Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Andy Naselli

Fireproof

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Last night Jenni and I watched the film Fireproof, which came out on DVD this week. I was intrigued for at least two reasons: nearly every review I’ve read has been positive, and a wholesome movie with a $500,000 budget has already grossed about $33.5 million!

We weren’t disappointed. Rather, we were surprised how well done and edifying the movie is. Highly recommended, especially for married couples.

One of the best lines illustrates how counter-cultural this film is: “Don’t just follow your heart. You gotta lead your heart.” That’s one reason I think that this film is great for singles to watch, too. So many other films (starting with Disney “classics”!) promote exactly the wrong message (i.e., a self-serving, follow-your-heart, do-whatever-you-think-will-gratify-you approach).

About

  1. official site (includes more videos, pics, resources)
  2. Wikipedia
  3. Kirk Cameron: “I’ll only kiss my wife”
  4. trailer:

Reviews

  1. Phil Johnson (read this one first)
  2. Baptist Press
  3. Tim Challies
  4. Alex Chediak
  5. Christian Spotlight
  6. Christianity Today
  7. Joy McCarnan
  8. Plugged In
  9. James White

Abortion

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I just listened to Justin Taylor’s Sunday morning sermon on abortion that he preached at his church on January 18, 2009. Three words come to mind:

  1. Sobering
  2. Convicting
  3. Motivating

After listening to Justin’s sermon, I have the kind of feeling that I might have felt if I could have watched Schindler’s List while living near Nazi concentration camps while WWII was still in progress. How can this unspeakably horrific evil legally be happening all around me? What am I doing about it?

Cf. these posts on abortion by Justin Taylor and John Piper this month:

Justin Taylor’s Recent Posts on Abortion

  1. Number of Abortions Since 1973
  2. How Support for Abortion Became Kennedy Dogma
  3. Conversation on the Gospel, Abortion, and Politics
  4. World Magazine on Abortion
  5. On Abortion and Gay Rights, Evangelicals and Liberals Join to Advise Obama
  6. Why I Hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
  7. An Open Letter to Barack Obama
  8. Life
  9. A Sermon on Abortion
  10. Roe No More
  11. One Simple, Practical Way You Can Make a Difference for Women and the Unborn
  12. The Case for Life, Around the Web
  13. Four Reasons You Might Be Aborted
  14. Abortion and the Early Church
  15. Moral Accountability
  16. Abortion and Obama’s First Few Days
  17. Amusing or Sad?
  18. Piper Responds to Obama on Abortion
  19. Being Pro-Life in a Culture of Death

John Piper’s Recent Posts on Abortion

  1. Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President
  2. Lincoln’s Logic on Slavery Applied to Abortion
  3. Holding A Miracle
  4. Fifteen Pro-Life Truths to Speak
  5. The Baby in My Womb Leaped for Joy

See also John Piper’s resources on abortion.

The NT in Antiquity

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I’ve just spent some time examining an outstanding book hot off Zondervan’s press:

Gary M. Burge, Lynn H. Cohick, and Gene L. Green. The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament Within Its Cultural Contexts. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. 480 pp.

Introduction

  1. overview of the book and authors (Note that all three authors are NT professors at Wheaton College and Graduate School.)
  2. 10-page PDF of the front matter and chapter 1
  3. video interview with all three authors
  4. blog interview with Gary Burge

Endorsements

  1. Craig L. Blomberg, PhD, Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary: “. . . one of the best introductions and surveys in recent times. Remarkably attractive in its layout, with color pictures, color pictures, charts, diagrams and sidebars galore . . . If it’s backgrounds you want to highlight in a one-semester introduction to the New Testament, this is the text to assign.”
  2. Darrell L. Bock, Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary: “The New Testament in Antiquity is a beautifully done, carefully presented, evangelically sensitive work to introduce the New Testament. I have longed for a text like this. There is richness on virtually every page. Read, savor, learn.”
  3. Craig S. Keener, Professor of New Testament, Palmer Seminary of Eastern University: “Complete with an extraordinary array of visual illustrations, this book covers important topics needed for an introductory text in New Testament in a way that is both understandable and well-informed. It emphasizes many details that help students discover the biblical text in new ways they would rarely get on their own.”
  4. Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University: “For years I have searched in vain for a book that would introduce students to the New Testament—with clear outlines, graphic images, historical contexts, timelines, maps, and bibliographies. My search is over; this is that book.”

