Evangelicals disagree about how the Old Testament law functions as a normative ethic for Christians. Has the law been abrogated? Fulfilled in Christ? Is it still morally binding? When it comes to the ten commandments, nine of the ten are directly reiterated by the apostles in the New Testament, so the binding nature of those commands is a no-brainer. Some controversy still exists about keeping the Sabbath since it isn’t reiterated in the New Testament in so many words. One other issue that sometimes comes into contention is the tithe. Under the Old Covenant, God’s people were required to give a tenth of all of their increase. Some people believe…
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Strachan Mixes It Up on the Her.meneutics Blog
Owen Strachan wrote a blog a couple of weeks ago critiquing the “Dad Mom” mindset that is often praised in popular culture. His article provoked a response from Laura Ortberg Turner at Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics blog. Turner contests Strachan’s reading of Titus 2:5 and Genesis 3:16 and argues that Strachan’s vision of manhood is not the same as Jesus’. She writes:
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Daniel Wallace Debates Bart Ehrman
On October 1 of this year, Daniel Wallace debated Bart Ehrman for the second time over the reliability of the text of the New Testament. The event was held at Southern Methodist University before the largest gathering ever to hear a debate over the New Testament text. A DVD of the event was produced by a film crew using four HD video cameras. It’s just over two hours long, and it really lays out the issues well. A trailer for the video is above. You can purchase the full video from The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. This is a great resource that you will want to…
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How To Give an ETS Paper
Thanks to Justin Taylor for highlighting this excellent post by Fred Sanders, “How To Give an ETS Conference Paper.” All first-timers should read Sanders’ advice very carefully and get to work implementing these suggestions before next week. There’s still plenty of time. Here’s Sanders’ outline:
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Mohler Leads Discussion of the Historicity of Adam
Albert Mohler led a discussion in Southern Seminary’s chapel today about the historicity of Adam and the gospel. Panel members include Tom Schreiner, Jim Hamilton, Chad Brand, and Steve Wellun. You can watch above, listen below, or download here. [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/fall2011/20111108-panel.mp3] My favorite line from the discussion comes from Jim Hamilton who argues that Peter Enns seeks to replace the beginning of the biblical story with evolution. Hamilton says that replacing the beginning of the biblical story with evolution is like replacing the first scene of “Star Wars” with the first scene from “Sleepless in Seattle.” It just doesn’t work because they are two different stories.
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Jim Hamilton Takes on Peter Enn’s about Evolutionary Worldview
Jim Hamilton weighs-in on the debate between Peter Enns and Al Mohler about evolution and the age of the earth. His conclusion: The issue is one of authority. And the question is not whether there will be an authority but which religion’s authoritative claims will shape our thinking: will our world-view be shaped by the authoritative statements of the medicine men and shamans in white coats or by the Spirit-inspired authors of Scripture? Read the rest here.
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The “Dad Mom” and the “Man Fail”
In a discussion over at the CCEF podcast, some counselors suggest that there’s nothing necessarily biblical about men assuming the role of primary provider for their families. [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/ccef/HH_-_TL2C_WS2C_CC2C_AR_-_is_it_OK_to_be_a_stay_at_home_dad.mp3] I think that Owen Strachan hits much nearer the mark when he argues that the biblical ideal does not treat men and women as interchangeable with respect to the provider role. He writes, The “Dad Mom” concept is a “man fail” in my view. Men are not called by God to be “working at home” as women are in Titus 2:5. The ground is not cursed for women in Genesis 3:17, but for men, whose responsibility it was to work outside of…
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Craig Blomberg on Church Discipline
Craig Blomberg has some helpful reflections on his blog about church discipline and the interpretation of Matthew 18:15-17. He has five points: 1. Nothing in this passage limits the sin to certain kinds of offenses deemed particularly serious. 2. A lot of minor offenses can easily just be overlooked, for the sake of keeping that same peace. 3. The different meanings of “witnesses” in English cause unnecessary confusion. 4. There really isn’t any way to make “tell it to the church” mean “tell it to the pastor” or “tell it to the elders” or some other subgroup of the church. 5. Treating someone like “a pagan or a tax collector”…
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Jim Hamilton on the Removal of “Selah” from the NIV
Jim Hamilton takes issue with the decision of the NIV translators to remove the word “Selah” from the book of Psalms. He argues: For reasons textual, structural, intertextual, cultural, and theological the NIV 2011 should reverse itself on this point and put the word Selah back where it belongs: in the text. Hamilton concludes: When I read an ancient text from a different culture, I don’t want to look into a linguistic mirror. I would like for that text to feel a little foreign, to feel a little ancient. I don’t want it only telling me what I already know. This word Selah occurs over and over all across the…
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New Hebrew-English Old Testament Based on the ESV!
I just received Crossway’s 2012 Academic & Pastoral Resources catalog yesterday, and there are two items in here that I am really excited about. They are both Bibles, and I think they will be tools that will encourage pastors and teachers to read their Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. The first is a Hebrew-English Old Testament that displays the ESV Old Testament alongside the Hebrew text. I am most enthusiastic about this one because the diglot options for the Hebrew Old Testament are fairly limited. Now, Crossway has given us the entire BHS text laid out next to one of the best translations in English. The release date…