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Preaching the Gospel to the Poor in Central Mexico

7/31/2017

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To read our update for this month, please click here.

We are grateful for your prayers and support!

In Christ,
​Josef Urban
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May the Gospel Go Forth and the Church Arise! (March 2017 Update)

3/9/2017

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Author: Josef Urban

​It's been a busy 6 months since we've been back in Mexico since our 3-month furlough to the USA. Much travel, much preaching, much evangelism has taken place. 

​Recently I've had the privilege of teaching the Word of God in Guadalajara, Mexico City, Toluca, Tepic, Tulancingo, Saltillo and Xalapa. These are cities in the central region of Mexico that are spanned from the West to the East coast, and Saltillo is in the North of the nation. In this update and in the weeks that follow, I'll be highlighting what is transpiring in these places and outlining some prayer requests.
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Photo above: Descending upon the city of Veracruz. The geography is beautiful in this port city on the East Coast of Mexico, as you can see from the mountains in the background. From here, we traveled another hour and a half to Xalapa, where I did a conference over the weekend and helped support a beloved and struggling pastor in the process of "reforming" (pun intended) his congregation.

Guadalajara, JALISCO

​This is our home church and missions base; it's what I like to call the Antioch of our mission. From here we launch out to places far and near.

The church appears to be solidifying in all areas by the grace of God, as we plug away at the areas of greatest need. Hector Bustamante (who was ordained to the pastoral ministry last November) and I are serving side-by-side as we oversee the church and labor in the ministry of the Word and prayer. We've been taking turns preaching and Hector has been covering the pulpit during my absence as I travel to preach in other places and consolidate and strengthen other churches. Hector and I have been involved in much personal work with members and those who attend, engaging in counseling, disciplinary measures, pre-marital counseling, membership interviews, etc. With Hector's involvement, the burden of this labor has been greatly mitigated for me. What a blessing it is to now have a plurality of pastors here.

​We've been amazed by some recent conversions! Some really encouraging, sudden conversions have taken place among us and seem to be bearing fruit. We've also baptized some new members. Praise God.
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Our attendance has also seen a little bit of increase, making it necessary to purchase more chairs and tables to accommodate everyone. Over 100 people stay after the sermon each Sunday for our "agape" (fellowship meal), where they engage in biblical conversation for mutual edification for several hours each Sunday.

​I've been teaching a 10-part sermon series on church discipline based on Matthew 18. (For those who are wondering, "Yes!" the church has grown a little even in the midst of a series on that most hated of all subjects: church discipline!) 

So far I've taught messages titled:
(1) The Need for Discipline in the Church
(2) The Mandate of Church Discipline
(3) Obstacles that Hinder Church Discipline
(4) The Purposes of Church Discipline
(5) The Evangelical Nature of Church Discipline
(6) The Redemptive Purpose of Church Discipline

(7) The Spiritual Predispositions of the Confronter

Yet to come are messages expounding Matthew 18:15-17 and offering practical counsel on:
(8) The Nature of the Sin Worthy of Confrontation
(9) The Act of Confrontational Peacemaking
(10) The Process of Discipline and Restoration

(Those who understand Spanish can access the recordings of this series here)

​This is definitely not an exhaustive treatment, but it covers the bases sufficiently to serve as a helpful introduction to the subject and to provide some counsel on its sound implementation. In addition to Scripture, I've been studying resources from Mark Dever, Jonathan Leeman (9 Marks), John MacArthur, D.A. Carson, Al Martin, R.C. Sproul, John Calvin, John Owen, Richard Baxter, Ken Sande ("The Peacemaker") Willhemus Brakel (my favorite treatment), Turretin, and various commentaries on Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, Galatians 6 and so forth.

(Parenthetical comment: if you are not familiar with Brakel's Systematic Theology, you are truly missing out on what is becoming my favorite series of volumes on the subject. It is theology on fire and represents a beauty balance between deep theological instruction wedded with experiential piety and practical application. It's Puritanical to the core and represents some of the best teachings of the Reformed movement. It'll instruct your mind AND rivet your soul. Brakel is a forgotten hero of the past, a truly buried gem. Don't waste too much of your time in the new stuff; go back and read the old. It's better. And it's reading level is not too technical; it's very easy to follow. It'll be the best 100 bucks you've ever spent. I don't agree with every detail but overall it's sound and trustworthy. You can acquire it from Reformation Heritage Books here.)

​Teaching on church discipline is a great need in Latin America, so all the messages are being published online. Over the last couple of years, I've received literally hundreds of questions about this subject from Spanish-speaking Christians all over the world. Previously our greatest enemy within evangelicalism was "cheap grace;" now, in addition to that, we're battling the dangerous concepts of "cheap church." Ecclesiology is anemic and the local church is generally despised, as post-modern, relativistic individualism permeates society in Mexico's largest cities. Historically, discipline has been one of the three marks of a true church, together with the sound preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the ordinances. If discipline is a necessary mark of a true church, then almost all of the churches in Mexico would not be considered true churches! Notwithstanding, we know there are many true believers in these places, and even many pastors in the process of reformation who were never properly instructed or adequately equipped for the ministry.

​We are truly living in a crisis moment in modern evangelicalism and urgently need to produce more resources that train men on how to labor to have healthy churches. If we are to see biblical Christianity flourish in Latin America, it is vital that we help the church to be established on a solid foundation. If the church is to arise and advance the Gospel, she must first be firmly grounded in sound doctrine.

In the midst of this series, we've had a few cases of discipline arise in our churches. I foresaw this and thought it wise to instruct the church on the subject so as to ensure biblical grounding and unity as we proceeded with these cases. There has been an encouraging response from the members, demonstrating a true sense of love and concern for the church and for those who have gone astray.

I'll probably turn these messages into a little booklet to distribute abroad.

​In the afternoons in the church in Guadalajara, we teach another Bible study and have had a good turnout. Hector continued to expound on our Confession of faith in the afternoon study and I've been teaching miscellaneous messages as needs become apparent. After this, a group usually goes to a Cafe and enjoys some coffee together as they all fellowship and talk of testimonies, theology, etc.

We're initiating some new mercy ministries. We've located some extremely poor areas of the city and have gathered together many items to give out as we preach the Gospel. We'll probably focus on giving out food and clothing to the poor as we share the Gospel and invite them to Bible studies. We've looking forward to these new areas of mercy ministry. It looks promising!

Our evangelism ministries continue to persevere. Our church evangelizes several days per week, in a drug rehabilitation center, in a hospital, and on the streets of downtown. We hand out thousands of gospel tracts, engage skeptics with the truth claims of Jesus, share with the sick and dying of the sweet consolation that is to be found only in Christ, share the gospel of the grace of God with countless Roman Catholics, and teach the Way to those who are far from it.

Much of our activities are well-nigh impossible to detail here, because ministry in the church is not glamorous. The Gospel never advances much in the world apart from adversity and affliction. But I'll spare you those details. Suffice to say that we need your prayers! We stand only by grace.

Xalapa, VERACRUZ

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In the above picture, you can see a brother named Cesar and me standing in front of the ocean in Veracruz.

This brother was called to pastor a Baptist church in Xalapa about a year ago. This is a struggling church that has not embraced the Doctrines of Grace prior to his arrival. He's been expounding on Romans but the congregation still appears to possess quite a shallow understanding of biblical Christianity. He's in a difficult situation. 

Cesar is currently laboring to revive and reform this church. The congregation, however, doesn't seem to be all on board. There are many practical obstacles and difficulties he is facing (which I don't have the liberty to share). He invited me to help him out and walk him through this process of rescuing the work. We spent a lot of time talking about this and I trust he has a good, prudent and practical plan for taking steps in the right direction. But being the only pastor, he feels isolated and without much support. 

Moved out of a burden for the cause of the Gospel in Xalapa, Cesar organized a series of meetings for my visit. I was able to do a question and answer session with a small group of pastors as we talked about healthy theology and discussed matters of practical importance for the local church. We spoke a bit about the Reformed resurgence in Mexico and interacted with its strengths and weaknesses from a biblical, theological and historical perspective. 

Then I taught a conference on "True and False Faith" from John 2:23-25 and 3:36 to a group of about 160 os so persons. They were gathered from several different congregations. I preached about the distinguishing marks of saving faith (it's three elements as consisting in knowledge, assent and trust; it's object; it's fruit), I also contrasted saving faith with "superficial faith" (professions, persuasions and superficial commitments that lack wholehearted trust in Christ), "temporary faith" (failure to persevere, thereby demonstrating lack of true faith), and "historical faith" (believing in Jesus as a past historical reality that fails to practically impact and revolutionize one's current living). 
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Spurgeon said that one of the greatest duties of a preacher is to make clear the nature of saving faith. After 10 brief years in the ministry, and countless conversations with lost souls in the midst of the church, I can confirm the pertinence of Spurgeon's remark. The whole world "believes" in Christ, the problem is, their belief falls short of genuine justifying faith. Without regeneration and heart transformation, faith is dead. What's more is that true faith is affectional in that it esteems Christ as the priceless treasure that's more precious even than our life in this world. Multitudes abide in a state of delusion, blind to the condition of their souls, because their consciences are pacified by a false faith.