Initial Evaluation

While flipping through every page and dipping in here and there, I noticed a few relatively minor disappointments (e.g., the bibliography on p. 122 lists the first rather than the second edition of Craig Blomberg’s The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, and the book lacks an author index), but overall, I agree with the above scholars. My text for New Testament introduction in college was Robert G. Gromacki’s New Testament Survey (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974). I sure wish that it would have been this one!

Tim Keller: Preaching to the Heart

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On October 19, 2008, Tim Keller presented two lectures at Oak Hill College on “Preaching to the Heart”:

Here’s how Oak Hill College describes them:

Jonathan Edwards believed that the ultimate purpose of preaching is not only to make the truth clear, but also to make it real—affecting and life-changing. This is usually covered under the topic of “application”, though framing the subject in that way often results in a “tack-on” of practical advice after a dry, academic exposition.

How can we preach the text from first to last in a way that exalts Christ, changes heart motivations, produces wisdom and wonder, persuades the sceptical and results in real life change? In his two lectures, Tim Keller explores these challenges to the preacher.

D. A. Carson MP3s Now Hosted by TGC

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My blog’s most popular post has been “D. A. Carson MP3s” (December 17, 2006). It’s a compilation of links to about 200 Carson MP3s. I updated it diligently through the beginning of 2008, but I stopped because I knew that it would soon become obsolete.

For about the last six months, I’ve attempted to compile a comprehensive collection of Carson MP3s so that TGC could host them. So far I’ve uploaded 443 MP3s (and some MV4s, too), and the plan is to add more as they become available. You can browse most of them in the “sermons” category.

Here are some advantages to the Carson MP3s now hosted by TGC:

  1. Price: They are all free. Previously ChristWay Media sold dozens of Carson MP3s for $1.50 each. Now those same MP3s are available at no charge from TGC site.
  2. Number: Never before have so many Carson MP3s been available online. Many of them have not been available online previously. For example, I obtained CDs from Carson with his talks on them from conferences all over the world (including several in French).
  3. Convenience: Never before have so many Carson MP3s been available online at a single website, and no user name or password is needed to download them.
  4. Continuity: The MP3s are hosted by the same website. Maintaining my previous list of Carson MP3s was challenging because links would constantly change when websites were updated.
  5. Labels: The MP3s are uniformly tagged with as much information as I could find (e.g., title, Scripture text, series, topic, date), and the format of the names of the MP3s themselves are also consistent (e.g., “20020619_Eph_2.11-22_community_and_the_cross.mp3”).

I’d highly recommend that you redeem the time and systematically and thoughtfully listen to these MP3s. I have profited immensely from them. Carson’s manner of speaking is just as articulate, thoughtful, and engaging as his publications. He exalts Christ by exegeting his words, tracing themes through the Bible’s salvation-historical storyline, addressing hot topics with clarity and nuance, and engaging and confronting bad theology as well as the culture.

Related:

  1. D. A. Carson Publications
  2. D. A. Carson’s Theological Method

Logos Pre-Pub: Charles Spurgeon Collection

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It’s amazing how many outstanding resources Logos Bible Software keeps producing.

I already own and benefit greatly from “The Complete Spurgeon Sermon Collection,” which contains Spurgeon’s sermons from the Park Street and Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpits. I just became aware of another Spurgeon collection that is now on pre-pub for $250: “Charles Spurgeon Collection.” It’s currently 78 volumes and 17,361 pages, so that’s about a penny ($0.014) per page in a highly efficient format.

Content:

  • The Treasury of David, Spurgeon’s 7-volume commentary on the Psalms
  • Spurgeon’s 4-volume Lectures to My Students, which includes his best-selling Commenting and Commentaries
  • 228 issues of Spurgeon’s magazine, The Sword and the Trowel published between 1865 and 1884
  • Spurgeon’s 4-volume Sermon Notes
  • The 2-volume Salt Cellars
  • Spurgeon’s 4-volume Autobiography, the first and most detailed account of Spurgeon’s life and ministry
  • A collection of Spurgeon’s letters and correspondence
  • Dozens of additional volumes on preaching, prayer, evangelism, and much more!

What a treasure trove!

Update: Phil Gons adds this on the Logos blog:

And it gets even better. I said presently above because we’re still in the process of researching another dozen or so titles for possible inclusion in this collection. The best part is that if you pre-order now, you’ll be locked in at the lowest possible price, even if the price goes up to cover the additional cost.

So pre-order this unparalleled collection of the writings of C. H. Spurgeon now (and his sermons, too, if you don’t already have them), and get ready to take advantage of the power of Logos to integrate this wealth of material into your devotions, Bible studies, and sermons with ease.