Just a Thought

As I was preparing for tonight’s sermon on the Ascension of Christ I came across an interesting thought from J.A. Alexander’s commentary on Acts (which is an excellent commentary by the way - it is part of the Geneva Series of Commentaries published by the Banner of Truth).

Many commentators state that the “two men” of Acts 1:10 are angels, which of course, is a fair assumption to make. However, Mr. Alexander tells us:

a still more striking supposition, which I owe to the suggestion of a friend, is that these two men were Moses and Elijah, who had been present at the transfiguration, and there talked with Jesus of his exodus about to be accomplished at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31.) There is something sublime in the idea, that the great prophetic Legislator and Reformer, who had come from heaven to be present at the momentary anticipation of the Mediator’s glory, now appeared again as witnesses of his departure to take final and perpetual possession of it.”

He notes that this should be regarded as mere conjecture but I believe it to be worthy of some meditation.

This Lord’s Day

We welcome Rev. Reuben Bredenhof of the St. Albert Canadian Reformed Church to our pulpit. This is one of three pulpit exchanges with the Canadian Reformed Church that I will be involved with this year.

Why Should I Read My Bible?

I was reading R.C. Sproul’s book “Knowing Scripture” recently and came across a quote from Jonathan Edwards.

“The devil would never attempt to beget in persons a regard to that divine word which God has given to be the great and standing rule… Would the spirit of error, in order to deceive men, beget in them a high opinion of the infallible rule, and incline them to think much of it, and be very conversant with it?… The devil has ever shown a mortal spite and hatred towards that holy book the Bible: he has done all in his power to extinguish that light…. He is engaged againstthe Bible, and hates every word in it.” (Cited from Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God)

This is rather clear in light of Satan’s twisting and misuse of scripture at Jesus’ temptation. (see Luke 4:9-11) Something to think about and act on!

“Expelled”

The documentary “Expelled”, which we mentioned before, has come out in America. So far I have had no success tracking down when it is supposed to be released here in Canada.

The movie has already been creating a lot of controversy; hopefully it will begin a very helpful discussion in homes, schools and government circles. Read this link for an intelligent review from a Christian who really enjoyed it.

Please remember though, as the review points out, that Mr. Stein is not a Christian or a creationist. This movie does not set out so much to prove Darwinism wrong (though apparently it deals with that subject as well) as it facilitates discussion about academic freedom and the pervasive and domineering influence of Darwinism in science today.

This Lord’s Day

We welcome Rev. Ralph Pontier to our pulpit. Rev. Pontier was recently installed as minister of Immanuel URC (Neerlandia) and is originally from Orange City, Iowa. Welcome!

Interview with Ben Stein

R.C. Sproul interviews Ben Stein about intelligent design here. Ben Stein has produced a movie titled ‘Expelled’ that will be out in April. We mentioned it earlier on our blog.

Please note the important caveat on the Ligonier site:

It is important to note that during this free exchange of ideas, not all of the opinions expressed by Mr. Stein in the interview are the views of Ligonier Ministries. Christians should recognize that the argument from design does not necessarily prove the Genesis view of creation.

Having said that, enjoy!

*HT: The Heidelblog

Updates

Our Good Friday sermon has been uploaded as well as our liturgy for our Sunday services.

Liturgy update

Just a friendly reminder that our liturgy is updated here every week. The Good Friday service has just been posted.

Islamic convert - Part I

Let’s start to examine the video interview we cited below.

In the first section entitled “Why Did You Leave Christianity” our Muslim friend informs us that he left Christianity after having studied the Bible personally “with an unbiased mind” having seen the contradictions in its texts and messages.

A problem: he claims to be a youth minister but only after having studied the Bible did he leave the Christian faith. One wonders why he wasn’t studying the Bible as a youth minister (with or without an unbiased mind). I don’t doubt what he says; I am not calling him a liar. But there seems to something more to the story than simply examining the truth claims of the Bible with an unbiased mind.

His first major objection or evidence is regarding Paul’s message: that is really an adoption of pagan belief or stories. Unfortunately much of that scholarship has been discredited and many of the similarities between Paul’s thought and pagan religion are more shallow than scholars will let on. One of the best responses to this line of thinking is Gresham Machen’s work “The Origin of Paul’s Religion”. Though an older work (from 1921) it soundly refutes this type of thinking. At least a portion of it is available here. I also have the book in my library if anyone would like to borrow it.

To be continued…

Sunday Sermons Online

The two sermons from today have been uploaded to our sermonaudio.com page.

Please note, however, that sometimes it takes up to two hours for the mp3 file to show up.