Peter Enns assumes there was a dominant world-picture or cosmology in the ancient Near East, and Paul Seely published several articles advocating the idea that the earth is a flat disk and the sky a solid dome in Westminster Theological Journal. In a comment on an earlier post, Steve Hays has drawn attention to an …
Category Archives: Cultural Engagement
Three Objections Enns Makes to Mohler: Apparant Age, Authority, and World-Picture
Al Mohler rejects the truth claims of a religion that Peter Enns is trying to syncretize with Christianity, and in two posts Enns makes three objections. First, objecting to the idea that the earth was created with apparent age, Enns writes: “Apparent age” is an arbitrary claim that makes the “facts fit the theory.” Look …
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Peter Enns on Paul, Adam, and Evolution
February 9, 2011 was a great day for the Hamiltons, as my sweet wife gave birth to our fourth child. Praise God. Meanwhile, over on the left coast Peter Enns was giving a lecture at Westmont College, and in the lecture he refers to Westmont as a left-wing California-style evangelical school. In preparation for a …
Abortion Clinic Workers Plead Guilty to Murder
Jay Norlinger has the details: In Impromptus today, I touch on an untouchable subject: abortion. Two abortion-clinic workers in Philadelphia have pleaded guilty to murder. Why? Well, because they did the job after the babies happened to slip out of the womb. That’s a very fine line, don’t you think? Too fine for moral reasoning.
NIV 2011 Removes Selah from the Biblical Text
Rod Decker has drawn attention to the fact that the NIV 2011 puts the term Selah in the footnotes rather than in the text of the Psalms, and he suggests that the word should never be verbalized by those who read Scripture aloud. I like Rod Decker, but I think his post may be self-contradictory …
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2011 Appalachia Conference on Theology and the Church
If you’re in West Virginia or surrounding areas, you won’t want to miss the 2011 Appalachia Conference on Theology and the Church hosted by Randolph Street Baptist Church Theme: “The Centrality of the Gospel” Speakers: Phil Johnson & Burk Parsons Date: November 4&5, 2011 Location: Charleston, WV Details.
Axl Rose: Adopted Son of a Pentecostal Preacher
David Zahl has a theological interpretation of Axl Rose and Guns N Roses in three parts. Here’s a snippet from the first: So Axl is sadly the product of the worst kind of religion: ultra-bootcamp Pelagianism compartmentalized to the point of cruelty (not to mention completely at odds with its founder). It wouldn’t be a …
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“Jabberwocky” Proves the ESV Isn’t Too Difficult
What does Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” have to do with the ESV not being too difficult a translation for people to understand? Much in every way! Before I explain, let me invite you to enjoy Carroll’s foray into sniglets (words that don’t appear in the dictionary but should) and logatomes (made-up words that obey phonotactic …
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Is Biblical Theology a Bridge?
Brevard Childs writes (481), “the major function of Biblical Theology is to provide a bridge for two-way traffic between biblical exegesis and systematic theology’s reflections on the subject matter.” Here’s my view (“Biblical Theology and Preaching,” 199) of what we’re after when we do biblical theology: “When we do biblical theology we are trying to …
Schreiner Reviews Webb
I love reading reviews written by Thomas R. Schreiner. He is patient, charitable, and insightful. Here are two paragraphs from his review of William Webb’s book on corporal punishment in the Bible: “The key question, however, is whether Webb is right about corporal punishment. The answer is no. First, Webb doesn’t understand redemptive history, even …
A Biblical Theology of Gender and Marriage
The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is hosting an event on Gender in the 21st Century in Heritage Hall on the SBTS campus tomorrow, Monday, August 22, 2011. They’re giving away iPads and such to entice people to come. The event begins at 9am with Lig Duncan – you won’t want to miss him. …
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Denny Burk’s Sermon on Homosexuality
On Sunday, July 17, 2011, Denny Burk preached a powerful, timely sermon at Kenwood Baptist Church: “How Do We Speak about Homosexuality?” If you haven’t heard it, you need to give it a listen. Denny had three points: Speak the truth. Speak the gospel. Speak humility. In the introduction Denny tells the tragic story of …
Congrats to Dan Phillips on The World-Tilting Gospel
Dan Phillips’ book, The World-Tilting Gospel, like N. D. Wilson’s Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, brings to mind the first line of the refrain in “Fireflies” by Adam Young of Owl City: “I’d like to make myself believe That planet earth turns slowly . . .” Though we don’t perceive its rapid progress, the earth isn’t …
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Three Reasons To Think the Earth Is Young
Wayne Grudem and others hold that the earth is old, but I’m unconvinced by their arguments for that position. Most prominent for me are two observations on textual details from Genesis and the way I want to interpret science and archeology from the biblical text rather than re-interpreting the biblical text in light of science …
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Interview on Revelation
The good folks at Randolph Street Baptist Church have posted a discussion between me and their pastor, Jason McClanahan, on Revelation. Questions include: Why is Revelation important for us today? What is John’s primary purpose in the book of Revelation? What are the most common errors in interpreting or handling Revelation? Can you summarize the …
God Wins: An Interview with Mike Wittmer on His Response to Rob Bell
Credit where credit is due: the title of this post comes from Mike’s answer to the last question in this interview. Mike Wittmer’s book Christ Alone was written in response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins, and Wittmer’s book appeared within one month of the release of Love Wins. In this book Wittmer models charity and …
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Gay Marriage Bullies Its Way Forward
Maggie Gallagher writes about the way intimidation is putting the chill on First Amendment rights (death threats have a way of doing that), and Denny Burk points to a case that shows how gay marriage crushes individual religious liberty.
N. D. Wilson, “Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl”
Here’s a preview of the dvd based on the book:
Whittaker Chambers on Communists and Liberals
Whittaker Chambers’ book Witness is a thrilling spy story, an autobiographical conversion narrative, and a piercing look into the communist underground. Written with fervor, clarity, and solemn joy, Chambers is a prose stylist urging that we choose life. For Chambers, what separates communists and liberals is not a difference in belief. What separates them is …
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Whittaker Chambers on Why Men Become Communists
I was unimpressed with The Communist Manifesto, so I found Whittaker Chambers’ Witness very helpful for understanding why men become communists. Why do people become communists? What do liberals really want? What makes them tick? As I seek to understand people and answer these questions, what I find is that everything liberals and communists want …
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