“I wish this booklet did not need to be written, but it does, because far too many Christians are wounded every year by fellow believers. As a “spiritual medic,” Mike has treated these wounds for years. His counsel is insightful, compassionate, and solidly biblical; it will help to heal many wounded saints.” —Ken Sande, President, Peacemaker® Ministries

Hit by Friendly Fire: What to Do When Other Believers Hurt You is a book about the painful reality that Christians often hurt each other. The wounds can last for a lifetime. How do we find healing?

We welcome you to the dedication page for this new release. In this page, we offer a prayer of dedication for the book, ordering information, and quote a part of the recent press release.

“O Father of peace, as You sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, to break down walls of division and to be bring healing through Your death on Calvary’s cross, grant that this little book will be used to expose foolish pride, extract festering poison from wounds we have suffered from others, and extend Your Kingdom of grace and peace, and to transform hearts and souls through Jesus Christ our LorD, as many follow the narrow road that leads to forgiveness and new life. AMEN.”

Orders for the new book, Hit by Friendly Fire, may be directed through Amazon. The publisher’s page is here at EP Books.

Here is a portion of the press release that went out from McCain and Company:

“Published last month in the U.K., Hit By Friendly Fire is already finding an audience both inside and outside the church, with clergy using it as a ministerial resource and believers reading it for understanding and guidance.

Milton, who currently serves as the chancellor/CEO-elect of Reformed Theological Seminary and as a chaplain in the U.S. Army Reserves, understands the devastation that betrayal at the hands of a friend can cause. Wounds at the hands of fellow believers run even deeper, he says.

‘This is not Baghdad or the Battle of the Bulge or Pork Chop Hill. I am speaking of the many walking wounded in the body of Christ who have been hurt by other believers, people who have been hit by the betrayal of a Christian,’ says Milton.

Although Jesus promised that His followers should expect tribulation from the world, they don’t usually expect to be troubled by their brothers and sisters in the church. Unfortunately, the experiences of Biblical heroes of the faith like Joseph and Paul demonstrate that this is not a new phenomenon. In Hit By Friendly Fire, Milton draws on Scripture to prove that it is possible to move from being a victim to being a victor, even when Christian bonds make the wounds deeper.

‘Full of personal and pastoral wisdom, this little book will help many believers face a trauma all too common in the Christian church, yet all too seldom addressed in the literature,’ says Iain D. Campbell, pastor of the Free Church of Scotland in Point on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.

For more information on Milton and Hit By Friendly Fire, visit michaelmilton.org.”

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• When God Comes Down (Isaiah 64) (michaelmilton.org)

spodzone /Free Photos

“The greatest threat we face as a nation is a unawareness of our own condition. So many in our nation fail to realize that we really are at war.”

What a Pentagon official told me could be said about the Church. Many have settled into a mindset that Ephesians 6 and the battle in the spiritual realms for the souls of men is just not relevant today. We seem more concerned about the latest trends in technology in worship or the latest controversial book or the hippest new preacher than we are in the reality that the devil, the flesh, and the world conspire against our souls. If we ever doubted that we are in a spiritual battle, the past few days of outright assault on religious liberty should have awakened us. And if that is not enough, just look at the worldliness of our people.

There needs to be prayer for revitalization in the West; support for revival in the Rest. It is good in inaugurating a missions conference to begin, then, with a holy dissatisfaction.

And so we begin with Isaiah 64.1-12. Isaiah has seen the throne room of God. He has seen God’s glory. He has not only a sacred encounter (in Isaiah 6) but a divine calling. He can never be the same. In a way, he can never be satisfied with pious platitudes or shallow solutions or earthly answers. He wants God to come down.  It is God’s message to His Church today.

This is the inerrant and infallible Word of the living God.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord will stand forever. Let us pray.

Lord, You wrote these words for Your people. Open them to our hearts this evening. Open them to this congregation, these pastors, these elders and deacons, these men, women, boys and girls; that we may be fruitful in Your kingdom; that we may know what we are to do; that we may be saved; and that many others would be saved as well. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Introduction to the Message

One you experience revival you will never forget it.

I remember having gone to my first trip to Albania to preach there. It was right after the wall fell. There was revival in the air. I was coming back home through London. I was in a black cab going to my hotel, passing monuments of a glorious Christian past, and yet people were passing but them as if they were passing by a Starbucks. I began to unload on the cab driver about how at the top of the Bank of England there is an inscription that says,

I asked him, indignantly,: “Do you know where that comes from my friend?” Before he could answer, I told him, “That is from the Psalms! Or don’t you know where the Psalms are located? That is the Bible my friend! This entire city and civilization was built on the foundation of that Word and just look at the people passing by! One day these will all crumble for lack of spiritual upkeep and then you will know!” I paused, out of breath. He looked at me in the mirror, giving a look of open-mouth wonder, and asked, in his Cockney way, “You wouldn’t be a padre would ye?”

Isaiah had been on a mission trip of sorts. He had been to the very throne room of God. He came back with a message that could be summarized as “repent and believe and follow God.” The cab drivers of Jerusalem knew he was likely a padre too. God, told him, however, that his divine message would go unheeded. Yet Isaiah reveals that he had a heart for the people and he had a heart for God. Jim Kennedy used to tell me, “Michael, to be a minister you must love God, love people, and love His Word. Without any one of those things you will never be useful for the Lord.” Isaiah seemed to have all three working. And in Isaiah 64 he has looked upon the godly foundations of Israel crumbling under the increasing weight of sin and neglect of their faith in God. And so he begins not by trying to change laws, but trying to change himself into a praying man. He calls down God. He believes that without God there is no hope.

Our nation needs hope. Our churches need hope. And so we do. In 1961 then actor and GE spokesman, Ronald Reagan, said that if government intrusion went unopposed we could find ourselves, in our sunset years, telling our children what American used to be like when men were free. We are already there in telling our children what it was like when Biblical Christianity was a primary presence in our nation. For we see our nation at a point where many of us don’t recognize it. Many are concerned that the foundations, erected by our forefathers, are crumbling under the weight of secularism, and relativism, increasingly antagonistic relations between unbelievers and believers, and worse than all of that, apathy among those who name the name of Jesus.

