A Christian without Discernment

A Christian without discernment is like a body without an immune system.

Rooted in Truth 1: An Introduction to Systematic Theology

Here is the first Rooted in Truth class. This is the introduction to the class and covers what systematic theology is and why it is important in the life of the believer.

God Bless,

Doug

Rooted in Truth: Lecture 1 - MP3

The first Rooted in Truth (Systematic Theology) class is now available on line.

Rooted in Truth: Prolegomena

All future lectures will be available at this link also.

God Bless,

Doug

Does God Accept Only Certain Denominations?

Do you think that God accepts only Christians of a certain denomination? Can people who hold to different doctrines, both be accepted by God? For instance, what about both the Calvinist and the Open Theist? They are both so different, can they both be considered Christianity?

Christians Shouldn't Disagree on Doctrine!

Is Doctrine Important?

Is doctrine important or should we just focus on following Christ? This is another video from Mark at proclaimhisword. It also features Lane Chaplin.

The Reformation: A Theological Look - MP3

I recently had the privilege of being a guest on the Apologetics.com radio show.

Below is a synopsis and links were you can find the show. It can also be dowloaded from itunes under the Apologetics.com podcast.

The Glorious Reformation: The Apologetics.com Radio show for Reformation Day 2008.

The Glorious Reformation: Apologetics.com’s annual Reformation Day show answers the question, does the Reformation really matter after 500 years? A global shift in Christian thought began in 1517. What had at one time been a Christian worldview applied to all of life and thought had become a shifting web of marginally Christian ideas used to support pagan ideology and vacant humanism devoid of eternal significance. Martin Luther sounded an alarm loud and long with reverberations that are still felt today from the worship in our churches to the halls of justice. Is a theocentric theology still permissible in an anthropocentric world? Why the constant urge to replace the Holy Scriptures as the sole infallible rule in matters of faith and practice with the judgements of the religious community or individuals that claim prophetic authority? Is God’s intent to save those that are good enough to save themselves or those that have nothing of themselves which makes them in any sense worthy? Is the grace of God merely hypothetically salvific or actually effectual to save those that are lost? Is Justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone a message that has seen its day? Or one that with the Reformers we should say “semper reformanda”, always reforming? Staff members Christopher Neiswonger and Lindsay Brooks are joined by special guests Pastor Kent Moorloch of Communion Prebyterian Church of Irvine www.communionpres.org, Doug Eaton College Pastor of the 1st Southern Baptist Church of Downey and www.christiantheology.wordpress.com, and Lane Chaplin power blogger of www.lanechaplin.com.

The Glorious Reformation: The Apologetics.com Radio show for Reformation Day 2008.

Crucial Issues for Christians Lecture MP3's

Below are the MP3 downloads of the lectures from the Crucial Issues for Christians Seminar. These lectures can be downloaded by right-clicking the link and selecting, "save target as."

Abortion, Euthanasia, and Embryonic Stem Cell Research - Donald McConnell

The New Atheism - Christopher Neiswonger

Aesthetics and the Christian - Lindsay Brooks

Postmodernism and the Emergent Church - Doug Eaton

Can You Lose Your Salvation? mp3

Here is an MP3 download of two sermons I recently preached on the topic of eternal security and perseverance of the saints.

Kept by the Power of God

Part 1 makes a case from Scripture for the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

Part 2 looks at arguments and scriptures used to argue that you can lose your salvation.

Both parts are included in the download. The video above only contains part 1.


God Bless,

Doug

***Updated 6/29/08***



Lane Chaplin has graciously added the full length version of this sermon to his youtube channel. For those of you who do not know Lane, he works with several ministries by uploading video and audio content for them. Because of this work youtube has granted him permission to upload full length video and sermons. His youtube channel is one of the best on the web if you are looking for some great Christian and theological content. Be sure to give him a visit.

Lane's Blog

Lane's Youtube Channel

Doug

Crucial Issues for Christian Seminar

-Click link Below for Larger View-

Below is a flyer for an event put on by Trinity Law School, Trinity Graduate School, and The First Southern Baptist Church of Downey.

