A very important book hit the shelves recently, and many readers will want to make a note of this one. It’s titled Kingdom through Covenant by Peter Gentry and Steve Wellum. The book argues for a perspective called progressive covenantalism—a mediating view between dispensationalism and covenant theology. This is a massive book (848 pages to be exact) on a critical subject matter, and it is likely to ruffle the feathers on both sides of this controversy. Matt Smethurst snagged an interview with the authors, and it is actually really good. I found this particular exchange to be ironic yet illuminating:
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How to preach the steamy parts of the Song of Solomon
I have a general complaint about the way that some preachers approach preaching on the Song of Solomon. The content of the Song is sometimes cited as the Bible’s permission-slip to deliver salacious sermons about sex. I think this is wrong-headed. The Song of Solomon gives us a poetic depiction of the marital act that is cloaked in symbolic language. Should not preachers exhibit similar discretion when speaking about the marital act? Shouldn’t our speech about sex be more discreet and indirect than it is provocative and explicit? It seems to me that preachers would do well to explain what the Bible says using the same level of discretion that…
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How Complementarianism Is a Gospel Issue
Don Carson, Tim Keller, and John Piper had a discussion last April about why the Gospel Coalition is complementarian. Many people have asked why a group that majors on the primary issue of the gospel would put so much emphasis on a secondary issue like complementarianism. That’s a fair question to which these three men give good answers. Keller argues that the gender question is only “indirectly” a gospel issue. The egalitarian hermeneutic has the potential to undermine not only gender roles, but also the gospel itself. There is much more to this discussion, and I encourage you to take it all in from the video above.
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Southern Baptists and Calvinism
Over the last several years, Southern Baptists have been having a pretty intense intramural debate about Calvinism. In a conversation that sometimes generates more heat than light, I am glad to see a recent conference that was more constructive. The conference was called “Calvinism: Concerned? Curious? Confused?” and it featured a panel of four Southern Baptist leaders who addressed the division in the SBC over this issue. Speakers included David Dockery, Frank Page, Hershel York, Kevin Smith, and Steve Lemke.
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I Am the God of Wine
I have always believed it to be a great irony that a Baptist minister should be named after the Greek “god of wine,” but I am. I will never forget as a young man stumbling across a “baby names” book in my house and flipping quickly to the D‘s to find out what my name meant. And before I knew it, there it was: “Dennis: the Greek god of wine.” I was gobsmacked. I was only ten years old, but I had been Baptist long enough to know that something was terribly amiss. As far as I knew, my teetotaling parents had given me my name, but this just wasn’t…
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Tom Schreiner on the “first task” of interpreting Paul
I doubt that I will write a full-length review of Michael Bird’s edited volume Four Views on the Apostle Paul, but I will make some remarks on it here and there as I read through it. In the book, the first “view” on Paul is the “reformed reading” by Tom Schreiner. In commenting on Paul’s view of salvation, Schreiner says this: How can God command people to keep his law and to repent and believe when they are utterly unable to do so? Our first task is to explain Paul, even if his worldview is foreign to ours. We must beware of conforming him to our worldview and of only…
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Pete Enns Takes on John Piper over Scripture
Pete Enns critiques John Piper’s recent remarks about the Jewish conquest of Canaan in the Old Testament. Piper argues that God’s judgments are just and shouldn’t be questioned. Enns objects and argues that the biblical accounts are historically inaccurate and at odds with Jesus’ ethic in the New Testament. In other words, Enns response presumes that the Bible has mistakes in it. Enns questions whether or not the conquest even happened. He writes:
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The Bible and Homosexuality
I’ve been reading Matthew Lee Anderson’s excellent book Earthen Vessels: Why Our Bodies Matter to Our Faith (Bethany House, 2011). I’m probably not going to take the time to do a full review of this book, but I just came across something that I thought worth sharing. In his remarks about the Bible’s clear prohibitions on homosexual behavior, he says this: The explicit rejections of gay and lesbian practices are not “clobber verses,” but rather the tip of an iceberg sticking above the surface: they reveal a much larger and deeper understanding of human sexuality and its relationship to our lives before God (p. 153). He is so right on…
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Jeremiah and Us on Trial
Jim Hamilton preached a message on Jeremiah 26 yesterday. He compares the suffering of Jeremiah to the suffering of the faithful in every age—even our own day. It’s really good, and you can download it here or listen to it below. [audio:http://kenwoodbaptistchurch.com/podcast/download.php?filename=2012-07-01_jim_hamilton_jer_26_jeremiah_on_trial__jul_1.mp3]
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Gagnon Calls on Exodus Leader to Resign
After reading a recent interview in The Atlantic, Robert Gagnon is calling for Alan Chambers to resign the presidency of Exodus International (an evangelical ministry to homosexuals). This call to resign carries some weight as Gagnon is the author of the single most important book defending the biblical view of homosexuality. According the Gagnon, the interview reveals serious theological error that disqualifies Chambers from remaining on as President. Gagnon says that the error represents a pattern of settled conviction on Chambers’ part. Ironically, Chambers does not revise his views on the ethics of homosexuality in the interview. Chambers still affirms the union of one man and one woman in marriage…