Rambo 4

For those of you who've been waiting to see how disgruntled Vietnam vet John Rambo's been doing, Sylvester Stallone is bringing him back for a fourth installment.

There are two very interesting things from this article that I must share with you.

First, listen to the description of the plot: "Rambo finds himself recruited by a group of Christian human rights missionaries to protect them against pirates, during a humanitarian aid delivery to the persecuted Karen people of Burma. After some of the missionaries are taken prisoner by sadistic Burmese soldiers, Rambo gets a second impossible job: to assemble a team of mercenaries to rescue the surviving relief workers." I really didn't need an excuse to do so before, but now I want to see the movie just to watch Rambo possibly become a Christian.

Second, and this is the best part, is the headline of the article: "Stallone hires 30-year-old body double as he resurrects Rambo." All I have to say is, when I'm 60 I hope a 30 year-old could be my body double.

Do you know The Secret yet?

UPDATE: Mohler's blogged on The Secret again here.

If you haven't heard about the current literary phenomenon, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, or a response to it by a well-meaning and thoughtful Christian (and therefore, didn't read the post on it below), Al Mohler's weighed in on it here.

Augustine on Horoscopes

Here, in para. VI of the Confessions' 7th chapter, Augustine exposes some interesting, devastating and very timely refutations of horoscopes.

ADHD a Myth?

Click here and see that the secular world may be catching on to what biblical counseling has been saying all along, and which the Bible affirms -- ADHD is a myth!

However, do you think diagnosis of ADHD will slow down now? I doubt it with all that money this article says is being made off it.

Augustine & The Problem of Evil

After the death of my dearly beloved grandfather, I had to revisit a lot of the questions that do not throb as violently at other times. One of these issues I had to restruggle with was the problem of evil, which briefly, is that the existence of evil and the existence of the Bible's God completely contradict each other.

Simply stated, the problem of evil goes something like this: If God were all-loving, He'd want to stop evil. If God were all-powerful, He'd stop evil. Evil exists. Therefore, God is either not all-loving or not all-powerful. Thus, disproving the Christian view of God.

This is nothing new. The problem of evil was one of the issues that confronted Augustine in the 5th century, and even kept him from real repentance and faith.

About this very real problem, which revolved in his "wretched breast" and overwhelmed him with "gnawing cares" lest he die before discovering the truth, Augustine wrote in his Confessions (ch. 7, para. 5):

"Where, then, is evil, and whence does it come and how has it crept in? What is its root and what its seed? Has it no being at all? Why, then, do we fear and shun what has no being? ... But, then, whence does it come, since God who is good has made all these things good? Indeed, he is the greatest and chiefest Good, and hath created these lesser goods; but both Creator and created are all good. Whence, then, is evil? Or, again, was there some evil matter out of which he made and formed and ordered it, but left something in his creation that he did not convert into good? But why should this be? Was he powerless to change the whole lump so that no evil would remain in it, if he is the Omnipotent? Finally, why would he make anything at all out of such stuff? Why did he not, rather, annihilate it by his same almighty power? Could evil exist contrary to his will? ... Or, if he wished now all of a sudden to create something, would not an almighty being have chosen to annihilate this evil matter and live by himself—the perfect, true, sovereign, and infinite Good? Or, if it were not good that he who was good should not also be the framer and creator of what was good, then why was that evil matter not removed and brought to nothing, so that he might form good matter, out of which he might then create all things? For he would not be omnipotent if he were not able to create something good without being assisted by that matter which had not been created by himself."

Now, while Augustine only asked questions, you must have clear, solid, persuasive and biblical answers for the problem of evil not only when you're confronted with it in evangelism, but also when you're confronted with evil personally.

The resource I've found most helpful is the ministry of Greg Koukl called Stand To Reason. His many papers on The Problem of Evil have been helpful, but his teaching on this is excellent. Also, John MacArthur gave a message on this issue about three weeks ago, which you can find here. That should help get you started.

Do You Know The Secret?

A friend of mine asked me to help her Bible study leader have something to say about all the Christian women who are asking her about The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books, 2006), a book heavily pushed by the likes of Ellen DeGeneres, Larry King and especially Oprah Winfrey to the tune of becoming the fastest-selling self-help book in the history of publishing with 1.75 million copies projected to be in print by March 2 (just over 3 months since it debuted) and 1.5 million DVDs sold (source: msnbc.com).

