Theology Program FREE on iTunes

Thanks to Justin Taylor for posting this:

Michael Patton now has the entire curriculum of The Theology Program for free on iTunes as well as all the electives.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Introduction to Theology with C. Michael Patton and Rhome Dyck
Bibliology and Hermeneutics with C. Michael Patton and Rhome Dyck
Trinitarianism with C. Michael Patton and Rhome Dyck
Humanity and Sin with C. Michael Patton and Rhome Dyck
Soteriology with C. Michael Patton and Rhome Dyck
Ecclesiology and Eschatology with C. Michael Patton and Rhome Dyck

Here is a list of the electives:

Introduction to Apologetics with Robert Bowman
Apologetic Methods with Robert Bowman
Christian Philosophy with Paul Copan

Be sure to subscribe to these on iTunes as we will be updating them with new courses soon. Also, here are the COMING ELECTIVES:

Church History through the Reformation with Sam Storms
The General Epistles and Revelation with Mark Hitchcock
Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons with Robert Bowman

I can hardly believe that resources of this kind of value would be available for your mp3/4 player - and free no less! Thanks to Michael Patton and all those wholabored to make this resource available.

Introduction to My New Book

This book is the result of several thoughts coming together. I had been thinking about the shallowness of many American Christians, as well as the impetus for Christian living and the call to Christianity. I had the feeling that these things were related, and it all came together as I walked through the Christian bookstore. There it was, a whole shelf full of “Christian” best-sellers. Bleached white grins and expensive haircuts offered me the chance to let Jesus improve my life drastically. Perhaps by accident someone had left Foxe’s Book of Martyrs right in the middle of the display. It was certainly a drastic contrast, the irony of which caused me laugh out loud. A few people glanced over, then looked down again, oblivious to the spiritual lesson that was staring them in the face. How would it look if I changed the name of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs to Your Best Life Now Book of Martyrs? Consider this: the only apostle not murdered for his faith was John, and even he was harshly imprisoned on Patmos. What might these men think of the faith peddled in our bookstores?

In business courses, future CEOs and executives are taught valuable lessons about cost versus value. The cost of a product or service is how much a company pays to produce it. The value is how much the customer thinks that product or service is worth. Think for a moment how much value the apostles must have placed upon their faith! They were willing to suffer and die for it. Paul explains some of his hardships in his second letter to the Corinthians. “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” But the hardships and martyrdom were not reserved for the apostles alone. Paul expects the Romans to rejoice in suffering , commends the Thessalonians for enduring in suffering, tells Timothy to share in suffering and expects him to endure it. James exhorts his readers to be joyful through their trials and encourages them to copy the prophets in enduring suffering. Peter expects his readers to suffer, and calls their trials “necessary”. He expects sorrow, suffering, and endurance for his readers, and tells them that this is the common experience for all believers throughout the world. Prior to his conversion, Paul himself persecuted, imprisoned, and killed believers. This was the normal Christian experience in the first century A.D. Imagine, then, just how much a person would have to value Christianity to convert in those circumstances. Clearly, the value of Christianity was inestimable to the early church.

But value is a perception, not a cost. The truth is, however, that the apostles actually saw the cost. They saw the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These men had walked with Jesus, listened to Him teach, and worshipped Him. And they had watched beaten, mocked, and hung on a tree. They had seen him gasping for breath, tattered ribbons of yellow fat dangling from the lacerations in his side and back. They had seen the crown of thorns and the piercing nails, and the bloody water that gushed from Christ’s abdomen. And they had seen Him alive again, and caught up into heaven. To the apostles, they were not over-valuing Christianity. They were not even able to grasp the depth of cost. So when it came time to pay their own cost – as their possessions were stolen, their children were taken, and their lives went up in the smoke of burning stakes – these believers suffered it with all joy. Their cost was only a shadow of Christ’s cost, and the reward was inestimable. The truth is, the gospel demanded something very great from the early church. It demanded a life of service and dedication to The Way; a life where death was imminent and suffering unavoidable. This Way demanded one’s whole life.

