Go to the Fighting with God Conference Page for more info.

Date:January 16th and 17th
Location: Gresham, Oregon

Speakers:

• Mark Driscoll
• Ken Shamrock
• Darrin Patrick
• Matt Lindland
• Ryan Dobson
• Trevor Prangley
• Bill Russell
• Scott Knight

Dr. Don Carson came to Mars Hill last December with vast biblical knowledge and an obviously pastoral heart. He preached through 5 passages of scripture.

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“A Miracle Full of Surprises” John 11

For more video go to the Dr. Don page

Evangelism is the speaking and showing of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to people who do not yet know Him. Evangelism is the natural overflow of a life lived in joy as a worshiper of God. Sadly, evangelism is often portrayed as something that Christians must do as a duty, rather than something that they get to do as a delight.

Personally, I see evangelism as a wonderful opportunity to give the gift of God to people. I spent the first nineteen years of my life not knowing Jesus. I can count on one hand the number of times I remember anyone ever seeking to explain the person and work of Jesus to me. Ever since God saved me in college, I remain continually astounded by the love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and new life that has been extended to me through Jesus. I shudder to think at the devastation sin would have caused in my life had it not been for Jesus both forgiving my sin and keeping me from much more sin.

Love Overflows into Evangelism

As Christians, our love for Jesus and people should cause us to delight in speaking and showing the transforming power of Jesus’ grace at every opportunity. Although there is much evangelism yet to be done, it is encouraging to note that roughly 40 percent of the people at Mars Hill were not attending any church before ours and a few thousand people have become Christians through the ministry of our church. Indeed, the words of Jesus in Acts 18:10 are being applied to Seattle, “I have many in this city who are my people.”

Jesus the Evangelist

Regarding evangelism, it is Jesus Himself who set an example for us as The Evangelist. In Luke 19:10, Jesus explained His earthly mission in evangelistic terms saying, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” In calling His first disciples, “He said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!’” (Matthew 4:19). Among His final words after the resurrection and just prior to His heavenly ascension, we read in Matthew 28:18–20, “Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” Therefore, as we “go” to work, school, the grocery store, and elsewhere, we are to assume that Jesus is always with us, preparing people to hear the gospel because His work of evangelism has not ceased, but has expanded to include us.

Evangelism and Reformed Theology

Because of the Reformed theological convictions of Mars Hill Church, one of the common questions I receive is how we can believe that God predestines those He will save and that God does the work of causing people to become Christians, while at the same time concerning ourselves with doing personal evangelism. Essentially, the question assumes that since God will save whomever He desires, our evangelism is unnecessary. There are three things that must be clarified so that Reformed theology is not wrongly misunderstood as to pave the way for fatalistic passivity regarding evangelism.

Paul the Evangelist

First, we cannot merely read the words of Paul without placing them in the context of his life. Not only is Paul responsible for giving us clarity on such doctrines as predestination and election, he also demonstrated for us a life filled with evangelistic fervor. For example, even a cursory reading of Acts reveals that Paul was a very active evangelist who labored tirelessly from city to city until he was ultimately put to death for his evangelistic work. Furthermore, Paul repeatedly speaks of the importance of his personal evangelism in such places as 1 Corinthians 9:22–23 where he says “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel . . .”

Evangelism Fits With God’s Sovereignty

Second, perhaps the most thorough treatment of the doctrines of predestination and election are to be found in Romans 9–11. But in the middle of that breathtaking theological treatise that shows how salvation is fully the work of God, we also read Romans 10:14–15: “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news [the gospel]!’”

Third, God is fully sovereign. In regards to evangelism, God’s sovereignty includes selecting when and where we would live, who would we meet, and granting us the opportunity to do evangelism so that the elect will be saved. This is because God is sovereign over both the means and ends of evangelism. God has not only determined who will be saved, but has also determined how He will save them—and this often includes using our evangelistic efforts, though God can also save people apart from us as He chooses. God often chooses to allow us to be involved in the process so that we might share in the joy of seeing people’s earthly and eternal lives forever transformed through Jesus.

