Do you remember when the National Geographic Society unveiled the Gospel of Judas a couple of years ago? The newly discovered document supposedly contained a positive portrayal of Judas Iscariot, the man whom the canonical Gospels say betrayed Jesus. The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story about the aftermath of National Geographic’s unveiling, and it is not a pretty picture.
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Defending the Unborn: An Evangelical Priority
God bless Stan Guthrie for speaking more clearly in one sentence than I have been able to do in many posts on this subject. In a piece on Christianity Today‘s website, Guthrie confronts the likes of Jim Wallis and Ron Sider who say that defending the unborn is one among many issues that evangelicals should be concerned about. Guthrie’s response gets right to the heart of the matter: ‘If everything is a priority, then nothing is.’
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CT on the Maria Chapman Tragedy
From the editors at Christianity Today: “Steven Curtis Chapman’s music has touched millions over the last 20 years, and many of us feel like we’ve come to know him and his family through his songs and through his consistent witness for Christ. Most can only imagine what the Chapman family is going through right now in the aftermath of such tragedy. The ‘who,’ ‘what,’ and ‘how’ of all this is undoubtedly weighing heavily on their hearts, leading them to wonder ‘why’ such a thing could happen. “As brothers and sisters in Christ, I would encourage you to keep the Chapman family in your prayers as they wrestle with the grief…
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Pray for Steven Curtis Chapman and Family
From The Tennessean: Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday afternoon after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home. Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name. The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home at about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson…
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Carson on “Red-Letter Christiansâ€
D. A Carson has a theological wallop for the Red-Letter Christianity promoted by the likes of Tony Campolo. In the most recent issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Carson writes: “I’m suspicious of anyone who uses ‘kingdom’ only as an adjective, for usually it is merely a theologically posh way of approving one’s current theological and ethical agenda. If we like some ethical course, we label it ‘kingdom ethics’ and bless it with a text, and epistemology is satisfied. “A particularly virulent form of this approach is hidden behind what Tony Campolo now approvingly calls ‘red letter Christians’. These red letter Christians, he says, hold the same theological…
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Albert Mohler on Gay “Marriage†Case
Yesterday, Dr. Albert Mohler’s radio program covered the Supreme Court of California’s decision to overturn the statewide Gay “Marriage” ban. His guests are Maggie Gallagher and Dr. John Eastman, and you’ll want to hear this one. [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/MP3/totl/2008/AMP_05_15_2008.mp3] One of the most troubling aspects of this decision is that the court classes homosexuality as if it were a characteristic like race or gender. Mohler writes: ‘The court also declared sexual orientation to be a class protected by a “strict scrutiny” test of all legislation and regulation. In so doing, the California court became the first in the nation to apply this test on the basis of sexual orientation. This move also…
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SBC’ers Call for Integrity in Church Membership
Here’s some inside baseball for all you fellow Southern Baptists out there. This summer at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, messengers will likely have the opportunity to vote on a resolution calling for integrity in church membership. What that means, in short, is that there’s likely to be a resolution calling on Southern Baptists to keep their membership limited to those who are regenerate. I won’t be at the Convention in Indianapolis this summer and unfortunately won’t be able to cast a vote. Readers may remember that I spoke in favor of Tom Ascol’s resolution last year and even interviewed him about it in advance of the…
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Caner says, “I never signed it.â€
Dr. Ergun Caner is the President of Liberty Theological Seminary, a school founded by the late Dr. Jerry Falwell. Many were surprised to see his name among the charter signatories of “An Evangelical Manifesto.” He writes, ‘In recent days, I became aware that my name is on the list of “Charter Signatories” for the Evangelical Manifesto (EM). ‘There is only one problem: I never signed it.
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Note: A New Ministry and a New Article
Congratulations to my good friend Jim Hamilton who has just been appointed Associate Professor of Biblical Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Jim is the most prolific young scholar that I know, and his work in both testaments in the area of biblical theology has been a great contribution to the church. Southern could not have gotten a better guy. You can read the announcement here. On a side note, Jim and I wrote a little article together for JBMW last fall, and it has recently been made available for free download from the CBMW website. The article was a brief survey of younger evangelicals and…
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Irving Bible Church Goes Egalitarian?
In 2003, Pastor Rob Bell led Mars Hill Bible Church to amend its constitution and statement of faith in order to open all offices-including that of elder-to women. It was a high-profile egalitarian conversion of an entire church that received no little attention in the blogosphere (see here for the story). Earlier this month, a high-profile Bible Church in my own city made a similar move. Irving Bible Church (IBC) is a large Bible Church in the Dallas area. It is one of the many Bible Churches in our city that represents an important constituency of Dallas Theological Seminary. Recently, the elders of IBC published a website explaining how they…