Thursday, May 13, 2010

2010-05-12

  • Hays interacts with Waltke's attempt to find a synthesis from Scripture and science in accepting the process of evolution (while rejecting the philosophy, as he says). Hays dismisses his appeal to the positions of 19th century presbyterians like Warfield and Hodge, noting that the particular copying strategies in that sociological and intellectual era are not necessarily relevant to our current day, any more than Colonial Americans turning to unitarianism is a normative precedent now. Also, while ANE cosmologies were not intended to answer scientific questions, its equivocating to assume that this is the same as not making factual claims. There are also scientific critics of macroevolution, and the realist/anti-realist debate in science. Waltke's idea that God made a 'spiritual being' out of protohuman hominids to produce Adam and Eve is neither scientific nor scriptural - both Gen. 1-2 and macroevolution present self-contained and competing narratives regarding origins. And the redefinition of original sin as reverting to bestial ancestry is completely at odds with the narrative. http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2010/04/waltke-on-theistic-evolution.html

  • Peter Head at ETC points to a revised scholarly work on the topic of the disposal of Scriptures as trash among early Christians - a practice which has some evidence to support its existence (the manuscripts are found in garbage dumps; persecutors would have burned them). "Most New Testament papyri with a known provenance were found at the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, or more precisely: on that city's rubbish mounds. The fact that sacred scriptures were discarded as garbage is surprising in view of the holiness of Christian biblical manuscripts, intrinsically and physically. Yet the trash aspect of provenance has never been adequately problematized or studied." Christians did so while regarding them as sacred Scripture, as holy manuscripts. Sacred Scriptures as Trash

  • JT points to a new book by Dave Harvey, which helps to distinguish between ambition for the glory of God and ambition for other things. Rescuing Ambition: 67% Off for 48 Hours

  • I'm going to refrain from talking about this book just because it seems a little weird. How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

  • Franklin Graham was disinvited from speaking at the Pentagon for his statements on Islam. http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/05/06/who-will-be-tested-next-the-dilemma-of-franklin-graham/

  • Challies has a disturbing quiz, asking you to identify whether a pop-positive thinking quite came from Joel Osteen or a fortune cookie. http://www.challies.com/humor/joel-osteen-or-fortune-cookie

  • From Phillips: High taxes are driving Americans living and working abroad to renounce their citizenship — more in the fourth quarter of 2009 than in all of 2008. A preacher in England was arrested for noting that homosexuality is a sin. http://bibchr.blogspot.com/2010/05/hither-and-thither-5710.html

  • Phillips takes Liberty to task (and the idea in general) over elevating the mainstream media over bloggers, giving credence to the former and dismissing the latter. The MSM is, well, a selectively reporting heavily prejudiced mess, but the world of blogging is a blunt, honest conversation. It's quality all depends on who's talking. To dismiss it outright is to dismiss human communication and conversation. Liberty University and the dinosaur attitude towards blogging

  • Girltalk says that "Let me be a woman" by Elizabeth Elliot "dampened the allure of feminism, and sparked a delight in the beauty and glory of biblical womanhood." http://www.girltalkhome.com/blog/i-give-up

  • JT points to the 'application grid', which 9 Marks produced to help pastors in preaching. It has you examine how the main point of the passage applies to unique salvation historical progress, the individual non-christian, Christian conduct in public, Christology, the individual Christian, and the local church. See the application grid.

  • JT points to another 9 Marks article breaking sermon prep down into a three course meal. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/between2worlds/~3/vqbb9Rum6IM/

  • JT, talking about equipping the church to call men into ministry, notes Brian Croft's work on practical equipping for pastoral ministry, and cites Don Whitney: "Brian Croft provides clear, practical teaching about the role of the local church regarding men who sense a call to vocational ministry. . . . Pastor Croft has led his church to develop an intentional approach to evaluating a man’s sense of call, an approach that is as effective as that of almost any church I know. If you have responsibilities of spiritual leadership in your local church, you’ll want to get this book, for you’ll find it helpful every time a man indicates that he senses God’s call to vocational ministry. " http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/between2worlds/~3/4enNW-HCtTU/

  • Liberty University is investigating Ergun Caner. JT cites a lengthy list of questions James White has provided which to which the university must find answers, questions which also detail Caner's false claims. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/between2worlds/~3/bebqKgKo6Gk/

  • CS Lewis described three kinds of men - the ones who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding man and nature as material to be cut up for their own use; the ones who acknowledge some claim of some sort on themselves, whether 'God', or an imperative, or whatever; and those who can say, "To live is Christ". Interestingly, he rejects the division of the world into two categories of 'good' and 'bad', noting the second group are always unhappy, always aware that there truly is no salvation by works. He also says that the world is built such that to help us desert our pleasures, they desert us. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/between2worlds/~3/bebqKgKo6Gk/

