Saturday, February 28, 2009

2009-02-28

  • Five reasons to study theology: 1) You’re a theologian already… 2) Your love for Jesus is intrinsically linked with your knowledge of His Word… 3) Your doctrine will determine how you live… 4) Your affections will determine what you study… 5) Your humility depends on it…http://cal.vini.st/2009/02/five-reasons-you-need-to-study-theology/

  • Packer defines worldliness as "any internalizing of the earthbound self-absorption of the people of this world." A Definition of Worldliness

  • Haykin comments on an example of nuda scriptura, and quotes Spurgeon, which is essentially an exaltation of autonomy at the expense of all tradition that ultimately leads to a radical individualism well-nigh indistinguishable from a Paine or Emerson—well, the individual would have given this caveat, a commitment to biblical authority. An adherent to nuda scriptura rejects councils, etc., failing to recognize their biblical import. “It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others.” We need to consider the Fathers not as equivalent authorities to Scripture, but as senior conversation partners in our theological task - not as infallible, but we must not disregard them. The Ancient Church Fathers- senior partners in a conversation

  • Carolyn Mahaney reminds single women to nurture children, and so express their femininity. For even if they don't have biological children, they surely can be spiritual mothers. Nurturing Children

  • For those interested, here is an Anglican arguing for paedo-communion. Glenn Davies on Children at Communion

  • Bird comments on an interview with Waters on Wright's new book, who studied under E.P. Sanders and regards the Traditional Reformed view and the New Perspective view as thoroughly incompatibable. 1) To the idea that Wright makes far too much of "exile" rather than "being-in-Adam", Bird thinks that while Wright's focus on exile is problematic in some respects esp. as a controlling meta-narrative it isn't at odds with a creation-Adam-sin-Abraham-Israel-Messiah narrative. 2) Waters counters that what Wright needs is a construal of the controlling story along the lines of Adam (covenant of works) and Christ (covenant of grace); but it seems Wright agrees with the gist of this. Bird points out that John Piper gave his own view as one is either in Adam or in Christ at ETS once (Wright and Piper may have more in common here than is apparent!) 3) Bird agrees that it is biblical to speak of justification according to works when properly understood, but not justification on the basis of works, and while he thinks Wright is too fuzzy here, he also thinks Wright holds this. 4) On the "Righteousness of God" Waters is correct that it cannot be reduced to God's covenant faithfulness (cf. Mark Seifrid's dictum is that all covenant keeping is righteous but not all righteousness is covenant keeping!) - but it also can't be separated from God's faithfulness to Israel's covenant. 6) Wright (and Bird) understand justification as participating in Christ's vindication in his resurrection, and believers are thus justified since they participate in Christ and share in his justification. Guy Waters on N.T. Wright's new book

  • Phil Johnson comments on the thought of Bork and Yeats who put forward that the problem is not some end-times beast that is slouching toward Bethlehem; the real problem is that society itself is slouching toward Gomorrah, and says, "As we look at the state of Christ's church worldwide today, we see an even more frightening prospect. By and large, the church has fallen in love with Gomorrah, and has veered off that direction in a dead sprint. Christians seem as if they are on a collective quest to see how much of the world they can absorb and imitate. Instead of trying to win the world the way Christ commanded, the church seems determined to see how much like the world she can become." There is a pervasive willingness to accommodate divine truth to the world. e.g. One pastor said churches nowadays don't mention hell because "it isn't sexy enough anymore." Many are complicit in neglecting the Gospel as the power of God to salvation in favour of a consumeristic emphasis on being appealing rather than faithful. James 4-4

  • Here's a somewhat optimistic quote from Spurgeon on the impending doom of modernism, the inevitable failure of those who employ its ways, the lack of novelty in Satan's tactics therein, and their subsequent disappeal, etc. and an exhortation to remain focused on those things within your reach, not to worry, and to strive to be fully faithful in the areas over which God has set you. l'Optimisme

  • Engwer points out that its not contradictory for non-christians to have pleasant near-death experiences, since it is a near death experience, and not heaven or hell. Moreover, who knows whether one is deceived by a demon, etc? Why Would A Non-Christian Have A Positive Near-Death Experience-

  • Hays has a lengthy post on the paranormal. It begins with a justification for Christian interest in these matters: "1.Evaluating paranormals claims raise much the same issues as evaluating miraculous claims.  2.Unbelievers often claim that the Bible is incredible because it describes a world which is a world apart from the world we actually experience. But if paranormal phenomena happen, then the world of the Bible is not fundamentally different from the world we experience today. Of course, at that point the unbeliever might shift grounds. He might accept the paranormal, but try to explain it on secular grounds–then do the same with Scripture. However, that still advances the argument. Instead of debating whether these events ever happen, we’re not debating the proper interpretation of the event. 3.Science and medicine are wonderful disciplines. But they have their limitations. For example, some medical conditions may have a spiritual or occultic source of origin. As such, they need a different remedy.  4.There’s an extensive literature on psi. Writers range from charlatans to philosophers and scholars. In addition, every ideological viewpoint is represented–orthodoxy, heterodoxy, secularism, occultism, &c." He discusses theories, evidence, terminology, presents critiques, and so on. With the rising popularity of such things in our society (take a look in a bookstore), this post is worth a read. There is also an impressive annotated biography. Bell, book, & candle

  • Hays provides some thoughts when asked about how the parable of the rich man and lazarus fits with an earlier comment he made in the previous post concerning the disposition of the dead to deceive. He points out that i) common grace is the reason person would be virtuously concerned about others. Why would common grace extend to the damned? Absent this, why would he care? ii) The parable appears to fit a particular type of well-known story having a rich man and poor man whose fortunes are reversed, which wasn't meant to make a comment of actual eschatology. Now, was no doubt opposing the Sadducees, who claimed that there was no resurrection from the dead. The Sadducees were wealthy, and the entire composition of the story appears to be a challenge to them… In this view, then, "It is as though Jesus says, ‘Now I will tell you a story of two people; one served God and the other mammon,’”" iii) the rich man's motives aren't necessarily altruistic or virtuous: His concern, though, is characteristic of the rich, whose circle of compassion extends to ‘friends,’ ‘brothers,’ ‘relatives,’ and ‘rich neighbors’ who are able to repay concern with concern, hospitality with hospitality. Even his concern is self-indicting. Damned if you do and damned if you don't

  • Hays responds to a question regarding the moral appropriateness for Christians with respect to teaching children sexual education, and why there is a problem with detailing the technical matters if the morality is also taught? He argues that such knowledge isn't necessary if one isn't married - why do pre-married teens need it?  "Opponents of abstinence-only programs are not merely recommending that we teach students about contraception. Rather, they advocate the free distribution of contraceptives." "There are times when ignorance is virtuous. For example, I hope most folks are ignorant of how to construct a biochemical weapon." Safe sex

  • It is a straw man to think a presuppositional apologist simply takes his own position for granted. Needless to say, that’s a caricature of Van Tilian apologetics. It would be more accurate to say that, according to Van Tilian apologetics, the unbeliever is taking certain truths for granted that only make sense within a Christian worldview. The unbeliever is a closet presuppositionalist. And the job of a Van Tilian apologist is to make the unbeliever aware of his tacit, theistic presuppositions. He tries to disprove the unbeliever’s worldview by exposing its residual and irreducible commitment to certain theistic truths, while proving his own by elimination. A twinge of irony

  • Hays gives a definition of grace: "Saving grace has reference to all the things that God does to and for the elect to ensure their salvation, viz. election, redemption, regeneration, justification, sanctification, preservation, glorification. Common grace denotes all the things that God does to and for the reprobate to enable them to perform natural goods." What is grace-

  • Richard Dawkins is afraid to debate Ray Comfort for $20000, twice his normal speaking fee. I'll Debate Richard Dawkins for $100,000

  • Turretinfan writes that Athanasius is considered an ally of Protestants, so some of these apologists turn to spurious works: pseudographic writings that are attributed to some father but were not actually written by him. This can happen two ways: (1) unintentionally or (2) deliberately. "now we find apologists for Rome citing a spurious, pseudographic work entitled "Homily of the Papyrus of Turin." This work is not part of any standard corpus of Athanasian writings, and no scholar who deals with Athanasius has (to my knowledge) ever identified it as authentic. It is not found in any Greek manuscripts but apparently comes down to us in a single Coptic manuscript. The manuscript does have the name "Athanasius" at the top, but this is not a sufficient reason to consider it an authentic work, as anyone familiar with ancient manuscripts would be aware." T-fan challenges Romanists to let the fathers be the fathers. Misquoting Athanasius

