A Foot in Both Camps

“Why am I in danger every hour?  I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!  What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”     1 Cor. 15:30-32

Paul was in danger constantly.  He could say that he died every day!  He fought wild beasts!  His gospel ministry took him constantly into danger.

Why is Paul talking about this?  The Corinthians were denying the resurrection.  Paul wants them to be very clear on this: if there is no resurrection we should indeed eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.  We should not be risking our life for the sake of the gospel.  If we will not be raised from the dead, we should be partying!  Yes, folks, non-Christians have the right idea: if this life is all there is we should maximise our fun and partying.

But this life is not all there is.  If it was all there is, I can’t understand why

Hanging our hats, like Jesus

Christians are a diverse lot. Even self-confessed ‘Reformed’ Christians are a diverse lot. There’s lots of doctrines, practices and issues we’ll hang our hat on when we’re forced to. Others will hang their hat whether they’re forced to or not. (I’m more in the latter category.) Even here at Hills, we’re a diverse bunch. Complementarian and Egalitarian, Premillenial and Amillenial, Baptistic and “not really fussed”, teetotaler and drinker, Calvinist and Arminian, bourbon and scotch, Cats and Hawks, and so on. But I digress.

R. C. Sproul Jr. (UPDATED: thank you Nathan!) has written a great little piece on unity and truth, and the tension between them. There have been a few recent squabbles in Reformed circles in the US (one of which was related to James’s post about John MacArthur). Nothing too major, but enough to prompt Sproul to reflect on the ongoing battle between two great Christian principles.

Truth. It’s biblical. Romans 1:18, Proverbs 12:17, 3 John 1:8.

Unity. It is also biblical. Psalm 133:1, Ephesians 4:13, 1 Corinthians 1:10.

Embarrassing, Unmodern and Wicked

With this post, we welcome Simon Kennedy to the Hills Bible Church blog.
You can learn a little more about Simon here.

Douglas Jones, writing in Angels in the Architecture, says the following:

Consider how agitated we get in our rush to assure our Enlightenment lords that scriptural faith endorses nothing so obviously embarrassing and unmodern and wicked as excommunication, the death penalty, patriarchalism, slavery, a young earth, and monarchy, or that Scripture condemns sodomy, public schools, recycling or whatever else might make moderns shake their finger at us. (p. 48)

Liar Liar

*Lying seems to be a way of life for many people. We lie at the drop of a hat. The book, The Day American Told the Truth, says that 91 percent of those surveyed lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, and 36 percent lie about important matters; 86 percent lie regularly to parents, 75 percent to friends, 73 percent to siblings, and 69 percent to spouses.

*Our Daily Bread

**The three most commonly told lies.

1. “Gee, you haven’t changed a bit”