Few things sadden me more than surrendering the truth of the Gospel for the sake of peace and unity. Nothing makes me sadder than when this is done by men I respect and regard. Recently Ravi Zacharias, a noted apologist is doing just that in my opinion with his prayer as the Chairman of the National Day of Prayer 2008. For when you surrender the truth of the exclusivity of the Lord Jesus then you have gutted the truth of the gospel and are left with nothing but words void of power.  Ravi is the Honorary Chairman for the 2008 National Day of Prayer. Here is his prayer:

2008 Prayer for Our Nation - Dr. Ravi Zacharias

Holy Father, in a world where so many are hungry, You have given us food in abundance; In a world where so many are hurting, You offer to bind up our wounds; In a world where so many are lonely, You offer friendship to every heart; In a world longing for peace, You offer hope. Yet, we are so stubborn and resistant. Have mercy upon us, Lord. Our nation is at a crossroads this year;  we look to you to be our strength and shield. Please give us the guidance to elect one who will honor you and to respond to the wisdom from above so that our hope may be renewed and our blessings be treasured.
In God's holy name.

When I first read that prayer it made me mad. Why go so far to take the Lord Jesus out of the prayer? I have listened to Dr. Zacharias now for a couple of years and have never heard him pray without using the name of Jesus. Why expunge Jesus now? For the sake of unity? Well it bothered me enough that I wrote him an email. Today I got a response from someone at the ministry of RZIM. Here's what I sent followed by the response.

My dear brother Ravi,

I am no theologian and no apologist. To be sure you transcend me in intellectual courage, giftedness, godliness, and scholarship much like a Great White Shark transcends a guppie. I have listened to you for a few years now and regularly listen to LMPT podcast. I have been truly blessed and value your ministry. I also very much appreciated you going to preach to the Mormons when many denounced your actions. I defended you amongst some friends who objected.

But my brother I don't understand your prayer at the National Day of Prayer . I don't understand why you neglect the name of Jesus so that others may not be offended. My brother you are wrong in doing so. His name is the only name given among men whereby we may be saved. Please change your mind and understand that I come to you humbly convinced that we must never shrink from the name of Jesus in any setting. You probably more than anyone understand that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. Sometimes we must offend my brother, and sometimes that is to our own detriment. The gospel is an offense to many. Please change your mind and proclaim Christ in all your public and private prayers.

Your humble student,

Gage Browning

Arlington , Texas

Here was the response from the ministry:

Dear Gage,

We are sorry that the comments you may have heard or read regarding Dr. Zacharias’s prayer written for the National Day of Prayer have caused you dismay. We appreciate you writing/calling us with your concerns, and we appreciate the opportunity you have given us to respond.

Because we take your comments seriously, we want to be as accurate as possible in addressing issues on behalf of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, Dr. Zacharias, and Mrs. Shirley Dobson. You will find a wealth of information about the history of the National Day of Prayer event, and a great deal of helpful information on their website www.ndptf.org.

Let me offer you some clarification on behalf of Ravi Zacharias. First, the National Day of Prayer is a United States Government sponsored event. As such, prayers made at the event must reflect the Congressional declaration that this be a day of prayer for the nation by people of faith. As Christian believers who participate in this event, we do not seek to homogenize faith or creed, but we participate with all who seek to pray for our nation. You should be aware of the forces at work in our country that would seek to ban events like these if they appear preferential toward one faith tradition over another because of the Congressional declaration.

Second, the prayer that Dr. Zacharias wrote is based on the Judeo-Christian principles found in Scripture, and Dr. Zacharias will have the privilege of speaking at the National Day of Prayer event in which he will present a biblical message with clarity and power. In addition, Dr. Zacharias addresses his prayer specifically to our “Holy Father” which is a distinctly Christian way to address God, and is not easily confused with other religious/faith traditions. The parameters for the prayer are in accordance with the National Day of Prayer Task Force, and as an invited guest, Dr. Zacharias seeks to honor the guidelines he was given by the organizing committee(s).

Finally, I would simply close by reminding you that all of the Old Testament heroes of faith prayed to God, and in his own teaching, our Lord Jesus Christ instructed his followers to pray: “Our Father…” (see Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4). Of course, Jesus himself prayed to God. Jesus's atoning death and resurrection have provided restored relationship with God for those who believe, and as a result we can talk freely to God and direct our prayers to God. Dr. Zacharias’s prayer directly aligns itself with our Lord’s teaching and prayer manner, and should be viewed in this light. Dr. Zacharias has devoted his ministry to upholding the centrality and exclusivity of Jesus Christ for salvation, and he will continue preaching this message with boldness and sincerity of faith.