Isaiah 64.1-12 describes what I need to do and what God will do in this nation today to see the spiritual foundations restored and have a realistic hope for a real recovery.

We Need A Holy Dissatisfaction

When I read God’s Word in its whole, I come to understand that the Word of God begins with a burden. The burden is God’s burden for His own creation. Man was unable to keep God’s law and fell away from his Creator. This grieved God. According to Ephesians 1, God saw this before the foundation of the world and took steps to remedy the problem. After the fall, the rest of Scripture is a record of God working out His covenant of grace; that is, God, by grace, doing for man what man could not do for himself. It is a record of God ordaining that He would come down to fulfill the requirements of His own law and to pour out His divine wrath for sin upon Himself as a propitiation for the sins of man. God was burdened for His own creation.

So the vision of the Bible begins with a burden. Therefore, I would say that if it is to be biblical, any outline for a church’s vision must begin with a burden. When we come to understand that burden, when we have a heart and a passion for something that grieves us, that pains us, that creates desire, we then have a vision. A biblical vision is a divine solution that lifts the burden.

So I begin this series of messages on a vision for our church by locating in God’s Word the burden that He has given me for our time. I turn to Isaiah 64, for Isaiah was a man with a burden for God’s glory in his own generation. In this passage we may first come to understand the definition of this burden. We see this when we encounter the prophet’s words “Oh, that.”

Job uses this phrase more than anyone in Scripture. He cries out from the deepest part of his soul:

David uses the same opening in his exasperation over the sin of the wicked:

And Isaiah the prophet cries out,

“Oh, that” is a holy dissatisfaction with the way things are in comparison with who God is. The prophet has seen God, experienced His glory, known His salvation, desired that Israel know Him, and was, thus, dissatisfied.

There is evidence throughout the Bible that Christians are to be dissatisfied. We are enjoined to be content, but it is to be with our circumstances, not with God’s glory!

Moses had a burden. When he first had a burden for his Hebrew brethren, he took matters into his own hands and ended up herding goats in the back forty of Midian. But then God came down in a burning bush, and when Moses took his rod and marched into Pharaoh’s court, that man had a burden for God’s glory.

Paul knew God’s glory in grace and could never be content with ordinary religion. He would sacrifice all, count every gain as rubbish, put himself at risk, and take on any earthly power. For what? That he might know Christ and the power of His resurrection. Paul was a burdened man. He was burdened for God’s glory. He had experienced Christ and thought the world unworthy until every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father.

The Reformation could be traced to a holy dissatisfaction in the soul of the Germanic priest, Martin Luther. That paper with the 95 theses that he nailed to the Wittenberg church door was a sign of his holy burden for God’s glory and God’s grace to flow over the land.

There is a song I remember singing with Christians in Wales when I studied there. I brought it back and when I planted a church in Kansas City, I used to gather our core group and sing this and remind them that this is why we were planting a church, because we were desperate for God to come down!

This is Isaiah’s cry exactly. This was Luther’s and Calvin’s and Whitefield’s and Edward’s and it is ours tonight. Any mission to our nation, for our family, for our own lives to be right with God, must begin with a burden, a holy dissatisfaction. “Oh, that” is the soul cry of a person or a church who has known the grace of God, who has come to know the joy of surrendering his life to the compassionate Christ, and who is discontent until God is glorified and worshipped and enjoyed.

God is calling us to see and experience His own burden in our generation. We must be like Isaiah and say, “Oh, that God would come down” in our community. There are people here who need Christ. Oh, that God would come down to our nation. Oh, that God would come down to the Muslim people; to the African people; to Hispanics in Los Angeles; to smug, comfortable, pretend Christians who are not living to give God the glory.

I pray for a church with a burden for the glory of God.

Isaiah’s “Oh, that” reveals his holy discontent, but the unfolding passage reveals more. We move from what I need to do from God will do.

We Need for God to Come Down

I am saying that Isaiah is telling us three responses to this necessary dissatisfaction: There must be a prayer for revival, a position of repentance, and a Plea for Remembrance. Let me explain.

1. When God Comes Down There is Prayer for Revival (vv. 1-4)

Isaiah is dissatisfied. Isaiah is burdened, and the relief that he seeks is genuine revival. The entire passage is a prayer for revival. Especially from verse 1 through 4

Oh the passion in this passage! The prophet’s holy dissatisfaction moves him to prayer: his prayer focuses on God supernaturally coming down to the earth which is dire need of His presence and power. Not that Isaiah expects that when God comes down in revival there is a catastrophic reaction on earth, mountains burning, forests aflame, the rivers boiling over. Imagine the Japanese earthquake, the California forest fires and the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami all at once! And the effect? This unmistakable presence of God creates terror in the hearts of those who oppose God and His name is magnified in the earth. Revival happens and this is what it looks like. It is outside of our control. It is an act of God. It is clearly all about God’s timing, not ours, for Isaiah says that God acts for those who “wait.” But the waiting yields climactic revelations. It turns the world upside down. It converts the worst offender and entire nations are impacted.

Beloved our only hope is for God to come down in revival. And what this passage teaches us is that such transformative power, the power that brought Jesus to earth, that turned the cross from an instrument of shame into a symbol of salvation, and made the tomb a sign of hope, is the power that saves us from ourselves. Pray, then, for this in our lives, our families, our nation, and our world. “O God rend the heavens and come down!”

