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As I mentioned on Sunday, Harold Camping and his Family Radio ministry having been working around the clock to get the word out that judgment day will begin on this coming Saturday. If you’ve heard the hubbub and are wondering how to make sense of such predictions, there is good help by way of Robert Godfrey and Albert Mohler.

Godfrey knew Camping personally and in a series of five posts offers tremendous personal insight into Camping’s pathway to serious error. The first post can be found at the Westminster Seminary California blog here.

Albert Mohler offers a brief but helpful response here. For Christians tempted toward  mystery religions and hidden messages, Mohler’s words below must be learned:

The Bible does not contain hidden codes that we are to find and decipher. The Bible has been given to us in order that we might know the truth, and the truth is clearly revealed in its pages. We are not to look for hidden patterns of words, numbers, dates, or anything else. The Bible’s message is plain and requires no mathematical computation for its understanding. The claim that one has found a hidden code or system in the Bible is an insult to the Bible as the Word of God.

From this common grace proceeds all that is good and true that we still see in fallen man. The light still shines in the darkness. The Spirit of God lives and works in everything that has been created. Therefore there still remain in man certain traces of the image of God. There is still intellect and reason; all kinds of natural gifts are still present in him. Man still has a feeling and an impression of divinity, a seed of religion. Reason is a priceless gift. Philosophy is an admirable gift from God. Music is also a gift of God. Arts and sciences are good, profitable, and of high value. The state has been instituted by God…. There is still a desire for truth and virtue, and for natural love between parents and children. In matters that concern this earthly life, man is still able to do much good…. Through the doctrine of common grace the Reformed have, on the one hand, maintained the specific and absolute character of the Christian religion, but on the other hand they have been second to none in their appreciation for whatever of the good and beautiful is still being given by God to sinful human beings.

Sin is a power, a principle, which has penetrated deeply into all forms of created life…. It would, if left to itself, have devastated and destroyed everything. But God has interposed with his grace. Through common grace he restrains sin in its disintegrating and destructive working. But this [kind of grace] is still not sufficient. It subdues, but does not change; it restrains, but does not conquer.

Quoted from Anthony A Hoekema, Created in God’s Image, pp. 190-191.

Publisher’s Description:
The life of Guido de Bres teaches us that we can find enduring hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ, even during persecution. Author William Boekestein sensitively tells the story of de Bres for children, guiding them through his turbulent life and times- from his birth in 1522 in a small Belgium town, to his call to the ministry and study under Reformers such as John Calvin and Theodore Beza, to his authorship of the Belgic Confession and a life of suffering, to his martyr’s death in 1567. Skillfully crafted illustrations and an easy-to-understand narrative combine to capture the interests-and admiration-of the entire family for this amazing Reformation hero.

Endorsements:

“Bill Boekestein shows his pastor’s heart and desire to make the riches of our Reformed heritage known in a simple way in Faithfulness under Fire. Men like de Bres lived in a tumultuous time, and their example of total commitment is needed in today’s world of religious pluralism, tolerance, and moderation. Our children need to learn this devotion and parents need to teach it with all their heart.”
– Daniel R. Hyde, Oceanside United Reformed Church, Carlsbad/Oceanside, CA

“William Boekstein has written a great children’s book about Guido de Bres, author of the Belgic Confession. I have the book and my kids enjoy it. The illustrations by Evan Hughes are excellent.”
– Kevin DeYoung, DeYoung, Restless and Reformed

The choice for God now has to become one in which the church begins to form itself, by his grace and truth, into an outcropping of counter-cultural spirituality. It must first recover the sense of antithesis between Christ and culture and then find ways to sustain that antithesis. It is, after all, only when we see what the church is willing to give up by developing this antithesis that we see what it is actually for. If it is for God, for his truth, for his people, for the alienated and trampled in life, then it must give up what the post-modern world holds most dear: it must give up the freedom to do anything it happens to desire. It must give up self-cultivation for self-surrender, entertainment for worship, intuition for truth, slick marketing for authentic witness, success for faithfulness, power for humility, a God bought on cheap terms for the God who calls us to a costly obedience. It must, in short, be willing to do God’s business on God’s terms. As it happens, that idea is actually quite old, as old as the New Testament itself, but in today’s world it is novel all over again.

For you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing….  But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Here, Paul’s vision of the Christian life is profoundly simple, profoundly doable, and for many, profoundly disappointing.

