Greg Thornbury on the Crucifixion

Greg Thornbury is the Dean of the School of Theology and Missions and Vice President for Spiritual Life at Union University in Jackson, TN. He also serves as editor for the “Q&A on the Bible” section of the BibleMesh Blog.

BibleMesh aims to help people understand the big picture as well as important facts of the Bible. The first BibleMesh resource is “The Biblical Story,” a course that presents Scripture as a cohesive narrative of God’s work in the world from Genesis to Revelation. It utilizes an interactive quizzing tool that helps people remember what they have learned. And finally, it includes a social networking platform which will allow pastors and church leaders to host their own online Bible studies and contribute their own resources. Forthcoming content will include courses in Biblical Greek and Hebrew.

VIDEO: Alistair Begg on the Death of Christ

BibleMesh | April 5, 2012 | BibleMesh

Alistair Begg is the senior minister at Parkview Church in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Security of Stained Glass—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

BibleMesh | January 16, 2012 | BibleMesh, Culture, History, Worldview

From a Birmingham jail in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. penned his now famous response to the liberal clergymen who opposed his methods for fighting racial discrimination.¹ Among his many disappointments, one stood out above all others. In the face of manifest ungodliness, the Church had been silent. King was painfully aware that when the Church is silent about sin, evil will follow. As a minister of the gospel, he was equally convinced that the Church could speak prophetically to the culture and transform it. But unless her voice was faithful and clear, she would become irrelevant. He was right.

Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership . . . I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.

When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church, felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; and too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows . . .

In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: “Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.” And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular . . .

Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

There was a time when the church was very powerful—in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But the Christians pressed on in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man . . .

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch-defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent—and often even vocal—sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.²

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¹ “Statement by Alabama Clergymen, April 12, 1963,” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Paper Project at Stanford University Website, http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/frequentdocs/clergy.pdf.
² Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963,” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Paper Project at Stanford University Website, http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf.

The “Life-Fire” of God’s Word—Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

BibleMesh | January 12, 2012 | BibleMesh, Scripture, Theology, Worldview

In 1854, at the age of twenty and just four years after his conversion, Charles H. Spurgeon became pastor of London’s New Park Street Church. His ministry so grew that the 6,000-seat Metropolitan Tabernacle was built to accommodate the congregation. In “The Mustard Seed: A Sermon for the Sabbath-School Teacher,” he spoke of the power of the gospel, and his words extended to the whole of Scripture.

The human can never rival the divine, for it lacks the life-fire. It is better to preach five words of God’s Word than five million words of man’s wisdom. Men’s words may seem to be the wiser and more attractive, but there is no heavenly life in them. Within God’s Word, however simple it may be, there dwells an omnipotence like that of God, from whose lips it came.¹

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¹ C. H. Spurgeon, “The Mustard Seed: A Sermon for the Sabbath-School Teacher,” The Parables of Our Lord (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2003), 707.

Biblical Insight: Chewing on the Text

BibleMesh | January 10, 2012 | BibleMesh, Scripture, World Religions

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Joshua 1:8 (ESV)

An increasing number of psychotherapists recommend a Buddhist meditation technique. The practice is called “mindfulness meditation,” through which therapists help clients solve emotional issues by instructing them “to foster an awareness of every sensation as it unfolds in the moment.”¹ Yoga continues to gain popularity as well, with its goal of “highest Joy that comes from the Realization in direct experience of the center of consciousness.”² Then there is New Age meditation, which takes strategies from Eastern philosophy, yoga, mysticism, and Buddhism for spiritual and ethical guidance. The range of contemporary “meditation” options can easily cloud the understanding and application of meditation as a Christian spiritual discipline.

Joshua 1 marks a key turning point in Israel’s history. Moses, their longtime leader, has died, and God transfers the role to Joshua. The covenant promises given to the patriarchs are beginning to flower, as the nation is poised on the brink the Promised Land (1:11). Before this momentous event, however, the Lord commissions Joshua and gives him several commands. Central to these imperatives for the new leader is the command concerning the Book of the Law.

The imperatives “shall not depart” and “shall meditate” form the backbone of verse 8. To modern sensibilities, it seems odd that the Lord would focus on the mouth instead of the eye (to read), but in the Ancient Near East, reading was commonly done aloud. This could help to explain why the book was not to depart from Joshua’s mouth.

Meditation essentially means a slow, intentional “chewing” on the text. In fact, the term “meditate” denotes something like mumbling or speaking under the breath. This can be seen today in rabbinic practice. Whether in private or at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, many Jews mouth the words of Scripture quietly.

God does not command the new leader to meditate for mere scholarly purposes; instead, He binds meditation with ethical living. “…so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” Psalm 1 paints the same picture: the blessed man is the one who meditates “day and night” rather than walking in the way of sinners.

Meditation is not meant to be a mindless escape from reality or reflection on one’s own problems. Instead, Christian meditation always focuses on God and His Word for the purpose of holiness and obedience. A believer pauses with God’s Word open before his heart and his mind, prayerfully seeking to understand and apply the Lord’s directions. For meditation to be effective, the mind must be full of God’s inerrant Word, not man’s mere thoughts or yearnings. Indeed, this practice marks the believer “day and night,” leading to holiness and Christlikeness.

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¹Benedict Carey, “Lotus Therapy,” New York Times Website, May 27, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/health/research/27budd.html?ex=1369627200&en=243cf577038c27b1&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink (accessed June 8, 2010).
² “The Joy of Traditional Yoga Meditation, Contemplation, and Devotion,” Traditional Yoga and Meditation of the Himalayan Masters Website, http://www.swamij.com/ (accessed June 8, 2010).

No “Spiritual Gains without Pains”—J. C. Ryle (1816-1900)

BibleMesh | January 2, 2012 | BibleMesh, Scripture, Theology

J. C. Ryle was a prominent evangelical leader in the Church of England during the second half of the 19^th century. A champion of orthodox doctrine in an age of theological decline, he never divorced dogma from holy living. In fact, his book Holiness, from which this excerpt is taken, argued that no true Christian lacks practical godliness. And developing godliness requires practicing the spiritual disciplines.

Sanctification, again, is a thing which depends greatly on a diligent use of scriptural means. When I speak of “means,” I have in view Bible-reading, private prayer, regular attendance on public worship, regular hearing of God’s Word, and regular reception of the Lord’s Supper. I lay it down as a simple matter of fact, that no one who is careless about such things must ever expect to make much progress in sanctification. I can find no record of any eminent saint who ever neglected them. They are appointed channels through which the Holy Spirit conveys fresh supplies of grace to the soul, and strengthens the work which He has begun in the inward man. Let men call this legal doctrine if they please, but I will never shrink from declaring my belief that there are no “spiritual gains without pains.” I should as soon expect a farmer to prosper in business who contented himself with sowing his fields and never looking at them till harvest, as expect a believer to attain much holiness who was not diligent about his Bible-reading, his prayers, and the use of his Sundays. Our God is a God who works by means, and He will never bless the soul of that man who pretends to be so high and spiritual that he can get on without them.¹

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¹J. C. Ryle, Holiness: It’s Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, rev. ed. (Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan, 2001), 25.