Jesus Saves People

Practically, this means that by understanding that God is already at work on the elect, we are able up to do evangelism with the greatest amount of freedom and joy. We can share the gospel of Jesus in full confidence that God will use it to save some people because they are elect. On the other hand, if some people should not respond to the gospel in faith, we should not take that personally but rather pray that God would open their blind eyes to see His love and also humbly trust God’s will and timing in all things.

Lastly, the fact that Jesus remains to this day an active evangelist is of great encouragement to me personally. It means that children who are aborted in the womb, those mentally incapable of understanding the gospel, and those people who have lived in times and places that missionaries did not visit are not necessarily beyond the hope of salvation. Indeed, Jesus could visit and save anyone anywhere because He remains The Evangelist.

Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 in his Italian family castle at Roccasecca. He grew up to be an unattractive heavy man who suffered from dropsy and had one eye that was much larger than the other. He was not a particularly dynamic man but rather an introspective, quiet loner who rarely entered a conversation, and when he did he would speak about something completely unrelated to the topic. Consequently, his college classmates named him “the dumb ox.”

Kidnapped

In 1244 Aquinas joined the Dominican Catholic order. His family was greatly opposed to his decision because they wanted him to become wealthy and powerful, not take a vow of poverty. His brothers kidnapped him and held him captive for fifteen months in an effort to prevent him from entering a life of ministry. Unable to dissuade him, their last-ditch effort involved sending a woman into his bedroom to seduce him, but he forced her to leave his room and devoted himself to a life of chastity.

Finally relenting, his family released Aquinas and in 1245 he went to Paris to study with Albert the Great. In 1250 he was ordained as a Catholic priest, and in 1256 he was named a master of theology at Paris.

Reasoning with the Greeks

At that time Christian theology was in great conflict with Greek philosophers, and Aquinas arose as the most competent thinker to address the interface between faith and reason. Many of the great thinkers of the day were enamored with Aristotle and his ability to explain all of reality not with faith and Scripture but with reason and philosophy. The growing popularity of Aristotle’s teaching was a great threat to Christianity on three major issues. One, Aristotle appeared to deny that a god made creation, preferring instead an eternal creation. Two, Aristotle was believed to oppose any concept of personal physical eternal life. Third, Aristotle seemingly taught that God only thought of Himself and was therefore not involved in the affairs of men or personally concerned about anyone.

Theology AND Reason

After carefully studying and writing commentary on a dozen of Aristotle’s works, Aquinas concluded that much of Aristotle’s work was misread by Islamic scholars and that most of his actual conclusions were compatible with Christianity. In agreement with Aristotle, Aquinas concluded that philosophical reason is based upon sensory data gathered by our five senses and that theological revelation does not contradict reason but exceeds it by providing insights to that which only God knows and the unaided human mind could never know otherwise. For example, Aquinas would agree that through reason and observing creation a person could reasonably conclude that there was a Creator, but apart from the revelation of Scripture one would never conclude that the Creator was the Trinitarian God.

The Reader

Throughout his life, Aquinas was an avid reader and author. Although he died before his fiftieth birthday, he produced more than ten million words in some sixty works, including eighteen enormous and dense volumes of theology. His penmanship was so poor and slow, though, that he dictated to as many as four secretaries simultaneously on different subjects. His surviving biblical commentaries include work on all of Paul’s letters and the gospels of Matthew and John, as well as a work called the Golden Chain, a collection of comments by various church fathers on all four of the gospels. His Old Testament works include a commentary on Job, a partial commentary on the Psalms (through the first fifty-one), and a commentary on Isaiah. For obvious reasons, Aquinas is widely regarded as the greatest theologian of the Middle Ages.

Summa Theologica

In 1265 Aquinas began writing perhaps his most famous work, the Summa Theologica, which means “a summation of theological knowledge.” While working on the massive tome, Aquinas had a vision that caused him to suddenly stop working on the project. Despite pleadings from his secretary, he never wrote again and spent the remaining months of his life in reported silence until his death in 1274.