Sincerely,

Now I want to know what you think.  Am I just an old fundamentalist or something?  I also wanted to point out just a few things.  This post is too long already and I have too many things to say to be sure.  But first, Ravi's prayer says that God offers mercy and hope and then he says "Have mercy on us".  Who is it that offers hope?  Who is it that offers all of this bounty?  Is it someone who should not be named?  Is it Christ and also the God of those deny Jesus as Messiah?  Ms. Manning said it follows the Judeo/Christian type of framework in the prayer.  Who cares?  That alone makes it either inherently non-Christian or at least wonderfully generic.  Is there any hope found in any other name under heaven?  If there is only hope in Christ then why leave out his very name? 

I also found it very disturbing that the ministry claimed that Ravi is doing other speaking in Christ' name as a way to defend him expunging the name of Christ himself.  You know my Dad has a saying that the more you learn, the more you read and the more you study, you will indeed become a better, wiser and sadder man.  Today...I'm sad.

Gage Browning

Post Tenebras Lux

My travels oftentimes take me across the country.  On Sunday I went to Seattle.  My plane landed, I got my rental car, plugged in Mars Hill to the GPS and headed to the heart of Seattle, the Aeropogus if you will, Mars Hill Church Ballard Campus.  I have listened to Mark Driscoll via podcast for over a year now and I looked forward to seeing him and Mars Hill in person.  I wanted to try to capture for you my experience at Mars Hill.  To be honest that is going to be hard to do.  Seattle is a different sort of town then any in Texas.  It's different than any sort of town anywhere.  And Mars Hill is a different sort of Church.  It is hard to describe the difference.  If I was going to describe my experience at Mars Hill briefly, I guess I would describe it in three words:  Suprised - Happy - and Sad.  I'll explain that momentarily. 

First the building is very different.  It is set in the industrial part of Northern downtown Seattle.  So the building looks like a big warehouse.  Well it is a big warehouse.  It definitely doesn't look like a typical Church and it doesn't look like a Seeker style church.  When I entered the Church I couldn't help but notice all the security guys.  Security was everywhere.  I'm not sure why, but I have been told that Mark gets threats.  Upon entering the...um...I guess you would call it, "sanctuary" I couldn't help but notice the large tv screens and mood lighting.  Yes...mood lighting.  It is pervasive inside.  Around 11 am the band made its way to the stage and played a hymn instrumentally.  A pastor got up made announcements, prayed and read part of Romans 1 as the scripture reading.  Then the band played a hymn, a good hymn and everyone sang at the top of their lungs.  That was great!  Now the band was rocking and I expected a long drawn out service of music.  But it didn't happen.  Toward the end of the song Mark Driscoll walked out onto the stage.  When the song was over he prayed and began preaching.  The fact that they didn't have a long drawn out song service suprised me.  I don't know why I was suprised but I expected more songs than one song before the sermon.  Then Mark preached on the fall, what it was and the consequences of the fall. 

I was happy about one thing to be sure.  Mars Hill thinks that the sermon is the most important thing in worship.  I was happy about that.  To many "new" style churches spend too much time on Music and focus less and less on preaching.  Bu not Mars Hill.  Mark preached for a little over an hour.  He spent an awful large amount of time talking about the impact of sin in the lives of men and women.  He spent a great deal of time talking about why men are passive.  Adam was passive, he didn't speak up when his wife was thinking about eating the fruit.  He was passive about it.  He shifted blame and so did his wife.  He also talked about all the ways that men and women are doing the same thing today.  He talked about Total Depravity.  I was pleasantly suprised to see Mark's emphasis on all the ways we follow our father Adam in sin.  I was also suprised to see the cussing Pastor make an eloquent entrance.  Now Mark has been accused of cussing in the past and I've heard him on the podcasts say a few things that make people nuts.  Today was no different.  He busted out the word "damn" in a context that probably worked.  I would not have done it, but there are many things at Mars Hill that I wouldn't do. 