In 1992 it was my pleasure to preach throughout Albania. Communism had fallen only days before I arrived. I was to do street preaching in Skanderbeg Square, the main square in the capital city of Tirana. I asked my Albanian friend where I should stand. He smiled a sort of mischievous smile and said, “Stand there.” I saw what appeared to be crumbled concrete. Then I saw it. It was a toppled statue of Joseph Stalin. I stood on the crumbled remains of an edifice to a madman who sought to destroy the gospel. From those remains I proclaimed the gospel. I saw the hunger for God in people who crowded around to hear God’s Word. I saw God coming down and transforming souls. When you see the glory of God in revival and then you see the cold, dead formalism of so many in our day, you are burdened. And when you see revival you will never forget it. I love this quote from Duncan Campbell about the revival he witnessed in his country:

Paul Johnson, in his wonderful book History of the American People, notes that American history is a history of revival. I look upon our nation; our need; our evangelical churches so often going from one faddish program to another to try to grow members, to use marketing and psychology to build buildings; and I want to cry out, Oh, that God would come down! We need genuine revival, a moment of God that transcends our natural abilities and makes everyone know that God has come down.

Will you continue as you are? Or after encountering God in this passage will you pray? Will have such a holy dissatisfaction that our predicament becomes prayer for God to come down? There is no other answer to the redemptive goals of Christ in the Church than for God to carry them out through His Holy Spirit coming upon us. There is no other solution for our national and global problems other than a prayer for God to come down and cause us to tremble before His presence.

When God comes down you can be sure there is a prayer that is calling Him. But we see a second result of Isaiah’s holy dissatisfaction that leads to this prayer:

2. When God Comes Down There is a Position of Repentance (5-7)

There is a bad idea out there about passivity in Christianity. If we walk an aisle; if we say a prayer; if we simply adopt an attitude of prayer, then that is “enough.” Yet Isaiah teaches us that there must be a militant rebellion against sin in self. There must be an observable response in the life o the believer to God. Isaiah says,

Yet this new way of working what is pleasing to God begins with a wholehearted hatred of our sin and a confession of our condition:

Any hope for our lives, for our nation, for our world—and there is great hope because of Jesus Christ our Lord and His grace—begins with repentance. That is, literally, making a turn from everything else to God. Isaiah is so serious about this repentance that he names the sins. Often Paul in the New Testament will name sins. So must we. But to examine our sinful life before a holy God causes God to come down and change us and make us new people.

I remember a childhood friend named Sandy. Sandy was a bully. He was a year older than I and was known principally for his almost uncanny command of an ever-growing volume of curse words. I’ve never heard a more filthy mouth. But another kid began to pray for Sandy and invited him to church. There was a new preacher at our church, and it was an excuse for Sandy to go. Well, Sandy was saved, and he changed. He eventually led his entire family to Christ. He was called to the ministry and is today a greatly used preacher in the Southern Baptist Church. The point is that Sandy became as aware of his sins as others were! And as his heart was changed, his speech and behavior were changed. He began to take hold of God. He began to work righteousness. His militant response to sin, of repenting and transferring his trust wholly to Jesus Christ caused God the Holy Spirit to come down into his life. He was a new man.

We must have a burden for God’s glory in North America today. We are tired of vulgarity on the airwaves of our nation, horrified by abortions being given legal protection, struck with righteous indignation over our great Christian churches ordaining unrepentant sinners to the pulpit, offended by the sexualizing of everything and the open attack by Madison Avenue on our children’s innocence. But we are burdened because we have a burden for God’s glory in our land?

We must surely be a church burdened by the ugliness of sin in our generation and by the bondage and pain and brokenness that go with it. We long for reformation of our land. We pray that God would come down and do something in the hearts of our countrymen, that God would supernaturally renew the minds of our family and our community so that we can walk in righteousness before God and Man.

God will do more for us from this

3. When God Comes Down there is a Plea for God to Remember (8-11)

But the question comes then, how can we be saved? Indeed, this is Isaiah’s question in Isaiah 64:5:

Our answer is found in Isaiah 64:8:

When we pray, repent, we also call on God to remember His covenant. This is what Mary did in her Magnificat when she said that in the coming of Jesus God had remembered His covenant. She is one of the best covenant theologians in the Bible!

In that one statement we have our hope. We fix our eyes on the very nature of God as He reveals Himself to us. He is our Father. The fatherhood of God assures us that He will answer our prayers.

God as Father desires our salvation, our healing, and the transformation of our world more than any of us could. This is the testimony of Scripture:

Benjamin Warfield of old Princeton taught that the emphasis of John 3:16 is on the love of God in comparison to the wickedness of the world. He “so loved the world.” God’s love is greater than our sin. His grace and mercy are greater than our little rebellion.

This tells me that when I am burdened for God’s glory in revival and reformation, I am wanting what God wants. Yes, and more, my prayers are bound to be answered. For God’s own nature, His fatherhood, assures me that He will come down.

Jesus assures us of this truth when He says,

Look also at Isaiah 64:9:

He didn’t. God, before the foundation of the world, made a sacred pledge with Himself, a covenant of grace, that He would assume the sins of His people Himself. Thus, on Calvary’s cross, the central act of cosmic history was conducted. I quote Paul:

Our burdens are lifted at Calvary. And therein is our hope; our answer; and the vision of our lives, our churches, and our families. The love of God in Jesus Christ gives us optimism in our day. God will be successful. We may begin the work of prayer, of preaching, and of witness in our day. We may not see the salvation en masse that we long to see, but God’s kingdom will be successful. He will bring them all in. This gives us unbounded assurance and joy over our work as a church. We are on the winning side.

Conclusion

Isaiah 64 draws us into a surprising beginning together. Our mission in the world, for God, can only be met by God. Thus, there is a prayer for revival, a position of repentance, and a plea for God to remember His covenant in Jesus Christ. Then we shall be saved. Then the vision of Isaiah, that the earth would be so affected that nations would be converted, will come to be. We are at war. Christ is our victory. There is none other. Our holy hope is at the foot of the cross.

I once preached a message on the soul’s desire for God. After the service an elder came to me and said, “I go to church. I pray. I do everything a good Christian is supposed to do. But when you talk about desiring God, I’m lost. When you talk about panting for the presence of God, I have no idea what you are talking about. I know the catechism, but I don’t know about this passion for Christ or this love for Him. Can you tell me what’s missing?” What was missing was a true awareness of God’s glory, of his sinfulness, and of God’s love and grace in Jesus Christ at Calvary’s cross. I am happy to say that he came to know that love and grace. To know Him is to love Him and desire Him. To desire Him is to long for Him, to be burdened for His crown rights as King of kings and Lord of lords in our generation.