By Pastor Mark Driscoll
Researched by Deacon Crystal Griffin

Continued from Part 1.

Service-Members Need the Gospel

There is on average one chaplain assigned per battalion (roughly 500 individuals). Other than a few exceptions, chaplains are normally in their mid-40s and from mainline liberal denominations. The guys they are assigned to minister to are not being presented the Jesus who is enthroned, exalted, and getting ready to come back covered in the blood of His vanquished foes. They are being fed the marginalized Jewish carpenter, who has given us some nuggets of suggestions to help us live good lives.

We, as the church, have a responsibility to disciple others. There is a golden opportunity for us to rise up and assist not only the chaplains currently serving, but also men who are called to rise up in the ranks as leaders. The church dropped the ball by not welcoming in and discipling Vietnam veterans, causing many service-members to actually feel at odds with the church.

The church is not designed to be a place for you to go once you have your life put together. It is designed to be the headquarters, sending men out and receiving men in who are trying to piece together their shattered selves through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We should actually be recruiters who enjoy what we are recruiting folks into, since we don’t deserve the grace Jesus has given us.

While our government has set up measures to help both service-members and veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs, it is ill-equipped to address the core needs of service-members. The church needs to man-up and lead the nation in restoring the emotional, marital, and familial health and dignity of our veterans. We as the church have what service-members need: the Gospel.

How To Support the Troops

I will be posting about issues pertinent to both active-duty service-members and veterans in order to raise some awareness for Americans who think they are supporting the troops.

Most folks think they are supporting the troops by putting a magnet on their car, forwarding a prayer chain email for the troops that asks you to pray one minute each day for them, or randomly sending a care package full of baby wipes and mints to soldiers in Iraq (to these folks, please go read James 2:16).

This is not support. The support needed looks more like the early church from Acts 2 (committed to community and fellowship), and less like you giving a buck to the homeless vet on the side of the freeway as you drive away sipping your venti $5 coffee. Hopefully I can give you guys some idea of what this support looks like.

After exiting the Army, I have struggled at times to communicate openly with my wife of five years, and even to just feel “normal” in civilian life. I have been extended grace in not only employment, but also in protection from falling into sin.

As I read about the growing numbers of returning warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan who are struggling with the reintegration process and wondering what is the purpose of their suffering and their service, my heart is wrenched as I meditate on the grace which has been poured out and is being poured out over me and my family. I know that I could easily become the man on the off-ramp of the freeway asking for change.

As the church, God has called us to engage the warriors serving and the veterans who have served (Romans 10:14-17). He does not need us or our “help” (Acts 17:25) but has allowed us to be involved in His kingdom-building and the spreading of His glory. I pray that God raises up men who will accept this mission.

The larger-than-life myths surrounding Santa Claus actually emanate from the very real person of Saint Nicholas. It is difficult to know the exact details of his life with certainty, as the ancient records are sparse, but the various pieces can be put together as a mosaic of his life.

Who was Saint Nick?

Nicholas was born in the third century in Patara, a village in what is now Turkey. He was born into an affluent family, but his parents died tragically when he was quite young. His parents had raised him to be a devout Christian, which led him to spend his great inheritance on helping the poor, especially children. He was known to frequently give gifts to children, sometimes even hanging socks filled with treats and gifts.

Perhaps his most famous act of kindness was helping three sisters. Because their family was too poor to pay for their wedding dowry, three young Christian women were facing a life of prostitution until Nicholas paid their dowry, thereby saving them from a horrible life of sexual slavery.

Nicholas grew to be a well-loved Christian leader and was eventually voted the Bishop of Myra, a port city that the apostle Paul had previously visited (Acts 27:5-6). Nicholas reportedly also traveled to the legendary Council of Nicea, where he helped defend the deity of Jesus Christ in AD 325.

Following his death on December 6, 343, he was canonized as a Saint. The anniversary of his death became the St. Nicholas holiday when gifts were given in his memory. He remained a very popular saint among Catholic and Orthodox Christians, with some 2,000 churches named after him. The holiday in his honor eventually merged with Christmas as they were celebrated within weeks of one another.

