Archives For D.A. Carson

Genuine Love is Odd

Aaron Armstrong —  May 4, 2011 — Leave a comment

When I refer to “Enemies, Big and Small,” obviously I am not thinking of their physical dimensions—bantam-weight enemies perhaps as opposed to three-hundred-pound enemies—but of the scale of their enmity. Not all Christians face persecuting enemies, but all Christians face little enemies. We encounter people whose personality we intensely dislike. . . . They are offensive, sometimes repulsive, especially when they belong to the same church. It often seems safest to leave by different doors, to cross the street when you see them approaching, or to find eminently sound reasons not to invite them to any of your social gatherings. And if, heaven forbid, you accidentally bump into such an enemy, the best defense is a spectacularly English civility, coupled with a retreat as hasty as elementary decency permits. After all, isn’t “niceness” what is demanded?

If we find our “friends” only among those we like and who like us, we are indifferentiable from first-century tax collectors and pagans. Both our neighborhood and the church will inevitably include their shares of imperfect, difficult people like you and me. In fact, the church will often collect more than its proportionate share of difficult folk, especially emotionally or intellectually needy folk, precisely because despite all its faults it is still the most caring and patient large institution around. There is a sense in which we should see in our awkward brothers and sisters a badge of honor. The dangers, however, become much greater (as do the rewards) when the church is richly multicultural, because the potential for misunderstandings rises significantly…

Some offenses are of the sort that Christians should follow the procedures set out in Matthew 18; in some cases, there should be excommunication. . . . But in many instances, what is required is simply forbearance driven by love. . . . To bear with one another and to forgive grievances presupposes that relationships will not always be smooth. Most of the time, what is required is not the confrontation of Matthew 18, but forbearance, forgiveness, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, or patience [of Col. 3:12-14]. Christians are to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice (Rom. 12:15).

This action goes way beyond niceness. One thinks of Flannery O’Connor’s biting and hilarious stories with their “nice” Christian ladies who have a domesticated Jesus who approves all they do and all they hold dear. They are spectacularly “nice”; they are also whitewashed tombs (Matt. 23:27). . . . Forbearance and genuine tenderheartedness are much tougher than niceness, and sometimes (as we shall see in a later lecture) tough love is confrontational. Christian love, McEntyre writes, “may even demand that we be downright eccentric, at least if we are to believe O’Connor’s word on the subject: ‘You shall know the truth,’ she warned, ‘and the truth shall make you odd.’” That, of course, is implicitly recognized by Jesus himself. If genuine love among his followers is their characteristic mark (John 13:34-35), then Jesus himself is saying that such love is not normal. It is odd.

D.A. Carson, Love in Hard Places, pp. 52-54 (Also available in PDF format)

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D.A. Carson: Getting Excited about Melchizedek #TGC11

Aaron Armstrong —  April 14, 2011 — 2 Comments

In the final plenary session of The Gospel Coalition’s 2011 National Conference, D.A. Carson expounds on Psalm 110, the psalm most quoted in all the New Testament.

The audio is available for download here. Video footage can be viewed below:

 

My notes follow:

The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.

Rule in the midst of your enemies!

Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.

The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.

He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses, he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.

He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head. (Psalm 110 ESV)

Most of the controlling themes in the Bible don’t resonate well with the dominate culture in the west. Think of the categories:

Covenant. Priests. Sacrifice. Blood Offering. King. Passover. Day of Atonement. Year of Jubilee.

King. We speak of King Jesus. When Jesus announced His coming, He did not announce the coming of the republic of God. The king of the Bible is not a constitutional monarch. King has very different references.

We’re not thinking in these terms alone.

Yet Melchizedek turns out to be one of the most instructive figures in the whole Bible for helping us put together our Bible and seeing who Jesus is. God has put things together in the Bible in this way for our good.