Topics include:

- The Sanctity of Life
- The New Atheism
- Aesthetics and the Christian
- Postmodernism and the Emergent Church

Click the link below for the flyer and full information.

Crucial Issues for Christians (Free Event) pdf

Doug

Systematic Theology: What is it and Why is it Important?

What is Saving Faith?

This is a short look at the three aspects which are usually spoken of when discussing saving faith.

The Good Fight of Faith - J. Gresham Machen

Below is a quote by J. Gresham Machen from the 1930’s laying out the battles taking place in the church. In the quote Machen rightly ascribes these battles to the modernists of his day. What is amazing about this quote is that it perfectly captures the arguments of the post-moderns in the church today.

"You will have battles when you go forth as minister into the church. The church is now in a period of deadly conflict. The redemptive religion known as Christianity is contending, in our own church and in the all the larger churches of the world, against a totally alien type of religion. As always, the enemy conceals his most dangerous assaults under pious phrases and half-truths. The shibboleths of the adversary have sometimes a very deceptive sound. ‘Let us propagate Christianity,’ the adversary says, ‘but let us not always be engaged in arguing in defense of it; let us make our preaching positive, and not negative; let us avoid controversy; let us hold to a Person and not to a dogma; let us sink small doctrinal differences and seek the unity of the church of Christ; let us drop doctrinal accretions and interpret Christ for ourselves; let us look for our knowledge of Christ, not to ancient books, but to the living Christ in our hearts; let us not impose Western creeds on the Eastern mind; let us be tolerant [think all views are equally correct] of opposing views.’ Such are some of the shibboleths of that agnostic Modernism which is the deadliest enemy of the Christian religion today. They deceive some of God’s people some of the time; they are heard sometimes from the lips of good Christian people, who have not the slightest inkling of what they mean. But their true meaning, to thinking men, is becoming increasingly clear. Increasingly it is becoming necessary for a man to decide whether he is going to stand or not to stand for the Lord Jesus Christ as he is presented to us in the word of God."

J. Gresham Machen – The Good Fight of Faith (sermon)

Reformation Radio Show

Oct. 31, 1571, It was a Wednesday morning and everything seemed normal. Business was going along as usual in the German province of Saxony. In fact, most people were most likely not focusing on this day since the following day was "All Souls Day". A day when Frederick the Wise would bring in religious relics for the city to see, and offer the people a chance to buy indulgences. But little did the world know that an unknown emaciated Augustinian monk with a hammer and a piece of paper with 95 thesis was on his way to the Castle Church in Wittenberg. And God was going to use this hammer to shake the world and call light out of darkness.

This weekend I had the privilege to be a guest on the apologetics.com radio show in Los Angeles with host Chris Neiswonger. The topic was the reformation. We spent the majority of the time discussing the five solas of the Reformation.

Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone
Sola Christus - Christ Alone
Sola Gratia - Grace Alone
Sola Fide - Faith Alone
Soli Deo Gloria - To the Gloria of God Alone

If you would like to listen to the program you can download the mp3 version at the Apologetics.com radio page. Just scroll to the bottom and you should see a link for there. You can also go download it as a podcast in itunes. Simply search for Apologetics.com.

Happy Reformation Day!

Doug

Reformation and Revival

At times men think of the two words, reformation and revival as standing in contrast one to the other, but this is a mistake. Both words are related to the word restore.

Reformation refers to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian’s life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture; revival speaks of a life brought into its proper relationship to the Holy Spirit.

The Great moments of church history have come when these two restorations have simultaneously come into action so that the church has returned to pure doctrine and the lives of the Christians in the church have known the power of the Holy Spirit. There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation; and reformation is not complete without revival.

Such a combination of reformation and revival would be revolutionary in our day—revolutionary in our individual lives as Christians, revolutionary not only in reference to the liberal church but constructively revolutionary in the evangelical, orthodox church as well.

May we be those who know the reality of both reformation and revival, so that this poor dark world may have an exhibition of a portion of the church returned to both pure doctrine and Spirit-filled life.

