Last week I followed Justin Taylor’s live-blogging of the first conference of the “Gospel Coalition.” On Sunday, Justin sent me the authorized version of the Coalition’s foundational documents. You can download them here. According to Mark Driscoll, the Gospel Coalition began as a theological colloquium led by Dr. D. A. Carson and Dr. Tim Keller. The colloquium has been meeting for the past few years and has focused its efforts on drafting “a new evangelical reformed confession of faith.” Members of this colloquium included Alistair Begg, Kent Hughes, Philip Ryken, Mark Dever, Ray Ortlund, Ligon Duncan, and representatives from organizations such as The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Desiring…

USA Today drew a contrast yesterday between Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in alleging that DTS is more open to the charismatic gift of tongues than the SBC. Here’s the relevant excerpt: A major battle over tongues has roiled the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest group of American Protestants. The SBC’s International Mission Board does not accept international missionaries who speak in tongues in public worship because it is not recognized as a part of Baptist identity, says spokesperson Wendy Norvelle. Next month, at the SBC’s annual convention, a group of pastors will ask the SBC to officially determine whether tongue-speaking adheres to Baptist principles.…

John Hammett is a professor of theology at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he has presented a lecture on regenerate church membership that you need to hear. The title of the lecture is “Regenerate Church Membership: The Baptist Mark of the Church.” Hammett explains how Southern Baptists have lost sight of this ideal and have acquiesced to membership consisting of both believers and unbelievers. He describes the problem this way:

Dr. David Howard is a former president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), and in Friday’s Wall Street Journal he weighed in on the resignation of Dr. Francis Beckwith. Howard thinks that Beckwith’s resignation was entirely appropriate, given Beckwith’s return to the Roman Catholic church. He writes: His resignation was appropriate, since the ETS affirms that “the Bible alone . . . is the Word of God written.” The phrase “the Bible alone” in the ETS context refers to the 66 books in the Old and New Testaments of the Protestant canon and thus rules out Mr. Beckwith’s continued membership, given that the Roman Catholic Church accepts additional books in…

A recent interview with Mitt Romney is the occasion for this post, but this is not a political post. It’s theological. In an interview with Mike Wallace on the CBS program “60 Minutes,” Romney explains why he affirms traditional marriage and opposes same-sex “marriage.” “This isn’t just some temporary convenience here on Earth, but we’re people that are designed to live together as male and female and we’re gonna have families . . . What’s at the heart of my faith is a belief that there’s a creator, that we’re all children of the same God, and that fundamentally the relationship you have with your spouse is important and eternal”…

John Piper’s son introduces 12 ways to love your wayward child with the following statement: Many parents are brokenhearted and completely baffled by their unbelieving son or daughter. They have no clue why the child they raised well is making such awful, destructive decisions. I’ve never been one of these parents, but I have been one of these sons. Reflecting back on that experience, I offer these suggestions to help you reach out to your wayward child. John Piper commends his son’s reflections with these words: My son Abraham, who speaks from the wisdom of experience and Scripture, has written the article that follows. I read it with tears and…

This post is for the bibliophiles and theologues who read this blog. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz announces that archeologists have discovered Herod the Great’s tomb. Herod the Great was the Jewish king when Jesus was born. His reign was more or less a police state in which many lived in fear. Matthew’s Gospel says that he ordered the execution of all the male babies in Bethlehem when he heard that “the King of the Jews” had been born there (Matthew 2:1-18). Herod became famous for his building projects, and his work on the temple in Jerusalem made it almost into a new temple. This is a significant find not only…