Over the weekend, I had an important exchange with Kristin Kobes Du Mez on social media. I won’t rehash the entire back and forth here. Some of it is linked below for your reference if you are interested in following the threads. If you boil it all down, she asked me a question, and I asked her one. She asked me whether I thought her book Jesus and John Wayne contains false teaching (to which I answered “yes”), and I asked her if she believes that homosexuality is sinful (to which she answered that she doesn’t know yet). In this post, I simply want to comment on her answer to…
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What happened at the ETS?
Well, another annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) is now in the books. I returned home late Thursday night from Fort Worth, TX, where this year’s gathering was held. For those of you who don’t know, the ETS is a society of theologians and biblical scholars who are dedicated to biblical inerrancy and a belief in the Trinity. At the annual meeting, members come together to present academic papers, meet with publishers, and catch up with old friends. Keep in mind that I only experienced a narrow slice of things, but here are my reflections on what I saw nonetheless. 1. Fort Worth and Nostalgia I confess that…
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Elite Evangelicalism’s Allergy to Complementarianism
Former editor of Christianity Today, Mark Galli, wrote a jaw-dropping column last week. Galli’s essay discusses where the next generation of evangelical leadership is going to emerge from. Will it be from among “elite evangelicalism” (e.g., Fuller Seminary, CT, Intervarsity Press, World Vision, etc.), or will it be from among the constellation of “reactionary Reformed conservatives” (e.g., Doug Wilson)? Galli then goes on to talk about his tenure at Christianity Today and what it revealed to him about the priorities of “elite evangelicalism.” He writes, Elite evangelicalism (represented by CT, IVPress, World Vision, Fuller Seminary, and a host of other establishment organizations) is too often “a form of cultural accommodation…
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Summary Judgments on Social Media Contradict Scripture
John Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008), 843: Many theological controversialists today set themselves up as Internet gurus, declaring brothers and sisters to be excommunicate on their say-so alone, showing contempt for the authority of the church, which alone has been authorized by God to make such judgments, and violating God’s standards requiring protection of the accused. Many of these have no scruples about spreading lies to anybody who will listen. It never occurs to them that they have a responsibility to protect the reputations of fellow Christians, even those with whom they disagree.
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John Murray on Truth and Bearing False Witness
John Murray, Principles of Conduct (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1957), 134-35: No warning or plea is more germane to the question of truth than that we cultivate the reserve and exercise the caution whereby we shall be preserved from rash and precipitate judgments and from the vice of peddling reports that are not authenticated by the proper evidence. And we must also strive to be blinded by no prejudice, nor impeded by the remissness of sloth and indifference, which render us impervious to the force of compelling evidence with which we are confronted. Jealously for truth and for the conviction that is correspondent will make us alert to evidence when it…
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Do seminaries really need to require biblical languages?
Last Wednesday, Dr. Rob Plummer delivered a really important faculty address titled “The Necessity of Biblical Languages in Ministerial Training.” In his lecture, Dr. Plummer takes dead aim at the recent push in some seminaries to do away with biblical language requirements. He shows that this is a horrible idea driven not by concern for the best way to train pastors but by educators who wish to make it easier to get through seminary. It’s a pragmatic carelessness about the core competencies of a pastor. Dr. Plummer masterfully explains why this reasoning fails and why we need to retain the languages in seminary curricula. He says, “Reading the Bible in…
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Biblical Justice vs. Mob Justice
One of the most vicious characters in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is a woman name Madame Defarge. In the beginning, she appears as a diminutive woman who passively spends her time knitting as French nobility commit great injustices against commoners. The reader comes to find out that this woman is storing up bitter resentments and bloody plans for vengeance against her aristocratic persecutors. Through years of oppression, she is quietly knitting a “hit list” of aristocrats whose blood must be spilled in the coming revolution. Her bloodlust becomes so intense that she begins to sew names on her list that don’t deserve her condemnation. At one crucial…
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An Important Challenge to Egalitarian Claims about Ephesians 5:22
Peter Gurry has an important article titled “The Text of Eph 5.22 and the Start of the Ephesian Household Code” in the most recent issue of New Testament Studies. This article is significant for two reasons. One, this article presents a significant challenge to a common egalitarian reading of Ephesians 5:21-22. Two, the argument appears in the premier academic journal for New Testament scholarship. What does the article say? Here is a literal translation of the Greek text of Ephesians 5:18-22. I’ve laid it out so that you can see the structure of the argument: 18 …be filled with the Spirit 19a by speaking to one another in psalms…
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Martyn Lloyd-Jones on “Preaching Other People’s Sermons”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones: “I hesitated about making any reference at all to the next point–preaching other people’s sermons. I feel that I must mention it because I am assured that it is a not uncommon practice. I have but one comment to make about this–it is utterly dishonest unless you acknowledge what you are doing. I never have understood how a man can live with himself, who preaches other men’s sermons without acknowledgment. He receives the praise and the thanks of people, and yet knows that it is not due to him. He is a thief and a robber; he is a great sinner. But, as I say, the amazing thing…
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Can Calvinists Sing “Softly and Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling”?
John Piper’s message at T4G 2014 was one of the most memorable sermons I have ever heard. His assignment was to preach Romans 9, to explain the doctrine of election, and to show how that doctrine is NOT at odds with the free offer of the gospel to all sinners. At the end of the message, he tells a story about his father, who was a Southern Baptist evangelist. Many “cage-stage” Calvinists would not put Romans 9 together with an old school tent revival, but Piper does. And it’s beautiful. Here’s the description of the message from the T4G website: Why is Romans 9 in the Bible? More specifically, why…
