Church Planting Body Count
I regularly find myself surprised at how surprised some folks are at the unsurprising. We should, after all, expect people to be the people they are, and Mark Driscoll is Mark Driscoll. Shocking, isn’t it? Well, Mark Driscoll prepared a video for a conference on church planting in which he was very much himself, and…
Languages of Forgiveness
Christianity Today has an interesting article on languages of apology (and forgiveness). There are a number of helpful thoughts in this piece that can be helpful. The author, Gary Chapman (The Love Languages of God, The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate) relates this to couples, in which I think…
Dave Warnock Reads PFOT
…. Pierced for our Transgressions, that is. Taking his own advice about reading books with a viewpoint opposed to his own, he is working his way through this book. I’ve read other materials on penal substitution (Justification by Faith Alone, for example, which maintains that the forensic nature of justification is critical to salvation by…
Anti Any War
One has to wonder what some politicians are thinking, when one considers the following exchange (via MSNBC): It wasnÂ’t so easy for Obama to avoid the firebombs from the two peaceniks on stage. Kucinich upbraided his rival for talking tough about the use of force against Iran. “I think that it’s important for people to…
Focusing the Atonement
Peter Kirk has been involved in some extended debates about the atonement, and you can read about it here and here. Peter has written some good stuff on understanding the atonement. I have generally just been saying that we must recognize our ways of explaining the atonement as metaphors, and not as the reality. A…
Christian Carnival CLXIX
. . . has been posted at Imago Dei. I’ve resubmitted my post, which I sent to the wrong e-mail address, under the generous “submit by Friday” note. Thanks to Mandi Kaye for hosting.
Ministry and Porn
After yesterday’s post on Moral Choices when Viewing and this follow-up that I wrote for my wife’s devotional list, I found this post via Imago Dei. I get Donny’s regular ramblings via the Moderate Christian Blogroll, but I don’t regularly read XXXChurch. There are a number of points in here that are worth noting, and…
This I Abhor
I believe I have established here that I like tolerance, but I have also noted that tolerance is a value for me, not an absolute. In other words, I don’t have to tolerate everything. I just believe it’s good to be as tolerant as possible. (You can find some previous comments here.) Ed Brayton has…
Book: J. Louis Martyn, Galatians
If you read this blog at all regularly you will have seen a number of posts that reference J. Louis Martyn’s commentary on Galatians in the Anchor Bible Series. I have just completed a study through Galatians, using the Greek text and Martyn’s commentary. It’s very hard to rate commentaries, because there are so many…
God Doesn’t Forgive?
OK, this is shocking. Peter Kirk reports that: I interrupt my normal programme to bring you this shocking quote. Yes, the news is going round that Richard Cunningham, director of UCCF, said God never forgives – he punishes. Apparently he said this during a talk at the recent Word Alive conference, the same one which…
Moral Choices when Viewing
When I saw the post Virtual Gomorrah: Temptation, Technique, and Technological Progress on the evangelical outpost, I expected to be annoyed by calls for censorship. And indeed there are a few words that tend to annoy my libertarian approach, such as these: . . . My basic position is that while they are desperately needed…
War Failings: Clear and Attainable Objective
There’s a good article on MSNBC.com titled: Fundamental failures led to current Iraq crisis. My arguments against the war have been primarily based no the first point: Lesson 1: Select an attainable objective While the Administration tried to build a case against Saddam on the basis of weapons of mass destruction, a principal motivation, ironically,…
Public Policy and Prophecy
John has an interesting post over at Locusts and Honey titled The Bible, Politics, and Pseudoprophecy. Though there have clearly been some extended exchanges, I haven’t followed them closely, so I’m not 100% certain what John means by Pseudoprophecy, but I think he makes a number of good points. I’d like to comment a bit…
Response to Misquoting Jesus – Summary and Conclusion
This is the conclusion of my multi-part series responding to Bart Ehrman’s book, Misquoting Jesus. Here are links to the earlier portions of this series: Part I Part Ia Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII In chapter 7, The Social Worlds of the Text, Ehrman discusses how the social…
Response to Misquoting Jesus VII
. . . in which, of course, I respond to chapter 6. I will post a directory to the whole series of responses, with the final entry, but in the meantime you will get the series by choosing category “Textual Criticism” in the right sidebar. There are other entries in that category, but all the…
Embarrassed Again
I knew when the news of the tragedy at Virginia Tech came out that there would be religious responses that would be obnoxious, and even some that would be downright despicable. It seems that with every tragedy there are uninvolved people available to place blame and to pontificate. I personally have no words that are…
Response to Misquoting Jesus VI
. . . in which, quite logically, I discuss chapter 5. 🙂 In Chapter 5, originals that matter, Ehrman first introduces the basics of textual criticism and tells us how textual decisions are made. This good overview, as he notes, will not prepare you to make textual decisions for yourself, but it will let you…
Christian Carnival CLXVIII
. . . has been posted at Random Acts of Verbiage. A group of Christian bloggers have been pulling this all back together. Dory has been out of touch and she is in all our prayers. We are hoping she is just excessively busy. HT: Lingamish.
Response to Misquoting Jesus V
In chapter 4 of Misquoting Jesus, The Quest for Origins: Methods and Discoveries (pp. 101-125), Ehrman moves to important but slightly less engaging material. This chapter is important in laying out the basic history of textual criticism, and how Biblical scholars began the move from the corrupt Textus Receptus to a better critical text. Many…
Podcasts on Inspiration
On the Running Toward the Goal podcast, I am presenting a two part series on inspiration/revelation based on Psalm 19. Today’s post is the first one, and the second will be posted on Monday. Tomorrow’s Running Toward the Goal is by Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. and will focus on apologetics. Running Toward the Goal is posted…
Galatians 3:15-18 – Preliminary Thoughts on Seed and Seeds
I want to make a few quick notes on this passage right after studying through Martyn’s Galatians commentary notes on it. This is a passage that has troubled many because in verse 16 Paul makes a major issue of the singular “seed,” thus pointing the passage directly at Christ. Now if one reads the passage…
Response to Misquoting Jesus IV
. . . in which I respond to chapter 3. This response will be brief. This chapter is excellent. If you’re a Bible student of any variety, buy Misquoting Jesus and make sure to read chapter 3. While I have read many of the things presented here before in more technical works, this chapter is…
Is there such a thing as a theistic evolutionist?
Panda’s Thumb writer Pim van Meurs gave an irony award to Salvador Cordova whom he quotes as saying: Darwinian TE (Theistic Evolution) just doesnÂ’t cut it scientifically. That is ironic, considering that young earth creationism makes many assertions that contradict archeology, not to mention geology. Young earth doesn’t even match the written record. But this…
No greater love . . .
Professor Liviu Librescu gave his life for his students (Jerusalem Post). It’s worth remembering. I’m sure there were many others. In the midst of this terrible act, there are also people who showed true heroism. HT: Breaking Christian News.