The thing that saddened was two parts.  One- there wasn't as much gospel in the presentation as I wanted.  He didn't ignore the gospel.  He did bring up the fact that God dealt with our sin at the foot of the cross and we are counted righteous because of Christ' work.  That was a couple of minutes in an hour long sermon.  But I'm probably nick-picking... Two- they had communion with no instruction and no fencing of the table.  After the sermon everyone stood up to sing another hymn led by the band.  Did I mention that they were rocking the house?  The bass player was awesome!  Anyway after the sermon Mark left the stage and as we were singing a hymn people began to gradually go up to take communion.  I went as well.  When it got to me there was a lady who had the bread and a man holding two wine glasses.  One glass had a sign on it that said wine and another that said juice.  I wondered if they were common cups.  I wasn't sure I wanted to take of the common cup, I have a terrible cold right now.  But as it got to me I noticed that they were dipping the bread into the cup and taking it that way.  I do appreciate the value of weekly communion.  I think we should combine Word and Sacrament.  But to give communion without any instruction, without even the Words of Institution or the admonition against unbelievers taking communion saddened me. 

What an opportunity missed for Mars Hill.  If they indeed are attracting unbelievers or new Christians then they missed a great opportunity to tell people the gospel again.  They missed an opportunity to confront people steeped in sin.  They missed the opportunity to clarify who the sacrament is for.  That saddened me.  During communion and toward the end of the service they played "Come thou Fount" Mars Hill style.  I actually enjoyed it.   All the music they played was "Christ" and "Cross" focused.  I was happy about that and a little suprised.  Some of the opportunities lost saddened me though.  But I think you are always going to have a little suprise when you combine God, Mark Driscoll and (Pearl Jam's) Eddie Vedder and all in no particular order.

Gage Browning

Post Tenebras Lux

I recently discussed an issue that is coming up at the PCA's General Assembly, namely the role of women in the diaconate. In doing so I don't think I got to the heart of the issue that may be not going away anytime soon. That issue is whether or not PCA Churches should strictly adhere to the Book of Church Order. The role of women in the diaconate seems to be front and center but another issue has come up in my mind. Recently I read an interview with Tim Keller, Pastor at Redeemer Pres in NYC. Pastor Keller is a very bright and engaging man and has recently written an apologetic work called Reason for God. I haven't read it yet but will to be sure. Some of the things in the interview bothered me somewhat, but what seems to bother me most of all is the idea that local PCA Churches may or may not have to adhere to the BCO. Here's a snippet from the interview that I want to focus on.

Do you ever see a point at which Redeemer’s mission, which is transdenominational, if not nondenominational, is inhibited by being a member of a specific denomination? Would it be easier to do what you do if you were not connected to the Presbyterian Church in America?

Maybe a little. Because, when you’re part of a denomination, you’ve got to have some constitution, some structure, that you hold with everybody else. The larger a church gets, the more unique it gets, and it would always be a little easier, I suppose, if we didn’t have any—like, for example, how we do elections. We have to get a quorum of our members. When our constitution was built, no one was thinking about a church that held five services on a Sunday, at three locations. So the problem is to get a quorum of our congregation, we don’t actually have a quorum of our congregation at any one service. So where do we hold an election for our services? And the answer is, we choose the largest one and we just hope people come. So it’s a bit of a struggle to get a quorum, because our constitution is set up for a traditional church in a small town. Its not set up for multi-site churches, it’s not set up for churches that don’t have their own buildings. And if we were an independent church, we’d just do it our own way. But we think it’s very very important to be part of the connection. We think for accountability it’s important, for tradition it’s important. So we just put up with it.

Even though you’re helping to plant non-Presbyterian churches?

Yes, because I don’t believe you can reach New York with the gospel if you only plant Presbyterian churches. There are all kinds of people who’ll never be Presbyterians. It just doesn’t appeal to them. Some people are going to be Pentecostals, some people are going to be Catholics. I mean, I know that sounds—I’m not talking about that certain cultures reach certain people. It’s much more complicated than that. Even though there’s something to that. We all know that certain cultures seem to have more of an affinity toward a certain kind of Christian tradition than others, but I wouldn’t want to reduce it to that at all. I would just say that I only know that God seems to use all these kinds of churches to reach the whole breadth of humanity, and so that’s why we give money to start churches of other denominations, and give free training to it. And we’ve done about a hundred in the New York area, where we’ve helped people. It’s very important to us.

