Reformation Day sermon

Posted by Rick in Uncategorized (Friday November 21, 2003 at 11:28 am)

Talk about depressing.
Justification by Faith on Trial. Rom. 9:30-10:13 (Reformation Sunday) by Rob Rayburn.
:-(

11 Responses to “Reformation Day sermon”

  1. barlow Says:
    November 21st, 2003 at 11:40 am

    That is very sad. Hopefully his friends will talk to him about it.

  2. Christopher Witmer Says:
    November 21st, 2003 at 12:39 pm

    As a matter separate from the preacher’s personal take on the NPP, I wonder what kind of a group he’s giving this diatribe “sermon” to. If it’s a Sunday worship service sermon before the main congregation, I wonder what’s going on in his own congregation to make him feel like he needed to give such a sermon. Personally, I think this sort of material is totally inappropriate for a worship service sermon in the first place. Even if I happened to share the preacher’s opinions on Sanders and Wright, if I was a pastor I would cover this subject in a series of classes, not in a sermon. He hasn’t dealt with the people he’s criticizing at all adequately, and I wouldn’t be surprised (in fact I would hope) to see the hearers stimulated to read these writers for themselves. After all, “My pastor told me it’s unbiblical and that’s all I need to know!” is just the sort of approach to matters of faith that Bible-believing Christians routinely criticize. I’m reminded of when I visited my sister’s dispensationalist church once. The pastor took the occasion of my visit to thunder from the pulpit, while looking directly at me, about how covenental theology was a doctrine forged in the fires of hell, and no God-fearing Christian should allows themselves to be deceived by it. My embarrassed sister wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it, while I surpressed an urge to burst out laughing. But this sort of idiotic “bully pulpit” preaching, which is neither responsible pastoring nor appropriate worship of God, is always sad when it happens.

  3. John Says:
    November 21st, 2003 at 5:07 pm

    Uh…the pastor condemning heresy from the pulpit not appropriate? Uh huh.

  4. Barb Says:
    November 21st, 2003 at 5:27 pm

    I read this earlier today and that was my reaction too: “depressing.” It’s funny…I’ve read all the big guns’ refutations & criticisms and and they’ve all seemed like misfires. This is the first one that I can honestly say was “depressing.”

  5. Christopher Witmer Says:
    November 21st, 2003 at 6:23 pm

    John, if someone is going to condemn something as heretical, I for one would like to see some exegesis, and some exposition of how the “heretical position” deals with specific Biblical texts central to that position, and why the “heretical” interpretation of those central texts is wrong, and what the correct interpretation of those texts really is. That would strike me as an argument. Here we don’t even have a straw man being knocked down, but just a pile of straw being blown away by bald assertions. Well, it’s not *quite* that bad, but close.

    Gee, you might have thought that for all their writing, Sanders and Wright might have actually said something. But this is the only actual quotation presented from either of those two men:

    “Despite a long tradition to the contrary, the problem Paul addresses in Galatians is not the question of how precisely someone becomes a Christian, or attains to a relationship with God?. but the question of how you define the people of God: are they to be defined by the badges of the Jewish race, or in some other way?”

    Unless he has been teaching the listeners elsewhere, or has grounds for assuming that the listeners are already familiar with the position he’s criticizing (and neither seems to be the case), basically he’s telling the listeners, “Take it on my authority that these men are teaching heresy.”
    If the listeners thought the preaching on this topic did the issue justice, they need our prayers.

  6. The Native Tourist Says:
    November 24th, 2003 at 10:11 am

    Lets not forget that Rayburn published “The Presbyterian doctrine of covenant succession”, which has been very influencial to the Auburn group. Lets not forget that the so-called NPP is still relatively new and is being evaluated by the church. It may be found to be a big mistake, or may be seen as a major breakthrough. Time will tell. It took 400 years for the church to settle on orthodox christology. BTW, Doug Wilson is critical of Wright as well.

  7. Rick Says:
    November 25th, 2003 at 10:17 am

    Well, Wilson’s concerns are generally real concerns, not made up ones.

  8. Tim Says:
    November 25th, 2003 at 12:51 pm

    Have you seen Wilson’s comments about Wright in Credenda, Native? http://www.credenda.org/issues/13-3anvil.php

    Wilson is cautionary and not extremist. He is threatened by Wright, as far as I can tell, and he doesn’t go around blasting away with “heretic” labels. As far as that goes, I’m with Wilson. I have disagreements with Wright on important points. But I’m convinced that he can be read with great profit, and I’m frustrated by kneejerk responses which are fraught with inaccuracies.

  9. Tim Says:
    November 25th, 2003 at 12:52 pm

    Oops. “NOT” threatened by Wright.

  10. The Native Tourist Says:
    November 26th, 2003 at 8:54 am

    Tim - Don’t see Reyburn using the H word in connection with Wright. In fact, he calls him an evangelical. I do think that he didn’t do a very good job documenting what he criticises Wright for. Rayburn, IMO, should be seen as an ally, not an enemy.

  11. Miss Sherri Says:
    December 4th, 2003 at 2:23 pm

    Rick,

    Do you have a copy of the sermon by Rob Rayburn? I would really like to read it. Rob’s Dad was a very godly man, much respected when I was a student at Covenant College.

    Hope things are well with you. Our family met in Dallas for Thanksgiving and the Dallas Cowboys game(!) Archer flew in from med school (Tampa), and Dolly came too(Niceville)
    It was soooo good to see them!

    Merry Christmas….we will all be together in Niceville for 3 weeks for the holidays. My love to Rachel.

    Miss Sherri

Leave a Reply