Pilgrim Platform

What is a Christian?

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:51:02 -0500

What makes a person Christian? It sounds like a simple question, but it has been complicated by sin and history.

Jesus' first sermon set the standard -- "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Clearly, Christians are repentant people. But is that it? Is repentance enough? Yes, and no. It is the primary response to the gospel and includes the renunciation of sin that all Christians make. It was enough for the thief on the cross (Luke 23:42-43) who was about to die, but it was not enough for most other people. Why not?

Statement of Faith

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:51:05 -0500

By grace Through Faith In Christ

It all begins with grace...

Grace is the unmerited privilege of receiving God's favor or blessing. Grace is given by God to produce faith. Faith produces obedience. Obedience produces understanding. Understanding produces growth in faith.

Baptism

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:51:08 -0500

Sections: Three Baptisms | Water | Spirit | Fire | Dip or Dye | Initiation | Spiritual Reality | Covenantal Responsibility Baptize Who? | Adults | Infants | Baptismal Renewal Baptismal Parallels

Christian Baptism Is Trinitarian
Christian baptism (Covenant baptism) is "one" in the same sense that the "Lord" and the "faith" are one. The unity of the Lord is not something that is built by human hands, or human understanding. It is not something that is decreed by human institutions, nor a function of human institutions. The unity of "one Lord, one faith, and one baptism" is given by God, not built or established by man. The unity of such oneness is established by God in eternity. But what kind of unity does this biblical, Trinitarian understanding of God describe?

The Emergent Church

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:51:10 -0500

Fads have become the engines that drive culture in the 21st Century. Corporations chase fads in order to profit from them in various ways. Corporations also create fads as a means of marketing their products. The ideal marketing program is the establishment of a cult following such as Harley Davidson has done in the motorcycle world.

The latest fad to hit the church scene is known as "The Emergent Church." So, what exactly is the emergent church? It's hard to tell because it is still emerging. Nonetheless, careful examination of the roots of "emergent theory" (The Concept Of Emergence) will reveal the driving spirit behind the fad.

Informal Christianity--Refining Christ's Church

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:50:53 -0500

ISBN: 978-0-6151-8078-6
Printed: 144 pages
Publisher: Pilgrim Platform
Copyright: ©2007 by Phillip A. Ross

Informal Christianity reviews the personal and informal realities involved in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that provide the foundation of Christianity. Where the internal and subjective realities of regeneration are absent from the lives of church members, churches find themselves on a foundation of sand. Such churches turn away from the heart of Christianity -- doctrine and theology -- to focus on peripheral concerns of administration and maintenance. Christians and churches that do not enthusiastically embrace biblical doctrine and theology as the life-blood of faithfulness, tend to spend their time and energy polishing the outside of the cup (Matthew 23:25). Such efforts concern themselves with church growth--noses and nickels--rather than Christian maturity (Ephesians 4:13).

Practically Christian--Applying James

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:25:07 -0500

ISBN: 978-0-6151-7667-3
Printed: 141 pages
Publisher: Pilgrim Platform
Copyright: ©2006 by Phillip A. Ross

James was written to correct a church that was going astray in the early years of Christianity. From James we learn that the gospel is intensely personal, that it is not just a matter of signing a pledge or joining an institution.

The gospel, James reminded his readers, is a practical way of life. And where the actual living of that way of life is not demonstrated in the lives of Christians, the Holy Spirit must be presumed to be absent and the faithfulness of such people called into question. The gospel is not just a head belief, nor a heart-felt experience. It is primarily a way of life. Initiated through the grace of God alone, the gospel is not the gospel apart from its actual, behavioral manifestation in the lives of believers (James 2:14).

This book seeks to shine the light of Scripture into the darkened recesses of the contemporary church by shining the light of James into the hearts of its contemporary readers. This is an intensely personal work in the sense that it attempts to get at issues that few people (or preachers) are willing to talk about, but are essential for the gospel to take root in our lives.

Marking God's Word--Understanding Jesus

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:21:27 -0500

ISBN: 978-0-6151-7603-1
Printed: 340 pages
Publisher: Pilgrim Platform
Copyright: ©2006 by Phillip A. Ross

There is much confusion in and out of the church about Christianity--Jesus' life, Jesus' teachings, Jesus' death and Jesus' resurrection. Is confusion about the gospel of Jesus Christ new to the contemporary world? When did the confusion begin? What is the confusion about? How have people dealt with it? These are the questions that have guided this commentary on Mark.

Marking God's Word will help you see the gospel with new eyes, to help free you from a perspective that has been obscured by sin and selfishness. Yet, it does not offer a new perspective. Rather, it provides an old perspective that has a long and noble history of reformation and revival. It is simply a walk through the Gospel of Mark that will show you many gospel truths that you are not likely to be familiar with. Think of it as a new adventure down an old path.

Come, see Christ again, for the first time.

