“ Great Sermon! ” Whilst I have not listened to this sermon I have read Silversides' book "The Free Offer: Biblical and Reformed". With the greatest respect to Rev. Silversides I am compelled to disagree with him and side with Herman Hoeksema. As far as I am concerned the covenant purpose of God is to manifest his own Trinitarian covenant life through the taking of a people for his own possession and establishing a covenant with them in Christ Jesus. This covenant, whilst established in eternity is realised or is made manifest in history and the means by which the covenant is realised is faith which is itself a fruit of electing grace and a covenant blessing in Christ. “So that men may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends heralds of this most joyful message to whom He will and when He wills. By their ministry men are called to repentance and to faith in Christ crucified.” Hence the gospel is a means through which God fulfills his covenant purpose. Through it he calls the elect to faith and effectually draws them into communion with himself and it is precisely this communion which is the very essence of covenant. The preaching acts as the means by which the communion is manifested, developed and enabled to flourish.
“ Great Sermon! ” Unfortunately Dawkins (I wouldn't want to besmirch the offices of any real professors)is a product of the 60's "anything but truth" generation. What I mean is that if you can't touch it or experience it then it must be false. He is basically not as important as he thinks he is. Yes he has sold a lot of books but this is simply because too many in society today like a good bit of fiction. The faith has nothing to fear from him. The biggest threat to the world today is apathy and the rise of corruption in western Governments who think the end justifies the means. You are quite right in saying that he doesn't go after the obvious pagan or fundamentalist faiths. That is because it is easier to target the true faith which doesn't rely on material manifestations or idolatry. Instead the true faith is about the heart and soul within. Anyone like him who only see God through being able to touch a statue is to be pitied and prayed for that they will find the true path. Thanks for bringing the word to a greater audience.
“ Great Sermon! ” I always marvel that such people as RD don't go after Islam or Hinduism or any of the other false religions - it shows that out of all, Christianity is indeed the only TRUE path to God, because that's sadly what Mr. Dawkins fears the most - that the teachings of Christianity could possibly be true in any way - for if so, he then is responsible for his actions and choices more than currently. Just as Paul stated - the gospel is indeed an offence to those who hear it, because it heightens the conscience and reveals the darkness of the soul, necessitating a choice to be made. Dawkins would have fared much better had he not determined to make his views not just known but practically into a religion on their own! We can but pray for him to discover the truth before it is too late - God has blessed many former atheists in His Grace, and RD may become another one yet - wouldn't THAT be some testimony!!
“ In-depth discussion and answer ” A good treatment of the question and what the Bible says about the nature of God. I particularly liked the way the question was flipped around: Is male-ness a reflection of God's nature in us?
“ Great Sermon! ” Another great sermon by the Rev Silversides, however the sound quality was quite bad, therefore kinda hard to listen to.
Lord's Blessings
Bill Whyte
“ Great Sermon! ” This has to be the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT sermon there is on SA on the issue of the underlying greek texts.
What an education! A brilliant lesson on how to think sanely on the issue. Explodes the fallacies of modern textual critics in favour of the Alexandrian type texts, which are in any case the minority!
Very well done brother Watts!!
“ Detailed and well-done critique ” I haven't read this specific book (there seems to be a new one all the time), but Rev. Silversides does an outstanding job pinpointing the assumptions made by naturalists who want to deny religion, and how they are either begging the question or saying things that don't make sense under their own world view. The latter is one of the largest problems with the naturalistic philosophy - mainly that they must live on borrowed capital (usually Christian) to even discuss their positions. They don't want to live with the truth about an evolutionary world, because it's too frightening. I wonder if Dawkins (is he a trained philosopher?) has read Nietzsche, because that's the point Nietzsche makes - if you're going to throw away Christianity and revealed knowledge, you have to live with the consequences. You can't reject Christianity and keep Christian morality - one of the things mentioned in this critique, that Dawkins wants to have morality without God but can find no reason to do so. Finally, Dawkins' book is apparently popular, and almost every popular book on religion is not worth reading.
A good overview, however an ungodly government should not be submitted to, but should be resisted as much as possible. All forms of sin and sinful presence should be resisted and brought under Christ's submission. The church should address governments publicly, and individuals should resist personally whenever the opportunity arises - anything less is sinful in itself.
“ Great Sermon! Thank you ” Thank you so much Rev Daavid you have indeed shown my wife and myseelf a truth rather than looking ffor signss seek rather the spread of the Gossspel. Pray please that we shall do so and rest not on the imaginations of the end but rather on The eternal Salvation that is for all to hear in these days amen
“ Wonderful sermon! ” I thoroughly enjoyed this sermon on the holiness of God, which is also about the covenant of grace, the mediating work of Jesus Christ and the folly of coming to God by any other way than the one he prescribes. It is a theological feast - I learned alot! Thank the Lord for this man who loves His truth.
“ The Historical and Biblical View ” This presentation is quite long (wouldn't fit on a CD!) but interesting. I grew up in an area where there was no other interpretation of the Bible other than dispensationalism - the Bible WAS the Scofield Bible. I am interested in discovering the older, historical interpretation of the Bible. This study, which is jammed with Bible references, helped show some of the difficulties in the dispensationalist view.
“ Excellent Ephesians expositon ” I'm learning so much from this excellent exposition of Ephesians which explains the text and its relationship to the OT and Reformed theology.
“ Great Sermon! ” I haven't listened to the sermon, but that's because I guessed what it was going to say already. Upon re-reading "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" five years ago I could see some BIG red flags - like Adam's FIRST wife not being Eve, but Lilith. And I think in another book, I can't remember which, he makes a reference to people needing to pray on their knees because it reminds us that we are just animals. I haven't had much use for his writings since then; it takes too much work to sort through.
“ Just what we needed to hear ! ” Naomi and myself have been looking for a spiritual home,and attended two different local churches recently, where we thought we could belong- lovely saints,great preaching,etc. !
In both churches however,we were stunned to find at the prayer meetings that the sisters prayed audibly .
We thought this unscriptual,but maybe thought that we had it wrong and were too judgmental.
A dear brother (Tom) pointed out this sermon,and it proved ,in providence,the answer to our questions on this matter.
Thankyou Bro Silversides for faithful preaching. I met you once when you were at the T.B.S. i was the cleaner ther at the time , and i also have read your book on the free offer of the gospel,which was beneficial as well,as i am involved in street evangelism.
May the Lord bless your ministry brother Silversides.
6/17/07 2:26 PM
12/22/06 12:03 PM