I quote the words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the matter of praying for God’s burden to see God’s glory:

My dear friends: don’t leave this place until you come to know your sin, your need, His holiness, but also to know His love in sending His own Son to die for your sinful condition. When you know Him in that way and you look out on a world of brokenness and sin and shame—across the ocean, across the nation, across the city, and yes, across the living room of your own home—then your soul will be burdened to cry with Isaiah,

 Prayer:

      Oh that my heart would be burdened for Your glory in this generation; Oh that

      You would send Your Spirit to renew and revive me and your church to take the

      Gospel of the cross to this generation!”

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I want to write you as this new semester begins and tell you a story about myself and then ask something of you. But first let me give you a Scripture to start your studies with:

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:14-15 ESV).

I was orphaned as a child. My Aunt Eva adopted me and reared me. She had never had children of her own. And she was recently widowed, when at 65 years of age, an 18 month old baby was placed in her arms. I was that child. Aunt Eva reared me in a rural, poverty-stricken area of Southeastern Louisiana, in the piney woods, on the border of Mississippi. She prayed for me everyday of my life. That is not hyperbole. She laid her hands on me and prayed for me. Years later, after I had gone through a “prodigal journey” and then come to the Lord in repentance and faith, she was there. She had prayed me home. When Mae and I married and God called me to preach, she went with us to seminary. She was there at my commissioning as a US Army Reserve chaplain. She was there when I founded a church and school in Overland Park, Kansas. At 99 years of age, she lay dying. Before she left this world, she blessed our son, John Michael, who was a baby. She thanked my wife for all she had done (to straightened me out!!) and to care for her. Then, she drew me near to her and whispered with the remaining strength she had, “My son, keep up the good work of the Lord.” I will never forget that moment. She then slipped into the presence of the Lord she had worship for so long.

A few years ago, the late, great folk singer, Dan Fogelberg, composed and recorded a song about his father. He called it, “Leader of the Band.” There is a line in that song that I always love, I always sing along with, and I always personalize (and others likely do as well, and that was the key to the popularity of the song). That line is, “I am the living legacy of the leader of the band.” I, too, know the truth: I am just the living legacy of a woman of faith, my Aunt Eva. I am little more and nothing less than that. But because of that, because of her influence in my life, her love, her pattern of faith, I want to move forward in that same faith. I may stumble and I may fall, but in the toughest times that I may face, I want to sing that song again, “I am the LIVING LEGACY of…Aunt Eva.

How about you? Who is the one who prayed for you, or whispers in the ear of your soul, “Son—Daughter—keep up the good work.” When you sing, “I am the living legacy of…” who do you say you are the living legacy of…?

Now. I raise this to encourage you; to encourage you to remember those who would “cheer you on” as it were. Oh that you could think of those who helped you to this point. Oh that your heart could be stirred to go the distance as you begin a new Spring semester, or, with some of you, conclude your seminary time and begin to think about a transition to a call to ministry.

Yet for all of us, we are moved by those who have gone before, those who mentored us, those who loved us, those sacrificed so that we could be here today, serving the Lord. What an honor and privilege!

So, I say, “Thanks Lord. Thanks Aunt Eva.” And I say to you,  ”Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it” and dedicate your service to our Triune God, but also to those He gave you in this life—and “come hungry”—each day—to learn, to give, to soak up the blessings of our seminary camaraderie, and to be inspired and to inspire.

The Lord bless and keep you; and help you to become a legacy to cheer someone else on as well.

Yours Faithfully,

M.A.M.

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"All other religions flourish when Christianity's beacon of light shines brightly."

A sinister wave of crime is sweeping American university campuses. Even the most prestigious universities like Vanderbilt University in Nashville are not exempt. Indeed, these types of criminal activity have spread like a hideous contagion to state universities, SUNY Buffalobeing the most recent site. And the most alarming part of it all? The criminals are those who are running the schools. No, I am not talking about white-collar crimes. I am not talking about violence. I am talking about what Dr. Michael M. Jordan of Hillsdale College has called “pedagogical crime” – that is educational crime – which can result in his sobering phrase: “cultural suicide.”

Yes, I am talking about the recent and escalating discrimination policies against Christian college campus ministries. If this absolutely sinister and anti-American crack-down on Christians is not stopped then we will commit “cultural suicide,” indeed. All other freedoms are grounded in this fundamental freedom to worship God as we understand it, and to assemble freely to do so. All other religions flourish (and the “idea of the university” is allowed to exist) when Christianity‘s beacon of light shines brightly.

The discrimination against Christian groups is ironically cloaked under the guise of university policies of nondiscrimination. Such “politically correct” policies demand that student Christian groups, even long-standing ministries such as InterVarsity Fellowship and others, must change their constitutions and allow unbelievers to not only join but be able to lead the groups. In other words those who are atheists, agnostics and those who would oppose Christianity with both their beliefs and their lifestyles, must, according to this new religious police force, be fully accommodated. Or? Or the Christian groups must disband as official campus ministries. These recent anti-Christian actions not only violate the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but are textbook cases in “the worst public relation blunders ever!” I like the way Dr. Paul Kengor of Grove City College put it:

“It sort of flies in the face of that old freedom of religion thing we’ve always had in America.”

After a more than three-hour meeting with Vanderbilt’s provost, students failed to find any compromise. One report I read cited a Chinese student who recognized the American university‘s demands to quell free speech and seek to control the faith and practice of conservative evangelicals and devout Catholics. The Communists in his home country have created an entire movement of underground churches by their similar repression of religious freedom. But his insight may be the final divine disposition of this matter. If we have learned anything from two millennia of church history and from 20th century history, we have learned that when any government or any organization or any power structure seeks to stop Christianity it actually ends up promoting a vibrant faith in Christ.