Acts of Faith--Kingdom Advancement

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:23:56 -0500

ISBN: 978-0-6151-7604-8
Printed: 326 pages
Publisher: Pilgrim Platform
Copyright: ©2006 by Phillip A. Ross

Jesus was the most misunderstood man in history -- and He still is. But does He stand alone? Has anyone ever really understood what the Lord was up to?

Acts of Faith picks up the story of Jesus, from Marking God's Word, after Jesus' death. The story of the misunderstanding of the gospel among those who personally knew Jesus continues in the ministry of The Apostle. Paul, who was knocked off his high horse and thrown to the ground against his will and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, came to see that he had been completely blind, and had his eyes miraculously opened.

Paul -- formerly the chief enemy of Christ, who became the chief disciple -- took up the ministry and perspective of Jesus and began preaching the message of Christ to anyone who would listen. But Paul had the same difficulties that Jesus had — people thought he was crazy, that he didn't know what he was talking about, that he had gotten the gospel message wrong. Paul was hounded to death by the enemies of Christ, just as Jesus had been. What you will find in these pages is not a new perspective on Paul, but a very old one.

The Wisdom of Christ in Proverbs

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:19:05 -0500

ISBN: 978-0-6151-7215-6
Printed: 419 pages
Publisher: Pilgrim Platform
Copyright: ©2006 by Phillip A. Ross

This study on Proverbs uncovers the biblical message of the Book Proverbs verse by verse in the light of Jesus Christ, like a commentary. Every verse is seen in the light of Christology, from the perspective of Christianity.

We cannot pretend to be other than Christians who live on the redemption side of the Cross, while Proverbs was written by King Solomon on the anticipation side of the Cross. Nonetheless, the Christian faith is founded on the eternal consistency of God. God does not change, nor does God's wisdom.

The God of Solomon, the author (and editor) of Proverbs, is the same God spoken of in the New Testament. In fact, the God of Solomon is Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the present work acknowledges this fact of faith and applies it by reading Proverbs in the light of Jesus Christ. God's wisdom doesn't change.

The Work at Zion--A Reckoning

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:26:31 -0500

Printed: two volumes, 732 pages
Publisher: Fairway Press
Copyright: ©1999 by Phillip A. Ross

The Work at Zion is a journal of a spiritual conversion that turned a ministry upside down. This collection of sermons details a preacher's rediscovery of classic, historical, Protestant Christianity in the midst of of apathy and apostasy. The logical conclusion of modern Christianity is brought to a head and set in stark contrast to God's Word.

What is discovered, along with the delusions of "political correctness" and other forms of deconstructed madness, is that the modern church is on a collision course with the Lord of Glory. Spurned by man, the doctrinal heart of the Protestant Reformation can no longer be ignored.

The future can best be discerned by looking to the past. The history of God's faithful people, inasmuch as that history represents God's eternal truth, provides the only real hope for the future. Come Lord Jesus!

Biblical Governance for Christian Churches and Nonprofits

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:13:56 -0500

John Carver has developed an excellent corporate board model that he has trademarked as Policy Governance® . The model is brilliant and Carver applies it to every sort of board--governmental, private, corporate and religious.

The model is to be commended to all but one type of board--Christian boards. Why should Christian boards be different than other kinds of boards? Because Christian governance is different than all other forms of governance. By definition, to be Christian is to be governed by Christ as He is revealed through Scripture.

Is Carver's model adaptable?

Church Growth

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:10:50 -0500

"Remember, everything we do gets hijacked by marketing." That was the warning Sun Microsystems Inc. Chief Researcher John Gage had for developers working on emerging grid computing standards at the Global Grid Forum in Seattle in June, 2003. His comment reflects a general truth about what might be called marketing creep, the tendency toward the domination of marketing as the ultimate concern of every organization, including the church.

Church Growth, or the application of business marketing principles to the church, has been a thriving business for at least 25 years. I have studied and pondered the ways, means, issues and applications for most of that time. But something has troubled me about the effort to market Christ's church. A dissonance in the pit of my stomach caught my attention early on, but identifying the source and nature of the my concern has proven to be difficult.

Church Growth II

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:07:05 -0500

"Church Growth" has become the byword for evangelism everywhere today. The Church Growth model is almost universally applied, regardless of theology or denomination. All church activity is measured in Church Growth categories.

The Church Growth model for evangelism involves the application of secular business practices to the church. We see an emphasis upon the pastor as CEO and business management practices applied to every aspect of church life. Just as business conforms every activity to its bottom line--increased market share or maximization of profits, etc. Churches now conform every activity to the bottom line defined by the Church Growth model. Increasingly, that bottom line pertains to "noses and nickels."

Other Voices

A lot has happened since writing the above short essay in the previous century. Not only have a ton of church growth books been written, printed and sold, but there have also been a rash of contrary opinions. Here's some grist for the mill (listing follows).

What is a Church?

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:05:16 -0500

The church is not a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. The IRS does not define a church, God does. The church is the people of God.

