There has been something of a debate unfolding in the comments of my previous post, “John Piper on the Calamity in Minneapolis.” The lines of the debate are fairly neatly drawn between those who are determinists and those who are not. The determinists are arguing that God was in control of the collapse of the bridge, and the non-determinists attribute the tragedy to the activity of Satan or some other non-divine source.
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To Change It Would Make It Worse
There have been a lot of comments under my post about John Piper’s remarks concerning the collapse of the I-35 bridge. The controversy has centered on how God can be sovereign given that the world is filled with suffering. My best friend of 23 years has written on this topic, and you may want to check it out. It’s a personal reflection on his mother’s death that is worth considering. “To Change It Would Make It Worse” – by Barry Joslin (Baptist Press)Â
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John Piper Takes on Rabbi Harold Kushner
Pastor John Piper responds to Rabbi Harold Kushner’s misguided comments about God’s inability to prevent calamities (like the collapse of the I-35 bridge last week in Minneapolis). Here’s the conclusion: “No, Rabbi Kushner. Your soft words offer no hope in the end. The foundation is false. And the consolation does not satisfy the God-given passions for truth and meaning in the human heart. May the Lord open your eyes to the One who died for your sins and rose again, Jesus Christ, so that if you would trust him, you would be saved from the wrath of God that your blasphemy and my contaminated anger deserve.” Amen to that. You…
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Interview with Dr. Francis Beckwith
I wrote about Dr. Francis Beckwith’s return to the Roman Catholic Church several months ago. As you may remember, Dr. Beckwith’s return to Roman Catholicism led to his resigning the presidency of and his membership in the Evangelical Theological Society. Greg Koukl conducted a two-hour interview with Dr. Beckwith on “Stand To Reason,” and you will not want to miss this one. The interview is available for free on the “Stand To Reason” website. Here’s the link: Interview with Francis Beckwith.
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Emergent Humor
Well, this post will be a bit of inside baseball for those who keep up with currents in evangelicalism. The Christianity Today blog linked to these motivational posters that are parodies of the Emergent wing of the emerging church. They are pretty hilarious. One of the posters is pictured at right, but if you’d like to see the rest of them, click here. For those of you who are emerging and are offended by this post, let me even things out by offering you this parody of Calvinism: “25 warning signs that you might be obsessing about Calvinism.” Who said I can’t be an equal opportunity offender? 🙂
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Uneasy in Babylon
I am about five years behind everyone else in reading Barry Hankins’ Uneasy in Babylon: Southern Baptist Conservatives and American Culture. I actually began reading the book a couple of years ago, but then got distracted and only picked it up recently to finish it. But don’t be deceived by the narrative of my history with this book. Uneasy in Babylon is a great read and will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the history of the conservative resurgence in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
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John Piper: The Future of Justification
Pastor John Piper has written a book refuting N. T. Wright’s view of the doctrine of justification. The book is titled The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright, and it is set to be released by Crossway this Fall. Anyone who has been following the impact that the New Perspective on Paul has had on this critical biblical doctrine will want to read this book. The Desiring God website has an excerpt from the conclusion of the book on its website. Here’s a piece of it: “God has not ordained that living the Christian life should be the basis of our hope that God is for us.…
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Rod Dreher on the Pope’s Recent Clarification
Rod Dreher comments on the Pope’s recent clarification that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church: “It’s the pope’s job to explain and defend Catholic teaching, which makes unique and exclusive truth claims. It would be logically inconsistent for the pope to affirm Catholic teaching while asserting that churches proclaiming contradictory things are equally correct.
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Are Mormons Christian?
Dr. R. Albert Mohler finishes up his debate with Orson Scott Card over whether Mormons are Christians or not. Mohler’s last essay has words that relate to our earlier discussion about “the Great Tradtion.” Here’s how his summarizes his view that Mormons are in fact not Christian:
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Are Empires Evil?
It is pretty common to hear American academics labeling America as an “empire.” In June of 2006, for instance, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosted the annual meeting of The Historical Society, the topic of which was “Globalization, Empire, and Imperialism in Historical Perspective.” A theme that appeared in the essays presented at the conference was the comparison of the United States to the various imperial regimes of world history.