Albert Mohler hosted a discussion today of Brian McLaren’s new book A New Kind of Christianity. Panel members include Bruce Ware, Jim Hamilton, Greg Wills, and Stephen Wellum.

It is no surprise that this panel is very critical of the book. All agree that the book is an open renunciation of the historic Christian faith. Mohler calls the book a “brazen confrontation” of the Christian metanarrative. Ware says that the title should have been “An Old Kind of Apostasy.” He also says that before this book he had thought of McLaren as a wolf in sheep’s clothing but that now he sees that this wolf has taken off his sheep costume. McLaren’s teaching is open heresy. Jim Hamilton says that McLaren is “of his father the Devil.”

Read this book. Listen to this discussion. I’ll be interested to read your response.

“How Much Do I Need to Know About My Potential Spouse’s Sexual Past? My Response” by Russell Moore

Josh Harris, Al Mohler, and Russell Moore will be the featured speakers at Boyce College’s conference for high school students on March 19-20, 2009, and there is still time for students and youth groups to sign-up. The theme for the conference is “No Idols: Calling Students to Single-hearted Devotion.” Grammy-nominated Boyce College student “Flame” will perform, and “Shane and Shane” will be leading the worship in music for the weekend.

Speakers / Lodging / Schedule / Registration / Contact

Last year’s conference was a great success, and I expect this one will be even better. It will be a Christ-exalting, gospel-centered, Bible-focused weekend. So please tell your pastor or youth leader about “No Idols.” You don’t want your students to miss this one.

“You shall not make idols for yourselves . . .
for I am the Lord your God.” -Leviticus 26:1

Corey Haim was my age and was a teen movie star back when I knew something about teen movie stars. His is a sad story, and this is sad news indeed.

“As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away… So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” -Psalm 90:10, 12

I know, I know. It’s old and dilapidated, and its existence serves no purpose any longer. Still, it was the place that captured my imagination as a kid. Staubach, Too Tall Jones, Randy White, Tony Dorsett, and a host of others were heroes to me, and this is where they played. For me, it will always be the house that Landry and Staubach built, and it’s sad to see it go. It represents an era of Cowboy football that will never return.

It is scheduled to be imploded on April 11.

• It would change existing law by allowing federally subsidized health-care plans to pay for abortions and could require private health-insurance plans to cover abortion.

• It would impose a first-ever abortion tax—a separate premium payment that will be used to pay for elective abortions—on enrollees in insurance plans that covers abortions through newly created government health-care exchanges.

• And it would fail to protect the rights of health-care providers to refuse to participate in abortions.

For these reasons, Bart Stupak and 11 other pro-life Democrats are threatening to kill healthcare reform if this abortion problem isn’t fixed. Stay tuned. In the meantime, read Yoest’s column.

“I wanted to know what my evangelical neighbors were like as people, unfiltered and off the record, not as the subjects of interviews conducted by the ‘liberal media.’ I wanted to try to take them on their own terms. Who, exactly, did they think they were? Why were they so determined to convert non-Christian America? And how were they going about it?”

So begins her great subterfuge. She argues that the only way to get an authentic look at evangelicals was to make them believe that she was one of them. So she fakes a religious conversion and joins them. She writes, “They needed to know the microphone was off. I’d do whatever it took to get the story.”

I find her deception and manipulation of the people of Thomas Road to be unconscionable, and reviewers have already taken her to task on that point. Nevertheless, there’s still some compelling stuff in this book. She goes into this project believing that evangelicals are retrograde, unthinking throw-backs to a bygone age of religious superstition—people who barely deserve to be recognized as serious in an enlightened, secular society. In short, she views evangelicals like any coastal elitist would. But by the end of it, she actually comes to believe that evangelicals are people too.

I daresay that if you start this book, you won’t be able to put it down. If you do decide to read it, pray for the author. The Lord’s arm is not too short to save (Isaiah 59:1).

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The author appeared on “Morning Joe” this morning, and you can watch the interview below.

Democratic congressman Bart Stupak continues to fight the good fight against abortion. He told Chris Matthews earlier today that pages 33-44 of the Senate health bill requires tax-payer funded abortions. He’s a Democrat, and he wants to pass healthcare reform as much as anybody. But he also says that he will not compromise on this issue. He and a handful of other House Democrats will kill healthcare reform if the publicly funded abortions remain a part of the bill. In his own words:

“It’s accurate to say there are at least 12 of us who voted for healthcare that have indicated to the speaker and others that unless you change this language, we will vote against it.”

Grateful beyond words that there are still some pro-life Democrats.

Jim Hamilton preached to the students of Boyce College on Monday night and knocked it out of the park. His exposition of Daniel 1 was faithfully exposited and powerfully delivered. You can download the audio here or press the play button below.

Jim is Associate Professor of Biblical Theology at Southern Seminary and the Pastor of Kenwood Baptist Church here in Louisville, Kentucky. He is a long-time friend, and I am grateful for his faithful ministry to our students.

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I received news today that E. Earle Ellis passed away last night. He was research professor of theology emeritus at Southwestern Seminary, and a prolific scholar of the New Testament. As Russell Moore notes, “he believed the Bible when that wasn’t cool in the SBC.” We were all waiting for the appearance of his commentary on 1 Corinthians for the International Critical Commentary series. He was the consummate scholar and widely respected in the worldwide guild of New Testament Studies. He will be missed.

SWBTS will be issuing a statement in due course. In the meantime, here’s a brief biographical piece from last year on Dr. Ellis. The following is an excerpt:

Ellis was born to Lindsey Thornton and Lois Belle McBride Ellis on March 18, 1926, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and was raised in the nearby town of Dania. After serving in the United States Army from 1944 to 1946, Ellis began to show his academic capabilities as he completed his pre-law Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Virginia (UVa) in 1950, with concentrations in law, economics, political science and history. Although Ellis spent a year in the University of Virginia School of Law and intended to enter into a career in law, he began to develop a God-given thirst for Scripture that supplanted his desire to study law. He then studied for a time at Faith Seminary in Wilmington, Del., but soon moved to the Wheaton Graduate School in Wheaton, Ill., where he received his M.A and B.D. degrees by 1953. Two years later, he was awarded with a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh…

Ellis has made significant written contributions to New Testament scholarship, specifically in the areas of Pauline studies, the history of the apostolic church, and the formation of the New Testament. But he also founded the Institute for Biblical Research and the International Reference Library for Biblical Research.