"Five Illegal Uses of the Law"

Now, I'm not a Lutheran, but would find myself closest, theologically, to the Reformed Baptists. But, that being said, I think that Lutheran minister Bryan Wolfmueller makes a really good point.

Five Illegal Uses of the Law by Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller

"There are three good and legitimate uses of the Lord's law, the curb, mirror and guide. As a curb the Lord's law orders the things of creation and keeps society from chaos. As a mirror the law shows us our sin and our need for Jesus and His mercy and salvation. As a guide the law gives shape to our Christian love for our neighbor. These uses or functions of the law are good and right, they are the reasons that the Lord gave His law to humanity.

But more often than not the law of God is misused. Instead of the Lord using the law on us, we take up the law and use it ourselves, on God or on our neighbor. We could call this the 'illegal use of the law.' Here are five examples to consider."

Read the rest here.

A Follow-Up on a Previous Blog Post

A few days ago, I made a comment in a blog post about the behavior of NewSpring Church, and linked my readers to the story of Dr. James Duncan. Well, yesterday, Chris Rosebrough, on "Fighting for the Faith," interviewed Dr. James Duncan and he told his story, as well as reviewed a message that Perry Noble gave to pastors.

At Rosebrough's other site, he also notes Perry Noble's remarks regarding those who want to go deeper into Bible study during sermons.

Rob Bell: an Emergent Wolf

There is no doubt that Rob Bell has almost a cult-following thanks to his Nooma videos and is one of the "ringleaders" of the "Emergent Church." However, the question is, does Rob Bell preach true Christianity?

In an interview with Christianity Today, he rejected the inspiration of Holy Scripture, completely flying in the face on 2nd Timothy 3:16, he's stated his belief that we must bring heaven to earth. He believes that hell, along with heaven, "is full of forgiven people." Bell has also implied that Christianity borrowed many of it's beliefs from the pagan religions of Ancient Rome. He also stresses the mystery of Christianity and that we put God in a box if we believe difine the Christian faith.

He also, rather recently, stated that we are the gospel, not the forgivness of sins being offered through Jesus Christ through His atonement on the cross at Calvary. In fact, I would strongly encourage you to listen to Chris's refutation of Bell's "gospel:"

Interestingly enough, the Apostle Paul writes to the church of Galatia: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:6-9)

Now, this isn't addressed in this episode of "Fighting for the Faith," hosted by Chris Rosebrough.

However, in the first part of the program, Chris reviews a sermon done by Rob Bell on Philippians 3:1-11 on the "Judaizers." In the second part of the program, Chris speaks with Ken Silva of "Apprising Ministries" on the mysticsm endorsed by Bell, that actually has its roots in medival Catholic mysticism. Now, it's long, but it's worth listening to.