Christ, My Redeemer, My Life
The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all. – Psalm 103:19
Over the past couple of weeks the Lord God has “rocked” my world in so many ways I cannot even begin to describe. I came to know Christ way back in 1972 and except for six or seven years in my early twenties when I walked through the dark valley, I have served the Lord. From the start of my Christian ministry up until a few weeks ago, I thought I had a clear understanding about where I wanted to go with the rest of my life in terms of ministry and who I am as a minister of the gospel.
That has all changed. It seems the Lord is very good about showing us where our thinking is wrong! Lately, my theology and my perspective has undergone some pretty serious modifications. For a large part of my life, I was Baptist and fixed about certain things in terms of my biblical and systematic theology. One would think with all my years of Bible study, I would be pretty much unmoveable except in small ways.
Today, I have come to realize that I know nothing! Nothing! Just two months ago, if someone had told me that in a short matter of time I would come to the realization that Covenant Theology is biblical theology, I would have remarked something to the effect that it would NEVER happen! So much for my pride. Now I am rejoicing that God has opened my heart to be receptive to a new way of thinking – a more biblical and comprehensive way of thinking. It is like I have started all over again! Now, I find that I am needing 36 hour days! There simply is not enough time to read and absorb all that I want. Woe is me!
Nevertheless, I am thankful that Christ is the conqueror of my soul! May His blessed name be praised! I’m so glad that Jesus is Lord and King and not me. More to come on this…
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About
- David and Paula McAfee on Rainbow Trail
Our Story…
David has served in many areas which include serving as an officer in the USMC, law enforcement, information technology, sales and more importantly ministry. He has been a Minister of Single Adults, Minister of Education and Senior Pastor in Lubbock, TX and recently Tucumari, NM. David received a Bachelor of Arts in Law Enforcement Administration, a Master of Arts in Political Science, and has one semester left to complete a Master of Divinity degree. Paula was formerly an executive secretary with Occidental Petroleum, Oklahoma University College of Continuing Education, and Texas Tech University Law School.
Sangre de Cristo Journal is a collection of postings about seminary life in the Sangre de Cristo mountains and is not endorsed by the Seminary, although I think they like it. Hopefully it will give prospective students a better feel for what a non-traditional seminary atmosphere is like and provide some meaningful information that the Seminary website does not provide.
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Quote of the Week
Trifles Which God Gives
“The emperor Augustus, in his great feasts, gave trifles to some—but gold to his favorites.
Just so—honors, riches and worldly pleasures are the trifles which God gives to the worst of men.
God gives His gold—His special love and grace—only to His people.” - Thomas Brooks Heaven on Earth 1667
So, you are a Presbyterian now? Do you still believe in credo -baptism? I recently ordered 11 cds from “vision forum” on baptism and the covenant. The 2 main contributors are: Douglas W. Phillips and William O. Einwechter. I hope they will be of some use to me. I am currently reading through the O.T. mainly the Pentateuch. My pastor in KY enjoyed using John Sailhammer and Gordon Wenham some of them have some good points.
That is the direction I feel the Lord is leading me. I don’t know if I can explain everything in this space, but there are so many things from what I had already believed in reformed doctrine that helped inform my recents changes in thinking. I have always appreciated the presbyterian form of church polity and of course my understanding of sovereign grace and election (i.e. Calvinism), has been a vital part of my theology for over twenty-three years. Through some of our classes here at Sangre de Cristo, I have gained a great appreciation for the Book of Church Order that the PCA uses. This is a book that the SBC could really learn from, but unfortunately, their form of church polity doesn’t lend itself to church discipline. I do not like what I see happening in many SBC churches these days where there is this common pragmatic belief that in order to reach the youth, you have to change the whole worship service to appeal to them or keep their attention…and also the seeker friendly notions and revivalistic methodologies of the SBC have fostered an arminian environment that I don’t want to be a part of anymore. This will no doubt, put me in conflict with many people I have pastored as well as many pastors I have had associations with for the past thirty-nine years. I have prayed and asked the Lord to show me the truth. For a person who came to this seminary with very firm convictions that were not covenental and to have the Lord turn me about in this area, leaves me astounded and amazed, humbled and thankful. There is much more studying for me to do, but with regard to paedobaptism, my article on this blog is just the beginning of a softening on my previous position. I have never thought that the use of a lexical meaning of a word as an argument to support a position is acceptable. I realize that God is a covenant God and that He works through those covenants for the benefit of His covenant people.
