Rachel Held Evans has been doing an interview series, and today’s installment is “Ask A Calvinist.” Justin Taylor does a fantastic job fielding questions from Rachel’s readers. I think his engagement is a model of gospel clarity and charity. Be sure to read this one.
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The Bible in Hebrew, Greek and Latin for Free Online
Thanks to Jim Hamilton for pointing us to an amazing free resource. The German Bible Societies have put online the entire texts of the Hebrew Old Testament (BHS), the Greek Old Testament (LXX), the Greek New Testament (NA27 and UBS), and the Vulgate. I do not see that the critical apparatus for any of these versions is included, but this is nonetheless a fantastic resource.
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CT’s Editorial about the SBC Resolution on the NIV
The latest issue of Christianity Today arrived in the mail yesterday, and I was interested to note an editorial about the Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution concerning the 2011 NIV. The article represents the editorial opinion of CT, and predictably it disagrees with Southern Baptists about the new NIV. Readers of this blog will not be surprised that by and large I disagree with CT’s editorial (see my previous posts: reviews of NIV, SBC Resolution, response to translators, response to Bock). But there was at least one item in the article that I do agree with. Here it is: “The only criterion for a good translation is this: Does it accurately…
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Do Dead People Praise God?
Do dead people praise God? The Psalmist says that they don’t. Read for yourself the last two verses from Psalm 115: The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor do any who go down into silence; But as for us, we will bless the LORD From this time forth and forever. Praise the LORD! For those of us grew up in evangelical churches that teach about saints praising God in the afterlife, this text can come across as quite a jolt. Can it really be true that departed saints no longer praise God?
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Was the Apostle Paul Married?
It is generally agreed that the apostle Paul was an unmarried man for the duration of his ministry. Not only does Acts omit any mention of Paul having a wife, but also Paul’s own letters seem to indicate the same. Nevertheless, there is some disagreement over whether or not Paul had been married at an earlier point in his life. In this post, I will argue that Paul was in fact a widower at the time of his writing. I’ll make the case in seven points:
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A Compelling Case against Inerrancy?
I’m reading Thom Stark’s new book arguing against biblical inerrancy, The Human Faces of God (Wipf & Stock, 2011). In the preface Stark says this about proponents of inerrancy: “As for died-in-the-wool fundamentalists and biblical apologists, I have no expectations that anything I have said within the pages that follow will convert them (although I hope it will); neverthless, I have tried to pay them the deep respect of extensively engaging their arguments” (p. xvii). I have to say that I am forearmed against believing that Stark will meet the ideal of that last sentence. I have just perused Stark’s bibliography, and there is not a single reference to the…
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Should Wives Submit to Their Husbands?
The front page of The Nashville Tennessean has an article by Bob Smietana titled “Should wives submit? Debate resurges.” Though Michele Bachmann’s candidacy for president is the catalyst for this piece, the article is not really about her. It’s about how American Evangelicals approach the question of gender roles in the home, in the church, and in society at large. Smietana interviews folks on both sides of this question and even deals briefly with the various interpretations of Ephesians 5 and how those readings play out in the lives of real families. Smietana even uses the proper theological designations for each view, complementarianism and egalitarianism. This is an unusual article,…
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Lloyd-Jones on Confronting Error
“We have somehow got hold of the idea that error is only that which is outrageously wrong; and we do not seem to understand that the most dangerous person of all is the one who does not emphasize the right things.” -Martin Lloyd-Jones, The Sermon on the Mount, 2:244
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Why You Should Read Hannah Coulter
Except for the Bible, I don’t know that I have ever wept in response to a book. But I did yesterday as I finished Wendell Berry’s novel Hannah Coulter. This little book is a rare pleasure not just for its literary quality, but for the vision of life that it casts before the reader. Seeing the world through the eyes of the main character Hannah Coulter has caused me to rethink my own vision of things, and she has done so in ways that evoke the very themes of scripture. Here are some of the things this book helped me to see:
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Ding, Dong, Postmodernism Is Dead
I remember reading Stanley Grenz’s Primer on Postmodernism in seminary and being impressed with his clear exposition of the postmodern spirit of the age. I knew that the atmosphere was polluted, and I wanted to know exactly what it was I had been inhaling. Grenz explained—better than anyone I had ever read—the air that I had been choking on.