External Religion Won't Cut It - A Reading From EveryDay Gospel by Paul David Tripp

Since January of this year, I've been reading with a group of friends through the entire Bible using the plan in and accompanied by the daily comments of Paul David Tripp's book, Everyday Gospel.  Twice each month we gather for breakfast and ask of each other: "So, what did you underline?"  It's been a great experience, that I want to give you a taste of. 

The reading for October 14 was Mark 12-13.  Portions of Tripp's comments include:

You might not think this indictment of the scribes has anything whatsoever to do with you, but it does.

When Jesus says, “Beware of the scribes,” he is not just warning his listeners to be careful because the scribes are up to no good. He is also warning his followers (and us) not to act like the scribes. Jesus finds the religiosity of the scribes deeply offensive, and we should too. In his condemnation of them, Jesus combines three things that should get our attention and cause us to do some self-examination: religious externalism, pride, and injustice. These things often go together. 

• Religious externalism concerns public displays of spirituality that do not come from the heart. True biblical religion is always about the capture and transformation of the heart. 
• Pride concerns drawing attention to yourself. Prideful actions are those that are motivated by the worship of self and seek the worship of others. Pride is the enemy of the work of God in the heart. 
• Injustice is a lack of compassion for or activity on behalf of those who are suffering or disadvantaged.

Here’s how these things work together. An externally religious person is proud because his religion is about personal accomplishment and not grace. And, because he thinks he has earned his success, he looks down on people who have less than he has, rather than showing them compassion. Externalism produces pride, and pride is the soil in which injustice grows.

Yes, we should be aware of the lifestyle of the scribes. Their public displays are an attractive form of false godliness. They lack a brokenhearted knowledge of sin, fail to celebrate God’s grace, and never give grace where grace is needed.

God will not be satisfied with our daily Bible reading, regular church attendance, or episodic moments of ministry if underneath these things are pride of accomplishment and a cold heart toward those in need. God will not be satisfied with external Christianity if he does not own and rule our hearts. May grace cause us to give ourselves to nothing less than a true Christianity of the heart.

CLICK HERE for an Amazon link to Everyday Gospel by Paul David Tripp.

Just How Awful Were Those Assyrians?

Many of the Minor Prophets lived under that shadow of the Assyrian Empire with its capital city Ninevah.  Think - Jonah, Micah, Nahum and others.

In our sermon series, I refer to the Assyrians as "Brutal Conquerors" who did "unspeakable things" in their pride and power.  This seems like a good setting to get more specific and actually write - or quote - for the forewarned reader some details about those "unspeakable things."

The best single succinct statement we know is from Tim Keller's book, Jonah: The Prodigal Prophet.

Assyria was one of the cruelest and most violent empires of ancient times. Assyrian kings often recorded the results of their military victories, gloating of whole plains littered with corpses and of cities burned completely to the ground. The emperor Shalmaneser III is well known for depicting torture, dismembering, and decapitations of enemies in grisly detail on large stone relief panels. Assyrian history is “as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know.” (Drika Bleibtreu, Biblical Archaelogy Review, Jan/Feb 1991) After capturing enemies, the Assyrians would typically cut off their legs and one arm, leaving the other arm and hand so they could shake the victim’s hand in mockery as he was dying. They forced friends and family members to parade with the decapitated heads of their loved ones elevated on poles. They pulled out prisoners’ tongues and stretched their bodies with ropes so they could be flayed alive and their skins displayed on city walls. They burned adolescents alive. (NIV Application Commentary. pp. 28-29) Those who survived the destruction of their cities were fated to endure cruel and violent forms of slavery. The Assyrians have been called a “terrorist state.” (NIV Application Commentary. pp. 28-30)

The empire had begun exacting heavy tribute from Israel during the reign of King Jehu (842–815 BC) and continued to threaten the Jewish northern kingdom throughout the lifetime of Jonah. In 722 BC it finally invaded and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and its capital, Samaria. 

Yet it was this nation that was the object of God’s missionary outreach. Though God told Jonah to “proclaim against” the city for its wickedness, there would have been no reason to send a warning unless there was a chance of judgment being averted, as Jonah knew very well (Jonah 4:1–2).

Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God's Mercy (pp. 10-12). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

 

Grace - "the chance of judgement being averted."  May we know and speak of that as well. 

"No Evidence" - The Vexing Reality of Medical Gender Transition for Minors

In my role as a pastor, I've been quietly - or as quietly as is possible for my temperament  - concerned about the circumstances around the sudden wave of transgender considerations that have flooded in on families and friends over the past few years.  There has been hot debate, loud advocacy and heart-rending stories on both sides that make it hard to sort out reality and from there prayerfully share life in the Gospel.  To see previous posts of mine about this, click HERE, and HERE.

