The Cage Stage

cage state | noun | demonstrating wild and possibly deranged excitement over the seventeenth century pronouncements of the Synod of the Canons of Dordt in the Netherlands. These pronouncements are often referred to as the five points of Calvinism and, once a person becomes convinced that these five points are true, he or she enters the dreaded “cage stage.” The novice Calvinist is considered “armed and dangerous” during this period, which has been known to extend to six months, but in more serious cases can last up to ten years or longer.

Symptoms include: high fever that results in delirious incoherence of thought and speech; vomiting spasms brought on when anyone mentions “free will” or “asking Jesus into their heart” or the dreaded philosophy of Jacob Arminius; restlessness, especially during church services, when the sufferer goes more than an hour without hearing the TULIP’s five bells ringing in their ears; and diahrrea of the mouth, where uncontrollable spasms of verbal nonsense put everyone within earshot at risk.

The recommended treatment is complete isolation, restriction of movement and speech, until the symptoms pass. Unfortunately, this treatment is rarely sought by the afflicted person, so family and friends are often left to suffer silently. The only person who can reach the cage stage victim is a more experienced Calvinist, because the victim’s state of mind does not permit trust in any others. Please DO NOT attempt intervention without consulting an expert.
–Thin Edge, “Defining the ‘Cage Stage’ of Calvinism“

Let’s admit, however, that sometimes, upon first becoming Reformed some folk become jerks. Sometimes this phase is temporary. Mike Horton calls this the “cage phase,” when a new convert to Reformed Christianity needs to be put in a cage until he matures. Some, when they first discover “the doctrines of grace” (code for unconditional predestination and justification by grace alone, through faith alone) can actually become angry that they’ve been denied these truths for so long.
–R. Scott Clark, “Why (Some) Reformed People Are Such Jerks“

A lot of new and ignorant Calvinists need to… well, shut up. I know that isn’t the politest phrase in the book, but it is the truth. Most of the damage done in these matters is done by people who are in what Calvinists call the “cage phase,” those inaugural few months when you know very little except some version of TULIP and you won’t be quiet about that. These are people who need to get a very large stack of books and get some roots going, but instead they go and pick a fight with whoever is least likely to understand what they are talking about. These converts- often impressionable students or very unread laity- can be obnoxious, immature and thoughtless in their assaults. They’ve done a lot of damage and there is no apologizing for them. I would say they should be recognized for what they are- untaught, ignorant, and often, young. Most them will grow out of it. A few remain that way until their next phase.
–Michael Spencer

Within the Reformed world, a phrase which more of us should be aware of is ‘cage stage.’ Whenever someone comes into new-found truth (and this often happens with those first coming to embrace Reformed theology), the phrase refers to that period of time where the new (and usually young) convert should be locked up in a cage. That period of time is usually about two years. Of course, there are some pitiful cases that should never be let out, and there are many more evangellyfish who do not ever need to be locked up. But cage stagers, however many of them there are, can do a lot of damage. Ironically, they do much to make the theology they profess to love obnoxious to outsiders. Paul did teach, unambiguously, the doctrine of election. But he also told the Colossians, as the elect of God, to put on tender mercies.
–Douglas Wilson, “Hither and Yon”

Michael Horton Conference: Putting Amazing Back Into Grace

WHEN: January 29-30, 2010 (Registration starts at 1 PM)
WHERE: Quezon City Evangelical Church (View Location Map of QCEC)

CONFERENCE SPEAKER: Dr. Michael S. Horton
Dr. Horton is a J. Gresham Machen professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine, and host of the syndicated radio broadcast, The White Horse Inn. Dr. Horton has written and edited more than 15 books, including Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, Christless Christianity and Gospel-Driven Life. He is also a minister in the United Reformed Churches in North America. He resides in Escondido, California, with his wife, Lisa, and their four children.

CONFERENCE FEE: PhP 300.00
Inclusion of Lunch, Snacks and Handouts

You may NOW register at www.ReformationPH.com!
Limited to first 200 registrants. First come, first served!

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Help promote this conference by putting the POSTER or WEB BANNERS in your blog/website.

Resting on God

O God, most high, most glorious, the thought of Thine infinite serenity cheers me, for I am toiling and moiling, troubled and distressed, but Thou art for ever at perfect peace. Thy designs cause thee no fear or care of unfulfilment, they stand fast as the eternal hills. Thy power knows no bond, Thy goodness no stint. Thou bringest order out of confusion, and my defeats are Thy victories: The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

I come to Thee as a sinner with cares and sorrows, to leave every concern entirely to Thee, every sin calling for Christ’s precious blood; revive deep spirituality in my heart; let me live near to the great Shepherd, hear His voice, know its tones, follow its calls. Keep me from deception by causing me to abide in the truth, from harm by helping me to walk in the power of the Spirit. Give me intenser faith in the eternal verities, burning into me by experience the things I know; Let me never be ashamed of the truth of the gospel, that I may bear its reproach, vindicate it, see Jesus as its essence, know in it the power of the Spirit.

Lord, help me, for I am often lukewarm and chill; unbelief mars my confidence, sin makes me forget Thee. Let the weeds that grow in my soul be cut at their roots; grant me to know that I truly live only when I live to Thee, that all else is trifling. Thy presence alone can make me holy, devout, strong and happy. Abide in me, gracious God.

–Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett. Reformatted by Eternal Life Ministries.

Psychology vs. Biblical Counseling

The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Confession and Communion,” in Life Together (New York: Harper & Row, 1954), 118-19.

