A paradigm for thinking Theologically and with Biblical practicality:

Jake Meador writes an interesting and thought provoking article over at Mere Orthodoxy. He is entering into a debate raised by John Piper about whether women should teach at seminaries. I haven't looked into the debate beyond Meador's comments so I won't go there, other than to say, while I am a complementarian and believe the Bible teaches that the leadership within the church should be male, I don't have a problem with women teaching in seminary.
What I particularly like about Meador's article is that he endorses a plan for "doing Theology and, since all good Theology should be practical, making decisions about life and ministry. The following paragraph captures this concept. 

When Paul is explaining his understanding of men and women in his epistles, he always appeals to creation, toward a natural order that exists in the world and reflects the truths he is presenting. He notes that man was made before woman in 1 Timothy 2 and in 1 Cor. 11 he argues that man is the glory of God and woman the glory of man, which suggests something about natures and which will apply in more directions than just a narrow list of clear biblical commands about a few particular arenas. This emphasis echoes the creation account in Genesis, of course, which goes to great lengths to emphasize the differences between men and women. Thus these differences are not a thing that can be safely confined to a small range of issues. They are, rather, hardwired into creation and thus must be acknowledged as having universal import.

At this point, I'm not arguing for the specific point that Piper (and perhaps Meador) is making. What I am advocating is that this is a good paradigm to follow when we are seeking to go to scripture and come out with answers for questions in our world.
I'm not anti-prooftext. If used honestly they have a clear place. John 3:16 is a marvelous prooftext concerning the love of God. It is not inappropriate to use it as such because it is an expression of a concept that oozes out of the Bible. There is a clear principle behind it, an undeniable direction in which God's word points us. God's love is clearly stamped into the DNA of the Word.
When we find those kinds of themes in scripture we find a foundation on which we can build good Theology, and upon which we can base sound practice. It is the kind of orthodoxy that leads to orthopraxy. Why don't we see more if it? For one thing, it is hard. Even more, this recognition of and competency to handle the broad themes of  Scripture is only available to those whose exposure to Holy Writ is deep and wide. Too often our Theological musings are less "Thus saith the Lord," and more "This is what half-a-dozen bright thinkers had to say." If we followed the paradigm that Meador is promoting perhaps we might approach the impact our Lord had.

   “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matthew 7:28–29, NASB95)  

Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?

An excellent series of articles came my way.  The Occasional Bulletin is a publication that is generally only available to Evangelical Missiological Society.  Because of its broad relevance EMS made this edition available to the general public.  I'm thankful that they did.  I think anyone will profit from this discussion.  For those of us involved in any way in missions it is must read stuff.
https://www.emsweb.org/publications/occasional-bulletin  Click on the download button.

Did Calvin Really Say . . .?

As both of you, who regularly read this blog, know, I have been thinking intermittently about cessationism over the past few months.  If  you scroll down you will spot some of these posts.  I have used my air-dyne time to listen to several of the Strange Fire messages.  Joni Tada is awesome, but I digress.  I just listened to (I can still feel my heart pumping) a message by Steve Lawson, Calvin's Critique of Charismatic Calvinists. http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/TM13-4/calvins-critique-of-charismatic-calvinists-steve-lawson
You will find  audio, video, and transcript of the message there.

I know some of you will quote a paraphrase of words once spoken about Jesus, "Can any good thing come out of GTY, or the Strange Fire Conference.  If that is the case with you, probably it would be best for our friendship if you just quit reading now.  Really, the purpose of this post is not to argue yay or nay about this message, or even cessationism or continuationism.  I'd be glad to discuss that on another occassion.  I am interested in some help.  My knowledge of Calvin is very rudimentary.  In this message Lawson quotes from Calvin, and summarizes him extensively.  Perhaps those of you who know the Theologian from Geneva well could help me out.  Is Lawson giving a fair representation of Calvin's teaching on this matter?  If he isn't perhaps you would be good enough to point me in the right direction in Calvin's works.

Blessings on you, and thinks for reading, and even more thanks if you  respond.

THE NEW PRESODISTS:

The Barna group recently posted some interesting results from a survey related to Calvinism in today's evangelical world. "Is There a "Reformed" Movement in American Churches?"
Those of you who read magazines and blogs have likely noticed descriptions like "The New Calvinists," or, the "Reformed Movement." Until I read this article I was one of those who would have said that the theological wind was blowing in the direction of an emphasis on Divine sovereignty. My thoughts in that regard had to do with the popularity of some writes and preachers who it seems to me are on that end of the spectrum--Piper, Keller, DeYoung, Begg, Harris, and Mohler. A number of magazines have covered the phenomenon, here.

I won't quote any numbers from the survey, you can read it, but, at least it seemed to me, the survey results do not bear out any move toward Geneva. I would appreciate your take on these numbers and observations on the trend, or lack thereof, in general.

There was one aspect of the crunched numbers that reinforced a personal observation--"nobody is any one thing anymore." It used to be that if you identified a trait associated with say Calvinism, or Wesleyanism in a person's Theology, that you could with reasonable confidence conclude that this person also held to most of the other tenets of that Theological system. No more. Note this observation from the survey: "The study found that 31% of pastors who lead churches within traditionally charismatic or Pentecostal denominations were described as Reformed, while 27% identified as Wesleyan/Arminian."

It kind of reminds me of the pastor who went to a pastor's fellowship that had experienced a schism along Calvinist/Arminian lines. When he registered, for no reason that he could identify the receptionist sent him to the Arminian group. Not recognizing him, some of the delegates asked who he was and why he decided to join their part of the fellowship. When he told them that he had no choice, but was sent, they threw him out. Not knowing where else to go, he chose to go to the Calvinist meeting. You can finish the story. :) The moral is there are a lot of folk who don't fit in either end of the convention hall.

Maybe we can help each other understand what is going on.