Melchizedek only shows up in the OT in two places, once in Genesis and once here. And he shows up only once in the NT and that’s it. Yet he is absolutely revolutionary in our understanding of the Bible.

So we begin with Psalm 110. Continue Reading…

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D.A. Carson: The Accent of Warning

Aaron Armstrong —  October 30, 2010 — Leave a comment

Many of Jesus’ parables have to do with explaining that the kingdom of God, against the prevalent expectation was no ta bout to come with a cataclysmic bang at that point in history, but was a destined to be introduced slowly (e.g., parable fo the mustard seed and the yeast, Matthew 13:31-33). Other parables demonstrate the power of the principle of reversal in the kingdom, flying in the face of many religious and social values, both then and now (e.g., the good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37). But some of Jesus’ parables, even if they touch on these two themes, bring with them an unmistakable accent of warning.

The parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23; Mark 4:3-9, 13-20), for all that it explains how the kingdom advances—namely, by properly receiving the word, which then germinates and bears fruit—implicitly warns against unreceptive soil. Where the seed is snatched away and its tender stalks are squeezed to death or dehydrated before there is any fruitfulness (despite a good beginning), there we find people who are unresponsive in one fashion or another. If the kingdom grows like wheat sown in a field, there will also be a lot of weeds, and both will grow until the end (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)…

One of the most striking of these parables is the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). In the hands of some writers, what distinguishes the sheep from the goats is social concern: feeding the hungry, healing the sick, visiting people in prison—along with the dramatic additon of Jesus’ words, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me” (25:40, 45). But that misses the point here.

Certainly the Bible lays considerable stress on compassion, justice, acts of mercy, kindness, and much else—as shown by Isaiah and Amos and the parable of the good Samaritan. But it has often been shown that in Matthew’s gospel the expression “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine” can only refer to the least of his followers. In other words, the sheep and the goats as exposed for what they are by the way they treat the downtrodden of Jesus’ followers. . . . When people persecute the people of Jesus Christ, they are persecuting Jesus Christ himself, prompting him to challenge a Saul on the Damascus Road, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4).

Yet the primary point in these parables . . . is how many of them lay emphasis on the dividing effect of Jesus’ ministry. In the case of the sheep and the goats, the latter will finally “go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous [the former] to eternal life”—with that same expression used for “eternal” in the two expressions. One senses that, in an effort to be magnanimous—in many ways, a very good thing—the pendulum swing now makes it almost impossible to pronounce condemnation on any position or habit of life…

D. A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications, pp. 209-210

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Around the Interweb (08/22)

Aaron Armstrong —  August 22, 2010 — Leave a comment

Christianity Today Interviews Anne Rice

Christianity today interviewed Anne Rice on following Christ without Christianity (there was a whole hubbub about it on the interwebs a few weeks back). A great quote from the interview:

Are there any other religious authors you read?

I read theology and biblical scholarship all the time. I love the biblical scholarship of D.A. Carson. I very much love Craig S. Keener. His books on Matthew and John are right here on my desk all the time. I go to Craig Keener for answers because his commentary on Scripture is so thorough. I still read N.T. Wright. I love the Catholic theologian Karl Rahner. I love his writing on Jesus Christ. It’s very beautiful to me, and I study a little bit of it every day. Of course, I love Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

You mentioned D.A. Carson, Craig Keener, and N.T. Wright. They are fairly conservative Protestants.

Sometimes the most conservative people are the most biblically and scholastically sound. They have studied Scripture and have studied skeptical scholarship. They make brilliant arguments for the way something in the Bible reads and how it’s been interpreted. I don’t go to them necessarily to know more about their personal beliefs. It’s the brilliance they bring to bear on the text that appeals to me. Of all the people I’ve read over the years, it’s their work that I keep on my desk. They’re all non-Catholics, but they’re believers, they document their books well, they write well, they’re scrupulously honest as scholars, and they don’t have a bias. Many of the skeptical non-believer biblical scholars have a terrible bias. To them, Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, so there’s no point in discussing it. I want someone to approach the text and tell me what it says, how the language worked.