  • It's likely that many people skim the Psalms without noticing certain things. Psalm 21:8-12 has a vivid picture of hell. "There are three dreadful images in the space of five verses. Enemies of God are thrown into a blazing oven (one); they are swallowed up by the fire of the LORD’s wrath (one and a half, because let’s say the oven, the fire and the wrath of God are all really the same idea); their children are destroyed (two); and someone—God himself—is aiming at their faces with a bow." This language isn't reserved for hypocritical religious leaders. It's for the enemies of God's people. To apply this whole Psalm to Jesus isn't wrong, but these images set this Psalm apart. Even the next generation's hope is extinguished - there is no comfort for those in the oven of wrath. Fiery and sharp images of hell

  • As Muslim nations continue to gain ground in the United Nations with their anti-blasphemy resolution, White points to their gross hypocrisy, as they claim to do this to protect religions and claim to be trying to stop offense against religions. Yet, the claims of the Qur'an are deeply offensive to Christianity, so "will those pushing this ban on "religious blasphemy" silence the preaching of the Qur'an? Of course not. Hence, what is the ultimate goal of these Islamic states in pushing this agenda? Dhimmitude of non-Muslims, pure and simple." Freedom to Preach Death Watch Continued

  • Here's a proposal that Hebrews is a sermon preached by Paul and penned by Luke, accounting for its differences in style. i) It has sophisticated Greek, as Luke does. ii) This explains such early manuscript evidence as P46, which includes Hebrews within the Pauline corpus and such early church fathers as Clement, who holds to Pauline authorship of Hebrew. Lukan Perspective

  • Here's a book urging Christian couples not to wait to have children. Start Your Family

  • Tony Jones is a Pelagian (this isn't really a surprise). DeYoung points to his posts to this effect. "There are so many things wrong with these posts, from the erroneous historical reconstruction, to the strawmen arguments (e.g., if you believe in original sin you can't believe in human responsibility), to conversation stoppers from Jones like "Watch out, Brian, the NeoReformed stormtroopers went after Scot McKnight last week, and they'll probably come after you here!"" Saint Who-

  • Obama aims to pull out 100000 troops by Aug. 31/2010, leaving 35000 to 50000 until Dec. 31/2011, and he also pledged to increase the number of soldiers and marines in the armed forces to relieve the burden on those serving and their families. http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/02/27/obama-iraq.html?ref=rss&loomia_si=t0:a16:g2:r3:c0.0631438:b22353116

  • Here's a collection of links arguing that Obama's economic policies are going to harm the nation. Also, a poll showed people pick Obama as their hero over Jesus - "Among the "values" that moved Obama ahead of Christ, the walking brain-dead listed "Doing what's right regardless of personal consequences" with 89 percent, "Not giving up until the goal is accomplished" with 83 percent and "Doing more than what other people expect of them," with 82 percent. Also popular were "Overcoming adversity" and "Staying level-headed in a crisis."" Eek. 09 e.g. "The president says he wants to eliminate the George W. Bush tax cuts "on the wealthy," a core promise of his campaign. But those cuts help reduce the cost of capital in America, an essential tool to helping business out of this recession. Raising the capital gains tax, as Obama proposes, will make private investment dollars even scarcer, as will hiking income taxes on those most likely to invest in the economy." http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090226/OPINION01/902260349/1008

  • Thursday, February 26, 2009

    2009-02-26

  • Interesting thought, based on an analogy with diets... "how is a study that produced meager results, that doesn't use those diets, a scientific condemnation of those diets" "if somebody regularly reads The Message and doesn't grow much spiritually, does that prove that it doesn't matter what translation you read?" Nobody's favorite topic- diets

  • Patton asks how you would respond to a question regarding inconsistencies in the resurrection accounts. "Notice, I did not say “solve” this for that would be rather assumptive and more than what I am asking. I am not saying that this is not able to be “solved” but I am more interested in how you would “handle” this, the solving might be included." Biblical Contradiction- How Would You Respond-

  • Here's a chronological parallel of the resurrection accounts. http://www.carm.org/bible-difficulties/matthew-mark/resurrection-chronology

  • Josh Harris writes that he has people who criticize me, wrongly judge him - people who he finds to be a paint. Do we just tolerate them? Ignore them? Maybe we don't actively hate them, but we just look past them and choose not to care about them. And yet Jesus commands us to love them. To do good to them. To lend to them. He could have ignored us, but instead He crushed His Son to redeem us. Love Your Enemies

  • Challies has some really good advice on how to read, from his own experience (he reads two books a week, probably around 200 pages each). He gives tips on how to mark up a book, how he goes about reading (sounds like speed reading), and advice for time management. "Reviewing books is an excellent way of driving home the main points of a book. It is as good a memory device as I can imagine. In fact, I would encourage every reader to review the books they read, even if those reviews will never be made public. It is a good discipline to think through the main points of the book and is as valuable a discipline to formulate thoughts on whether or not the reader agrees with a book." Why not jot down a short review? [Well, that's what this blog is! Just for blogs, not books...] Random Thoughts on Reading

  • For those into Johnny Cash, he was born 77 years ago today. Johnny Cash

  • Manata responds to an informal 'consequence argument' against freedom and determinism ("if determinism is true, then our acts are the consequences of the laws of nature and events of the remote past. But it is not up to us what went on before we were born; and neither is it up to us what the laws of nature are. Therefore the consequences of these things are not up to us”) with a consequence argument against molinism and freedom: "If molinism is true, then our actual acts are the consequences of the possible world God actualized in the remote past. But it is not up to us what possible world God actualizes.... perhaps I'd choose to actualize the world where I freely do A over B. But God actualized B over A because B is the world that best brings about his will" Consequence Arguments Against Determinism and Molinism

  • Manata employs lay-Arminian argumentation (in this case, dictionary argumentation coupled with the view of the 'common man') to show that since God created all things, everything, and without him was not any thing made that was made, this means that God created all of our beliefs and they are not created ex-nihilo by our "immaterial substance." The only beliefs we have, therefore, are the ones God determined to give is. We don't have the "power" to create a belief to do otherwise. Ergo, libertarianism is false. What, All of a Sudden You Don't Like Your Argument-

  • JT points to a good-looking documentary by several scholars on whether Jesus is the God-man. Jesus- Man, Messiah, or More-

  • Wednesday, February 25, 2009

    2009-02-25

  • Contrary to some, Phillips does not want to see Obama 'succeed' in setting back pro-life by 30 years, in punishing the hard-working and productive who keep their commitments, robbing them of freedom, and forcing them to reward and subsidize the indolent and feckless, and in weakening American defenses and emboldening enemies. He hopes that his totalitarian, anti-freedom, and anti-child, anti-freedom plots fail spectacularly. Pat Robertson! That thing you do with your mouth! STO-O-O-O-OP!

  • Here's something interesting: "Based on the analysis of entrapped air from ice cores extracted from permanent glaciers from various regions around the globe, it has been demonstrated that global warming began 18,000 years ago, accompanied by a steady rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. What caused this phenomenon is a matter of ongoing debate. Clearly, though, global warming and rising CO2 levels in Earth's atmosphere started long before the industrial revolution." http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/temp_vs_CO2.html

  • Engwer provides some comments on the notion that we have got the authors of the biblical books wrong: i) A glaring double standard appears when critics rely uncritically (accepting the text and authorship attributions of many extra-Biblical documents that have comparable or worse evidence) on less attested works like the Annuls of Tacitus or on Josephus (they nit-pick on distinctions as if an author can't vary his style, etc); ii) non-religious gullibility isn't a substitute for religious gullibility: "There's a danger in believing that Mark wrote the second gospel if he didn't actually write it, but there's also a danger in believing that Mark didn't write the second gospel if he actually did write it." iii) Engwer points to examples of how writing styles change with time - External evidence is key. iv) Many people, including scholars, are overly cynical, and often their cynicism is selective. Modern scholarship has a proclivity for applying a wide range of interpolative and composite theories to most ancient literature. v) Engwer quotes Clarke, who points out that Baur "was first to assert that antiquity regarded pseudonymity as an acceptable literary convention not undertaken with the intent to deceive... Arguments against the concept of intellectual property in antiquity have become common fair in discussions of pseudonymity, and can be found in more recent examples like A.T. Lincoln...This theory has, however, been debunked by Speyer (Die literarische Falschung, 175-76), who has clearly shown the presence of such a concept in antiquity." The Credibility Of Some Critical Theories About New Testament Authorship

