If you’re looking for good sermons to listen to over the Christmas break, you can always subscribe to podcasts like Grace to You (John MacArthur) and Desiring God (John Piper). Travis Carden has recently compiled a list MacArthur sermons from the podcast from the last year, with links to the mp3 files and transcripts. The advantage of an archive over a podcast is that you can choose what you want to listen to. There are some great titles there.

You know what I’d love to see next? A complete online archive of TMC chapel messages, back to 1985, all for free.   UPDATE: See this post!

I don’t usually post my responses to private emails online, but I think this one might be worthwhile to some.  It’ll at least make somebody mad, which I seem to be good at doing lately. 

Yesterday I sent out a newsletter for BiblePlaces.com which featured photos related to the Christmas Story.  (I think my timing was bad because with this Nativity Story movie out now, everyone’s standard for realistic depiction has risen beyond what this non-Hollywood-budget guy is able to produce.)  In any case, I got a couple of replies from people unhappy that I celebrate Christmas.  Here’s my very fast and unstudied reply.

I do not celebrate any “mass,” I do not celebrate any pagan holiday, and I do not try to change the time.  I have not adapted any heathen holiday.  In fact the shepherds and the wise men were the first to celebrate Jesus’ birth and I think their practice is a wise one to follow.  Jesus’ incarnation was one of the most glorious of all of God’s doings in human history, and the Lord was careful to give us many details about the birth of His Son, indicating a great concern for the event.  I am sorry that you hate the festival.  There are certain non-Christian aspects to its celebration which I do not embrace, but I am most happy to teach my children about the coming of Yeshua into the world and its significance for our lives. 

I believe there are many more important issues that the Lord would have us to address, and many more important false teachings that are important to denounce.  I think Satan loves to sidetrack us with discussions of minute significance.  If you lived in a country where Christianity was the minority, I think it would help you to separate the issues of greater importance from the issues of lesser importance.  Believers here are sometimes persecuted for their faith, and whether or not we sing songs about Jesus’ birth on December 25 is really a non-issue between us.

John Piper is now finishing seven years of preaching through Romans and I know that many don’t have the time to read his sermons each week.  But I thought this section worthy of highlighting as it is not something that we hear very often and yet it is very important for half of the church.  He is explaining Rom. 16:25, “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel.”

It’s not a strength that the world knows or gives. Women, teenage girls, what do you think of when you think of being a strong woman? Or little girls, when you think of growing up to be a strong woman what do you dream? Getting this clear is important because God wants you to be strong, and both the Bible and experience tell you that in one sense you are the weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7)—95% of the adult males in the world are physically stronger than 95% of the adult females. When you dream about being a strong woman what should you dream?

The world will tell you three ways to pursue your strength: One is by being sexy, dressing sexy, acting sexy, because men are such suckers, you can get power over them that way. Another is by being assertive, forceful, aggressive, self-confident. And third, be smart and move through all the channels of influence into positions of power. None of those is the strength Paul is talking about when he says, “Now unto him who is able to strengthen you . . . .”

Paul has in mind the inner strength that Peter mentioned for women in 1 Peter 3:6 where Peter tells the women to be like Sarah and the holy women of old: “You are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.” And the kind of strength that Proverbs 31:25 is talking about when it says, “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.”

In other words, women, young girls, dream of being so confident in God, and who you are in God as the daughter of the king of the universe, and what he has done for you and promises to do for you and be for you in Jesus Christ, that you fear nothing but God and laugh at the time to come—no matter what it holds. Sexiness—I promise you will lose it—and the man you get with it is not the kind of man you want. Assertiveness, you will alienate the very kind of people you want to be around. Halls of power, they are like grass: The wind passes over it and it is gone. But the strength that God gives through the gospel abides forever. “Now unto him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel . . . be glory forevermore.”

A few weeks ago Bart Campolo (son of Tony) wrote an article in The Journal of Student Ministries in which he said some disturbing things, including:

Please, don’t get me wrong. I am well aware that I don’t get to decide who God is. What I do get to decide, however, is to whom I pledge my allegience. I am a free agent, after all, and I have standards for my God, the first of which is this: I will not worship any God who is not at least as compassionate as I am.

The article was since removed by Youth Specialties because “we were concerned that the article could be more damaging than helpful.” 

An web-only article at Christianity Today noted that Bart was a national representative for Compassion International.  This organization supports poor children in third-world countries and my family has been a supporter for some years.  I wrote Compassion to express my concerns that a guy with these views is representing their organization.  They wrote back with a form reply, in which they said this (in part):

While we appreciate and respect your concerns, please be aware Mr. Campolo is an avid supporter, just like you, in Compassion’s efforts to rescue children from the bondage of their impoverished circumstances. He has also signed Compassion International’s statement of faith in which he asserts he is a believer in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in the Bible as the one and only infallible word of God.

So the way off the hook is to say that Campolo signed a statement, therefore he is orthodox, therefore he can continue to represent the organization.  Does it bother anyone that his published article contradicts the signed statement (points 1, 4, and 6)?  I see an ethical problem with both Bart and Compassion.  Bart thinks he can define which parts of the Bible he wants to believe and yet still hold to a statement of infallible Scripture.  Compassion apparently feels they need do no more than ask Bart if he agrees.  On that principle, Bart could write an article that claims that Jesus is not God but tell Compassion he holds to their doctrinal statement and all would be well.  Shouldn’t Compassion consider published evidence that suggests that Bart does not actually believe the statement of faith?

I’ll go further: if Bart said that (pick your ethnic group) were stupid, Compassion would remove him immediately.  But if he says that God is powerless to help the weak, there is no problem.  Bart makes no pretense as to how he developed his thinking about God:

I required no Bible to determine it, and—honestly—I will either interpret away or ignore altogether any Bible verse that suggest otherwise.

Such is the state of the American church.

Bart’s article is no longer online but I have a copy and can email to people I know upon request.

Now we have to decide whether to continue with Compassion or not.  In my opinion, it’s not a simple decision.  But if you’re not yet a supporter, I’d suggest you find a different organization.