Mark Dever just posted this short article on the 9Marks blog: “Mark Dever doesn’t practice separation”?

He concludes:

To sum it up, I want my separation from the world to be more pronounced than my separation from other Christians.  Does this make sense?

The latest 9Marks interview by Mark Dever is now available: “Fundamentalism and Separation with Mark Minnick: Pastor and Bob Jones University professor Mark Minnick presents the case for the Fundamentalist doctrine of separation.”

Related:

• 9 Marks interviews and Henry Forums
• Mark Minnick MP3s
• Minnick: “Theology Matters”

I just discovered this accessible pair of articles by a couple evangelical scholars who used to teach NT together at Aberdeen:

1. P. J. Williams, “Modern Old Testament Study“
2. Simon Gathercole, “Modern New Testament Study“

Related: See Mark Dever’s interview “The New Perspective on Paul with Simon Gathercole and Peter Williams” (MP3).

All of the MP3s for the general sessions and panel discussions are now available for free downloads. Brief bios of the speakers are available here.

I’d recommend listening to these in order:

1. Ligon Duncan: Sound Doctrine: Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry
2. Panel Discussion 1: Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler
3. Thabiti Anyabwile: Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church
4. Panel Discussion 2: Anyabwile, Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler
5. John MacArthur: The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability
6. Mark Dever: Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology
7. Panel Discussion 3: Dever, Duncan, MacArthur, Mahaney, Mohler
8. R.C. Sproul: The Curse Motif of the Atonement
9. Panel Discussion 4: Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler, Sproul
10. Albert Mohler: Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution
11. Panel Discussion 5: Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler
12. John Piper: How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice
13. Panel Discussion 6: Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler, Piper
14. C.J. Mahaney: Sustaining a Pastor’s Soul

Related:

• T4G 2008 Highlights and Pictures
• T4G 2006 MP3s (general sessions and panel discussions listed in order)

I thoroughly enjoyed attending T4G 2008 last week (thanks to T4G’s generosity!). It was edifying and God-glorifying.

Here are some highlights and pics:

Continue Reading »

Mark Dever posed his eighth “T4Free question” on the T4G blog earlier this week, and I was surprised that my answer was selected. (Perhaps mine had the least misspelled words and the most Piper-like hyphenated ones! Regardless, I’m grateful for this happy providence and eager for edification along with about 5,000 other people at T4G in mid-April 2008.) Here’s Mark’s question followed by the 100-words-or-less answer I submitted:

Q: “What Christian book (other than the Bible) do you think has been read by the most people attending T4G 2008, and why?”

A: “John Piper’s Desiring God

“This richly theological and warmly devotional best-seller has been the means for sending countless Christians on a trajectory towards theology that is increasingly joyful, robust, God-centered, Christ-exalting, and gospel-treasuring.

“My testimony is not unusual. I read it as a freshman in college and again during my first year of seminary, and it had a revolutionary effect on my Christian life. It shaped my attitude towards Reformed soteriology and convinced me that God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.”

In addition to selling the print book for just $9.50, Desiring God Ministries offers the following free resources:

• the entire book online
• Desiring God Study Guide
• Desiring God Study Guide for Groups
• Desiring God sermon series (text and audio)
• Desiring God seminar (audio)
• other free resources on Christian Hedonism
• other books about Christian Hedonism

I thank God for John Piper. He is a gift to the church.

On a related note, D. A. Carson pays Piper no small compliment in the preface to Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson by mentioning him parallel to three other giants of the faith:

“But my aim is much more modest: to convey enough of his [i.e., Tom Carson's] ministry and his own thought that ordinary ministers are encouraged, not least by the thought that the God of Augustine, Calvin, Spurgeon, and Piper is no less the God of Tom Carson, and of you and me” (p. 11).

Mark Driscoll was on the TEDS campus on January 29-30 leading the 2008 Chicago Boot Camp for the Acts 29 network, and I attended and profited from the following (sometimes provocative!) sessions he led:

1. Preaching the Mission: MP3 | Notes
2. Gospel-Centered Families: This is particularly practical. It’s almost entirely Q & A geared for the wives of church planters.

• part 1
• part 2
• part 3
• part 4
• part 5

Also available from the same conference is Mark Dever’s thoughtful session: Church Planting Evangelism.

Last month I noted that Mark Dever was scheduled to speak on campus at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School on Wednesday, January 30, 2008, for the Scripture and Ministry Lecture sponsored by the Henry Center.

1. His lecture on church membership is now available (MP3 | video). Here’s a description:

• “Re-ordering Friendship, Love, and Enmity: A Biblical Reflection on Church Membership.” Membership should reflect a living commitment to a local church in attendance, giving, prayer and service; otherwise it is meaningless, worthless, and even dangerous. What does the lack of church membership say to the rest of the world about the church? To be a member is knowingly to be traveling together as aliens and strangers in this world as we head to our heavenly home. Dr. Dever will explore church membership from a biblical and historical approach, touching on the most difficult issues, which keep many Americans from committing to church membership.