  • Hays gives some thoughts on what he might do if he encountered a demoniac: i) He's not an apostle, nor authorized to boss demons around, so he wouldn't yell, argue, etc. but would pray to God, and continually. It's the relation with God that counts, not with the demon. ii) He would do things to make a demon uncomfortable, like reading Scripture, singing hymns, having the demoniac do the same if he's lucid at times; iii) One must not neglect follow-up ministry. iv) be careful to watch yourself. Things that go bump in the night

  • Perkins of Solapanel writes, "I've heard it said that, in terms of relating the gospel to culture, the mistake that traditionalists make is that they give the right answers to the wrong questions; they're answering questions that no-one is asking anymore. They're tackling issues and fighting fights that belong to a previous generation. If that is true, then there is another counter-balancing group of people who are giving the wrong answers to the right questions. They're answering the questions that people are actually asking today. " And these answers are a wholesale capitulation to culture's current mood, in their aim to be relevant. Not only must we give truthful answers to their current questions, but we must teach them to ask the right question, even if they aren't asking “How can I be sure I will go to heaven when I die?” or “How can I receive forgiveness from God my Creator?” Culture or not, they need to ask this. Exegetical preaching is a key to this. Creating the right question

  • Bird thinks that Paul's theology must be understood as a mixture of salvation-history and apocalypticism. Paul's theology presumes a certain telling of history from Creation to Abraham to Israel to Christ and to the Church, and at the same time in the coming of Jesus Christ there is a burst of God's power that invades human history and this event is singular and discontinuous from all that has gone before. In other words, Paul narrates an invasive story of God's dealings with the world through Jesus Christ. Christ redeems people from the old age and transfers them into the new but this is in accord with the promises that went before. An Invasive Story- Pauline Theology

  • Janelle of girltalk points to Proverbs 12:26, “The righteous should choose his friends carefully." i) pursue friends that mentor. Young women should be seeking this, older women should seek to impart it. ii) look for friends who need friends, in keeping with Scriptures commands to welcome strangers. Choosing Friends

  • Turk brings out Paul's reason for leaving Titus in Crete - and makes these points: i) We're all stupid and incompetent, so we'd better have the transcending wisdom of Scripture as our guide; ii) pastors do not get to execute their jobs as they see fit - they must do it as Scripture specifies. Why He Left You

  • The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is trying to address the breakdown of the home in contemporary culture by addressing the unwitting co-conspiracy in evangelical churches as a result of the programmatic mindset: "The Family Equipping Ministry Model espouses a partnership between the home and the church where the church oversees and equips the members of their church, in particular parents, to disciple their children."" Family ministry is "The process of intentionally and persistently realigning a congregation's proclamation and practices so that parents - and especially fathers - are acknowledged, trained and held accountable as the persons primarily responsible for the discipleship of their children." Is Your Church Hurting Families- SBTS Calls Parents and Churches Back to Biblical Discipleship

  • Challies has put his twelve favourite articles over this years into a PDF. Snapshots & Screenshots

  • "Geology as a separate field of science with systematic field studies, collection and classification of rocks and fossils, and development of theoretical reconstructions of the historical events that formed those rock layers and fossils, is only about 200 years old." Tertullian, Chrysostom, and Augustine attributed fossils to Noah's flood. Some scoffed at the idea that they were former creatures. Niels Steensen (1638–1686) established the principle of superposition, namely that sedimentary rock layers are deposited in a successive, essentially horizontal fashion. In the latter decades of the 18th century, some French and Italian geologists rejected the biblical account of the Flood and attributed the rock record to natural processes occurring over a long period of time. Abraham Werner (1749–1817), teacher of many great geologists, believed that most of the crust of the earth had been precipitated chemically or mechanically by a slowly receding global ocean over the course of about a million years, but failed to take into account the fossils in the rocks, which tell much about how sediments are deposited and transformed into stone. James Hutton (1726–1797) proposed that the continents were being slowly eroded into the oceans. Those sediments were gradually hardened by the internal heat of the earth and then raised by convulsions to become new landmasses, which would later be eroded into the oceans, hardened and elevated. i.e., Earth history was cyclical. Charles Lyell delivered a blow to catastrophism by proposing a radical uniformitarianism in which he insisted that only present-day processes of geological change at present-day rates of intensity and magnitude should be used to interpret the rock record of past geological activit - no flood(s) ever occurred. This work did reduce belief in the Flood. In the 19th century, while some scientists and clergy, and those both ordained and scientifically well informed, raised biblical, geological, and philosophical arguments against the old-earth theories, others accepted the idea of millions of years and tried to fit all this time into Genesis. By the time Origin of Species was published the young-earth view had essentially disappeared. Spurgeon, Hodge, Scofield, and many others assumed that geologists have proven millions of years. Compromise was unnecessary, however. As atheist Ager said: "My excuse for this lengthy and amateur digression into history is that I have been trying to show how I think geology got into the hands of the theoreticians [uniformitarians] who were conditioned by the social and political history of their day more than by observations in the field. ... In other words, we have allowed ourselves to be brain-washed into avoiding any interpretation of the past that involves extreme and what might be termed “catastrophic” processes." http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/wow/where-did-millions-of-years-come-from

  • Jay Dyer attempts to call Calvinists pagans, by suggesting that the wrath-bearing death of Jesus is splitting up the Trinity and more akin to Zeus. Turretinfan points to Romans 8:32; Hebrews 11:17-19; Isaiah 53:4,10 and Romans 4:25 to show that the Father was pleased to crush the Son for sin, that Jesus was delivered up for sinners, but that God did not forsake Him but raised Him on the third day. There's really nothing similar to Zeus here. Zeus did not offer his onlybegotten son as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice. Zeus was generally placated with animal sacrifices and gifts to his temples and priests. The only analogy Christians would draw is that used by Paul, e.g. "in thee we live and move and have our being." However, Romanism seems to have pagan elements, such as the superstitious thinking from time-to-time that large numbers of masses with a similar purpose, seemingly, of trying to produce a greater influence than could be achieved once for all, the use of icons and statues in worship, the implicit pantheon with Mary, and the correlation of certain feasts to paganism. Response to Jay Dyer on Calvinism (Part 7 of 13)

  • The Palins have twice upheld life, in Bristol keeping her baby, and Sarah keeping her Down's Syndrome baby when most are aborted. However, Bristol was interviews recently, and she said that sexual abstinence for teens is "not realistic at all." This is a disappointing statement. But this isn't the real issue: The real issue for Christian teenagers and their parents is not to debate whether sexual abstinence before marriage is realistic or not.  The larger and more important issue is that sexual abstinence until marriage is the biblical expectation and command. Once this is realized then everyone involved would be inclined to structure things so that it is realistic. "Premature pair dating and unsupervised liaisons, set within the supercharged culture of teenage sexuality, can put teenagers into very vulnerable situations.  Asking whether sexual abstinence in those contexts is realistic can appear almost irrational." http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3319

  • Here's a recommended list of 'crucial books' for the study of John. "When we write and teach from John, we also look for authors who bring some penetrating theological insight to the discussion, scholars who weave the Johannine theology eloquently. Here two books come to mind: Lesslie Newbigin’s wonderful The Light Has Come: An Exposition on the Fourth Gospel (1982) is today almost a collector’s item. But even more rare is Edwin Hoskyns and Noel Davey’s The Fourth Gospel (1947). Together these writers offer an insight and passion for John’s theology that you rarely find today. Evangelicals are often caught up with defending the historicity of the gospel (here I’m thinking of commentaries by Morris or Carson)." ... "I remember the first some time someone handed me a copy of A.E. Harvey’s Jesus on Trial: A Study of the Fourth Gospel (1976). Here for the first time a scholar was indicating that a literary motif -- Jesus on trial -- was threaded throughout the gospel. Suddenly the literary genius of John dawned on me." Crucial Books in Johannine Studies by Gary Burge

  • Pulpit Magazine briefly addresses a document from the National Council of Churches USA that claims that too many Christians have bought into “a false gospel that we continue to live out in our daily habits—a gospel that proclaims that God cares for the salvation of humans only and that our human calling is to exploit Earth for our own ends alone" and “In this most critical moment in Earth’s history, we are convinced that the central moral imperative of our time is the care for Earth as God’s creation." i) Nowhere in the New Testament is sin, salvation, or the gospel ever defined in terms of corporate ecological responsibility. It is defined centred on the cross where atonement is made for individual sinners. ii) Believers are told to focus on the life to come, and not to be consumed with the things of this earth. iii) Saving the world isn't saving the planet, it is saving the lost. iv) The central moral imperative for the church in this age is to take the Gospel to lost and dying souls. On Saving the Planet