Yes, Christian campus groups may have to go underground at universities like Vanderbilt and SUNY Buffalo and other campuses. But the Gospel pattern is that the very thing which seeks to destroy Christianity becomes the instrument that promotes it. It was this way with the cross which was an instrument of shame and became a symbol of victory.

Could it now be that in seeking to quiet the faith and practice of believers on some of our nation’s top campuses those people responsible are in fact lighting the fires of a revival that will soon begin to sweep across a nation? And maybe even some university officials who are seeking to stop the faithful will become, Paul-like, converted to that which they oppose?  We have every reason to be alarmed at this recent attack of religious liberty and freedom of speech in our nation. But as Christians we also have every reason, biblical and historical, to suspect that Go”You meant it for evil,” Joseph told his criminal brothers, “but God intended it for good, so that many will be saved” (Genesis 50:20). And that is a faith that overcomes and transforms antagonists into saints.

Let our voices be heard by those who seek to stop the campus ministries who declare that Jesus is Lord. Let’s also let our voices be heard by the One we worship: “Lord, do it again on our college campuses!” Then the lion will lie down with the lamb and the university president will lead in singing “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus” at the Wednesday night campus Bible study group.

And that would be a lesson from college that we would never forget.

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• -Update on Vanderbilt U. ‘Nondiscrimination Policy’ Directed Against Christian Groups (answersforthefaith.com)
• Church and Culture (3dchristianity.wordpress.com)
• Archbishop Chaput challenges Catholic educators to ‘convert the culture’ (catholicnewsagency.com)
• Postmodern Political Correctness and Christianity (trinityspeaks.wordpress.com)
• Defense Draw-down Talk while the Nation is at War: Irresponsible and Immoral (michaelmilton.org)
• Students Fight College Ban On Group Leaders’ Beliefs (radio.foxnews.com)

"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

Dr. Michael M Jordan, Prof. and chair of English at Hillsdale College, recently wrote that, “The Bible is the wellspring of Western literature, art, and science. To ignore this great book in our studies is a pedagogical crime, and active spiritual and cultural suicide.”[1]

Yet for most public and private universities in the West, Jordan’s pedagogical crime and cultural suicide became part of the core curriculum years ago. The result is that in a effort to coddle secularists in the faculty lounge and in the state houses, not to mention the Federal Loan Program, centers of higher education became four-year, white collar trade schools. Curriculum changes that ousted the Bible and the Great Books became all the rage. Without the Bible and the Great Books which flowed from them—enriching not only literature, but also all the arts and sciences, and in short, all that it means to pursue a western civilization education—the pedagogical crime was committed. As usual, the proverbial frog in the boiling kettle was executed slowly and never knew his fate. So it is with the forfeiture of genuine learning and true freedom that follows it, on so many of our campuses.

Never mind that it is impossible to read Augustine, Chaucer, Erasmus, Donne, Milton, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Robert Penn Warren unless one has an understanding of the Bible. It was Warren, himself, who once told others writers, “all models, budding or otherwise, should read and mark their Shakespeare, also their Bible. These are the two greatest founts for writers.”[2]

The rejection of Shakespeare, not to even mention the out right attack on the Bible, is now a fait accompli. One would think that this accomplishment would be enough for liberal educators. Except for a notable few (one thinks of Grove City College, Hillsdale College, St. John’s College among the several prominent Great Books schools) , who “cling to their Shakespeare and Bibles“ (and are actually educating students), a vast number of our universities and colleges have long ago traded “Intro to Old Testament” for “Survey of 19th Century Gender Studies.” alas, the “crime” has been codified and the “criminals” have Ph.Ds.

Now, there is a new crime afoot: it is called “denying religious freedom” to voluntary Christian organizations on campuses (who by the way offer students the older, classical study in Scripture which allows them to actually read university texts with understanding). In a matter of weeks, reports of threats from SUNY at Buffalo and Vanderbilt University to require student-led Christian campus ministries to adhere to the universities broad, pluralistic mandate (opening the way for atheists, agnostics, homosexuals, drug users, and a host of other practices and their unrepentant practitioners, that the Bible condemns, to lead a Christian ministry they do not even believe in) or face being kicked off the campus. So much for the concept of the University as a place of free expression of ideas. This latest trend has moved from cultural suicide to religious homicide: the searching out and effective termination of groups like Inter-varsity Fellowship, Campus Crusade for Christ, and Reformed University Fellowship, to name only a few.

Years ago William Butler Yeats described what would happen if intellectual-spiritual-cultural cohesion were dissolved. In his “The Second Coming” (1919) Yeats described the consequences which we are seeing now: “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”[3] T.S. Eliot in his “The Rock” (1934) also described the educational system we have found ourselves and now:

“All our ignorance brings us near to death, but nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”[4]

The answer to Eliot’s poignant question is now our disorder. The gradual but deliberate loss of religious freedom on our campuses is becoming clear: eschew the Bible; therefore, trash the “code” (the Scriptures) which allows our youth to read with understanding (not to mention live with wisdom); and then banish the last vestige of faith by using open-mindedness as a cloak for the intellectual crime. This is the appalling answer that Eliot could not even conceive.

Cunning. And chilling. But here is the thing: we are now cutting ourselves off from the classical education which gave rise to reason and virtue; virtues like freedom. Maybe an army of donors and alumni withholding their financial gifts will send a message: “leave the Christian ministries alone! Without them we will have no place for our children to hide from the liberal assault on true education we wish your $45,000 annual tuition would provide! We loaned you their minds, but are you now requiring their souls?”

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• What’s so special about preaching? (Paul Levy) (reformation21.org)
• T.S Eliot’s “The Wasteland”: Creating an Elite Literary Club (sarahalicewaterhouse.wordpress.com)
• Students Fight College Ban On Group Leaders’ Beliefs (radio.foxnews.com)
• A Tale of Two Colleges (albertmohler.com)
• Hillsdale College on The Founding Documents (economicnoise.com)
• Shakespeare and the King James Bible: Ships Passing in the Night (manifoldgreatness.wordpress.com)
• Every State Needs A Hillsdale (jlue.wordpress.com)
• Defense Draw-down Talk while the Nation is at War: Irresponsible and Immoral (michaelmilton.org)

Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted was spot-on when he preached, “we cannot, we will not, comply with this unjust law. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build (America) … Or to have the posterity stripped of their God-given rights…”

Put this Presbyterian down as saying, “Amen,” to that Catholic bishop.

