Celebrity vs. accountability: the disconcerting case of Mark Driscoll

UPDATE to below: Wade Burleson makes the point I feel like I am trying to make here, though more eloquently and with some more details.  But you don't have to take my word for it.

I am someone who could be considered part of the generation of "de-churched, re-churched" believers--young men and women who grew up in church, fell out either wholly or in part as we became entranced by the real world, but then experienced God's call to truth and found ourselves transformed and back in church not simply because "that's what Mom and Dad did" but because we found ourselves in love with Jesus.  There is a list of preachers who find themselves at the forefront of this revival of sorts, three in particular that often come to mind and mention: John Piper, whose terminology inspires this blog title; Matt Chandler, my own pastor; and Mark Driscoll, whose Mars Hill Church began as an effort to preach the Gospel to Seattle, one of the most notoriously unchurched cities in America, and has grown to have campuses all over the western United States.  All three pastors are prolific speakers, and both Piper and Driscoll are prolific writers.*

But John Piper and Matt Chandler are missing one commonality with Mark Driscoll: they have not become the subject of notoriety or accusations regarding their behavior or personal character.

Book review: What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qu'ran

Let me preface this by saying that I don't consider myself to have any sort of authority to really "review" this or any other book as...well, as an authority.  I am writing about it purely from the perspective of, I would say, the sort of person this book is intended for: a Christian desiring to have knowledge that can aid in the preaching of the Gospel to those who need to hear it most (that would be everyone).  And to that end, the book I want to discuss is exceedingly useful.

The book I refer to is What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qu'ran, by James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries.  Dr. White is an incredibly intelligent and well-spoken teacher and preacher of the Word, and while there are a couple of minor points we may disagree over*, by and large I have found his work to be invaluable in expanding my understanding, maturity and confidence.  He has a prolific body of work, and is known for his unflinching engagement of apologetic issues ranging from second and third tier issue discussions (issues like spiritual giftings and the various "isms" of Christianity, like new perspectivism, Calvinism vs. Arminianism, etc.), cultic offshoots of Christianity (such as King James Onlyists) and other religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses, atheism, and of course, Islam.

There are many things to appreciate about all of Dr. White's works, but three primary ones shine through that make this work helpful and edifying for the believer:

1. It is detailed and utilizes good scholarship while still being readable and clear.  So much writing is just hard to wade through because it's so thick, either with dry, boring prose or the author's own overwrought attempts to sound "casual" that generally result in them sounding confused and unclear.  Dr. White is a heavy user of footnotes, and every statement is backed up with thorough documentation so that, should the reader so desire, one can verify if his statements are true and reflective of what he is discussing.  In addition to this, he is completely transparent both as to his motivations and his sources, and such transparency only serves to make his work more credible in the eyes of someone who may otherwise be skeptical of a Christian writing about Islam.
2. This is not an anti-Muslim screed, or a book about the encroaching dangers of Islamofascism/sharia law in the West.  Dr. White desires to see transformed hearts in the Muslim world, and approaches them not as enemies needing to be beaten back, but as brothers and sisters that are astray and in need of Christ's love.  As a result, this book is written in love and in a spirit of gentle correction and discussion that, one hopes, would be accompanied by the Spirit's movement in the hearts of readers to unlock chains of deception.  That in and of itself makes it incredibly unique.
3. Dr. White is devoted to the idea that a text should be able to speak for itself, and therefore the book has extensive quotations from both the Qu'ran and the hadith literature that forms the body of understanding and commentary on the Qu'ran.  By doing so he is able to open the minds of Christians seeking to understand their Muslim neighbors, to talk about their worldview without attacking and to give an apologetic basis for engaging in the areas that typically are sticking points between Christians and Muslims.  In one section, he writes about the claims of the Qu'ran that "people of the book" (a.k.a., Jews and Christians) should look to their own writings (the Torah and the Gospel) for evidence that Mohammed is Allah's final prophet and that the Qu'ran is Allah's true and final word, while also demonstrating that the Qu'ran's author clearly did not know what was contained in either of those writings.**  While anyone who has engaged with someone from another faith can well attest, simply demonstrating this will not generally cause them to make an about-face into Christianity.  It can, however, open doors of dialogue, and demonstrate that we as believers do take them seriously and desire to understand them. 

The spirit of love and the earnest desire to see Muslim lives transformed by the power of the Gospel is infectious and clear.  This is a book that anyone who wishes to understand their neighbors, their mission field or just to understand the true thoughts and desires of the people we see portrayed on the news as everything from savage monsters to innocent victims of Western colonialism.  Muslims, like all others, need to know that Jesus is not simply a teacher or prophet, not simply someone who said good things and carries a title of Messiah, but that Jesus lives and that He gave His life to redeem theirs.  They need to know that their good works do not hold value before a holy and just God, but that in Christ they are seen as justified, sanctified and glorified, adopted children of the living God.

