I’ll be co-guest-blogging for Justin Taylor through August 9, so my light and sporadic blogging activity will occur over there for the next ten days.
Here’s an NPR-like 7.5-minute interview with Justin Taylor re his two-page article “A Teachable Spirit.”
- The article was published in the June 2009 issue of Tabletalk.
- The interview aired on Moody radio’s Prime Time America earlier today at 4:08 CST.
Justin Taylor’s gentle, respectful response to John Piper notes this:
(1) The fact that God ordains all things (i.e., his secret will) has a limited effect on our decision making. It can’t prescribe how we act, but it can prevent us from having the wrong perspective (e.g., anxiety, fear, despair, misplaced trust, etc.). But in terms of interpreting events, the main way to read providence is backwards (as John Flavel wrote: “Some providences, like Hebrew letters, must be read backward”).
(2) The fact that God ordains means ensures that our actions have significance. The ordained outcome can never be seen as an excuse for complacency or fatalism.
Calvinists believe in God-ordained means. This is not merely a platitude. John M. Frame says it well in Apologetics to the Glory of God: An Introduction (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1994):
The relation of divine sovereignty to human responsibility is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. It is plain from Scripture in any case that both are real and that both are important. Calvinistic theology is known for its emphasis on divine sovereignty—for its view that God “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Eph. 1:11). But in Calvinism there is at least an equal emphasis upon human responsibility.
An equal emphasis? Many would not be willing to say that about Calvinism. . . . God’s sovereignty does not exclude, but engages, human responsibility. Indeed, it is God’s sovereignty that grants human responsibility, that gives freedom and significance to human choices and actions, that ordains an important human role within God’s plan for history (pp. 14-15, emphasis added).
On Sunday evening, October 12, Justin Taylor served my church by speaking on two subjects:
- a brief overview of the ESV Study Bible followed by Q&A (21:22 min.)
- “A Theology of Vocation” followed by Q&A (59:01 min.)
Boundless Webzine just published Justin Taylor’s “Behold the Temple,” complete with five beautiful illustrations from the ESV Study Bible.
The article has three headings:
- Looking Inside the Temple
- Walking around the Temple Courts
- Beholding the Real Temple
Trevin Wax interviews JT:
Related:
Attendees of the recent New Attitude conference voted on some tough Bible questions, and NA just published Justin Taylor’s answer to this one: “How Could God Command Genocide?“
I’m not one of those post-something-everyday bloggers. Sometimes I go for many days without posting anything. This will probably be another light week because I’ll be contributing a bit to JT’s blog (again). Similar to last time, I’ve lined up several interviews that should be instructive and edifying.
For the next week, I’ll be blogging occasionally for a friend on vacation. He’s known online in several ways:
- Justin Taylor (Crossway | Reformation 21 | New Attitude)
- JT: Cf. what Josh Harris humorously wrote on Dec. 20, 2007:
- In case you didn’t notice, practically everything I put on this site originally appeared on Justin Taylor’s site, Between Two Worlds. I’m thinking of renaming my site “HT:JT” which means “Hat tip to Justin Taylor” (a Hat-tip is a term for recognizing that it was brought to your attention by someone else).
- Between Two Worlds
- theologica.blogspot.com
- the evangelical Drudge Report (which is actually pretty accurate!)
JT is a real blogger. I’m not. That’s why he asked three people to take the reins while he is away! Anyway, I mention this because the one or two posts that I might have published here over the next week will probably end up on JT’s blog.
