Mark Driscoll's Blog

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When pastors hear that I am part of a church in Reno, they commonly follow up with a question about whether gambling shapes our ministry.

A popular game in the local casinos is craps. As the “shooter” you toss two dice down the table in hopes of certain combinations, but not before you place a bet on the "pass line" in front of you. In other words, no one plays the game without having a vested interest in the outcome. New players are coached to bet small until they understand the rules of the game. This is a way of protecting against foolish loss, because the result of any round is unpredictable. 

Going All In

Some treat discipleship in a similar fashion. The problem I see is that many people seem willing to bet less as they get older. I suspect this is why most revivals in Christian history start with university students; they are just the right mix of hopeful and poor to go all in with Jesus. The refrain that appears in all four gospels is simple, "Whoever saves his life will lose it."

Gambling is a dangerous vice, but it's also a helpful picture of the gospel. You can’t win anything if you have nothing on the table. Like the rich man in Mark 10:17-31, many can’t bear the thought of losing everything because a life of faith means big bets on a big God. It can be scary, but also life-giving.

I'd be willing to bet there are folks in your church that don't have anything on the table. Maybe it's because they are wounded from a previous round. It could be that they are rebellious and want to rewrite the rules of the game to suit their whims. Maybe it's because you have never explicitly shown them what it looks like to go all in (notice I didn’t say told them).

What Betting on Jesus Means

To be clear, we must explain to everyone the "rules of the game." God created, we rebelled, and now our only hope is in the atoning work of Christ. That said, we have to provide more clarity on what betting on Jesus means and what it doesn't mean. Let’s crush the notion that says faith means wellness. Let's lift up the truth that the person of Jesus is the greatest prize, not the things he provides.

By convincing people to ease in, bet small, and play it safe, we unintentionally build a cul-de-sac instead of an on-ramp. Don't implicitly show your people that a slow sanctification process is the same thing as putting a little down now when Jesus says, “Go all in.” Let's show people that they actually have very little to lose in comparison to getting God. 

The writer of Hebrews says when this life ends, you don't get to say, "I knew that would happen" and claim your prize.  You have to decide now whether Jesus is who he says he is. You’re betting big no matter what you believe.

This is our second installment of On the Spot where we'll be interviewing different leaders and pastors and asking them to briefly explain the things they're passionate about. This week, we've got Justin Holcomb on the spot again to talk about how to read the Bible.

Recommended Reading

Article: "How to Read the Bible" by Ray Ortlund
Video: How Jesus Taught the Bible by Mark Driscoll
Book: According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy
Book: Handling the Word of Truth by John Pless

As Christians we can subtly slip into trusting our accomplishments, success, health, bank account, respect that we have garnered, or the fact we have outpaced our competitors.

We can feel better about life when things are going well. We can also despair when it’s not going so well.

What Happened

Recently, I took my family on a holiday post-Easter. It had been a good, long, hard season with the run-up to Easter. We had been looking forward to this vacation and our girls were excited as we were staying in a house with a pool. After a couple of days splashing around in the pool, my ear started to get clogged with water more than usual and I attempted some remedies I read about on Google to cure it. That only made it worse. Soon, my ear was so pressurized and clogged I couldn’t get in the pool with the girls. I went to the local urgent care and they said they could take care of the problem by performing an ear irrigation, whereby they stream water into your ear and clean it out.

After this was done, I immediately got vertigo and a loud ringing in my ear began. The ringing lasted into the morning which seemed odd. It continued all day and through the night. The next day I began to research what was going on and found that if this procedure is done incorrectly it will produce tinnitus (ringing in the ear), which is incurable and will probably be permanent. I read about a man who wrote a book encouraging people not to commit suicide if they contract tinnitus as it’s beyond maddening to have a persistent, never-ending ringing in your ear.

The After Effects

I wish I could say that my first response was, “Thank you God for this trial you have given to me. I rejoice and trust in you.” It was more like, “I can’t believe I went to that urgent care! I can’t believe that doctor screwed up my ear! I can’t believe this happened on our long-awaited holiday with my family!”

The world is like water. It’s always moving, changing, and insecure. We need an anchor for our soul.

In the following days and weeks as the ringing continued, I learned about myself and our Father. I learned how my sinful heart can immediately blame others and God. I learned how I can subtly trust in my circumstances and not in an all-knowing, loving God. I also learned how God pursues, loves, and cares for me in spite of my petulant heart. God began to steer my heart towards him in a deep, rich, and profound way.

