There was an editorial in the New York Times on Sunday that is a virtual case-study of the gender confusion that pervades our culture. Dr. Albert Mohler has an insightful riposte that is worth the read. He writes: “The world we know is a world increasingly in revolt against the idea that gender is assigned by our Creator and is thus a fixed category. . . “The Christian worldview is clear at this point. The Bible presents gender as part of the goodness of creation. God reveals his glory in every aspect of creation, and this is abundantly true with respect to the two sexes. God glorifies himself in creating…
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Carl Trueman on Moronic Worship
Carl Trueman has a must-read essay at Reformation21 about unserious worship practices. This paragraph is a gem: “A church service involving clowns or fancy dress or skits or stand-up comedy does not reflect the seriousness of the gospel; and those who take the gospel seriously should know better. Frankly, it is more appropriate to liberal theology which does not take the gospel, or the God of the gospel, seriously. Serious things demand serious idioms.  I heard recently of a church service involving dressing up in costume and music taken from a Tom Cruise movie. Now, if I go for my annual prostate examination, and the doctor comes into the consulting…
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John Piper Preaches John 3:16
Dr. John Piper just completed a two-part series of sermons on John 3:16, and I hope a lot of people will take time to listen to these. Folks often wonder how a Calvinist handles texts like John 3:16 and the other “world” passages in scripture. These sermons are exemplary (in my view) of how Calvinists ought to handle them. Among other things, Piper says this: ‘We may, therefore, say to every human being, “God loves you. And this is how he loves you: He gave his Son to die, so that if you would believe, your sins would be forgiven and you would have eternal life.”
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Audio of Boyce College Commencement Addresses
The audio of President Mohler’s and my commencement addresses are available now from the Boyce College website. Today’s commencement marks the end of my first academic year at Boyce College. It has been an honor to serve as Dean, and I believe that Boyce College’s best days are still to come. President Mohler on Colossians 2:13-23 [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/BoycePodcast/20090508_Mohler.mp3] Dean Burk on 1 Thessalonians 2:13 [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/BoycePodcast/20090508_Burk.mp3]
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Doug Wilson Critiques N. T. Wright’s Remarks
In a previous post, I linked the video of N. T. Wright explaining why he hasn’t published on the topic of homosexuality. I didn’t provide any commentary or evaluation, though I did think the spot to be unsatisfying. Yesterday, Doug Wilson commented on the video, and I think his critique hits pretty close to the mark. He writes,
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Why Tom Wright Hasn’t Written about Homosexuality
In the video above, Bishop Tom Wright explains why he hasn’t written on the topic homosexuality. In short, he says that he hasn’t done the necessary research on the topic. Furthermore, he says that he is keenly aware of the complexity of the issue, and thus to do the topic justice would require him to write a book the length of The Resurrection of the Son of God.
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Calvinist Quibble
A. N. Wilson is a New Testament scholar who left the Christian faith when he was in his thirties but who has now begun to believe once again. It’s a great story, and you can read about it here. As great as Wilson’s story is, that is not the main point of my writing today. Dr. Ben Witherington has a short post on his blog about Wilson’s return to the faith, and my aim today is to respond to one little piece from Witherington’s commentary. Witherington writes:
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Is it possible to restore a pastor who has sinned sexually?
I enjoy listening to the “Ask Pastor John” series from DesiringGod.org. These recordings are each about three to four minutes long, and in them Pastor John Piper answers questions on sundry topics. I thought one recent episode might interesting to share here. Here’s the question that Piper sets himself to answer: Is it possible to restore a pastor who sinned sexually but who is repentant? Or is such a pastor disqualified because he no longer meets the qualification of being “above reproach”? According to Piper, the answer to the question is yes. You can hear his explanation by downloading the audio from here or by pressing the play button below.…
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Is John Piper a Pastor and a Scholar?
John Piper is not sure whether he should be considered a pastor and a scholar. At least that is what he says in an address he gave last week at Park Community Church in Chicago, Illinois. You can read it here, download it here or listen to it below. [audio:http://media.desiringgod.org/audio/events/20090423_piper.mp3] Here’s how Piper describes his task in this message: “I assume that one of the main reasons I was asked to do this talk is that somebody thinks I am one of these—a pastor-scholar. I’m not sure that I am. And so I thought maybe I should just tell my story as how I got to be the way I…
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Take Heed How You Hear!
Tomorrow morning I will preach in the three morning services of the First Baptist Church in Henderson, Kentucky. As I was preparing tonight, I was reminded of a little exhortation that John Piper wrote eleven years ago titled “Take Heed How You Hear.” In it, Piper gives his parishioners ten practical preparations to prepare to receive the word of God on Sunday morning. You can either listen to the exhortation below or read it here. [audio:http://media.desiringgod.org/audio/1998/19980222.mp3] I’ll give you the ten points, but you should take time to go and read the rest of the article and the scriptures in it. 1. Pray that God would give you a good…