-Francis Schaffer, Death in the City-

Maintaining Your Faith While Attending a Secular University - Greg L. Bahnsen

A busy academic and social schedule in college can easily pull the Christian away from God’s Word. But remember: you cannot defend God and His Word if you are not sanctified (set apart) for Him by means of contact with His Word. Too many Christian Students drift away from the faith in college because they have not been prepared for the spiritual and apologetic battles they will face. Dr. Gary North once wrote an article advertising a Christian college. The article showed a dejected father who had sent his son off to a secular college. It stated: “I spent $40,000 to send my son to hell.”

Seven Practices Christians Must Do in College.

1. Frequently remind yourself of the nature of spiritual warfare. In order to prepare yourself for your college classes, at the beginning of each semester you should re-read the biblical passages that demonstrate the active antagonism of the unbelieving world against your Christian faith. You must not forget the nature of the unbeliever’s challenge to your holistic (all encompassing) faith.

2. Diligently seek to evaluate everything you are being taught from a principled Christian perspective. After classes each day, jot down comments on the contradictions to the Christian faith which you encountered. Keep them in a notebook. Writing things down is the best secret to a good memory. Reflect on biblical answers to these supposed contradictions.

3. Develop small Bible study and accountability groups with other Christian students on campus. A part of defending the faith involves promoting its defense even among believers. As a Christian in fellowship with other Christians, you should urge fellow believers to realize their spiritual obligation to defend the faith before and unbelieving world.

4. Seek out any Christian campus ministries that are strongly committed to the Bible and are developing the Christian life. Attend their meetings and involve yourself in their ministries.

5. Find a good church in the area of your college. Commit yourself to attend church regularly. As Christians, we must not be “forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another” (Heb. 10:25).

6. Where possible use class assignments to present the Christian perspective on issues. We would recommend that you avoid narrow testimonial types of papers. You should rather discretely develop worldview oriented themes that work basic Christian principles into the picture. In-your-face testimonials might be an affront to your professor and may appear to be a challenge to him. But working out your biblical principles might alert him to the philosophical implications of Christianity and will certainly help you flesh out your own understanding. You must be about “making the most of your time” while in college . . . You will certainly not find your professors assigning papers that encourage your Christian faith. But you must seek the opportunities—when they are allowed.

7. As a well-rounded Christian seeking to glorify Christ, you must approach your academic studies in a mature and diligent fashion. Your are both paying hard-earned money for a college education and spending your God-given time in college; make the most of your investment. Do not cut corners in your studies or simply try to “get by.” Christ calls you to excellence. Some students are naturally lazy, others suffer from voluntary inertia. Do not allow your educational experience to inadvertently teach you to be intellectually lazy. Such laziness is disloyalty to Christ.

-Greg L. Bahnsen; Pushing the Antithesis-

What is Justification?

What is Justification?

As short video explaining that justification is more than Christ paying the penalty for our sins (as wonderful as that is).

God Bless,

Doug

The Necessity of Christ's Death

Why did Jesus have to die? Many object to the fact that Christ had to be put to death and that blood had to be shed for the remission of sins (Matt 26:28). They believe this is unbecoming of God. Others believe that if we as humans can forgive others without punishment and God cannot, then humans are more kind and forgiving than God.

These objection will be heard quite frequently, sometimes even coming from church pulpits. Besides their lack of understanding Scripture these arguments escape reason. They escape reason because the same people who make these arguments then go on to make distinctions between good and evil, and preach moral living. Why should man be moral? Why is it wrong to be immoral? These are the very questions Anselm raised when dealing with the necessity of Christ’s death. He went on to say; to remit sin without satisfaction or adjustment is not to punish it. And if sin needs no adjustment or punishment, then the one who sins is no different before God than the one who does not sin. And if there is no adjustment that needs to be made before God, then what needs to be forgiven? Following this logic there is no reason for forgiveness at all because to be unrighteous or righteous makes no difference before God. All of this is said to say that it is unbecoming of God not to punish sin because it would make evil and good equal in His sight. Since this cannot be the case, then God must punish sin.