​We must thunder forth the truth, that it's not the 
profession of faith that saves, but the possession of faith. And this faith itself is not the basis of anybody's salvation, but is rather the exclusive instrument through which the grace of salvation is appropriated, because faith lays hold on the righteousness of Christ so as to confide solely in Him. True faith beholds Christ, acquiesces to Christ, unites us to Christ, rests in Christ, refuges in Christ, treasures Christ, follows Christ, denies self for Christ, and refuses to part with Christ though it need to depart with the whole world for the sake of Christ. It is radically Christocentic and fundamentally God-oriented and God-glorifying. Many trust in a "faith" that is turned inwardly, in a faith that beholds and trusts more in itself than in the objective content of the Gospel and the Person of Christ who is revealed in it. It is our greatest and perhaps most difficult labor to turn men outside of themselves that they may trust wholly in another, to renounce themselves, to put no confidence in the flesh and to glory solely in Christ Jesus. So to preach on the nature of saving faith, it's necessary to exult in the Person and work of Christ in the fulness of His Person, His offices, and His sufficiency; for it is to Him to whom the eye of all true faith is directed and on whom it is fixed. This is a preview of what I attempted to demonstrate from the Scriptures in the conference in Xalapa.

I had to labor through this message with a very painful case of what seemed to be a strep throat virus, but my weakness helped make me conscious of my utter dependence on divine grace. The Lord seemed to help, and there was a holy hush of solemnity over the congregation as we closed, as the weight of eternity and judgment day seemed to permeate the atmosphere and strike us with all with reverent reflection on the state of our souls--me included. 

May the Lord give fruit in Veracruz for His glory. I will likely make at least one other visit to do a conference on the marks of a biblical church just prior to Cesar's plans to begin implementing some necessary ecclesiastical measures to purify and establish the church on healthy foundations (or die trying!). He holds to the 1689 but the congregation does not. You can imagine his predicament. 

In the next update, Lord willing, I'll highlight some of the recent happenings in Tepic, Tulancingo and Saltillo.

Prayer Requests:

  • For our church in Guadalajara: its leadership, ministries, unity, health, evangelism, etc.
  • For this movement of biblical churches to gain more strength, that sound churches would be established, that all the marks of a healthy church would be practiced by them, and that the church in Latin America would arise and advance the Gospel with all the blessing of God.
  • For Cesar, the pastor in Veracruz, who is laboring to reform and revive a struggling church.
  • For our family: our spiritual vitality, our health, our marriage, our children.

We are grateful for your prayers and financial support. May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering!
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Update December 2016

11/12/2016

7 Comments

 
Greetings from Guadalajara, Mexico!
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We have had an extremely busy year with lots of things happening. We are currently in Guadalajara and continue to plug away at the works the Lord has been pleased to raise up in Mexico. In the interest of brevity, I'll summarize some of the highlights of what has transpired recently...


Crisis Situation

Our family has experienced several crisis type situations. Earlier this year, we were implicated in a nasty ring of violence that put our lives in potential mortal danger, possibly making us a target for "professional" murderers. This situation, among others, made it necessary for us to take a brief furlough into the United States for several months. We had to move out of our home, go into hiding, and trust the Lord for financial provision that was well beyond their means as we made these movements. He is always been so faithful to provide. Thankfully, the situation has cleared up and I feel that the family is a bit safer.​ We’re grateful for those who were faithfully praying for our safety and our future as a family during this time.

Ordination of a Pastor

Hector Bustamamante, the brother who has been laboring alongside me these last couple of years, and who I’ve had the privilege to mentor during this time, has recently been ordained to the pastoral ministry. Many were in tears of solemn joy, rejoicing with trembling, as Aaron Block and I laid hands on him and prayed for the grace, blessing and power of the Holy Spirit to endow him for the work of the ministry, having been set aside by the church to give himself to the ministry of the Word and prayer.
Hector and his wife, Karime, and their little daughter, Idelette. Can you guess who their daugther is named after? (Hint: one of the 16th Century Reformer's wives.)
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Aaron Block gives Hector some words of exhortation in the presence of witnesses prior to the laying on of hands:
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We call on the Lord to earnestly beg of His grace and mercy, that He would use this man mightily for the spread of the Gospel and sound doctrine in the church and in greater Latin America:
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Hector preaches the Word of the living God immediately following his ordination to all who listen on with earnest expectation:
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​This event is an answer to many prayers as it enables us to multiply our labors. Please remember brother Hector in your prayers,
that the Lord will bless and keep him, keep his affections inflamed with the zealous love for Christ, continue to bless him with a healthy and happy marriage, and for the Lord to have mercy on the soul of his daughter and on the baby to come, to grant them the gift of the new birth.
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Our 3rd Annual Conference in Guadalajara: Reformation and Revival!
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​In November, we had our annual conference in Guadalajara. Every year, we have this conference in a large campground. We devote four days to preaching, fellowship, prayer meetings, eating together, and doing family activities together at this facility. It’s always such a blessed time that encourages us and revives our hearts. This year, we had about 600 persons come out for the conference.
 
The theme this year was “Returning to the Old Paths: Truths that Reform and Revive the Church”. The expositors were Aaron Block, Miguel Fattel, Hector Bustamante and I. All of the subject matter revolved around the subject of practical, experiential Reformed theology. We talked about how theology should impact all of life, resulting in subjection from the heart to the Lordship, supremacy, sovereignty of God, in order to glorify Him in every sphere of life.
 
We also spoke about historic revival and prevailing prayer, Trinitarian devotion and spirituality, engaging in our vocations and earthly labors for the glory of God, Biblical meditation as a spiritual discipline, and about the place of self-examination and confession of sin in the prayer life of the Christian.
 
We also spoke about the pious family, and how to walk godly in the home. This was a big theme of the conference since this is such a great need in the church of Latin America. We emphasized the need for applying sound theology to our everyday family life. We talked about family devotions, exhorted men to lead their families as the prophets, priests, and kings of the home, and gave practical advice on how to conduct family worship in the home. We also exhorted parents to diligently teach their children the whole counsel of God, and to strive to give them a thoroughly biblical education from the days of their youth.
 
On the third day of the conference, a lady approached me with an encouraging testimony. She was attending the conference with her husband (who is also a believer) along with their children. This family was not from any of our sister churches, but had heard about the conference and decided to attend. After the exhortations and teachings about family worship and discipleship, this family returned to their home that night. The husband called a meeting with the family, asked for their forgiveness for not leading them in the worship of God, and solemnly committed to teach them the Bible and lead them in family worship every day. According to the wife’s testimony, he then began to lead them in prayer. And his prayers broke her heart. She said she had never heard him pray like that before as he wept and cried out loud, begging God to have mercy on his family and save his children. She said that the earnestness and solemnity of his prayers even caused her to fear, as the presence of God was so tangible in the room. Oh, may the Lord revive the excellent practice of true worship in the homes of believers all over Latin America. May we see a genuine move of the Spirit of God that shakes the status quo and revives genuine piety in the midst of a Christianity that is so superficial and shallow in our day!
 
Many other testimonies have been trickling in. It seems like dozens of men who had previously been slothful in teaching the word of God to their families and in the worship of God have made a more conscious commitment to doing so. Please pray that these resolutions wouldn’t be the result of a momentary excitement but of a true and lasting work of grace that bears much fruit for years to come (should our Lord tarry).
 
Here are some pictures of the conference:

Aaron Block preaches on the phenomena of genuine revival and its practical implications for the Christian life. He was able to teach much along of the lines of what is found in Ian Murray's excellent book, "Pentecost Today":
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The promotional flyer that was designed for the event:
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The beautiful map our team designed for the campground:
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Hector teaches on the doctrine of vocation, how to understand work in this world and how to engage in it for God's glory. This shot was taken on a Monday, the last day of the conference, and as you can see, many precious people were still in attendance:
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Miguel Fattel teaches on "Walking Godly in the Home". He gleaned much from classic Puritan works such as William Gouge's Domestic Duties, from Thomas Manton and Matthew Henry:
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The four expositors teaching during the question and answer session. Many good questions came in such as, "How do I lead family worship if my husband is not a Christian?", "What is praying in the Holy Spirit?", "How do we properly implement the doctrine of the Trinity, and Trinitarian devotion, into our prayer life?", "How do we avoid falling into legalism if we esteem the Lord's Day as a special day of worship?", and many others:
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All of the teaching sessions were recorded by our faithful media team and are being uploaded to our website www.cristianismobiblico.com in order to be available for free to the larger Spanish speaking world. Your gifts to our ministry allows us to financially compensate workers who put in much time and effort to media ministries so as to spread the Word of God to the whole world through the internet:
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The fellowship was amazing! All the meals were to be had at the campground and many of the brethren stayed in dorms and bunks--over 200 people slept at the campground!
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After all the activities and with bellies satisfied from a nice camp dinner, the brethren would enjoy some sweet fellowship around the fire during the chilly November night:
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Here's a picture of a couple of brothers at our book sales table. The brother on the left was very involved in organizing the whole event. The one on the right is leading a new literature project we've initiated. At the conference, with Publicaciones Cristianismo Bíblico (our own printing and distribution ministry; website forthcoming), we were able to offer over 400 different titles of solid Reformed literature at a highly discounted price. In all, we sold about 1,200 books at the event! How exciting to see the hunger the brethren have for digging deeper into the Word, especially considering that Latin American culture is traditionally not given to much reading! We thank God for the hard--completely volunteer--work of these dear brothers!
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At the conference, I released my newly published Catechism for families and children. It's called, "The Great Doctrines of the Faith: A New Catechism for Children and Families". It has over 200 questions and answers that guide the cathechumen through the whole rubric of basic systematic theology, with key biblical verses appended to each answer for memorization. I based it off of several other historic catechisms, made sure it alligned with our Confession of Faith (the 1689) in everything, and significantely expanded several sections, such as the doctrine of the atonement (Christ and Him crucified!) and the attributes of God. We sold almost 500 copies of this catechism at the conference. All of this is a nonprofit labor. Your support has also helped us to be able to complete this project and equip families with this powerful tool for family discipleship:
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Since we sold out of all the copies we had, we're now working at printing the catechism in an attractive and practical hardcover format. Sorry, but it's only available in Spanish for the time being!
Many hearts were encouraged. Several pastors approached me from diverse places, expressing a desire to bring their congregations to the reality of experiential Reformed theology and practical piety and lead their churches to a practical ecclesiological reformation.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support! There's so much more to tell you about, dear friends, but the contraints of time and space press us with the necessity of submitting to the limitations of brevity. I'll try to send another update soon.