You can read the interview here.

To be clear I'm not ordained and not a member of a "Presbytery" but I wonder how it is we can allow PCA Churches to plant non-PCA Churches?  I wonder what my Presbytery would think of that?  Now one of the interesting things is that Tim Keller and Redeemer Pres have women deacons and women who serve communion. As I've stated before that is out of compliance with the BCO (9-3, 9-7, 17-2). Redeemer is not alone in doing this, other PCA Churches have similar stances. But there is another issue on the docket. The issue is whether or not PCA Churches can actually plant or aid in the planting of non-PCA Churches.   So what does the Book of Church Order say?

Book of Church Order (PCA)

13-2. A minister shall be required to hold his membership in the Presbytery within whose geographical bounds he resides, unless there are reasons which are satisfactory to his Presbytery why he should not do so. When a minister labors outside the geographical bounds of, or in a work not under the jurisdiction of his Presbytery, at home or abroad, it shall be only with the full concurrence of and under circumstances agreeable to his Presbytery, and to the Presbytery within whose geographical bounds he labors, if one exists.

8-7. A Presbytery may, at its discretion, approve the call of a teaching elder to work with an organization outside the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church in America, provided that he be engaged in preaching and teaching the Word, that the Presbytery be assured he will have full freedom to maintain and teach the doctrine of our Church, and that he report at least annually on his work. As far as possible, such a teaching elder shall be a member of the Presbytery within whose bounds he labors. (See BCO 20-1.)

21-3. No Presbytery shall ordain any intern to the office of minister of the Word with reference to his laboring within the bounds of another Presbytery, but shall furnish him with the necessary testimonials, and require him to repair to the Presbytery within whose bounds he expects to labor, that he may submit himself to its authority, according to the Constitution of the Church.

5-8. A new church can be organized only by the authority of Presbytery. The Presbytery may proceed with the organization directly, or through an especially appointed commission, or through an evangelist to whom the Presbytery has entrusted the power to organize churches. In the organization of a church, whatever be the way in which the matter originated, the procedure shall be as follows: 1. The Presbytery shall receive and approve a petition subscribed to by those persons seeking to be organized into a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, appointing a time and date for a service of organization.

So am I wrong about the idea that PCA Churches should only plant PCA Churches?  Is that not out of bounds with the BCO?  Is it possible that the BCO has become a document in the PCA that is becoming something that may be taken or left?

Gage Browning

Post Tenebras Lux

I know it seems like we should move into more practical matters. Sometimes it may seem like the Reformed Church dwells too much on this one doctrine and neglects the more practical matters of the Christian life. I’m sure the Apostle Paul was tempted to do just that. But it seems to me that he couldn’t bring himself to move past the great doctrine. He spent 11 chapters in Romans explaining and preaching the great doctrine of Justification by Grace alone through Faith alone. He did that and then he moved into the practical section of the book in chapters 12-16. But he couldn’t just simply move into the practical and relevant section of the book without first reminding his readers then and now of the great importance of the doctrine. I submit for you verse one of chapter 12.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

So what is the “therefore” there for? It is there to remind us again that the motivating thrust behind any practical or relevant teaching is the beauty and sweetness of the Doctrine of Justification. The most relevant and practical teaching for any Christian is the doctrine which explains and pronounces the truth of the gospel. How sinners are viewed as righteous before our Holy God is immanently practical. So before Paul moves us on he once again reminds us the Great Doctrine of Justification. He once again reminds us and preaches to us with one word, the word “therefore” that because of Christ’ justifying work, we are clothed in Christ’ perfection. This doctrine is the motivating force behind any “practical” and “relevant” instruction.

So before we move on we must go back again and again and again.

Gage Browning

Post Tenebras Lux

My Dad's birthday is today.  Today is especially notorious because it is also Adolf Hitler's Birthday.  I think Columbine happened on the 20th of April as did Waco (Remember the Branch Davidians?) and the Oklahoma City bombing happened on the 20th.   So stay off the streets today it may not be safe. 

But I did want to say Happy Birthday to you Dad.  You are the kind of man I'm still striving to be.  Your love for the Gospel of God is at a level that I want and desire.  Your love for Mom and us is the kind of love that I desire to show and express to my own progeny.  You are the blood of my heart! 

I love you,

Gage