Last week I followed Justin Taylor’s live-blogging of the first conference of the “Gospel Coalition.” On Sunday, Justin sent me the authorized version of the Coalition’s foundational documents. You can download them here. According to Mark Driscoll, the Gospel Coalition began as a theological colloquium led by Dr. D. A. Carson and Dr. Tim Keller. The colloquium has been meeting for the past few years and has focused its efforts on drafting “a new evangelical reformed confession of faith.” Members of this colloquium included Alistair Begg, Kent Hughes, Philip Ryken, Mark Dever, Ray Ortlund, Ligon Duncan, and representatives from organizations such as The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Desiring…
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Interview with the Widow of a Turkish Martyr
Last month, I posted a week-long series on the three men who were martyred for Christ in Turkey. Recently, Father Jonathan Morris interviewed Shemza Aydin, widow of martyr Necati Aydin. Morris met with the widow in her home in Turkey and was able to speak with her and her children. You can read the interview here, or you can watch video excerpts from the interview here. Please pray for this dear family. And be encouraged that God is sustaining this widow and her children with His amazing grace. I think you can see that this is so in the following exchange, especially the very last sentence from Shemza:
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Who’s tougher on tongues: DTS or the SBC?
USA Today drew a contrast yesterday between Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in alleging that DTS is more open to the charismatic gift of tongues than the SBC. Here’s the relevant excerpt: A major battle over tongues has roiled the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest group of American Protestants. The SBC’s International Mission Board does not accept international missionaries who speak in tongues in public worship because it is not recognized as a part of Baptist identity, says spokesperson Wendy Norvelle. Next month, at the SBC’s annual convention, a group of pastors will ask the SBC to officially determine whether tongue-speaking adheres to Baptist principles.…
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The Season Finale of “Lost”
There was a lull in the storyline of “Lost” this season, and I was about to give up on the show altogether. But my relationship to the “Lost” series can be compared to Michael Corleone’s relationship to the mafia: “Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in!” All I can say now is that after the season finale, my attention to this story has been totally reinvigorated. “Lost” is a fascinating show with a host of religious and philosophical undertones. Characters are named after famous philosophers (e.g., John Locke, Desmond David Hume), storylines are mistaken for religious narratives (e.g., the theory that the island is purgatory), and…
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Regenerate Church Membership
John Hammett is a professor of theology at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he has presented a lecture on regenerate church membership that you need to hear. The title of the lecture is “Regenerate Church Membership: The Baptist Mark of the Church.” Hammett explains how Southern Baptists have lost sight of this ideal and have acquiesced to membership consisting of both believers and unbelievers. He describes the problem this way:
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Stick a Fork in Giuliani
You can stick a fork in Mayor Rudy Giuliani because he’s done. At least that’s the judgment that James Dobson has made, and I fundamentally agree with him. In case you missed it last week, Dobson said this: The jig is up. Rudy Giuliani finally admitted in a speech at Houston Baptist University last week that he is an unapologetic supporter of abortion on demand. That revelation came as no great shock to those of us in the pro-life movement. His public pronouncements as mayor of New York, together with his more recent tap dances on the campaign trail, have told a very clear story.
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The Baptist Perspective on Religious Liberty
I’ve just begun reading a new release from Broadman and Holman, First Freedom: The Baptist Perspective on Religious Liberty. The book is a collection of papers that were read at the 2005 Baptist Distinctives Conference held at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Among the contributors are Russell Moore, Richard Land, and Paige Patterson. I just finished Russell Moore’s contribution, and it is provocative to say the least. It’s titled, “Conservative Christians in an Era of Christian Conservatives.” Here’s a snippet in which he takes a whack at the emerging church:
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Giuliani’s Abortion Muddle
Don’t miss Michael Gerson’s opinion editorial on Rudy Giuliani’s incoherent position on abortion. Gerson writes:
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The Superbowl comes to Dallas! (. . . I mean, Arlington)
The Associated Press is reporting that the Superbowl will be coming to Dallas in 2011. Actually, it will be played in Arlington, which is a part of the Metroplex, but not Dallas proper. It could have been in Dallas, had the Dallas City Council and the Mayor gotten their acts together. But alas, the new Cowboy stadium is to be built in Arlington, and that will be the site for Superbowl 45. Woohoo! “North Texas Wins” – Mickey Spagnola (DallasCowboys.com) “North Texas bid beats Indy, Arizona for 2011 Super Bowl” – Associated Press
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Former President Weighs in on the ETS Doctrinal Statement
Dr. David Howard is a former president of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), and in Friday’s Wall Street Journal he weighed in on the resignation of Dr. Francis Beckwith. Howard thinks that Beckwith’s resignation was entirely appropriate, given Beckwith’s return to the Roman Catholic church. He writes: His resignation was appropriate, since the ETS affirms that “the Bible alone . . . is the Word of God written.” The phrase “the Bible alone” in the ETS context refers to the 66 books in the Old and New Testaments of the Protestant canon and thus rules out Mr. Beckwith’s continued membership, given that the Roman Catholic Church accepts additional books in…