Prayer points:

  • Hector Bustamamente: his personal piety, hunger for the Word of the Lord and for the Lord of the Word, his prayer life, marriage, daughter, ministry, preaching, travels, etc. 
  • For the heads of household in our churches and in greater Latin America, that they would be faithful to lead their families in the Word, in genuine piety and in worship.
  • For the catechism project, that the families would use it, and that it would bear much fruit.
  • For the fruit of the conference, that it wouldn't be a momentary excitement but a true and lasting move of God in Latin America.
  • For the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, sound conversions, biblical churches to be raised up, and leaders to be raised up and confirmed and sent into the harvest.
  • For our literature distribution and publication ministry.
  • For Aaron Block and his family.
  • For Josef Urban and his family. For faithfulness and grace to press on. For health to travel and preach and servce. For financial provision for our own living expenses in Mexico and for the projects we have underway.
Interested in helping to support our mission financially? You can do so through the Support page of this website.
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December 2015 Update

12/28/2015

20 Comments

 
Greetings in the name of our glorious God and Savior Jesus Christ! We are thankful for the continued prayers and support of our brothers and sisters as we continue to labor in Mexico for the sake of the Name. Here is a brief update on some of our recent activities.
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An Addition to the Family!

We were blessed on November 18 of this year of our Lord, 2015, with the birth of our daughter, Ariella Christiana Urban. Though there were some complications with the birth giving rise to the need of a cesarean, the Lord gave much grace and Lina is recuperating. I've been able to spend a lot of time with Josiah recently as I've had to care for him while Lina recovers from the surgery and gets back to her routine. We are praising God for granting us another child!


​Second Annual Conference in Guadalajara

Recently, in November, our ministry Cristianismo Bíblico hosted its Second Annual Conference in Guadalajara. It was held on a large campground outside of Guadalajara and consisted of 4 days of teaching and fellowship. We had a wonderful time with all the brothers and sisters who came from diverse places in Mexico and as far as the USA, Colombia, Cuba and Spain! 
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The conference theme was, "Biblical Creationism and the Cross of Christ". Our special guest was the team from Answers in Genesis: Steve Ham (Ken's brother), Dr. Terry Mortensen (a Geologist) and Joe Owen (Director for Hispanic Outreach). Here's a pic of them with little Alex:
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These men did a great job at clearly explicating their themes with some excellent graphic presentations, which covered topics such as, "The Importance of Genesis", "The Origin of the Supposed Races", "Adam, Cavemen and the Gospel", "Noah's Flood and the Fossil Record" and "The Dinosaurs", among others. Evolutionary ideas and Darwinistic theories are highly influential even in Latin America, so the themes were timely and well received by the brethren. There were a number of youth who were especially impacted by the teachings.
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What's more, these men did a great job at upholding the authority and priority of Scripture in apologetics and at incorporating the Gospel into their messages, which thrilled my heart as God's Word and Son were glorified, starting at the first verse in the Bible! I, in turn, was able to present a few messages during the conference on "Foundational Presuppositions for a Biblical Worldview", "From Creation to the Consummation: A Biblical Theology of Christ as the Last Adam" and on "What is the Gospel?", which focused on beholding the glory and all-sufficiency of Christ as the sum of the Gospel and the importance of union with Christ in justification, as I ended the conference with an evangelistic appeal.
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I was especially encouraged by the large amount of sound literature that was sold during the conference. Titles by Spurgeon, Thomas Watson, Boston, Alleine, Brooks, Bunyan, R.C. Sproul, Piper, MacArthur, Sam Waldron, Berkhof, Hendriksen, Hodge, Calvin, etc. all flew like hot cakes! It is a well-known fact that Mexican culture is not given to much reading. This has always been a struggle that affects the health of our churches, because brethren just tend to not be very studious. But seeing brethren stand in line for literally an hour and a half to access the book table once we opened it, and then seeing the HUNDREDS of books completely sell out, greatly encouraged my heart!

​One of our major burdens is to cultivate and facilitate more of a culture of reading sound literature in our churches, so this is a good sign that the Word being preached is cultivating hunger in the brethren to study theology more deeply! Along these lines, we have some major projects in the works, which we hope to announce soon!

During the weekend, Hector Bustamante and I were able to host a forum discussion on the current state of Reformed evangelicalism in Latin America with a group of about 100 select men from the churches. We discussed the awakening to Reformed soteriology taking place in Latin America as an encouraging sign of God's hand at work but then discussed at length our concerns about some of the deficiencies of this Neo-Calvinistic movement. We had a good heart-to-heart discussion with these men over the course of a couple hours and were able to call attention to some sorely needed truths that are being neglected in this movement, even as we emphasized the importance of certain aspects of historic theology, Puritan theology, experiential piety, family worship, biblical ecclesiology and missing emphases in preaching that are being neglected in our day. Here's a pic:
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In all, we had 700-800 persons show up over the course of the weekend. But more importantly, we were able to proclaim the Gospel with clarity, equip the saints with a biblical apologetic on the history of origins, exult in our risen Lord through some Spirit-enabled worship, hymn-singing and prayer meetings, and enjoy some glorious fellowship around the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ as we exhorted one another to love and good works!


​Expository Unfolding of the Word of God

One of the most rewarding studies I've ever done has to do with the current series I'm preaching through the book of Romans in Guadalajara. We're currently in Chapter 5 and last Sunday, I just finished sermon #45 in this series. Prior to this, I also had a considerable time preaching through the book in other churches. I've found the commentaries by John Murray, Charles Hodge and Robert Haldane to be especially rewarding (my top 3 fav's) but I'm also studying Calvin's, Tom Schreiner's, Hendriksen's, Doug Moo's, Everett Harrison's, Kent Hughes', Sproul's, MacArthur's, Barnes', Lenski's, Matthew Henry's and Luther's. I'm also listening to Piper's series through the book (probably Piper's best sermon series of all time). But most rewarding of all has been the fruit of simply exegeting and then meditating on a verse or two of the text for a few hours at a time.

​As I'm preparing to preach these messages, the Lord has been invigorating my soul and feeding me with the fatness and substance of what has to be the most glorious book in Scripture! I include this in this update because one of the pressing needs of the global church is the demonstration of the expository unfolding of the Word of God with theological depth and heart-searching, applicatory exhortation. And Romans sets forth the Gospel of God with such clarity! Please help me in your prayers, that the Lord would continue to help as I seek to discover and unfold the mind of the Holy Spirit in this majestic magna carta of the Apostle Paul. (You can see some of the recent sermons here.) I've determined that one of the chief focuses of my life-long studies is going to be the book of Romans.

Hector Bustamante is currently preaching through the Sermon on the Mount in Guadalajara and 1 Peter in Mexico City. Miguel, one of our lead men in Mexico City, is preaching through the book of Ephesians. And Aaron Block just finished a series on Acts and is now preaching through the OT book of Haggai. Here's a pic of Aaron preaching in Mexico City:
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This is our primary labor on the mission field: to preach the text of Scripture and watch God take the simple words we speak and thrash the gates of Hell and destroy the works of the devil and establish His Kingdom in the earth and magnify the name of Christ through it as the Spirit works with the Word to infuse spiritual life into the dead and enflame the affections of the saints' hearts with a greater love for their living Lord!

​Please pray for our day-to-day and week-to-week preaching, that we would preach with precision in light of the text, urgency in view of the great white throne, and power that proceeds from another world; that souls would be soundly saved and the saints would be soundly equipped to love and serve Christ and His church.


​A Year of Much Affliction

As many of you know, this past year has been such a difficult time for me physically as I've struggled with many persistent infirmities, ranging from this LPR condition with the accompanying sore throat and voice loss, to chronic joint pain, insomnia and a weak immune system. After visiting about 10 doctors between Mexico and the USA who were unable to help me (and actually only hurt me worse, not to mention took all my money!), I despaired of finding a remedy. I felt like the poor woman with the flow of blood who spent all her money on physicians, all to no avail! Outward there have been struggles and inwardly, fears. For a considerable period of months I was unable to travel on ministry engagements, and oftentimes even unable to preach. It's been the most difficult time of my Christian walk ever since the Lord saved me about 12 years ago, especially considering the needs of the churches and open doors for the Gospel in Latin America. It was so bad at one point that I was even seriously contemplating getting off the field, feeling utterly useless and incapable of being fruitful on the mission field. Words fail to express the discouragement, temptation and anxiety that relentlessly gripped my soul for months on end.

​And yet, if I could go back and choose any other course, I don't think I would have changed a thing. The Lord has been so gracious to teach me so much during this time. His will is truly perfect, and through my darkest moments this past year I've caught a greater glimpse of the glory and all-sufficiency of Christ and the unsurpassed excellence of the knowledge of Him in a way I had never comprehended as fully before. Though the trials have been difficult, when I was finally able to submit from the heart to the smarting rod of God's providential, Fatherly discipline and take it with joy, the Lord did a glorious work in my own heart and caused me to learn the truth of what it means to rest content in Christ, and in Christ alone, despite my circumstances. Now, so many Scriptures make so much more sense to me (like Romans 5:3-4, James 1:2-3, 12 and 1 Peter 1:6-7, among many others).

