Albert Mohler has a really thoughtful commentary on “fake news” today. He is in large part responding to Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s piece at The Washington Post on the same subject. Bailey is lamenting the fact that too many evangelicals have too much credulity toward “fake news” and too much incredulity toward real news delivered according to real standards of journalism. Mohler is sympathetic with Pulliam Bailey on this point. He agrees that there really is a qualitative difference between mainstream outlets and other “news” sources that have no editorial accountability. But Mohler also raises the very real problem that mainstream outlets have with detecting their own ideological bias, which sometimes…
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Charles Ryrie’s rare Bible collection sells for $7.3 million dollars at Sotheby’s auction
When Dr. Charles Ryrie passed away earlier this year, I mentioned that he had owned a vast collection of rare Bibles, including an assortment of ancient Greek manuscripts. Dr. Ryrie had invested significant resources in amassing his private collection. For example, one of the Bibles that I once saw in person was a first edition King James Bible published in 1611. This particular edition is one of only nine copies in the world. Dr. Ryrie purchased this Bible at an auction where he outbid the University of Texas Library to obtain it. Like I said, significant resources. Dan Wallace has just written that Ryrie’s collection was sold at auction this…
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Ten Reasons You Should Not Indulge in “Solo Sex”
Many Christians are confused about what the Bible says (if anything) about masturbation. Is it always a sin? Or is it sometimes morally acceptable? In my book on sexual ethics, I survey the landscape in this way: Dennis Hollinger relates the following statistic in his book on sexual ethics: “90 percent of adolescent boys masturbate; the other 10 percent are liars.” Hollinger delivers this factoid tongue-in-cheek, but his point is well-taken. This kind of activity is in fact ubiquitous among the male population, and not just among adolescents. Surveys indicate that over 60% of males ages 18-59 have masturbated in the last 90 days. Male solo sex rates are highest—at…
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Seven Reasons You Should Not Indulge in Pornography
Andy Naselli has a really helpful article in the new issue of Themelios titled “Seven Reasons You Should Not Indulge in Pornography.” Naselli explains why he writes: My burden in this article is to motivate you not to indulge in pornography. I am particularly burdened to motivate people who habitually indulge in pornography and who are not killing their sin of lust. If that describes you, then this article is a way of metaphorically taking you firmly by the shoulders, looking you directly in the eyes, and soberly warning you, “Wake up! Do you realize what the consequences are for indulging in pornography?!” Here are the seven reasons: It will…
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Does the congregation have a role in “appointing” elders?
There are many evangelical churches who view their elders as a self-appointing, self-perpetuating leadership body in the church. They do not view the congregation as having much of a role in the selection and ordination of pastors. For them, congregational votes and involvement in the process are American cultural artifacts read into the biblical text, not norms emerging from the witness of scripture. One of the texts often cited as evidence for this view is Titus 1:5, a text in which the apostle Paul gives some very specific instructions to the lead pastor in Crete—Titus. It says this: 5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you…
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Our Advent Calendar Tradition
Like many of you, my wife and I are trying to cultivate Christ-centered traditions in our household. And that is no less true during the Christmas season. I thought I would share one thing that we do that some of you readers might wish to incorporate into your family traditions—an advent calendar. We like the advent calendars because they are about advent—the first coming of Christ in fulfillment of God’s promises. Advent calendars are a way to mark every day of the Christmas season with that singular focus. In our house, the tradition is very simple. Beginning on December 1, we read a daily verse of scripture pertaining to advent…
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Chip and Joanna Gaines Must Be Stopped
Is there a nicer, more winsome couple on television than Chip and Joanna Gaines? Probably not. But guess what. They go to an evangelical church that believes marriage to be the union of one man and one woman. Therefore, they must be stopped… or at least that seems to be the view of the Pharisees at BuzzFeed.
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Deep in the Weeds on Monogenēs and Eternal Generation
Last summer, I did something that I had never taken the time to do before. I read the Nicene Creed in Greek. Of course I was very familiar with the English version of the Creed before then, but not so much the Greek. One thing that is clear in the Greek is that the Nicene fathers were interpreting scriptural terms in saying that Jesus is the “only begotten” (monogenēs) and “begotten not made” (gennaō). These terms derive from John’s writings, and the Creed clearly interprets monogenēs to denote “generation” or “begottenness.” That the Son is “begotten not made” and “begotten before all ages” means that the Son’s “only-begottenness” is eternal.…
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Why churches might need to excommunicate “affirming” members of the congregation
Andrew Wilson has a really good article this morning about non-affirming Christians who affirm the Christian bona fides of affirming Christians. Wilson is interacting with Steve Holmes and Alan Jacobs on this point. Both Holmes and Jacobs claim that affirming homosexual relationships is an error, but not one that should call into question the authenticity of someone’s Christian faith. Andrew makes a number of good points in response to this claim, and I would like to add some more here. The question before us is whether gay-affirming sexual ethics are a first order issue or a second order issue. Is it an issue that distinguishes Christian from Christian (like baptism)?…
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A Note on the Trinity Debate at ETS
I attended the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) last week in San Antonio. There was much that happened there, but of course the focus of much attention was the conference theme—the Trinity. For me, the most significant thing that happened was on day one in the session that featured Kevin Giles, Bruce Ware, Millard Erickson, and Wayne Grudem. While the plenary addresses tended not to address the EFS controversy, this particular session confronted it head-on. The debate was direct and even heated at times, especially in the panel discussion. But in my view the most important thing that happened was Ware’s and Grudem’s unambiguous affirmation of eternal…
