Say it with me, “Southern Baptist Convention” (SBC). It’s the largest Protestant denomination in America, and they are having their annual meeting this week in Greensboro, North Carolina. Two items of interest are worth noting here. First, I wrote several months ago on this blog about a debate over Calvinism that would take place between SBC seminary Presidents Albert Mohler (for) and Paige Patterson (against). I want to direct your attention to several different news and blog accounts of the standing-room only event: Michael Foust (Baptist Press) Nancy H. McLaughlin (Greensboro News-Record) Tony W. Cartledge (Biblical Recorder) Lig Duncan (Reformation21) Thoughts & Adventures Blog Second, the SBC messengers elected a…

I want to follow-up on my earlier post about Mark Dever and his remarks about the gender issue in evangelicalism. Dever’s remarks were made on the “Together for the Gospel” (T4G) blog and were an attempt to answer criticism against T4G and its pro-complementarian stand.Now Ligon Duncan has followed up Dever’s post and has sought to offer even more context to the complementarian endorsement in T4G. Duncan’s remarks are in line with what I said about hermeneutics and the inerrancy and authority of scripture (see my original post and the interesting conversation that followed in the comments section). Duncan writes: The denial of complementarianism undermines the church’s practical embrace of…

Mark Dever reflects upon why so many evangelicals believe the debate over gender issues to be so important. He writes: Dear reader, you may not agree with me on this. And I don’t desire to be right in my fears. But it seems to me and others (many who are younger than myself) that this issue of egalitarianism and complementarianism is increasingly acting as the watershed distinguishing those who will accomodate Scripture to culture, and those who will attempt to shape culture by Scripture. You may disagree, but this is our honest concern before God. It is no lack of charity, nor honesty. It is no desire for power or…

Not a few critics of the emerging church have charged that the emerging movement often looks like made-over liberalism. While the charge is probably overly simplistic, there is nevertheless something that rings true about it.A recent essay by Walter Hengar in byFaith magazine explores the emerging movement’s outreach to old liberal protestantism. The essay is titled “More than a Fad: Understanding the Emerging Church.” In it Hengar writes: Emergent leaders who are eager to reconcile with liberal Protestants may soon find they have too much in common (source). If the Emergent Village podcasts are a reliable indicator, I would have to say that I think Hengar may be correct. In…

When I was in seminary, a friend once told me that J. I. Packer’s introductory essay in John Owen’s Death of Death in the Death of Christ was worth the price of the whole book. My friend was right. Packer’s essay has become somewhat of a classic among reformed evangelicals in North America and beyond. It puts in sharp relief the God-centered vision of classic reformed theology as it stands against the ever popular, man-centered Arminian point of view. One passage, however, from this otherwise outstanding essay raises a question in my mind about the gospel. Let me share the passage and then my question. Packer writes: According to Scripture,…