My good friend Jim Hamilton interviews Preston Sprinkle today about issues related to biblical theology and the New Perspective on Paul. All you bibliophiles and theologues need to check this one out. “Interview with Preston Sprinkle on Leviticus 18:5” – by Jim Hamilton
-
-
A Good Word from Tony Snow
I’m thankful for public servants like Tony Snow—so much so that I have written about him more than once on this blog (see here). Last week, he announced that he would resign as President Bush’s press secretary. Many people will remember that he is a cancer survivor. Unfortunately his cancer has returned. Snow wrote a short piece for Christianity Today describing his decision to step down, and he also shared some of his reflections on having cancer. You should read the whole essay, but one line stuck out to me: “We want lives of simple, predictable ease—smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see—but God likes to go…
-
Greg Boyd Responds to My Post
Dr. Greg Boyd is a well-known open theist. Open theists do not believe in God’s omniscience classically defined. They believe that God does not know the future in as much as the future depends upon the choices that will be made by His free creatures. Of course, this is a radical (and I believe dangerous) innovation in the doctrine of God that has wide-ranging implications. Last month, I wrote a short blog post on the collapse of the I-35 bridge. In it, I took issue with Boyd‘s open theist view of how God relates to calamities, and I did so using the book of Job as a case study. I…
-
More on Literacy and the Gospel
I’m so thankful that God’s word is inerrant as every day reveals that my words are not! That was certainly the case in a short column I wrote last week for the Baptist Press, “Literacy and the Gospel.” That is why Dr. Grant Lovejoy of the International Mission Board wrote a helpful response to correct a potential misunderstanding that might have resulted from my article. His article is titled “Gospel’s Advance Can’t Wait for Literacy,” and you should read it. The main point of the article is on target, though I would challenge some of his supporting arguments.
-
Still a Sucker for the Underdog
I’m still a big fat sucker for the underdog. I loved it when Boise State put it on Oklahoma in last Season’s Fiesta Bowl. And I loved it on Saturday when Appalachian State beat Michigan. Can you believe that? I still can’t. It’s not just that a Division 1-AA school beat a Division 1-A school. This little David beat the number 5 Goliath in the country, the University of Michigan. Pat Forde of ESPN has it right:
-
John Piper on Tattoos and Body-Piercing
I get asked from time to time about the Bible’s teaching on tattoos and body-piercing. Typically, the questions center on the interpretation of Leviticus 19:28: “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.” I am in basic agreement with John Piper on this question. I suspect that the prohibition of Leviticus 19:28 is rooted in a concern about pagan religious practices. Thus the tattoos and cutting of the body in Leviticus 19:28 were evil relative to their association with paganism. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any reasons to think twice about getting a…
-
Al Mohler’s Comments on Mother Teresa
We discussed Mother Teresa’s “dark night of the soul” earlier this week. It’s also the topic of conversation at the Washington Post‘s “On Faith” blog. Dr. Albert Mohler has weighed in on the matter, and here is what he concludes:
-
The Testimony of a Suffering Saint
It was a blessing to me to listen to this dear brother testify to the sovereign grace of God in his life. I think you would do well to hear it too. (HT: Justin Taylor)
-
Luke Timothy Johnson Rejects Biblical Authority
Luke Timothy Johnson is well-known among those in my profession. He’s a prolific, accomplished scholar of the New Testament. But in a recent essay for Commonweal magazine, he offers a shocking public endorsement of homosexual marriage, as well as a blatant rejection of the authority of scripture on this issue. Here is the relevant excerpt:
-
What Evangelicals Can Learn from Flannery O’Connor
I just received the latest issue of Touchstone magazine in the mail yesterday. You won’t want to miss Donald T. Williams’ article, “Writers Cramped,” in which he outlines three things that evangelical authors can learn from Flannery O’Connor. The opening of the article sets up and asks a penetrating question: My fellow Evangelicals publish reams upon reams of prose. What we have not tended to write is anything recognized as having literary value by the literary world. What makes this failure remarkable is that our Protestant forebears include a number of people who did: Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, George Herbert, John Milton, and John Bunyan, to mention a few. Equally…