What follows is a summary of the book's high points as well as its pros and cons compared to to Christianity. Before I begin, in the interest of full disclose I did not read The Secret. For some of you, that's enough for you to read no further and that's fine. I did read half a dozen websites from trusted sources, both secular and Christian, for this post. I simply could not read the book in time to help the Bible study leader above. However, if you'd like a read an article by someone who did read the book and critiqued it very well, please click here. It is by far the best.

After an extensive search, I found no evangelical churches supporting The Secret, but click here to see a church website advertising that their women's ministry is going through the book, here to see an ad to come watch The Secret DVD at a church's Movie & a Meal day, here to see a church's bookstore that's selling it, and here for a Myspace page of a woman who highly recommends the Bible and The Secret.

It seems to me that the religious groups most pushing this book right now are Religious Science and The Unity School of Christianity, both of which are finding new life with the publication of The Secret because it teaches what they've been saying for decades.

Summary

So, what is The Secret? According to the author The Secret has been out for thousands of years (since at least 3500 BC!), but suppressed and conspired against. Ms. Byrne stumbled across the secret of The Secret a couple of years ago when she hit bottom, and was given a long-neglected book dating back to 1910 called The Science of Getting Rich.

If you picture a building, The Secret's structure is what Byrne calls "the law of attraction." Through this "law" you can manipulate objective physical reality—the numbers in a lottery drawing, the actions of other people who may not even know you exist—through your thoughts and feelings. You attract what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny--think about money and it's yours, think about cars and they're yours, think about love and it's yours.

Byrne writes, "Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts" (p. 28), "Your current reality or your current life is a result of the thoughts you have been thinking" (p. 71). By The Secret, "you will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want" (p. xii) because there "isn't a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge" (p. xi).

Critique

There are some positive aspects of The Secret that all Christians can embrace. First, it has a strong emphasis on gratitude and the importance of our thought life which resembles 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Philippians 4:8 and Romans 12:2. Second, it strongly emphasizes seeing the good in others, even your enemies, which sounds a lot like Matthew 5:44 and Matthew 22:39.

Finally, many acknowledges the larger point, that "the coherence and effectiveness of our thinking is crucial to our success in life” so that “if you're profoundly open to opportunity, then when ambiguous events occur, you notice them. I think what positive thinking does is raise your consciousness to possibilities so they can snag your attention" (msnbc.com).

However, the negative aspects of The Secret far outweigh the positive.

Logically speaking, after reading many blogs about the positive effects The Secret's had in people's lives, one has to remember that just because something works or produces positive results, does not make it true, right or good.

Ethically speaking, The Secret is appauling. Aside from its self-centered absorption in Western materialism--concerning itself almost entirely with "attracting" houses, cars, vacations, health and relationships (msnbc.com)--the law of attraction works both ways: we attract evil by our thoughts as well.

With an understanding of the world that is striking similar to the karma of Eastern pantheism and the New Age movement, are we willing to say that Jessica Lunsford attracted her rapist-murderer John Cooey to her by her thoughts? Are we going to tell people who have had their hands chopped off and brains beaten during a bout of ethnic cleansing, “You brought that fate down on yourself”? (msnbc.com)

In response to a question about Rwanda, Byrne said, "The law of attraction is that each one of us is determining the frequency that we're on by what we're thinking and feeling. If we are in fear, if we're feeling in our lives that we're victims and feeling powerless, then we are on a frequency of attracting those things to us" (msnbc.com).

Religiously, while many including Oprah--"perhaps the greatest vehicle keeping New Age mysticism and relativism alive" (aomin.org)--want us to think it doesn’t oppose Christianity (but only supports all religions by explaining the secret laws taught by all religious teachers just with more current vernacular), The Secret really does the exact opposite. When we're done, I hope you'll see The Secret, rather than supporting, completely contradicts Christianity.

In The Secret, Christianity is NOT God’s one true religion, as Byrne believes all religions and their scriptures basically teach the same thing.