Read the rest of the interview here. (HT: Trevin Wax)

In Other News

Giving Back: August 21st was my 31st birthday; help me celebrate by donating $31 so 31 families can have clean water to drink.

The following video explains what charity: water is doing in the Central African Republic:

Tributes: Justin Taylor offers this thoughtful tribute to Clark Pinnock, who died on August 15th, 2010, at the age of 73.

Christian Culture: My co-worker Amber opens a can on sketchy applications of Jeremiah 29:11. (For a double shot of Jer. 29:11 commentary, here’s a post I wrote on it a while back.)

Housekeeping: This past week I enjoyed a great week off on Lake Nipissing. Many thanks to Nate Bingham and Will Adair for helping me out with some great content.

In Case You Missed It

Here are a few of this week’s notable posts:

The Gospel is Unbelievable by Nathan W. Bingham

Will Adair looks at the Lord’s Prayer and the part of the gospel he struggles with.

D. A. Carson offers insights into how we can know God exists and how He can be loving yet send people to hell.

Mark Driscoll describes the average evangelical… pagan.

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How Can God Be Loving Yet Send People to Hell?

Aaron Armstrong —  August 19, 2010 — 1 Comment

Dr. D.A. Carson provides a thoughtful, pastoral and biblical answer to this important question with which so many struggle:

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How Do I Know God Exists?

Aaron Armstrong —  August 17, 2010 — Leave a comment

D. A. Carson offers a wonderful answer in the video below:

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Around the Interweb (08/01)

Aaron Armstrong —  August 1, 2010 — Leave a comment

D.A. Carson’s “The God Who Is There” Audio Now Available

The audio for D.A. Carson’s lecture series, The God Who Is There, is now up at the Gospel Coalition. A new DVD series is being released in the fall. Here’s a preview:

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.961150&w=425&h=350&fv=]
Audio and Video for D. A. Carson’s The God Who …, posted with vodpod

In Other News

Conference Message: Burk Parsons answers the question: “Is Calvinism good for the Church?”

News: Has the environmental damage from the BP oil spill been exaggerated?

Ministry Opportunities: Desiring God has a number of internships available. Check it out.

In Case You Missed It

Here are a few of this week’s notable posts:

The audio from July 25′s sermon, Spiritual Poverty and the Worship of God

A review of Andreas Kostenberger & Michael Kruger’s latest, The Heresy of Orthodoxy

John Piper answers the question, “Should Christians read the “holy” books of other religions?”

Some thoughts on Abigail’s favorite new record, Meet the Rizers

Eschatology Matters (even if we don’t want it to)

Calvin: Knowing yourself begins with knowing God

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Watch Me

Aaron Armstrong —  July 16, 2010 — Leave a comment

Photo by Jenny Erickson

In his latest (short) book, From The Resurrection to His Return: Living Faithfully in the Last Days, D.A. Carson shares a story from his youth on the necessity of one-to-one discipleship. I heard Dr. Carson share this story back in April and it’s stuck with me, so much so that I wanted to share it with you (which seems appropriate in light of yesterday’s post):

As a chemistry undergraduate at McGill University, with another chap I started a Bible study for unbelievers. That fellow was godly but very quiet and a bit withdrawn.

I had the mouth, I fear, so by default it fell on me to lead the study. The two of us did not want to be outnumbered, so initially we invited only three people, hoping that not more than two would come. Unfortunately, the first night all three showed up, so we were outnumbered from the beginning.

By week five we had sixteen people attending, and still only the initial two of us were Christians. I soon found myself out of my depth in trying to work through John’s Gospel with this nest of students. On many occasions the participants asked questions I had no idea how to answer.