The principal article of all Christian doctrine

“The law is divine and holy. Let the law have his glory, but yet no law, be it never so divine and holy, ought to teach me that I am justified, and shall live through it. I grant it may teach me that I ought to love God and my neighbour; also to live in chastity, soberness, patience, etc., but it ought not to show me, how I should be delivered from sin, the devil, death, and hell.

Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law,) but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me : to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth.

Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”

–Martin Luther, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians (Philadelphia: Smith, English & Co., 1860), 206.

HT: Alex Medina

For Sale: Siberian Dwarf Hamsters

I’m selling these baby dwarf hamsters because I do not much room in my apartment for all of them.

FOR SALE: Siberian Dwarf Hamsters for only PhP 80/each
(Cebu City Residents Only)

These dwarf hamsters were still 12-days old in this picture and they are about 3-weeks old now. They are housed in a clean cage with regular bedding changes, fed with Vitrakraft and Hagen Hamster Mix with occasional vegetable treats. Fresh water daily.

Gender yet to be determined. More pictures here.

Please leave a message if interested. Thank you!

Meet-up places: Ayala Center Cebu, SM City Cebu or Cebu Doctor’s Hospital.

Have you forsaken your first love?

Calling on the Spirit to search your heart, use the following questions to help determine whether you have forsaken your first love for Jesus.

• Is your zeal for God as warm, living, vigorous, effective, and eager as it was when you first gave yourself to God?
• Do rivers of tears flow from your eyes when God is dishonored (Psalm 119:136)?
• Do you contend as violently as you once did for the faith?
• Do you concern yourself as much as you once did with the glory of God in the world?
• Does your life judge the world by its holiness and separateness as it used to?
• Is your faith growing stronger?
• Do you delight in public worship as you did when you first came to Christ?
• Do you find the same relish and sweetness you once found in worship?
• Is the preaching of the Word as precious to you as it was?
• Do you listen to the Word eagerly and respond in faith and repentance?
• Do you anticipate the Sabbath as a time of joyous fellowship, as a foretaste of heaven?
• Do you hunger for holy conversation with others?
• Are you as careful about obedience as you were in the past?
• Is your conscience as tender toward sin as it was?
• As you as faithful in private prayer and meditation?
• Do you love your brothers and sisters more than before?
• Are you ready for crosses and burdens and persecution?
• Are you as humble?
• Are you willing to deny yourself for the sake of the Kingdom?

–Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within (P&R Publishing, 122-123).

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:4-5, ESV)

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

To Humble the Mind

I began reading J. I. Packer’s Knowing God again. He rightly opens the first chapter with these timeless words from Charles Spurgeon…

It has been said by someone that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.” But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God….

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe…. The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning.

“The Immutability of God“, Delivered on Sabbath Morning, January 7th, 1855 at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark

Christless Christianity: Getting in Christ’s Way

What would things look like if Satan actually took over a city? The first frames in our imaginative slide show probably depict mayhem on a massive scale: Widespread violence, deviant sexualities, pornography in every vending machine, churches closed down and worshipers dragged off to City Hall. Over a half-century ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse, pastor of Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church, gave his CBS radio audience a different picture of what it would look like if Satan took control of a town in America. He said that all of the bars and pool halls would be closed, pornography banished, pristine streets and sidewalks would be occupied by tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The kids would answer “Yes, sir,” “No, ma’am,” and the churches would be full on Sunday … where Christ is not preached.

Not to be alarmist, but it looks a lot like Satan is in charge right now. The enemy has a subtle way of using even the proper scenery and props to obscure the main character. The church, mission, cultural transformation, even the Spirit can become the focus instead of the means for “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). As provocative as Barnhouse’s illustration remains, it is simply an elaboration of a point that is made throughout the story of redemption. The story behind all the headlines of the Bible is the war between the serpent and the offspring of the woman (Gen. 3:15), an enmity that God promised would culminate in the serpent’s destruction and the lifting of the curse. This promise was a declaration of war on Satan and his kingdom, and the contest unfolded in the first religious war, between Cain and Abel (Gen. 4 with Matt. 23:35), in the battle between Pharaoh and Yahweh that led to the exodus and the temptation in the wilderness. Even in the land, the serpent seduces Israel to idolatry and intermarriage with unbelievers, even provoking massacres of the royal family. Yet God always preserved that “seed of the woman” who would crush the serpent’s head (see 2 Kings 11, for example). The story leads all the way to Herod’s slaughter of the firstborn children in fear of the Magi’s announcement of the birth of the true King of Israel.

How are you right with God?

Heidelberg Catechism 60

Question: How are you right with God?

Answer: Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, our of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned or been a sinner, as if I had been perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need to do is accept this gift of God with a believing heart.

Ang Katesismo ng Heidelberg 60 (Filipino)

Tanong: Paano ka nagiging matuwid sa harapan ng Diyos?

Sagot: Sa pamamagitan lamang ng tunay na pananampalataya kay Jesu-Cristo; upang nang sa ganon, kahit na sinusurot ang aking budhi na talamak na nalabag ko ang mga kautusan ng Diyos, at wala akong nasunod kahit na isa, at ang aking katawan ay naka-ayon pa rin sa lahat ng kasamaan; sa kabila nito, minarapat ng Diyos ayon sa kanyang kagandahang loob at hindi kailanman sa aking mga gawa na ipagkaloob at ibilang sa akin ang perpektong pagsunod, katuwiran, at kabanalan ni Cristo; kaya nga ako’y parang walang kasalanan at parang hindi nakagawa ng anumang kasalanan: totoo, para na ring lubos kong natupad ang lahat ng pagsunod na ginanap ni Cristo para sa akin; yamang aking tinanggap ang mga kaloob na iyan ng may pusong nananampalataya.