In The Secret, the Bible is NOT uniquely & supernaturally God’s Word, but equal to any and all human scriptures and philosophies. Since it's just another human book, the Bible is NOT authoritative, but is only be taken seriously where it affirms The Secret. And, the Bible is NOT sufficient to grant us “everything pertaining to life and godliness" (2 Pet 1:3), since it must be supplemented by The Secret.

In The Secret, the cause of all problems is NOT sin, but bad thinking, specifically the failure to recognize and appropriately use the law of attraction. Also, there is NO final judgment to be saved from because "no one will stand in judgment of [your life], now or ever" (p. 177).

In The Secret, Jesus is NOT the One in whom are "hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3), but one in a long line of great teachers who taught The Secret. Also, He is NOT the one true God in the flesh (John 20:28; Titus 2:13; 2 Pet 1:1), but a human who should be listened to when He supports The Secret. Next, He is NOT the only way of salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), but a teacher of the real way of salvation, The Secret. Finally, Jesus is NOT the Savior of the world (John 1:29, 3:17, 4:42; 1 John 4:14) because without human sin there is no need for a Savior, a substitute, or a sacrifice, making the cross and resurrection of Jesus totally irrelevant to The Secret as well (biblicalspirituality.org).

Finally, salvation is NOT found in the gospel of Jesus' death to pay the penalty for our sins to a holy God who demands complete and total trust in Him alone to be delivered from hell, but is found in, you guessed it, The Secret.

Conclusion

The Secret is the exact opposite of, and therefore, totally incompatible with Christianity. There is no middle ground! Though denied by the author and all who read it, The Secret does NOT respect Jesus or Christianity because it denies every central doctrine and offers salvation apart from Jesus, who is the core, the center, the sine qua non, of Christianity.

The Secret is nothing more than Name It & Claim It, Positive-Confession, Prosperity Gospel without the God of the Bible because it is built on the foundation of New Age self-deification. It's another version of what some TV preachers have taught for decades, that if you will sustain the right thoughts, words, and feelings, you will receive whatever you want (biblicalspirituality.org).

Before we end, did you stop at that hyphenated word "self-deification?" Going back to the picture of a building, the structure of "the law of attraction" is built on The Secret's foundation: your thoughts can bring anything into your life because you are god. That’s the real secret of The Secret! You are God!

Don't believe me? Listen to Byrne in her own words:

“You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence. You are the creator, and you are creating the creation of You on this planet” (p. 164).

And just in case we missed it, she repeats herself:

“The earth turns on its orbit for You. The oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You. The sun rises and it sets for You. The stars come out for You. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience, is all there for You. Take a look around. None of it can exist, without You. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the Truth of Who You Really Are. You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret” (p. 183).

Now you know the real secret of The Secret. However, Byrne's "secret" has been out far longer than 5000 years. It's Satan's old lie, "You will be like God" (Gen 3:5), and it's the same lie Christians are saved from, not one they should be embracing whole-heartedly and studying in church small groups.

Hell's Eternal Torments

With the passing of my beloved grandpa last month, death has forced me to look at it again. Contemplating eternal life in heaven has also made me ponder its contrast: eternal death in hell.

Since I know of no one better at describing heaven and hell, I turned to Jonathan Edwards for guidance and he did not disappoint. He gave a riveting exposition of the verse "These shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matthew 25:46) in "The Eternity of Hell's Torments." Click here to read the whole thing. What follows is a brief summary of his sermon.

He argues that eternal punishment does not contradict either the justice or mercy of God saying "that sin is heinous enough to deserve such a[n eternal] punishment, and such a punishment is no more than proportionable to the evil or demerit of sin. If the evil of sin be infinite, as the punishment is, then it is manifest that the punishment is no more than proportionable to the sin punished, and is no more than sin deserves."

He says the reason so many cannot accept the biblical notion of eternal punishment is because it "is so contrary to the depraved inclinations of mankind, that they hate to believe it" and because we have a very low view of the gravity of sin, thinking eternal punishment is totally disproportionate for what we think sin is. Do I really think sin deserves eternal torment, that God would be unjust for limiting the torment in any way?

This punishment is clearly and always described as the intensest of misery, terror, anguish, despair and pain that never ever ends, ideas which completely rule out annihilation or a hell that ends. In fact, if eternal punishment is not eternal, than there's no textual basis for claiming eternal life is eternal since the same word is used for both states in Matthew 25:46.

