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.
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John Piper Interviews Rick Warren
Last October, I attended the Desiring God National Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I was greatly looking forward to hearing John Piper’s Q&A with Rick Warren. As providence would have it, Warren had to cancel his appearance at the last minute and delivered a pre-recorded video message instead. I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of us were very disappointed that we didn’t get to hear Piper and Warren mano a mano.
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Being a Fruitful Pastor without Being a Plenary Speaker
Brian Croft has some words of wisdom about being a fruitful pastor without being a plenary speaker. He writes: “Can a pastor still be fruitful if he has not spoken at a large conference? “This might appear to be a strange question, but you would be surprised at the amount of pastors asking it. Do not misunderstand, I could not be more excited about these historic movements such as The Gospel Coalition, Together for the Gospel, and others like it. Much significant work for the kingdom is being done by those who lead them. Nevertheless, a down side to these movements is an insecurity that can develop in many ordinary…
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The Hermeneutics of Gender
There was a lot of discussion last week of the Presbyterian Church’s (USA) decision to allow for the ordination of homosexual clergy. Christopher Cocca has an article at The Huffington Post, however, that pulls a thread that many have not picked up on. Cocca’s article is essentially about hermeneutics and the way that the Bible should inform our moral evaluation of homosexuality. But he comes at the issue from a different angle and argues that there is a connection between the ordination of homosexuals and the ordination of women.
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John Piper Endorses Hamilton’s Book
I think this is the strongest endorsement that I have ever seen John Piper give to a book. The Crossway blog has these remarks from Piper about Jim Hamilton’s book, God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology. Piper writes: “I was riveted. Never do I sit down and read sixty pages of ANY book that I get in the mail. But I could not stop—could not stop reading and could not stop rejoicing over God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment. It is the kind of overview of redemptive history Edwards wanted to write. It’s what I hoped would be written.” Piper is right. Hamilton’s book is a must-read.…
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Moral Equivalence and Bin Laden
Doug Wilson and Kevin DeYoung both have helpful warnings against making a moral equivalence between the crimes of Osama bin Laden and the lesser shortcomings of the average Christian. First, Doug Wilson:
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SBL Greek New Testament Online
Attention, Bible nerds! BibleGateway.com has now posted online the entire text and apparatus of the SBL Greek New Testament (edited by Michael Holmes). This is an amazing resource, and as far as I know is the best Greek text available for free on the internet. The text is Unicode, so you should have no problem viewing it or cutting and pasting it into documents. Here’s a link to a page where you can begin browsing the text. Check it out! For those who are interested, you can purchase a print version of the SBL Greek New Testament here.
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Great Review of Jim Hamilton’s Book
Dan Phillips has an excellent review of Jim Hamilton’s excellent book God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment. Phillips writes: “Does Hamilton’s contribution stand out? My verdict is an unequivocal ‘Yes.’ What distinguishes God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment is a happy conjunction of various valuable features. I’ll enumerate, then expand on some of them.” Read the rest of the review to see the list. If you haven’t bought Hamilton’s book yet, you need to. It’s a must-read, and it’s available here. The Kindle edition is only $7.79!