A friend of mine just sent me a link to some before and after pictures of the collapsed bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The photos go back to 1967 when the bridge was under construction. Here’s the link: “Interstate 35W Bridge Collapse, Minneapolis, Minnesota.” Also, be sure to follow the Desiring God blog’s commentary on the disaster. The newest entries include a video from the scene and a poem by John Piper.
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John Piper on the Calamity in Minneapolis
John Piper has just written on the Desiring God blog about the tragedy in Minneapolis: “Putting My Daughter to Bed Two Hours After the Bridge Collapsed.” He reports: “At about 6 PM tonight the bridge of Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. I am writing this about three hours after the bridge fell. The bridge is located within sight of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Most of us who minister at the church cross this bridge several times a week. At this point I don’t know if any staff was on the bridge. Desiring God offices are about a mile from the bridge.” You’ll want to read the rest…
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Tragedy in Minneapolis
About 2,000 feet of a heavily trafficked bridge collapsed in the middle of rush hour today in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As many of you know, John Piper’s Desiring God ministries and Bethlehem Baptist Church are right there in downtown Minneapolis. It turns out that the bridge is only about a mile from the Desiring God office and that folks from Desiring God travel on it often. I just received a note from Abraham Piper, and he says that they are not yet aware of anyone from Desiring God being involved in the tragedy. Jon Bloom has already written about the bridge collapse over at the Desiring God blog and has asked…
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Emergent Humor
Well, this post will be a bit of inside baseball for those who keep up with currents in evangelicalism. The Christianity Today blog linked to these motivational posters that are parodies of the Emergent wing of the emerging church. They are pretty hilarious. One of the posters is pictured at right, but if you’d like to see the rest of them, click here. For those of you who are emerging and are offended by this post, let me even things out by offering you this parody of Calvinism: “25 warning signs that you might be obsessing about Calvinism.” Who said I can’t be an equal opportunity offender? 🙂
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Uneasy in Babylon
I am about five years behind everyone else in reading Barry Hankins’ Uneasy in Babylon: Southern Baptist Conservatives and American Culture. I actually began reading the book a couple of years ago, but then got distracted and only picked it up recently to finish it. But don’t be deceived by the narrative of my history with this book. Uneasy in Babylon is a great read and will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the history of the conservative resurgence in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
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The Surge Is Working
The most encouraging analysis that I have read on the progress of the Iraq War is Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack’s Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times. O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a foreign policy think-tank that is widely regarded as leaning liberal.
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John Piper: The Future of Justification
Pastor John Piper has written a book refuting N. T. Wright’s view of the doctrine of justification. The book is titled The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright, and it is set to be released by Crossway this Fall. Anyone who has been following the impact that the New Perspective on Paul has had on this critical biblical doctrine will want to read this book. The Desiring God website has an excerpt from the conclusion of the book on its website. Here’s a piece of it: “God has not ordained that living the Christian life should be the basis of our hope that God is for us.…
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FBC Pell City, Alabama
I have been on vacation for the past week, and this morning I had occasion to visit the First Baptist Church of Pell City, Alabama. I didn’t know anything about the church or the pastor as I walked into the sanctuary for morning worship. So, I was delighted to find how God-honoring it turned out to be. Pastor John Thweatt preached on Galatians 2:20, and the sermon was exceptional. I’m writing about my experience this morning because I think it’s worth noting when you come across something valuable. I have heard many Southern Baptist preachers, and there simply aren’t that many anymore who open up their Bible, explain the meaning…
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Rod Dreher on the Pope’s Recent Clarification
Rod Dreher comments on the Pope’s recent clarification that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church: “It’s the pope’s job to explain and defend Catholic teaching, which makes unique and exclusive truth claims. It would be logically inconsistent for the pope to affirm Catholic teaching while asserting that churches proclaiming contradictory things are equally correct.
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Are Mormons Christian?
Dr. R. Albert Mohler finishes up his debate with Orson Scott Card over whether Mormons are Christians or not. Mohler’s last essay has words that relate to our earlier discussion about “the Great Tradtion.” Here’s how his summarizes his view that Mormons are in fact not Christian: