R. Albert Mohler Jr.'s Blog, page 393

The Briefing 10-18-13

1) Words matter – Malaysian court restricts word “Allah” to Muslims

Only Muslims Can Call God ‘Allah’, Malaysian Court Says, Time (Charlotte Alter)

2) Calling homosexuality a sin is now a sin

Rev. Gary Hall of the National Cathedral: Being Gay is not “Just OK”–It Is Good, Salon (Katie McDonough)

Gary Hall Says Homophobia Is a Sin; National Cathedral Dean Speaks Out During LGBT Weekend of Honor, Huffington Post

3) Polyamory – The new “sexual orientation”

Is Polyamory a Choice? Slate (Michael Carey)

4) New reproductive technology enables two mothers for one baby

Fertility Clinics Help More Gay Couples Have Kids, Associated Press (Marilynn Marchione)

5) Persistence of Christian worldview, even in the yogurt aisle

Groceries Become a Guy Thing, Wall Street Journal (Anne Marie Chaker)

The Briefing 10-17-13

1) Debt deal another exercise in artificial politics

 At 11th Hour, G.O.P. Blinks in Standoff, New York Times (Jonathan Weisman and Jennifer Steinhauer)

Senate Leaders Reach Bipartisan Deal, Wall Street Journal (Kristina Peterson and Janet Hook)

Why Conservatives Should End the Debt Ceiling Debate, AlbertMohler.com

2) National march towards legalized gay marriage continues in Michigan and North Carolina

Michigan’s 2004 Gay Marriage Ban Faces Challenge, Associated Press (Ed White)

Federal judge expected to rule on Michigan’s gay marriage ban today, Detroit Free Press (Tresa Baldas)

Same-sex couples test North Carolina gay marriage ban, USA Today (Associated Press)

3) What is racial equality? Equality of opportunity or equality of outcome?

On Affirmative Action, the Court Tackles A Deceptively Simple Question, The Atlantic (Garrett Epps)

4) What does Google think is evil? Whatever it’s not doing. 

What is ‘Evil’ to Google? The Atlantic (Ian Bogost)

5) Porn is a problem long before it’s revenge porn

Fighting Back Against Revenge Porn, New York Times (Editorial)

The Briefing 10-16-13

1) Why is America a magnet for Nobel Laureates? 

Economists Clash on Theory, but Will Still Share the Nobel, New York Times (Binyamin Applebaum)

Nobels and National Greatness, Wall Street Journal (Bret Stephens)

2) Among heavy gamblers, losers outnumber winners by 128 to 1

How Often Do Gamblers Really Win?, Wall Street Journal (Mark Maremont and Alexandra Berzon)

3) In New York, highly biased ballot language favoring gambling distorts the democratic process

Casino Referendum Led Gambling Industry to Spend Richly in Albany, New York Times (Thomas Kaplan)

4) If private counseling isn’t protected by 1st Amendment, nothing is

Protecting the Speech We Hate, New York Times (Paul Sherman and Robert McNamara)

The Briefing 10-15-13

1) Oldest living Nazi war criminal dies, remorseless until the end

War criminal Erich Priebke dies at 100; Nazi captain convicted in 1995, Los Angeles Times

Erich Priebke, Nazi Who Carried Out Massacre of 335 Italians, Dies at 100, New York Times (Alison Smale)

2) Dehumanization of victims essential to commit murder…and abortion

Behind Flurry of Killing, Potency of Hate, New York Times (Katrin Behold)

3) Story of Baby Hope reminder that sanctity of life cries out for justice

As Police Chased Leads About ‘Baby Hope,’ Those Who Knew Her Kept Quiet, New York Times (J. David Goodman)

4) Sin takes hold of the very young; 11-year-old guilty of conspiracy to commit murder of “annoying” girl

Wash. Boy, 11, Found Guilty of Murder Conspiracy, Associated Press

5) Inter-faith marriage primary threat to Judaism

American Jews carve out faith different than parents’ Courier Journal (Peter Smith)

6) Where you attend college has tremendous impact on who you will marry

Looking to get married? Try a Christian college, Religion News Service (Katherine Burgess)

7) Bishop Spong’s once shockingly liberal views now common

An aging maverick, Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong has no regrets, Religion News Services (David Gibson)

Genesis 4:17-5:4

The Briefing 10-14-13

1) Has the Nobel Peace Prize’s prestige been tarnished by politicization? 

A Wishful Peace Prize, Wall Street Journal (Editorial)

2) When you read Alice Munro, you don’t just read the story of people, but civilization

Alice Munro Wins Nobel Prize in Literature, New York Times (Julie Bosman)

3) Do you want to improve in understanding people? Read literary fiction

Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind, Science (David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano)

Reading literary fiction improves empathy, study finds, The Guardian (Liz Bury)

4) “Little Sisters of the Poor” not religious enough for exemption from Obamacare

What Obamacare means to Little Sisters of the Poor, Washington Times (Mario Diaz)

5) ”Marketing secrecy clause” hides abortion coverage in fine print of Obamacare

Making the taxpayer an accessory to the abortion trade, Washington Times (Christopher H. Smith)

Falling on Deaf Ears?—Why So Many Churches Hear So Little of the Bible

“It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out.” That stunningly clear sentence reflects one of the most amazing, tragic, and lamentable characteristics of contemporary Christianity: an impatience with the Word of God.

The sentence above comes from Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today in an essay entitled, “Yawning at the Word.” In just a few hundred words, he captures the tragedy of a church increasingly impatient with and resistant to the reading and preaching of the Bible. We may wince when we read him relate his recent experiences, but we also recognize the ring of truth.

Galli was told to cut down on the biblical references in his sermon. “You’ll lose people,” the staff member warned. In a Bible study session on creation, the teacher was requested to come back the next Sunday prepared to take questions at the expense of reading the relevant scriptural texts on the doctrine. Cutting down on the number of Bible verses “would save time and, it was strongly implied, would better hold people’s interest.”

As Galli reflected, “Anyone who’s been in the preaching and teaching business knows these are not isolated examples but represent the larger reality.”

Indeed, in many churches there is very little reading of the Bible in worship, and sermons are marked by attention to the congregation’s concerns, not by an adequate attention to the biblical text. The exposition of the Bible has given way to the concerns, real or perceived, of the listeners. The authority of the Bible is swallowed up in the imposed authority of congregational concerns.

As Mark Galli notes:

It has been said to the point of boredom that we live in a narcissistic age, where we are wont to fixate on our needs, our wants, our wishes, and our hopes—at the expense of others and certainly at the expense of God. We do not like it when a teacher uses up the whole class time presenting her material, even if it is material from the Word of God. We want to be able to ask our questions about our concerns, otherwise we feel talked down to, or we feel the class is not relevant to our lives.

And Galli continues:

It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out. Don’t spend a lot of time in the Bible, we tell our preachers, but be sure to get to personal illustrations, examples from daily life, and most importantly, an application that we can use.

The fixation on our own sense of need and interest looms as the most significant factor in this marginalization and silencing of the Word. Individually, each human being in the room is an amalgam of wants, needs, intuitions, interests, and distractions. Corporately, the congregation is a mass of expectations, desperate hopes, consuming fears, and impatient urges. All of this adds up, unless countered by the authentic reading and preaching of the Word of God, to a form of group therapy, entertainment, and wasted time—if not worse.

Galli has this situation clearly in his sights when he asserts that many congregations expect the preacher to start from some text in the Bible, but then quickly move on “to things that really interest us.” Like . . . ourselves?

One of the earliest examples of what we would call the preaching of the Bible may well be found in Nehemiah 8:1-8 (ESV):

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Ezra and his companions stood on a platform before the congregation. They read the scriptural text clearly, and then explained the meaning of the Scripture to the people. The congregation received the Word humbly, while standing. The pattern is profoundly easy to understand: the Bible was read and explained and received.

As Hughes Oliphant Old comments, “This account of the reading of the Law indicates that already at the time of the writing of this text there was a considerable amount of ceremonial framing of the public reading of Scripture. This ceremonial framing is a witness to the authority of the Bible.” The reading and exposition took place in a context of worship as the people listened to the Word of God. The point of the sermon was simple: “to make clear the reading of the Scriptures.”

In many churches, there is almost no public reading of the Word of God. Worship is filled with music, but congregations seem disinterested in listening to the reading of the Bible. We are called to sing in worship, but the congregation cannot live only on the portions of Scripture that are woven into songs and hymns. Christians need the ministry of the Word as the Bible is read before the congregation such that God’s people—young and old, rich and poor, married and unmarried, sick and well—hear it together. The sermon is to consist of the exposition of the Word of God, powerfully and faithfully read, explained, and applied. It is not enough that the sermon take a biblical text as its starting point.