A recent case before the Supreme Court regarding restrictions in Tennessee on medical gender transition for minors extended that same sound and fury.  Below, I offer an extended quotation from an analysis of that decision that expresses my own understanding and convictions in words better than my own.

These five opening paragraphs from a June 29 article in the Atlantic Monthly caught my attention in a BIG way:

Allow children to transition (gender identity), or they will kill themselves.  For more than a decade, this has been the strongest argument in favor of youth gender medicine—a scenario so awful that it stifled any doubts or questions about puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

“We often ask parents, ‘Would you rather have a dead son than a live daughter?’” Johanna Olson-Kennedy of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles once explained to ABC News. Variations on the phrase crop up in innumerable media articles and public statements by influencers, activists, and LGBTQ groups. The same idea—that the choice is transition or death—appeared in the arguments made by Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration’s solicitor general, before the Supreme Court last year. Tennessee’s law prohibiting the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to treat minors with gender dysphoria would, she said, “increase the risk of suicide.”

But there is a huge problem with this emotive formulation: It isn’t true. When Justice Samuel Alito challenged the ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio on such claims during oral arguments, Strangio made a startling admission. He conceded that there is no evidence to support the idea that medical transition reduces adolescent suicide rates.

At first, Strangio dodged the question, saying that research shows that blockers and hormones reduce “depression, anxiety, and suicidality”—that is, suicidal thoughts. (Even that is debatable, according to reviews of the research literature.) But when Alito referenced a systematic review conducted for the Cass report in England, Strangio conceded the point. “There is no evidence in some—in the studies that this treatment reduces completed suicide,” he said. “And the reason for that is completed suicide, thankfully and admittedly, is rare, and we’re talking about a very small population of individuals with studies that don’t necessarily have completed suicides within them.”

Here was the trans-rights movement’s greatest legal brain, speaking in front of the nation’s highest court.  And what he was saying was that the strongest argument for a hotly debated treatment was, in fact, not supported by the evidence.

"It's not true .  .  .  There is no evidence .  .  . Not supported by the evidence."  WOW!  Those are strong statements from a source - The Atlantic Monthly - that has a long history and consistent reputation.  I encourage you to read the entire article - CLICK HERE.  It is called The Liberal Misinformation Bubble About Youth Gender Medicine by Helen Lewis posted June 29, 2025 on the TheAtlantic.com site.  There may be a paywall, but take the steps to get a free look.  Or call the Harderwyk office and I can get you a hard copy to read for yourself.

CLICK HERE for a link to the the British medical paper - the "Cass Report" -  mentioned above.  CLICK HERE for a helpful summary of that from Rebecca MacLaughlin, a favorite mother/speaker/theologian of mine.

What Would I Recommend You Do Next?

We all will or do have family, friends, neighbors, or congregation members who have been told or will pass along the "transition or death" statement.  How would I recommend  you respond when that happens to you?

First, stop, take a deep breath and pray in your heart.  You want to begin by listening deeply to the person speaking.  

Next, realize that it it may not be helpful or appreciated for you to engage them with a "you-must-do-this" demand - and even if a response is asked for, certainly do not respond in an argumentative or condemning way.  But I am writing this because I think it is important for you, the reader, to know for yourself that this statement has no evidence on which it is based.

If you are asked for input or your opinion, you know the truth about the evidence for this statement - namely it's glaring lack.  If they are open to hearing about that lack of evidence, then this blog has the information and resources.

As you do that, recognize this as a "God-moment" for them, and commit to be available to them.  They need more than a two-minute information transfer.  They need a friend.  Someone who will pray, listen and think through all the next steps in their circumstances WITH them, not FOR them.  Most espcially, they will be well-served by a friend who will help them look for and find the guidance, comfort and insight of Jesus along the way.

As For My Part

Feel free to call me through the Harderwyk office.  I will find a time to talk with you or with both you and your friend.

I am committing myself to being available with empathy, agape love and relationship along the journey of navigating the issues of a person's life.  Truth is certainly truth, I can not change that.  But my attitude?  My willingness to walk with someone through both their decisions and any consequences?  A heart of welcome even when someone chooses something that I might not recommend?  I have concluded that those attitudes are on me.  I'll speak truth as I honestly as I know it, but my relationship towards people is based on the love that Jesus has showed me, not on their agreeing with me, listening to me or following my recommendations.