In eternal punishment "God means to manifest his peculiar abhorrence of [human] wickedness," making it "a very mean contemptible testimony of God's wrath towards those who have rebelled against his crown and dignity."

Because we swim in sin, we don't think is so bad, but hell eternal reminds us that sin is deadly serious because it is an infinite offense against an infinite God, and an infinite offense deserves an infinite punishment. Since infinity can never be exhausted so hell's torments will never be exhausted.

Therefore, Edwards marvels at the madness of those who "prefer a small pleasure, or a little wealth, or a little earthly honor and greatness, which can last but for a moment, to an escape from this punishment." He wonders "How strange is it that men can enjoy themselves and be at rest, when they are thus hanging over eternal burnings: at the same time, having no lease of their lives and not knowing how soon the thread by which they hang will break."

Let these words of Edward's concluding appeal sink in:

"Do but consider what it is to suffer extreme torment forever and ever: to suffer it day and night from one year to another, from one age to another, and from one thousand ages to another...in pain, in wailing and lamenting, groaning and shrieking, and gnashing your teeth - with your souls full of dreadful grief and amazement, [and] with your bodies and every member full of racking torture; without any possibility of getting ease; without any possibility of moving God to pity by your cries; without any possibility of hiding yourselves from him; without any possibility of diverting your thoughts from your pain; without any possibility of obtaining any manner of mitigation, or help, or change for the better."

And this:

"After you shall have worn a thousand more such ages, you shall have no hope, but shall know that you are not one whit nearer to the end of your torments." ... "The damned in hell will have two infinites perpetually to amaze them, and swallow them up: one is an infinite God, whose wrath they will bear, and in whom they will behold their perfect and irreconcilable enemy. The other is the infinite duration of their torment."

Thankfully, after all that bad news, Edwards leaves his hearers with the gospel:

"flee and embrace him who came into the world for the very end of saving sinners from these torments...there is a Savior provided, who is able and who freely offers to save you from that punishment...[Christ] is accepted of the Father, and therefore all who believe are accepted and justified in him. Therefore believe in him, come to him, commit your souls to him to be saved by him. In him you shall be safe from the eternal torments of hell." ... "through him you shall inherit inconceivable blessedness and glory, which will be of equal duration with the torments of hell. For, as at the last day the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, so shall the righteous, or those who trust in Christ, go into life eternal."

Preaching the Cross

For those of us who could not make it to the epic Together for the Gospel conference last April, Crossway is making the seminars available in written form in this upcoming book, Preaching the Cross.

This new book includes such topics as watching your life and doctrine (Mahaney), why expositional preaching is particularly glorifying to God (Piper), the pastor's understanding of his own role (Dever) and the center of Christian preaching: justification by faith (Sproul).

Crossway has definitely set itself up as one of the best alternatives to the undiscerning publishers like Baker, IVP, Eerdmans and Zondervan.

The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper

John Piper’s goal for The Supremacy of God in Preaching is “to advance a movement of God-centered worship and life” by encouraging pastors to “show the truth of Christ and savor the glory of Christ” in their preaching.

In order to achieve the “exposition of the Word of God and exultation in the God of the Word” (11), the entire book reminds pastors of preaching’s goals by way of the Trinity’s role in preaching and Jonathan Edward’s expositional philosophy.

Piper argues for preaching as uniquely designed by God with the dual goals of informing the mind (seeing God) and igniting the emotions (savoring God). He wants to make sure pastors do not sacrifice one for the other, but see to it that our preaching reaches both aspects of the human soul (15, 23, 84-88).

The preaching he has in mind gives people an enlarged vision of their great God (15, 41) which restores the His throne in their souls (25, 27). However, this will not happen unless the preacher's words come from a heart that is enraptured by God (15, 25) and the gravity of His message (103-5).

On a personal note, I found myself constantly writing “Me?” in the margins. These markings are to be checks on my life the next time I pick the book up. When I read it again I will ask, “Does this describe you or not?”

Some of these include: Do I have an “intense, all-absorbing desire for the work?” (22) Do I see everything in relation to God? (25) Do I glory in my abilities, “sufficiency” and rhetorical techniques? (41-2, 53) Do I still want to be a man of one book and does my life and ministry show it? (46, 89) Is my demeanor one of true earnestness and reality, or am I “playing pastor?” (55, 61, 100) Do I truly care for the souls under my charge? (62) Am I spending the time needed in meditation to become a good heart surgeon? (98) Am I in true agony over my sinfulness? (102) Have I seen and savored God, so I can encourage others to do the same? (11, 108)

In the end, I really enjoyed reading this little book because I think it recaptures the center of what biblical preaching should be and do.

Grandpa: One Month Later

It's been one month and a day since my Grandpa Hoover died. It hurts to even write that sentence, let alone live in the same house where he did for the past 14 years. My heart is still broken, and will be for some time.

Almost all day and when I try to sleep, all I can think about is that morning one month ago when I turned to corner of the assisted living place to see him lifeless on the hallway floor with the EMT's working on him. I walk around sad all day because I can't get that image out of my mind. His last words to me keep ringing in my hears. He woke up briefly while I was praying silently for him the night before and he patted my hands with one of his, smiled, and said "You're still here." I hurt so deeply that I wasn't there when he awoke again, and that he died without any family there.

I remember him saying "Life will go on without me," and I know it will, but its not the same. There is a huge hole in my life without him. I am so glad that God rescued from his sin on December 1, 2006 and that He brought him safely home when he died (2 Tim 4:18), but I miss him so badly it hurts, still.

I wanted to post what I wrote last month in my journal about what I learned through this experience. This is what I wrote.

#1. It’s not normal to live in pain. My grandpa, his brother, and two sisters died of stomach cancer so I have to get checked for that regularly because it’s in my family. His doctor treated him for 3 years for indigestion and an ulcer without any x-ray--I’m trying hard to view that doctor’s incompetence through the lens of God’s sovereignty, that him dying of cancer as a result of miss diagnosis for 4 years, was what God wanted, but it’s not helping much. I learned to ask two very important questions of any doctor from now on. First, What's the worst thing this could be? Second, Can you prove to me it's not that?

#2 You don't choose when you die. One of the most difficult things for me is knowing that last thing my grandpa wanted was to die. We talked just a couple days earlier about athletes training for some medal or trophy that really means little, but when he works hard he does it, and then he finished my sentence, "so I can live." One of the saddest moments in all of this was when he said [My brother and sisters] smoked and drank. I didn’t. I watched what I ate. I took vitamins. I thought I had them beat.” This has made God quite scary to me, a God who sovereignly keeps doctors from diagnosing cancer early so that He can take a man far earlier than any expected.

#3. Love your family deeply while you can and it will pay off in the end. So many people had no one visiting them at Hoag and Flagship and he had someone there from around 9am to 10pm everyday with very little time alone. Also, I hope I have a grandson who does the things for me that I did for him. I did those things because I loved him so much and I loved him so much because of the love he’d shown me for 29 years. Connie’s (his girlfriend) told me a couple times that he told her how much he loved me and how grateful he was for me, and I’m so glad he knew how much I loved him.

#4. Have medical and life insurance and take care of your funeral arrangements before you die like he had and did. It’s made life so much easier on my mom and uncles.

#5. Leave explanations for things you keep or people won’t know why they’re important. I saw this when going through old photos on Kauai after his brother died. The family lost a huge connection to the past when he died and consequently we were looking at old pictures of people no body knows.

#6. Let people know you’re sick. I let everyone know at the church plant and on my blog and I know others let people know. He was thoroughly prayed for, and it brought him great joy.

#7. In the end, all you’ve got are family and family friends, whether you like them or not, so keep them close no matter what you or they do. Aside from my grandpa’s love for grandma and me, I think the thing I admire most about him was that everyone loved him and that he had many, many friends. I want that to be true of me, but I’m so introverted that I don’t know if it ever will be.

#8. You really see what people are made of and what kind of friends they really are when death hits your family. We've seen such an outpouring of love from so many people that it's been overwhelming.

I hope that helps. Though I've been crying while posting this I know it was helpful for me to do.

Exegeting Culture is Critical

Back in 2002 I went on an interview at a church in Torrance where one of the pastors asked me to define "culture." Since that moment, my mind has always had that splinter in it "What is culture?"

