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Now This… May 2, 2008

Posted by Jack Hammer in : Children, Culture, Jack Hammer, Standards, Worldliness , 3 comments Print This Post Print This Post Email This Post Email This Post

Television, Smell-a-vision, Aitch-e-double-hockey-stick-A-Vision. 

We can’t live with it.  We can’t live without it.  Some do, but most won’t.  We need our nightly news-fix.  We love our commercials.  Quality time with the remote — Priceless.  Channel surfing is the new sport.  It is our babysitter, our nightly pacifier, our family unifier.  Touch my couch, and you are welcome.  Touch my coffee table, and you are forgiven.  Touch my piano, and you are sophisticated.  Touch my television, and you are ignorant, presumptious, meddling. 

American culture is television.  We live it.  We imitate it.  It imitates us.  It pushes us.  We push it.  We follow it.  It follows us.  We teach with it.  It teaches us.  We need it.  It needs us.  It is us. 

Should we have a television?  Should we watch television?  Why should we watch television?  How should we watch television?  What does television say about us?  What does it teach us?  How does it affect us.

May is televison month on JackHammer.  Hard to watch while your hammering, but it makes a nice sparky arch when it explodes.  Fireworks!  And we aren’t even to July yet. 

Stay tuned!

Culture Decay—The Attack on Standards March 25, 2008

Posted by Kent Brandenburg in : Culture, Standards , 52 comments Print This Post Print This Post Email This Post Email This Post

Have you looked at and compared the crowds that gather for a blue-state candidate or a red-state candidate? I’m not talking about race and ethnicity. Remove that from your thoughts and this discussion. I’m only referring to how they appear in dress and decorum. To make it more simple—notice the difference in the look of a Hillary crowd versus a Huckabee crowd (this is not an endorsement for either of these candidates or world views). By observation it is obvious that these two groups have different standards. Culture shock if they attended the other’s rally. Does this matter? Do the differences mean anything?

We can go further with this comparison. Look at this earlier female golfing attire (and here), early female tennis player (and here), early female cyclists, and then early female swimmers. Have the standards of dress changed? Are we better now? These men were watching a baseball game. Why have things become more casual all around? Is there an underlying philosophical reason? Are we better off with the new standard?

Standards

Standard fare today on standards is that they are nasty ole additions to Scripture. I ask myself, “Why didn’t the godly people, who loved the Word of God, not recognize that the standards they implemented weren’t actually biblical?” Corollary: “Were they that much spiritual dunces?” Also, “How could there have been such a widespread conspiracy to get especially young people to do things, i.e. keep standards, that were so detrimental to their lives?” I contend that the standard bearers’ spiritual and biblical elevators did go all the way to the top. They did have a clue.

We have a regular attack on standards today not just in evangelicalism (typical), but also in professing fundamentalism (here, here, here, and here). Are they

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What Do You Think Scripturally of Clarence Sexton Speaking at the National Fundamental Baptist Fellowship Meeting? June 13, 2007

Posted by Kent Brandenburg in : Separation, Standards , 65 comments Print This Post Print This Post Email This Post Email This Post

I don’t know Clarence Sexton. I heard him preach one time. I’ve received his paper for many years. I hope the best for him. However, I’m judging this based upon Scripture. I think it is an appropriate situation for us to consider, analyze, and explore. This is very public, so it doesn’t stand as a whispering campaign and innuendo. We don’t want whispering and innuendo here. Let’s rely on Scripture for our evaluation.

Is the FBF consistent with its historic belief on separation by having Sexton? Is Sexton consistent with his position on separation by fellowshiping with the FBF guys (I realize it is a fellowship of men, not churches)? What does the Bible say about either? I’d like us to discuss this. To do so, let me bring in some thoughts.

Are these two groups really being true to what they believe? I think this is enough to consider with regards to a real-life situation and the teaching of Scripture on the doctrine of separation. If we are not going to apply what we believe here, do we really believe any of what we say we believe about ecclesiastical separation?

Can Someone Be Consistent in the Matter of Separation? June 8, 2007

Posted by Kent Brandenburg in : Standards , 7 comments Print This Post Print This Post Email This Post Email This Post

Over ten years ago I was talking to Dr. David Jaspers, former president of Maranatha Baptist Bible College, and he said this to me, “Kent, we just can’t be consistent in the matter of separation.”  Do you think that’s true?  Can we not be consistent with Scripture in the matter of separation?

I believe that we can be consistent for several reasons.  First, we have one Bible, which is once and for all delivered to the saints.  Second, Scripture is perspicuous.  God speaks plainly.  We can understand His Word.  He made it comprehensible so we could live it.  Third, God is One Spirit.  The Holy Spirit courses His way through every believer.   The church is His temple.  Fourth, God didn’t say we couldn’t be consistent.  He did tell us that we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us.  Whatever God commands, He enables, and all of the Old Testament and every book of the New Testament teaches separation, so the teaching is explicit.

So why aren’t people consistent?  First, pride.  Men want their own way and desire popularity.  Men love themselves more than God.  Second, fear.  Men seek for protection in numbers.   Third, tradition.  Men follow the traditions of men rather than the teachings of God.  Para-church organizations and wrong belief about the church have resulted in a fake unity held together by human reasoning.  Some call it fellowship.  Perversions abound because men ignore separation.

Men can be consistent in the matter of separation.  They just won’t.  I hope you will.