I hope you will join me in that, or at least pray for me as I step out in that journey.

Handling a Hostile Culture - Tim Keller's Thoughts

The following extended quotation is from a 2021 interview that World Magazine did with Tim Keller.  I find it helpful and formative almost five years later.

"I have heard many fellow Christians accuse you of being a liberal politically."

As the term has been used by the great majority of people in the last several decades, I am not politically liberal. I am not a supporter of a highly centralized, government-controlled economy or of taxes at the level of European socialist countries. I am pro-life. I am, of course, a major supporter of religious liberty, a term that the left now puts in scare quotes and a concept it opposes. Political liberals do not consider me politically liberal.

So why have some people called me a political liberal?

The first reason is that, in a highly politically polarized environment, anyone who is not fully, loudly, and explicitly supporting "your tribe" is now seen as supporting the other side. During the last election I simply said that as a minister, I could not bind Christians’ consciences (see Westminster Confession Ch. 20) and tell them how to vote. That angered many conservative people who believed that any effort to be “apolitical” was really to be on the liberal side

The second reason is because I often preach what the Bible teaches about how Christians should work for and support the poor and needy. Even though I simply expound the Scripture and say nothing about government or taxation, many people believe any such emphasis will lead to higher taxes and bigger government and therefore is “liberal.” This is not true, of course. To say Christians must be deeply concerned for the needs of the poor is simply presenting a Biblical truth and is not speaking to political policy.

Third, many believe that if I am not denunciatory and unfriendly to liberals I must myself be a liberal which is not true. Jesus called us to publicly “greet” and wish peace to not just our own fellow believers but to all (Mt 5:43-48).  Recently on Twitter I congratulated an atheist (Greg Epstein) on being selected as head chaplain at Harvard. He is a man whose views I have publicly debated, and I am on record as having opposed his atheistic beliefs. Yet he has also been friendly to me, and is a man whom insiders know to be more fair-minded and open to allowing all chaplains—including evangelical ones—to do their ministries than some Harvard head chaplains have been in the past. Nevertheless, many on social media expressed their conviction that if you show friendliness to atheists and liberals you must be at the very least a closet liberal yourself. That is not true.

This is an excerpt from a long, wide-ranging and interesting two-part interview.  The whole thing is worth your time and consideration.  CLICK HERE to read it.

Birmingham and Los Angeles - Different Leaders, Different Values

This past Saturday while in Atlanta for the wedding of our nephew, Mary Lynn and I took time to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park.  It was a great three hours of history, information and inspiration.

Ironically - I write this on the following Monday - Los Angeles began to be engulfed in protests over federal ICE arrests at the same time.  There is a lot going on with much back-and-forth and I have no idea how things will play out from here.  I'm a pastor, not a predictive prophet.  There is more than I can address in a single post - while on vacation.

But I am sadly struck by how far we have fallen from Dr King's leadership.  These protestors are not marching in his footsteps, following his example or committed to his values.  That is the single point that I want to keep before us with this post. Those who marched with Dr King:

• Never wore masks.
• Never advocated violence or harbored violent agitators.

In January of 2021, I posted "Marching With Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr" - CLICK HERE for the full post.  In that post, I included the "Ten Commandments" for participating in the Birmingham, AL Bus boycott.  However things play out, it is worth reposting those principles, as I have below.

Every volunteer was required to sign a Commitment Card that read:

I hereby pledge myself—my person and body—to the nonviolent movement. Therefore I will keep the following ten commandments:

1. Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus

2. Remember always that the non—violent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation — not victory.

3. Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.

4. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free.

5. Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be free.

6. Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.

7. Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.

8. Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart

9. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.

10. Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain on a demonstration.

I sign this pledge, having seriously considered what I do and with the determination and will to persevere.

From the 1963 book Why We Can't Wait by Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. - p. 64

Evangelicalism - A Global Movement

I've posted before regarding the meaning and confusion around the term "evangelical" and why clarifying that understanding is important to me.

You can revisit those posts here:

• "So What Do You Mean By 'Evangelical'?" - 1/21/21 - CLICK HERE
• What Do You Mean By "Evangelical?" - 1/17/24 - CLICK HERE

I came across a review of the book Soul By Soul: The Evangelical Mission to Spread the Gospel to Muslims by Adriana Carranca recently that added insight to that question: What Do You Mean By "Evangelical"?  The reviewer makes two particular points that I often point out:

• Evangelicalism - as understood for over four centuries and represented by the National Association of Evangelicals - CLICK HERE for their website with their definition - is an international movement, with particular convictions and history.  It is more than a recent category of American political identity.
• There is an amazing work of God happening this very day among Muslim people across the globe, and "Global Evangelicals" are deeply involved.

