Everything Must Change?

A few weeks ago I was given a personal invitation to meet Brian McLaren at Baker Book House. He will be in the Grand Rapids' store on Saturday, August 16. I have read some of Brian's works and enjoy some of it and am really bothered by much of it. What bothers me the most is that a Christian leader that many-many-many generation Xers look up to has no real answers- only questions. I guess that is part of the joys of postmodernity. Quite sad really. Jesus Christ had answers, gave answers, and charged the Apostles (the ministers of the Word of the day) to have answers.

We (read: this present generation) need some answers.

Today I was in Baker Book House picking up some books. There was a giant poster of Brian meeting me at the door. The profound 'catch em' quote was this:

I've always had a propensity to think a few degrees askew from most people, especially about religion. And not only am I often unsatisfied with conventional answers, but even worse, I've consistently been unsatisfied with conventional questions.

The quote is taken from his latest-and-greatest-rock'em-sock'em-best-seller called, Everything Must Change.

Sad really. We serve a consistent God that changes not. We have a timeless and biblical religion that transcends ages. Does everything have to change?

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Here is Tim Challies review.

A little taste:
It seems increasingly clear that the new kind of Christian McLaren seeks is no kind of Christian at all. The church on the other side of his reinvention is a church devoid of the glorious gospel of Christ’s atoning death. It is a church utterly stripped of its power because it is a church stripped of the gospel message. McLaren’s new gospel is a social gospel, a liberal gospel and, in fact, no gospel at all.

Wow!

250 Years Ago Today...

Jonathan Edwards died of complications from a small pox vaccine. Edwards was a very godly Congregationalist minister that stood for the Reformed faith, for genuine revival through the Holy Spirit, opposition of the half-way covenant, and supported the humanities and the sciences. Edwards is, by far, the greatest American theologian... even though he considered himself an English subject, living in the 'plantations abroad'.

Of course, all the glory goes to God for the work done through this great father, husband, missionary, pastor, evangelist, teacher, and spiritual mentor. Praise God for building up his church!

What was Edwards' view of the Scriptures?
"Edwards' reputation as an avid student of the Bible began during his lifetime; he himself had a hand in spreading word of it. In 1757 Edwards sketched for the Trustees of the College of New Jersey several projects he hoped to publish in the future, including a ‘History of the Work of Redemption’ and a ‘Harmony of the old and new Testament.’ The former was to present a Christian theology as history in which all events in time would be considered ‘so far as the scriptures give any light.’ The latter was to deal successively with the prophecies of the Messiah, Old Testament types, and ‘the harmony of the old and new Testament.’ Of this second project, the ‘Harmony,’ Edwards wrote: ‘In the course of this work, I find there will be occasion for an explanation of a very great part of the holy scripture; which may, in such a view be explained in a method, which to me seems the most entertaining and profitable, best tending to lead the mind to a view of the true spirit, design, life, and soul of the scriptures, as well as to their proper use and improvement.’ Edwards’ untimely death a year later kept him from fulfilling these plans." -The J.E. Center, Yale University.