As the next chancellor and chief executive officer of one of America’s largest protestant seminaries, I can tell you that the Obama health care mandate is already having an enormous impact on our ministry. Yet until this latest revelation, the impact has mostly been financial. In a word, this thing is going to be extraordinarily expensive. Now, unless there is a wholesale repeal of this Act or unless there is dramatic and immediate steps taken to curb the government’s prying into the consciences of religious institutions like our seminary, or other similar religious establishments that appeal to a Higher Law than Man’s, we will have a constitutional crisis on our hands. I realize that those are heavy words. But we must all realize that this is a weighty matter.

It is interesting that Ronald Reagan’s 101st birthday (February 6th, 1911) is going to be celebrated as this crisis unfolds before us. He had something to say about how government mandated medicine steals liberty. Back in 1961 then actor and General Electric spokesman, Ronald Reagan, warned America:

“One of the traditional ways of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine…” Reagan went on to describe how a secularist government would use national health care to advance other leftist agendas. He also went on to quote a founder who warned against the loss of liberty through gradual intrusion of a meddling government.

James Madison warned, “Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” (James Madison, speech in the Virginia ratifying convention on control of the military, June 16, 1788 in: History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788, Vol. 1, p. 130 [H.B. Grigsby, ed. 1890]).

If liberty and freedom were a government-issued “right” then government would have the prerogative to take it back. But liberty and freedom, as our founders declared, comes from Almighty God. To meddle with those rights of conscience is to return to the crisis of that gave rise to this nation. Unless these violations of religious rights are expelled, now, they will bring ruin to this nation.

It is time for Americans to speak up for religious freedom while there is still time. Thank God for the Catholic Bishops and priests who did. We all must. For you can’t lose just a little liberty. You lose—we lose—all of it when we lose any of it.

Welcome my beloved brother. Come and share in this ministry

Here is the official RTS Press Release:

The Rev. Reddit Andrews, senior pastor of Soaring Oaks Presbyterian Church in Elk Grove, Calif., has been appointed to the faculty of Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss, as assistant professor of practical theology by the RTS Board of Trustees.

Prior to serving at Soaring Oaks, Rev. Andrews served as assistant pastor at First Baptist Piney Grove Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and then as assistant pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Ga. He has a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Trinity International University in South Florida, and a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill. As a student, Reddit founded Coram Deo, a student fellowship that ministered to halfway houses, rescue missions and prisons throughout South Florida.

“I am delighted to welcome my old friend, The Reverend Reddit Andrews to the faculty of RTS,” said Dr. Michael Milton, chancellor-elect of RTS. “I remember seeing a young man coming through ordination as I was chairman of his examination committee. I knew then that the Lord had marked out that young man to not only preach Christ but entrust Christ to others who would faithfully preach Him. Yet I could not imagine how our sovereign Lord would cause our lives and ministries to converge again. His calling to RTS brings a deep sense of praise! Many pastor-scholars will be shaped by Professor Andrews and the truth that has shaped his own distinguished life and ministry will now be multiplied greatly in our generation.”

Rev. Andrews will begin at RTS/Jackson on June 1, 2012. He will focus on homiletics, but he will also teach other courses in the practical theology department. He is married to Nadine and they have two daughters.

“After two years of praying and seeking for just the right man to take this critical faculty position,” said Dr. Guy Richardson, president of RTS/Jackson, “the Lord has graciously given us Reddit Andrews. We are thrilled! We have no doubt that God has been preparing him in his pastoral ministry to be exactly what we need. Not only does Reddit have a passion for knowing and communicating the treasure of God’s Word, he has a genuine heart for discipleship. His warm personality and gentle spirit are matched with his inner love for our Lord and His people, producing a model commitment to help prepare our students to be strong, faithful leaders in the Church. With great praise and thanks to our Lord, we welcome Reddit to our faculty in Jackson!”

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• “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier…Pastor:” How Two Cold War Foes Became Pastoral Friends (michaelmilton.org)
• New Faculty Appointment at Reformed Theological Seminary (faithinspires.wordpress.com)
• Appointment of Dr. Ligon Duncan to Chair of Systematic and Historical Theology at RTS Furthers Gospel Vision (michaelmilton.org)
• A Charge to the Rev. James Carter: On the occasion of his installation as Senior Pastor of New Presbyterian Church, Pompano Beach, Florida – Sunday, October 9, 2011 (michaelmilton.org)
• Pastors, elders, deacons, and church leaders — Free Lunch! (Robert Brady) (reformation21.org)
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"It is not enough for us to claim to know people who knew people who once crawled on their bellies before God. Our job is to be one of those people ourselves..."

I read this letter and begin to ask myself, “Milton, are you preaching with the twigs still in your hair and the smell of the earth still in your nostrils? Are you preaching with the dirt on your face?”

Let me set the scene for you. There is a young man, a preacher, with a great opportunity to bring the Word to young people this summer. He senses the soul-stirring thrill when a preacher knows that an open door is before him. He thinks of the possibility of Gospel and even cultural transformation as he would speak into the minds and hearts of those whom God will draw into his “congregation.” What will he say? How should he approach this opportunity? He is a wise young man for he takes his questions to an older brother, a father, really, who is not a preacher, but an able, well-read and thoughtful believer (who knows more about New Testament than many scholars do, and as a pastor’s son, knows more about the pastorate than many pastors). This very successful businessman, who calls me from time to time from London, or Vancouver, or Brussels, to talk about the latest books we are reading (I say that to underscore my friend’s stellar commitment to reading widely and deeply, as well as to seeking out conversation with a fellow believer about what he has read, even if he is three thousand miles away), took the time to respond. I thought his words were not simply worth reading but demanded it. I asked permission to print this and by his kindness, that which I have received, I offer to you.