​The Lord has taught me by means of fire that it's not my abilities, gifts, privileges, influence, ministry, or even success in ministry that matters, but rather, that Christ be formed in me and that He would be my treasure, delight and reward even if everything in this world is stripped from me and this earth has no consolation to offer and there is no one by my side who is able to truly sympathize with me or console me. Affliction is one of the best things to have ever happened to me, for it has lead to a greater discovery of Christ in a way that I had not entered into in such an experiential manner previously! If suffering is the only means by which, in the all-wise providence of our heavenly Father, we can come to know Christ more fully, the outcome far surpasses the momentary price that has to be paid. For this light and momentary affliction is working in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory! Romans 8:29 has become so much more than a cliché to me; it has become a tried and proven reality that has sustained my soul with the goodness of God in the midst of hellish affliction, and it has proven true as I now look back over the past year and a half and reflect on the outcome, and on the greatness of God's mercy.

Thankfully, though my health conditions are lingering as a thorn in my side, they appear to be slowly and progressively improving. I've been able to travel a bit recently to preach in some other churches and in some conferences. I've also been able to preach regularly on Sundays, especially in Guadalajara, and to hold meetings and do some teaching in other venues as well as reincorporating myself into full involvement with the church. As I've discovered some new dietary habits that greatly alleviate the symptoms that most disable me, I have hope that with time, the Lord will allow me to function normally again and to preach Christ without so many physical hindrances and handicaps. In fact, by following a very strict diet, I've been able to get about 90% better, which allows me to minister with a bit of pain but at least without any major hindrance. But as long as my symptoms continue to abate with this diet, I hope to greatly expand our efforts in Mexico and Latin America in 2016. We could use your prayers for all this.


​Church Plants

Please keep our church plants in prayer, especially in Guadalajara, Mexico City, Queretaro and Toluca. Much has transpired and continues to happen; too much to write about right now! Please remember these churches and pray for leadership to be raised up!


​Other Highlights and Prayer Requests

  • Hector Bustamante, the brother who has been co-laboring with us and who moved to Guadalajara last year to serve with me in an internship, is persevering and growing in grace. He has been a great help and we are seeking to cultivate his character and gifts as we confirm his pastoral gifting and he steps into pastoral ministry.
  • We will probably be moving forward with an official vote for elders soon with another particular candidate in mind. Would appreciate your prayers for this.
  • We have an intensive module on the Doctrine of Scripture planned for February as a part of our Theological Academy program. Our guest teacher will be Dr. Bob Gonzales, a pastor, theologian and the Dean of Reformed Baptist Seminary.
  • We have a major translation project in the works and are planning on publishing books by Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Thomas Boston soon. With this, we are looking at founding our own publishing ministry as an arm of Cristianismo Bíblico.
  • We are also in serious discussion with some brothers about opening up a Christian bookstore, to make sound literature available and to use our platform to promote this literature. It's not official yet but seems pretty likely.
  • We are involved in a major printing and literature distribution project in Cuba that, by God's grace, has apparently had a tremendous impact on the evangelical church in Cuba, but whose ripple-effects are still playing out. We have teamed up with some pastors there who are carrying out this project within the country. Thousands of booklets, CD's and DVD's are being mailed out continually to believers and pastors all over the island. There is no corner of the country that these resources are not reaching! A group of brothers is planning on making a trip there soon to further consolidate this ministry and increase its effectiveness. Please pray for Cuba! We believe this is historic!
  • I'm currently working on earning a Masters of Divinity degree through Reformed Baptist Seminary. I could use prayer for grace in my studies and for wisdom to properly balance my time between personal devotions, family, study, church, etc.
  • We earnestly request prayer for the salvation of Josiah. He is 3 years old now and is understanding more and more of the Gospel as we seek to instruct him in the Word. I would rather die a thousand torturous deaths---no, a million or a billion---than to think that there have been many people saved through the instrumentality of our ministry here but that my own son finally perishes if he never comes to know the Savior! Please pray for him to be born again! I do believe it is not beyond God's power to regenerate a 3-year-old.


​Plans for 2016

We have a number of special projects that are currently in the plans. We hope to significantly expand the outreach of Cristianismo Bíblico and to produce more resources that will help equip the church to understand, embrace and proclaim the truth.​ We hope to produce more multimedia resources, launch an App for our sermon content, publish more sermon transcriptions, and make our Academy teachings more widely available via the Internet. We also hope to teach on some important subjects and get the videos, audios and transcriptions online, on such themes as Bible survey (offering a book-by-book redemptive-historical overview of the entire canon), the family (marriage, raising children, catechizing, family worship, modesty, work ethic, etc.), biblical evangelism, and a series of expositions through the 1689 London Baptist Confession. We also hope to do a series of polemical teachings on the common errors and false doctrines promoted in the name of Christianity and evangelicalism. We also hope to publish some other apologetic resources, especially focused on teaching the Van-Tilian, presuppositional approach (which is largely unknown in Latin America). 

The Lamb is worthy! Let us follow Him, proclaim Him, live for Him and die in Him! SOLI DEO GLORIA.

20 Comments

July 2015 Update

7/8/2015

12 Comments

 
Dear brethren,

It's been a few months since our last update. As you can imagine lots has been going on. I will try to keep this as brief as possible. 

Let me get to our number one prayer request and the reason why we haven't been in much contact recently. After our last newsletter that Josef sent out his health started to plummet again. For those who don't know, he was having vocal cord problems that were caused by LPR (acid from his stomach traveling up to his vocal cords and burning them). To make the story short the only way he could keep the acid down was with very high doses of medication, but this was harmful so we decided along with his GI doctor that he should not take these medications anymore because Josef started having side effects with these meds and two months later is still suffering from the side effects. His hands started to be affected and hasn't been able to type on a computer hardly at all. He also started getting horrible cramps on his legs. Much of our time has been consumed on doctor appointments going from one to another for various opinions, lab work, and other things related to his health. We ask for your prayers during this trying time. Josef hasn't been able to preach for two months now due to the pain in his vocal cords. He's still been able to work on some behind the scene work with the academy and the church plants. As you can imagine this has been a hard trial to endure for my husband. Much confusion as far as knowing what the Lord's will is for us for this time and our future in ministry. Though his health has failed, Josef has found peace, rest and comfort from our Lord. It didn't come overnight but he seems to be in a good place now. We have tried various natural "remedies" these last two months since that is the only option for him right now. Nothing has seemed to help. He's on a new treatment for three weeks and then we will consider other options after that if this doesn't help him. 

Regarding my pregnancy, I am now 22 weeks, a little over half ways done. The Lord graciously raised me up just when Josef's health started to fail more. My blood pressure and sugar have been back to normal and I feel really good! Josiah will turn three in a month, he's doing well also. He's a sweet, kind, tender boy. The Lord has seemed to have gifted him with a brilliant mind, please pray for me that I may help him use it to its capacity for the glory of our God.

Regarding the academy, a few months ago we had a dear brother who pastors a church in Riverside, California come and give a module to the students on the History of the Primitive Church. His name is Robert Elliot and on this link you can listen to his lectures on the subject that he did in the past in pure English, 
http://www.churchaudio.org.uk/roche/Riverside%20Sunday%20School.htm
There was a good turnout. We had various men from different parts of Mexico come for this module. It was also a good time to fellowship and for Josef to have private meetings with the men who are helping oversee various of the churches and new church plants. 
Below is a picture of some of the men:

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About two weeks ago there were baptisms in Monterrey and Mexico City. I don't know much of the details but know that in Mexico City there were about 30 people who got baptized! Most of them from Toluca where we have our most recent church plant. There were brethren from Guadalajara who went and told me it was a glorious time of hearing testimony after testimony of Christ's redeeming work in the souls of many. Though we weren't able to be present our co-laborer Aaron Block was able to go and administer the baptisms. This was a great encouragement to our souls, hearing about God's amazing grace in this dark religious land. Please continue to pray for the churches and church plants, and please don't forget to pray for more laborers to be raised up. 

Now regarding the orphanage that we had planned to open. Sadly, at this time we have cancelled the plans. Will spare you many details but to make the long story short the sister who was going to be our main worker backed out right before we submitted the paperwork in. We took this as being from the Lord and are now praying for Him to raise up another able worker/s for this ministry. We need someone with a God given burden for orphans, proven character and graced for this type of work, with leadership abilities to direct the work while living in the orphanage, and who is committed and won't back down when the the going gets tough. 

Now really, really good news!!! Hopefully you recall Alex and Gus, two of the four orphan boys who lived with us for over three years. Well a dear family from our church has been trying to adopt them. Ten months after initiating the paperwork for adoption they have been given custody of the boys!!! This is unheard of in Guadalajara, usually the quickest families get custody is minimum two years. They received the boys this past Monday. Though they are not officially adopted yet they have been given to them while they complete the legal court process. Brethren, this is where this dear family needs our help. They need about $10,000 to pay for all the legal fees for adoption. This amount is for both boys, not for each. They are also in need of funds to help get their home up to code, that is one of the requirements for them to be able to legally adopt the boys. They have a beautiful home but it's not completely finished since they have been building it little by little and have some details that the DIF is wanting them to finish constructing. If you feel led to help please contact me. Please pray for the Lord to do a miracle and provide for this dear family! Below is the picture of the new family:

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Lastly, more encouraging news. A dear brother from the church in Guadalajara recently went to Japan. The brothers name is Hiram. Hiram has had a huge burden to reach the people of Japan.  He's been actively engaging and preaching the Gospel to the Japanese in Guadalajara. So far one Japanese young lady has been receptive to the Gospel and has joined us a few times. He's also learning Japanese. Well last month he was in Japan for a month. It was an encouraging time and since being back he's had a stronger desire to get more prepared for future ministry in the mission field. This is a young man who has preached a few times during Josef's absence and the Lord has been helping him in this, giving him much grace to preach and teach to Christ's church. Josef has also been spending more time with him hoping to pour into him more.