I encourage everyone to read this book.  I read it on my Kindle phone app, which was very useful in hopping back and forth easily between the main part of the book and the footnotes.  While it won't make you an expert on Islam (a title even Dr. White does not claim), it together with a knowledge of the Bible will give you a foothold in understanding it and its adherents, and in being able to have loving, fruitful conversations that, God willing, will lead to lives transformed by the power of the Gospel.

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.--1 Peter 3:14-16

The light of love and the one who least deserved it

I was listening to a streaming discussion about Calvinism, and commentary related to a tape being played of someone criticizing it by saying that they heard a lot of theological discussion and verses about the sovereignty of God, but they didn't hear a lot of talk about God's love. My wife was listening with me and she mentioned that she agreed with him to some extent: that she feels like a lot of theological talk comes apart from a discussion about God's love, and so people who are hurting and tired that come to this just have no interest in hearing it, and in fact it serves to place a heavier burden on them. And this placed a weight on my own heart. After all, I certainly have not felt like that about the teaching and preaching that has greatly impacted my own life. The words of men like Matt Chandler, John Piper and Charles Spurgeon have always come to me, not as an intellectual, dry talk about theological issues, but as hot, passionate love notes to a God that authored their very existences, who transformed them from people who were focused on themselves, their own comfort and desires, into men who were willing to sacrifice all that for the sake of giving glory to Jesus and pointing others to Him. And I realized that I needed to do a better job of being that same person, of not simply being a knower and explainer, but of being a lover and an example of how much Jesus has shown me His immense love for me.

My life before His life was poured out into me was one that had begun in church, but in which I feel like my ears were not open to hear. I know truth was spoken, and my parents especially sought to gently, lovingly bring us up in a Godly way and point us to Jesus. But even as I managed to conform my external life to a pattern of religion, to a way of talking and acting that seemed good and right, my unseen life was one full of addiction to selfishness. Self-righteousness ruled my life and thoughts, desires to pursue my own way and my own pleasures drove me; as I grew older I found a growing addiction to and desire for pornography that would not be satisfied. I was self-centered, and even moralistic statements I might have made were not because I understood the real significance of who God is and what it meant for His Son to have come to die for my sins, but because I believed deep down that the way to please God was to be able to hold on to an intellectual position. My eyes were closed to the reality that the life I lived, and the thoughts I allowed into my head, were a complete insult to the God I paid lip service to.

But God is rich in mercy, and it was His mercy that began to take away the things that I had used to tell myself that I was good enough on my own, in my own head. My success in school, in music, in life in general eroded, and I was left feeling frustrated and tired. I was getting along just enough, and I was sick of it but I knew no other way except to just continue as I had. Then one day almost exactly six years ago, God opened my ears, and I heard for the first real time the Gospel of Christ preached--not that I had not heard it before, but that it was in that moment that the Spirit spoke directly to me, in words of conviction, of love, of a desire to lead me into the true joy of really knowing Jesus.

And things happened in a series, quickly at first to let that first seed fall, and then afterwards slowly as the new life planted within me began to grow and flower. First, God gave me a mirror in the form of His Word: my ability to hang on to a belief that I did not really live out didn't make me commendable. It made me a functional atheist. It was really irrelevant what I thought about God, if my heart hated Him and wanted to pursue wickedness and selfishness. He showed me how I had acted in an evil manner in the way I acted in secret, and in the way I acted publically: not simply my porn addiction but the way I dealt with my friends, with strangers, with people online and in real life. No longer was I able to look at another and think "I am superior," because God broke that down: I was the chief of sinners, undeserving of anything except death.

But that was only the beginning, and the next part is why the preceding section is seen as mercy: He showed me how much He loved me. I was able to see the examples in the Word of mighty men and women of God...who really, weren't so mighty. They were broken people, just like me, who struggled with their sin and ached for a closer relationship with their God, who made mistakes and were reconciled. And God forgave, God loved, God transformed, not because they had done anything to make themselves better, but because it was His good pleasure to do exactly that. God's love extended so far that He sent His Son, who deserves nothing but ultimate praise and worship as the Creator and the Word of God, to become a man born to the lowliest station of life, to live the life I could never live and die the death I deserved to die, because He desired to adopt into His kingdom sons and daughters who knew that love and desired Him above all things.