An Anchor in Our Drifting

Hebrews 6:19-20 says, “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever.” In our lives it’s sometimes not a life-altering event that discourages and demoralizes us, but it’s adversity after little adversity, frustration after little frustration that can throw us to the ground.

The Hebrews writer is telling us that the world is like water spiritually. It’s always moving, changing, and insecure, so we need an anchor for our soul. We can attempt to anchor our soul in the things of the world, such as human relationships, health, family, and career, but ultimately those are always changing, moving, and insecure. We need an anchor that goes through the water and provides the safety, security, and stability we need in the drifting and storms.

Thank God he sent Jesus to be the anchor we all need that provides what nothing else can. I don’t know what life will bring my way and I don’t know if the ringing in my ear will ever go away, but I do know I have an anchor for my soul, who is Jesus Christ, who is my trust, security, and hope.

Most people question the reliability of the Bible. You’ve probably been in a conversation with a friend or met someone in a coffee shop who said, “How can you be a Christian when the Bible has so many errors?

How should we respond? What do you say?

Instead of asking them to name an error, I suggest you name one or two of them. Does your Bible contain errors? Yes. The Bible that most people possess is a translation of the Greek and Hebrew copies of copies of the original documents of Scripture. As you can imagine, errors have crept in over the centuries of copying. Scribes fall asleep, misspell, take their eyes off the manuscript, and so on. I recommend telling people what kind of errors have crept into the Bible. Starting with the New Testament, Dan Wallace, New Testament scholar and founder of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, lists four types of errors in Understanding Scripture: An Overview of the Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning.

Types of Errors
1. Spelling and Nonsense Errors

These are errors that occur when a scribe wrote a word that makes no sense in its context, usually because they were tired or took their eyes off the page. Some of these errors are quite comical, such as “we were horses among you” (Gk. hippoi, “horses,” instead of ēpioi, “gentle,” or nēpioi, “little children”) in 1 Thessalonians 2:7 in one late manuscript. Obviously, Paul isn’t saying he acted like a horse among them. That would be self-injury! These kinds of errors are easily corrected.

2. Minor Changes

These minor changes are as small as the presence or absence of an article such as “the” or changed word order, which can vary considerably in Greek. Depending on the sentence, Greek grammar allows the sentence to be written up to 18 times, while still saying the same thing! So just because a sentence wasn’t copied in the same order, doesn’t mean that we lost the meaning.

3. Meaningful but Not Plausible

These errors have meaning but aren’t a plausible reflection of the original text. For example, 1 Thessalonians 2:9, instead of “the gospel of God” (the reading of almost all the manuscripts), a late medieval copy has “the gospel of Christ.” There is a meaning difference between God and Christ, but the overall manuscript evidence points clearly in one direction, making the error plain and not plausibly part of the original.

4. Meaningful and Plausible

These are errors that have meaning and that the alternate reading is plausible as a reflection of the original wording. These types of errors account for less than 1% of all variants and typically involve a single word or phrase. The biggest of these types of errors is the ending of the Gospel of Mark, which most contemporary scholars do not regard as original. Our translations even footnote that!

Is the Bible Reliable?

So, is the Bible reliable? Well, the reliability of our English translations depends largely upon the quality of the manuscripts they were translated from. The quality depends, in part, on how recent the manuscripts are. Scholars like Bart Ehrman have asserted that we don’t have manuscripts that are early enough. However, the manuscript evidence is quite impressive:

There are as many as 18 second-century manuscripts. If the Gospels were completed between AD 50–100, then this means that these early copies are within 100 years. Just recently, Dan Wallace announced that a new fragment from the Gospel of Mark was discovered dating back to the first century AD, placing it well within 50 years of the originals, a first of its kind. When these early manuscripts are all put together, more than 43% of the New Testament is accounted for from copies no later than the second century.
Manuscripts that date before AD 400 number 99, including one complete New Testament called Codex Sinaiticus. So the gap between the original, inerrant autographs and the earliest manuscripts is pretty slim. This comes into focus when the Bible is compared to other classical works that, in general, are not doubted for their reliability. In this chart of comparison with other ancient literature, you can see that the New Testament has far more copies than any other work, numbering 5,700 (Greek) in comparison to the over 200 of Suetonius. If we take all manuscripts into account (handwritten prior to printing press), we have 20,000 copies of the New Testament. There are only 200 copies of the earliest Greek work.
This means if we are going to be skeptical about the Bible, then we need to be thousands of times more skeptical about the works of Greco-Roman history. Or put another way, we can be a thousand times more confident about the reliability of the Bible. It is far and away the most reliable ancient document.

