Aaron Armstrong

bloggingtheologically.com

Plan B

Around the Interweb (05/09)

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Albert Mohler on Franklin Graham being Disinvited from the Pentagon

May 6th marked the United States’ National Day of Prayer—with Franklin Graham leading prayer at the Pentagon.

Outside, after being disinvited two weeks previously due to his commitment to biblical Christianity.

Albert Mohler provided some thoughtful commentary regarding the situation on his website:

Evangelical Christians in the United States had better see a big challenge staring us in the face. Franklin Graham was disinvited by the Pentagon for making statements that are required by faithfulness to the gospel of Christ. As reports make clear, it is not just his statements about Islam being prone to violence that cause offense, it is his statements that Islam is wicked because it does not lead to salvation in Christ that cause the greatest offense.

The Pentagon failed its test, but many more tests will follow. Faithful witness to Christ requires an honest statement about what any false system of belief represents — a form of idolatry and false teaching that leads to eternal damnation. There may be more and less offensive ways of saying that, but there is no way to remove the basic offense to the current cultural mind.

In reality, every evangelical preacher and every individual Christian will face this question — and probably sooner rather than later.

Read the rest.

HT: Z

In Other News

Mohler & Dever: How Expositional Preaching Protects Pastors

Justin Taylor interviews Mark Driscoll about his new book, Doctrine

BloodMoney – the provocative trailer for a new documentary on abortion:

In Case You Missed It

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

A review of Pete Wilson’s new book, Plan B

Fear, complacency and the evangelical middle road

Is it really authentic to publicly confess sins you didn’t commit to people who were not sinned against?

When “finishing well” isn’t finished well

J.I. Packer: “What makes a man of God is first and foremost his vision of God. . . . So what did Nehemiah believe about the one whom ten times over, six times in transcribed prayers, he calls ‘my God’?”

Book Review: Plan B by Pete Wilson

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plan-b

Title: Plan B: What Do You Do When God Doesn’t Show Up the Way You Thought He Would?
Author: Pete Wilson
Publisher: Thomas Nelson

I wish books like Plan B didn’t need to be written.

And if I had to guess its author, Pete Wilson, does too.

“Do you remember the day you discovered your life wasn’t going to turn out quite the way you thought?” asks Wilson (p. 1).

Whether it’s a certain job, or for children, marriage—whatever it may be—we’ve all got plans and dreams for our lives. The question is, are our plans and God’s the same?

Whatever you wanted for your life, if you’re a Christian, you may well have assumed God wanted it for you as well. You might not admit it, even to yourself, but you were pretty sure God was going to sweep down and provide for you as only God could do.

The problem is, what you assumed was not necessarily what happened. (p. 4)

Wilson reveals our issue when dealing with any sort of trial: We are completely flabbergasted when it happens! We assume that our plans are what God intends—and when those things don’t work out, we’re left spinning our wheels.

And Wilson seeks to encourage his readers to move forward in their new normal and look to Christ as their only source of fulfillment.

Loving People with the Cross

One of the things I appreciate most in Plan B is Wilson’s obvious pastoral heart. His love for people saturates every word of this book as he describes the end of marriages, the self-destructive behavior of godly parents’ children and a host of other situations.

But, where it becomes most evident is when he approached the real issue: The cross.

“You need to know that the cross is not just the starting line,” he writes. “It’s the very centerpiece of your story with God. It’s the place where the pain of ‘you will have trouble’ meets the triumph of ‘I have defeated the world.’” (p. 149) [Read more…] about Book Review: Plan B by Pete Wilson

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