Students often ask me about the Bible software that I use during class. The program that I display to them nearly every day is BibleWorks8. Here is why. For many years, the Accordance software was the gold standard for scholars and pastors working with the primary texts of biblical studies. Its main drawback was that it only worked on Macs, thus relegating the myriads of PC users to one or more of the inferior programs that were available for the Windows operating system. The release of BibleWorks 5 and 6 began to close the gap between Mac users and PC users. With the release of BibleWorks 7 and 8, however,…
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A Year with George Herbert
If you are not familiar with the poetry of George Herbert, you need to be. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, “I love George Herbert from my very soul.” In fact, Spurgeon loved the poetry of George Herbert so much, he used to have his wife read the poems to him every Sunday evening after church. Mrs. Spurgeon described their evenings this way: I read on and on for an hour or more, till the peace of Heaven flows into our souls, and the tired servant of the King of kings loses his sense of fatigue, and rejoices after his toil.
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Untold hunt for Hitler revealed in new book
Many readers of this blog will recognize John Woodbridge as the author of a watershed book defending inerrancy, Biblical Authority: A Critique of the Rogers/McKim Proposal. Recently however, he has teamed-up with Pulitzer Prize winner Maurice Possley to write Hitler in the Crosshairs: A GI’s Story of Courage and Faith. Earlier this month, the authors appeared together on public radio to discuss the book (listen below or download here). [audio:http://www.wbez.org/sites/default/files/segment/audio/2011-June/2011-06-06/84820110606c.mp3]
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Book Length Responses to Love Wins
John Starke has a helpful round-up of book-length responses to Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. He notes that the one by Francis Chan is probably the highly anticipated of the bunch. He also observes the following: “These books are being published very quickly after the Bell’s book began mailing and hitting shelves. The obvious reason for this was how much the blogs dominated this discussion. Most of the notable reviews occurred within a few days of the book’s publication date. Subsequent reviews seemed dated and almost had to interact with others reviews as much as the book itself. So the speed of these publications says something of the speed of…
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Book Note: “If You Bite & Devour One Another”
I just received a book in the mail that looks to be one worth noting. The book is titled If You Bite & Devour One Another: Biblical Principles for Handling Conflict. The author is Alexander Strauch, who is perhaps best known for his book on eldership, Biblical Eldership. Here’s the publisher’s description of this latest book: “Conflict in churches is a pervasive problem we know all too well. If You Bite & Devour One Another is the only book of its kind, examining all the biblical passages on conflict and outlining key scriptural principles for handling various kinds of conflicts among Christian–whether personal disputes, issues of Christian liberty in lifestyles,…
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A Biblical Case against Spanking?
I just received InterVarsity’s Fall 2011 catalog and noted that William Webb has a new book coming out: Corporal Punishment in the Bible: A Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic for Troubling Texts. Many of you will remember Webb as the author of the egalitarian book Slaves, Women, & Homosexuals, in which Webb argued for an ethic on the women’s issue that goes beyond the ethic of the New Testament. In that book, Webb argued that “redemptive-movement” often brings readers to an ethical position superior to the one found in the Bible. So even though Paul clearly argues for male headship in a variety of texts, redemptive-movement indicates that there is a better ethic…
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John Piper Endorses Hamilton’s Book
I think this is the strongest endorsement that I have ever seen John Piper give to a book. The Crossway blog has these remarks from Piper about Jim Hamilton’s book, God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology. Piper writes: “I was riveted. Never do I sit down and read sixty pages of ANY book that I get in the mail. But I could not stop—could not stop reading and could not stop rejoicing over God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment. It is the kind of overview of redemptive history Edwards wanted to write. It’s what I hoped would be written.” Piper is right. Hamilton’s book is a must-read.…
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Great Review of Jim Hamilton’s Book
Dan Phillips has an excellent review of Jim Hamilton’s excellent book God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment. Phillips writes: “Does Hamilton’s contribution stand out? My verdict is an unequivocal ‘Yes.’ What distinguishes God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment is a happy conjunction of various valuable features. I’ll enumerate, then expand on some of them.” Read the rest of the review to see the list. If you haven’t bought Hamilton’s book yet, you need to. It’s a must-read, and it’s available here. The Kindle edition is only $7.79!
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Revising Hell into the Heterodox Mainstream
Much has been made of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Before the book was even released, promotional materials seemed to suggest that Rob Bell would be heading in an unorthodox direction in this book. Now having read the book, I am convinced that the promotional materials were correct. Bell has launched out into a heterodox, unbiblical accounting of sin and judgment, the cross and salvation, heaven and hell. He pictures a God without wrath who would never create a place of eternal conscious punishment for the wicked. No one needs salvation from God’s wrath; they…
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The Gospel and Sexual Assault
Crossway has a new book out titled Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing for Victims of Sexual Assault (Crossway, 2011). The video above has Justin Taylor interviewing the authors. This looks like an important book, and I am looking forward to reading it. Here’s Justin Taylor’s description: “This husband-and-wife team has spent countless hours in counseling victims and poring over God’s work, applying the gospel into the lives of people by sexual sin against them. If you’ve ever wondered what the gospel has to say to the victims of sexual assault, you’ll see it in this book. They labor to show that ‘the gospel applies grace to disgrace and…