But today we offer a faith that costs nothing. We offer a faith that rarely talks about the gruesome spectacle of redemption or the suffering that Christ endured. We never talk about Christ demanding anything of believers, and we only mention suffering if it is part of a (usually melodramatically glamorous) missions presentation. There is no cost. And for most people casually donning this leisure-suit Christianity, there are no demands. We are told to say a prayer and then we’ll go to heaven. There is no cost. Should it surprise us, then if we do not value our faith? We try the Christianity thing like the latest summer fashion. But when it starts to storm, we quickly change into something else, or cover ourselves with a trench coat of self-help psychology. Is our easy faith normal? Or is it a recent and short-lived aberration from the historical norm? It is even real?

These are the questions that drive this book. These are the questions that will shape our faith and practice. We will look at this life, and what God has to say about our faith and future. We will look at regeneration, and what a new life means for living out Christianity. We will look at the true cost of following Christ, and the demands that the gospel places on us. We will examine the rewards God has promised us, as we glimpse something of the future glory that awaits us. And as we answer these questions we will begin to see with awe the glory of the richness of God’s grace.

Copyright, © 2008 by John R. Thacker Jr.
Houston, TX
All Rights Reserved

Profile: Harvie Conn

Every Christian needs to hear the basic truths of our Reformed faith - especially the gospel - frequently. But if true gospel obedience is to occur, we will need at some point to apply our understanding of Scripture to our lives. In the study of theology this is expressed through synthetic thinking and theologizing. It is just such theology that seperates the great theologians from the mediocre. Men like Bavink, Van Til, Frame, and Poythress have continued to grow Christianity through excellent theology. A less well known theologian, perhaps, that deserves mention with the above crowd is Harvie Conn. Harvie Conn was born in Canada in 1933, and obtained his American citizenship in 1957. Conn earned his Th.M. from Westminster in 1958, and was awarded a D.Litt.from Geneva College in 1976. The most interesting thing about Conn, however, is his mission: he began by starting a church-planting mission in New Jersey, before packing off to Korea, where he started what might be known today as an "inner-city" mission. There, working with prostitutes and pimps, Conn not only served the Kingdom, but also began to think seriously about missions and missiology. Conn returned to the states and taught at Westminster from 1972-1998. In 1999, cancer took Harvie Conn home to the Lord.

Harvie Conn was a truly deep thinker, whose impact on missions and missiology is almost incalculable. He first brought the city as a target for evangelism into the forefront of evangelicalism. He forged the disciplines of inner-city outreach and missiology. Harvey Conn was no arm-chair theologian: he worked his theology out regularly.

His publications are vast and should be read by every pastor, missionary, or evangelist. His most influential work is probably Eternal Word In A Changing World: Theology, Anthropology, and Missions in Trialogue (New Jersey: P&R; 1984). Read it!

Other works include the following:

Evangelism: Doing Justice and Preaching Grace (New Jersey: P&R; 1982)

Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, & the People of God (co-authored by Manny Ortiz) (Illinois: IVP; 2001)

Contemporary World Theology: A Layman’s Guide (New Jersey: P&R; 1974)

Studies In The Theology Of The Korean Presbyterian Church (Westminster Seminary Bookstore)

The American City And The Evangelical Church: A Historical Overview (Michigan: Baker Books; 1994)

Articles:

“Luke’s Theology of Prayer.” Christianity Today, December 22, 1972: pp. 6-8.

“God’s Urban Surprises.” Urban Mission 14:4, June 1997: pp. 3-6.

“Refugees, the City, and Missions.” Urban Mission 15:2, December 1997: pp. 3-6.

“Blaming the Victim?” Urban Mission 15:4, June 1998: pp. 3-6.

“Looking at Some of Africa’s Urban Challenges.” Urban Mission 16:2, December 1998: pp. 3-6.

“Training the Layman for Witness,” Training for Missions, edited by Paul G. Schrotenboer. (Grand Rapids: Reformed Ecumenical Synod, 1977), 74-103.

“Contextualization: Where Do We Begin?” Evangelicals and Liberation, edited by Carl E. Amerding. (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1977) 90-119.

“Contextualization: A New Dimension for Cross-Cultural Hermeneutic,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly 14 (January 1978): 39-46.

“Theologies of Liberation,” Tensions in Contemporary Theology. 3rd Rev. Ed., Stanley Gundry and Alan Johnson, eds. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1979), 327-434.