How can so many of today’s churches demonstrate what can only be described as an impatience with the Word of God? The biblical formula is clear: the neglect of the Word can only lead to disaster, disobedience, and death. God rescues his church from error, preserves his church in truth, and propels his church in witness only by his Word—not by congregational self-study.

In the end, an impatience with the Word of God can be explained only by an impatience with God. We all, both individually and congregationally, neglect God’s Word to our own ruin.

As Jesus himself declared, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Mark Galli, “Yawning at the Word,” Christianity Today [online edition], posted November 5, 2009. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2...

Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Volume 1: The Biblical Period (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 2007).

This commentary was originally posted Friday, February 19, 2010.

I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.

The Expositors Summit 2013 at Southern Seminary—October 29-31

The goal of Christian preaching is nothing less than the glory of God in the Christlikeness of his people. For this reason, The Expositors Summit 2013 at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary will seek to restore the primacy of expository preaching to the pulpits of local churches. Pastors, students, and all who love the Scriptures are invited to come hear Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., H.B. Charles Jr., and Alistair Begg as the keynote speakers (along with other gifted leaders in various seminars).

The Briefing 10-11-13

1) Extend crisis deadline? Politics as theatre is growing tiresome and frustrating.

GOP to Propose Temporary Debt-Ceiling Increase, Wall Street Journal (Patrick O’Connor, Siobhan Hughes, and Damian Paletta)

2) Are we witnessing a meltdown of the constitutional order?

The Shutdown Prophet, New York Magazine (Jonathan Chait)

3) New law in California permits non-physicians to perform abortions

Gov. Jerry Brown signs bill to increase access to abortions, LA Times (Patrick McGreevy and Anthony York)

California governor signs bills to tackle state’s water crisis, Reuters (Sharon Bernstein)

4) Offer a chance for women seeking abortion to see ultrasound? No, they might feel guilty.

With New Abortion Restrictions, Ohio Walks a Narrow Legal Line, New York Times (Erik Eckholm)

5) Breakthroughs in prenatal screening allow for greater detection, and abortion, of babies with Down Syndrome

Breakthroughs in Prenatal Screening, New York Times (Jane E Brody)

6) Former Detroit mayor sentenced to 28 years

Former Detroit Mayor Sentenced to 28 Years in Prison, The Washington Post (Sean Sullivan)

The Briefing 10-10-13

1) Parenting is exhausting…and highly rewarding

Survey Says: Parents Are Happy, but Tired, New York Times (KJ Dell’Antonia)

Mothers more fatigued than dads but still find jobs and child care meaningful, report finds, Washington Post (Brigid Schulte)

Parents’ Time with Kids More Rewarding Than Paid Work — and More Exhausting, Pew Research Center (Wendy Wang)

2) When governments prey on their own citizens: Casino gambling predatory on the poor

Study: Adding casinos bad bet, Times Union (James M. Odato)

Why Sponsoring Casinos Is a Regressive Policy Unworthy of a Great State, Institute for American Values

3) Dogs are people too – Researchers want human rights for dogs

Dogs Are People, Too, New York Times (Gregory Berns)

4) Depths of theological confusion: “Blessings of animal services”

Pets have their day at New Albany church, Courier-Journal (Jenna Esarey)

 

The Briefing 10-09-13

1. President Obama nominates new head of Federal Reserve

Obama to nominate Janet Yellen to lead Federal Reserve, LA Times (Jim Puzzanghera, Don Lee, and Kathleen Hennessey)

Obama to Pick Yellen as Leader of Fed, Officials Say, New York Times (Jackie Calmes)

2. Recipe for compromise at Loyola Marymount: value ethical “diversity” greater than doctrine 

Loyola Marymount drops health coverage for “elective” abortions, LA Times (Larry Gordon)

3. British law ‘does not prohibit’ sex-selection abortions

Law ‘does not prohibit’ sex selection abortions DPP warns, The Telegraph (Holly Watt and Claire Newell)

4. “Fashion for Clergywomen” reminder that theology matters – even for clothing

Make Over Clergy Fashion, New York Times (Joanna Fantozzi)