The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) announced earlier this year that Saddleback church had been removed from the SBC over Saddleback’s calling female pastors. Just yesterday, the news broke that Saddleback has appealed that decision, which means that the matter will come before the messengers to the annual meeting in June in New Orleans. Rick Warren cites five reasons for Saddleback’s appeal. First, Warren claims that “we’re challenging the ruling on behalf of millions of SBC women” who are forced to sit on the bench and cannot participate in the Great Commission. This is a false claim. Southern Baptists believe that God calls and gifts women for ministry. It’s written in…
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The Remarkable Conversion of Molly Worthen
I cannot recommend highly enough Collin Hansen’s interview with historian and journalist Molly Worthen (watch or listen below). I listened to it this morning, and it is one of the most encouraging testimonies that I have ever heard. Worthen is a historian at the University of North Carolina and a journalist who has written extensively and sometimes critically of evangelicalism. In this interview, however, Worthen shares how she came to Christ last year after being a skeptic for virtually her whole life. It is really a remarkable story. It is so easy to become cynical. Even for Christians, there is a powerful temptation to let the darkness of our time…
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On Women Pastors, Let’s Pray for Renewal Not Inquisition
When I was a Ph.D. candidate, I had a private conversation over lunch with one of our Theology professors about what it means to be a Baptist. I was green and more naïve than I should have been as a first year doctoral student. During the conversation, I tried to make the point that while believer’s Baptism is essential to being a Baptist, congregationalism isn’t. His response to me was simple, direct, and unperturbed. Congregationalism is just as central to being a Baptist as believer’s baptism. I left that conversation a little put off by what he told me, but I also left with a renewed zeal to find out…
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So calling God “Mother” is no big deal after all?
This week has seen the appearance of two new reviews of Amy Peeler’s controversial book Women and the Gender of God. Both reviews are written by theology professors from Moody Bible Institute—the first by Marcus Johnson in Themelios and the second by John Clark in Touchstone. I reviewed Peeler’s book myself last January, so I read both of these new reviews with a keen interest to see if they saw what I did—that Peeler’s book contains some significant Trinitarian and Christological problems. It turns out that both of them did. That is why I was surprised to see a bit of a meltdown online concerning Johnson’s review in Themelios. No…
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Derek Webb’s Ode to Deconstruction
I recently saw that Derek Webb has released a new album titled “The Jesus Hypothesis.” Webb famously walked away from the Christian faith several years ago. Nevertheless, he claims on his website that “The Jesus Hypothesis” is his first “Christian & Gospel” album in ten years. You don’t have to listen very far into the playlist to discover that it is not “Christian & Gospel” at all. Yes, the subject matter is Christianity and the gospel, but it’s all about how Webb has rejected both. In his song “God in Drag,” Webb hijacks Jesus’ language from the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said… but I…
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Resurrection Hymn
O Jesus, Savior of my life, My hope, my joy, my sacrifice, I’ve searched and found no other one Who loves me more than you have done. So I denounce my lingering sin Whose power You have broke within My ever weak and faithless frame. Its vigor’s crushed in Jesus name. For your death did at once proclaim, The Godhead’s glory and my shame. And you did seize my cup of guilt And drank all that the chalice spilled. No condemnation now I dread Because you went for me instead To bear the curse and wrath and rage, To pay the debt I would have paid. Yet your work finished…
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The Innermost Meaning of the Cross
“But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” -Isaiah 53:10 “God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness.” -Romans 3:25 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us– for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’” -Galatians 3:13 “It is those who cannot come to terms with any concept of the wrath of God…
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An Open Letter Supporting Women as Pastors
Earlier today, I saw that Scot McKnight posted an invitation to sign a statement affirming women as pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The group hosting the letter is called Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM). Although I’m not aware of this group having any meaningful ties to the SBC any longer, this group has a history that was forged during the crucible of the SBC’s conservative resurgence. One early member of the group was Molly Marshall, former professor at Southern Seminary a well-known advocate for female pastors, and an advocate for “theological hospitality” toward those who affirm homosexuality. BWIM tweeted about the letter before its release and gave a…
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A Stimulating Address on the Trinity and EFS
At the recent Shepherd’s Conference , Pastor Mike Riccardi delivered an excellent address about the Trinity and EFS. It’s an accessible primer on the issue and gets to the theological heart of the debate. You can listen to the audio below or read his manuscript here. Highly recommended. Riccardi’s remarkis are all good and helpful. Really clarifying. My one bit of feedback concerns the pactum salutis. Does Riccardi’s presentation leave room for there to be a pre-temporal eternal covenant between the Father and Son? There is a lot at stake in this question because The Baptist Confession of 1689 is even more explicit about the covenant of redemption than Westminister.…
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Beware of Those Who Make a Virtue of Doubt
Christianity Today has published an article about doubt that, if true, would make Jesus into a sinner. The article is a couple years old, but it just came to my attention a few days ago [but see update #2 below]. In the article, two biblical scholars, A. J. Swoboda and Nijay K. Gupta, argue that “Jesus Was the God-Man, Not the God-Superman.” As such, they argue, Jesus sometimes experienced doubt. By becoming the God-Man, Jesus took on our human nature, “warts and all.” The authors argue that “part of what he received from us in his humanness was our ability to doubt—and doubt he did.” They contend, “Doubt is a…
