The Irresistible God

John Piper - Get A Bible With All The Words

An Introduction to Reformed Theology

Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism

Lane has gathered together some of his YouTube friends to introduce a great resource on the Doctrines of Grace. I did not own it, so I picked it up here.

What is the New Perspective on Paul?

"The New Perspective on Paul is a trend or an idea that has been around especially since the late 1970's in academic circles, but in the last 10 years it has been making its way into popular preaching which says that we need to understand Paul different especially in the areas of the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of the church. We need to understand Paul differently than Christians have in the past, especially those Christians who have been reliant upon Martin Luther and John Calvin and the classic Protestant Reformers' articulation of what Paul was teaching about justification.

To boil it down, the New Perspective says that when the Apostle Paul was talking about justification by faith, he was not talking about liberating Jewish people from a legalistic view of salvation by self effort, but that he was articulating a view of what it meant to be a part of the people of God which was ethnically inclusive, and which rejected some of the boundary markers and the moral ceremonial practices of the old Hebrew religion. That's a pretty comprehensive change from the classic Protestant understanding of justification by faith."
-Ligon Duncan

Listen to the full interview here.

The De-Churched

Looking Unto Jesus

"I once heard a prelate say in his sermon, 'Stay with mother church, and mother church will take you to heaven.' That would be wonderful if it worked. We would then have just the task of getting the people into the church to get them all into Heaven. But God didn't say it that way, and God doesn't do it that way. We are not saved by looking to the church, wonderful organization that it is. We are not saved by looking to the preacher. He may be a worthy, able, and God-fearing man, but he is a dying sinner like all the poor mortals to whom he delivers God's message. We are not saved by looking to the members of the congregation; they are full of fault and frailty and shortcomings. We certainly are not saved by looking to ourselves; we are the weakest and frailest of all.

We are saved by looking unto Jesus. However weak we may be, He is strong. However lost we may be, He never loses the sense of direction. However full of sin and imperfection we may be, He is the One altogether lovely. However full of hopelessness and despair and death we may be, there is life everlasting in Him."
-W.A. Criswell

How Would You Share a Reformed Understanding of the Gospel?

How Should We Teach our Children to Pray?

"Men learn to pray by conviction for sin, and this is the way to make our children do so too. But the other way, namely, to be busy in teaching children forms of prayer, before they know anything else, it is the way to make them cursed hypocrites, and to puff them up with pride.

Teach therefore your children to know their wretched state and condition; tell them of hellfire and their sins, of damnation, and salvation; the way to escape the one, and to enjoy the other, and this will bring tears to their eyes, and make hearty growns flow from their hearts; and then also you may tell them to whom they should pray, and through whom they should pray : you may tell them also of God's promises, and his former grace extended to sinners, according to the Word."
-John Bunyan

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When to Pray

"Whenever you have a great joy, cry, 'Lord, make this a real blessing to me.' Do not exclaim with others, 'Am I not a lucky fellow?' but say, 'Lord, give me more grace, and more gratitude, now that thou dost multiply thy favours. ' When you have got any arduous undertaking on hand or a heavy piece of business, do not touch it till you have breathed your soul out in a short prayer. When you have a difficulty before you, and you are seriously perplexed, when business has got into a tangle or a confusion which you cannot unravel or arrange, breathe a prayer. It need not occupy a minute, but it is wonderful how many snarls come loose after just a word of prayer."
-Spurgeon

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What is Legalism?

"Legalism is the notion that a sinner can, by his own efforts, or by the power of the Holy Spirit in his life, do some work to obtain or retain his salvation. Some legalists think man has free will and can perform good works if he just sets his mind to it, thereby obtaining the favor of God. This type of legalist thinks that a sinner can believe the Gospel on his own steam. Other legalists think that a sinner does not have free will, that any good he does is done by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, and it is these good deeds done by the power of the Holy Spirit that obtain or help obtain, retain or help retain, his salvation.

Both types of legalists, but especially the latter, may acknowledge that Christ's work of obedience is necessary for salvation, but both deny that Christ's work is sufficient for salvation. Both types of legalists assert that to Christ's work must be added the works of the sinner, done either under his own steam, or by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is what makes them legalists: their shared belief in the incompleteness or insufficiency of the work of Christ outside of them. They may differ on what constitutes good works; they may differ on whether only God's law or church law as well is to be obeyed; but they agree that the work of Christ alone is insufficient for their final salvation."
-John W. Robbins

Biblical Church Q&A with Paul Washer and Charles Leiter