I have been away from the blog for the last week due to a busy schedule at the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). Readers of this blog know that my friend Ray Van Neste and I had co-sponsored an effort to amend the doctrinal basis of the ETS and that the vote on the measure was to take place last week. Now that the meeting and the vote are over, I can tell you what happened and post a few reflections. In short, we feel that our effort was successful, even though the Society decided not to adopt our…
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Correction: Amend ETS on Wednesday Not Thursday!
In my previous post in which I set forth the schedule for the Amendment debate, I posted the wrong date! The discussion and floor debate are scheduled for Wednesday evening, not Thursday evening. The corrected schedule is below. Please spread the word. Thanks. 11/19 – Wednesday 5:20-6:00pm – Van Neste, Burk, and Executive Committee discuss the proposal followed by a Q & A with audience. Rhode Island Convention Center Ballroom E 8:30-9:30pm – Business Meeting: Discussion of the Amendment proposal. Rhode Island Convention Center Ballroom 11/21 – Friday 8:30-9:00am – Business Meeting: Vote on the Amendment proposal. Rhode Island Convention Center Ballroom A
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Beckwith’s Book and the ETS Amendment
Francis Beckwith’s new book Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic has just been released. The new book traces his journey back to Roman Catholicism, and the last chapter deals directly with his membership in the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). Beckwith was the President of the ETS when he decided to return to the Roman Catholic Church. Beckwith said then and he contends now that he can still sign the ETS’s doctrinal statement in good conscience. He writes, “On May 5, 2007, I resigned as president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and two days later I resigned my membership, one I held for over twenty years. . .…
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Help Us Amend the ETS
I am co-sponsoring with Ray Van Neste a proposal to amend the doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). Next week the Society will meet in Providence, Rhode Island where our proposal will finally come to a vote. I am writing this blog post to get the word out to our friends who are planning on supporting the amendment. If you support our amendment and have a blog, I’m asking you to link this post to help us spread the word. The process to amend ETS’s constitution is a slow one. The founders were wise to make it that way. Ray and I began this effort in the Spring…
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Carl Trueman on Growing Up (or not)
Carl Trueman is a great writer. His latest article at the Reformation 21 website is a must-read (HT: Justin Taylor). Here’s the conclusion: “You are, of course, what you worship, as Psalm 115 reminds us, and thus, as long as we idolize our children and the culture of youth, we can expect to – well, be just like them: pouting, irresponsible, hormonal, unpleasant and, frankly, as creepy as those sixteenth century portraits of little children with adult faces. Trapped in Neverland with no hope of escape.”
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A Resolution on Protecting Human Life
This week Southern Baptists in Kentucky passed a resolution on protecting human life (HT: Philip Bethancourt). Russell Moore was instrumental in bringing this resolution to pass, and there is much to commend in it. I particularly like the fact that it does not go along with the “abortion-is-one-issue-among-many” approach that we saw some “evangelicals” take in the recent election. It encourages treating the abortion issue as a priority. I have printed the full resolution below, but here are some of the highlights:
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Mohler’s Remarks about the Election on ABC News
ABC World News Tonight visited the campus of Southern Seminary this week and interviewed our president, Dr. Albert Mohler, about the results of the presidential election. Among other things, Dr. Mohler said this: “The fight for the dignity and sanctity of unborn human beings has been set back by a great loss. . . We’re going to have some setbacks here. . . We’re going to have some real days of disappointment. I think we need to be prepared for that. We’re going to find ourselves in a situation where our voice is not going to have the kind of resonance that it once had in Washington. “I think there’s…
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The Coming Election and Abortion Politics
I have heard many so-called “pro-lifers” argue that having a “pro-life” President hasn’t really furthered the cause of life in this country. I don’t think that argument is really very serious at all. President Bush’s two Supreme Court appointments (Roberts and Alito) led the court to uphold the ban on partial birth abortion. Now the court is at a tipping point again, and that is the point made in a USA Today article by Joan Biskupic: “John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s dueling statements on abortion rights have ratcheted up debate over the future of Roe v. Wade at a time when the Supreme Court could be at a crossroads on…
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John Piper on Barack Obama
John Piper released a short video today with some wise observations about the presidential election. Among the other things he talked about, his assessment of Barack Obama is particularly helpful. “Abortion is an evil the scope of which and depths of which very few people in our culture feel. The magnitude of it’s just horrific. . . 12 million black babies dead since 1973. I don’t think Barack Obama will touch that with a ten foot pole. And he should. . . He’s the most radical abortion proponent in the United States Congress, and that’s tragic.” You can see the rest of Piper’s remarks in the video above.
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Remembering the Courage of Martin Luther
Today is Reformation Day. It was on this day in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed the “95 Theses” to the castle door at Wittenberg, Germany. Thus began a movement of which we are still feeling the effects today, some 491 years hence. Luther’s stand against the Roman Catholic Church was ostensibly about indulgences. But really, it was about the gospel—how sinners are justified before God on the basis of Christ’s redemptive work. In every generation, the Christian church is called on to herald and to defend the gospel before a watching world. That is what Luther did, and that is what we must do as well. My favorite quote from…