The church exists in and through Jesus Christ, and so is a distinctive New Testament reality. At the same time it is continuous with Israel, the seed of Abraham and God’s covenant people. The new covenant under which the church lives (1 Cor. 11:25; Heb. 8:7-13) is a new form of the relationship in which God says to His chosen community, "I will be your God, and you shall be My people" (Jer. 7:23; 31:33; cf. Ex. 6:7).

C.I. Scofield

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:02:50 -0500

Fruit of the Root

The name of C.I. Scofield is not usually associated with liberalism, yet Scofield's roots lie at the heart of the post 1865 Congregationalism where Charles Finney made his home. Finney's Congregationalism promoted a doctrine of polar opposites, as previously indicated (See Charles Finney).

The 1865 Statement of Faith of the Congregational churches, brought the two mutually exclusive theological systems of Calvin and Arminius into a kind of harmony, and that by fiat. The purpose behind such a Statement of Faith was, no doubt the reconstruction of America, which had been torn asunder by the Civil War. While the end may have been honorable, the means severed theology from both reason and history.

What did Scofield share with liberalism?

Charles Finney

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:00:50 -0500

Friend of Foe?

The most successful advocate of Arminianism in America was not Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), but Charles Finney (1792-1875). Because The Works of Arminius (Baker Book House, reprinted 1996) are highly intellectual and academic -- bordering on the arcane, few people have (or will) read them. Arminius, a young boy when Calvin died, was concerned about the division in the Church brought about by the Protestant Reformation. He proposed to mend the theological breach between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation by correcting several perceived errors in Calvin's theology. Positively stated, he attempted to reassert Catholic theology into Protestantism. His purpose was to bring Protestants back to what he thought to be a true belief -- a catholicity held previously by the Roman See. He thought Protestantism to be in error, and hoped to help correct it. However, he succeeded most in further fracturing an already fractured church.

The Reforming Synod of 1679-80

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:00:30 -0500

Reforming Synod of 1679-80 attempted to address the spiritual downgrade that occurred in the churches following the Half-Way Covenant debacle. Pastors and people began to believe that they were undergoing divine judgment as a result of the increasing faithlessness in the churches. "The sense of alarm regarding the state of New England engendered by the decline of visible piety, was greatly intensified by a series of disastrous events which seemed to the men of that age divine judgments" (Walker, 411). Indian wars broke out anew, fires burned many homes, an increase in shipwrecks was experienced which in turn reduced supplies, an epidemic of small-pox ravished the pilgrims, the Stuart government increased its acts of aggression against the colonies, which included a concerted effort to bring Episcopacy to the Puritan commonwealths. These disasters and others convinced the clergy that America was under God's judgment.

The Halfway Covenant

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:57:51 -0500

Half-Asked Questions, Half Assessed Answers

Classical Congregationalism had barely been hatched when its demise began. Expectations for church membership had always been strict among Congregational churches, in keeping with Christ's demands upon the faithful. The high-water mark had been set by the Cambridge Declaration (1649), which stated:

The doors of Christ's churches on earth do not stand so wide open that all sorts of people, good or bad, may freely enter as they desire. Those who are admitted to church membership must first be examined and tested as to whether they are ready to be received into church fellowship or not. … These things are required of all church members: repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore repentance and faith are the things about which individuals must be examined before they are granted membership in a church, and they must profess and demonstrate these in such a way as to satisfy rational charity that they are genuinely present.

A Brief History of Congregationalism

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:55:54 -0500

Renewal is often the rekindling of a former glory, and the former success of Congregationalism was indeed great. Yet, history does not travel backwards.

The majority of contemporary Congregational church members are not from Congregational backgrounds. Even so, most Congregationalists themselves do not know about the long struggles that mark the history of Congregationalism. Therefore, I will attempt to briefly point out some important markers in the landscape of Congregational history. Ours is a long history, and quite significant in the development of the modern church. Consequently, Congregationalists must receive both credit and blame for much in the contemporary Christian situation.

We will begin our tour of history in the modern era with the New England Puritans and the development of the Westminster Confession of Faith, adopted by an act of the English Parliament in the 1640s under Charles I.

"What does that have to do with us?" you might ask.

Everything.

History

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:54:01 -0500

The story of the Bible is the story of God's work in the world. It is His (God's) story, that is the fundamental and original understanding of history. It is only in the post-Enlightenment, modern, secular, humanistic world that God has been written out of history (His story). Historians since 18th Century tell us that history is the story of man, of humanity, and that to suggest God's involvement in history amounts to a confusion of history with religion. But such an idea is a modern invention and is patently false.

Christian Marriage

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 09:51:58 -0500

Thinking About Marriage...

The first thing that you should notice is that the above word is marriage and not wedding. The deepest concern of the church is for your marriage. Sure, you should have a nice wedding, but more important is the stability and longevity of your marriage.

"Unfortunately in many cases the church has contributed to the divorce problem of our nation by promoting easy weddings," says H. Norman Wright, a pastor and author of several marriage counseling books. Easy weddings ask nothing, provide nothing, and do nothing. The intent of the church is not to make your wedding hard, but to make your marriage meaningful. Like so many things in life, you will get out of it what you put into it.