  • More book recommendations for young girls. Girls of Character- Teaching Biblical Femininity to the Next Generation through Literature, Part

  • Jay Adams writes that biblical counselors believe in the put off/put on dynamic of Ephesians 4, Colossians 3 and elsewhere. i.e. a thief isn't not a thief when he stops stealing (since he's just between jobs, as it were) but rather when he gets a job. Thus, it is putting off of the old self and a putting on of the new that is necessary for counselees. No Joking

  • Here's some comments from 9Marks on Total Church, initially: i) Christian practice must be 1a. gospel-centred in the sense of word centred 1b. gospel centred in the sense of mission centred; 2 community centred. ii) in welcoming those unchurched folk into church relationships, how will they retain a clear distinction between what it means to be welcomed by Christians, and what it means to belong to the body of Christ? iii) They make an interesting observation: "Because people are not sharing their lives, truth is not applied and lived out... [E]merging church can sometimes be bad at community because it neglects the truth." Blogging my way through Total Church by Mike Gilbart-Smith

  • Commenting on 1 Cor. 4, Payne of Solapanel points out that rather than being a product of the 60's, Paul doesn't care how others judge him not because there is no such thing as judgement (as the 60s stupidly assumed), but because there is one Judge, and his verdict, delivered at the time of his own choosing, is the only one that matters, as it is final and total, encompassing all evidence, seen and unseen, even the intentions of the heart. This judgement renders every other opinion otiose (‘otiose’ being an otiose word that means ‘serving no purpose’). This should cause trembling and comfort - the former because of Who the judge is, the latter because it means total freedom from the opinions of men. The comfort of fear

  • Janelle of Girltalk reminds women to have friends who need salvation - that is, in the business of life, women should not neglect to make the most use of the time with outsiders and so neglect the duty to evangelize. Friends Who Need Salvation

  • Jay Adams doesn't want to see nouthetic counseling under one authority, but rather that, if it is biblical, it belongs to all of God's people. Who’s Next-

  • JT points to "tons of free lectures and courses taught by top scholars from Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale" Academic Earth

  • Tuesday, February 24, 2009

    2009-02-24

  • Apparently some are trying to rebuild Babylon - the real one. Phillips finds this interesting in light of biblical prophecy. Babylon... rebuilt-

  • Turretinfan points out that there is no biblical basis for Ash Wednesday or for Lent, and traipsing around with ashes on your forehead is actually contrary to what Jesus taught (Matt. 6:17-18). Biblical Basis for Ash Wednesday-

  • Trevin Wax writes on Scot McKnight's 'neoreformed' critique. The general gist is that McKnight is exaggeration, he isn't nuanced enough, and he hasn't distinguished who he is talking to, and he might have some straw man elements. Wax also points to a possible double standard, saying "I agree with Scot’s premise regarding the existence of a NeoReformed, NeoFundamentalist strand in some Reformed circles. What puzzles me is why Scot comes down so hard on this particular group for being arrogant when there are other groups on the village green expressing the same attitude. Just a couple of years ago, many in the Emerging movement were writing as if everything old is passing away and all is becoming new (meaning, “Emergent”). Many of these books could cause one to think that the evangelical green was turning brown. Things were greener on the Emerging side. Though Scot has rightfully distanced himself from some of the liberal trends of Emergent and rightfully maintained distinctive evangelical beliefs over against the universalistic tendencies of writers like Spencer Burke, he seems to be more worried (at least publicly) about the sinful excesses of the Reformed Resurgence than the flirtations with apostasy among some in the Emerging Church." http://trevinwax.com/2009/02/24/thoughts-on-the-neoreformed/

  • Phillips illustrates that the difference between Christianity and paganism is the difference between serving God as God, and trying to be God, where the latter views God as a commodity, to be exchanged or discarded or embraced according to pragmatic categories. If God is of no use, or actually interferes with plans and desires, then He is to be cast away. We should respond by preaching God's truth and God's terms of reconciliation, calling man to immediate and unconditional surrender. "What the church does instead is to try to repackage God, as if he were yesterday's widget, and sell Him as useful... to get what we want, to achieve our dreams, and as the ultimate Enabler of our agendas." Christianity and paganism contrasted in three vignettes

  • For the textual critic in you, here's a discussion of P123 with graphics! P123 1 Cor 14 - 15, P.Oxy 4844

  • Gilbert responds to a comment by Timmis, to the effect that repentance, belief, and baptism are what joins a person to the body of Christ and therefore to the church, whether considered universally or locally.  So if a person is a believer in Christ, that person is considered to be "in" the church whether there's been a formal recognition of that "in-ness" by anyone. Gilbert points to i) human involvement in the NT in being a member, e.g. being 'in' or 'out' at times; ii) a human judgment is required to authorize baptism; iii) the giving of the keys (binding and losing), i.e. the authority (and therefore obligation) to make judgments and proclamations about who is or isn't part of the covenant community. This is to say, Jesus gives his church the right and responsibility to draw clean lines around the covenant community, and we should be careful in so doing. RE- Membership by Greg Gilbert

  • Regarding the above post, Thabiti wonders "if the difference boils down to how clearly we communicate to people the association we believe must exist between baptism and self-conscious membership/mutual belonging," and if this doesn't just reduce to a pragmatic question about what procedure in this area makes for the healthiest church. "I would contend that the clearer we make mutual belonging and commitment, the better the membership practice. " Closer Than We Think- by Thabiti Anyabwile

  • From Challies: "This is a good warning (though you'll find scientists who say the opposite as well). "Social networking websites are causing alarming changes in the brains of young users, an eminent scientist has warned. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred."" 24)

  • Challies recommends Paul Washer's new edition of The One True God. The One True God

  • JT points to a compromise position on the same-sex marriage debate. A Compromise on the Same-Sex Marriage Debate

  • Now this is one way to 'contextualize' - a lego Bible. Yep. http://www.thebricktestament.com/

  • I have posted on experiencing the love of God - this is my conclusion: "This means, friends, that you will never experience the vital flow of the love of Christ if you are not abiding in Christ; which is to say, if your supreme treasure and attention is not the Lord, for it is by abiding in Him - not by mere determination - that you will bear fruit. You will never experience this love of Christ if you are not loving one another. Look at each other and consider how it is that Christ has loved you and make every effort to recapitulate this love in your own lives and experience the flow of Triune love." Experiencing the flow of Divine love

  • Monday, February 23, 2009

    2009-02-23

  • This post uses an example from Matthew 24 as an illustration of the author's contention that restoring the original Greek isn't enough. "1. In the Gospels sometimes restoring what was originally said (in Aramaic) is more important than restoring what was originally written (in Greek). 2. Modern translations often pay insufficient attention to early translations of the Greek New Testament." The original spoken Aramaic or written Greek-

  • Bird likes Eugene Peterson's summary of the 'goal of our instruction': “we learn to think accurately, behave morally, preach passionately, sing joyfully, pray honestly, obey faithfully” The Goal of our Instruction-

  • DeYoung has some interesting concerns coming from the perspective of a confessional Reformed paedobaptist, when looking at the fact that non-confessional baptists seem to the be catalyst for much of the Reformed resurgence. 1) There is a danger, particularly within those raised confessionally, that they will get bored with the doctrines of grace. It's no surprise that we see a huge emergenty church in Grand Rapids! The lure of novelty is dangerous. 2) There's a danger in calling people to confessions rather than Christ. 3) There is a danger that we focus most on what makes us Reformed or Presbyterian instead of what makes us Evangelical... be centred on the Gospel and the cross, not more peripheral or finer matters of theology. 4) There is a danger in not 'being ourselves' in preaching. Calvin Conference and Confessional Calvinists.