And in having my eyes opened to that love...I broke. I wept openly and praised the Name of the Living God that He would ever make my life anything other than a display of His justice...instead, He made it a display of His mercy. He made it a moment to show His incredible forgiveness, His love and goodness in working out His desires to adopt and redeem me. Again, not because I had deserved it, not because I memorized enough verses, or knew the right things, or acted the right way. Certainly not because I could hold and defend an intellectual position, but because it was His pleasure and desire to glorify Himself by loving me more than I could ever deserve. And that is why I love God, it's why I love the doctrine of God's sovereignty and His rule over my life...because I do not deserve it, but He has worked it anyway. I pray for more and deeper roots, and I pray that I would be seen as a gentle, nail-pierced example of that love, to my wife most of all.

Strange Fire follow-up

Just as an aside from my last post, I wanted to share this link to John Piper's response to the Strange Fire conference. Not because I consider him the ultimate authority or anything, but because I feel like he has done a much better job than I did in explaining the hestitancy I have in putting myself in one camp or the other for this particular debate. I would recommend listening to all the podcasts listed.

Strange fire

Last week, the hubbub on Twitter and around the Christian blogosphere was John MacArthur's Strange Fire conference, which was dedicated to discussing the issue of, for lack of a better term, the charismatic movement and what MacArthur believes is an avalanche of false teaching that, to some extent, has begun to reach the mainstream of evangelical Christian teaching.  I am stuck in a position where, while I share many of his concerns about "charismania" and will absolutely call things like the prosperity gospel, the Word of Faith movement and phenomena like the "Toronto Blessing" and the "Brownsville Revival" unbiblical, I am not a cessationist like he is.  The best understanding of my position is probably the phrase "charismatic Calvinist"--I absolutely believe that the gifts of the Spirit continue to this day and I have not seen a convincing case made from Scripture that they have ceased, but I also believe strongly that they exist for precisely the same purposes they did in Scripture: to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and bring others to repentance and salvation.

I grew up in a church that was extremely wary of anything even remotely charismatic (although on reflection, it was equally wary of anything remotely Calvinist), and after the Lord saw fit to pull me back in to Himself in 2007 I found myself in a place that was much more...exuberant than anything I was used to.  When I was a kid, the idea that someone would raise their hands in worship would have drawn stares and probably a talking-to from a deacon after service.  By contrast, at the Village people worshiped in such a way as they felt stirred their hearts for Christ. 

The humanist half-gospel

The new Catholic Pope Francis has been making a lot of waves in the news lately.  Certainly he's an interesting character to watch from the perspective of someone who rejects his authority to speak as he claims he can, with God's own words.  But he's said a lot of things that have people talking about how the church talks about its role in the world and about ministry--well, the Catholic church at least, but it bears discussing.  There's a couple of articles in particular I read that deserve responding to, especially in talking about issues of Christian doctrine, truth, and why Christians ought to both be actively doing good to those around them while unapologetically preaching the truth of the Gospel to a culture that rejects it angrily.

From the Daily Beast article:

Pope Francis used [the story of St. Francis renouncing his wealth] to assert that, like that first Francis, Christians have on too many clothes. We must “lay ourselves bare,” he said, and “divest ourselves from this worldliness: the spirit contrary to the spirit of the beatitudes, the spirit contrary to the spirit of Jesus.” He repeated this command to “strip ourselves” of worldliness several times and concluded with a flourish: “Spiritual worldliness kills! It kills the soul! It kills the Church!”

What a phrase: spiritual worldliness. How can something be at the same time worldly, and spiritual?  The answer is, it can’t, and Francis knows this well. He is slyly saying that our spirituality is often a farce, that the church has for years draped itself in clothes that masquerade as holy but are actually just earthly rags.

It’s not a stretch to think that Francis is pointing his finger across the ocean at so much of what has characterized American Christianity over the past 30 years.  The empty layers of denomination and doctrine that have little to do with grace. The gospels of health and wealth that stand in contradiction to the gospel of Christ. The political rhetoric and advocacy that claim the mantel of the eternal for decidedly temporal causes.

I don't know much about Joshua DuBois other than what it says in the "about the author" section at the end of the article, that he was an adviser to President Obama for religious affairs and that he has an African Methodist Episcopal background.  But he's saying a lot of good things here, right?  Both of them, actually, the Pope and DuBois.  So many people, especially in the West, exist in one of two states as regards spirituality: either they reject God entirely and opt for secularism, or they exist in some kind of spiritual state that looks to be about God but really is about getting what they want for themselves.  I've discussed this division in the past as it refers to this passage:

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.--1 Corinthians 1:20-25

But there's an issue here: the Pope calls us to give up "spiritual worldiness," though he doesn't really define that.  DuBois takes the step of trying to define it, and he points out some other issues within the church that detract from the Gospel, but he is left talking about the need for the church to...give up...something?  He ends the article with, "But if Christians can muster the courage to strip off false religion and stand clothed in grace alone, we might yet save the American church. Here’s hoping for a bit of Francis’s naked faith."  But the church, in America or elsewhere, was not established on humans building anything and it's not going to be "saved" by anything but God continuing to maintain His elect as He has throughout history.  But that rather major issue aside, they are scratching the surface of something true.  If they won't dig in all the way, though, what good is it?