I will share a real encouraging story regarding the Lord's provision for His people in Japan. A few days after Hiram arrived in Japan, we received a message on Facebook from a brother in Japan who listens to Josef's sermons, he knows knows Spanish. This is just one of a handful of people from Japan that have wrote us saying the same. There's a large Spanish speaking community in Japan, of Japanese people. To make the long story short again I told the brother that Hiram was there and explained who he was and his desires for Japan. Well this Japanese brother put Hiram in contact with a family who lives far away who also listens to the sermons on our website and who has contacted us in the past. I actually wanted to put Hiram in contact with this family but I couldn't remember their names. But  this brother on his own put Hiram in contact with this family. Well, Hiram visited this family. This is a family that has no local church but every Sunday they get together and worship our Lord and listen to a sermon from our website. Once in a while they get visitors that come and join them. Hiram spent two weekends with them and on Sunday's he preached at their little gathering. I heard  it was a beautiful time of fellowship and mutual edification. Perhaps this is where the Lord might send Hiram? Help us pray that the Lord would mature Hiram more, grace him with the giftings from above to fulfill this ministry, help with the language, and in the Lord's timing perhaps send Hiram to Japan. Below are some pictures of Hiram with this family:

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I will say goodbye here brethren, there is much more I would like to share of the work the Lord is doing in Mexico and in the rest of Latin America. Please pray for us and the work! We love you all!!!

In Christ,
Lina Urban
12 Comments

April 2015 Update from Mexico

4/7/2015

9 Comments

 
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Church Increase in Guadalajara

This month I had the privilege of baptizing 8 believers in Guadalajara. Another, in addition to that, was added to the church. So in total, we had 9 believers added to the membership of the church. The majority of these cases consist of new believers who testify to having experienced God’s transforming grace to the salvation of their souls. These include individuals from Catholic and “Christian” backgrounds (it’s amazing how many professing Christians, even in Mexico, are unconverted and duped by a false profession of faith, only to be awakened and converted through the exposition of the biblical gospel). Praise the Lord! These testimonies are truly amazing works of the grace of God! In a couple of these cases, they consisted of young ladies who had been attending our church for a long time but were hardened to the truth and unconverted, and the Lord broke through and shined His light in the most difficult of cases. Soli Deo Gloria.
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Establishment of a Girls’ Orphanage

Our team has decided to move forward with the plans to establish a children’s home for orphaned girls. We’re in the process of formalizing these plans through legal procedures while taking the practical steps necessary to initiate and carry out a tentative plan of action. We’ll be in need of much support for this project in every way (prayer, finances, helping hands, etc.). The most probable name that we seem most agreed on at this time is “The Mueller House”, named after George Mueller. Our vision is to provide a safe, loving, nurturing, gospel-centered environment for these girls where they will be loved, cared for, educated adequately, and taught the gospel by word and deed on a daily basis. The caretakers will all be qualified sisters in Christ with good testimonies and demonstrable practical skills that ensure their effectiveness in ministering to these abandoned girls.

The idea is to begin on a small scale by taking in just a few girls, and then as resources permit to expand our facilities to incorporate more girls progressively as time goes by. For those who are wondering, my personal involvement in the day to day operations of this orphanage will be minimal as my role will be more administrative, organizational and pastoral in nature. The sisters involved will be bearing the bulk of the work load on a daily basis. What a wonderful opportunity to practice pure and undefiled religion (James 1:27)!

We ask for prayer as the government has not yet authorized our plans, and we are completely at their mercy in this regard since our plans are contingent on a long and complicated process. 

Theological Academy & Leadership Training

Our Academy of Biblical and Theological Studies in Guadalajara is advancing by the grace of God. We’ve finished our course on Old Testament Theology (which was largely an introduction of Biblical Theology as a whole). In less than two weeks, Lord willing, we’ll be hosting a course on Historical Theology from the Apostolic period to the Middle Ages. It will consist of about 20 hours of instruction over a period of 5 days. We plan on having students and a whole bunch of auditors present. Many are planning on coming from out of State as well in order to attend. Very soon, Lord willing, we may be integrating a Systematic Theology course into the curriculum as well.

The theological superficiality in the Latin American church is in desperate need of addressing, and we hope to counteract the negative trend of false doctrine and doctrinal shallowness through in-depth teaching such as in these Academy endeavors, while laboring to see the Lord raise up men capable of rightly handling the Word of truth by providing a free, solid and thorough theological education for them.

Leadership Meetings this Month to Solidify Six Current Church Plants

During the week of our module, we look forward to meeting with key brothers who are in areas of leadership in the church plants and taking much counsel together while strategizing on a work plan to implement in each church plant. Since they will be coming to Guadalajara from each of the respective cities in order to attend our theological module, we hope to use the afternoons when classes are not in session in order to take counsel together and fortify our strategic game plan. These church plants are in Guadalajara, Mexico City, Querétaro, Toluca, Monterrey and Saltillo. These types of meetings are highly fruitful and useful for cooperating to advance the gospel in Mexico and essential to future plans for the churches. I plan to have 5 days of these meetings from the 20-24th of this month, April. Your prayers are greatly appreciated.

An “Internship” with a Young Preacher

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By God’s gracious provision, a young man who we’ve been working closely with has recently moved to Guadalajara from another city in order to carry out an “internship” with us. His name is Hector. Having a testimony approved by the brethren who know him best, he has been preaching on a regular basis in our church plants and demonstrates a probable calling to pastoral ministry and gifting to teach God’s Word in the church. My plan is to work closely with him for one year in an internship sort of relationship, imparting to him involving him in many ministerial activities while seeking to impart my own knowledge and experience to him in a host of ways, including doctrine, counsel and  experience, while taking a “hands-on” approach to ministerial training. After this intensive period, we may consider him as a pastoral candidate to put before the church.

This is an important—and exciting—development for the work in Mexico. My objective is to pour into him everything the Lord has given me, that the work may be replicated in him and multiplied through our combined labors. This is part of our attempt to heed the apostolic injunction, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). Pictured to the left is Hector with his wife Karime.

A Little One on the Way!

We’re pleased to announce that Lina is pregnant and is in her second month! We appreciate your prayers for the safe development and delivery of this baby.

Brothers and sisters, our prayer needs are outlined above, and abound. If you could pray for each of these activities and areas of ministry, we would be most grateful. I also need prayer for my vocal recovery as well, as my progress ebbs and flows, and is still preventing me from engaging in what would be my full traveling and preaching agenda. Though I’m preaching on Sundays and teaching in our Academy, I earnestly desire to be able to travel to some diverse places in Mexico to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ and teach his gospel to our contacts—something I’m currently prevented from doing due to (hopefully temporary) strict diet restrictions and vocal limitations. My greatest need at this time is complete vocal recovery so as not to battle with an irritated or sore throat every day.

The Lamb is worthy!

In Christ—Josef Urban

9 Comments

Update on Potential Orphanage Plans by Lina Urban

3/24/2015

3 Comments

 
We want to inform you about the tentative establishment of an orphanage for girls that Josef breifly mentioned in the last update. We have decided to move forward with the plan! A dear sister in the Lord who would lead this work has committed to it and is very joyous about it and eager to serve the Lord in this new ministry endeavor. We had a meeting last week with those who will be involved to look over the legal side of things. We are now working on incorporating a nonprofit in Mexico (which is a necessary preliminaray step to open an orphanage). There's a lot of praying and thinking things through and making many decisions in this process. Please pray that the Lord would guide us in making all the right decisions, we need much wisdom.

Oh brethren, this task seems almost impossible to me. When my head starts to think of all the impossibilities (which are many) I quickly remember George Mueller and am reminded that with faith we can move mountains, that the impossible can be possible with God. Then I get the strength to keep plowing away in the work. The other day I was thinking of all the brethren that are involved in this endeavor (the ones that will legally form the nonprofit); none are of "stature" in this world, they are truly the foolish things of this world. The ones that managed to get a degree and work in their profession forsook it for the sake of Christ. But one thing that really encourages me and that matters is that the brethren that will be helping us with this work all have an exceptional gift of service that the Lord has given them.

With all this being said we need your help, we can't seem to come up with a name for the orphanage. We need a name that can be translated and make sense in both the English and Spanish language. If you have any suggestions, please let us know ASAP because we need them before we submit all the paperwork (in the next week or two). We need to submit three different potential names, so you can send me various names if you come up with many.

Please help us pray that the Lord, if it's His will,  would help us complete all the paperwork and get favor with the government to be able to move forward with the orphanage. There are many details that need to be worked out yet and nothing is certain at this point in time with regard to seeing the fruition of these plans, so we ask for much prayer.

Thank you once again for your love and care toward us. We love you all!
3 Comments

Update from Mexico

2/27/2015

16 Comments

 
We're still alive! We're just extremely negligent (to my own fault) at getting updates out there. In addition to conveying our sincerest apologies, I would like to express our honest intention to make a better, more conscious effort at sending them out more punctually. We have a major project in the works right now which includes updating you more frequently, consistently, and practically. 

Heartbreaking news!

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The 4 boys are no longer with us. After being their caretakers and "parents" for 3 and a half years, having lived with us during that time and integrated into our family, the Mexican government pulled a political move and sent them to another house. They are now in an orphanage. We've been to visit them, but it's much different around the house without having these little guys around.
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The good news is that two of the brothers (pictured in the middle above) are in the process of being adopted! And not just by anybody, but by a beautiful family from our church! If all goes well, these two will have a permanent home and be raised in the fear, instruction and love of the Lord. Please pray for them. The other two are soon to return to their mother who had previously abandoned them, but has won rights to receive them back. Please pray for their wellbeing in every way (spiritual and physical).