  • Naturally, R. Scott Clark doesn't like this: "As I understand the Reformed faith, we confess what we do because we believe it to be biblical... it encompasses a theology that is more than the five points, a Word and sacrament piety, and a churchly practice that includes the administration of baptism to covenant children." http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/dont-stand-there-in-the-entry-come-on-in [but then, I completely agree that baptism is only and always to be administered to covenant children... ]

  • Here's a good quote to J. Gresham Machen from his mother to the effect that it is not merely that we can rest in faith, but that we can rest in the doubts that plague us - that it, that we can paradoxically trust Christ even when assaulted by every doubt - here the doctrines of grace, the truth of God's preserving of His saints, is most comforting. A Crucial Word from Machen's Mother

  • Turretinfan discusses and explains a few accidental errors of transcription, likely resulting from homoeoteleuton owing to (or occasioned by) parablepsis, in James White's citation of Augustine at a few points, which are really trivial and formal, and not substantive. The Romanist apologist who pointed this out has missed the point: "Augustine believed that Christ's bodily presence was removed to heaven. Thus, although Augustine agreed that Christ's divine presence continued to be with his disciples, Augustine believed that the ascension of Jesus into heaven "deprived" the disciples of Jesus' presence "in the flesh."" This shows that Augustine did not hold to the later medieval innovation of transubstantiation, which is unsurprising if you permit the church fathers to be themselves. It may be surprising to those who imagine that the church fathers believed everything that the Vatican teaches today." Dr. White's Humanity and Augustine on the Bodily Presence of Christ

  • Since the early church clearly excluded from the apostolic canon any pseudonymous works (i.e. pious frauds, such as The Acts of Paul), as lying about authorship is a significant ethical problem, we must reject the notion that Paul's letters were not written by Paul, especially since pseudonymous writing was not common with personal letters. Pseudonymity and the NT

  • You can preach on a topic and breed silliness, or you can preach on the same topic and communicate holiness. Here's Matt Chandler on how this applies to money: How to Preach, and How Not to Preach, about Recession

  • Carl Trueman has this great statement on 'authenticity': "It is, after all, the postmodern cliche most beloved of trendy Christians. But it is, ultimately, an existential, or even better, aesthetic category, not an ethical one. Indeed, it is devoid of moral content in any biblical sense. If honesty and consistency between belief and action, even at personal risk, are the criteria for judging that somebody is worthy of emulation, then what is to stop a spoiled eight year old screaming for the latest toy, or Adolf Hitler, or even serial killers from being such? All offer examples of sincerely held beliefs in action. I well remember hearing perhaps the most consistent postmodern Nietzschean I ever came across opining on how serial killers were the most honest and authentic people in the world -- because they acted on their impulses. Good point -- if existential `authenticity' is the be all and end all. But sometimes it is not acting on impulses, not conforming public behaviour to inner drives and instincts which is appropriate -- particularly, for Christians (at least one would hope), when those drives and instincts are opposed to the teaching of scripture. Being sold out to the wrong set of beliefs, be those beliefs white supremacy, exploitation of the poor, in-your-face gay lifestyle, or wife-beating, is not admirable." http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2009/02/is-milk-really-that-good-for-y.php

  • Mohler gives some thoughts on whether God is a megalomaniac, arrogant, and/or selfish to seek His own glory in all things. I think the argument distills to basically this: 1) The only frame of reference we have is our own experience, so when we hear this, we think about a human seeking his glory. But this is the essence of sin - for a man to seek his own glory and to exchange God's glory. The upholding of God's glory is right - it is man exchanging or doing otherwise that is wrong; 2) God is perfect; and His pursuit of His own honour is consistent with - even required by - this because of His perfection: He perfectly seeks to display His perfection. 3) God's glory means joy for the creature. "Ultimately, creation serves as the theater of the glory of God's redeeming love. The drama of God's redemption accomplished in Christ is the great story on display. In the consummation of history, the revelation of a new heaven and a new earth will become the platform for the manifestation of the glory of the triune God throughout eternity." Our greatest joy is found in beholding his glory and in glorifying the triune God for all eternity. To not seek the glory of God would mean our misery. http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3335

  • Challies puts forward that God does not look at His children with some level of disgust, but that He loves them - He truly, actually, lavishly loves them. Like Love

  • Challies heartily endorses Finally Alive by John Piper, calling it his best book yet. Piper begins his examination by asking simply "What is the new birth?" From there he turns to the question of "Why must we be born again?." He then asks "How does the new birth come about?" and "What are the effects of the new birth?" before concluding with asking "How can we help others be born again?" Book Review - Finally Alive by John Piper

  • Mounce points out the importance of understanding that words have a semantic range (rarely one fixed meaning). The reader "sees a word, recognizes its bundle of meanings, and chooses the stick that best fits the context. As always, let context be your guide. No word has exactly the same meaning in every context except perhaps very technical terms. (Of course, even technical terms can have bundles.)" "apollumi has a range of meanings, extending from losing (such as the woman losing one of her ten coins, Luke 15:8) to death (such as dying by the sword, Matt 26:52)." There is nothing in the word that necessitates apollumi means a permanent and total destruction - context determines whether it has this connotation or not. apollumi, destroy, and Annihilationism (Monday with Mounce 26)

  • Jay Adams tries to clear up some myths about Nouthetic Counseling: 1) They do not believe everything bad that happens in a person’s life is due to his personal sin. 2) to say that they don’t believe in doing good to unbelievers is equally false. 3) To the suggestion that they think the counselor can't be wrong, they have said so much about how a counselor can go wrong that there is hardly anything left to say. Disagreement

  • Genderblog has good words about the Gospel in the film Fireproof. Fireproof Spotlights Gospel as Cure for Bad People, Bad Marriages

  • White quotes two Hadith and concludes, "Both of these quotes once again force us to consider the fundamental contrast between the NT and the Qur'an: controlled, edited redaction. Once Uthman struck the match to the materials he used to created his redacted copy of the Qur'an, he set it on a completely different path of transmission than that of the New Testament, and that, I argue, to its detriment." Two Important Hadith

  • Janelle of Girltalk writes that we need friends to sharpen us. "We need to have at least one-and preferably many-friends who inspire us to serve, provoke us to love, help us to grow in godliness, correct us, strengthen our faith, and spur us on to passion for the Savior." Take current friendships in that direction, or seek friends who can do this. Friends that Sharpen

  • Sunday, February 22, 2009

    2009-02-22

  • Mathis points to the stunning logic of Romans 8:32, what he calls the Everest of the Bible: If you believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ then you may also believe that every promise God has made for his people is to be fulfilled for you, and everything is being worked for your good, and every thing is going to be given to you. For since God gave His own Son, not sparing Him, for us, how then will He not give us all things? The Bible's Everest

  • Bird recommends Vanhoozer for systematic theology students: i) doing theology needs to take into account hermeneutics, speech-act theory, postmodern objections to foundatonalist epistemology, the canon, and critical engagement with Barth. ii) Vanhoozer objects to the process of treating Scripture as textual dross, needing a conversion from exegetical description (what it meant) to normative dogmatics (what it means); i.e. both the form and content are equally important and the form can be lost in systematizing. iii) Bird thinks systematicians influenced by rationalism implicitly feel the need to rescue revelation from genres (Law-code, narrative, prophecy, Proverbs, Gospels, Epistles, and Apocalypse) into propositional truth. iv) "if you're preaching narrative material then preach narratively; if you're preaching topical material, preach inductively/proverbially; if you're preaching didactic material, then preach deductively/didactically. The same holds for theology..." Bird seems to have some reservations, unarticulated here, on Vanhoozer though.  Vanhoozer on Theological Method

  • JT quotes Packer: "By wisdom God found a way to justify the unjust justly; in love he gave his Son to bear death's agony for us; in justice he made the Son, as our substitute, suffer the sentence that our disobedience deserved; with power he unites us to the risen Christ, renews our hearts, frees us from sin's bondage, and moves us to repent and believe; and in faithfulness he keeps us from falling, as he promised to do, till he brings us triumphantly to our final glory." The Attributes of God and the Glory of the Gospel

  • JT quotes Piper with strong words against the neglect of prayer and Satan's deception therein, as Satan will try to convince you and others that a disciplined prayer life is legalism! But prayer is a duty like it is the duty of a soldier to clean and load his gun or like a hungry person to eat. Disciplined Duty vs. the Lie of Legalism

  • Challies points to a Piper observation on 1 John 3:11-14 - the problem John is dealing with isn't that Christians are going to murder each other. It's the motive of resenting the spiritual betterment or superiority of a brother or sister in Christ. "Cain didn't kill Abel simply because Cain was evil. He killed him because the contrast between Abel's goodness and Cain's evil made Cain angry. It made him feel guilty. Abel didn't have to say anything; Abel's goodness was a constant reminder to Cain that he was evil." Instead of repenting he got rid of Abel. Love doesn't do that - it doesn't resent. That's hateful and selfish. Love enjoys the advance and success of others. It has joy in the joy of others. Humbly Rejoicing in the Goodness of Others

  • Hays has a humourous and satirical comment on Perry Robinson showing that Turretinfan is a Calvinist. Turretin Fan exposed!

