Do muslims and Christians worship the same God?

After some unfortunate events at Wheaton College, there have been a several online posts regarding the question whether muslims and Christians worship the same God. I haven't been following the events or the arguments too closely, but here's what Calvin said, around 500 years ago.

So today the Turks (that is, muslims), although they proclaim at the top of their lungs that the Creator of heaven and earth is God, still, while repudiating Christ, substitute an idol in place of the true God.
  -- Calvin, Institutes, II. vi. section 4

When you feel discouraged that there are so few who believe around us...

Whenever, then, the fewness of believers disturbs us, let the converse come to mind, that only those to whom it is given can comprehend the mysteries of God [cf. Matt. 13:11].
  -- Calvin, Institutes I. vii.

Certainty of Death

When I believed cancer was a death sentence I was wrong ­— not because I’m not going to die, but because in fact I’d always lived under the shadow of death. The one thing we know for sure is that we’re going to die.
  – p33, Hope Beyond Cure by David McDonald

Justification by faith, stated.

Lady Jane Grey (source: wikipedia)

Lady Jane Grey. A young lady who had an adamantium conviction regarding the authority of Scriptures and salvation by faith alone.
In a conference (a conversation or a dialogue) with a Roman Catholic monk, Dr. Feckenham, she states what the doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone means.

Feckenham: What thing is required in a Christian?
Jane: To believe in God the Father, in God the Son, in God the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God.
Feckenham: Is there nothing else required in a Christian, but to believe in God?
Jane. Yes: We must believe in him, we must love him, with all our heart, with all our soul, and all our mind, and our neighbour as ourself.
Feckenham: Why then faith justifieth not, nor saveth not?
Jane: Yes, verily, faith (as St. Paul saith) only justifieth.
Feckenham: Why St. Paul saith, if I have all the faith of the world, without love, it is nothing.
Jane: True it is, for how can I love him I trust not, or how can I trust in him whom I love not; faith and love ever agree together, and yet love is comprehended in faith.
Feckenham: How shall we love our neighbour?
Jane: To love our neighbour, is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and to give drink to the thirsty, and to do to him as we would do to ourselves.
Feckenham: Why, then it is necessary to salvation to do good works, and it is not sufficient to believe?
Jane: I deny that, I affirm that faith only saveth; for it is meet for all Christians, in token that they follow their master Christ, to do good works; yet may we not say, nor in any wise believe, that they profit to salvation: for although we have done all that we can, yet we are unprofitable servants, and the faith we have only in Christ’s blood and his merits, saveth. 

 -- from The Literary Remains of Lady Jane Grey, as quoted on Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide (bold mine)

She was only 16 (or 17 at most) when she said this. And that was in a prison. Admittedly, she possessed an exceptional intellect, but more than that, she was possessed by the grace of God that gave her unwavering convictions. After some time, she was beheaded at the age of 17.

Will I have such clarity in my knowledge of God? Will I persevere with such an unwavering conviction? I pray that I will. How about you?

(I was first introduced to Lady Jane Grey and this quote by an online resource called Reformation Profiles from Ligonier Ministries.)

Practical Impact of the Doctrine of the Authority of the Scriptures

The Need to be Obedient to ScriptureIf God has revealed himself and his purposes to us in Jesus Christ as he is known to us through all the Scriptures, then clearly we are under a total obligation to submit our lives to the teaching of the Bible. It is a particular temptation of student life to imagine that truth is for the mind alone; but for Scripture 'knowing the truth' implies living it out in particular situations. In the OT, truth is primarily a moral quality implying the characteristic of dependability or faithfulness in action (e.g. Ps. 51:6). This understanding is expressed also in John's concern for doing the truth (Jn. 3:21, 1 Jn. 1:6). So this final section is integral to the exposition of the Christian doctrine of authority, for Christian truth in the deepest sense exists only where there is a mind which is set both to understand it and to obey it. If our passion for truth does not imply a passion for obedience to truth, then we are not really serious about it.
  In the end the doctrine of the authority is eminently practical. It confronts us with a specific challenge: to obey all that the Bible teaches, all of the time. Nothing could be more searching or down to earth than that.
  - p. 66, Know the Truth by Bruce Milne (italics original)