Family Update

With the boys gone, it's just the 3 of us now. Josiah is 2 and a half and is growing healthy and happy. We've been researching his future in terms of education and will probably be giving him a classical Christian education. Lina is doing well. 

Many have asked if we plan to have more children. We would love to have as many as the Lord gives us. But that just means just one for now, I guess...

What does a preacher do when he loses his voice?

These past years on the mission field have consisted of a great many trials. In my case, health-related infirmities have been frequent and persistent. If you care to hear my rant, you can read this section; if not, feel free to skip ahead to the next heading! (I won't be offended!)

In the early part of last year (2014), I was coming down with frequent, severe stomach illnesses about once per month that would lay me out for days at a time, having all vitality leeched from this mortal frame to the point of utter despair. Prayer availed much toward spiritual sustainment but little to support the flesh. Hospital and doctor visits helped to only maintain me hydrated via IV's while the infections would pass their dreadful, natural course. The frequent travels, seeking nourishment from inner-city Mexican street-vending taco carts, ingesting amoebas and vicious bacterias, the jam-packed schedule with studying, preaching, teaching, counseling, organizing, fellowshiping, the daily care of the churches, stress, and a weak immune system all took their toll and laid me out like an old pancake in the hot noon-day sun. I was becoming almost useless, though the grace of God sustained me and kept me pressing on with the drive to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.

So I cut down on traveling, changed my diet and began a rigorous exercise routine. My stomach health drastically improved. But then, I began having serious complications with my VOCAL CORDS (of all things)! I couldn't preach half a sermon without my voice getting hoarse and inflicting a moderate amount of pain. This continued for many months. After the pain was persistent, I decided to get a laryngoscopy. They diagnosed me with a vocal nodule. The gist of it was that supposedly, preaching was over for me, at least until I underwent surgery. Rather than going under the knife, I went to California for 2 months and underwent a vigorous vocal rehabilitation and training therapy with one of LA's most reputable speech pathologists (who the Lord provided at a 50% discount!). Apparently, it was effective. After several months, I got another laryngoscopy, and by the mercy of God, the nodule has now dissolved! It is g-o-n-e!

But some irritation was still persistent. After a seven month journey of trying to ascertain the root of my vocal problems, we recently discovered that the problem was instigated by recurring "silent reflux" (the craftily, creepily sneaky and asymptomatic sister of heartburn), in which tiny amounts of stomach acid quitely lodge powerful digestive enzymes in the throat and cause the throat itself to be slowly and progressively digested! The saying goes, "What you're eating could be eating you"! Ouch! I felt it! This, in turn, was apparently instigated by chronic digestive problems causing bacterial overgrowth in my stomach (this link is to an article that outlines natural remedies that have helped me). So I'm in the process of dealing with this through lifestyle, nutritional and dietary implementations and have begun to feel significantly better. My vocal strength, projection and endurance is drastically improving as I've been able to preach at normal volume upwards of an hour at a time with no significant hindrance or pain. Praise the Lord!

This has been a trial that is particularly tempting to provoke despair and discouragement. "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel"! I remember telling my wife at one point that I prefer to just die than to never be able to preach again. What a journey this has been.

Recently a brother approached me and, expressing sympathy, inquired of me what I've learned over these past 7 months, especially early on when we all felt like my ministry was on the verge of collapsing. I can't begin to describe all the emails that poured in from all over Latin America when the news went out, the sadness in the churches in Mexico, and my own sense of confusion and lack of answers in terms of when, how, if ever, I would be back at preaching. My answer? I've learned that Christ is sufficient. My identity is not wrapped up in some ministry, however "successful" it may appear to be. My source of hope and joy doesn't come from the exercise of any talent or spiritual gift the Lord has entrusted to me. Christ is my all, and He is sufficient. I may be stripped of my voice, and therefore of my ministry, my support, my income, and everything else, but as long as I have Jesus, I have more than enough. It's been helpful to not only know this, but to feel it as a present reality. God is good. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!

I've been back at preaching every Sunday since the beginning of December along with a ministry schedule that normally requires at least several hours of speaking daily. And the Lord has helped me to do so with no significant hindrance. I earnestly desire your prayers for my speedy and total vocal recuperation. I long to take up traveling again to visit all the church plants, lay some important ecclesiastical foundations in place, encourage the brethren, spend extended time with key men who need mentoring, spearhead some important projects, conduct some conferences and teach some theological modules in other places in Latin America. 

Great Commission Advancement Through the Establishment and Building of Christ's Church

We continue to remain persuaded that the Great Commission primarily entails the establishment, nurturing and building of biblical churches. Our efforts continue to focus on this sorely needed ministry in Mexico.

Our original church plant in Guadalajara continues to prosper by the grace of our Lord. I am spending most of my time here seeking to teach and pour into the church that it may be a strong ministry base in Mexico. We are seeing encouraging things, as brothers and sisters are growing in maturity, stepping up to serve and helping to meet many needs in the church. Our prayers from the beginning were that the Lord would make this church an Antioch in Mexico--a sending base to initiate and nurture other church plants--and He has begun to answer our prayers, in part. The church continues to expand, to grow in terms of depth of a work of grace and in numbers of those who are being saved. Most of all, the love of Christ is felt in this place and experienced in a rare and invigorating way that is truly refreshing to our hearts.

Lord's Day meeting in Guadalajara:
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The other church plants that have flowed from this work are the Mexico City and Queretaro churches. In September, 2014, my fellow co-laborer Aaron Block was ordained as a pastor. Aaron has moved to Queretaro to shepherd the church of God which he bought with his own blood in that place.

Aaron preaching in Queretaro:
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The church in Mexico City also continues to grow and advance. After many hellish battles, attacks by false brethren, and threats of division in that place, the church has been strengthened and solidified in grace, love and unity. It is very encouraging to see what the Lord has done in Mexico City!

Below is brother Miguel from Mexico City sharing the Word of God:
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In 2014, we initiated two new church plants: one in Monterrey and one in Toluca. We have seen encouraging things in these places as the Spirit of God works to save and to sanctify. In Toluca there is a small congregation gathering that is slowly growing in number. There have been a couple of glorious conversions there recently. They are about to constitute as a local church with the first baptisms, membership integration and practice of the Lord's Supper. Grace Community Church of San Antonio is colaboring with the church in Monterrey, and between them and the churches in Mexico, we are sending preachers every other week to Monterrey.

Congregational photo in Monterrey:
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Theological Academy

Our Academy of Theology has about 150 students who are persevering in their studies. Many others are on the waiting list to join but we've not yet opened registration for any new students. We hope to open it up for new students soon if the Lord wills, since we have all the classes recorded in high quality video and audio format and integrated into an online learning system. Thanks to a volunteer who is a computer programmer, we are now up to date on the latest and best distance learning platform available in Spanish. Soon we hope to expand the course offering and improve the quality of education offered by producing more resources such as lecture transcripts and events that facilitate community among the students.

New clases have been postponed since the diagnosis of my vocal problem in September, but now that I've been recovering, we are launching classes again next week. We will then be holding classes, Lord willing, on a weekly basis. For the remainder of this year, I plan to plug away at teaching our courses on Biblical Survey, which offer a biblical-theological overview from a historic-redemptive perspective according to each individual Bible book's particular canonical context, key passages and major theological motifs. We plan to view all of this with an eye to comprehending and beholding the beauty and glory of Christ in all of Scripture, that our students may be able to preach Christ and the glories of the gospel from any text of the Bible, all the while being faithful to practice a sound exegetical method according to the proven principles of historic-grammatical hermeneutics.

In April, we will be hosting a module on Historic Theology taught by pastor Robert Elliot (M.Div.) of the Reformed Baptist Church of Riverside, CA. Pastor Elliot has done somewhat extensive studies in this area and will be teaching our students a series of 20 one-hour lectures on the subject of Early Church History. I had the privilege of congregating in the church he pastors while in California and was encouraged by his sound preaching ministry. Here is a picture of this Scottish brother:
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Evangelistic Projects

Numerous evangelism teams, organized as ministries of each respective local church, continue to preach the gospel on the streets. They have hundreds, even thousands of conversations on a regular basis. They also preach in places such as drug rehab centers and hospitals. We are working with a brother who is gifted at evangelism to launch a major ministry project geared toward providing training for churches and groups we are in contact with. Lord willing, we will send another update soon with more info on this.

Gospel Projects in Cuba

We are working somewhat closely with a Cuban pastor and church (who holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession) to spearhead what seems promising to be a significant movement of the mass dissemination of Reformed theology in that closed-but-opening country. This includes the mass distribution of literature, CD's and DVD's with gospel-centered and theologically-substantial material (everything from Puritans and Spurgeon to Paul Washer). We hope to share more details about this soon in another update… stay tuned. We're very exited about this opportunity to reach such a desperately needy place as Cuba with the biblical gospel.

Cristianismo Bíblico Conferences

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We are now conducting an annual conference in Guadalajara. Our turnout for our first annual conference in 2014 was about 700 persons from 6 different countries and was a glorious time of blessed fellowship and mutual edification with brothers and sisters from a number of different churches. This year, we are expecting more. Our special guests last year were Charles Leiter (author of Justification and Regeneration) and Timothy Conway (pastor of Grace Community Church of San Antonio, TX). 

This year, our special guest is the ministry of Answers in Genesis. We will be teaching on biblical creationism, presuppositional apologetics, the importance of the sufficiency and authority of Scripture, and the implications all this bears on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We hope to equip believers in Latin America with a solid understanding of a biblical worldview grounded in a biblical view of God the sovereign Creator, that they may engage their culture, defend the faith and evangelize the lost biblically and effectively with the unchanging truth of God's inerrant Word. 