What to Say When Someone Says “The Bible Has Errors”

So, when someone asserts that the Bible has errors, we can reply by saying: 

Yes, our Bible translations do have errors—let me tell you about them. But as you can see, less than 1% of them are meaningful and those errors don’t affect the major teachings of the Christian faith. In fact, there are a thousand times more manuscripts of the Bible than the most documented Greco-Roman historian by Suetonius. So, if we’re going to be skeptical about ancient books, we should be a thousand times more skeptical of the Greco-Roman histories. The Bible is, in fact, incredibly reliable.

Contrary to popular assertion, that as time rolls on we get further and further away from the original with each new discovery, we actually get closer and closer to the original text. As Wallace puts it, we have “an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the biblical documents.” Therefore, we can be confident that what we read in our modern translations of the the ancient texts is approximately 99% accurate. It is very reliable.

For Further Study

In order of easy to difficult:

My sermon and manuscript, “Is the Bible Inerrant?”


Can I Trust the Bible?  (free preview), by R. C. Sproul
Understanding Scripture: An Overview of the Bible’s Origin, Reliability, and Meaning , edited by Wayne Grudem, C. John Collins, and Thomas Schreiner
The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible , by B.B. Warfield
Text of the New Testament , by Bruce Metzger and Bart Ehrman

 

This post originally appeared on Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Today is an important day because it’s a day we remember the men and women who have given their life to defend our freedoms as Americans. 

On this Memorial Day, I want to encourage you to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice while in service to our country. Not only that but also remember their families for whom this day is not so much a day off to BBQ and relax, but rather a day to solemnly remember the pain of losing loved ones in battle. Pray for them today.

There are thousands upon thousands of people throughout our country’s history who have sacrificed their life to allow their family, friends, and fellow citizens to have life, liberty, and pursue happiness.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

I would also encourage you to remember Jesus, who made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross for us. There are many of you reading this today that need to remember Jesus and what he has done for you. Remember the life that he lived. Remember the suffering he endured. Remember the horrific death that he died. Remember that he rose again to conquer Satan, sin, and death.

Remember again and again that he did this for you.

Writing to the church in Corinth, Paul encourages them to do this much:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 1 Cor 15:1-2 (Italics mine)

Paul reminded this ragtag group of believers what he considered of “first importance” (1 Cor 15:3); according to the Scriptures Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose from death on the third day, and he visibly appeared to well over five hundred people (15:3-8). 

The power of remembering the gospel is clear: it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom 1:16). Remember Jesus and know what he did on your behalf. 

I believe the life of a Christian is a life of fighting.

We fight against sin and temptation. We wage a spiritual war against everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. But it wasn’t until I found myself in my weakest condition that I had to fight the most intense battles of my Christian life. It was frightening? I was too weak to fight, but this was when God called me to fight in raging battles.

Feelings of Fear and Failure

My temptations were stronger, and my spirit was weaker. The Devil often accused me as a guilty sinner and one of weak faith. I struggled with crippling doubt concerning my own work, and was I fearful in all ministry contexts. I was anxious before preaching beyond a healthy fear that should be upon all who preach the word of God. I was uncertain after every message and meeting that I had done well.

Most of the time I felt I was a failure, even when everything pointed to success. Even though I was certain of my calling I was equally certain of my frailty, which led me to a level of uncertainty about myself in every other area. I knew I was called, but was I still called to remain where I was? Perhaps I had done all that I could. This was terrifying, for there is no other place I want to be than serving my church.

Small Measures of Comfort

This pressing anxiety was ever-present. It was literally hard to breathe. This drove me deeper into prayer and dependency on Jesus, but I found only small measures of comfort and relief after extended time in prayer. Or, when God’s grace to seemed to calm all storms in my heart, it only lasted for hours.

I had to fight well, but I was forced to fight in the strength of God and not depend on my own power.

There was no secret sin. Nothing for which I was unrepentant. I continued to believe, to trust, to fight, to worship, but those days were exceedingly difficult. I revisited classics works related to spiritual warfare like Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, The Bruised Reed, Spiritual Depression, The Christian in Complete Armour, and others. But most rewarding was praying and working through Scripture.

