In years past, my customary mode for reading through the Bible every year involved starting in Genesis and reading right through to Revelation. I estimated that about four chapters per day would get me through in under a year’s time. The method worked reasonably well, but it wasn’t without its problems. Sometimes I would miss a day (or days) and get behind, and I had no way to keep up with my progress. I needed a schedule so that I could keep myself accountable for finishing in a year. In 2009, therefore, I did something I had never done before. I followed a Bible reading plan. I adopted Robert Murray…
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Top 10 YouTubes of 2020
It’s time for my annual posting of the Top 10 YouTube Videos of the Year (see last year’s list here). This ranking is totally unscientific, and there’s actually more than 10 videos this time (13 to be exact). Only one person was polled to compile this list—yours truly. This year’s slate of videos has both humor and humanity with some other odds and ends thrown in. If you think I’ve left something out, let me know. I’ll think about adding an “Honorable Mention” category at the bottom. If you’re interested, here are links to lists from previous years: 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |…
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Transformation: Glory to God in the Highest
On Sunday, I preached a “Christmas” sermon titled “Transformation: Glory to God in the Highest.” I put “Christmas” in scare-quotes because its holiday bona fides rely entirely on whether or not you think Rocky IV is a Christmas movie. In any case, the message is below. Merry Christmas! https://kenwoodbaptistchurch.com/media/sites/33/2020.12.20_DennyBurk_2Cor3.18-smaller.mp3
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Let every heart prepare him room!
How could there possibly be anything more mysterious and wonderful than the incarnation of Jesus Christ? God became a man. God took on mortal human flesh. Even though he himself was unfallen, he subjected himself to the brokenness of this fallen world. He sneezed. He coughed. He got headaches and an upset stomach. Every morning he got up, shook the dust out of His hair, and put his hand to the plow in his Father’s field. The incarnate Son of God was obedient even to the point of death. And three days later, what was mortal became swallowed up by immortality in the resurrection. Even now, the resurrected Christ sits…
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The Trinity in Grudem’s Second Edition
The long-awaited second edition of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology has just been released. Having sold three-quarters of a million copies, the first edition of this book has been a mainstay among evangelicals. And not just among folks attending seminary or Bible college (although Grudem’s work has certainly been ubiquitous there). This book has connected to countless laypeople in the pews who have wished for a simple introduction to Systematic Theology in a way that connects them directly to Scripture. That is why Grudem’s first edition has proven to be so influential and enduring, and it’s why the second edition likely will be too. One of the key items of interest…
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The Cajun Night Before Christmas
If you have never heard of The Cajun Night before Christmas by Trosclair, well, you’re about to! It’s a mainstay where I am from, and my dad read it to us every year on Christmas Eve when I was growing up. Even now, he reads it to my children whenever the family is together for Christmas. I have a good friend with an English accent who picked this book off the shelf in my home one time while he was visiting. He regaled my entire family with his own hilarious attempt at a cajun accent. I won’t embarrass him by revealing his name, but I will say that it rhymes…
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Why Conservatives Don’t Trust the Media about the Election
Ross Douthat has an insightful analysis of why so many conservatives believe that the election was stolen. In particular, he explains why they aren’t listening to the tsk-tsking of the news media and elites who are upbraiding them for believing in conspiracy theories: [The media’s] story of the spring and early summer starts with our country’s leaders and experts calling for unprecedented sacrifice, with lockdowns and closures that disproportionately affected small businesses, churches and families with children — all conservative-coded groups and institutions — while liberal professionals on Zoom were in better shape and the great powers of Silicon Valley expanded their influence and wealth. Then, based on a single…
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You have no enemies, you say?
YOU have no enemies, you say? Alas! my friend, the boast is poor; He who has mingled in the fray Of duty, that the brave endure, Must have made foes! If you have none, Small is the work that you have done. You’ve hit no traitor on the hip, You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip, You’ve never turned the wrong to right, You’ve been a coward in the fight. -Charles Mackay, English Chartist poet, 1814–1889
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Review of LOGOS 9
There are some professors of Bible who have an allergy to Bible software. I am not one of them. But those who do object do so mainly because they fear their students may use such a resource as a crutch and as a result may never really learn how to read the Bible in the original languages. Their concern is that students may rely on the software’s instant parsing and glosses so much that they never actually learn how the language works. While I agree that this is a legitimate concern, I do not agree that eschewing Bible software altogether is the answer. Students of Hebrew and Greek do in…
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Wisdom from God FOR us or TO us?
The 72nd annual “meeting” of the Evangelical Theological Society begins on Monday. I put “meeting” in scare-quotes because our in-person gathering in Providence, Rhode Island has become another COVID casualty. Nevertheless, the event organizers have put on a fantastic virtual version of our meeting that in some ways may facilitate more scholarly interaction. I’ve already listened to 8 papers including both sections of the “Evangelicals and Gender” group. I never would have gotten to hear so many papers in the usual format. So this is good. Presenters have already uploaded videos of ourselves to the event website, and anyone who is registered for the meeting can watch the presentations. I…