But in the grace of God there was a graduate student on campus called Dave Ward. He had been converted quite spectacularly as a young man. He was, I suppose, what you might call a rough jewel. He was slapdash, in your face, with no tact and little polish, but he was aggressively evangelistic, powerful in his apologetics, and winningly bold. He allowed people like me to bring people to him every once in a while so that he could answer their questions. Get them there and Dave would sort them out!

So it was that one night I brought two from my Bible study down to Dave. He bulldozed his way around the room, as he always did. He gave us instant coffee then, turning to the first student, asked, ‘Why have you come?’ The student replied, ‘Well, you know, I think that university is a great time for finding out about different points of view, including different religions. So I’ve been reading some material on Buddhism, I’ve got a Hindu friend I want to question, and I should also study some Islam. When this Bible study started I thought I’d get to know a little more about Christianity—that’s why I’ve come.’

Dave looked at him for a few moments and then said, ‘Sorry, but I don’t have time for you.’ Continue Reading…

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Book Review: Scandalous by D.A. Carson

Aaron Armstrong —  April 27, 2010

“Nothing is more central to the Bible than Jesus’ death and resurrection,” writes D.A. Carson in the preface to Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. “The entire Bible pivots on one weekend in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago.”

Based on his lecture series A Day with Dr. Don from 2008, Scandalous is Carson’s “modest attempt . . . to provide an introductory explanation of the cross and resurrection,” as he looks at what five passages of Scripture have to teach us about this central point of the Christian faith.

Scandalous is broken into five chapters, based on Carson’s original lectures. His careful exposition of each passage is packed with wisdom as he reminds readers the importance of the cross and resurrection.

The Ironies of the Cross (Matthew 27:27-51a)

One usually doesn’t think of irony being a part of Jesus’ crucifixion; yet, it’s clear that the events of the crucifixion are profoundly ironic. “In the passage before us, Matthew unfolds what takes place as Jesus is crucified—but he does so by displaying four huge ironies that show attentive readers what is really going on,” writes Carson (p. 15).

Carson identifies the following four ironies in the crucifixion:

  1. The man who is mocked as King is the King
  2. The man who is utterly powerless is powerful
  3. The man who can’t save himself saves others
  4. The man who cries out in despair trusts God

I really appreciated the way that Carson explained the final of these in particular. Why did Jesus cry out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46)

Is it out of self-pity? Had He abandoned His trust in the Father?

No, argues Carson. It’s none of these things. Jesus cried out in despair so that we will never have to. Jesus understood what was going to happen on the cross. But He cried out so that “for all eternity [we] will not have to” (p. 36). It’s a powerful expression of His love for us.

The Center of the Whole Bible (Romans 3:21-26)

This chapter is a powerful exposition on justification and the amazing love of God shown in the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement.

“You must not think that God stands over against us while Christ stands for us, as if Father and Son are somehow at odds, so that the Father takes it out on his Son. God demonstrates his love by Sending Christ. This is bound up with the very nature and mystery of the incarnation and the Trinity. This is the triune God’s plan,” explains Carson.

Do you want to see the greatest evidence of the love of God? Go to the cross. Do you want to see the greatest evidence of the justice of God? Go to the cross. It is where wrath and mercy meet. Holiness and peace kiss each other. The climax of redemptive history is the cross. (p. 70)

And it’s by this cross that we can persevere in the face of tremendous opposition.

The Strange Triumph of a Slaughtered Lamb (Revelation 12)

Chapter three looks at the cross from the apocalyptic view of Revelation. Satan has been cast out of heaven and has no standing before God by which to accuse God’s people.  A redeemer—the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world—has risen and Satan is furious.

“Satan is full of rage not because he is spectacularly strong, but because he knows that he is defeated, his end is in sight, the range of his operations is curtailed—and he is furious,” writes Carson. But Christians can stand against him by the blood of the Lamb. We fight the Evil One not with swords and weapons of this world, or by political maneuverings, but by preaching the Gospel and living in light of it.