By the way…I appreciate your link to the Holy War audio. Paula and I will enjoy that very much! Are you getting ready for another semester? We have a very full seminary right now and I am thankful for the new students.
I haven’t done a lot of study regarding complimentarianism and biblical patriarchy so I don’t want to make statements about that at this point. It promises to be an explosive issue given the country we live in, the western mindset and the world of other surrounding issues related to it in the economic and political spheres.
I also enjoy the Presbyterian church government because I don’t think every church member needs to be voting on every issue that comes to the table. I do wish that more SBC churches would move to an elder led churches. Most of the new sbc churches in KY are elder led now. I have enjoyed it immensely. I have not read the book of order, but i would not mind looking at it. The book of order would be okay to look at as an historical reference for church discipline. I don’t want to elevate tradition over scripture. This is probably extremely hard to do because it is ingrained in all of us. I do not know if you have an opinion on this but I am curious about SDC stance on the federal vision. My OPC pastor in Maryland seems to be open to this position/clarification. He has a lot of Peter Leithart books. I am new to the whole Presbyterian world; so, I just think that it is more of a paedo-baptist problem/clarification. I don’t think it would be a baptist concern presently. I know that the major leaders in the PCA have decided to be against the Federal Vision. PLease correct if I am wrong.
My understanding of Federal Vision Theology would be consistent with the PCA’s statement on the issues. It seems like proponents of this teaching a blurring some very clear teaching of the Reformers. At this point in my sojourn, I do not support paedocommunion and anything that approaches the idea of baptismal regeneration I will flee from. Also, the tendency for the FVT people to be postmillennial is not what I would agree with either. It seems like much of this teaches is clearly confused and a departure from the WCF. That’s might take on it at this point and while it probably warrants further study, its not high on my priority list.
I noticed that SDC uses Johny Macs study bible. I am concerned with some of his views. I think some of them are well formulated but still are erroneous.
I wouldn’t say that the seminary uses John MacArthur’s study bible exclusively or even authoritatively, certainly not officially. Good exegesis looks at what a broad range of commentators have to say about specific verses. There is plenty of error to be found in the early church fathers and beyond, but that doesn’t mean we don’t read them. We might not agree on everything Luther, Calvin or Zwingli might say either.
I would however, be interested in what you think MacArthur teaches that is erroneous.
Well, I personally disagree “presently” with his end times view, tongues view, his view on the meaning of the “Sons of God” in Genesis as well. I also don’t think that Israel and the church are separate in the New Testament. This might change after my reading thoroughly of the O.T.. There might be some modifications . I am definitely not a John Macarthur hater; I do enjoy listening to him. I actually was never a fan of him growing up. No one in my church or peers ever listened to him. Even when I went to Boyce College, most of my teachers did not recommend me reading him or encouraged me to use his commentaries on any papers. I only used John Calvin and other reformers and read NT Wright. I assumed that his commentaries were not technical enough and were deficient. Some of my college peers in Boyce told me that he didn’t even have the guts to preach from the O.T. (If you go to his website he actually has some sermons on Genesis posted, which I greatly appreciate. Before going to seminary, I remember a college professor telling me to put John Macarthur on the “Black list” because of his end times view. I don’t think I will follow his orders on this. I won’t mind listening to him on Revelation. Currently, I am going through Revelation with Arturo Azurdia the III ,and then I will listen to John Macarthur’s take on Revelation.
I would say you have been misinformed about MacArthur particularly regarding whether he “has the guts” to preach from the Old Testament. I’ve listened to him since the mid eighties and I can tell you I have heard many great sermons from the OT. Most of the reformed teachers that I respect such as Sproul, Mohler, Lawson…would all agree that MacArthur is head and shoulders above the rest in his commitment to sound biblical doctrine. His commentaries were not written with academics in mind, but they are still good. We should never “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
I have also had the priviledge to sit under the teaching of a couple of his associates who have shared many insights about MacArthur.
On another note, if you want a really good commentary on Revelation, look at Robert L. Thomas’ “Revelation: An Exegetical Commentary” by Moody. The two volume set is hard to find, but he gives about the best commentary (in my mind) from a futuristic premillennial view. He is a professor at Masters Seminary.
I’m not familiar with Arturo Azurdia, what is his take on Revelation?
You can find Arturo’s preaching at the following website. He is definitely a dynamic preacher. I only became aware of him because someone at my seminary endorsed him. I have not listened to all of his preaching, but I have enjoyed some of his first sermons on Revelation so far. I think most people call him-Amill. http://www.spiritempoweredpreaching.com/