thejakers

Piper warns on the dangers of idolizing intellectualism.

I just can’t seem to get away from N.T. Wright this week.

If you’ve bounced around the Christian blogosphere you’ve probably at least heard about the justification debate between some prominent reformed theologians and N.T. Wright. This debate went fairly public when John Piper publicly responded to Wright’s book, What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?, with his book, The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright. Wright has most recently responded with his newest book, Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision.

Rest assured the debate is not over, and is probably just heating up. That being said, I should preface that this is a single issue debate and that Wright is not only respected in these circles for his work on a number of other issues, he is also considered an authority. There’s no denying Wright is an important, well-thought of, and orthodox brother in Christ with much to add to the fabric of Christian thought.

I’ve yet to dive completely into the debate. I’m currently reading What Saint Paul Really Said, and find it interesting so far. If you want to get caught up on the state of this debate, this month’s Tabletalk Magazine, published by R.C. Sproul’s ministry organization, is dedicating its entire issue to the topic. You can read some of the issue here:

What N.T. Wright Really Said

That’s all for now. If any of you are more versed on this controversy, I’d love to get your perspective in the comments section.

Here’s an amazing video from Christianity Today’s, The Global Conversation, on the prosperity gospel’s exportation to third-world Africa.

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

As someone who grew up in a Charismatic church that was heavily influenced by the prosperity gospel, I know first-hand the damage that can be done by this gross bastardization of the Gospel of Jesus. While watching this video, I surprising found myself crying. Seems the pain of my former church experiences aren’t as healed as I thought.

Here’s another great video from John Piper on the topic as well. (Thanks to Mike Pohlman for sharing these too.)

Freaking powerful words.

All this brings to mind the conversation making the rounds on the blogosphere on the $130 million new building project being started by First Baptist Church of Dallas. There has been a lot of chatter and backlash on this project.

I think the reason for this can be best summed up by the reasoning behind senior pastor, Robert Jeffress rationalization for the project, ”The finest facility in this area should be one that glorifies almighty God.”

Here’s my question, Can a facility really glorify God? No, it is the people who make up the church in that facility. And I’m pretty sure spending $130 million to help the poor and destitute is a better way to engage this recession and glorify God than to take advantage of low construction costs.

Jeffress declares his goal is to create a “spiritual oasis” in Downtown Dallas…and that’s really the problem, isn’t it?

How about we bring the living water to those that are dying of thirst instead of calling them to come to an opulent oasis.