  • JT cites Keller observing that Paul does not throw up sob stories or give an imperative in order to gain help for the poor - he shows the example of Christ in the Gospel, to think of Jesus' costly grace until you are turned into a give (2 Cor. 8,9). The solution to stinginess is a reorientation to the generosity of Christ in the Gospel. So too with all other sins. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/between2worlds/~3/3D_2mVeS9CY/

  • JT cites Russ Moore on "abstract Christian rhetoric": "Some Christians rattle on and on about “The Family” while neglecting their kids. Some Christians “fight” for “social justice” by “raising consciousness” about “The Poor” while judging their friends on how trendy their clothes are. Some Christians pontificate about “The Church” while rolling their eyes at the people in their actual congregations. Some Christians are dogmatic about “The Truth” while they’re self-deceived about their own slavery to sin." Moore goes on to give anecdotes illustrating the abstract versions of these things which allow one to plod on with no connection between the abstract and reality. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/between2worlds/~3/oqEHaY3YGy0/

  • Why do Christians feel guilty? DeYoung has some points. One I note is that Christians tend to motivate each other with guilt more than grace. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2010/05/11/are-christians-meant-to-feel-guilty-all-the-time/

  • This post responds to the Romanist claim that the ideas of Luther were novel and thus ought to be rejected by sketching a biography of Wycliffe, indicating the presence of the same ideas some 130 years before Luther. John Wycliffe and his followers anticipated many of the doctrines of protestantism. http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2010/05/morning-star-of-reformation.html

  • Why covenant with other believers in Church? "1. Identifies us with Christ. 2. Distinguishes us from the world. 3. Guides us into the righteousness of Christ by presenting a standard of personal and corporate righteousness. 4. Acts as a witness to non-Christians. 5. Glorifies God and enables us to enjoy his glory. 6. Identifies us with God’s people. 7. Assists us in living the Christian life through the accountability of brothers and sisters in the faith. 8. Makes us responsible for specific believers. 9. Protects us from the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Why Christians Should Covenant Together Through Local Church Membership

  • Patton talks about emotional/experiential doubt for the Christian. This evidences itself in our feelings. Some type of experience, usually unmet expectations, will bring it about. He goes on to discuss in more detail how this happens. He then argues that John the Baptist probably experienced this sort of doubt, and uses this to encourage the doubting Christian. Dealing with Doubt – Part 3: Emotional/Experiential Doubt

  • Hays responds to an Arminian (again). Here's some points: 1) Calvinism doesn't believe God 'wants' every event for its own sake; He 'wants' many events as they facilitate other events. Hays notes that on Arminian assumptions, there are morally analogous situations to the very things in Calvinism to which Arminians, framing it from those assumptions, object! In Arminianism, since God doesn't want apostates to fall, how come He creates them knowing they will? God knew the end-result. Was God forced to do something against His will? Who's running the Arminian universe, exactly? 2) Hays doesn't have a problem with the idea that God set up the fall; it is Arminians who find this problematic. 3) The Arminian equivocates over the idea of saved, since salvation from hell and salvation from Egypt are not the same thing. In Calvinism, unlike Arminianism, God never saves someone to damn him. In Arminianism God damns people whom He saved at an earlier date. The question isn't the origin of apostasy but whether it is merciful for God to save someone and then damn him. Isn't the apostate worse off than before, even granting LFW? So in Arminianism God is doing something to someone that makes him worse off in the long run. God is acting to the detriment of the individual. If you give someone a 'genuine opportunity' knowing he'll blow it and be worse off, are you doing him a favour? 4) Arminianism calls the God in Calvinism monstrous, cruel, diabolical, etc. The question is whether Arminianism holds up under their own objections. 5) "Allowing evil" is not ipso facto exculpatory. In many cases it is culpable. Also, in Arminianism, God does more than permit evil. He created the universe knowing what would happen. That's a set up. 6) Divine concurrence in Arminianism means that God must sustain, empower, etc. the evildoer. 7) Scriptural allusions don't resolve internal Arminian tension, or harmonize it with Scripture. 8) Arminianism resembles Greek mythology. The gods are constrained by fate. Zeus would like to save so-and-so but the fates have doomed him. God apparently takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but He sends floods to kill people, He commands the Israelites to kill people, etc. 9) Calvinism also says the apostate gets what he deserves. If God punishes, it's an act of justice, not mercy. How does God saving someone and then damning him excuse God from toying with the lost? How much worse!

  • Dave Harvey writes about how Sovereign Grace looks for a qualified man when looking for someone to plant a church. "What do we mean by a qualified man? A qualified man is one who has sensed a clear and enduring call to plant a church. But there’s more. That sense of call has been confirmed by mature leaders who know the man, warts and all. A qualified man is revealed by the grace on his life. How do we know if there’s grace? Because there are character and abilities that match the eldership qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, and other passages. And not just to attain them, but to maintain them as well." He has a leadership gift, faith towards God, a shepherd's heart that cares for people, and determination to do the evangelist's work. Patience, Pace, and Church Planting (Part 2)

  •