Thankfully, David Wells has helped to remove that splinter when we takes his cue from Stuart Ewen and writes that culture is "the accumulated understanding by which a given people live and maintain themselves in a given society" and defines it for himself as "all of those ways of looking at life, the habits of mind, that become typical and normative in a given context" (18-19).

He goes on to say that culture "impinges on us, makes demands of us, sometimes alarms us, sustains us, and occupies us. it is the world that envelops us in a myriad of images in terms of which we think of existence, by which we respond to it, through which we communicate with others. And so many of these images by which we understand ourselves are commercial in nature" (19).

What I want to point out is what's behind that last sentence. The reason pastors and church leaders should take long, deep and prolonged looks at the culture around them is because all of us tend to "live and maintain" ourselves, we tend to look at and orient our lives by our culture. "Normal" is defined by what's typical in our context (as an aside, what becomes normal is usually determined by the marketing of the context).

While this is what culture does, this is not what it ought to do. Defining what's normal, what we're to think and live by, is God's role not culture's.

As a result, culture is not neutral. It's the conglomeration of a myriad of influences that have all been fused together to create it. When the major influences in a culture undermine Christianity, the people and churches will automatically reflect that undermining.

So, to really impact people enveloped by their culture, pastors and church leaders must be able to exegete the Bible, their own hearts and the culture. The Bible and the surrounding culture have the same effect on people, both want to be the dominant way of interpreting life.

Therefore, a relevant ministry must able to inflict the biblical worldview and it's norms on the hearts of those it reaches, rather than letting culture dictate the habits of our hearts. This is done by getting a good read on the culture, getting a good read on the Bible and then contrasting its superiority in every way to the culture.

When this happens, Christianity becomes a comprehensive world and life view, not merely a box we check off every Sunday in our organizers.

Famine in the Land by Steve Lawson

Steve Lawson is a good communicator, whether in person or print, so his book Famine in the Land (FTL) was an easy read.

To begin, I was captured by the title as I could not agree more that there is a famine in our land of the Word of God in His churches just as in Amos’ day.

The thesis of the book is that God alone determines “the place expository preaching should have in the church today, as well as define[s] how the Word is to be preached”; therefore, his goal is “to fortify the allegiance of all who proclaim the Word of God” so that the modern pulpit might be “restored to her former glory” (19).

Growing up in Southern California's seeker church and taking in the philosophy of ministry uncritically pandering to the people’s felt needs made sense. It was years later that I realized “God's work must be done God's way if it is to know God's blessing” (26).

I was so used to man-centered ministry that I am so grateful for books like FTL because I need a more biblical philosophy of ministry and preaching.

I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Lawson that with the state of the church as it is “the crying need of the hour is for divine power to be restored to evangelical pulpits” (57).

This book really challenged me. I am so aware of my weaknesses and inadequacies, but this book has inspired me to be one of the few who Dr. Lawson calls the strongest man with the strongest message for the strongest ministries.

Today, when ambiguity and compromise are more of the accepted norm, FTL has helped me to remember that I have to constantly choose between faithfulness and popularity as I try to do my part to add the living water of God's Word to our dry and dusty spiritual land.

Hardened by Grace

In my Bible reading today, I read the following:

"when the wicked sprouted up like grass
And all who did iniquity flourished,
It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore" (Psalm 92:7).

This reminded me of conversations I've had with Christians who work in the world and don't understand why unbelievers prosper so much while openly and secretly being opposed to God. And conversely, unbelievers would look at Christians struggling and conclude Christianity is a farce for weaklings.

Sadly, the same success that humbles the Christian can have a hardening effect on unbelievers. The more they go up the ladder of success, the farther they are from hitting the bottom where true repentance and faith are found.

A similar idea is in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 where the same gospel message will BOTH save some AND harden others.

God's universal grace (e.g., success in life) and His particular grace (e.g., in the gospel) become means by which unbelievers move farther and farther away from God as a response to His grace.

Free Videos of Piper & MacArthur

Videopodcasting of sermons from John MacArthur's Grace to You and John Piper's Desiring God are now free for watching and/or downloading here.

The process of signing up takes some time and is a bit cumbersome, but well worth it.