  • Patton gives four views of God's sovereignty: "1. Meticulous sovereignty: God is the instrumental cause behind every action and reaction there has ever been; 2. Providential sovereignty: While God is bringing about his will in everything (Eph 1:11), his will is not the instrumental cause of all that happens. 3. Providential oversight: Here God’s sovereignty is more of an oversight. He has a general plan, but is not married to the details. 4. Influential oversight: Here God’s sovereignty is self-limited. God could control things, but to preserve human freedom, he will not intervene in the affairs of men to the degree that the human will is decisively bent in one direction or another." See for details, etc. What Do You Mean When You Say God is Sovereign-

  • Interesting comments by Hays on an article by a one-time religion reporter for the NY Times; "don’t atheists like Hitchens, Harris, and Dawkins claim a strong correlation between religious belief and outward behavior? Don’t they claim that observant Christians are dangerous to the common good precisely because they put their fanatical faith into practice? So if Lobdell is right, then they are wrong." To the comment, “So it’s time for religious doubt to come out of the closet and be dealt openly and thoughtfully.” He says, "I wonder if he feels the same way about scientists who privately question Darwinism. Is it time for them to publicly voice their doubts–without fear of reprisal?" Without a clue

  • To the argument that if something is determined, it cannot be a choice, Manata points to Job 14:5: "Since man's days are determined, The number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass," and the fact that some people do indeed choose when they'll die, and they are indeed morally responsible for their actions. So either Job 14:5 is false, or all orthodox Christrians ought to be compatibilists (since orthodoxy grants inerrancy). Determined Choosings

  • "Three elements must be a part of any true effort at personal evangelism or the preaching of the gospel: 1)  The message given must be true to the Scriptures concerning God and man; 2)  The messenger should sincerely care about the individual; 3)  The messenger must rely upon the Holy Spirit for results." Evangelize or Fossilize or Compromise- - Part 1

  • Here's a prayer from Tozer for desiring to desire God. A Prayer for Those Who Want to Want God

  • Saturday, February 21, 2009

    2009-02-21

  • JT has a good quote from Schaeffer on a supposed dichotomy between Reformation and Revival: "Reformation speaks of a restoration to pure doctrine, revival of a restoration in the Christian's life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture, revival of a life brought into proper relationship to the Holy Spirit. The great moments in church history have come when these two restorations have occurred simultaneously. There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation, and reformation is incomplete without revival." Reformation and Revival as Restoration

  • Piper discusses the idea of God's love being unconditional. Citing Powlison, he points to four ideas that the notion of 'unconditional' is colloquially trying to protect: that “Conditional love” is bad—unconditional is shorthand for the opposite of manipulation, demand, judgmentalism; that God’s love is patient; that true love is God’s gift, with the alternative being legalism; and God receives you just as you are. Powlison points out that these, while true, tend to obscure things as formulated. The reality is that unmerited grace is not strictly unconditional, for Christ lived and died to obtain our relation with God. The idea of unconditional love carries with it a lot of cultural baggage, e.g. tolerance. God's love is more than conditional, for it changes the one who He loves - there is something wrong with you and while 'unconditional' expresses the welcome of God, it connotes, 'you're ok as you are,' failing to express the point of Gods' welcoming. God doesn't love us just as we are, but rather despite how we are, and Christ fulfilled in Himself the conditions for God loving us. See here Is God's Love Unconditional- and here Is God's Love Unconditional-

  • Piper quotes Whitefield, and provides a Christ-exalting quote glorying in the sufficiency of Christ as our all-sufficient righteousness. Whitefield Exalts in Christ

  • Harris provides a quote from a pastor who, in his former years, had read I Kissed Dating Goodbye, and despite participation in church/bible studies for a year and a half apparently never had the doctrine of the cross and substitutionary atonement explained until he read it in this book. Both sad and encouraging. A Letter That Made My Day

  • White writes another post on the criticism from a poster on ETC. "in the final analysis, Dr. Wasserman seems to believe that I, the original writer of my own words on my blog, am not the final arbiter of the context and intention of those words! He has said, “I interpreted the statement within the context it was made (read my response), and that is what Christian recognized.” The fact is just the opposite: I determine my own context, and that context was plain and clear to anyone (and here’s the catch) who takes the time to honestly consider that context. But, it seems, that’s the problem: if you are not one of the leading textual critical scholars in the world, your context doesn’t matter. So, though I plainly was speaking about Ehrman’s leadership in shifting the paradigm of textual criticism away from the restoration of the original text of the NT toward an exegesis of the variants themselves, Wasserman seems to feel that he can take my words and transplant them into his own context." A Final Comment on the Wasserman ETC Blog Discussion [For those interested, I have provided a few comments on the ETC post, since I think that whether or not White painted with a broad brush that some felt offended by, White has been misrepresented and those involved are not willing to own up to it.]

  • Swan reposts a post on the propensity of modern Roman Catholic apologists to highlight the 'conversion story.' Here's an irony: "This apologetic use of the “conversion story” is directly borrowed from Protestantism. Being raised in an independent non-denominational church, I heard countless inspiring stories of the wayward sinner finding and choosing the love and grace of Christ. As a youth, I was always interested to hear how possibly my favorite rock star accepted Christ. These tales could be used as a “witnessing tool” to my non-Christian friends. “You see, person x converted, so should you.” With the current trend in Catholic apologetics, Joe Protestant became Catholic, so should you. As Evangelicals swam the Tiber, they brought their Evangelical methods with them to the shores of Rome. They brought their vocabulary and their communication skills." The use of this is really a rehashing of a 'theology of glory', examples of the achievement of the church and her glory rather than on the achievements of Christ. Roman Catholic Conversion Stories

  • Carrie provides a Romanist quotation on Mary that shows the idea in their conception that Mary is a kinder, gentler mediator than Christ. Catholic Quotes on Mary

  • MacArthur points out the decay in biblical ethical living - not only is postmodernism and modernism blurring things, and diminishing the authority or even acknowledgment of revelation, but Christians are turning to the world's ways of dealing with issues, like sociology and psychology, and adopting the world's views, with non-culpable labels like mistakes or addictions, rather than SIN. Their behaviour is virtually indistinguishable from the world. It is really only the heard transformed by the Gospel, the regenerate heart, that is willing and able to obey God's word. it is in the lives of sinners who have been transformed by the Gospel of grace, that a distinctly Christian ethic must be fleshed out. True Christianity is not external moralism. It must be a heart-work. Otherwise it is a superficial charade. "a heart that has been truly transformed by God will respond in love to His Son, Jesus Christ... it eagerly affirms and applies the Bible's moral instructions..." "If Christians are to live in keeping with who they are (as children of God), they must live according to the Word of God through the power of His Spirit. No other source of wisdom or moral insight will do. By definition, they are people of the Book—and not just on Sundays, but every day of the week." The Heart of True Ethics

  • Dan Wallace has some comments on the controversial cartoon of the shot monkey as a metaphor for the stimulus package. Read if you're interested in some thoughtful points on the pulse of America. New York Post’s Racist(-) Cartoon

  • The thirty thousand denomination myth is recycled again. Click here for details and a link to the refutation. Myths Die Hard in Rome

  • Here are some Edwards resolutions on pure speech - worth reading - in the context of discussions on the use of humour: e.g. "Resolved, never to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or less, upon no account except for some real good...". Jonathan Edwards, James 3, and Humor by Ryan Townsend. Sinclair Ferguson provides 20 more. James' Resolutions on Speech by Ryan Townsend

  • Bayly has heavy criticism for the PCA church's efforts to 'reach out to the arts communities,' treating them as underdog victims who need a sanctuary. He says, "The conceit within a growing number of PCA churches that artists comprise a needy class deserving of church support is particularly galling when it's married with a claim to cultural relevance. These churches understand both Christ and culture? Really? Or is the person who thinks his church needs to support his city's artists actually just doing what the uncool kid in class always does when driven by bounderish desire--sucking-up to those at "the top of the snob pyramid," in this case, by building a church where arriviste aspirations masquerade as outreach? " Reaching out or sucking up-

  • DeYoung recommends a book that sounds excellent. Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will. "The gist of the book is that too many of us spend too much time trying to divine God's will and too little time striving to obey the plain commands of Scripture... God's will is not a bullseye to hit, but a life to live." Just Do Something

  • Hays points to the irony of liberals criticizing abstinence-only programs on account of Bristol Palin - since apparently she went to public school! If 100% success is the liberal standard, then every program they've ever done is an abject failure. "The liberal contention is that, since some teenagers are going to do it anyway, then gov’t should teach them safe sex and provide them with free contraceptives. While we’re on the subject, I’d also note that some teenagers use digital cameras to photograph themselves having sex, then post these X-rated images on the internet. By liberal logic, since some teenagers are going to it anyway, gov’t should provide them with free sound stages to make commercial quality porn. That would teach them a marketable skill."  Public sex ed

