Can we still believe in our Church government?
In this article Matthew Barrett graples the question of church government. The elephant in the room (sorry, couldn't resist) is if we can hold to a single "biblical" view of church leadership while still being within broader evangelicalism, which accepts many theories of church polity. Good article and I agree with Barrett that we can and should believe our church government is biblical. As a side note, I also agree with Barrett that a plurality of elders is the biblical way to go.
No commentary, just watch this video with David Platt and Lighon Duncan.
This was an brain shocker. If you were a pastor, would you marry a couple who were living together. Its a tough one, I admit very readily, but the reasons given for why pastors would do this basically come down to the statement "I guess marriage is better than living together, so why not marry them?". What? This completely sweeps sin under the rug, without dealing with it. Is this what the pastor is called to do? We need to be able to stand against sin, even if it is culturally unacceptable. Does that mean I would never perform the ceremony? Of course not. If the party repented of their sin and still wanted to enjoy the benefits of a pure marriage, then absolutely I would marry them. I echo completely the thoughts of Al Mohler:
"Pastors are stewards of a biblical understanding of sexuality. Marrying cohabiters miscommunicates the teaching function of marriage. I would only marry couples that were repentant, had forsaken the sin of cohabitating, and sought the remedy of marriage. Marriage does not simply validate the long-term commitment of a couple whose relationship has been based upon cohabitation. There's another problem, which has to do with the fact that pastors are not the only stewards of marriage. In other words, marriage is accessible to persons outside the church. So when the church allows a marriage to take place within its life, it should be validating this in a way that goes beyond marriage as a creation institution and gets to what marriage is teaching in the ceremony of the church and the church's stewardship of marriage."
A very interesting article on evangelicals "canonizing" of C.S. Lewis. Interesting and thought provoking. I like C.S. Lewis, for the record, and am very impressed with his allegories. However, I do agree with Ryken that at times we overlook obvious faults (even in Mere Christianity) because we have such a saint-like image of him.
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