I am a huge college football fan living among what is arguably the most rabid college football fan base in the country. When you move to the great State of Alabama, you must choose sides to avoid being ostracized in society. Do you bleed Crimson? Or do you wear Orange and Blue? If somebody walks into a store, a restaurant, or a movie theater wearing the wrong colors – particularly the hideous orange Tennessee variety – someone nearby will likely mutter “Bless your heart”. Southern hospitality has its limits.
It’s an understatement to say that college football is taken very seriously down here. Just read how this coach speaks about the intensity of his program. “We practice one day per week. Almost half of the players show up most weeks. But our starting running back has been out the past few weeks – he plays baseball too, and sometimes he must travel with his team during scheduled practices. One or two players come prepared having studied game film, but most players are so tired from staying up late the night before that they don’t contribute much to our strategy sessions. Some of the players get all huffy when I use big words like “pass interference”, so I try to limit reading directly from the rule book as much as possible - some teams just place way too much emphasis on those types of things. What we really want is for our players to have a good time and want to come back. So, I just love on them and hope for the best.”
OK, that’s not a real documentary, and those aren’t real quotes from a real coach of a real team. But if they were, I’m pretty sure the team would be Auburn. Bless your heart.
Preparing for Competition
Pee Wee football takes football more seriously than that coach. Consider the stakes involved in modern sports. Public interest spurs billions of dollars being poured into conferences. Coaches are paid eight figures to build winning teams. Winning is critical for coaches to keep their jobs and teams maintaining relevance in an increasingly competitive landscape. The pressure is real. So, players practice multiple times per week – sometimes multiple times per day. Hours are spent poring over game film, weight training, health and fitness programs, memorizing the playbook, and running every game-time scenario imaginable. Players who take all of this very seriously and do their absolute best often still end up on the bench – not because of a lack of effort – but because when it’s game-time, the very best players compete. The player who doesn’t take all of this seriously may ride the bench. But he is much more likely to simply be removed from the team. Laziness, bad attitudes, and general apathy are bad for team morale. And bad morale loses “wars”.
Perishable wreaths
But it’s not a war. It’s entertainment. It may be a source of pride for a local community, a state, or even a country. But the stakes are minor when compared to a real war. Football players don’t come home in flag-draped coffins. Injuries can and do happen – sometimes severe ones. But the pinnacle of sports is what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 9:25 – Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath…
There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that go into getting that perishable wreath. The thrill of victory is attained through tremendous effort and dedication. And 100 years from now, that victory will have faded into history and the victor will be dead. But what if the stakes were higher? If the losing team got fed to lions, how much more seriously do you think athletes would take practice? Or, what if the victory was eternal life? And what if the adversary’s goal was your eternal damnation? How much more blood, sweat, and tears should define preparation for those battles? Revisiting 1 Corinthians 9:25-27, Paul answers that question too:
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Man is not involved in an athletic competition where after the game all the players on the winning and losing teams shake hands, embrace, or laugh together as is often the case with friends on opposing teams. Man isn’t even just involved in brutal physical warfare where the worst that can happen is he dies physically. Man is in a spiritual battle for his very soul. And Peter says this of the adversary: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
The mental picture is striking. What safeguards should be in place against hungry lions? A recent popular movie paints the picture for you.
Shhh…
The premise of the movie “A Quiet Place” is a simple one – aliens have invaded earth, and they hunt human prey by their ability to detect the slightest sound. As a result, earth’s survivors are primarily focused on not making any noise – the slightest sound can and does bring instant death. Nom Nom Nom.
The plot doesn’t center around career aspirations or travel ball. How Timmy did on his ACT test doesn’t determine whether the alien eats him or not. If Timmy is quiet, he doesn’t get munched. So Timmy is quiet. It’s almost as if the family sees the primary threat as being eaten and all other things that might otherwise consume their daily lives get shoved to the back burner in favor of singular focus – after all what does it profit a man if he makes a 36 on the ACT and loses his own torso? The only ones not doing everything in their power to stay quiet are infants who don’t know any better – they cry and fuss and make everyone incredibly nervous, because they don’t have the cognitive understanding that there are aliens prowling around like roaring lions seeking someone to devour.
God Paints the Picture for You
But you don’t need that movie or my cheesy alien munching noises to get the message. You just need to believe what God has said in His Word. We, along with our children, our brothers and sisters in Christ, co-workers, and friends are under spiritual attack. Does our emphasis on discipleship and decision-making prioritize that? Or are we spiritual infants who ignore the warnings of Scripture, because we just don’t know any better? Scripture tells us the world hates us – and that the cares of this world can choke out the Word in our lives. Perhaps we should study the world around us to better understand our enemy. Scripture tells us that fierce wolves will appear in our churches leading people astray. Perhaps we should be on guard – being students of God’s Word. Perhaps we should understand what to expect from our spiritual leaders and learn to know a fraud when we see one. Scripture tells us that our adversary roams about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Perhaps we should flee from sin like God commands in His Word. Satan hates you, this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Break that out in your next Vacation Bible School.
