As of this writing, The New York Times is reporting that at least 173 people have died in the Alabama storm. This loss of life is horrific, and we may find out that there are more. The video above is from someone in Tuscaloosa who let himself get too close to the storm (HT: Timmy Brister). He survived, and his camera tells the story. At about 3 minutes into the video, you will see how close a call it was. Pray for the people of Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and beyond. This storm has wreaked havoc on these communities.
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Tuscaloosa Tornado Brushes Stadium
This video shows one of the twisters passing very near Alabama Crimson Tide football’s Bryant-Denny Stadium. (HT: Clay Hasenfuss)
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Newsflash: Obama Born in the USA
Time to break out the Springstein anthem. President Obama was in fact born in the USA. Just this morning, the White House released the President’s long form birth certificate to allay any remaining doubts about the President’s birthplace. If this is news to you, well then…now you know. In remarks after the release, the President said that the country didn’t need to be distracted by “sideshows” and “carnival barkers.” I couldn’t agree more with his characterization because that’s exactly what this birther issue was.
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SBL Greek New Testament Online
Attention, Bible nerds! BibleGateway.com has now posted online the entire text and apparatus of the SBL Greek New Testament (edited by Michael Holmes). This is an amazing resource, and as far as I know is the best Greek text available for free on the internet. The text is Unicode, so you should have no problem viewing it or cutting and pasting it into documents. Here’s a link to a page where you can begin browsing the text. Check it out! For those who are interested, you can purchase a print version of the SBL Greek New Testament here.
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Sojourn Sings Hymns of Isaac Watts
The new album from Sojourn Music has just released today. You can download the music now and/or buy the vinyl next month. See the trailer above for a sample of the music. It sounds like this will be another great album from Sojourn.
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Great Review of Jim Hamilton’s Book
Dan Phillips has an excellent review of Jim Hamilton’s excellent book God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment. Phillips writes: “Does Hamilton’s contribution stand out? My verdict is an unequivocal ‘Yes.’ What distinguishes God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment is a happy conjunction of various valuable features. I’ll enumerate, then expand on some of them.” Read the rest of the review to see the list. If you haven’t bought Hamilton’s book yet, you need to. It’s a must-read, and it’s available here. The Kindle edition is only $7.79!
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Gender-bending News Report
Sign of the times alert. Here’s the opening paragraph from a recent news report: Woman charged in transgender beating at McDonald’s ROSEDALE, Md. — An 18-year-old woman has been charged in an attack on a transgender woman over using a McDonald’s restroom in a Baltimore suburb —an incident captured on video by a McDonald’s employee. This is a sad story, and we should be outraged at the crime reported here. Nevertheless, the events in the report aren’t what I want to focus on. Instead, I want to highlight a subtlety in how the story is written that may go unnoticed. Notice that the victim is designated as a “transgender woman,” and…
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Adrian Warnock Debates Rob Bell
The British radio program “Unbelievable?” hosted a fascinating discussion between Rob Bell and Adrian Warnock. This program may be as close as we’ll get to hearing Rob Bell debate his book with an evangelical. I think Warnock does a good job of engaging Bell with tough questions, even though Bell’s responses still leave much to be desired. You can download the audio here or listen below. [audio:http://media.premier.org.uk/unbelievable/57af5a35-8b49-4c58-b283-fe25e4fe2d97.mp3] One item of note: Reviewers have criticized Bell’s book for not citing sources for his exegetical and historical claims. In this interview, however, Bell cites Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament for his definition of the Greek word aiÅn—that it does not…
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Trump and Abortion
Donald Trump has been all over the news lately as a potential front-runner for the Republican nomination for President in 2012. In my view, the speculation about Trump’s place in the field is way out of whack with reality. For a variety of reasons, I think his candidacy has little chance of succeeding. That being said, recent polls suggest that he is at the front of the pack of Republican presidential hopefuls. Many have attributed his sudden rise in the polls to his public statements questioning the citizenship of President Obama. Another reason that his candidacy has more plausibility among some conservatives is his recent conversion to the pro-life point…
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An Easter Hymn
O Jesus, Savior of my life, My hope, my joy, my sacrifice, I’ve searched and found no other one Who loves me more than you have done. (John 15:13) So I denounce my lingering sin Whose power You have broke within (Rom 6:14) My ever weak and faithless frame. (Rom 7:14) Its vigor’s crushed in Jesus name. For your death did at once proclaim, The Father’s glory and my shame. (Rom 3:25-26) And you did seize my cup of guilt (Luke 22:42) And drank all that the chalice spilled. (1 Cor 5:21) No condemnation now I dread Because you went for me instead To bear the Father’s hell-bent rage, To…