Trusting and submitting to the Word of God

We need to remember that this doctrine of biblical authority is one of the teachings of the Christian faith. As such it calls for faith, i.e. a believing commitment on our part, an attitude continuos with that of our Lord himself and his apostles, and with the historic view of the churches. This helps us to keep the doctrine of Scripture in perspective. We do not wait for a moment-by-moment account of our Lord's thoughts, words and actions before we trust ourselves to his sinlessness and hence his fitness to act as our Saviour, nor for signed statements of impartial eye-witnesses before believing and rejoicing in his resurrections; so we need not demand the resolution of every possible question before trusting ourselves to the infallible truth of Scripture and submitting to its authority.
  -- p. 59, Know the Truth by Bruce Milne

Farewell, SCPC EM!

I was 15 when I started coming to this church. That means I have spent roughly half of my whole life here at SCPC EM, now called the Rock church. My wife, Sulah also joined me here when we got married about 2 years ago. For all those years, God had been most faithful and gracious with us, encouraging and challenging us to grow in many ways, often through people here at the Rock. First me, and then years later, my wife, we were both warmly welcomed into the lives of many people here, and we know the friendship will continue even though we may not be able to see each other so often as we would like to.

Yes, it is true. We are saying goodbye. As you have now learned, perhaps as a bit of shock to some, my family have decided to start attending a local church nearer to our home. The reason, or rather, the purpose for moving is something that has been on both my mind and my wife’s for quite some time. For several years now, I have had a desire to be part of a local, non-ethnic church where I could serve its local community with the gospel. When I married Sulah, I was delightfully surprised to find that she also had a similar desire. And as we talked about this, we started dreaming, dreaming of reaching the Australian community which once was built on the Christian foundation, but now has lost it. Once we both had this dream, we had sought God’s guidance in this matter. We also tried to weed out any sinful motives that might influence our decision making. Several months passed before we mentioned our thoughts to pastor Bernie, and then many more months before we finally submitted our thoughts and desires to our God in deciding to leave the Rock and join a local church (which we now have to find). It was difficult and slow coming as you can imagine, especially when we knew that it was not impossible to reach non-Koreans here at the Rock. In the end, however, we learned to trust God and step out, even while having some nagging doubts and fears remaining! Have we got some kind of undeniable assurance that this is God’s will for us? No, but we came to believe that God will be with us and be pleased in us acting out in faith. Have we eliminated all our sinful, ulterior motives? I hope so, and we do not perceive any within ourselves, but it’s possible that we are still subtly affected by them. In this as well, we came to believe that God is gracious and will teach us wisdom without condemning us as we continue walking in Him.

Now that we are embarking on a new chapter of our lives, we wish to express our gratitude, ask for your prayers, and give you a reminder.

For the past 15 years, many of you have helped me grow as a Christian and accepted me as part of the family. I am most acutely aware of your love and maturity since I got married. I saw many of you showing good will and extending your friendship and support towards my wife without any reservation. We thank God for such love we received from you, and we want to say thank you to you all as well. Especially to pastor Bernie, thank you for all the years of loving, counselling, and understanding, and all this even when we shared our thoughts about leaving the Rock. We are not here to encourage people to leave this church, but we still want to acknowledge the maturity of the pastor and the congregation here at the Rock for being able to send us out in love.

Now, as you can imagine, after all those good years here at the Rock Church, we find changing church extremely daunting to say the least. This church is the only one I’ve been a member of since I was 15, and with your great encouragement and support, my wife and I began, enjoyed, and grew in our marriage here at the Rock. We both grew to know God better here. It was at this church that I saw the glory of the sovereign God and rejoiced for the first time in my life. It was at this church that I learned the bible was entirely and absolutely true word of God. It was at this church that we learned the famously phrased truth, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. It was at this church I realised that I must like Jesus as well as obey Jesus, in other words, delighting in Jesus was part of His command for us. And now we need to find and settle in another church where we will be taught God’s word clearly and faithfully, build relationships, serve sacrificially, and learn to glorify God in all that we are and all that we do. Please pray for us that in and through the new church, God may preserve us, provide for us, and complete the good work He started in us. Also pray for us that we may be fruitful in the ministries that we will be part of in the new church as well.

