• Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    Carl Trueman at T4G Warning about Celebrity Pastors

    I have lots of thoughts about the final meeting of Together for the Gospel (T4G) last week. I may try to put some of them together at some point, but that is not the point of my post today. The final T4G has given me an occasion to think back to the most memorable moments from T4G over the years. I’ve already written about one of them. Another one that I have always remembered was from 2012, and it involved Carl Trueman. I will never forget it. In the lead-up to T4G that year, Trueman had published a series of warnings online about celebrity pastors (see here, here, here, here).…

  • Christianity

    Lenten Curmudgeon: Carl Trueman on Evanglicals and Lent

    Carl Trueman is perplexed at Evangelical fascination with Lent. He writes: I can understand Anglicans observing Lent. Hey, I can even approve of them doing so when I am in an exceptionally good mood or have just awoken from a deep sleep and am still a little disoriented. It is part of their history. It connects to their formal liturgical history. All denominations and Christian traditions involve elements that are strictly speaking unbiblical but which shape their historic identity. For Anglicans, the liturgical calendar is just such a thing. These reasons are not compelling in a way that would make the calendar normative for all Christians, yet I can still…

  • Christianity

    Interview w/ Carl Trueman: “Sex, what is the meaning?”

    I had a stimulating conversation with Carl Trueman and Todd Pruitt on the “Mortification of Spin” a few weeks back. All you need to know about Trueman and Pruitt is revealed in their bumper music. I think they’re the only hosts in all of Christendom featuring Led Zeppelin during the outro. I understand there’s some bit of intrigue with that. Apparently if you play the outro music backwards, you can hear someone saying “I buried Carl.” (…but I digress…) It really was a pleasure visiting with these men. The episode is now posted online, and you can download it here or listen to it below. [audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/mos.alliancenet.org/M027.master.mp3]

  • Christianity

    Carl Trueman on the D’Souza Matter

    Carl Trueman says that the Dinesh D’Souza matter highlights the unseemly largesse that is sometimes heaped upon evangelical superstars. While he is troubled by the dissolution of D’Souza’s marriage, he writes: I confess that I find equally disturbing the idea that there are Christian groups out there willing to pay Christian leaders salaries of a $1,000,000 to head up Christian organisations and then fees of $10,000 and upwards for giving a single lecture… There is something terribly, horribly sleazy emerging in broadly reformed and evangelical quarters. As soon as your group, whether it be a conference or a coalition or college, starts to be influenced in its choice of ‘leader’…

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    How Important is Complementarianism? A Response to Carl Trueman

    Last week, Carl Trueman asked why groups like The Gospel Coalition and Together for the Gospel include complementarianism in their confessional commitments. In short, Trueman thinks it is inconsistent to elevate the importance of a secondary issue like complementarianism while routinely downplaying the importance of other secondary issues like baptism and the Lord’s Supper. He writes:

  • Theology/Bible

    Carl Trueman on the KJV

    2011 is the 400th anniversary of the publication of what is arguably the greatest piece of English literature ever written—the King James Bible. The story of its genesis and legacy is a fascinating one. Last month, we noted a series of lectures at Union University on the topic. This week, Justin Taylor points us to another lecture—this one by Carl Trueman at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. The lecture is entitled “Throwing the Book at his Enemies: James I and his Bible.” You can download it here or listen below. [audio:http://media2.wts.edu/media/audio/trueman10-18-11-copyright.mp3]

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    Carl Trueman Takes a Shot at City Theology

    Carl Trueman has a brief but trenchant critique of “city” theology at Reformation 21. He writes: “One thing… I did discuss was the current nonsense about cities being special which so dominates the popular evangelical imagination. Not that cities are not important: as areas where there are the highest concentrations of human beings, they are inevitably significant as mission fields. Rather, we were thinking of the `from a Garden to a City’ hermeneutic which jumps from scripture to giving modern urban sprawl some kind of special eschatological significance. Was there ever a thinner hermeneutical foundation upon which so much has been built? OK, there probably has been, but this is…

  • Christianity

    Carl Trueman Is Not My Friend

    Just to be clear. Though I like Carl Trueman’s writings, I have never met him, and he is not my friend. Moreover, if we ever were to meet, I’m sure he wouldn’t like me. Nevertheless, you should read his latest article on Reformation21. It’s devastating and good. And there’s not a one of us who doesn’t need to hear it. The article lambastes Christians who use the web to puff-up their own egos. Here’s an excerpt:

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    Carl Trueman on Moronic Worship

    Carl Trueman has a must-read essay at Reformation21 about unserious worship practices. This paragraph is a gem: “A church service involving clowns or fancy dress or skits or stand-up comedy does not reflect the seriousness of the gospel; and those who take the gospel seriously should know better. Frankly, it is more appropriate to liberal theology which does not take the gospel, or the God of the gospel, seriously. Serious things demand serious idioms.   I heard recently of a church service involving dressing up in costume and music taken from a Tom Cruise movie.  Now, if I go for my annual prostate examination, and the doctor comes into the consulting…