“Review of ‘Black Theology: A Documentary History, 1966-1979′,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 25 (June 1982): 238-40.

“The Gospel and Culture,” Gospel in Context 1 (January 1978): 19-21.

Ethics and Worldview

In preperation for my sermon on Nov. 23, I have been meditating on ethics and worldview. My sermon text is Psalm 24, and it is an awesome pronouncement of worldview. I think these kinds of passages informed Paul when he penned his ethics, such as 1 Thessalonians 2:12. The fascinating thing is that the worldview statements of Psalm 24 and other OT passages are not primarily concerned with ethics. They are primarily concerned with God's glory. I think this is interesting because many Christians spend significant energy and time explicating a man-centered (anthropocentric) ethical system, when it seems in fact that the primary purpose of Scripture is to instill in us a proper valuation of God's worth and glory. The ethics seem to be a natural response to really "getting" this worldview. Patterson, Geisler, and even Mohler to an extent seem to expend all their energy on how we should live, when the Bible seems to put the disproportionate emphasis on who God is and what He is worth. This perspective also demonstrates why co-opting secular "common ground" on ethical issues is a fallacy. The ethics are not an end in themsleves. They are an expression of submission to an all-powerful God-as-Judge. What are your thoughts?

Issues, Etc.

How do we walk out our theology? This is the driving question behind my pursuit of God's will for my life. The truth is, our understanding of different issues reveals what we truly believe about them. I like the analogy of an Alaskan guide who tells his hiking group that there is a very real threat of being eaten by bears on their trip. What would we think if this guide did not carry a firearm? He either does not really believe in the possibility of death by bear or he does not believe death by bear to be an experience to avoid. The fact that he chooses not to carry a gun shows us that bear maulings are not really an issue to him.

I suppose the first Tuesday in November every fourth year is one of the greatest revealers of our personal theology. What is important to you? What do you worship? How will you vote? The truth is, for evangelical Christians, God will hold us accountable for how we exercise stewardship of our voting perogative. What issues will guide how your ballot is cast? The media in America has already cast thier ballot: not for any candidate per se, but for issues. The media is consumed with issues like the economy, war, and the environment. But what of issues like homosexuality, abortion, and criminal justice? Paul wrote that the governing authorities do not "bear the sword in vain", but are given by God to hinder evil and prosper righteousness. Ironically, even the most hardcore atheist views government as creating and enforcing ethics - rules for what is right and wrong.

The question for believers becomes the following: do the ethics proposed by any given candidate line up with the ethics of the Bible? Consider the following two issues: abortion and homosexual marriage.

There are many people and political candidates who believe that abortion is morally acceptable. Abortion is not morally acceptable. It is murder. "Thou shalt not kill" does not exclude tearing a helpless child limb from limb or sucking its brains out with a catheter. After using forceps to pull a first-trimester infant to pieces, the abortion doctor routinely reassemble the pieces to make sure all of the child was removed. We wouldn't want a stray arm to rot inside the mother. This is worse than gross murder. It is a rebellion against God. Has this issue taken a back seat to the gods of economy or safety? In Isaiah 1 God tells Judah, "When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood."

Consider homosexuality. It was for homosexuality that God rained fire on Sodom and Gamorrah. Later, in the New Testament, Paul would remind us that "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6:9-10)
God has clearly condemned this practice as sin. And yet, for some, homosexual marriage is non-discrimination and ultimately good! These people, however, are in the vast minority. Notice the following quote from Dr. Mohler's blog:

Same-sex marriage is, for now, legal in three of fifty states in the United States. Beyond our borders, it is legal in the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, South Africa, Canada and Norway. This represents a very small percentage of the world's population. Same-sex marriage is, by any measure, the exception rather than the rule. Even when legalized civil unions and domestic partnerships are thrown into the mix, the countries that consider same-sex unions and heterosexual marriages to be equal before the law represent a small percentage of the world's nations.

While this demonstrates how unnatural homosexuality is, it does not determine our perception of the issues. God has damned homosexuality. As Christians, will we agree with the Bible, or make up our own religion?

