I’ve been working on a book review of Seyoon Kim’s Christ and Caesar: The Gospel and the Roman Empire in the Writings of Paul and Luke. In this book, Kim is arguing against the likes of N. T. Wright who contend that Paul includes coded political messages in his letters in order to subvert the Roman Empire. In reading through Kim’s work, I am struck by how similar his critiques are to the ones that I made in a recent article for JETS. We raise some of the same methodological questions, but our work is entirely independent of one another. As I was reading last night, I found one paragraph…
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N. T. Wright Responds to John Piper
Michael Bird has a preview of N. T. Wright’s response to John Piper on the topic of justification. Wright’s book is titled Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, and it will be available early next year. Here’s Bird’s description: “This book is a response to many of Wright’s North American critics and to John Piper’s The Future of Justification in particular. It is not a point for point reply to Piper but a general articulation of what Wright really thinks about justification with some hand-to-hand combat with Piper (as well as others such as Carson and Seifrid) along the way. Wright gives a very forthright defence of his position, but…
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What are you doing New Year’s Eve?
What am I doing New Year’s Eve? This year the Burk family will be enjoying some South Georgia Caviar while watching LSU take on Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-a Bowl. What are you doing New Year’s Eve?
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Laci and Conner’s Law To Be Tested
The Associated Press is reporting that the 2004 “Laci and Conner’s Law” (which defines a fetus as a “child”) is about to be tested: “Federal prosecutors in New Mexico believe they may be the first to use a 2004 law to charge someone with killing a fetus while causing the death or injury of the mother. . . “The Unborn Victims of Violence Act stemmed from the abduction and murder of a pregnant woman, Laci Peterson, in California in 2003. The law makes it a crime to kill a fetus in utero at any stage of development while committing another federal crime; it does not require the perpetrator to know…
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Billy Graham and Church Membership
Billy Graham never lived in Dallas, Texas, but his membership has been at the First Baptist Church in Dallas since 1953. The Dallas Morning News now reports that Rev. Graham has moved his membership to the First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Here’s the full report below.
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Louisiana Tech Wins Independence Bowl
On Sunday night, I was privileged to be in Shreveport, Louisiana to see my alma mater Louisiana Tech University defeat Northern Illinois in the Independence Bowl. Even though Tech’s appearance in this bowl was due to the SEC and Big 12’s inability to produce enough bowl eligible teams, I couldn’t be happier that the Bulldogs put together this win. I have followed many disappointing seasons over the years, and this opportunity and victory have been a long time in coming. Here are some reflections on the game:
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President Bush’s Reading Habits
Karl Rove has an interesting essay in the Wall Street Journal in which he describes President Bush’s reading habits. In 2006, Rove says that he and Bush had a contest in which Bush finished the year having read 95 books. After listing some titles that Bush has read, Rove concludes: “There is a myth perpetuated by Bush critics that he would rather burn a book than read one. Like so many caricatures of the past eight years, this one is not only wrong, but also the opposite of the truth and evidence that bitterness can devour a small-minded critic. Mr. Bush loves books, learns from them, and is intellectually engaged…
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My Top YouTube Videos of 2008
Here’s my annual top 10 list of YouTube videos. The first several are humorous, but the further you go down the list the more serious the subject matter becomes. Enjoy these and happy new year!
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Santa Claus is the Law. Jesus is the Gospel.
(HT: David Mathis)
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The Incarnation
There is hardly anything more mysterious and wonderful to me than the incarnation of Jesus Christ. God became a man. Jesus Christ is at once fully God and fully man. God took on mortal human flesh and became subject to all the things that every other mortal is subject to. He sneezed. He coughed. He got headaches and an upset stomach. Every morning he got up, shook the dust out of His hair, and served His Father faithfully. Jesus Christ was not only subject to sickness, but also to death. The eternal Son of God was die-able. In fact, he did die. And three days later, what was mortal became…