Other Projects in the Works

  • Translation projects (translating Puritan literature and other never-before-translated literature into Spanish).
  • Publishing a book on the theology of the gospel, and another book in Spanish on the life, revivals, theology and sermons of Jonathan Edwards.
  • Founding a nonprofit ministry oriented toward pioneering quality, theologically-rich, gospel-grounded, Christ-centered biblical resources into the third world (beginning in Mexico and Latin America) where access to such resources is scarce.
  • Possibly the formal establishment of a Children's Home to take in, care for, nurture and teach orphans.

Prayer Requests:

  • For my vocal health, that I may preach without hindrance and take up my full preaching rotation again (preaching several times per week rather than just twice).
  • For grace that I may travel to all our church plants soon and fellowship, teach, and puts things in order that are lacking.
  • For the 2 boys who are in the process of adoption, that it would succeed and that these boys would be placed permanently in a solid, loving Christian family.
  • For laborers to be raised up in the midst of our churches; specifically, biblically-qualified, gifted and proven pastors, evangelists and deacons.
  • For each church plant: growth in grace, unity in the Spirit, protection from spiritual attacks, reality of Christlike love, operation of spiritual gifts, advance of the gospel, salvation of souls, etc.
  • For the Academy; for grace to prepare lectures in the midst of a busy schedule, for men to be greatly helped at grasping biblical concepts and to grow in grace, having the truth in their hearts and not just in their heads, having theology-on-fire and not theology merely in theory.
  • For more church plants to be raised up in the grace of our Lord.
  • For the projects we have in Cuba to advance the gospel and sound theology such as never before in that place.
  • For God's leading with regard to opening an orphanage, that He would provide the right personnel, adequate resources, laborers and finances to make it possible if it's His will.
  • For the love of Christ to dwell in our hearts richly. For humility, self-control, joy, peace and all the fruit of the Spirit to be made more of a reality in our lives that we may walk with Christ ever so closely and enjoy unhindered communion with Him while reflecting Him faithfully to those we minister to, that ministry would never take the place of enjoying continual, intimate communion with our Lord.
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Theological Training in Latin America

8/5/2014

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The greatest need of the church in Latin America is the gospel: pure, undiluted, undefiled and unadulterated. The second greatest need is theological training. 
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We recently began a conscious and focused endeavor to provide theological training for men in Latin America. Pictured above is our first group of in-house students. Our Academia de Estudios Bíblicos y Teológicos is a local church-based academy and is a ministry of our church plant in Guadalajara. Yet we’ve also made use of all the media at our disposal to make all classes available through distance education via online videos, audios, reading assignments, homework and exams. This allows us to offer all of the substance of the classes to Spanish-speaking students all over the world.

The Christianity which exists in Latin America exists largely because American missionaries have taken it there. This means that the Christianity of Latin America is largely an export of American Christianity. In many cases, this is the equivalent of saying that it’s not really Christianity at all but a superficial and cheap imitation that bears more resemblance to man-made religious ideas than to the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints. The crying need of the hour is sound, systematic, careful and thorough instruction from God’s Word so as to train men to rightly handle Scripture so that they may rise up and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ faithfully and impact this and the next generation with the biblical gospel, win souls, disciple believers, plant churches, and unleash fire on the earth. This is the only thing that is able to change the deplorable spiritual condition which is so evident in this land --if God would be blessed to prosper such training and infuse life, light and power from above by the gracious operation of His Spirit. This is our hope and our earnest prayer.

The Academy was launched in May with its first course. It initiated with over 200 students; about 36 in-house and 200 online/distance learners. Students come from many different countries, including Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Nicaragua, Chile, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Spain, Sweden, and the USA. About 2/3 of these are from Mexico. Some are pastors, others are leaders of groups that are springing up as new church plants, others are members of local churches, and others are isolated due to difficulty in finding a local church with which to identify. 

Each student is required to complete each lesson systematically as they progress through the course work. This includes watching or listening to the classroom lecture, taking notes, completing assignments, and doing exams. This is our way of tracking their progress and ensuring that each one is learning the material. 

The curriculum is designed to span the course of 5 years. It consists of 4-5 core courses in each of the branches of the traditional encyclopedia of theology (Exegetical Theology, Systematic Theology, Historic Theology and Practical Theology). Each course consists of about 20 lessons (that is, about 20 hours of classroom lectures, plus other assignments such as reading articles and textbooks).

We have initiated the Academy with Exegetical Theology. We began with Old Testament Survey (OT Introduction and Theology) with a special focus on Biblical Theology (think names like Geerhardus Vos, Graeme Goldsworthy, G.K. Beale, T. Desmond Alexander, etc.). After four courses in the OT, we’re planning on doing New Testament Survey, then Hermeneutics. The programmed schedule for these courses is 2 years. After this, we plan on moving on to Systematics.

We’ve already given a brief introduction to topics such as Biblical Theology (in the technical sense of the word), the nature of progressive revelation, the promise-fulfillment dynamic of prophetic revelation in Scripture, typology, the problem of continuity vs. discontinuity, biblical-theological systems such as Dispensationalism, New Covenant Theology and Covenant Theology, and are now in the midst of a concise survey of the major divine-human covenants in Scripture in order to understand the contours of special revelation, its structure, and the relationship of parts of the Bible to the whole. After this, we’ll progress to a study of the OT proper, beginning with Genesis and working our way through the books of the Bible in canonical order, focusing on the major themes of each book and their contribution to the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan in Christ.

I’ve been teaching all the classes, which is obviously demanding a large portion of my time. It is our hope to invite guest lecturers in the future who will teach modules on topics in which they have considerable knowledge.

This Academy will be made available in the future to students in any place and at any time. Since all classroom lectures are recorded in high quality video and audio format, it will serve as a perpetual training program which can continue to teach and equip long after the actual live classes are over. We also hope to initiate other projects in the future that will enable us to take these materials into poverty-stricken or hard to reach places through live modules and on USB’s, hard drives, laptop computers, through printed literature and other means in order to help equip under-privileged pastors and leaders in Latin America who would otherwise have no access to theological education.

There are relatively few programs such as this offered to the Hispanic world. Those seminaries and Bible institutes which are consistent with historic Reformed theology are scarce. Those which are readily accessible are even scarcer. We did not commence this Academy because we think we're the best qualified to do so. Rather, compelled by utter necessity, we’ve initiated it due to the urgent need to see men trained to rightly handle the Word of truth so that a new generation of Bible expositors can rise up and bring about much-needed reformation in the church of Mexico and beyond through the sound teaching and Spirit-filled proclamation of God’s Word.

We ask for prayer that our sovereign Lord would be pleased to use these feeble efforts to raise up a sorely needed band of soldiers of the cross to storm the gates of Hell and build Christ's church in Latin America.
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Is It Possible to be Perfected in Holiness?

2/18/2014

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The gospel is the power of God to salvation (Rom. 1:16). Its power resides in the fact of its being the revelation of the righteousness of God which is applied to the guilty record of the believing transgressor, thereby acquitting his legal guilt and causing him to be accepted as righteous by means of the imputation of Christ’s perfect righteousness (Rom. 1:17).  Thus God, by means of the gospel of Christ, accomplishes by divine fiat what is utterly impossible for the sinful sons and daughters of Adam. In this way He magnifies the power of His grace, being mighty to save those who were without strength, helpless to save themselves (Rom. 5:6).  

Yet the same gospel that is the power of God to liberate the criminal from the legal condemnation incurred due to his violation of the divine law is also the power of God to purify the wicked from the pollution of his own depraved heart. Thus the guilty wretch is made “the righteousness of God” with regard to his legal standing in the eyes of the law, and the profane lover of sin is made a “saint” who delights in the very law of which he once lived in utter and total defiance, being made a lover of righteousness. This is the biblical teaching of the doctrines of justification and sanctification.

What this means in practical terms for the believer is that although he is perfectly righteous in a legal sense before the judgment bar of a just Judge in Heaven, being clothed with the impeccable robes of the righteousness of Christ, at the same time, he is not perfectly righteous in his experience on this earth. While our forensic righteousness is perfect, our actual righteousness in terms of our personal freedom from the contamination of sin is never perfected in this life. While justification is an instantaneous, divine legal declaration that perfectly and forever frees the sinner from condemnation, sanctification in the life of the believer who has already been justified is an ongoing process which continually effectuates an experiential purification from sin and an ever-increasing growth in likeness to Christ, and is not perfected until the believer enters glory.

Historic Aberrations

Historically, within the ranks of the church, there have been two major groups which have vehemently denied the biblical teaching of the progressive nature of sanctification: Pelagianism and Wesleyanism.

Pelagianism derives its name from the monk Pelagius (390-418 A.D.). Pelagius is famous (or infamous) due to his debates with Augustine over the doctrine of man’s depravity in the 4th Century. By denying the concept of original sin, Pelagius taught that perfect sinlessness was possible by redefining sin as “a volitional action to disobey a known command of God”. According to him, sin is a choice, and the ability to make the choice to sin or not to sin lies in the inherent natural ability of man. Thus he taught that the empowerment of divine grace is not necessary to stop sinning and obey the law of God.

Applying these grave doctrinal errors to the doctrine of sanctification, Pelagius taught that perfect freedom from sin can be obtained, and must be obtained, at the moment of conversion. For him, repentance means to simply cease from all sin. And since repentance and faith go hand in hand in conversion, and since justification is dependent upon the exercise of faith, then, according to Pelagius, abiding in a state of justification is conditional upon abiding in a state of repentance which is defined as perfectly ceasing from sin. Thus justification is made to be dependent upon the believer’s sinlessness. Justification and sanctification are confused and justification is thought to depend on sanctification. This is nothing more than the malicious heresy of justification by works! By denying original sin, Pelagius denied the truth of progressive sanctification, and all of this as logically harmonized in his humanistic system of doctrine ultimately constituted a practical denial of the biblical gospel. Pelagianism is, therefore, not to be considered as within the bounds of Christian orthodoxy. Unfortunately, its influence is still alive and well today, and is most often exercised through the ongoing influence of Charles G. Finney (1792-1875), the American revivalist who revived the ancient theology of Pelagius and popularized the evangelistic practice of decisionism which has plagued the modern church with multitudes of false converts.