Finally, we wish to leave you by reminding you of a bible passage, 1 Cor 15:3-4.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Apostle Paul says that he delivered this message of Christ crucified as of first importance. This message is still of first importance. Many things can be said from this, but let me remind you just a few things from it. Jesus died for our sins and was raised. It is this Person and this event that is the goodnews we bear to ourselves and to the world, not how-to’s or to-do’s. And we didn’t make it up according to our fanciful thoughts, but this event happened according to the Scriptures, God’s own word. God is the author and perfecter of our salvation, from beginning to end. The world began by God’s word, and it has run its course according to His word, and will end as He decreed in His word, the bible. And at the centre of history, at the core of His purposes, there is Jesus. I want to remind you to seek and obey Jesus of the bible and never sway from Him or His word. If we all, by God’s grace, stay with Him and stick by His word, then we will most certainly meet again one day, and rejoice and worship God together like never before. The new heaven and earth awaits us. Let us bear the good news of Christ crucified. How paradoxically glorious and humble our God is!

Soli Deo Gloria (glory to God alone)!

Wonil (Tim), Sammy (Sulah), and John Lee

Fear of men and unbelief

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
- 1 Corinthians 1:22-24

I realised that I didn't really believe this. I kept on hoping to persuade a non-Christian by showing how reasonable and intelligent Christian faith is. I was trying to make sure that the hearer understood that I was no fool by anyone's standard. I was giving so much effort into presenting the Christian faith in a way that sounds smart and reasonable. I was hoping that they wouldn't classify me as one of those "crazy Evangelicals" on TV, or fanatical Muslims, or ridiculously religious looking Hindus, and so on. I just didn't want to look foolish.

I foolish I have been indeed.

Faith in Jesus actually is the most beneficial, smartest, wisest decision anyone could make, but to outsiders, it'll never look that way. And the bible so plainly says so. What have I been trying to do all this while?

It was my insecurity and fear of men. It was my unbelief in the power of God in the gospel of Jesus. It crippled me in preaching the gospel, and robbed me of the joy and confidence in God's power. Instead, just as I feared, my arguments only fell to the ground and didn't penetrate the hearers' conscience or logic. I tried. I failed. Thank God I failed, otherwise I might have boasted in my "evangelism."

Oh, save me, Lord, from my idols of reputation and acceptance before men. May I be like those apostles who rejoiced when they were flogged because they were counted worthy of suffering for the Name of Lord (Acts 5:41). May I be secure in what You say, that I am your beloved son and you count me as pure and blameless, washed spotless. May I trust in Jesus instead of trusting in my logical arguments. May I find peace and acceptance in God through Jesus rather than seeking the approval of men. Save me or I die, Lord.

Science and Christian faith

It was hard, but finished reading Gospel and Wisdom. I'll be posting a couple of quotes from the ending part of the book.

Because science and technology are expressions of the cultural mandate they must be affirmed and welcomed by Christians. Indeed, the Christian view of man and creation provides the scientist and technologist with a perspective of their pursuits which not only made them possible, but which should have prevented them from creating the monster. When the cultural mandate is accepted on the basis of revelation, the proper distinctions between God, man (scientists) and the world can be maintained. But when it ceases to be seen as mandate, that is, as task authorized by a superior it comes to be regarded as the natural extension of the autonomous man. Removed from its benign relationship to the order of the universe, it is adopted as the power base for all kinds of domination. The domination of man was intended to reflect the gracious shepherd rule of God, but it became corrupted into self-seeking power play. Wisdom urges us to go on struggling to translate the fear of the Lord as the beginning of the knowledge into the means of living by faith in the world. Its base in the doctrine of creation, and its emphasis on the practicalities of life here and now, provide a check against the wrongful use of an orientation towards the future life to our responsibilities in the present. Wisdom reminds us that the resurrection life will be reached by means of our pilgrimage through this life in this world.

- pp546-547 Gospel and Wisdom (Goldsworthy Trilogy)

Control and unbelief

How pervasive is my unbelief.

God said that He is good and gracious, and He had demonstrated His character over and over again. Through creation, the seasons, and mornings after nights. He had proved His goodness towards me over and over again so intimately. And He had sent His Son to redeem this world full of rebels against Him, proving His gracious character once and for all. At a great cost to Himself, He showed His character is trustworthy. And yet, my lack of faith in God is more pervasive than I'd like to think. It is only when I do realise an incident, an expression of that unbelief, that I am appalled and frightened.