If only there was a resource that advised on topics of importance to the Christian walk. If only that resource recommended quality tools to strengthen my Bible study and deepen my understanding of God’s Word. If only there was a central location for confessional documents that clarified what the Bible teaches concerning a host of doctrines. If only there was a structured curriculum that could train me to be a better soldier for Christ. Shameless plug intentional.
Entrusting the Faith to the Faithful
Oh wait, there is just such a resource. In fact, it’s a two-in-one resource. While the book is awesome enough on its own, I decided to make it even more awesome by creating a companion website! Why are thorns in the flesh and pride verses suddenly popping into my head?
The book is not a theology book, although theology will be scattered throughout it. It is a guide to right doctrine.
It’s not a worldview book, but it does point to the importance of shaping your worldview from Scripture. Two principles - the world hating you and the risk of the cares of this world choking out God’s word - are critical truths that must shape a believer’s worldview.
It’s not a ministry-training book, but it does speak to ensuring men being trained for ministry have the right tools.
It’s not an instructional manual on Christian living, but it does provide guidance concerning what that living should look like.
And the website enhances all of that. On the website, you will find a digital version of this book. For each chapter of the book, you will find recommended reading related to the material covered in that chapter. You will find recommendations for commentaries, dictionaries, maps, websites, and other tools that will turbo-charge your Bible study. You will find a central repository of “the faith” to be entrusted – in the form of the development of Christian doctrine from early Christian creeds through the Reformation confessions to the Reformed Baptist tradition that serves as the emphasis of the book and website. Finally, you will find two courses of study that pull all of this together into training programs for laity and ministry.
Taken together, the book and website are valuable tools for your toolbox. Weapons in your arsenal. Supplements to your church, your pastors, and your personal study. Think of them as guardrails to truth. Book recommendations, confessions, and other included materials are not Scripture, but they will give you a better understanding of how to understand Scripture and its practical application in the world.
A Multi-Pronged Attack: A Well-Rounded Curriculum
Ensuring a balanced education is a key consideration in the creation of curricula for our children. Lesson plans are developed to ensure broad and adequate coverage of the topics considered vital for a well-rounded education. To be considered well-educated, a child needs years of instruction in a wide variety of topics – with measured amounts of emphasis on each topic.
Do we place the same kind of emphasis on Christian education? Is it more important that we receive two years of education in a foreign language or know and be able to explain the doctrine of justification by faith alone? To my knowledge, there are no eternal consequences of not being able to say “Disculpe, ¿dónde está la biblioteca?” (Excuse me, where is the library?) But there are plenty of fierce wolves peddling false gospels of justification by faith plus works. Yet our children graduate from high school able to do the former, but with no formal assessment of whether they can do the latter unless they attend private school or are homeschooled. In which subject are our children more well-versed? Pun intended.
Christian education, too often, consists of an hour of worship – and perhaps an hour or two of Sunday School or other small group discussion – once per week. Are there structured curricula that define grade-appropriate instruction in doctrine? In church history? In apologetics? Are there attendance requirements? Testing and grading to measure advancement? Is it any wonder that our children are better prepared for the playoffs or chemistry finals than for wolf and lion attacks that are 100% guaranteed according to Scripture? We need to be watchful!
Most folks – me included – enter adult life with insufficient Christian education because few parents and churches make a concerted effort to provide the type of curriculum typically given to children in “secular” education. The book and website will serve as a starting point for remedying that. A multi-pronged attack requires a multi-pronged response – and that is what these tools are designed to provide. Each chapter of the book will provide guidance to combat the ways in which the enemy seeks to gain a foothold. The chapters on God’s Word will defend the inspiration, inerrancy, and sufficiency of Scripture. The chapters on church history will explain the attacks that have come before – we will learn from history so that we do not repeat it. The chapters on philosophy, apologetics, and evangelism will provide both a defense of Christianity and an offense for engaging the world with the Gospel. The chapters on worldview and culture will help us to better understand the enemy and its schemes. And the chapters on Christian living will encourage and strengthen us as we grow weary and discouraged. In short, where the enemy seeks to gain a foothold, these topics will prepare you to understand the battle and defend yourself and your family.
My prayer for you, your family, and your church is that what I share in these tools can serve as a guide to strengthen your spiritual walk, to draw you closer to God, and to prepare you for a lifetime of struggle against our enemy. May God grant you all that you need to win the battle and celebrate with him in Glory! Soli Deo Gloria!