We live in a day in which many people have written off evangelical faith. The notion that Christian truth might still be relevant or viable in 2011 seems a far-fetched idea to many in our culture. Nevertheless, God raises up in every generation a people who live and preach otherwise. Civilizations come and go, but the truth of the gospel remains. That is why I am grateful to have contributed to a recent book that reaffirms the essentials of the evangelical faith, Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day (edited by Kevin DeYoung). The title of the book is a riff on the lyrics of…
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Dempster Reviews Hamilton
Stephen Dempster has a favorable review of Jim Hamilton’s new book in the latest issue of the 9Marks eJournal. The book is titled God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology, and Demptser says, “in stressing the glory of God in salvation through judgment [Hamilton] has certainly pointed us all in the right direction.” I could not agree more with Dempster’s appraisal. Hamilton’s book is really good, and you should buy it. Read the rest of the review here.
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Review of “Who’s Tampering with the Trinity”
Stephen Wellum has written a major review of Millard Erickson’s book Who’s Tampering with the Trinity?: An Assessment of the Subordination Debate (Kregel, 2009). In Erickson’s book, he argues against the idea of an eternal, functional subordination of the Son to the Father. In Wellum’s review, he gives a host of reasons why Erickson’s argument will not stand. The review appears in the most recent issue of JBMW, and it is a must-read for anyone who has been following the “subordination debate” among Trinitarians. Here’s a snippet from Wellum’s critique:
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HCSB Study Bible
I’m grateful to Broadman & Holman for sending me a gratis copy of the new HCSB Study Bible. If you haven’t taken a look at the HCSB Study Bible, now would be a good time to check it out. The English translation is the Holman Christian Standard Version, and it is set within 2,270 pages of commentary, notes, essays, maps, and much more. Contributors to this volume include Tremper Longman, Walt Kaiser, Andreas Köstenberger, Stanley Porter, David Dockery, Ray Van Neste, Murray Harris, Robert Yarbrough, George Guthrie, Robert Stein, Mark Dever, Craig Evans, Craig Blaising, Bruce Ware, Danny Akin, Daniel Wallace, Mary Kassian, Paige Patterson, Craig Blomberg and many, many…
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Struggling as a Homosexual and a Christian
I really appreciate Tim Challies’ review of Wesley Hill’s book Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality (Zondervan, 2010). Wesley Hill is a Christian who has a homosexual orientation, and he has been that way for as long as he can remember. Here’s a snippet from Challies’ review: ‘Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality is his attempt to answer some of the most difficult questions, and to answer them not in an abstract sense, but from the perspective of someone who has labored over them and shed many tears along the way. What does it mean for gay Christians to be faithful to God while…
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Thielman on Ephesians
I’ve been reading in Frank Thielman’s new commentary on Ephesians, and I really like what I see here. It’s clearly written, learned, and meticulously grounded in the exposition of the Greek text. Here’s a quick look at some of the interpretive hot spots. Thielman understands the letter to be the authentically written by Paul (not pseudonymous, a view that is popular among Ephesians commentators). Thielman argues that en EphesÅ in verse 1:1 is the original reading, and thus he argues that the original audience really is “the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.”
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Entrusted with the Gospel
I am grateful to have received a copy of Entrusted with the Gospel: Pastoral Expositions of 2 Timothy edited by D. A. Carson. It’s a compilation of sermons from the plenary addresses at the 2009 meeting of The Gospel Coalition. At one level, the book is a popular-level commentary on the text of 2 Timothy. At another level, the book is a study in the different preaching styles of its authors—a list that includes John Piper, Phil Ryken, Mark Driscoll, Bryan Chapel, and Lig Duncan. For all their differences, the editor still finds value in each of them. In the introduction, Carson writes: “The best of expository preaching takes its…
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Review of Douglas Campbell’s “Deliverance of God”
Briefly Noted: In the latest issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research, Tom Schreiner has a brief but helpful review of Douglas Campbell’s mammoth work on justification, The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul (Eerdmans, 2009). Even though the book is a massive work of scholarship, Schreiner is critical. I’ve been reading the book myself, and from what I’ve seen Schreiner’s critique is right on the money. Campbell essentially adopts a novel interpretation of Romans that understands different parts of chapters 1-4 not as the voice of Paul, but as the voice of his opponents. So what you read in Romans 1-4 is not always Paul,…
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Six Reasons to Try the Olive Tree Bible App
I have been using Olive Tree’s BibleReader app on my iPhone since late last year. Without question, Olive Tree’s Reader is the best Bible app that I have ever used on a mobile device. For what I use it for, it simply has better features than any of its competitors. So here are my six reasons for commending to you the Olive Tree BibleReader.
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Feminism and Porn
I just read an extremely disturbing review article in the UK’s Guardian newspaper titled “The truth about the porn industry.” It’s about a sociology professor and feminist named Gail Dines who is crusading against pornography in her new book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. [I have to warn readers that this article is disturbing precisely because it describes in no uncertain terms the degradation that has become common fare in today’s smut industry. Please beware.]