Below is an extended quotation from that review:

We now know that the demographic center of Christianity shifted to the Global South during the 20th century in dramatic fashion, and we also know a lot more about how it actually happened. Evangelicalism, as one of the fastest-growing demographic blocs within global Christianity, has contributed significantly to these transformations.

Today, more than 77 percent of the world’s evangelicals are Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans. Even if a significant number of American evangelicals may favor some form of Christian nationalism (though the numbers are likely exaggerated), and even if a majority of white American evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, what often goes unstated is that the vast majority of the world’s evangelicals are neither white nor American. Evangelicals around the world are not united on matters of politics and race, but they lay great stress on the Bible, the central message of the Cross, and man’s need for conversion.

Evangelicalism, then, is plainly not an American movement. The vast majority of the world’s evangelicals live in the Global South, and they are actively engaged in sending missionaries to the ends of the earth. The World Council of Churches began using the language of “witness in six continents” in the early 1960s to describe how new mission centers were now established on every continent in the world.

When evangelicals gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974, for the First International Congress on World Evangelization, they observed that the dominant role of Western missions was fast disappearing. In the 1980s, Luis Bush, an unassuming evangelical from Argentina who became an influential mission leader, coined the expression “the 10/40 Window.” The name referred to the regions of North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, concentrated in a single geographic rectangle between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator.

Bush was hoping to mobilize evangelical missionary movements from Africa, Asia, and Latin America into places Western missionaries found it harder to reach. He made it clear throughout the 1990s that these missionary efforts would be led not by Americans but by Christian leaders in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Americans popularized “10/40 Window” language in mission circles, but Bush was holding massive gatherings in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to mobilize missionaries from the Global South. Today, nearly half of the world’s full-time cross-cultural missionaries are being sent out from the Global South, with countries like Brazil, South Korea, and India figuring among the top senders.

Adriana Carranca describes some of these global transformations in her new book Soul by Soul: The Evangelical Mission to Spread the Gospel to Muslims. Carranca is a Brazilian writer who has worked as a war correspondent and investigative journalist in some of the most difficult places in the world.

Educated at Columbia University and the London School of Economics, she has traveled widely in Africa and the Middle East, covering events like the American-led invasion of Afghanistan, the Peshawar church bombing in Pakistan, the Lord’s Resistance Army uprising in northern Uganda, the Islamic revolution in Iran, and the Arab Spring in Egypt. While Carranca was working in conflict zones and refugee camps, she began meeting evangelicals looking to reach Muslims with the gospel.

As a secular journalist who had spent time in American contexts, Carranca knew something about American evangelicalism. But what she discovered while working in Africa and the Middle East surprised her. Most of the evangelical missionaries she met were not from the United States. Instead, they were being sent out to the Muslim world from places like Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, South Africa, China, and South Korea. The evangelical mission to Muslims, she learned, was emanating from the Global South.

In 2008, Carranca was in Kabul covering the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Here, she first heard about significant numbers of Muslims who were converting to Christianity. This evangelistic endeavor, she discovered, was being led by an evangelical, Luiz, who hailed from her home country of Brazil. He was part of a network of other evangelicals from the Global South.  .  .  .

.  .  .  During her travels, Carranca gained rare access to what she called the “secret world” of Christian missionaries evangelizing Muslims. She also learned about the influence of Luis Bush and traveled to meet him in Indonesia, where he was mobilizing thousands of missionaries from Asia to preach the gospel to Muslims.

Carranca’s long-form journalism is serious, intimate, and gripping. Though not a believer, she confesses that she came to admire the evangelicals who became her friends. The book introduces readers to Luiz and Gis and their coworkers from South Africa, Brazil, China, and South Korea, and talks about their daily lives, their love for soccer, and the joy they find in spending time with Muslim friends.

Carranca’s narrative includes riveting eyewitness accounts of terrorist attacks, drone strikes, police inquiries, church bombings, and the martyrdom of local Christians in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In one powerful anecdote, she talks about the murder of a missionary family she befriended in Afghanistan, killed by the Taliban in a brutal shooting. She flew to Pretoria, in South Africa, to attend their funeral services, where their graves were marked with a popular refrain echoing Tertullian’s words about the blood of martyrs: “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”

Soul by Soul introduces readers to some of the new faces of evangelicalism—and they are almost nothing like Barbara Kingsolver’s unflattering caricature of a failed missionary to the Congo in her popular novel The Poisonwood Bible. Rather than fictional white Southern Baptists from Georgia who are more misanthropes than missionaries, Carranca gives us real people, unmarked by what she calls the “arrogance and triumphalism” that has sometimes been associated with Western missionaries.

