That the glory of the Lord might cover the dry land as the waters cover the sea
John Newton has received a good deal of attention this year, as the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in England has been celebrated with books and a movie about William Wilberforce. Newton was something of a spiritual support for Wilberforce, and he gave key testimony to parliament on the evils of …
Continue reading “John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace, by Jonathan Aitken”
The short answer is no, but that has to be substantiated. In his book From Pentecost to Patmos (363-65), Craig Blomberg writes regarding 1 Timothy 2 (italicized statements below are his): Verses 11-15 next call on the women of Ephesus not to supplant the male role of leadership in church. Verses 11-12 define this role …
Continue reading “Is Blomberg Right? Does 1 Timothy 2:12 Merely Mean Women Can’t Be Elders?”
Last night I spoke on Thomas Cranmer at the John Bunyan Theology and Church History Conference hosted by Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Kingwood, Texas. Virtually everything I said was informed by Diarmaid MacCulloch’s biography of Cranmer, with a little help from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. In God’s providence, yesterday was Cranmer’s 518th birthday. He …
Continue reading “Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation”
Some people miss the point of life altogether. Not only do they miss the point of life, they miss the point of ministry. For instance, one pastor, asked what advice he would give to seminarians, “stressed the importance of learning practical pastoral matters, such as working with committees, mobilizing leaders, time management, strategic planning, managing …
Part 1 is here, part 2 is here. In your opinion, is it going to take another “Great Awakening” for religious liberty to be preserved? MBY: It wasn’t the “Great Awakening” that gave us religious liberty in the first place, so I am not sure what the question entails. Moreover, if by “Great Awakening,” it …
Part 1 is here. Are there practical things that contemporary local churches here in the USA can do to maintain the balance of being in the world but not of it? In other words, how do we balance appropriate and necessary involvement in the public square with being about our Father’s business? Should we be …
Thomas White, Jason Duesing, and Malcolm Yarnell have edited a spirited collection of essays that originated as papers presented at the Baptist Distinctives Conference in September of 2005. White, Duesing, and Yarnell serve us in this volume by allowing all of us not able to attend the conference the opportunity to read not only their …
In response to Crossway’s release of What Is a Healthy Church? by Mark Dever, I submitted a few questions to Dr. Dever, which he was gracious enough to answer. The brief text-interview is below: 1) We hear a lot today about contextualization of the Gospel. What is your view of the role of contextualization and …
I had the privilege of studying under Dr. Merrill at Dallas Theological Seminary, and I praise God for his gentlemanly example, sincere concern for students, and commitment to the word of God. I have been particularly helped by his book on Old Testament history, Kingdom of Priests, as well as by his commentary on Deuteronomy. …
Continue reading “Everlasting Dominion, by Eugene H. Merrill”
My sermons on 1 Samuel 31 through 2 Samuel 3, preached June 3, 10, and 17, are available here. In the past we have had some trouble with the audio, but a new sound system and the faithful labors of the saints have fixed the problem.
Check it out here.
I mentioned meeting new friends at the Southern Baptist Convention last week, and one of them, whom I met only briefly, was Juan Sanchez, who gives his own thoughts on the SBC meeting here. Juan is the pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, TX. High Pointe has a fascinating history, is a Southern …
Christian, do you know Jesus? Do you know your heritage? Do you know the major movements and men who fought the battle that was and is the most important ideological controversy in human history? Do you know how this controversy affects you? Stephen Nichols has our back. He’s doing his part to help us know …
Continue reading “For Us and for Our Salvation: The Doctrine of Christ in the Early Church”
[You can also read Sinclair Ferguson’s foreword to this book on the Banner of Truth website.] James M. Garretson, Princeton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry. Edinburgh/Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2005. xxiv+280pp. $28.00, hardcover. Published in SBJT 11.1 (2007), 93-93. Archibald Alexander (1772–1851) was the first professor at Princeton …
Continue reading “Review of Garretson, Princeton and Preaching”
I love poetry. My favorites include Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” and Sir Walter Scott’s “Lochinvar.” I also love the Bible, and I’m convinced that nothing has had a greater impact on the world’s literature than Christianity. Those who create stories are imaging God, who has created the grand story in which all humans play …
This past week I attended the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention for the first time. Various reactions to the meeting can be read in the blogosphere. The two main impressions I came away with were these: (1) all of us who are recent graduates of SBC seminaries have no right to complain about …
At a conference last month I had the privilege of hearing The Smith Band. Stephen Smith now serves as the Worship Pastor at First Baptist Church, Irving, TX, and they blessed me with a copy of their CD Wonderworld. You can hear tracks from the album on either their website or the Independant Bands site. …
Andrée Seu has written a column in this week’s World magazine on why she is now wearing a head-covering to church. I second every attitudinal instinct she expresses in her piece, and I pray her tribe will increase! That said, though I agree with her submission to Scripture and embrace the clear roles it gives …
John Behr writes in The Way to Nicea (17) of the challenge posed to the church by “Marcion, a rich ship owner from the Black Sea, who arrived in Rome in the middle of the second century and donated a large sum of money to the church there, for its charitable works, which was soon …
If this paragraph doesn’t make sense to you, go read the whole thing (I would, of course, alter “Baptizing babies” to “Baptizing believers” but this remains a powerful paragraph): Actually, I believe I can present evidence for what I know. But evidence comes to us like food, and that is why we say grace over …