"WHY EVERY SELF-RESPECTING CALVINIST IS A PREMILLENNIALIST"

and other quotes I received this week, via E-mail

John MacArthur, Oswald Chamber, John Scott, A.W. Tozer, Thomas Brooks, Charles Spurgeon, Albert Mohler, Uncle Chuck, Donald Whisnant, Glenn Frankie, Tim Challies

I was unable to attend this year’s Shepherd’s Conference at the Grace Community Church where John MacArthur is pastor. This year the main keynote speakers were:

I was bless by been able to read from live blogging by Tim Challies.

• "The session concerned itself with sovereign election, Israel, and eschatology, Dr. MacArthur sought to answer questions such as does the end matter. Does it matter to God? Should it matter to us? The answer is that of course it matters to God and thus should matter to us. History is heading to a divinely designed and revealed end, and if it matters enough to God to reveal it, it should matter enough to us to study it. And yet we often seem to think that God somehow muddled the biblical discussion of the end times so badly that it is best to just conced the muddle and move on. Yet MacArthur believes that the hard work involved in understanding the prophetic passeages is neither needless nor impossible.
• MacArthur made the point that those who most celebrate the sovereign grace of election regarding the church and its place in God’s purpose and those who defend the truth of promise and fulfillment and believe in election being divine unashamedly deny the same for elect Israel. This is a strange division. "Its too late for Calvin," he said, "but it’s not too late for the rest of you. If Calvin were here he would join our movement."
  The trust of the message was simple:
• Of all people to be pre-millennialist it should be the Calvinist - - those who believe in sovereign election. A-millennialism is ideal for Arminians because according to their theology God elects notbody and preserves nobody. A-millialism is consistent with Arminianism. Yet it is inconsistent with Reformed theology and its emphasis on God’s electing grace."
• IS ESCHATOLOGICAL DOGMATISM NECESSARY? IS IT EVEN HELPFUL?
  This week at the Shepherd’s Conference 2007 John MacArthur where 3,000 pastors of all background attended: John MacArthur, Steve Lawson, C.J. Mahaney (stepped in for John Piper who’s father died) Albert Mohler, Mark Dever

Oswald Chambers

• We are not saved to be "channels only," but to be sons and daughtersof God. We are not turned into spiritual mediums, but into spiritualmessengers; the message must be part of ourselves. The Son of God wasHis own message, His words were spirit and life; and as His disciplesour lives must be the sacrament of our message. The natural heartwill do any amount of serving, but it takes the heart broken byconviction of sin, and baptized by the Holy Ghost, and crumpled intothe purpose of God before the life becomes the sacrament of itsmessage.There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. Apreacher is one who has realized the call of God and is determined touse his every power to proclaim God's truth. God takes us out of ourown ideas for our lives and we are "batter'd to shape and use," asthe disciples were after Pentecost. Pentecost did not teach thedisciples any thing; it made them the incarnation of what theypreached - "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me."Let God have perfect liberty when you speak. Before God's message canliberate other souls, the liberation must be real in you. Gather yourmaterial, and set it alight when you speak.

John Scott

• 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10. 2). A defense of God’s justice (continued)First, when ill God vindicate his justice and redress the present imbalance of human experience? Answer: This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels (7b). The parousia (official visit) has now become the apokalypsis (unveiling) of Jesus Christ. The basic affirmation of his coming is almost identical in both letters:

A.W. Tozer said:

• Pastoral Ministry: Fencing With MastersFor the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. --2 Timothy 4:3-4Every one who has come to the years of responsibility seems to have gone on the defensive. Even some of you who have known me for years are surely on the defensive--you have your guard up all the time!I know that you are not afraid of me, but you are afraid, nevertheless, of what I am going to say. Probably every faithful preacher today is fencing with masters as he faces his congregation. The guard is always up. The quick parry is always ready.
• It is very hard for me to accept the fact that it is now very rare for anyone to come into the house of God with guard completely down, head bowed and with the silent confession:
• "Dear Lord, I am ready and willing to hear what You will speak to my heart today!"We have become so learned and so worldly and so sophisticated and so blase and so bored and so religiously tired that the clouds of glory seem to have gone from us. Christ the Eternal Son, 108-109."Lord, quiet my own heart before You and give me that humble spirit of listening. Whenever I come before You (including this morning!), may it be with my 'guard completely down, head bowed.... ready and willing to hear what You will speak to my heart today.' Amen."
  

Brooks said in 1662

Holiness will render you most beautiful and amiable. As holiness is the beauty of God, and the beauty of angels--so it is the beauty and glory of a Christian also. Holiness casts such a beauty upon man, as makes him very amiable and desirable.

Holiness is lovely, yes--loveliness itself. Purity is a Christian's splendor and glory. There is no beauty compared to that of sanctity; nothing beautifies and bespangles a man like holiness. Holiness is so attractive and so lovely a thing--that it draws all eyes and hearts to an admiration of it. Holiness is so great a beauty--that it puts a beauty upon all other excellencies in a man. That holiness is a very beautiful thing, and that it makes all those beautiful who have it--is a truth that no devil can deny!

Charles Spurgeon said

Live near to Jesus, Christian, and it is matter of secondary importance whether thou livest on the mountain of honour or in the valley of humiliation. Living near to Jesus, thou art covered with the wings of God, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Let nothing keep thee from that hallowed intercourse, which is the choice privilege of a soul wedded to THE WELL-BELOVED. Be not content with an interview now and then, but seek always to retain His company, for only in His presence hast thou either comfort or safety. Jesus should not be unto us a friend who calls upon

Albert Mohler’s blog :

• Just a few decades ago, educators and other observers were warning that the American attention span was growing dangerously short. Educators reported that students had difficulty maintaining focus on a subject -- even for just a few minutes. Well, it now looks like those minutes may be turning into seconds. In this morning's blog, Dr. Albert Mohler says the attention deficit spells further challenge for educators, parents and preachers.

Uncle Chuck sent this to me:

• A little boy was overheard praying:"Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.I'm having a real good time like I am."

My brother Donald Whisnant said this:

• You can believe as fact every word the Bible says, including about God, Christ, his death on the cross and resurrection, Heaven and Hell, and the entire Gospel message, but still be lost for eternity. Even Satan knows the facts (James 2:19) and shudders. To "believe" in the sense of John 3:16 is to turn away from trusting in your own schemes and self-efforts to get to Heaven (including church membership and sacraments, baptism, and doing good deeds) to trusting wholly and alone in what Christ has already done for you by his death on the cross as the only payment God will accept (nothing you can add) to satisfy his judgment against the human race because of Adam’’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Read to hear what God says in Romans chapter 5. Don Whisnant
  
  

Glenn Frankie e mail me this week:

• Charles; I would offer that when a person suggests that a pastor did a good job with his sermon - the meaning is with the hearer - not with the Pastor. I feel it comes to application and individual need. I can honestly say that I hear some messages that sound better - more meaningful to me than others. That - to me - says the Holy Spirit was convicting me more with the author's message/ the Pastor's sermon.
  

Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant 03 10 07