I flew to Chicago Tuesday morning to attend The Gospel Coalition conference, and I took a cab from the airport to my hotel. As I was sitting in the backseat formulating my strategy for sharing the gospel with my Nigerian driver, the driver starts singing. “What are you singing,” I asked. He replied, “I’m singing to my God. I must always sing to my God!” It turns out that this was his strategy for sharing the gospel with me! The rest of the trip was a delight. We talked about life, the gospel, and the nature of true Christianity. We prayed for each other, and then he gave one final…
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Bullhorn Guy
I had occasion earlier this week to go back and watch one of Rob Bell’s NOOMA videos from seven years ago. This one is titled “Bullhorn.” When I first saw this about six years ago, I didn’t know much about Bell. So I walked away with one question: Is Bell’s problem with the messenger (the Bullhorn Guy) or with the message? There was an ambiguity about it then. But I guess not so much now. Note that he even uses the phrase “love wins.”
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The Victory in My Disgrace
Is there anything more difficult in Christianity than loving your enemy and forgiving them? And yet Jesus is able to do in us what we would never do ourselves. I am grateful to God for this young woman’s powerful testimony. I think you will be too. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15). (HT: Tim Challies)
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Don Miller: Who should run the church?
Donald Miller asks an interesting question at his website: “Should the Church be Led by Teachers and Scholars?” His contention is that unlike the original disciples who were fisherman and tradesman, the Christian church today has ceded its leadership to the academics. Churches today are basically schools that are run by teachers. As a result, we have a lot of arguing about doctrine in our churches and not enough doing Jesus’ commands. Miller writes: “Church divisions are almost exclusively academic divisions. The reason I don’t understand my Lutheran neighbor is because a couple academics got into a fight hundreds of years ago. And the rest of the church followed them…
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Albert Mohler on Qur’an Burning
“Christians are not called to burn the books of other religions. We are not called to publicity stunts that put lives at risk and subvert the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Such actions deserve only the most severe condemnation. But even the condemnation serves its purpose — to gain publicity.” Read the rest here.
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Cal Thomas on Qur’an Burning
Cal Thomas writes about the pastor who burned the Qur’an: “Terry Jones is a cipher. Like those clowns who makeup the family-only Westboro ‘Baptist’ Church in Kansas, Jones does not represent the example of Jesus, but is a grand stander who seeks attention for himself. More than two [dozen] people died in Afghanistan. The murderers said Jones’ burning of the Koran was the reason. Again, those killers might well have found another excuse for their acts, but Americans — and especially ministers who claim to be acting in God’s name — ought not to be providing more fuel to an already incendiary situation.”
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Burning the Qur’an and Murdering Humans
John Piper has some valuable reflections about the Florida pastor who burned the Qur’an and the violent response in the Middle East. He writes: “The burning of the Qur’an and the murder of human beings are not morally equivalent. That’s true. And it is, frankly, outrageous the way some commentators speak with more moral indignation about the burning of holy books than the butchery of human bodies. In the western media this seems to me to be sheer fear.”
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KJB – The Book That Changed the World
If you haven’t seen it yet, there is a new documentary out on the making of the King James Version of the Bible. It is narrated by John Rhys Davies, and it looks really fascinating. The video is linked above.
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An Atheist on Gender Neutral Bibles
Christopher Hitchens has high praise for the King James Bible in the latest issue of Vanity Fair. This year is the 400th anniversary of the KJV, and Hitchens makes the case for the superiority of the King James Bible over all comers. In one section of the essay, Hitchens takes umbrage with gender neutral language in modern versions. In particular, he criticizes the Contemporary English Version’s use of “my friends” in place of the KJV’s “brethren.” He writes: “Pancake-flat: suited perhaps to a basement meeting of A.A., these words could not hope to penetrate the torpid, resistant fog in the mind of a 16-year-old boy, as their original had done…
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Bell Says He’s Been Slandered
In an emotional interview with Sally Quinn, Rob Bell says that he has been misunderstood and slandered. There is much that could be said in response to this accusation. I think Quinn followed-up with the most obvious response. In what way does he feel misrepresented and slandered? Bell’s answers, however, really miss the mark in my view. First, he sort of alleges that his critics are accusing him of not being a “serious follower of Jesus.” I don’t know anyone who is saying that he is not a serious follower of his version of Jesus. Second, he suggests that his critics don’t understand that he is simply trying to present…