Retain courage and integrity in the face of opposition, because death cannot frighten those who follow the Prince of Life—and thereby defeat the accuser of the brothers and sisters. (p. 109)

A Miracle Full of Surprises (John 11:1-53)

But death remains the last stronghold. It is our last enemy. Our eternal life begins the moment we are saved by Christ, but our bodies will still feel the effect of sin. And its presence outrages Jesus.

But the solution is not to despair, but to look to Christ who gives eternal life—by dying Himself. Who shows us His love by delay; and who shows us his sovereignty over death in tears and outrage.

This chapter reminds us that there we can have hope because death does not have the last word. But Jesus does.

Doubting the Resurrection of Jesus (John 20:24-31)

The book’s final chapter provided me with a greater appreciation for the Apostle Thomas. Typically when this passage is discussed, Thomas gets a bad rap. He’s “doubting Thomas,” caught on his bad day, perhaps. Oh, how he must be kicking himself over doubting the resurrection, we think.

But this is not so. His doubt, it seems, was perfectly reasonable. He did not want to succumb to gullibility, to have the wool pulled over his eyes, suggests Carson. But what does Jesus mean when he says, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Jesus says that those who have not seen and yet believed are blessed. Why?  Because they have believed without any evidence at all? No, of course not.

John immediately goes on to say that Jesus did many miraculous signs, and of course they could not all be written down for us. But these are written, the ones in John’s Gospel, including the appearance to Thomas, in order that later generations who will never see the signs, who will not in this life see the resurrected body of Jesus, might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing they may have life through his name. (p. 166)

Carson explains that Thomas becomes part of the chain of evidence for the validity of the claim to Jesus’ resurrection. And “[l]ike Thomas, because of Thomas, they believe, they have eternal life, and they are blessed.”

Were it not for Thomas’ reasonable doubt, we would not have this recorded evidence, and I’m grateful to have been given a deeper understanding of this Apostle.

Scandalous!

“Do you believe? Or do you find yourself among the millions who begin to glimpse what the cross is about and dismiss the entire account as scandalous?” asks Carson.

A living-and-dying-and-living God? A God who stands over against us in wrath and who loves us anyway? A cross where punishment is meted out by God and borne by God? Scandalous! (p. 70)

The cross and resurrection of Jesus is scandalous. It kills our pride. It devastates our sense of spiritual self-sufficiency. But it offers us the greatest hope we could ever ask for.

Read this book slowly and savor the scandal of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

Title: Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus
Author: D.A. Carson
Publisher: Crossway/RE:Lit (2010)

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Christian Faithfulness in the Last Days – Lessons from The Gospel Coalition 2010 Conference

Aaron Armstrong —  April 26, 2010 — 1 Comment

On Saturday, April 24, 2010, I had the privilege of attending The Gospel Coalition’s first ever Canadian conference featuring D.A. Carson and Mike Bullmore as the keynote speakers.

Dr. Carson kicked off the conference with the message Christian Faithfulness in the Last Days – The Need for the Gospel Coalition.

He began with by giving us a bit of background on how the Gospel Coalition came together as he and Tim Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian came together and realized they’d been reflecting on something similar: The centrality of the gospel was being lost in evangelicalism. “Today, people do what is right in their own eyes—with the gospel becom[ing] something assumed rather than central,” lamented Carson. The Gospel Coalition came together out of a desire “to be robust about Scripture [and] to hold up the centrality of the gospel.” And this is of the greatest import for those of us living in “the last days.”

While some have indulged in “a feeding frenzy of speculation over the end times,” Carson reminded us that, “The last days refer to the entire period between Christ’s ascension and second coming. Whether it’s three weeks or three thousand years is irrelevant. . . . All authority has been given to Jesus, and while it’s contested, the kingdom has still come. The old is passing away.”

This led to a study of 2 Timothy 3:1-4:8, first asking, “What does Paul see in the last days?” Continue Reading…

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