever really existed at all, let alone that it crossed a road; however, the narrative myth meets us and we encounter in that story not the reality-construct of the chicken, but our own encounter with the chicken/road concept colored by our own meaning and our own reality-perception.

Our imperialistic notions of "chicken" and "road" thus become exposed, and we can then reconstruct those concepts into a broader narrative-mythology that will meet the need for a chicken/road construct consistent with the demands of current post-modern thought patterens. [/Satire]

Step Into Eternity

I am walking home from work. I take a step, then another, then another. Each step takes x amount of time. Time from our mortal finite perspective only goes forward. A nano-second gone by can not be recovered.

Science can not explain why we die. It can observe we die from auto accidents, cancer, or by means of homicide, or what ever. Science can only observe that we die, but does not explain why we get older, weaker, slower, more and more feeble, and at some point or another we physically expire. Science can only observe and describe the process. It can not explain why the process happens.

So we step through this mortal life to the end, and then eternity. The same with breathing. Breath in. Breath out. Nano-seconds of our life flying by never to be recovered. In... Out... In... Out... Step. Step. Stepping towards eternity...

How many non-seconds are you closer to eternity since you first started to read this?

Some think eternity is oblivion. We die and that's it. Others see eternity as a cosmic Merry-go-round, as we take various forms and shapes whirling around on some great mandela. The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die, then the judgment. The Bible points to the resurrection from the dead, and the new heavens and new earth. The Bible also talks about hell.

Step by step. Step by step. Step by step towards eternity, not knowing at what un-escapable moment we will take that last step... That last step into eternity. Are you ready?

~ The Billy Goat ~

Recognizing the Phenomena of Evangelical Commonality and Embracing It

A Reformed Christian hears a particular sermon by a Dispensatonal Preacher, and finds him or her self in substantial agreement with that sermon. A Dispensational Christian hears a particular sermon by a Reformed Preacher and finds him or her self in substantial agreement with that sermon. A Baptist happens to visit a Lutheran Church and hears a particular sermon, and says to himself that sounds pretty "Evangelical".

What's going on in each of these incidents?

The Dispensational Preacher is still a Dispensaionalist. The Reformed Preacher is still Reformed. The Lutheran Pastor is still Lutheran. What is happening in each of the above cases is the hearer is recognizing a certain degree of theological commonality with the Preacher.

This kind of reaction and response that can be observed among the differing Evangelical denominations, church groups, and Evangelical theological camps is what I have chosen to call the phenomena of "Evangelical Commonality". This commonality comes out of the fact that amidst the differences that define the various theological camps of the Evangelical world, there is to varying degrees a common shared theological consensus that gives common meeting ground between those various camps.

Case in point: Many Dispensationalists are very Calvinistic. More then a few might tell you they are a 4 point, or 4 1/2 point, or even a full blown 5 point Calvinist. That means that on the issue of soteriology, from 80 to 100% of what they say is in sync with what the Reformed Pastor down the street is saying about that subject. But when you get into issues of eschatology and the relation of the Old Testament to the New Testament, the issues that define each groups difference from one another are clear.

For the most part, much of the Evangelical world intuitively understands this phenomena of Evangelical commonality and embraces it, taking it for granted. They hear a radio preacher like Chuck Swindol or John MacArthur, or Allister Begg, and appreciate these men for upholding fundamental foundational evangelical truth. It is not a matter of these men being Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Methodist, or Calvinist, or any other name you want to use to describe your Church or theology. It is a recognition instead of shared beliefs that cut across the lines of those denominational and theological camps.

In a previous post I took our Reformed Baptist friends to task for a persistent nagging tendency on the part of of some of them to want to claim this preacher or that preacher for their "Reformed Baptist" camp. This is a failure to embrace the concept of Evangelical commonality. Part of the reason for this failure is the prevalent tendency in recent Reformed Baptist history (the past 30 some years) to define the RB movement by those things that distinguish RB's from the rest of the Evangelical world. This tendency, (which I personally observed over many years), feeds an "us verses them" mentality that focuses on separateness from the rest of the Evangelical world, instead of recognizing the Evangelical commonality the Reformed Baptist movement shares with the rest of the Evangelical world.

I am not asking RB's or anyone else to give up their distinctives. But I am asking RB's as well as all other Evangelical groups and theological camps to hold those distictives in balance with that Evangelical commonality that to some degree or another, we all share with one another.

To put it in other words, I am asking the Reformed Baptist movement to acknowledge and embrace that Evangelical commonality. Why? Because until they do, they will continue to remain on the outskirts of the Evangelical world in spite of the clear basic Evangelical character of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.

If you choose to remain on the outskirts, that is your choice, and it is an unfortunate choice. It is also unfortunate that you will have to live with the consequence of that choice. Based on the history of other groups and movements who made that same choice, those consequences are not very pretty.

"So and so" may not be a Reformed Baptist, but they are an Evangelical brother. Can you in Christian love accept and embrace that without giving them your particular label? May God Almighty help you to do so...

Shalom,

~ The Billy Goat ~

The Preaching of the Gospel
The First London Baptist Confesson of Faith 1646 , Chapter XXV.