2. Also available as is a follow-up interview with Mark Dever on church discipline conducted by Steve Farish on January 31, 2008 (MP3 | video).

Mark Dever is scheduled to speak twice on campus at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School on Wednesday, January 30, 2008:

1. 10:00–11:00 AM: Trinity College Chapel
2. 3:00–4:30 PM: Scripture and Ministry Lecture sponsored by the Henry Center, which provides this description:

• “Re-ordering Friendship, Love, and Enmity: A Biblical Reflection on Church Membership.” Membership should reflect a living commitment to a local church in attendance, giving, prayer and service; otherwise it is meaningless, worthless, and even dangerous. What does the lack of church membership say to the rest of the world about the church? To be a member is knowingly to be traveling together as aliens and strangers in this world as we head to our heavenly home. Dr. Dever will explore church membership from a biblical and historical approach, touching on the most difficult issues, which keep many Americans from committing to church membership.
• Schedule | 2:45 PM - Refreshments | 3:00 PM - Lecture | 4:00 PM - Discussion
• Location | Hinkson Hall, Rodine Building, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Mark Dever’s “The Five Points of Criticism” is insightful and wise.

The five points:

1. “Directly, not indirectly”
2. “Seriously, not humorously”
3. “As if it’s important, not casually”
4. “Privately, not publicly”
5. “Out of love for them, not to express your feeling or frustration”

Read the whole thing.

Update: Jonathan Leeman adds a sixth point: ending with a word of encouragement.

I just thoroughly enjoyed listening to this MP3 in which C. J. Mahaney and Matt Schmucker interview Mark Dever:

“Life and Ministry with Mark Dever: The tables turn as C. J. Mahaney puts Mark Dever in the hot seat and interviews him.”

Mark Dever

C. J. Mahaney

[Photos by Timmy Brister]

The interview took place on June 6, 2007. As usual with conversations involving Mahaney and Dever, this is hilarious (e.g., C. J.’s ribbing Dever about his intellectual childhood, lack of athletic abilities, and wearing a tie and carrying a briefcase to high school), fascinating (e.g., I didn’t know that D. A. Carson delivered a letter from Carl Henry to Dever in England that asked Dever to consider pastoring Capitol Hill Baptist Church), and edifying (e.g., Dever’s faithfulness to and love for God’s word and people).

Cf. two previous posts, T4G Video and T4G 2006 MP3s, as well as the following two entries on the MP3s page of my recommended resources:

• Mark Dever (bio): The 9 Marks interviews and Henry Forums are especially enjoyable and edifying.
• C. J. Mahaney (bio): hilarious, humble, practical, convicting

Mark Dever just finished an insightful ten-part series of blog posts entitled “Where’d All These Calvinists Come From?” He gives ten major reasons for the recent resurgence of Calvinism.

1. C. H. Spurgeon
2. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
3. The Banner of Truth Trust
4. D. James Kennedy’s Evangelism Explosion
   
5. Inerrancy controversy
6. Presbyterian Church in America
7. J. I. Packer’s Knowing God
8. R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur
9. John Piper
10. “the rise of secularism and decline of Christian nominalism“

Before Dever posted reason #10, Justin Taylor suggested that it would be “the role of the internet.”

Cf. Phil Gons’s summary post, “The Resurgence of Calvinism.”

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the latest “Together for the Gospel” video this morning. I found it both edifying and enjoyable to watch Mark Dever, Al Mohler, Lig Duncan, and C. J. Mahaney interact with each other for over fifty minutes!

Mark Dever just posted some well deserved words of praise for D. A. Carson’s writing ministry as well as his latest forthcoming book, Christ and Culture Revisited (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008). I’ve enjoyed serving as Dr. Carson’s research/teaching assistant since last August, and I’m so grateful to work under him as my mentor for the Ph.D. NT program at TEDS. I agree wholeheartedly with Dever on this one: the more I learn from and about Dr. Carson, the more I thank God for this gift to the church! (And do follow Dever’s advice re Christ and Culture Revisited.)

Related: See my previous post: “D. A. Carson MP3s.”

Mark Dever’s latest 9Marks interview is available for free downloading:
“Biblical Counseling with Ed Welch”

I highly recommend Dever MP3s. They are first-class: always interesting and biblically informed. And the interviews are lots of fun!

1. 60 other MP3s (mostly interviews)
2. over 60 Carl Henry Forums MP3s
3. 25 “bonus talks”
4. over 600 sermons (mostly by Dever)