Reformation Controversy

During the Reformation, however, Nicholas fell out of favor with Protestants, who did not approve of canonizing certain people as saints and venerating them with holidays. His holiday was not celebrated in any Protestant country except Holland, where his legend as Sinterklass lived on. In Germany, Martin Luther replaced him with the Christ child as the object of holiday celebration, or, in German, Christkindl. Over time, the celebration of the Christ child was simply pronounced Kriss Kingle and oddly became just another name for Santa Claus.

Santa Myths

The legends about Santa Claus are most likely a compilation of other folklore. For example, there was a myth in Nicholas’ day that a demon was entering people's homes to terrorize children and that Nicholas cast it out of a home. This myth may explain why it was eventually believed that he came down people's chimneys.

Also, there was a Siberian myth (near the North Pole) that a holy man, or shaman, entered people's homes through their chimneys to leave them mushrooms as gifts. According to the legend, he would hang them in front of the fire to dry. Reindeer would reportedly eat them and become intoxicated. This may have started the myth that the reindeer could fly, as it was believed that the shaman could also fly. This myth may have merged with the Santa Claus myth and if so, explains him traveling from the North Pole to come down the chimney and leave presents on the mantle over the fireplace before flying away with reindeer.

These stories of Santa Claus were first brought to America by Dutch immigrants. In the early 20th century, stores began having Santa Claus present for children during the Christmas season. Children also began sending letters to the North Pole as the legends surrounding an otherwise simple Christian man grew.

At the Resurgence, we keep the center of Christmas focused on Jesus; it’s probably what Nicholas would have wanted.

Resurgence Literature:

Re:Lit is a ministry of Resurgence. There you will find a growing line of books to help guide the resurgence of the new reformed. Find out more.

I've posted some thoughts on the snowiest Sunday we've seen in the history of Mars Hill over at the Mars Hill Blog.

Check it out.

Watching the Twin Towers crumble to the ground like a couple of Jenga towers, I knew that my future would be in the military. It didn’t help that Band of Brothers was currently playing on HBO, and I would have felt like a wuss if I hadn’t joined the military. After finishing college and joining the Army, it wasn’t long before I found myself in northern Afghanistan.

It was a couple of surreal weeks during my first month in Afghanistan. I was conducting missions during the day, reading the book of John at night, and watching porn before I went to sleep. It was during this time that Jesus took my heart of stone, gave me a heart of flesh, took the scales off my eyes, and gave me the ears to hear His call.

During these sleepless nights in Afghanistan, as I went through C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, I came face to face with having to decide who I thought Jesus Christ actually was. Through the grace of God, I knew that if He was indeed Lord (and not a liar or a lunatic), the way I had been living my life—commonly referred to as sinning—was putting me at odds with the Creator of the universe. This was when I became a Christian.

King Jim

I started getting plugged into a Bible study with our battalion chaplain, who was a King James-only Baptist dude. I still love the guy to this day, just not some of his theology. He had some arguments for why every other Bible translation was actually from Satan, and as a new Christian I believed him. Thankfully, as I continued to read God’s Word, speak with other believers, and read what other folks had to say, I realized that there's more to Christianity than this.

A year after getting back from Afghanistan, I found myself in a remote base in northern Iraq, which used to be a granary but was now occupied by 500 Iraqi Army soldiers and 75 US military personnel. We had a solid chaplain assigned to our unit, but he was only able to visit our base about once a month.

Jesus laid it on my heart to just start pulling guys together on a regular basis to open the Bible, read it, and have it transform our lives. Over the 14 months that I was in Iraq, our group would fluctuate from 3 guys to 15 depending on our OPTEMPO (operations tempo). We started with the book of John, and chewed our way through 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Matthew.

