Touchstone magazine has just made available an article in which Dr. Russell Moore talks about what he learned from rude questions about his adopted sons. This is a poignant, punchy piece, and I highly commend it to you. Moore has a profound grasp of the gospel and a unique gift for communicating it. His basic contention is that common misunderstandings about adoption reveal how much we often fail to grasp our very real adoption as sons and daughters of God. Moore writes:
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D. A. Carson on Perfectionism
D. A. Carson has recently reviewed Chris VanLandingham’s Judgment & Justification In Early Judaism And The Apostle Paul. VanLandingham has a provocative thesis that will no doubt add fuel to the fire of debates about the New Perspective on Paul. Carson’s review is helpful and devastating—helpful to those who are trying to decide whether or not to read this book, devastating in its analysis of VanLandingham’s method and results. One item in the review is worthy of note. VanLandingham argues for the quirky thesis that Christ’s death provides atonement only for the believer’s past sins. Sins committed after conversion will be counted against believers at the judgment. Thus the final…
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A Great Commission Resurgence
I wish to address this post to all my Southern Baptist readers. So the rest of you have fair warning that what follows is a bit of inside baseball for my fellow SBC’ers. Last week, I wrote about the “Building Bridges” conference that was taking place in Ridgecrest, North Carolina. The conference theme communicated the organizers’ intention to “build bridges” between the Calvinists and the non-Calvinists of the SBC. The divisions of late between some Baptists on this issue have left many SBC’ers wondering if the heated controversy might prevent future cooperation for missions. Thus it was good to hear many of the speakers (both five-pointers and non-five-pointers) communicate their…
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Southern Baptists, Calvinism, and W. A. Criswell
Are Southern Baptists Calvinists? That’s one of the questions being discussed this week in Ridgecrest, North Carolina at the conference “Building Bridges: Southern Baptists and Calvinism.” This conference could not have come at a better time, given that debates about Calvinism among Southern Baptist often generate more heat than light. I have great hopes for better things from this conference. Speakers include Albert Mohler, David Dockery, Malcolm Yarnell, Tom Nettles, Voddie Baucham, Danny Akin, Tom Ascol, and many others. You can podcast the messages from the conference through iTunes at the following link: Building Bridges Podcast (SEBTS Audio). Or you can visit Lifeway’s site and download the MP3 messages directly…
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Who Would Jesus Bomb?
Don’t miss Russell Moore’s “Who Would Jesus Bomb? War, Peace, and the Christian.” In this short essay, Moore considers the poles of pacifism and militarism and suggests that the Just-War tradition is the best way for Christians to think about issues of war and peace. Here’s a snippet: “When, if ever, is it right for a government to kill people? As you sort out the ethics of war, the stakes are high for your spiritual formation. Sure, you probably won’t single-handedly decide whether the United States should invade Canada. But the way you think through the rightness or wrongness of military action tells you something about how you see your…
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McKnight vs. “Hyper-Calvinism”
Scot McKnight has posted a letter from one of his readers who is having problems with “hyper-Calvinists,” but the difficulties to which he refers include nothing of what hyper-Calvinists actually believe. Rather, the real difficulty with the ones that he labels “hyper-Calvinists” is that they are self-righteous and condescending in their eagerness about regular Calvinism. If the letter-writer’s description is accurate, then the problem is not Hyper-Calvinism or even regular Calvinism. The problem is sin—self-righteousness, condescension, and arrogance, to be specific.
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Witherington’s Critique of Schreiner’s NT Theology
Ben Witherington offers some critiques of an unnamed book on NT theology. The book to which he is referring is Tom Schreiner’s forthcoming New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ. Tom Schreiner argues in his new book that the basic theme of the New Testament is “God magnifying himself through Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit.” Witherington doesn’t like this thesis. Let me give you a sampling of Witherington’s complaints and then offer some brief responses.
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Rudy Giuliani: A Disaster Waiting to Happen
Hadley Arkes argues in First Things something similar to what I have been arguing on this blog. The nomination of Rudy Giuliani would effectively give us two pro-choice parties. If Rudy is elected, pro-lifers will be pushed to the political margins, and there will be no voice for the unborn in mainstream electoral politics. Here are the relevant lines:
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Good News from Abroad, and from the Homefront
According to the Washington Post, there is more good news from Iraq and beyond, and this is welcome news for the Bush administration. The war in Iraq seems to have taken a turn for the better and the opposition at home has failed in all efforts to impose its own strategy. North Korea is dismantling its nuclear program. The budget deficit is falling. A new attorney general has been confirmed despite objections from the left.
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Douglas Moo on Richard Hays’ Echoes of Scripture
This post is a bit of inside baseball for the bibliophiles and theologues who read this blog. Yesterday, I commented on the new issue of SBJT on the book of Romans. Douglas Moo is one of the contributors and is well known as an accomplished Pauline specialist. He is especially known for his thick commentary on Romans in the NICNT series.