  • Friday, February 20, 2009

    2009-02-20

  • Oy. A man's anti-Obama sign is confiscated by police (but returned with some assurances that the first amendment is still intact; liberals can be just vicious towards non-white women who dare criticize the liberal ideology and Obama; etc. 09

  • Turretinfan points to a collection of articles by John Murray. Articles by John Murray

  • Interesting post from Peter Head that illustrates how in cases the notion of the 'original text' can be slippery from the novel Rabbit, Run, of which multiple texts, all authorial, exist, but it's unclear which is original. John Updike and the Problem of the Original Text

  • Phil Johnson reminds us not to equate levity with the fruit of the Spirit. Joy can produce laughter but is not the essence of it. Our postmodern culture has substituted cheap laughter for real joy. A Bagatelle on the Virtue of Joy

  • Janelle of girltalk says that women must stop and prayerfully consider our relational priorities in light of God’s priorities - rather than let them be dictated by the winds of emotion. Do our relationships--the time we spend with others--bring glory to God? Are we investing our lives in the people God has called us to love and serve? Relationship Priorities

  • How can single women echo their God-designed purpose of 'helper'? "you can help by encouraging godly men to lead. You can display your femininity by making room for godly men to practice servant leadership." It isn't easy, and you cannot follow every man, nor sin, but where women have opportunity they should encourage men in fellowship to take the initiative. She offers some practical suggestions, such as encouraging and displaying appreciation when men do lead, suggesting ideas for men to run with, etc. Help the Men

  • Bird points to a forthcoming book, Five Views of Justification. "1. Traditional Reformed: Michael Horton 2. Progressive Reformed: Michael Bird 3. 'New Perspective': James Dunn 4. Theosis: Veli-Matti Karkkainen 5. Catholic: Gerald O'Collins & Oliver Rafferty" Five Views on Justification - Forthcoming IVP Book

  • Thursday, February 19, 2009

    2009-02-19

  • Challies discusses whether smoking is de facto sinful. He points out that the common arguments against smoking, that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, so be careful what we put in our bodies; that smoking is an addiction and Christians are to guard against addictions; and that smoking has many harmful effects and can often lead to other addictions falter somewhat when extended to the rest of life. In Piper's church "they do not focus specifically on smoking; instead, they have a higher standard. "We engage to abstain from all drugs, food, drink, and practices which bring unwarranted harm to the body or jeopardize our own or another's faith." Some might argue that this is a lowering of standard, but I'm inclined to believe that it actually raises the standard. It removes the focus from specific pet sins and widens the focus to a wider range of sins that we may be willing to tolerate. We should give thought to everything we do, everything we eat, everything we breathe in." Is Smoking Sinful-

  • Phillips looks at the account of Balaam, and how despite the way people thought they could manipulate gods, as in paganism, Balaam knew that Yahweh could not be manipulated. Sure, the word-faith movement holds this pagan idea. But beyond them, where else does it appear? For example, in trying to get a pastor to pray for you because he has more 'sway'. "Or can we even see whispers in ourselves, as we (unconsciously) try this or that to get God to support our agenda?" He concludes with this: "Even as we plead, argue Scripture, press the promises, lay out our case, we must know: if we actually could manipulate God, it would be the most disastrous event in the universe.I've often said to God, in closing, after pressing my case to the best of my ability, "...but then, You get to be God — and that's a good thing!"" Pagan evangelicalism -

  • Piper writes that the essence of our evil is that we prefer anything to God (Romans 1:23; 2:23). Commands do not create the possibility of evil. Commands simply name the evil and its fruits, and tell us not to do them. This is important because it affects how we pursue change: either by commandment-keeping or by seeking a change of heart. Commandment keeping will fail because if we get good at it, we think we have changed, but the essence of our evil remains. If we can't get good at it, we despair and quit trying. But God promised, "I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19). This is the new covenant that Jesus purchased with his blood (Luke 22:20). We receive it by faith. Knowing the Nature of Your Evil

  • Turretinfan comments on a Romanist argument that 'NT sacramental marriage' (that is, marriage validated by physical union) that attempts to say Mary and Joseph had a valid marriage without sex. But Genesis is the place where marriage is defined as physically dependent, and the natural sense of Matthew 1:18 is that Jesus did 'know' Mary once Jesus was born. Joseph and Mary's Marriage

  • A contributor over at Evangelical Textual Criticism has attempted to critique James White. The post is aimed at this post: A Very Telling Statement, where White says, "the arena has become predominated by post-modernists who have thrown in the towel on the "original text" and have openly and shamelessly said, "Hey, let's talk about what we can impute to nameless scribes based upon our mind-reading the reasons for their textual variations!" This is nothing less than an abandonment of the paradigm of the preceding generations, a hi-jacking of the discipline itself. While speculation about possible scribal prejudices may have its place, it will alway be just that: speculation." Of note, the author at ETC writes, "It is apparent that White knows very little of what he is talking about. Just because he happens to strongly disagree with Bart Ehrman's views of the transmission of the NT, which I am not trying to defend, he seems biased against everything associated with Bart Ehrman in a very unfortunate way" and "A lot has really happened in NT textual criticism in the last fifteen year period, which has very little to do with postmodernism." The post is here: James White Comments on Ehrman's Announcement. White responded, "he has misread the title of my blog entry, thinking that the "telling comment" is about the mere production of a new edition of The New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis. The telling comment to which I was making reference, in context, was that more had happened in the last fifteen years "than in any comparable fifteen year period" in the history of the discipline.... It is painfully clear from my comments that I was not addressing the mere publication of a second edition. I was very much attuned to the underlying claim from Ehrman: that past 15 years is a watershed period. Why? Because of the shift in the paradigm to which I make reference. " White points to Ehrman's own words for the context and understanding of this paradigm shift - Ehrman says "the most exciting thing about being a textual critic over the past 15-20 years has been seeing how textual criticism has moved beyond its myopic concerns of collating manuscripts and trying to determine some kind of "original" text to situating itself in the broader fields of discourse that concern an enormous range of scholars of Christian antiquity." Thus White says, "Wasserman misses the point. Let's say a lot has happened in fifteen years. No one would dispute the assertion. However, what I quoted did not say "a lot has happened." It said that the past fifteen years arguably represents the busiest period in the entire history of textual critical studies." See here A Response to Dr. Tommy Wasserman and here A Few Things I Have Learned Since...Yesterday, where White says, "So I am confused: is it OK to write "popular" books blasting the Christian faith as long as you have written "good scholarship" in the past? From whence comes this scholarly schizophrenia? And more importantly, why is it "wrong" to point these things out?"

  • Nifty; apparently DNA from manuscripts is being pursued as a way to determine when and where a manuscript was written. More on DNA analysis of parchment

  • ETC points to a collection of online digitized (digitised ;-) manuscripts at UCLA. See here. Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts

  • "The Poet Laureate says it is becoming increasingly difficult to teach English Literature because students do not know the Bible or classical mythology.Andrew Motion told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the lack of knowledge made it "difficult to even get beyond go" when teaching some of his recent students. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7894563.stm

  • Bird quotes 1 Esdras 4 in honour of his wife. Here's a portion: "A man leaves his own father, who raised him, and his own country, and clings to his own wife. With his wife he departs this life, with no remembrance of his father or mother or country. Therefore, you must surely recognize that women rule over you! "Do you not work and toile, and bring everything and give it to women? A man takes his sword, goes out to travel abroad and to raid and steal and to sail the sea and rivers, he faces lions, and he walks in darkness , and when he steals and plunders and Robs, he carries it back to the woman he loves." [I do think that it is mildly ironic that many women today want to reverse this, and they want to become the 'servant' so to speak] Thank You Naomi Bird!

