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What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
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Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
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Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
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Christian Carnival CLXX
. . . has been posted at Brain Cramps for God. It has a nice theme, lots of good information and many interesting posts.
Christian Carnival CLXX
. . . has been posted at Brain Cramps for God. It has a nice theme, lots of good information and many interesting posts, including my very own post from this blog, Look at New Perspectives on Paul.
Information on FV (Federal Vision)
I found the this post on the Federal Vision (FV) because the author tracked back to a post on my Threads blog that is related to my Look at New Perspectives on Paul entry. It’s not my intent to discuss the FV and the relationship of the Westminster Confession to the new perspectives on Paul,…
Praying, Being Heard, and Not Getting It
7Who, in the days of his flesh, offered entreaties and petitions to the one who was able to save him from death with loud cries and tears, and he was heard because of his piety. 8Even though he was a son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered, 9and being made whole he became…
Penscola AUSCS and ACLU Reps on Kenneth Lamb’s Show
This is of local interest along the Florida-Alabama gulf coast. Kennneth E. Lamb is hosting of “Your Turn” program from 4 til 6PM on Thursday 3 May 2007. Bill Caplinger of AU and Susan Watson of ACLU local chapters will be guesting. I know both of these folks, and they should be worth hearing. I…
Doctrine and Reality – The Need for Balance
In a recent post Dave Warnock looks through the preface by John Piper to Pierced for Our Trangressions, and quotes the following: This is how I feel today about teachers of ChristÂ’s people who deny and even belittle precious, life-saving, biblical truth.When a person says that GodÂ’s ‘punishing his Son for an offence he has…
Natural Production of New Information
One of the key arguments for Intelligent Design (ID) is that new information cannot be produced by natural processes, and thus there must be intervention by an intelligent designer for this new information to appear. That’s a crude statement, but it covers the ground pretty well. One problem I saw with the argument when I…
Even Better Update on Driscoll Video
Check this post on In Defense of the Faith for further information. One can’t be absolutely certain with blog comments, but this is beginning to make sense to me, I think. 🙂 In textual criticism, we consider a reading that could give rise to all the others as more probable. This report–that the videos were…
Christian Reconciliation Blog Carnival #4
. . . has been posted at Pseudo-Polymath. Despite my delinquency in sending in posts, this is a carnival I want to support. It’s small now, but has some excellent material but I think it’s only going to get better. Besides, where can you find a better goal?
Update on Driscoll Video
A couple of updates on this controversy. I may have spoken too soon on the matter of the duties of the conference hosts. It appears that people may have gotten the videos there. I’m still not sure precisely what happened, so I will still maintain that handing out the video would be the right thing…
Look at New Perspectives on Paul
This will be a slightly different post than my usual for this blog. Normally I grab a Bible passage or a principle of interpretation and comment on it. In this post, I want to tie together several threads of my blogging and teaching and point the direction toward some new questions that I’d like to…
Centrist Third Party?
I thought I’d blogged on this before, but I can’t find it. Eleanor Swift of Newsweek is writing about Unity 2008, a group that’s trying to create a third party movement and get on the ballot in all 50 states. The idea is to nominate a presidential candidate of one party and a vice-presidential candidate…
Lingamish on Iconography of the Gospels
Lingamish is presenting a series on his blog, Iconography of the Gospels, in which he explores ways of looking at the gospels. I commend this series to those who are interested in reading the gospels with more breadth and depth. Entries thus far: Iconography of the Gospels Iconography of the Gospels 2 The Doctor’s Strange…
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…