There’s no way to understand my feeling about Adam Greene’s Bibliotheca project without telling you something about my own story as a Bible reader. I first confessed Christ as a 9-year old. I really think that is when the Lord converted me. I remember some things that immediately changed in my life after that experience. Among other things, I wanted to tell my third grade teacher at my public school that I had gotten “saved” (which turned out to be a bust, but that’s another story). I also remember having a desire to pick up my Bible and read it.

I have been preaching through Paul’s letter to 1 Timothy in my church over the last several months. Yesterday, we looked at one of the more enigmatic verses in all of scripture: “But women will be saved through childbearing–if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.” -1 Timothy 2:15 (NIV) The exegetical issues here are too complex to unpack in a single blog post, but I thought I’d share briefly what I understand this text to be saying.

Desiring God Ministries and CBMW have just produced a new book celebrating biblical manhood and womanhood. It’s edited by Owen Strachan and Jonathan Parnell, and it’s titled Good: The Joy of Christian Manhood and Womanhood. I’ve got a chapter in it on transgender, which you can read here. John Piper penned a nostalgic forward to the book that takes a look back at just how much has changed among evangelicals since he and Wayne Grudem first edited Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood twenty-six years ago. Grateful for the fruit of that work, Piper concludes with this: I commend this book to you, and pray that the beauty of the vision,…

Last week, Matthew Vines had an extended interaction with Sam Allberry’s review of God and the Gay Christian. Vines digs his heals in and defends the main thesis of his book while critiquing Allberry’s book Is God anti-gay? Those who have read my own review of Vines’s book will not be surprised that I find much to disagree with in Vines’s remarks. He continues to argue that same-sex orientation is a morally neutral—and even praiseworthy—category of desire. I won’t rehearse all my reasons for disagreement but simply direct the reader to my earlier review. It’s worth mentioning, however, that I find myself in agreement with Vines about one thing (though…

The Spring issue of The Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood has just been released. You can download the entire issue for free from CBMW.org. This issue includes articles from Owen Strachan, Andrew Walker, and more. Strachan’s article takes a critical look at the moniker “gay Christian.” Walker has an insightful piece about religious liberty and current debates about sexuality. This issue also includes David Schrock’s interview with the author of True Sexual Morality, Daniel Heimbach. This issue is filled with helpful material, and you can read the full table of contents is below.

“Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, beholding His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man for He Himself knew what was in man.” –John 2:23-25 In verse 24, there’s a play on words that you miss in English translation. Literally, John says that even though the people were believing in Jesus, He was not believing himself to them. The idea is that even though they were trusting in Jesus, He wasn’t reciprocating. Jesus…