Jesus As Shepherd

During this time I came to know and treasure Jesus as Shepherd, and to see just how important it is for me to hang onto him by faith; to not wander away; to trust what I know to be true even when I am not feeling it. In time my doubts were overcome by the truth of God’s word. My fearful questions were eventually answered in his word and through the testimony of his people and especially my wife. I had to fight well, but I was forced to fight in the strength of God and not depend on my own power.

The year prior to all this I wrote, Note to Self, a short book that models how to “preach to ourselves.” I have long engaged in this discipline, but it was the year of its publication that I had to engage in it, not just for my spiritual health, but for my very survival. The words I had preached to myself previously had more meaning now than ever before:

 

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3–5

Dear Self,

God does not promise to rid your life of affliction and difficulty, but he does offer to give you the grace needed to suffer well, and through grace to discover the riches and beauty of the gospel. It isn’t wrong to ask God to relieve you of your pain, but it is more important that in the midst of the pain that you rely on the promise of God to work such experiences for his glory and your good—to use these times as a means of perfecting your faith, strengthening your spirit, and transforming your life in such a way that you are becoming more like Jesus.

I know you want relief, but often relief comes, not in the form of the removal of the affliction, but in the strengthening of your faith. And that is what these trials are designed to do—test, prove, and strengthen your faith. In times of ease you have sometimes wondered just how real and robust is your faith. In times of your own weakness you have asked God to sanctify you, grow you, and strengthen you. Well, here is your answer. God accomplishes much of that through your “fiery trial” when you suffer well. To suffer well doesn’t mean you put on a stoic face and muscle through the situation without a word. It means that through your suffering you trust God, bless him, look to him, and point others to him.

When the world strips away your comfort and confidence in things temporal, when friends become enemies and attack you, when in the providence of God suffering enters your life like a flash flood, you are given an opportunity to see very clearly where your ultimate dependence lies and where you find your identity. And it’s not just something that reveals truth about yourself; it is also something God uses to sanctify you.

Do you want to be confident in God’s good purposes for your life? Then you must discover them in times of ease as well as times of difficulty. Do you want to become more like Christ? Then you must suffer, and suffer well.

Note to Self, Ch. 44 (emphasis added)

The Weakest Man I Know

Today the anxiety and doubt are gone. I like to tell people I feel good (normal) for the first time in a year and a half. But get this irony: today I still recognize myself to be the weakest man I know, but I have more confidence than ever. I know I’m not “the man.” I know I am helpless and frail. I used to think of myself as some kind of tough guy, but I now know I am not. I was forced to find all my hope and strength in Jesus, and this has saved me. Again.

There is much more to my getting healthy than what I wrote here. This was just one part of it. Perhaps the central part of it.

 

 

Post adapted from Joe Thorn's Blog

Pastor Matt Chandler interviews Pastor Jonathan Dodson about his recently released Re:Lit book, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, and what it looks like to be a Spirit-empowered disciple.

 

 

Pick up your copy of Gospel-Centered Discipleship here

Church planters, fight the urge to empower people too quickly.

Some planters, desiring to expand their plant team and move ahead in their mission, will dole out leadership responsibilities to people they barely know. Many even counsel this: “Give ’em a job, and they’ll stick around,” as the logic goes. Yet that “logic” is suicidal.

How Do You Know They Support Your Vision?

Brothers, your primary co-laborers (and certainly your primary leaders) need to comprehend and be able to articulate and even defend your vision. The worst thing you could do is to empower someone who has competing ideas. Draw a line with an arrow pointing upward on a piece of paper that represents your vision. Then draw another one, that starts at the same point, but veers off at a 45-degree angle to the left. That sort of vision that is out of alignment is easy to spot. However, it’s harder to catch the person who veers off only slightly. Yet, if you project that line’s trajectory, it still ends up in a drastically different, potentially devastating, spot. Knowing if someone’s vision fits with that of your church’s, however, takes time. Do you really want to position someone to pull against the vision God has given you? 

How Do You Know That They Know How to Follow? 

People often flock to church plants seeking positions of influence. They desire to draw near to the pastor, shaping him and the future of the church. Often they bring track records of resisting authority and causing division in previous contexts. The last thing you want is to put an arrogant and power-hungry person in a place of leadership. He or she will end up hurting people around them. That same person will likely undermine your authority, as well. If he or she was angry and dissatisfied with their previous pastor, it’s almost certain that you’ll soon be the next. Make sure they know how to follow before you let them lead. How do you know this? It takes time. In fact, making them wait will generally force their motives to the surface. Be careful. You don’t want to end up empowering someone who could become your worst enemy.  

