I didn’t know that Bocelli’s own story was a pro-life one, but it is. What makes testimonials like this one so powerful is that they cut through all the distracting garbage that afflicts the abortion debate in our culture. Stories like this one slice right through the morally bankrupt arguments of pro-choicers. Who could say with a straight face to Bocelli, “Your mother could have had you killed in utero, and that would have been a good decision too”? When you clear away all the confusing legal arguments and debates, the bottom line is this. Unborn babies are persons. They aren’t pre-human; they are human. It’s wrong to kill innocent…
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Rob Plummer’s 40 Questions
I mentioned a while back that I’ve been reading through Rob Plummer’s new hermeneutics primer 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible. It has been an excellent read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a smart, introductory-level text on biblical interpretation. I’ll wager it’s the only hermeneutics book in history with endorsements as illustrious and varied as Darrell Bock, Kevin Vanhoozer, and Jerry Vines. Don’t let the title fool you though. This is not a book of 40 random questions thrown together haphazardly. The book has four parts treating the following topics: (1) text, canon, and translation, (2) interpretation and meaning, (3) biblical genres, and (4) issues in…
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Are you a Varsity or JV Christian?
For many years, I believed that Christianity had a Varsity squad and Junior Varsity squad. The JV squad consisted of those who had accepted Jesus as their Savior, and the Varsity squad of those who had accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord. I saw members of both squads in my own church. I believed that baseline Christianity was JV. These were the people who were going to Heaven but who nevertheless didn’t care very much about Jesus. I believed that Elite Christianity was only for the few varsity players. These were the people who not only weren’t going to hell but who also followed Jesus in this life on…
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GCR in a Nutshell
Trevin Wax has a helpful primer defining the issues surrounding the SBC’s “Great Commission Resurgence.” In particular, he summarizes the report from the Great Commission Task Force and how the debate has shaken-out heading into the convention in Orlando in a couple of weeks. Here it is: “GCR in a Nutshell.”
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Caffeine Doesn’t Help After All
I gave up my caffeine addiction last Fall after my doctor told me I needed to do so for health reasons. I loved my morning coffee, and I didn’t want to give it up. I am not a morning person, and I thought I needed the morning jolt to get me going. Nevertheless, I got on-board with the doctor’s instructions, and now my morning fix has given way to my morning decaf. Notwithstanding the brief withdrawal period, it really hasn’t been that big of a deal.
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Ligonier’s 2010 National Conference
Ligonier’s 2010 National Conference is going to be held in Orlando right after the SBC, and they are offering a discounted rate to attendees of the SBC. More info here.
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Kobe better than Jordan?
Mike Wise says that it’s no longer “heresy” to ask who’s the greatest NBA player of all time, Kobe or Michael? He summarizes arguments for both sides of the debate and shows that Bryant is poised to surpass Jordan in the relevant statistical categories. But then he concludes with this: “The unfortunate truth for Kobe is he can never be Michael because he isn’t thought of as likable as Jordan,
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The Life of the Mind and the Love of God
Here’s the really sharp promo for the Desiring God National Conference on the “The Life of the Mind and the Love of God.” It is to be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 1-3, 2010. Register here.
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Gulf Oil Spill and the Evangelical Conscience
Be sure to read Russell Moore’s latest on the Gulf oil spill, “Ecological Catastrophe and the Uneasy Evangelical Conscience.” Here’s an excerpt: “I’ve left my hometown lots of times. But never like this. Sure, I’ve teared up as I’ve left family and friends for a while, knowing I’d see them again the next time around. And, yes, I cried every day for almost a year in the aftermath of a hurricane that almost wiped my hometown off the map. But I’ve never left like this, wondering if I’ll ever see it again, if my children’s children will ever know what Biloxi was.”
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Was Shakespeare Christian?
Anthony Esolen makes the case in First Things that Shakespeare was a profoundly Christian playwrite. He writes: “There is an abundance of evidence to show that Shakespeare was a profoundly Christian playwright—and far more thoroughly concerned with the theology of grace, repentance, and redemption than any of his contemporaries. Here I should like to note one characteristic of his view of the world that seems to spring from his Christian faith—for it certainly does not spring from any recrudescence of paganism in the Renaissance, nor from the worldly laxity that sets in with the fading of western man’s assurance of Christian dogma and morals. For Shakespeare, chastity is as near…