Gals with shaved heads

Right before we actually got to Iraq, I started to listen to some sermons on my iPod that I had randomly downloaded off of iTunes from this guy from a church in Seattle called Mark Driscoll. The first sermon I listened to was out of 1 Corinthians 11, in which Paul is speaking about head coverings and symbols of authority. As soon as Pastor Mark made some comment about butch ladies and bucking authority, I was hooked on this guy’s teaching.

My wife started burning anything she could get her hands on from Mars Hill, from audio sermons to video sermons, and mailing them out to me in Iraq. We started rounding up the guys and showing at least one sermon a week on a laptop through a projector with speakers hooked up to it, and this was our Sunday church service. There were nights when we would even just chill, drink some coffee, and go through a few sermons.

The floodgates opened up with the guys as we worked through porn, masturbating, beer, Calvinism, the exclusivity of Christ, being a husband and daddy, and war, just to name a few topics.

Gigs of Gospel

When guys are deployed, a lot of them have external hard drives that they keep all their media files on (music, movies, pictures), and they share these with one another. Guys are notorious for having gigs upon gigs of porn—all classified appropriately by gal, act, you name it.

One of the coolest things I got to experience was seeing guys borrow external hard drives from one another, not to get the latest porn, but rather to make sure they had all of the vodcasts posted by Mars Hill from the “Christians Gone Wild” series (1 Corinthians), the “Redeeming Ruth” series (book of Ruth), or the “Vintage Jesus” series. Instead of filling their brains with endless hours of garbage, they were watching Pastor Mark preach through the Word.


_______________________

Find out how you can work with Al to help the soldiers

Join us as we're trying to get as many Christ-centered resources into the hands of US troops in Afganistan and Iraq.

Vintage Jesus DVD Curriculum

Buy a Vintage Jesus DVD curriculum and send it to Bible Study leaders that are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our publisher is offering 75% off to get this to as many troops as possible - $56 for a full study pack.

On the Song of Solomon site enter promo code: vintagemilitary
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3405 Milton Ave.
Suite 207
Dallas, TX 75205

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Porn Again Christian Booklets

Porn Again Christian is a book written by Pastor Mark Driscoll that brings the roots of sexual sin to the surface and encourages men to deal honestly with the lust and perversion in their hearts.

We need people to step up and help with this effort. Please send us a message if you're willing.

A message from a Christian soldier

Imagine going on a business trip with a bunch of guys from work. After a tough day on the job, some guys head back to the hotel to rest and watch a movie, TV, or read. A group of other guys get together and watch a DVD on their laptop of a particular sexual act being performed for hours as they jeer at the women performing these acts.

Porn is as common in the ranks of our military – especially in Iraq and Afghanistan – as watching 24 or The Office is back in the States. Our men in the military need missionaries who are already serving side by side to point them to King Jesus and can hand them a copy of "Porn Again Christian." Pastor Mark's booklet is exactly the kind of message that needs to get in the hands of the men who serve this country. Being frank and to the point, Pastor Mark strikes a chord with so many men who have experience with porn, and doesn't give them the Christianity Lite that is so common place not only in our culture but also in the military.

Please help The Resurgence get "Porn Again" out to our men serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are men currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan that can get these booklets out to their brothers in arms, and if you are a service member or know of someone that would benefit from getting this booklet please send us a message.

Alfred Lobaina

Themelios is an online theological magazine with articles from some of the world's top theologians and pastors. It's a quality publication from our friends at the Gospel Coalition.

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Here's the table of contents (from JT):

• Editorial [on not conforming to the world of technology], by D.A. Carson
• Minority Report: The Way of the Christian Academic, by Carl Trueman
• The Gospel and the Poor, by Tim Keller
• Shared Intentions? Reflections on Inspiration and Interpretation in Light of Scripture's Dual Authorship, by Jared M. Compton
• The Center of Biblical Theology in Acts: Deliverance and Damnation Display the Divine, by James M. Hamilton Jr.
• Salvation History, Chronology, and Crisis: A Problem with Inclusivist Theology of Religions, Part 2 of 2, by Adam Sparks
• Ezra, According to the Gospel: Ezra 7:10, Philip Graham Ryken
• Book Reviews