In today’s Wall Street Journal, Peter Berkowitz reviews Ramesh Ponnuru’s anti-abortion tour de force The Party of Death. In this critical review, Berkowitz puts forth the same pro-abortion arguments that have been refuted time and again by pro-lifers. He writes: Invisible to the naked eye, lacking body or brain, feeling neither pleasure nor pain, radically dependent for life support, the early embryo, though surely part of the human family, is distant and different enough from a flesh-and-blood newborn that when the early embryo’s life comes into conflict with other precious human goods or claims, the embryo’s life may need to give way (source). The problem with Berkowitz’s critique is that…
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Why the Gender Issue Is the Issue
Mark Dever reflects upon why so many evangelicals believe the debate over gender issues to be so important. He writes: Dear reader, you may not agree with me on this. And I don’t desire to be right in my fears. But it seems to me and others (many who are younger than myself) that this issue of egalitarianism and complementarianism is increasingly acting as the watershed distinguishing those who will accomodate Scripture to culture, and those who will attempt to shape culture by Scripture. You may disagree, but this is our honest concern before God. It is no lack of charity, nor honesty. It is no desire for power or…
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Book Notice
Thank the Lord! The book is done and has been published in Sheffield Phoenix Press’s New Testament Monographs series. The book is number 14 in the series, and the title is Articular Infinitives in the Greek of the New Testament: On the Exegetical Benefit of Grammatical Precision.As you can tell from the title, this book promises to be a real page-turner. I fully anticipate for my wife and me to be able to retire on the proceeds that I will receive from this blockbuster treatise. This book will likely be the surprise hit of the summer, and I expect it will be flying off book store shelves so fast it…
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Emerging Liberalism
Not a few critics of the emerging church have charged that the emerging movement often looks like made-over liberalism. While the charge is probably overly simplistic, there is nevertheless something that rings true about it.A recent essay by Walter Hengar in byFaith magazine explores the emerging movement’s outreach to old liberal protestantism. The essay is titled “More than a Fad: Understanding the Emerging Church.†In it Hengar writes: Emergent leaders who are eager to reconcile with liberal Protestants may soon find they have too much in common (source). If the Emergent Village podcasts are a reliable indicator, I would have to say that I think Hengar may be correct. In…
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The Gospel and Reformed Theology
When I was in seminary, a friend once told me that J. I. Packer’s introductory essay in John Owen’s Death of Death in the Death of Christ was worth the price of the whole book. My friend was right. Packer’s essay has become somewhat of a classic among reformed evangelicals in North America and beyond. It puts in sharp relief the God-centered vision of classic reformed theology as it stands against the ever popular, man-centered Arminian point of view. One passage, however, from this otherwise outstanding essay raises a question in my mind about the gospel. Let me share the passage and then my question. Packer writes: According to Scripture,…
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Gandalf Says the Bible Is Fiction
Just in case you didn’t see this, I wanted to put it here. In a Today Show interview last week, Gandalf (a.k.a. Ian McKellen) said that the Bible is fiction. Matt Lauer asked the cast how they would have felt if the DaVinci Code movie had included a disclaimer at the beginning saying that the story was fiction. McKellen replied with the following: Well, I’ve often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that it’s true, not that it’s factual, but that it’s a…
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Dixie Chicks Abandoning Dixie
My wife and I are fans of the Dixie Chicks–at least when they are not saying things that are so over-the-top offensive that we feel like joining the boycott. As many of you know, the Dixie Chicks have been on the outs with their fan-base ever since Natalie Maines zinged President Bush during a concert in London in 2003. But when I talk about offensive rhetoric, I am not talking about their politics. What I am talking about is reflected in some recent comments by Martie Maguire:
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Brian McLaren: DaVinci Code Not As Dangerous as Left Behind
When the doctor tells you that the blood gushing from your severed artery isn’t nearly as dangerous as your athlete’s foot, you know you’ve got an incompetent physician, and it’s time to get a new one. We don’t put ourselves under the care of those who can’t distinguish life-threatening conditions from benign ones. On the contrary, we fire them. Likewise, no one should subject themselves to the leadership of pastors who cannot distinguish damning doctrinal errors from non-damning ones. The more I hear from Pastor Brian McLaren, the more I fear he is not competent to be a leader of God’s people. Recently, he commented on the error-ridden The DaVinci…
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Credit to Ben Witherington
I hosted the Jerry Johnson Live radio program tonight and forgot to give credit to an article that I was using. I was discussing The DaVinci Code movie that came out in theaters today. I went and saw the movie this morning in preparation for the show. Afterward, I read some reviews of the movie, one of which was Ben Witherington’s “Da Vinci Code– the Movie: ‘So Dark the Con of Man.’â€During the show when I gave my evaluation of the movie, I echoed much of what Ben Witherington said. I found the “Guide to Christian Viewers†section from Witherington’s review particularly insightful, and I used it on the show.…
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Gene Veith on Patrick Henry College Shake-up
Gene Veith, incoming Academic Dean at Patrick Henry College and culture editor at WORLD magazine, has written a fitting epilogue to the media maelstrom surrounding the faculty shake-up at Patrick Henry College: “Patrick Henry College makes the news.â€I wrote about this shake-up earlier this week and wondered what was really going on at PHC. Dr. Veith clarifies some things that were anything but clear in the intitial reports that I read. You should read Veith’s piece. (HT: John Divito)