  • How do we avoid temptations with finances while worshiping God with our money? Giving to the Lord helps Christians overcome temptation - and stockpiling wealth breeds this temptation, while remaining quite fickle. Giving money to the Lord helps mitigate the temptation to forget God. (cf. Matt. 6:22-24; Prov. 30:9 - "the writer asks God to protect him from both the trials that attend abject poverty and the deceptive comfort that comes from wealth. The danger in the latter is that he will forget God and become too dependent on himself and his money"). Giving to the Lord helps overcome worry and anxiety by reminding us of God's control and provision, and that His kingdom is our priority. Citing Phil. 4:6-7, "Often, financial anxiety comes from trying to live beyond our means. The one who gives learns to be content and thankful for whatever lifestyle God has provided, even if it is a modest one (1 Tim. 6:7; Heb. 13:5)." Stewardship and Giving

  • Genderblog provides a list of books to teach biblical femininity to the next generation. Girls of Character- Teaching Biblical Femininity to the Next Generation through Literature, Part

  • Wednesday, February 18, 2009

    2009-02-18

  • Now available in North America: Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques, edited by David Gibson and Daniel Strange. Endorsements here: Engaging With Barth- Contemporary Evangelical Critiques

  • Turk writes that the words of men are insufficient to bring the truth. They are insufficient to bring the knowledge of the truth for the sake of the faith of God's elect. So don't waste time in trivial uselessness. A true child of the faith proclaim's God word using God's words. This is the means by which God has manifested the truth. The Something to Say

  • Carolyn Mahaney writes that being a student doesn't end with a diploma. The single season is a great time to dive into the study of doctrine, but we don’t drift into God’s Word naturally. Beneficial study of doctrine will only become a reality if we have a plan and when necessary, some accountability. School of the Word

  • Jon Bloom ponders the possible difficulty Jesus' would experience as a human child.  He was a perfect child living with sinful parents, sinful siblings, and sinful extended relatives. The difference between him and them must have become increasingly apparent and awkward. Sinners can be cruel to those who are different from them, especially if envy infects their cruelty. Sometimes we feel alone in the world. But in a very real sense, Jesus was alone in the world. cf. Isaiah 53:3. Was Jesus a Lonely Child-

  • Pro-marriage speech garners professors profane wrath. Behold, the open-minded tolerance of the liberal spectrum. http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=422144

  • Here's a meditation by DeYoung on what being 'Reformed' means for him. He identifies himself with the traditional Reformed ethos of the Edwards/Whitefield/Wesley bent, but says that it is more than this: ". I don't view the Reformed faith as simply one branch on the Christian tree. I believe the Reformed understanding of the Bible is Christianity in full bloom. Hopefully, this does not make me haughty about "my flower." ... When I say I am Reformed I mean that God is the center of the universe and I am not. I mean that I am a worse sinner than I imagine and God is a greater Savior than I ever thought possible. I mean that Lord is my righteousness and the Lord alone is my boast. By Reformed I mean all this and most of all that my only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own but belong, in body and in soul, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen." What I Mean By Reformed

  • Phillips comments on the interview with Palin's daughter over her pregnancy, and points out the unrepentant, worldly, 'its just not ideal' attitude of the daughter, as well as Palin's obtuse comment that she is 'proud' of her daughter: Palin speaks of it as a "surprise," as something that "happened to" Bristol (you know, like being hit by a stray bullet, or catching a cold) - Rather than use the opportunity to exalt Christ, points sinners to Him, and instruct the wicked. As to the father of the baby, "This boy is so "in love with" his son that he doesn't mind if the child bears the stigma of illegitimacy now, nor that he would bear that stigma forever, if Levi were to before finally marrying Bristol. So "in love" that Levi pursues his life and schooling or whatever as his child and the woman he wronged start the family by themselves, and that he continues to set an indelibly wretched example for his son. I can't begin to tell you how impressed I am not with Levi's "love" for that child." Sarah Palin's stupid mistake

  • JT points out Scot McKnight's caricature of the 'neoreformed', which apparently basically means in McKnight's view some form of fringe 'Truly Reformed'/'One True Church' crowd - a label which is seemingly being applied to men like Piper and Carson! After all, it was in his blurb endorsing Wright's response to Piper. And, if anyone got riled up because of such a gross and blatant misrepresentation, they are labeled this way too. JT concludes: "honestly, McKnight--who has frequently complained about statements about Emergent/ing that don't make distinctions and paint with broad brush strokes--is doing the same in spades. In addition, he's publicly caricaturing his brothers and sisters in Christ and doing so in a rather crude way." Scot McKnight's Caricature of the NeoReformed

  • Here's an article on angry "Contrary to our subtle belief that anger is a display of strength, it is actually patience that is strong and anger that's a sign of weakness. Instead of buying into cultural notions regarding the "virtue" of anger, we need to better understand a biblical view of anger. ... Our complaining, aggressive, demanding spirit has more in common with Satan than it does with Christ." ... "First, anger either ignores or rejects the sovereign freedom of God. Second, it's a refusal to believe God's promise to work for our good in all things, even drastic changes in climate. Third, it enthrones our will for comfort over God's will, effectively assuming personal supremacy over God. It puts God in the dock." "God's anger is not capricious or unjust. Instead, His anger is purposeful, resulting in a thoughtful plan and process to reconcile all injustices... His ultimate aim in displaying His anger is the demonstration of the glory of His justice. He delights in being a righteous and just God. " http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001972.cfm

  • Manata has a rather funny email conversation with an atheist who, while presupposing physicalism and demonstrating a real faith that physicalism is true, attempts to make the argument that anything defined by negation is meaningless. Manata points to several counter-examples to show that this is false. It basically goes like this: "Fundy Atheist: Immaterial is negative so it is meaningless. Paul: Bald is negative, so it's meaningless, so your head is meaningless. Fundy Atheist: No, there are positive properties to me, like, I'm a man with a body. Paul: No, there are positive properties to God, like he's a omnipresent Spirit. Fundy Atheist: [leaves original argument] Prove it!" When Fundy Atheists Attack

  • Challies talks about the increasing self-identity we have with technology as a result of the pervasiveness of it - to leave a phone or computer behind would be to lose part of oneself. He particularly notes a youth retreat he was at, which wasn't fully a retreat - if at all for some - since it was within cell range, which allowed text messaging, etc. Retreat!

  • Good comment from McKinley: "Humor in the pulpit can be very dangerous.  It's like a narcotic.  Your people will love it (how much more entertaining to hear you riff on something than to teach Leviticus or talk about sin).  You'll love it (less sleeping, more laughing at how hilarious you are!).  And the temptation will be for you to give the people more of what they want and less of what they need. " ... "Over time, my fear is that the people will come hungry for your humor and not necessarily for the word of God.  They will be dependent on you and your charisma and your sense of humor, and you'll never be able to plant churches because you can't find anyone else as funny as you are, and so you'll have to pipe your sermons into other locations. " Humor in Preaching by Aaron Menikoff

  • Turretinfan posts this quote: "If man can know nothing truly, man can truly know nothing. We cannot know that the Bible is the Word of God, that Christ died for our sin, or that Christ is alive today at the right hand of the Father. Unless knowledge is possible, Christianity is non-sensical, for it claims to be knowledge. What is at stake in the twentieth century is not simply a single doctrine, such as the Virgin Birth, or the existence of Hell, as important as those doctrines may be, but the whole of Christianity itself. If knowledge is not possible to man, it is worse than silly to argue points of doctrine--it is insane. " Humble Epistemology

  • Interesting comment on StraightUp on church size and relationships: "On the surface, one might think that a smaller church would more naturally lead to relational connectedness. But I’ve since come to realize that intentionality—more than anything else—is the key to robust community." The author discusses the sense of false security a small church might bring - fellowship doesn't happen on its own and just because you know names doesn't mean that you know lives. It takes intentionality and "gracious pressuring" - then size is a non-factor. A description of one way to do small groups is given here as well. Why I Don’t Hate “Big Church” Anymore

  • Grimmond at Solapanel points out that every day we have incredible access to the throne room of God - VIP access, as it were, through Christ - and yet we treat it as commonplace. However, if given the chance to be exalted by men, being treated as VIP at some event or concert, it puffs us right up! This is the depravity of the human heart. Eph. 3:12, “in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him” Appreciating access

  • Practical ways to build up a church: 1) Be sensitive to fragile faith; 2) Win unbelievers through culturally sensitive evangelism; 3) Conduct worship services in a way that present unbelievers might come to faith; 4) Spiritual gifts are not for one-upmanship or ego, but for building up the church. Practical Ways to Build Up the Church

  • This is funny: In a Moroccon mosque during the Second World War, a Greek fragment was found containing Matthew 24:51, "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." When one of the disciples asks how this can before those without teeth, Jesus replies, "Teeth will be provided." "However amusing one may regard this account," comments Bruce Metzger, "there is no doubt at all that the agraphon is a forgery." Before the war, says Metzger, Coleman-Norton often told the story "about dentures being provided in the next world so that all the damned might be able to weep and gnash their teeth." Swan is quoting Four Views on Hell. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth...The missing verse clarification from the manuscrip

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