I am afraid that many professing Christians have ignored the clear commands and ethics in the Bible, and have re-created God in their own image. In our lustful, selfish idolatry we have chosen to put issues like finacial stability ahead of issues like murder by abortion or perverted sexuality. I urge us all to have our minds renewed by the power of the Word of God. Jesus asked God to make us holy through the truth - "Your word is truth". Have a right perspective this November.

Worship Matters Notes and Thoughts Ch 1-5

Here are my notes from chapters 1-5. Note on my notes: I didn't really get into the book until later chapters, so these are kind of random notes that may not be that important to the the real purpose of the book.

Chapter 2.
P. 22 on idols. Thought: Wanting life to be something other than what it is can also be a form of idolatry. This is certainly a subtle one because God has built us to desire more, more of him, more in our relationships, and in many other ways. But, what we have now is from God. We don't deserve better; we deserve worse. The good we receive is by the grace and mercy of God. Especially when we don't know by comparison what we deserve, we can make a different desired life an idol.

P. 25. I agree that we cannot earn God's approval and that it is offered as a gift through the gospel. Yet, in Christ, we have the opportunity to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. There are many verses that exhort us to live our lives in a manner pleasing to the Lord, such as in Paul's prayer for the Collosians (1:10) that he prays "that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."

P. 26. My notes say: "Death and the cross are all around me: family, work, myself." I don't konw I had this thought from his list of questions about what are God is. I wrote this on vacation; maybe I was having a hard time that day :).

Chapter 3.
My favorite part from this chapter was the quote from Spurgeon: "He woul will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves he has no brains of his own." Two other thoughts about this.
1. Mark Dever said at the weekender that he makes it a point when he has a issue or question come up in pastoring or in sermon preparation that he answers the question first himself before he goes to to read the commentaries so that he can engage in the conversation. In other words, if he doesn't come up with his own answer first, when he reads others or talks to others, he has nothing upon which to engage it with.
2. This quote strongly rebukes me from where I have been for much of my Christian life. I was worried about being tainted with the thoughts of others, and I would read only the bible so that I wouldn't be prejudiced with the thoughts of other men. I now see this as proud. How much better it would have been for me to take the Mark Dever approach and Spurgeon approach and learning from others.

Chapter 4.
This is my favorite meat for the first five chapters. I like his analogy of the picture frame and the summary phrase from Piper, "undistracting excellence." Skill that aids people in being able to focus more on God and receive from Him is a goal worthy of discipline and hard work. I am especially needy in this area as I have been on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, believing preparation to be a hindrance to being spiritual. I repent.

And yet, we need to beware of making our preparation an idol as well. We are first to obey God, and if he wants to use us in a weak and pitiful, or unprepared spontaneous way, then let us do it cheerfully with no or few thoughts of how we look or that we are being a bad frame.

Chapter 5.
I thought this was an especially weak chapter, like maybe he needed more material and just threw this in. For example, he doesn't really give us any meat in the love section. How do we grow in love? He asks the question and then just answers it with two verses.

Thankfully, it gets better. Good book! I'm glad were reading it.

Roy Huddle

Next Meeting and Book Discussion

Brothers,

I hope that you've had a chance to look at Worship Matters, by Kauflin. I've enjoyed reading so far and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts as well. Here's the info for our next meeting and the time in between:

Reading: Our first reading assignment will be Chapters 1-5 in Worship Matters. I know that some of you have already read past that, but that will be our focus for discussion. I will try to post thoughts on these chapters this week and I'd love for you to do the same. At our next meeting (see below) we can discuss these chapters in person.

Next Meeting: In keeping with our every other week plan, we will try to meet on Monday, October 20th at the same time (6:30am) and place (Chick-fil-a on Westheimer and Kirkwood). If this meeting time does not work out for most everyone, let me know and we'll find something more convenient.

Interview: Don't forget about our interview with Tommy Dahn, pastor of Providence Baptist Church, on Sunday, October 26th at 7:00pm. As the date grows closer, we can discuss logistics. Incidentally, I will be testing out our interview equipment this Sunday with Erin V. and Clay C. as I try to get in on their perspectives from the recent Desiring God and Ligonier Conferences. You are welcome to join us!

Let me know if you have any questions.


Blessings!



Travis