Harry Potter, Twilight, and Anne Rice

And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)

I have not fully developed a philosophy of how Christians should relate to culture. I am aware that this conversation is a heavy, multi-faceted one that can get heated quickly. Moreover, I am convinced that most of us never really have an honest dialogue about this, either within ourselves, with Scripture, or with those we trust. It is much easier to sort of stick our thumbs up in the air, measure the cultural wind (whether of society or of our chosen subset of society), and go with the flow.

I have not read or studied so much on this, though I have some initial thoughts that I believe will at least help to frame the tension a little bit more Biblically for us.

Rob Bell and "Love Wins"

I haven't checked facebook and twitter recently. (Really, I have only been on twitter once so far. I got it, then it lay dormant. I'm too wordy for that forum of communication anyway.) But apparently they have been abuzz with controversy surrounding Rob Bell and his new book, "Love Wins". He put out a promotional video for the book - see below - that implies his view of hell may be universalist - basically that everyone gets into heaven. Of course, there are plenty of universalists running around, but if it turns out Bell is one, it will be not insignificant, as he has quite a large following among a certain demographic of evangelicals. He may just be the trendy tip of an iceberg-size shift among evangelicals in America. For a generation that is quick to let go of the idea of truth, it is not surprising that difficult doctrines are swept under the rug and implicitly or explicitly, as the case may be, denied.

I really don't have the energy to write too much of a critique, and I don't have anything too original to add to the conversation; therefore, I have written this entry more with the intent to inform and to point you to others who have recently written about this issue.



Here are links to a Christianity Today article on the subject as well as Justin Taylor's blog entry on the subject, which has received some attention.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/marchweb-only/rob-bell-universalism.html?start=1

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/02/26/rob-bell-universalist/

The following is a blog entry by Kevin DeYoung. I found through Taylor's post, and it is a pretty strong critique of Bell.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/02/28/bell-brouhaha/

Philippians 1:8

For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:8)

This simple verse worked me over today. I am going to be teaching my dad's Sunday School class this week, and we will be covering Philippians 1:1-11. Today it was bright outside, and I had about an hour to go before I had to leave for my commute to Kennesaw. I decided to sit outside with the sunshine and with the Scripture, with Philippians.

John Piper - Subjected in Hope

The following is a message by John Piper preached at the Village Church in Texas. The pastor of the Village Church is Matt Chandler, who is about thirty five and was diagnosed with brain cancer around Thanksgiving of 2009. Honestly, I hope to walk through my trials in life with the grace and faith that Matt has shown in the midst of this trial. He is doing well now, still preaching, and one of the most amazing things about the whole deal was the perspective he was able to take on God's sovereignty in suffering. Piper's sermon here - and this theology of suffering explained elsewhere - has very deeply impacted the way that I think about the world. Out of all the talks I have posted, I would rank this one very near the top because I can easily see these being the things you might hang onto in times of crisis. Soli Deo gloria.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/subjected-in-hope

Marriage (2) - Francis Chan on Christ-Centered Relationships

Marriage (1) - An apologetic for why I might have anything to say about this

I am not yet married.

But I am going to start blogging about marriage. Specifically, there are two books on the subject that I want to work through. One is a book called What Did You Expect? by Paul Tripp. I have posted a video by Tripp on the use of our words, and I believe he is very good at shedding practical Gospel light on important parts of life... like marriage. He is not a preacher, but a counselor, and his heart for that comes through in the book. Though he is not a preacher, he is deeply Biblical in his advice. This is the book that Nicole and I are currently reading together to help direct us to relevant Biblical truths and prepare our hearts for what we might be able to expect.

The other book is by an author familiar to this blog, John Piper. His book is This Momentary Marriage. Piper is a self-proclaimed Christian Hedonist, and he would describe that this way: seeking our happiness is not wrong; in fact we should seek it with great passion and all our energy, but we should seek it in God alone and not the countless other pathetic idols we chase. We should delight ourselves in God. He is our ultimate end. Piper, under the influence of Jonathan Edwards, asserts that God's ultimate design in the world is to make his glory known; God's glory is ultimate and everything else is penultimate. Piper, speaking as a Christian Hedonist, then concludes (and is often quoted), "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." God's getting glory and my getting joy are not at odds, but rather, by God's all-wise, Christ-glorifying, loving, gracious design, they meet at Christ's blood stained cross. All of Piper's books are really explorations of different parts of life through that God-glorifying lens; this book is the same. How should we think about marriage in light of the gospel? And how should we think about it in light of God's glory and my joy coming together in that gospel?

So there it is - a brief roadmap of what you might expect in the coming months. I am sure it will take three or four months to get through both of these books. I know that I am going to learn quite a lot; I hope you may, too. I now would like to address what might be some objections rising in your mind as to why you should read any of these coming posts.