The other propagator of perfectionist doctrine is known as Wesleyanism, which takes its name from none other than John Wesley (1703-1791), the famous evangelist of the Great Awakening. Yet it is important to make some necessary distinctions at this point so as not to confuse Wesleyanism with Pelagianism. While Pelagianism is certainly heretical due to its denial of foundational truths which are central to the gospel message, Wesleyanism should not be understood as being in the same category since it undeniably affirms historic Christian orthodoxy. Wesley, contrary to Pelagius, not only believed in the doctrine of original sin, he preached it ruthlessly in the face of much persecution together with the doctrines of supernatural regeneration and justification by grace through faith.

However, one of Wesley’s most lamentable doctrinal errors existed with regard to how he understood sanctification. He taught that although man is born in sin and needs the empowerment of divine grace to overcome his sin, it is possible to attain to a state of perfect freedom from sin.

Although Wesley affirmed the progressive nature of sanctification on the one hand, on the other hand he denied it to be necessary by teaching that a believer can be entirely sanctified in this life. This perfection in holiness, according to Wesley, is received by faith through experiencing “the baptism of the Holy Ghost”, which he defined as a second work of grace subsequent to justification which “purges all inbred sin” and results in experiencing “a total death to sin, and an entire renewal in the love and image of God” [A Plain Account of Christian Perfection]. Though he was careful to qualify his statements in order to clarify that the Christian is not without faults of which he is unconscious, and cannot attain to a pre-lapsarian Adamic or Christ-like perfection in holiness (which statements were logically inconsistent with his doctrine in my opinion), Wesley taught that it is possible to attain to such a degree of personal holiness that the believer has no more need for ongoing sanctification in this life. His teachings have greatly influenced church history and have many followers to this day, especially among denominations that trace their roots to his influence, such as the Methodist, Wesleyan, Nazarene, and Holiness churches.

These theological aberrations have done a great deal of harm in church history. Both groups, for different reasons, are guilty of serious error with regard to the nature of sanctification.

Scriptural Refutation

The Scriptures emphatically refute all forms of perfectionism. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” In this text, John includes himself by saying, “if we say”, using the first person plural form to signify that he himself is not excluded from this statement. As a holy apostle of the Lamb, writing toward the end of his life, John knew his sanctification was not yet so complete so as to consist of perfect freedom from all sin. Furthermore, he indicates that he is speaking of the believer’s present experience by speaking of “having sin” in the present tense, and all this in the context of explaining how the continual confession of sin is an evidence of walking in the light in fellowship with God (see 1 John 1:4-9). According to John, not only is it not possible to attain to sinless perfection, it is deception to claim to have attained it! (See also 1 Kngs. 8:46; Psa. 130:3; Pro. 20:9; Ecc. 7:20; 1 Cor. 4:4; Jam. 3:2.)

Confessing sin continually is both a biblical pattern and imperative. It is a pattern that is evident in the lives of the most godly of men, such eminent saints as Job (Job 42:6) David (Psa. 32, 51), Isaiah (Isa. 6:5), Daniel (Dan. 9), and Paul (Acts 23:3-5). That it is an imperative can be seen in no less a prominent passage than the Lord’s Prayer, by which he teaches his apostles and disciples to pray “forgive us our sins” (Lk. 11:4). This is immediately following the petition, “Give us each day our daily bread”, implying the necessity of daily making requests such as those exemplified in this prayer, which certainly includes the daily need to confess our sins and place our hope in the grace of God (not in our own performance) for our righteousness.

Though every true believer longs for holiness, and strives to walk in obedience to the commands of His God, he is conscious of an intense inward struggle as sinful impulses manifest through his yet unredeemed flesh and wage war against his soul (1 Pet. 2:11). The sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit and the desires the flesh are at odds with one another (Gal. 5:17), and this battle never ceases until he enters through the gates of eternal glory.

The Biblical Framework

This acknowledgment of lack of perfect holiness must be understood within the framework of Scripture’s teaching on sanctification. It is only by understanding the different aspects of sanctification that we can be spared from falling into the errors of perfectionism on the one hand, and the errors of lawlessness on the other hand.

There are three distinct aspects of sanctification defined in Scripture. Each of these aspects corresponds to a particular period of time with respect to the believer’s experience of the saving grace of God.

First of all, there is what we call definitive sanctification. This is an instantaneous, powerful act of God’s transforming grace, intimately related to regeneration, which frees the believer from the dominion and slavery of sin and works in him the power to do what is well-pleasing in God’s sight. This is what Paul refers to in Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” By virtue of Christ’s redemptive work and the believer’s union with Christ, he experiences a definitive break with the practice of sin that had characterized his past life.  Jesus also spoke of this when He said, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn. 8:36). But although this results in freedom from sin’s control, it doesn’t result in total freedom from sin’s presence and contamination, and doesn’t perfect the believer in holiness. This aspect of sanctification marks the beginning of the Christian life, and transitions into the process of sanctification. (See also Rom. 6; Col. 2:11-12; 1 Pet. 2:24; 1 Jn. 3:5-9)

Second, there is progressive sanctification. This is an ongoing, continual work of God’s transforming grace which results in being increasingly cleansed from the internal defilement of sin and being renewed in the image of God in all true righteousness and holiness. It empowers the believer to increasingly kill sin and practice righteousness. Thus it consists of both the mortification of sinful impulses (Col. 3:5) and the renovation of the inner man (Col. 3:10) to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). It is graciously guided by God’s moral law (Rom. 7:7, 8:4) and takes place by the power of the Holy Spirit as we fix our gaze upon Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; Heb. 12:2). Paul emphasizes this aspect of sanctification when he exhorts the Corinthians, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). Though the Corinthians had already been sanctified definitively at their conversion (1 Cor. 1:2), their sanctification was not yet complete. They were to be diligent to occupy themselves in their sanctification with fear and trembling and by faith in the promises of God, work on continually perfecting their holiness. This aspect of sanctification begins at the beginning of the Christian life, but is not completed until the believer enters glory.

Third, there is consummate sanctification. This is an instantaneous act of God’s power and grace which frees the believer from the presence of inbred sin forever. It perfects the Christian in holiness and results in being perfectly conformed to Christ’s moral image in terms of freedom from sin’s defilement for all of eternity. For most believers throughout history, this takes place in two installments: first at death when the spirit/soul is perfected in righteousness (Heb. 12:23) and then at the resurrection from the dead with regard to the body, which will take place at Christ’s coming. The apostle John spoke of this when he said, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 Jn. 3:2). As we behold what theologians have called, “the beatific vision” of seeing the consummate glory of God in face of Jesus Christ, we will be transformed and our sanctification will be perfected with regard to the entirety of our human nature (1 Th. 5:23) as we glorify God and worship Him in the beauty of perfect holiness forever! Hallelujah!

Extremes are to be Avoided

Typically, the antinomian (one who lives with no regard to God’s commands) denies the first aspect of sanctification and relegates it to a merely positional status. That is, he defines the initial sanctification that a believer experiences in positional terms which only affect the believer’s status before God but leave his experience untouched. Thus, according to him, it is possible to really experience God’s saving grace without being transformed and set free from the practice of sin. This is a grave error.

However, on the other hand, the perfectionist typically denies the distinctions which exist in the different aspects of sanctification and either blurs the lines between these distinctions, or confuses their chronology in terms of the believer’s experience. Avoiding the error of antinomianism, they fall into the fatal trap of legalism, and thrust themselves into many sorrows as they seek to attain to that which is impossible. By setting a false standard which is unattainable, they set themselves up for repeated frustration, and often fall into a conscious sense of feeling as if they’re under condemnation for not being as holy as they ought. This leads to disappointment and discouragement for those believers who have embraced perfectionist doctrine which, ironically, rather than producing a more perfect holiness in them, is actually counter-productive to their sanctification. If they would understand the biblical framework of sanctification and how to interpret their own experience in the light of it, they would be spared from many unnecessary sorrows.

Conclusion

In summary, the power of the gospel secures both the forgiveness of sin and the cleansing from sin for all who believe. However, the perfect purification from sin’s defilement doesn’t occur at any given point in the Christian’s pilgrimage on this earth. We must deny ourselves and take up our cross daily in the fight against sin! Though the battle against sin is fierce, our God has committed to fighting this war with us! With God the Father’s tender care and discipline, with the Son of God interceding for us, and with the Spirit of God empowering us, though the battle be a fight to the death, we can be confident that with the omnipotent power of the Triune God on our side, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us!

Though we can and must rest in the fact of our justification, we must also strive in the progress of our sanctification. And God will never leave us or forsake us, not even on our toughest days or most bitter falls (1 Jn. 2:1). Thank God that even though our holiness is incomplete and flawed, His righteousness is pure and perfect, and the eternal Son has covenanted to be our Advocate and representative righteousness before the throne forever, as flawed as we may be!

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    Author

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    Josef Urban
    Husband to 1; father to 2; worshiper of 3-in-1; student at RBS; pastor of Iglesia del Centro; church planter; missionary to Mexico since 2007; fan of the Reformers and Puritans; infatuated with Pauline theology; struggle with inordinate affection for books; doulos of Christ Jesus.

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    • The Vindication of God's Righteousness
    • The Satisfaction of God's Wrath on the Cross​
    • ​The Depravity of Sinful Man
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