“Jeff:

I have been thinking about your summer opportunity and want to encourage you to step fully into the opportunity to bring something powerful to those young people this summer. I urge you to take them, their concerns and the claims of Christ seriously. Give them words that will ring in their ears until they are old. I know this is possible. When men like you spoke into my bleary life as a teenager they changed my life for good and helped me encounter a God who loved me.

My caution about Lewis and two of his great works is no charge against Lewis. Rather, it is a voice of confidence in you and the calling that God has on your life and this opportunity. Let them hear your voice. Let them hear your convictions, tested against the realities of your life.

My reference to Barbra Brown Taylor, comes from her work, “When God is Silent” Written to and for preachers she pleads with them to do the hard work of original thought and craft messages that come from their own lives and learning. Here is part of her argument.

‘Some of you know of the poet and naturalist Gary Snyder, who won the Pulitzer prize in 1975. I especially love an essay of his called ‘Crawling,” in which he describes moving on his belly through a forest in the Sierra. Since the forest there is checkered with patches that have been burned or logged and are now almost impassable with thick new growth, most hikers stick to the old logging roads or trails. Pioneer that he is, Snyder preferred the road less traveled and set off through the woods on his hands and knees. Shimmying under fallen trunks and squirming his way through fields of prickly Manzanita, he was always happy to find a patch of snow that would let him slide on his belly for a ways. At one point he came face to face with a pile of steaming bear scat and, a little further on, with a prize boletus mushroom. “You can smell the fall mushrooms when crawling,” he wrote. “You brush cool dew off a young fir with your face.” The trick, he says, is to have no attachment to standing, to trade that in on a desperate desire to explore the world up close.

Reading him, I decided he was a good homiletics instructor. What would our sermons sound like if we approached the text in that way? What kind of revelations are we missing in this world because we insist on walking upright, while so much of life takes place closer to the ground? In a time of famine, our role as scouts has grown more serious than ever. Hungry people have no use for agricultural analysis. They need someone actively involved in the search for food. It is not enough for us to claim to know people who knew people who once crawled on their bellies before God. Our job is to be one of those people ourselves, exploring the territory on our own hands and knees so that we do not miss a single mushroom. When we stand up to speak, it would be good for us to have twigs in our hair-better yet, an alarming shine on our faces-so that listeners know where we have been ( and whom we have sought) on their behalf.’ (Page 108-110)

When I took a group of young people to Banff some years ago I gave the speaker the challenge of getting back to basics. I asked him to answer these questions in his talks. What do Christians believe about God? What do Christians believe about the human condition? What do Christians believe about Jesus? And finally, What do Christians believe about discipleship? He spoke to a group of college students and I was amazed at how few had thought deeply about these things. His words are still played back in conversations years later. He spoke out of his own learning and anchored his thoughts in the Word of God.

When walking the dog down the lane today I was thinking of your opportunity and what I, as a junior high student, needed to hear. These are the ideas that came to mind. First, don’t assume anything. I came from a pastor’s home and had internalized little of what I was taught as a child. Second, speak to them not at them. Give them solid food to chew on. Respect them as thinking human beings capable of wrestling with real ideas. Third, invest for the future. Speak truth and leave it to God to remind and convict well into the future.

Against my own experience in an opportunity like yours I might offer them a broad topic like: “Words with Power: Five ideas to build a life on” and then, assuming a five day camp build in the following ways.

·     The God who is for you.

·     Mind the gap: Not the way we are supposed to be.

·     Take a look at Jesus:  the one whose work is finished.

·     Hope is something we have.

·     No free lunch: The cost of discipleship.

I am back to my original position. Be yourself. Speak from the gifts God has given you in the opportunity before you.

Enough for now. I will be anxious to hear about what God places on your heart for these young people.

Yours to count on

Roger”

Oh, Lord, give us preachers who have crawled on their bellies before bringing the Word.

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The picture would have been impossible to imagine for the two men before.

When I was granted a Top Secret clearance under the Naval Security Group, part of the National Security Agency, it would have been (spiritually as well as practically) delusional to think that one day I would be a pastor serving a system of seminaries preparing other pastors. I was an American spy—in military intelligence—trained to “listen in” (literally) to a former Soviet block country.

The Rev. Dr. Sasha Tsutserov, a former KGB agent, spying on American missionaries, and now Director of Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary, equally, had no idea that he would, after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet empire crumbled, discover a new life as a believer and then as a pastor who served a seminary to prepare other evangelical pastors. Yet as I was beginning my ministry, my former adversary, Dr. Tsutserov, was being converted to evangelical Christianity by those he spied upon. He would soon be studying for his Ph.D. at St. Andrews University (at the same time as Prince William and the future Duchess of Cambridge were there, which caused him to remark, “This may have been a little uncomfortable for the British MI6“). After obtaining his doctorate he returned to Russia with a vision to advance the Gospel he once sought to destroy.

Now, Dr. Tsutserov, as an ordained evangelical minister, expresses his vision by leading one of the largest seminaries in Russia. As I now serve as the next Chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, our unlikely paths converging in my study seemed surreal, except that this is just the way the Gospel of Jesus Christ seems to work. Paradoxes and transformations like this are but ordinary reflections of the powerful pattern of the Cross of Jesus Christ at work in the world. But I have to tell you—when it happens it is still breathtaking. That God would bring two former top-secret antagonists together as Gospel allies in the Kingdom of God is just the way the Lord brings honor and glory to Himself and proves that the Kingdom of God is greater than all other realms and is, in fact, a Gospel conspiracy at work in the world today.

I learned more. Sasha told me that from 1917 until 1997, the Soviet Communist empire was responsible for the murder of more than 200,000 pastors, seminary presidents, professors, missionaries and other Christian leaders. They imprisoned more than 500,000 others, many in unspeakably cruel conditions. Thus, the seminary is now seeking to offer a new generation of Christian leaders for the growing evangelical church in Russia. Sasha is seeking God in prayer to replenish his nation with a new generation of pastors and I am seeking His presence and power to revitalize our nation with a new generation of pastors. We want to work together in some way, giving expression to the unity of Christ in the world. I pray that we can. We need to learn so much from the Russian Christians who have suffered. Maybe we can share some things too.

