• Christianity,  News,  Theology/Bible

    John Piper on the Tsunami

    It will be a while before we know how many people lost their lives in yesterday’s disaster. The 2004 tsunami that devastated Indonesia killed over 230,000 people in 14 countries. Hopefully the death toll in Japan and elsewhere will not be as high. Nevertheless, the scope of the yesterday’s loss will no doubt be of disastrous proportions. The questions of theodicy that people had in 2004 will surface again as more news unfolds. In light of that, my mind has been on a discussion that John Piper had with an NPR reporter after the 2004 tsunami. This interview was tremendously helpful to me then. My hope and prayer is that…

  • Christianity,  News

    Zondervan’s Break with Rob Bell

    CNN reports on the reason that Zondervan broke with Rob Bell. According to the report, the President of Zondervan evaluated the book proposal for Love Wins and decided that it did not fit with their mission. From the report: “Love Wins” is Bell’s first book since his break from Zondervan, the Christian publisher based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that published Bell’s first four books and also publishes the New International Version of the Bible, one of the most popular translations of the Bible among evangelicals. Bell’s split from Zondervan came in part over this new book. “The break with Zondervan was amicable,” [Mark Tauber, senior vice president and publisher at…

  • Christianity

    Baptist Mardi Gras?

    I grew up in DeRidder, Louisiana, a small town in the southwestern portion of the state. My town straddled the border area between the largely Protestant northern part of the state and the largely Roman Catholic southern part. Consequently, Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists (et al.) and Roman Catholics were fixtures in the religious life of our little town. Thus we were no strangers to Mardi Gras revelry. In fact, we got time off from school every year for a week long “Mardi Gras” break. So when I read Russell Moore’s reflection today about Baptists and Mardi Gras, it really rang true to me. I am sure that it will ring true…

  • Christianity

    President of NAMB at SBTS

    Kevin Ezell, the president of the SBC’s North American Mission Board, had a wide-ranging discussion with Albert Mohler in Southern Seminary’s chapel last week. Ezell talks candidly about the challenges he faces at NAMB and about his vision for the future. I thought what was said in this forum was substantive and important, and I hope Southern Baptists will hear it. Watch above, listen below, or download here. [audio: http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/spring2011/20110303ezell.mp3]

  • Christianity,  News

    Rob Bell on “Good Morning America”

    In case you missed it, here’s the segment from “Good Morning America” this morning about the controversy surrounding Rob Bell’s book (text article here). It includes remarks from Albert Mohler and Serene Jones. It even features a tweet posted by Josh Harris: “There’s nothing loving about preaching a false gospel.” Albert Mohler is of course faithful as ever in standing for the orthodox consensus. He says, “If indeed Rob Bell denies the existence of hell, this is a betrayal of biblical truth that has severe spiritual and evangelistic consequences… Jesus was himself very, very clear about the reality and threat of hell.” Serene Jones, President of Union Theological Seminary, gave…

  • Christianity,  Humor

    Is your worship music too loud?

    Someone dubbed in a real-life complaint about worship music into the Dora cartoon above (HT: Tim Challies). After watching the video, I was reminded of an article that John Stackhouse wrote for Christianity Today in 2009, “Memo to Worship Bands: Five sound reasons to lower the volume.” Stackhouse’s central concern is summed up in this sentence: “I find almost every worship band in every church I visit to be too loud—not just a little bit loud, but uncomfortably, even painfully, loud.” He then goes on to give five reasons why worship leaders should turn down the volume.

  • Christianity,  News

    NY Times on Rob Bell Dust-up

    The “Old Gray Lady” has a report on the controversy surrounding Rob Bell’s forthcoming book. Justin Taylor, Scot McKnight, John Piper, and Albert Mohler are quoted in the article. Erik Eckholm writes the story and has also had an opportunity to read the book. Eckholm says that Bell seems to be advocating universalism while not using the term. He writes, “Judging from an advance copy, the 200-page book is unlikely to assuage Mr. Bell’s critics. In an elliptical style, he throws out probing questions about traditional biblical interpretations, mixing real-life stories with scripture. “Much of the book is a sometimes obscure discussion of the meaning of heaven and hell that…

  • Christianity,  News

    Rejoicing in God’s Word

    One of the signal moments of my seminary career occurred in a chapel service at Dallas Theological Seminary. A missionary with Wycliffe Bible Translators shared her story of translating the Bible into the tongue of a remote tribal people who live halfway around the world. She described how her 20 years of labor culminated with a first ever translation of the Bible into the native language of an unreached people group.

  • Christianity,  Humor,  Music

    D.A. becomes an M.C.

    Students of Boyce College, if you hear me yelling “Westside” randomly in the hallway, this post explains why. It’s my own jubilant tribute to some lyrical madness that Dr. D. A. Carson laid down on a track for Curtis “Voice” Allen. I don’t know how he did it, but somehow “Voice” got Dr. Carson’s voice in a rap about the Westminster Catechism. Dr. Carson’s big line is “Westside!” (which I suppose corresponds to “Westminster” somehow). Download here or listen below. [audio:http://sgm.edgeboss.net/download/sgm/cjblog/voice-westminster.mp3] Thanks to C. J. Mahaney for posting the audio. This is solid gold! (HT: Justin Taylor)