The wages of sin is death according to scripture (Rom. 6:23). For God to offer forgiveness, the satisfaction of these wages must be met. This is what Good Friday is all about. Christ bearing upon Himself the sins of all those who come to Him through faith. It necessarily had to happen in order for God to be both just and the justifier of those who believe in Him (Rom. 3:26).

Every sin will be paid for, either we will pay for it ourselves or through faith we will accept His payment upon the cross.

Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

-Doug Eaton-

Abraham's Bosom???

A friend and I were discussing the idea of Abraham's bosom; the idea that there was a holding tank in hell or for believers until Christ died on the cross. He believes there was, and I do not. This discussion is not of ultimate importance in Christianity, because either way you believe on this issue you are still a Christian. But we still want to line our lives up with what is actually true and not just what we think is true, so the topic does warrant our study to some degree.

The following is a verse that he wanted me to address and then you will see my response.

What about acts 2:31????? "that his soul was NOT LEFT in Hades.

I love that verse because it shows me that I won't be left in the grave either... (What a promise!!!) Neither will my body see corruption (parallelism).

When we read it in light of verse 27 we see David making the same praise. He knew that he would not see ultimate corruption because God would not leave him in the grave. (See v. 29 and 30 also)

Basically, Death has no power over the believer because of Christ and His resurrection.

When we look at verse 24 we see that the thrust of this passage has to do with the bodily resurrection of Christ, (dealing more with the state of His body than His soul) and knowing that the Greek word "Hades" can also mean "grave". The context seems to be speaking of the body in the grave.

Rock on :-)

Doug

I am not looking for a debate on this topic since I won't have a lot of time to put into the discussion, but what are your thoughts. I also realize that the key issues on this topic deal with whether or not the story of Lazarus and the Rich man is a parable or an actual event that took place, and the interpretation of 1 Peter 3:19. Are there any other verses you use in discussing your understanding of this issue?

Doug

My Soap Box

One of the main problems I see, is that the church is an extremely low point in terms of it’s education. I have heard it said time and time again, (even from pastors) that doctrine is a tool of Satan. The sad fact is that ignorance is the real tool of Satan, and men who say such things should not be pastors. Because the minute they say, “Jesus died for your sins” they have just used doctrine. There is true doctrine and there is false doctrine. True doctrine sets people free and false doctrine is Satan’s tool to make captives. Hence, we are to “gird our loins with truth”

We live in a time where we have the writings of some of the greatest men and women of God available at our fingertips, and the Word of God is available in almost every language and yet we still do not dive deep into it’s teachings because we are scared it might cause division. We’ve started to turn churches into businesses where we must keep our customers happy. We trade evangelism for marketing plans. In an effort draw people in, we replace objective truth with eastern mysticism. We try to make people feel God instead of teaching His truths. This is seen clearly in much of the new music in the church. Many of new songs focus on how we feel. Note to songwriters, if you want to write a song that is going to last longer than a few years before it becomes passé, you are going to need to start writing songs that speak of the eternal truths of God, like “A mighty Fortress is our God” or “Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy.” Don’t get me wrong not all new music is like this, and style is not the issue; it’s content. And emotional worship is not the problem either, but when we write songs and sermons merely to try to get emotional for emotions sake we’ve missed the point. Not to mention the fact that because many churches are not equipped to teach deep doctrine, or simply do not do so in hopes of not causing division, they leave many in their flocks vulnerable to the enticements of many of the same vain philosophies that have trapped church members since it’s beginning, for there is really “nothing new under the sun”.

In doctrines absence, we fill our sermons with pop psychology that leads to sermon titles like, “Five ways to safety proof your marriage”, “Finding the Champion in You”, or “How to Guard Yourself From Hurt” (Joel Osteen). It’s not what these sermons say, that is wrong, it’s what they leave out, such as a deep understanding of the sinfulness of man, the atonement, the incarnation, vicarious sacrifice, and the exclusivity of Christ. May we as children of God continue to seek God’s truths and reject those teachings outside orthodoxy. And as for those within orthodoxy, may we sharpen each other in love as we grow in the grace and knowledge of God.

Praise God for pastors and churches who proclaim the truth without compromise. May we all desire to know more of the truth.