Abraham Piper has a clever line that I think describes the post-modern ethos of our day: “If you ask questions but you reject answers, you’re not actually asking anything. You’re just festooning tired, old propositions with trendier punctuation.” This is a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but it is actually a very serious point. The post-modern proclivity for interminable questions is very much like Paul’s description of the women at Ephesus who had been deceived by false teachers. Paul says that they are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7).
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Abortion and Racism
From Anne Hendershott at the Witherspoon Institute: “It’s never been a more dangerous time to be a black baby. . . The figures are shocking: Nearly half of all African American pregnancies end in abortion. Since 1973, the number of abortions by African American women has totaled more than twelve million. In some localities, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Maryland, and Georgia, more than half of all abortions are performed on black women. Similar rates are found for black women in New York City. . . The black community has already been changed by abortion. At a time when 50 percent of their unborn children are aborted, many within the black community…
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Connecting the Dots: Bill Maher and John Piper?
You have probably seen by now one of the ads for Bill Maher’s new documentary “Religulous.” If you haven’t seen it, it’s a movie that was produced for the expressed purpose of denigrating religion. The fundamental point seems to be that having faith in any religion is ridiculous—thus “Religulous.” In the trailer for the movie, the following exchange takes place between Maher and a person dressed up like Jesus.
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Joseph Is a Single-Issue Evangelical
In Southern Seminary’s chapel today, Russell Moore delivered one of the most prophetic pro-life messages I have ever heard. You can download it here or listen to it below. [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/MP3/fall2008/20081016moore.mp3] One of the most powerful sections of the sermon comes when Moore makes a comparison between “Christians” of a former generation who tolerated the lynching of African-Americans and “Christians” of this generation who tolerate the atrocity of abortion: “There are churches, and there are pastors, and there are young evangelical leaders who are saying to us, ‘We ought not be single-issue evangelicals. We ought to be concerned about more issues than simply abortion.’ Which means that we ought to be…
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Michael Horton on N. T. Wright
I was just alerted to a radio program from last summer in which Michael Horton examines the theology of N. T. Wright. You can listen to it here or click the play button below. [audio:http://swn.edgeboss.net/download/swn/saved/oneplace/mp3/2655936/wi20080601.mp3] For the most part, the critique focuses on Wright’s “new perspective” reading of Paul. But there is also discussion of Wright’s counterimperial interpretation of Paul.
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New Volume on Hebrews
Richard Bauckham has edited a new volume on the epistle to the Hebrews, Cloud of Witnesses: The Theology of Hebrews in Its Ancient Contexts. It’s the latest installment in T & T Clark’s series “Library of New Testament Studies.” Dr. Barry Joslin of Boyce College contributes an outstanding essay on the law in Hebrews titled, “Hebrews 7-10 and the Transformation of the Law.” Among other things, he argues that in Christ the Old Testament Law has been “transformed” such that the artificial categories of “civil, ceremonial, and moral laws” might be curtailed.
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McKnight Questions McLaren
Scot McKnight recently posted a fascinating article for Christianity Today about Emergent leader Brian McLaren. The whole article is worth the read, but one section in particular caught my attention. At the end of the article, McKnight raises some questions about McLaren’s theology, and the first one has to do with McLaren’s engagement with the wider evangelical movement:
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Scot McKnight Describes Emergent
I think Scot McKnight would describe himself as “emerging,” so it’s fascinating to see his trenchant remarks about Emergent in a recent article for Christianity Today. McKnight describes the theological trajectory of Emergents in this way: “Very few emergent folks I have encountered have any chance of returning to a robust, traditional evangelical faith. As emergents learned and listened in their evangelical churches and institutions, they realized they could not accept much of what they were being taught. Though they remained within the comfortable confines of these institutions, their faith became ironic. Yes, they were Christians, but not quite what most people meant by that term.
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Don’t Feed the Blog Trolls
I have a fairly liberal comments policy. I have turned my blog filter on so that it automatically sifts out comments with profanity. Other than that, I generally do not screen all the comments. I’m not saying it’s the best policy. It’s just the one that I use because I simply do not have time to read all of the comments (especially in the longer threads), and I do not want to turn off the comments altogether.
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Is the Old Testament about Christ?
One of the great benefits of being on the campus of Southern Seminary is the frequent theology forums. Last week, Tom Schreiner moderated a discussion that included Peter Gentry, Jim Hamilton, and Duane Garrett. The forum was titled “Christology in the Old Testament: A Panel Discussion of how and to what extent we should see Christ in the Old Testament.” Tom Schreiner opens the discussion by asserting that all of the panelist agree that the Old Testament is about Christ (e.g., Luke 24:27). The panelists disagree, however, on how this works out in exegesis of the Old Testament text. This is a great discussion, and I hope you will listen…