"The preaching of the gospel to the conversion of sinners, is absolutely free; no way requiring as absolutely necessary, any qualifications, preparations, or terrors of the law, or preceding ministry of the law, but only and alone the naked soul, a sinner and ungodly, to receive Christ crucified, dead and buried, and risen again; who is made a prince and a Savior for such sinners as through the gospel shall be brought to believe on Him.

John 3:14,15, 1:12; Isa. 55:1; John 7:37; 1 Tim. 1:15; Rom. 4:5, 5:8; Acts 5:30,31, 2:36, 1 Cor. 1:22,24."

The True Christian Sabbath

The "sabbatismos" that remains for the people of God has nothing to do with a day of the week. The Hebrews 4:9-10 passage has to be grossly wrenched out of its wider context to say that. Yes, we are obligated to keep the Sabbath, but that Sabbath we are to keep has nothing to do with a day of the week, but on the contrary has everything to do with resting and remaining in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone.

It is my observation that churches that maintain a Puritan view of the Christian Sabbath as the observation of a specific day of the week, inevitably without exception end up being legalistic in other areas as well.

~ The Billy Goat ~

Where is the author's respect for Scripture?
A Review of Martha Peace's "The Excellent Wife: A Biblical Perspective"
(Focus Publishing,1999)


A number of years ago my wife was reading this book and came to me in frustration. My wife's frustration had its roots in Peace's very loose and inadequate exegesis of Scriptures. In my own examination there were more then a few cases where applications were made of parts of Scripture that had nothing to do with the intent and purpose of the passage cited.

Anyone reading any of Peace's books need to do so with an open Bible and a critically exegetical eye. The author's miss-exegesis did not indicate an understanding of what respect for God's Word demands in terms of careful and respectful handling. I told my wife I did not want her to read this book. She gladly "submitted" to my wishes.

As a Christian man, I take exception to the lop-sided emphasis on the wife "submitting" without taking the husbands to task about loving their wife as Christ loves the church. In Ephesians, Paul devoted more time and words to the husband than he did to the wife. And that for a VERY good reason. Could it just be that if husbands were held accountable for loving their wife, the wife just might find it a joy to properly submit? The lop-sided berating of wives found in some parts of the Christian church does not fit the Biblical balance.

I find the sub-title "A Biblical Perspective" frankly miss-leading. Don't waste your money on it. My wife and I found a better and much more helpful alternative in Dr. Larry Crabb's The Marriage Builder.

~ The Billy Goat ~

Some Christmas Themes in the Old Testament

Introduction:

The essence of Christmas is not found in all our traditions and decorations as such. For the Christian believer the essence of Christmas is found in the words of Matthew 1:18-25

1. Jesus: “…for He will save His people from their sins.”
   
   
2. Immanuel: “…which means, God with us.”
   

God has come into human history by taking on the form of humanity. His purpose in doing so was to bring redemption to a fallen world. This did not happen all of a sudden, just out of the blue. It was anticipated early in the Story of the history of redemption.

• 1. The seed
  
  
  
  • Genesis 3: 15 – The retribution of the woman’s seed…
    
    
  • Genesis 5:29 - The naming of Noah “Rest”- bringing comfort from the curse…
  
  
  
• Genesis 22:18 – The promise: Abraham’s seed to be a blessing to all humanity.
  
  
• 1 Chronicles 17:11-14 – The promise to David
  

2. Messiah as Immanuel

• Isaiah 7:11. The name of the virgin’s child, Immanuel – God with us.
  
  
• Isaiah 9:4-7
  
  
  
  • Humanity: A child is born
    
    
  • Deity:
    
    
    1. Wonderful Counselor
       
    2. Mighty God
       
    3. Everlasting Father (Picture of the King as being a father to his people.)
       
    4. Prince of Peace
    
    
    
  • Verse 7 - This child is the one who will fulfill the promise made to David.

God has been and is working in time and space; (history). We have not been left to ourselves. The God/Man whose name is Immanuel is indeed with His people; all who have trusted and placed their faith in Him. The Christmas story is a critical chapter in that larger Story whose final chapter is yet to be realized.

{These notes are from a recent Adult Sunday School class I taught.
~ The Billy Goat ~}

Of This and That...

In this first article Collin Hansen of Christianity Today looks at trends in the Fundantalist camp.

The Crisis of Modern Fundamentalism Collin Hansen, 10/26/2007, Christianity Today

Fundamentalism is still with us, though you won't hear many evangelicals talk about it. Not so with the fundamentalists, who worry about a growing number within their ranks who have wandered toward evangelicalism. A 2005 survey released on the popular fundamentalist blog SharperIron "revealed that many in the newest generation of fundamentalist leadership were still committed to fundamentalist theology but uncomfortable with some of the more extreme positions on secondary separation, association, worship music, extra-biblical standards, and other issues."

---

In this next article from Touchstone Magazine, six Evangelical leaders give an assesment of the Evangelical movement. Evangelicalism Today - A Symposium: Six Evangelicals Assess Their Movement.

---

Back in February, 2006, A.B. Caneday published on his BIBLIA THEOLOGICA blog an article titled, Twenty-One Theses on Paul & the Law. Recently Dr. Caneday in his own words "...did some clean-up work on the theses, revised some statements, clarified a number of things, and expanded the number to 22 theses by splitting one." So now there are Twenty-Two Theses on Paul & the Law." .