Due to some rather unseemly sites inexplicably linking to my site and to the inordinate amount of spam over the past two weeks, I am changing my site from http://bromattsblog.wordpress.com to http://treasuretheword.wordpress.com. The same content will be on this site. But this unseemly site linked to a particular post, and in order for me to delete the post, I would have to go on that site to find the actual link so I could delete the page. It wasn’t worth it, believe me.
So if you enjoy this blog, please change your bookmarks and your RSS feeds. The other blog will be gone within the next week.
Oprah Winfrey’s worldview has concerned me for years, but it was this exchange with an audience member in 1996 that ended it for me. She influences 40 million people every day with her detrimental and harmful philosophies. Let us be discerning!
Seminary tends to be all consuming, and from 1995-1998, then from 2001 to 2003, I found myself focusing solely on my studies out of necessity. Whatever I try to do, I try to do to the glory of God and and to the best of the ability He has given me. In the process, I found myself letting slip something of particular interest — U.S. History.
Having grown up in Virginia, we were well aware of the role Virginia played in shaping our country’s history. Eight presidents came from Virginia, especially early on. Plus, Virginia played a key point in the Civil War as well, being one of the great states of the Confederacy and the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. I remember in 2nd grade we took a field trip to Appomattox, the place where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army to effectively end the brutal Civil War (or as the southerners call it, the War of Northern Aggression). So the love of U.S. history runs deep — but lay dormant during my seminary years.
But no longer! That passion was rekindled this past week when I had an opportunity to visit Richmond, Virginia. We saw the Capital Square (right) which had statues of Stonewall Jackson, George Washington and a number of other Founding Fathers of our country. We went to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church where many of the Confederate soldiers (including Robert E. Lee) worshiped.
Then we went to the Museum of the Confederacy. You may also see in the picture the gray building to the left — that’s one of the nine U.S. Court of Appeals. What really struck me in the Confederate museum was not only the fight that the “Rebs” had in the war, but also how they took for granted certain customs in their culture, not the least of which was slavery. One display showed an insurance advertisement from American Life advertizing how well they would help slave owners stay insured on slaves in case they died or escaped. They were treated as property — something rather detestable to me.
But the South produced one of my heroes, General Robert E. Lee. To the right, you see me posing next to a thumbnail picture of Robert E. Lee at the Museum. The Confederacy’s position on states’ rights showed in Lee’s conviction to stay true to his beloved Virginia rather than join the Union Army.
On Saturday, we went to Monticello (home of Thomas Jefferson, our country’s third president who served from 1801-1809) and Ash-Lawn Highland (home of James Monroe, our country’s fifth president who served from 1817-1825). While Thomas Jefferson (1735-1826) was not what one would call an orthodox Christian since he rearranged his Bible to take away all of the supernatural elements, he did possess a keen mind and intellect as one of the main crafters of our country’s governmental structure. He was a man of immense detail, writing down and blueprinting every aspect of Monticello — making it very easy on later curators of the home to recreate the layout right down to the cups on the dining room table. The visitor’s guide (left) was filled with wonderful information that Cindy read through all the way home from Virginia.
Not many really know about James Monroe, our nation’s fifth president. His home was much more modest that Jefferson’s, but his resume is quite impressive nonetheless. He did not keep the records of his home like Jefferson did, but he contributed greatly in Jefferson’s administration to the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 which doubled the size of our country. He also put forth his vision of Manifest Destiny in which he urged European nations to stay out of the Western Hemisphere while nations in North and South America began to blossom into full-fledged democracies. Also, Manifest Destiny was America’s believe that we were destined to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This would shape our foreign policy for the three or four administrations after his.
So there it is! What passions do you have? What has made them lay dormant? Just curious. This was just an incredible vacation.
Sadly, I am finding more and more college students and young adults influenced by secularism and humanitarian efforts who reject the God of the Bible because they cannot reconcile a loving God who allows suffering in the world. I did address this in a previous sermon which brought a great deal of help to many people who were struggling with various issues but could seemingly find no answers.
I always encourage people to look to the cross. While we do understand that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, to those who are being saved it is the power of God unto salvation (1 Corinthians 1:18). The majority of people in the world will see the cross as scandalous and a stumbling block on many levels:
Why couldn’t God just forgive? Why did He need to sacrifice His Son?
Some say, as Steven Chalke and Alan Mann did in a recent book, that the cross is simply “cosmic child abuse” of a Father to His Son;
How could one man take on the sin of everyone? Isn’t there something more that could be done?
How could the King of Kings and creator of the universe ever truly subject himself to death? That is beneath the dignity of a King.
It comes down to the penal substitution of Christ in placating the divine wrath of a holy God. This is not a “fly off the handle” type of wrath, but a wrath in which God is decidedly against the very thing that separates His beloved image-bearers from Himself — sin.
As God, Christ came to fulfill God’s Law (something we could not accomplish). As a man, He stood in our place as a substitute for our sin.
But to answer the question, I would like to echo Tim Keller’s comments from his most recent book, The Reason for God: to the human perspective, the cross seemed like the greatest injustice in history (which it was) but there was a tremendous cosmic purpose behind it. So when we look to the cross, we see that behind all the suffering (which came in due to the curse of sin) God is orchestrating a glorious plan to reconcile all things to Himself.
I have been reading through some really good books on the subject over the past few weeks:
The Truth of the Cross by R.C. Sproul
The Cross of Christ by John R.W. Stott
Pierced for our Transgressions by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach
Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
The Cross He Bore by Frederick Leahy
Also, some good articles are posted on the subject of Good Friday:
Ever since I included a list of evangelical leaders’ endorsements, I have received many thankful responses for this list. It’s now time to add two more:
I have posted the majority of sermons I have preached at Boone’s Creek Baptist Church at my new preaching blog. Click here to access the sermons. More will be posted later this week.
The rhetoric of the race — and the rhetoric of many evangelicals –
is disturbing. This race is important and necessarily so. We are
talking about the next President of the United States, after all. But
evangelicals have invested far too much hope in the political process.
No government can make people good, transform humanity, or eliminate
sin. The political sphere is important, but never ultimate. Jesus
Christ is Lord — and He will be Lord regardless of who sits in the
Oval Office.
This presidential race offers evangelical Christians an opportunity
to mature and rethink our model of political engagement. We are likely
to confront developments and choices that will require significant
intellectual effort among American Christians.
As you know, I have begun a preaching blog called Expositionalogistix. Until that blog gets its own niche on the web, I will be posting links to the posts I’ve made during the week. So, without any further delay …
Nativity scenes pepper the landscape of our country. For many, this is the only time any of us focus on the Christ — and because we are so visually stimulated, Christ remains a weak infant. But this is an excellent time to look and see who Jesus is from eternity’s perspective.
God speaks through ultimately and fully through Christ (Micah 5:1-4; John 4:25).
Christ is the heir of all things (Psalm 2:7-8; Hebrews 2:5-9).
Christ is an agent of creation (Genesis 1:27-28; Colossians 1:15-17).
Christ is the radiance of God’s glory (John 1:18; John 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:4).
Christ is the exact imprint of his nature (Colossians 1:15; Colossians 2:9).
Christ upholds all by His Word (Jude 24-25).
Christ makes purification for sins (Hebrews 9:12-14; 1 Peter 1:18-19).