Why disappointing?  Well, simply put, Paul offers no grand vision to the Thessalonians on how to change the world.  Instead, he offers them a simple, quiet, steady, faithful, loving, and humble vision of how they ought to live.  While so many Christian messages we hear today call us to aspire to world-changing greatness, Paul calls us “to aspire to live quietly, and to mind our own affairs.”

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m all for seeing this world transformed for the glory of God.  But perhaps that transformation comes, not with a grand vision of how to transform our community, but with a simple vision of how we ourselves might be transformed by God.

Here is how one author puts it:

Paul commends a life that is the very opposite of activist churchianity. Instead, he advocates the way of Christian vocation-Walk humbly and quietly with God. Don’t think it’s your job to change the world. Quit sticking your nose in everybody else’s business. Do your work and do it well. Let Christ’s love for others grow naturally out of that soil. Earn the respect of your neighbors over time as you live your life in Christ. Slow down. Get small. Run quiet. Go deep. Grow up. Keep on keeping on. Stand on your own two feet. Become a mature human being (from Chaplain Mike at internetmonk.com, ht: Gene Veith).

Disappointing?  Yes, if your goal is to change the world.  But for the rest of us, striving simply to do our job well, and to grow in love towards others, and to live quiet, humble lives for God’s glory and the good of our neighbors, Paul gives us something worth aspiring to in 2011.

It needs to be said that the ultimate purpose of God for every Christian is character-transformation and growth into the full image of Jesus Christ; and therefore that the Holy Spirit’s work of imparting wisdom for the discerning of God’s will, case by case, is part of that larger enterprise for which our sanctification is the usual name.  What God wants for us is not simply a flow of correct discernments in the choices we make, but that we become discerning persons in ourselves, as Christ was a discerning person before us.

In other words, God wants to make us wise Christians, able to discern God’s will, not from inner nudges or promptings, but from the wisdom that God imparts through his Spirit and Word.

I love the GPS in my car.  It tells me exactly where to turn, exactly what roads to travel, and exactly when I will arrive.  But, my GPS also makes me ignorant.  Sometimes when I use my GPS someone will ask what route I traveled, and I will honestly have no idea.  By simply following directions (turn right here… turn left there…) I become oblivious to the actual route, the actual roads, the actual way I travel.

The Holy Spirit is not a GPS for Christians (turn right here… take that job…  marry that girl…), and to think of it in that way makes for ignorant Christians who are interested in guidance, but who have little use for wisdom.  Instead, God has given us his Spirit that we might be sanctified and wise  And, if Packer is right, that God intends for us to be discerning people as Christ himself was discerning, then we would do well to remember the Spirit’s role in Christ’s own life, “the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; the Spirit of wisdom and understanding; the Spirit of counsel and might; the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Is. 11:2).

So, instead of praying for signs, senses, urgings, promptings, open doors, and vague guidance, we should instead pray for “wisdom and understanding… counsel and might… knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”

Kevin DeYoung has an extremely helpful discussion on “finding God’s will” in his book, Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will.

Here are a couple of quotes:

Expecting God to reveal some hidden will of direction is an invitation to disappointment and indecision.  Trusting in God’s will of decree is good.  Following His will of desire is obedient.  Waiting for God’s will of direction is a mess.  It is bad for your life, harmful to your sanctification, and allows too many Christians to be passive tinkerers who strangely feel more spiritual the less they actually do (p. 26).

And…

The will of God isn’t a special direction here or a bit of secret knowledge there… God’s will for your life and my life is simpler, harder, and easier than that.  Simpler, because there are no secrets we must discover.  Harder, because denying ourselves, living for others, and obeying God is more difficult than taking a new job and moving to Fargo.  Easier, because as Augustine said, God commands what He wills and grants what He commands.  In other words, God gives His children the will to walk in His ways — not by revealing a series of next steps cloaked in shadows, but by giving us a heart to delight in His law.  So the end of the matter is this:  Live for God.  Obey the Scriptures.  Think of others before yourself.  Be holy.  Love Jesus.  And as you do these things, do whatever else you like, with whomever you like, wherever you like, and you’ll be walking in the will of God (pp. 121-122).

If you get a chance, read it.  This is one book not to be missed.  It is whimsical in all the right ways, valuable for sanctification, and exceedingly helpful for the practical challenges every-day Christianity brings.  And, it challenges the modern evangelical paradigm for “finding God’s will” with potency and much needed biblical correctives.

I subscribe to the Christ the Center podcast and listen regularly. If somehow you’ve missed their extremely helpful website and resources, be sure to take some time to see everything they offer.