Here is one of those incidents.

I have had really wonderful past few days. It was my first time entering a new year with a wife. And I spent really good time with close friends who welcomed us into their house, nay, more into their lives and made us feel loved and encouraged. It was one of the best beginnings of the year I had.

But then, today, I suddenly felt as though I had to make sure that they knew I really enjoyed the time and want to do it again. I felt I had to tell them in a special way how much I appreciate their friendship.

Why, you might be thinking, that sounds good and right?

It was then when God illumined a corner of my heart to make me realise that my desire to let my friends know about my appreciation towards them was very much tainted with another desire that was more sinister. I need to have a control over this relationship I enjoyed in recent few days. I wanted to make sure it continued and I felt fearful at the thought of not being able to have such wonderful fellowship again in the future. I felt as though I needed to do something to make the relationship more concrete. I felt I needed to take control of this precious relationship that I enjoyed so I could have such a great fellowship again in the future.

But why? Why did I come to feel this way? How did I come to decide that I needed to take control of this relationship?

Did I earn this wonderful friends first place?
Was there anything that I did to make these friends come into existence? Did I cause this friendship? Did I create the wonderful, joyful, fun, and encouraging time myself?
No, no, no, and no.

I was only given a joy ride and before I knew it, I was riding in it. Not as a driver, but as a passenger. I'd rather be a passenger when I'm on a joy ride, not a driver. The driver's working while passengers are having fun.

So why try to take control of it now? Why feel the need to take the control of it now?

Answer: I do not trust that God would grant me such wonderful time in the future, unless I do something about it to secure it now.
I do not trust that God is full of grace and goodness that all these things that I enjoy are simply result of His overflowing kindness towards me.
I enjoyed these recent days, but why? I must've earned it by my effort. I did it! I somehow, by some kind of good deeds that I had done, I deserved their friendship and joyful time we had!

How wrong I was. And how good that I WAS wrong! All is gift, and all praise and glory is to Him who gives abundantly!

Oh, Lord, I believe that You are kind towards me because You are full of grace. Help my unbelief, and take control of my life.

(Photo source: photobucket)

Desiring a better country

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
- Hebrew 11:13-16 (ESV)

I am seeking a homeland. Not an earthly one. But a heavenly one. A much better country.

Faith in God who is gracious

Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath;
a fire was kindled against Jacob;
his anger rose against Israel,
because they did not believe in God
and did not trust his saving power.
Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
and he rained down on them manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
- Psalm 78:21-24 (ESV)

Without faith, no one can please God.
God's grace abounds even though He is angry against sins and unbelief.

How to connect to God: Part 2/2 - Faith

The second thing you have to do is believe in Christ. Belief in Christ has a definite content to it. We must believe he was who he said he was, that we require salvation, that on the Cross he secured that salvation, that he rose from the dead. However, while life-changing Christian faith is not less than believing these things with your intellect, it is much more. The faith that changes the life and connects to God is best conveyed by the word “trust.” Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose your footing and begin to fall. Just beside you as you fall is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it is more than strong enough to support your weight. How can it save? If your mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support you, but you don’t actually reach out and grab it, you are lost. If your mind is instead filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out and grab it anyway, you will be saved. Why? It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.

This means you don’t have to wait for all doubts and fears to go away to take hold of Christ. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have to banish all misgivings in order to meet God. That would turn your faith into one more way to be your own Saviour. Working on the quality and purity of your commitment would become a way to merit salvation and put God in your debt. It is not the depth and purity of your heart but the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf that saves us.

Faith, then, begins as you recognise and reject your alternative trusts and gods and turn instead to the Father, asking for a relationship to him on the basis of what Jesus has done, not on the basis of your moral effort or achievements.

from p232 - 234 The Reason For God by Timothy Keller

You can get "The Reason For God" from bookdepository.com, koorong.com.au, or amazon.com

Saving faith

Saving faith is the heartfelt conviction not only that Christ is reliable, but also that He is desirable. It is the confidence that He will come through with His promises and that what He promises is more to be desired than all the world.
- Desiring God p.73, John Piper

Prayer with the faith in future grace

Lord, whatever it takes to be free from pride;
Whatever it takes to be free from lust;
Whatever it takes to be free from greed;
From anxiety, from self-reliance;
Whatever it takes to be a loving, humble, kind husband and good father;
Whatever it takes, do it to me.
Cancer?
Financial difficulty?
Church strife?
I won't prescribe, I will just take the pill.
Do you want holiness? Do you want to be loving, humble, free, radical enough to pray
Lord if it take that kind of experience in order to bring me to this kind of self-abandonment, use your own wise, good physician wisdom.

