2008-12-17

Clint rememberd Martin Lloyd Jones' summons to " align themselves with each other around historic gospel orthodoxy even if it meant distancing themselves or even departing from existing denominations that were full of heterodox teaching." He writes that in Canada "pastors feel quite isolated theologically from their denominations. By being deliberate about confessing their evangelical convictions they are treated as doctrinaire, angry, heady, obscurantist, negative, naive and politically incorrect." http://cowboyology.blogspot.com/2008/12/evangelical-canada-some-thoughts.html

Derek Thomas says, "What is it about Calvin that so inspires me? This: his disciplined style, his determination never to speculate, his utter submission to Bible words as God's words, his submission to Christ's Lordship, his sense of the holy, his concern to be as practical as possible; the fact that godly living was his aim and not theology for the sake of it. In a forest of theologians, Calvin stands like a Californian Redwood, towering over everyone else." Ligon Duncan offers ten good reasons to read the Institutes this year. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BetweenTwoWorlds/~3/487687488/blogging-institutes-in-2009.html.

From Evangelical Textual Criticism: "Dave Nielsen discussed the early manuscript witnesses to the Shepherd of Hermas from the perspective of 'the Question of Developing Canonicity'. Given the popularity of Hermas (28 extant greek mss; lots of translations; 12 mss from II-III) this was interesting (for some details see Hermas notes). He basically noted that in terms of codicology, palaeography, punctuation etc. the manuscripts of Hermas are indistinguishable from mansucripts of texts which were included into the New Testament. If the NT mss were of texts regarded as Scripture; then probably Hermas was similarly regarded." http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2008/12/sbl-papyrology-and-new-testament-papers.html

Interesting recommendation by John Piper of a Christian fiction book that really just needs to be read for itself. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DGBlog/~3/487344434/

Mohler writes that it is thought that demography determines destiny, and it seems that theology determines demography. Stats show that religious people - people who believe in God - outbreed those who don't. This will change the face of society. "Interestingly, these patterns play out within denominations and religious families as well. More liberal Jews tend to under-reproduce, but the Orthodox reproduce at much higher rates. Evangelical birthrates outstrip those of more liberal Protestants. Traditionalist Roman Catholics are far more likely to have large families than is the case with more liberal Catholics." Theology matters. http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=2956

Turk writes, "when Mark starts his story of the Gospel of Jesus, he says first of all that this three thousand year old story is where the story of Jesus begins: the story of Jesus begins in the Prophets." Without the Scriptures of the OT, for Mark, there was no Gospel. " I think it's ironic that Newsweek took a week out of the Advent season to say exactly the opposite in making an editorial case for a religious view of Gay "marriage". In doing so, they have done exactly the opposite of making straight a path for this Jesus." http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/12/and-he-preached.html