May
20
2008
Go watch the movie Prince Caspian, and do it quickly! If you watch it knowing that C.S. Lewis was not only a Christian, but someone deeply in love with God’s Kingdom, it helps explains the “The Deep Magic” that governs the movie.
Prince Caspian is the study of a Christian’s greatest weakness: “the Natural Man”, as Paul calls it, or “Carnal Christianity.” We’ve all struggled with this handicap, and we get so confused by it, mostly because we feel so much strength in the Natural Man…
Until the “fog of war” descends.
That’s when Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy reappear and take turns thrashing, fighting and scheming in a series of brilliant failures, until they reach utter despair and the end of their brilliant plans.
To those familiar with Christian leadership, it’s a familiar task these brave souls undertake. They must lead a strange, motley crew of Narnians out of their snug habitats in the deep, dark woods and into a bloody crusade. On unfamiliar ground the gentle Narnians clash with a savage dark lord who is the epitome of “The Father of Lies.” Christians in the modern era face a tidal wave of spiritual hostility, and these Narnians likewise take such a pathetic stand against hoards of rabid, advancing enemies rising out of “the pit of darkness.”
Continue Reading »
Nov
09
2008
The Young, Restless Reformed are leaders of remarkable movements in the Reformed tradition. Their “bleeding edges” are split into the Emergent Church and Piper-Reformed Church movements racing away from the Reformed status quo still held by senior citizens. But dead traditions remain unchallenged in the new movements. The Restless Reformed are courageous, but they still need to examine the legalism in the Reformed tradition, because this builds real spiritual prisons:
But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Galatians 3:23 (NASB)
The Piper-Grudem Team
The conservative branch of the Restless Reformed is led by John Piper, famous for Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and other books about God’s sovereignty. Along with popular young leaders Driscoll and Chandler, the Piper-Reformed are spreading across the country through the Acts 29 Network., which provides tremendous resources to the Christian community.
Another fascinating figure in this movement is Wayne Grudem, from Trinity Seminary. When my brother “Buck” was at Trinity he was excited by Grudem’s systematic theology for Gen-X readers, which surprised me because my experience with Dr. Grudem was a little different.
I knew Dr. Grudem from a class I took at Trinity when I was still a young “Fishy” elder at “The Fish House” OSU ministry, and what a bunch of juveniles were were back then! We called this esteemed theologian, “Dr. Gruntum” behind his back (I’ve matured since then). To be fair, he was skinny with a whiny voice that made him a classic “Ivory Tower” academic so irresistible to wise-crackin’ sophomoric minds (he’s buff now).
There is a redemptive point here: Dr. ‘Gruntum’ surprised us. Continue Reading »