Therefore faith is future oriented and embraces a future governed by God's grace and therefore superior to the future promised by sin.

-- John Piper from Battling Unbelief Session 3 Is it biblical part 1 --

Wishful thinking is not faith

The SMH posted this article today: We believe in miracles and UFOs.
Faith, or being religious described in the article didn't sound like faith at all though, it was more like wishful thinking. And that's how people generally think of Christian faith as well I suppose.
The following paragraph from the report shows clearly that what most people hold as faith is nothing but a wishful thinking.

Some beliefs seem to be contradictory. While 56 per cent of people believe in heaven, only 38 per cent believe in hell, and belief in God is much more popular than faith in the devil, with only 37 per cent of respondents believing in Satan.

One should mark the Archbishop Peter Jensen's comment on the findings.

The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, said the poll results showed the religious instinct was universal.

"That faith is important or very important to at least half of the population is what we have always suspected - an 'iceberg effect' that people may not necessarily speak up about their faith but it is very significant to their lives," he said.

The fact that the Christian faith was in the clear majority among believers was "no cause for triumphalism".

"I would reflect rather on why this is not translating into church membership."

There was no denying that increased numbers of people described themselves as non-believers, but this was no boon to the atheist cause, he said.

"The decline of Christian faith does not lead to lack of religious belief; it just opens the way for superstition."

Read the article here.

Grace Abounding

Truly, God pours out His grace abundantly, and His grace overcomes what resistance you may exert against Him. If you are doubtful of this, get to know a Christian, and listen to her as she tells you how she came to know the Lord. Most often, I hear Christians telling me how they continuously failed to keep their promises to God, or even stopped acknowledging His Lordship. It's not described in the bible only; the triumph of God's grace over rebelliousness and ignorance of people are still found near and among us.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
-- Eph. 2:1-9

All glory and praise to Him who loves us.

Faith or gratitude

I just watched the fourth session of Battling Unbelief. It may be a little hard to understand at the beginning, but it is an absolute gold. Buy it or borrow it. Watch it, learn from it, and repent and trust in God's never-ending grace.

What did I learn?

Simply put, faith and gratitude, both are indispensible in the life of a Christian. However, it is faith, not gratitude that produces good works. (Watch the dvd to understand the full meaning of this sentence!)

I have spoken out of ignorance just a few days ago, that we do good works as Christians because we are thankful to God, in a conversation with a muslim work colleague. Given the context of the whole conversation, that was not a completely wrong answer I believe, but Oh, how I regret that moment, and I wish I had made a better, more accurate, more convincing answer to him.

Reality Check: Hell, the eternal torment

Many people don't like hearing about hell. Few people talk about hell nowadays.
But let's do some reality check here.

As with any time when you consider the reality, what you want to think or want to believe is not what is important. The truth matters, the reality matters.

So, if indeed as some suppose, hell does not exist, or the biblical description of hell is not real, or put another way, the people who reject Jesus does not end up in hell, then sure, why would you have to live for Jesus?
But, if hell is real, and all who reject Jesus will be condemned to hell, and there will be eternal punishment for them, then you ought to come and reconcile with Jesus. You may not have thought about this issue much before, or ignored it purposely for a while, but I challenge you to think about it, before it's too late. If hell is indeed real, then it doesn't matter what you think, you will end up there unless you turn, put your trust in Jesus and follow Him.

What really matters is the reality of hell. Whether you think you will end up there (or not) isn't much of an issue, what really matters is whether you will end up there or not. What you think, or wish to believe has no significance in the face of reality. Reality matters.

So, do you believe in hell? Don't you think this issue is significant enough for you to pause what you were doing and investigate further into what the Bible says?

Doubting salvation

I will pray for you. I stumble and fall too often too many times. I doubt my salvation time to time too. Sin hurts yet I like it so much, and I hate myself. My only hope is in Jesus. Think about Him as you struggle. I will pray for you.