BOOKS Don’t Call it a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New DayEdited by Kevin DeYoung Kevin DeYoung has brought together a group of twenty- and thirty-something evangelical Christian leaders to produce this collection of essays titled Don’t Call It a Comeback: The Same Evangelical Faith for a New Day to assert the stability, relevance, and necessity of Christian orthodoxy today. My article is “Gender Confusion and a Gospel-Shaped Counter-Culture.” Articular Infinitives in the Greek of the New TestamentThis book is a technical study on a particular point of Greek Grammar, the articular infinitive. It was published by Sheffield Phoenix Press in May 2006. Sheffield Phoenix Press is located in…
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President Carter Takes on the Bible
Former President Jimmy Carter recently revisited his decision to leave the Southern Baptist denomination. In an article for the British Observer, he stated the following: “My decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when th e convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service. This was in conflict with my belief – confirmed in the holy…
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Can you get de-baptized?
Here’s an article from USA Today explaining a new trend among atheists, ‘de-baptism.’ ‘Up until last summer, Jennifer Gray of Columbus, Ohio, considered herself “a weak Christian” whose baptism at age 11 in a Kentucky church came to mean less and less to her as she gradually lost faith in God. ‘Then the 32-year-old medical transcriptionist took a decisive step, one that previously hadn’t been available. She got “de-baptized.” ‘In a type of mock ceremony that’s now been performed in at least four states, a robed “priest” used a hairdryer marked “reason” in an apparent bid to blow away the waters of baptism once and for all. Several dozen participants…
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A Critical Look at Cronkite’s Legacy
The Wall Street Journal has an editorial that offers a critical look at the journalistic legacy of Walter Cronkite. This one is worth reading in full, but here’s an excerpt: “The most important moment in his career came when he departed from the newsman’s role to play editorialist… “Without the authority that derives from that trust, reporters get careless about objectivity, weakening the audience’s trust even further. “The glory of Walter Cronkite’s career is that he did more than anyone to earn his viewers’ trust and establish his profession’s authority. The tragedy is that he also did more than anyone else to undermine them.”
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Richard Hays and the Authority of the NT
Recently I picked up again Richard Hays’s The Moral Vision of the New Testament in preparation for a paper I am giving at ETS this November. Hays rightly argues at the beginning of the book that the New Testament is the norm that trumps all other authorities. He writes: “This study proceeds on the assumption that the canonical Scriptures constitute the norma normans for the church’s life, whereas every other source of moral guidance . . . must be understood as norma normata. Thus, normative Christian ethics . . . must begin and end in the interpretation and application of Scripture for the life of the community of faith. Such…
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Quotables from Caritas in Veritate
“Religious freedom does not mean religious indifferentism, nor does it imply that all religions are equal.” “Reason always stands in need of being purified by faith: this also holds true for political reason, which must not consider itself omnipotent.” –Caritas in Veritate, 55 & 56
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Soil Number Three
John Piper has not been Tweeting long, but he sure has done a great job of turning the micro-blog into a platform for the gospel. Yesterday, he posted a line that is worth some reflection. Here it is: “The devil’s main American M. O. is soil three not soil two (Luke 8:23-24)” This is a reference to Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the soils in Luke 8 (the verses are actually Luke 8:13-14), and it is an apt word for our culture. Here’s the text: Luke 8:13-14 13 “And those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no…
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What Christians Have To Offer
‘What we offer the world is not ourselves or our moral example or our spiritual integrity. What we offer the world is our broken lives, saying, “We are sinners saved by grace.” What we offer the world is Jesus Christ and him crucified.’ –Mark Galli, Christianity Today
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CT Covers Piper vs. Wright
Trevin Wax has compiled a helpful piece for Christianity Today in which he sets in parallel the contrasting views of John Piper and N. T. Wright on the topic of justification. There is an HTML version that you can read, or you can download a PDF of the article as it appeared on the pages of CT.
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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 LORDFrom this time forth and forever.Praise the LORD! I wonder how many of you readers are shocked to learn that Holy Scripture says the “dead do not 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.