CLICK HERE for the entire review: Inside the ‘Secret World’ of Global Evangelism to Muslims by F. Lionel Young III

The Gospel of God's Grace and Diversity In His Creation

I'm a big fan of "diversity" because I observe it in God's Creation.

Here is what I mean: Walk through Holland during our Tulip Time festival and you will notice the diversity of tulips.  Do some people-watching during the parade and you will see a similar diversity among all the cheering people.  Because I think that people and life are not an accident, it is easy for me to conclude that the LORD God values diversity in the world He created.

There are two other important aspects related to the diversity that God created: Unity and Redemption for Reconciliation.

By unity, I mean simply that tulips - for all their diversity - are still tulips.  They are not roses. A wide and diverse variety of tulips are still tulips.

It is the same with people.  Tall, short, black, white and so on.  There is a lot of diversity, but we are all united as human beings.  As a Christ-follower,  I believe that for all our apparent diversity, every person is united as an image-bearer of the Living God.  We're diverse, but all hold that in common.  That's the unity of diverse humans.

Unfortunately, there is a problem in God's creation that disrupts and damages this balance of unity and diversity. Sin is the classical term for it.  Among other things, that sin breaks our experience of unity, the relationship with other humans based on our shared bearing of the image of God.  We fall short of our created intention, and end up hurting one another, as well as God's creation.  God's answer to that is the Gospel: Redemption and Reconciliation.  Jesus redeems us from sin and reconciles us to God AND to one another.  That's really good news - even as we wait for its completion.

So I'm a big fan of diversity and see it as a reflection of God's character and the Gospel.

But I'm not a big fan of diversity rhetoric or policies - yes, I'm thinking of most Diversity, Equity and Inclusion sorts of policies here - because they leave out those important components: Unity and Redemption for Reconciliation.

As I listen to the cultural conversations of our moment, I am increasingly hearing a view of the life that divides humanity into two groups: good guys vs bad guys.  Depending on the agenda, that can be Bourgeoisie vs Proletariat, racist vs anti-racist, straight vs gay.  You could go on and on.  Conflict is the energy that drives this view of life.  What is lacking in any sense of a deeper connection between the human beings in these conflicting groups.

Also missing is any means of reconciliation between these conflicting groups.  Conflict is resolved by victory.  It is a zero-sum, either/or, win/lose view of life and relationships with no way to redeem the wrongs and bring reconciliation between both parties with flourishing for all.

Here is a concrete example of the difference between the Gospel view of unity and the other: Have you heard any hope of resolution between Israelis and Palestinians?  I haven't.  It's either "from the River to the sea" with one side or "we will never forget" for the other.  I could go on with each conflicting side in every contentious division.

The Gospel offers a hope to this conflict.  That hope is based on the common humanity of Palestinians and Israelis as image-bearers of God redeemed and reconciled through Jesus.

So if you are trying to work through your thoughts on diversity and various policies, my counsel would be to have you look for two things.

• First, is there an underlying sense of a unity between the people in each of the conflicting groups that is greater than the conflict itself?  There may be conflict or injustice, but is there something deeper and more important that can bring the parties together.
• Second, is the end of the process redemption and reconciliation?  If something has been broken, how is it made right, so that the people of the two conflicting groups can return to loving relationship?

Here is a concrete example with regard to racial issues.  Consider the differences in speech, action and outcomes between Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and the Black Lives Matter movement.  Both faced and responded to racial injustice.  Dr King was a Baptist pastor who saw his opponents as fellow humans, even sometimes fellow believers in Christ!  He used non-violent means to pursue reconciliation and justice.   His "I Have A Dream" sermon has appeal and hope for everyone regardless of race or politics.  Observe the Black Lives movement or read the books of Ibrim X. Kandi and you will find little common ground between "racist" and "anti-racists" with an anger that will never allow restitution, restoration or reconciliation.  The reason for this is that Dr King lived from a gospel worldview and BLM was based on something very different indeed.

The celebration of diversity in God's creation is based on an underlying unity that grows from seeing all people as image-bearers of our Creator.  Restoring that unity is costly though, because it is offered through redemption of the brokenness that makes possible reconciliation between the conflicting groups.  Reconciliation, not just victory, is the final goal of the work of Jesus in the Gospel.