Ben Witherington enters the theodicy discussion that began with John Piper and that continues in the comments section on this blog. Witherington contests John Piper’s understanding of God’s sovereignty over calamities, saying that Piper is “just guilty of having an unBiblical view of God, that ironically is closer to the fatalistic one found in the Koran, than the Biblical one found in the New Testament.”
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Amend ETS in the News
In July I wrote about my participation in an effort to amend the doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS). Just yesterday, the Baptist Press wrote a little story about the proposal, and you can read it here: “Profs seek change in ETS statement.” I was happy to read the endorsement given by Dr. David Dockery, the President of Union University: “I commend . . . efforts to provide a more full-orbed confession for the Evangelical Theological Society. When the society was formed, there was an assumption that a commitment to inerrancy brought with it a commitment to other orthodox and evangelical doctrinal distinctives. But that may not be…
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New Website for CBMW
The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) launched a new website over the weekend. If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to check it out: www.CBMW.org. There are many resources available for free, including every single back issue of the Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood. There is even a “Gender Blog” to which you can subscribe. Also, don’t miss the sermon audio section.
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Touchstone Forum on Evangelicalism
This is just a note on something that is coming in the November issue of Touchstone magazine. The editor has put together a forum on the state of evangelicalism today, and the contributors include Russell Moore, John Franke, Darryl Hart, Michael Horton, David Lyle Jeffrey, and yours truly. Here are the questions that we all answered:
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ETS Program Online
For all of you theologues that are going to be in San Diego, California this November, you might want to check out the program of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. It is available online here.
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Review of The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views
James Beilby and Paul R. Eddy, eds. The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006. 208pp. $20. It is no accident that Intervarsity has chosen to publish a “four views” book on the meaning of Christ’s atonement. The topic is very much in dispute right now, even among those who are associated with the evangelical movement. Not long ago, the consensus among evangelicals consisted more or less of an affirmation of the penal substitutionary view, but this is no longer the case. As evangelicalism has splintered, so has its tacit orthodoxy concerning atonement. Now, we are not surprised to hear certain pastors and theologians castigating…
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September 11, 2001
Of course I’ll never forget where I was on September 11, 2001. My wife and I were in our second year of marriage, and we were living in Louisville, Kentucky while I was working on my Ph.D. On the morning of the attacks, I was in our apartment, and she called me from work to tell me to turn the television on. I think both buildings had already been struck by the time I tuned in, but I was watching live television as both of them eventually crumbled to the ground. The emotion of that day has left an indelible mark on me. The uncertainty. The questions. The very real…
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More John Piper on the Problem of Evil
The discussion about Greg Boyd and the problem of evil is still ongoing as I write this blog. The whole thing began with John Piper (John Piper, Greg Boyd, Denny Burk, Greg Boyd, Denny Burk), and so it’s fitting to bring him in again now. Last week John Piper delivered a series of message at Wheaton College titled “Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer.” In these messages he addresses the very questions we’ve been discussing for over a week now. If Piper’s messages do anything, they show that the view I have been arguing for is not narrowly derived from the book of Job. Dr. Piper powerfully communicates the…
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Preston Sprinkle on the New Perspective
My good friend Jim Hamilton interviews Preston Sprinkle today about issues related to biblical theology and the New Perspective on Paul. All you bibliophiles and theologues need to check this one out. “Interview with Preston Sprinkle on Leviticus 18:5” – by Jim Hamilton
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Greg Boyd Responds to My Post
Dr. Greg Boyd is a well-known open theist. Open theists do not believe in God’s omniscience classically defined. They believe that God does not know the future in as much as the future depends upon the choices that will be made by His free creatures. Of course, this is a radical (and I believe dangerous) innovation in the doctrine of God that has wide-ranging implications. Last month, I wrote a short blog post on the collapse of the I-35 bridge. In it, I took issue with Boyd‘s open theist view of how God relates to calamities, and I did so using the book of Job as a case study. I…