The current issue of The Journal for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood is now available online for free download from CBMW.org. There are many excellent articles in this issue, and contributors include Josh Harris, Stephen Nichols, Albert Mohler, and Rebecca Jones. Of course my review of gender language in the 2011 NIV is included as well. Here’s the full table of contents:
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A Response to the NIV Translators
I just saw yesterday that the translators of the 2011 NIV have posted a response to CBMW’s review of the new NIV’s gender language (note also their response to the SBC resolution). If you are following this discussion, you will want to read the whole letter from the translators, but I will summarize their concerns here and offer a brief response to each.
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10 Principles on Marriage and the Public Good
Commentary abounds in the wake of New York’s move to legalize gay marriage. Just today, I saw David Frum’s column at CNN.com in which he recants his former opposition to same-sex marriage. Frum says he was wrong to argue in public that same-sex marriage would weaken traditional marriage or have other deleterious effects on the public good. Frum says that over the last 14 years, “the case against same-sex marriage has been tested against reality” and has come up short. So he and a host of other Republicans are either silent about the issue or are outright endorsing gay marriage.
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The SBC Resolution on the NIV
A surprising thing happened at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention last week. The messengers approved a resolution opposing the 2011 edition of the NIV. This kind of move is not unprecedented for an annual SBC meeting. Messengers approved similar resolutions in 1997 and in 2002, both of which were in response to gender-inclusive revisions of the NIV. But there was something different about the resolution that came out this year. This resolution came not from the resolutions committee, but from a single messenger who was concerned about the issue and who wanted the convention to speak to it.
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Free Greek NT for Kindle
I have really enjoyed owning and using a Kindle e-reader—especially on trips. One of the things I have missed, however, is a good edition of the Greek New Testament for Kindle. The editions available in the Kindle store are dated and useless. I have tried to create my own version in a PDF format, but that proved to be pretty clunky as well. I found out on Sunday that a fine e-reader version of the Greek New Testament is now available. A company called OSNOVA has recently produced a Kindle version of the SBL Greek New Testament, and it is fantastic. Here is a picture of what the text looks…
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Is Congregationalism from Satan?
Pastor James MacDonald wrote a short blog post last week titled “Congregational Government is From Satan.” The main point of his argument is pretty well summed up in the title. He really believes that “congregational government is an invention and tool of the enemy of our souls to destroy the church of Jesus Christ.” Congregationalism holds that the final court of appeal in the local church is not a bishop or a pope (as in the Roman Catholic or Episcopal churches) and not an elder, board of elders, or general assembly of elders (as in Presbyterianism). The final court of appeal in matters of discipline, doctrine, dispute, and membership is…
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29 Ways To Stay Creative
(HT: Tim Challies)
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A Biblical Case against Spanking?
I just received InterVarsity’s Fall 2011 catalog and noted that William Webb has a new book coming out: Corporal Punishment in the Bible: A Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic for Troubling Texts. Many of you will remember Webb as the author of the egalitarian book Slaves, Women, & Homosexuals, in which Webb argued for an ethic on the women’s issue that goes beyond the ethic of the New Testament. In that book, Webb argued that “redemptive-movement” often brings readers to an ethical position superior to the one found in the Bible. So even though Paul clearly argues for male headship in a variety of texts, redemptive-movement indicates that there is a better ethic…
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Critique of Gender Language in the NIV
In March, Zondervan released a new revision of the NIV, and the new version signals a significant update to a translation that has not been revised since 1984. The 2011 NIV has many commendable improvements. Nevertheless, it represents a significant departure from the NIV that evangelicals have used for a generation. In particular, the 2011 NIV adopts a gender-neutral approach to translation—a way of rendering the Bible that has been the subject of no little controversy over the last decade. I want to highlight two critical reviews of the gender language in the 2011 NIV that have recently been released by the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood (CBMW). 1.…
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Hiding Baby’s Gender
By now, you’ve probably heard about the two parents in Canada who are keeping their infant baby’s gender a secret (read about it here or watch above). Why are they doing this? It’s not because there is any physiological ambiguity in the baby. They are doing this because they don’t want their child shoehorned into culturally defined gender stereotypes. Rather, they want their baby (whom they’ve named “Storm”) to make his/her own decisions about his/her own gender.