The other article is by Lincoln Chafee, current governor of Rhode Island.  As expected, it's written in lots of pol-speak, but it touches the same concern on different issues of the day:

The first Jesuit to ascend to the papacy, Pope Francis recently told La Civiltà Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal, that too many people have become obsessed with gays, abortion and contraception. His vision of a more inclusive faith that does not discriminate against anyone is a conviction in which I believe the vast majority of Rhode Islanders and Americans share.

Pope Francis, by his actions and words, demonstrates that he is determined to eliminate the scourge of prejudice in our society and to renew our civic purpose as a people.

For too long, religious extremism has prevailed at the expense of our common human ties. In certain circles in America and countries around the world, there are those people who try to demean others as lesser based on their social standing, skin color or the person they love.

I question how, exactly, Chafee defines "eliminating religious extremism."   He talks about how the Pope has pushed the Catholic church to refocus on issues of service to the poor and social justice.  Again, nothing bad here, nothing to be against.  But does Chafee truly believe that to preach the Gospel is to stand against these things?  Does he believe that Jesus, in calling everyone to repent of their sinfulness and idolatry and follow Him, is promoting "religious extremism?"  He certainly wasn't very popular for such a message, even though it contained elements of both DuBois' and Chafee's statements.

Jesus did not come to bring a message of social justice; he did not come to simply call for an end to "spiritual worldiness" or to tell us to "stop being so obsessed with sin."  He brought the Gospel, the good news that starts off very badly.  Everyone everywhere that believes they are good enough, that they've done the right things or had the correct thoughts, is fooling themselves.  We begin our life in sin, and on our own even our best laid plans are only paths deeper into sinfulness.  But Jesus came with the message that with repentance from sins and faith in His sacrifice on the cross, His resurrection, and His status now as our eternal high priest who has made the atonement for everything, we have renewed life that continues beyond this earthly one.

Should we be giving up our attachment to worldly things?  Yes, but if we are not then turning to Christ from those things, what is there to gain from it?  Do we need to show love to those who struggle with sin of all kinds, no matter what it is.  Absolutely yes, and it's also true that many Christians do not do a good job of showing mercy to those who struggle with sins different from their own.  But at the same time, we do not commit an act of love in any sense of completeness if it does not involve sharing that same message of repentance and grace in the cross.  Grace is not simply "come on in, the water's fine," it is "come over here, there is room here at the foot of the cross for you as well."

DuBois and Chafee together with the Pope they are discussing cover the parts of the gospel people want to hear--the part that lets them do enough to be good and to look down on those who don't do as they are doing.  But all three of them are leaving out the parts that are truly life-giving and -transforming, because they involve turning aside from worshiping our own desires.  Being able to acknowledge aspects of truth is good...but it's also dangerous, because it means there is no excuse for not acknowledging all of it.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.--Romans 1:18-25

Pain and joy pt. 5: Two roads

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”--Matthew 22:34-40

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.--Galatians 5:16-23

 Last time I ended with an example drawn upon the account of Jesus' crucifixion in Luke 23.  On either side of Jesus hung criminals; guilty of what is not known, but the incredible difference in their reaction to Jesus dying between them hangs as an incredible illustration of the two incredibly different ways that we react to pain and suffering in our lives.  Two men, both about to die, both right there with the one Man in all the universe that might do anything to help them.  One of the criminals yells at Jesus and demands that He do what He can to save his life, to let him down from the cross.  He does not want salvation in the sense that Christ offers it to anyone; he wants to use Jesus to get what he wants right now--in this case, avoidance of death and the end of this particular moment of pain.  He clings to his life, and so, he loses it and with it, hope.

The other criminal does the opposite: he admits his guilt and asks only that Jesus remember him when He comes into what will be His.  He humbles himself and lays his fate, as quickly as it is coming upon him, at the feet of a man who is dying just as painfully right next to him.  And Jesus' reaction is truly a moment of bittersweet triumph: this man, guilty of only God knows what at this point in history, would be with Jesus in heaven because he refused to cling to his life and his desires, but gave them up knowing that they were worthless.

I want to look at the incredible contrast in the second passage above, Galatians 5:16-23.  We see the fruit of the desires of our flesh laid against the fruit of the Spirit.  In other words, the result of pursuing what we naturally want in our state of being separated from God, versus the result of the Spirit's work in us to recreate us in the image of Jesus.  Left to our own devices, we run after things that bring us no life, no lasting joy, nothing resembling real happiness if viewed in the long term and in real life without blinders.  These are what the Bible calls idols, and they can take virtually any form, especially in modern society where literal idol worship is supplanted with the self.