Darrell Bock has weighed-in on the discussion about the 2011 NIV. In general, he thinks the negative responses to the new translation are unwarranted. There are several remarks he makes that I think are worth responding to. Readers need to read Bock’s post for themselves, but I will try to summarize his concerns here and respond to each briefly.

We have been discussing the new of edition of the New International Version of the Bible this week, and I have another resource or two to throw your way. The first is a most helpful review by Vern Poythress which appears in the most recent issue of The Westminster Theological Journal. This review is very well done, and I hope it gets a wide-reading. Here’s the full bibliographic info and a link to a PDF of the article as it appears in WTJ:

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:

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.

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.

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…

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…

(HT: Tim Challies)