John Piper answers the question, “How do you keep from forgetting Scripture after you’ve memorized it?” I found this to be practical and helpful, and I hope you will too. Watch his answer above, or read it here.
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He over-repented
Ted Haggard tells The Wall Street Journal that he “over-repented” from the public sin that ended his ministry in 2006. Even though his former church has said he does not belong in pastoral ministry, he has started a new church just a few miles from the one he fell from. Haggard’s new ministry is out of step with the New Testament in a number of ways (1 Timothy 3:2-7; Titus 1:6-9). Nevertheless, Haggard provides this justification: “Tiger Woods needs to golf. Michael Vick needs to be playing football. Ted Haggard needs to be leading a church.” I agree with Carl Trueman on this one. Haggard’s words sound more like “personal…
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Manhattan Declaration 2.0
S. M. Hutchens says that the Manhattan Declaration needs to be revised. Even though he supported and signed the Declaration, he notes some weaknesses in it. In a lengthy blog post, he argues that the Declaration confuses “revealed religion with the natural law” and as a result has mixed “the oil of Christianity with the water of popular American religion.” Hutchens’s remarks were provoked in part by a recent video released by Chuck Colson and Timothy George on civil disobedience (see above). Hutchen’s concludes:
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Intolerant of Christian Morality?
A graduate student has accused Augusta State University in federal court of violating her constitutional rights by demanding that she work to change her views opposing homosexuality. The Chronicle of Higher Education has the story: ‘In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Augusta, Ga., the student, Jennifer Keeton, argues that faculty members and administrators at the university have violated her First Amendment rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion by threatening her with expulsion if she does not fufill requirements contained in a remediation plan intended to get her to change her beliefs.
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Prayer for Christopher Hitchens?
Should we pray for Christopher Hitchens? Yes. Should we talk about it. No. At least that’s the advice that’s Ross Douthat offers in a short blog post today. Douthat argues that Hitchens’s cancer is not an occasion for victory laps thinly disguised as prayers. He reminds us of Jesus’ words: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.…
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Bauer Reviews “In the Land of Believers”
Susan Wise Bauer has a critical review of Gina Welch’s In the Land of Believers, and Ms. Bauer is not a happy camper. As I noted in my review, Gina Welch loathes evangelical beliefs, but she comes to love evangelical believers (at least the ones she gets to know at Thomas Road Baptist Church). Bauer finds Welch’s stance to be a patronizing one. She writes: ‘That’s a staggeringly stupid thing for anyone who claims to understand evangelicalism to write, but Welch is unable to believe that people she likes could really hold well-thought-out, strongly held beliefs that she finds repellent. (“If somehow Evangelicals were forced to co-exist with gay people,”…
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How Old Is Earth?
Dr. Albert Mohler delivered what would have to be considered a barn-burner of a theological address at the 2010 Ligonier Conference. You can watch the video of the address here or read a transcript here. The title was “Why Does the Universe Look So Old?” and at the heart of his argument is this contention. The most straightforward reading of the creation narratives in Genesis presents a young earth view of creation. It is the view with the fewest complications. In his own words: “An understanding of creation in terms of 24-hour calendar days and a young earth entails far fewer complications, far fewer theological problems and actually is the…
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Leeman on Complementarianism
Jonathan Leeman has an excellent essay in the latest 9marks journal. In short, he argues that Complementarianism is crucial to discipleship. It’s worth reading the whole essay, but I want to highlight one section that I found particularly helpful. It will frame the way I engage the “borders” from now on. He writes:
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Does it matter if the Bible contradicts itself?
The short answer is yes. A case in point appears in a recent article by retired Anglican minister Albert Radcliffe. Radcliffe argues that the Bible is a “library of conflicting viewpoints,” and cannot be the last word on the Church of England’s debates on the moral status of homosexuality and women pastors. He argues that even within the pages of the Bible we read about “rigorists” who prefer the letter of the law and about the “humanitarians” who don’t allow the Bible to be the last word. According to Radcliffe, someone like Ezra was in the former category, and Jesus was in the latter. As you might imagine, the upshot…
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First Baptist Meets Lenny Kravitz… Literally!
On June 25, the youth choir from FBC Lewisville, Texas was in New Orleans doing an open-air performance of Lenny Kravitz’s song “Fly Away.” Guess who happened to be nearby, heard them singing, and came over and joined them? You guessed it. Lenny Kravitz himself. The whole thing was caught on video and posted to YouTube (see above). The Dallas Morning News has a report on the encounter. This never happened on any of the church choir tours I went on in high school. But then again we weren’t singing Lenny Kravitz songs!