How Do You Know They Are Strong in Character?

You need someone to lead worship, so you give them the mic. You know nothing about finances, so you hand someone the books. Be careful, brothers. Don’t let your desperate feelings and their flashy gifts keep you from seeing their heart. How do you know that worship leader or bookkeeper is a gospel-formed man or woman? How do you know that small group leader will represent Christ or your church community well? You don’t initially. As hard as it is to do, give it some time. Exercise patience now, and avoid a blowup later. It’s much harder to fire someone than it is to hire them.

Here’s a rule with only a few exceptions: most people think they’re the exception to the rules. Do they want to be a part of a church where people show up and are immediately given positions of leadership? Of course not! How could that be a healthy course? But most think those rules don’t apply to them. They’re special, of course. And they don’t want to patiently pay their dues and earn that influence. Treat this new, cheerful, ostensibly gifted person just like anyone else. Depending on how they react, you’re more likely to save yourself headaches and even earn their respect later.

Be careful. You don’t want to end up empowering someone who could become your worst enemy.

There is a tension in the early days of planting that is difficult. You desperately want to add to your plant team, especially with strong leaders. However, during that time, you’re shaping the congregation’s DNA. In the time you are tempted to be the most lenient, you really must be the most cautious. Some planters hand the reins of their nascent church to people they barely know. It may lead to quick growth, but it won’t result in lasting health. True, in a church plant, time’s not on your side. But you have more than you think. And who has time to start over? Pray hard. Calm down. Wait on the Lord. Get people to buy in before you let them lead out.

 

“If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”

James 2:9

Rich people need pastors. 

There is no doubt that the Bible provides special comfort, blessing, and hope for the poor. In ministering to the poor, however, we must not completely abandon those with means. Ironically, the book of James is often cited to justify such partiality:

For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:2–4) 

The thrust of this passage is anti-partiality, not anti-rich. But many Christians read these words and decide to hedge their bets by avoiding the wealthy altogether. Fear of committing the sin of partiality leads them to commit the sin of reverse partiality. Functionally, this results in a number of ways that we push the rich out of the church.

“The Rich Can’t Serve”?

As a new Christian and a successful businessman, I didn’t think I could serve the church. My travel schedule made it hard to lead a small group or commit to a volunteer team, and my skill set didn’t seem to fit the ministry scene—I’m not a counselor or a preacher. But then my pastor pointed out that giving is a spiritual gift (Rom. 12:8). I could give. A lot. But the thought never crossed my mind that I could serve by giving. Once I saw it as an act of service, it gave me great joy to give to the church.

“The Rich Can’t Be Pastored”?

When a pastor meets with someone who is poor or middle-class, we call it discipleship. When a pastor meets with someone who is rich, we call it partiality. This double standard leaves a portion of the church body without a shepherd, and these are men and women who often struggle mightily to find meaning and identity in Jesus rather than their possessions. It meant a great deal to me the first time my pastor sent me a text message to let me know he was praying for me.

“The Rich Can’t Be Saved”?

Our prejudices against the rich ultimately amount to poverty theology, as though our righteousness depends on Jesus plus how little is in our bank account. Jesus did say that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, which is to say impossible (Luke 18:25). But it’s no more impossible than it is for the rest of us. Jesus wasn’t saying that the rich are less likely to be saved than the poor; rather, that even for those whom his listeners thought had the best chances, salvation was impossible. But what is impossible with us is possible with God (Luke 18:27).

God saves the rich and the poor the exact same way—and it has nothing to do with how much money we have and everything to do with Christ’s perfect life, death, and resurrection on our behalf (Col. 3:11).    

Repent and Invite

In truth, the rich have a lot to give to the church—and I’m not just talking money, although it’s time we stop minimizing the helpfulness of this resource as well. Oftentimes, the rich possess other gifts typically devalued within the church: administration, leadership, management, and building systems and structures. I started serving the church as a large donor, and today God has called me to be an executive pastor, so you never know what those tithe checks are going to lead to.

Let’s repent of our bias against the rich, and invite them to be active members of the diverse body of Christ. For “God has so composed the body . . . that the members may have the same care for one another” (1 Cor. 12:24–25). We need each other, rich and poor alike.

Sutton Turner is the executive pastor of Mars Hill.