As we talked, we learned that we were also both orphans. We are both musicians (he a real one as a classically trained violinist, and I as, well, a Martin guitar picker). And of course we were both top-secret linguists and agents for our respective nations. Yet both of us were called out of that life, not to yet another SIS mission, like in the John le Carré novel, but to Christ’s Gospel mission. The author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy characterized his main character, George Smiley,  as “one of the meek who doesn’t inherit the Earth.” I don’t know how meek these two old spies are, but we do fully expect King Jesus to inherit the earth. That is what we work for now.

Our two-hour meeting, remembering what was and dreaming of what could be, concluded with a thought that was so obvious I had to say it:

“We were once enemies. We are now brothers, in the Lord, in the pastoral ministry, in seminary leadership, and in our united desire to bring reconciliation to the world.”

Dr. Tsutserov smiled. Our mission, however, is “no secret anymore.”

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Dr. J. Ligon Duncan, III, John E. Richards Chair of Systematic and Historical Theology, RTS     Our vision for seminary is to increasingly become an incubator for pastor-scholars who will take the truth of God’ Word, the passion for God’s world, and the commitment to God’s grace to human beings and their culture—in the West “and the Rest.” Yesterday’s Board  of Trustees appointment of Dr. Ligon Duncan to the John E. Richards Chair of Systematic and Historical Theology is a tremendous God-blessed milestone in that journey. I just left time with both Ligon and Dr. Derek Thomas at Starbucks  early this morning. Both of these men join me in a passion to see the seminary and the “parish” united and both of them fulfill that vision in their ministries at RTS  and their respective churches. I am so thankful to the Lord for our partnership in the Gospel  (That they both drink Starbucks and use Apple computers is only icing on the cake). Perhaps this “profane” reference even serves to underscore the spiritual reality—our hearts beat as one for the Church of Jesus Christ in our generation. We want to be spiritually intoxicated with the rich aroma of Christ’s changeless truths in these Apple-like, constantly changing times.   “Lord, bless this milestone at our seminary and in Thy Church so that many souls will be saved, countless precious lives transformed, the glorious Kingdom of Thy Son advanced to the ends of the earth, and that through Thy Holy Spirit there will be a vast multitude of elect souls ‘safe in the arms of Jesus’ when He comes again (1 Thess. 2:119-20).’”   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   Reformed Theological Seminary|Contact: Lyn Perez|Chief Communications Officer|Telephone Number: 407-366-9493|Email Address: lperez@rts.edu|Web Site Address: www.rts.edu   DR. LIGON DUNCAN ELECTED TO REGULAR FACULTY OF RTS WHILE CONTINUING THE PASTORATE   Dr. J. Ligon Duncan, III, while continuing his role as senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Miss., has been elected as a regular member of the faculty and appointed as the John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson beginning January 1st, 2012. Currently an adjunct member of the faculty, this election means Duncan will become a voting member of the faculty and will teach additional classes, cutting back on his national speaking engagements to do so.Students at RTS/Jackson were excited after hearing this news and they are looking forward to sitting under Dr. Duncan’s teaching as part of the regular curriculum of the Master of Divinity program.   “Ligon Duncan’s recent appointment as the John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, is a tremendous blessing of God to RTS,” said Chancellor-elect Michael Milton, “but even more, to the larger church. Dr. Ligon Duncan is a pastor – scholar. Ligon models what we trust and pray the Lord will produce here at RTS. More than all that this means for our seminary and our students, it means that the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the 21st-century will receive pastors and missionaries and other gospel workers who have been grounded in the inerrant and infallible word of God with a passion for lost souls. Ligon Duncan’s commitment to both the pulpit and the classroom exemplifies the vision of Reformed Theological Seminary. Our entire seminary community welcomes my dear friend of many years, Dr. Ligon Duncan, in the fellowship of the gospel.”   Originally from South Carolina, Duncan graduated from Furman University, and then received an M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary. He studied systematic theology at the Free Church of Scotland College and then earned the Ph.D.  from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He served on the staff of The Covenant Presbyterian Church of St. Louis from 1984-1987, and supplied pulpits in churches of the Presbyterian Association of England, Church of Scotland, and Free Church of Scotland from 1987-1990. In 1990 he was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and joined the faculty of RTS/Jackson, where he was chairman of the department of systematic theology, and the John R. Richardson professor of theology. He became the senior minister of First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, in 1996.Duncan is an active churchman and has been involved in the courts of the PCA in various ways for many years.  He was appointed to the general assembly’s Committee on Psalmody, and has served on Committees of Commissioners for Covenant Seminary,  MNA, and Bills and Overtures.  He has been a member and chairman of the Credentials Committee of the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley (1996-2002). He was the vice-chairman of the general assembly’s Creation Study Committee (1998-2000), a member of the search committee for a coordinator of Reformed University Ministries, and currently is the chairman of the general assembly’s Theological Examination Committee, and is also a member of the PCA’s Strategic Planning Committee. Duncan was elected as moderator of the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley in 2001.  At the annual denominational meeting, held in June of 2004, he was elected the moderator of the General Assembly of the PCA (2004-2005) – the youngest minister to serve as moderator in the denomination’s history.   Dr. Guy Richardson, president of RTS/Jackson, said, “This appointment is a great answer to our prayers!  I have personally known Ligon and his family for many years, and so it is especially delightful for me to welcome him in this new capacity.  Not only is he greatly respected worldwide for his academic scholarship, he is equally known for his warm (and wise!) pastoral leadership and his friendliness to both students and colleagues alike. We are most grateful that the First Presbyterian Church of Jackson would continue to partner with us by allowing Dr. Duncan to assume this new role to help train men and women to serve Christ and His Church worldwide!”   Ligon and his wife Anne have two children.   # # #       Related articles

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