In April I posted some pictures from T4G 2008. This morning I became aware of many more such pics (partly from watching this slideshow): see the first 25 pages here (the rest are from T4G 2006). Here are a few examples:
Carson Reviews “Rescuing the Bible”
The latest batch of RBL reviews includes D. A. Carson’s review of Roland Boer’s Rescuing the Bible. The analysis and conclusion are refreshingly blunt:
This book, a fascinating mix of dogmatic left-wing self-righteousness combined with rich and scathing condescension toward all who are even a tad less left than the author, is rich in unintended irony. Boer cannot see how implausible his arguments become. While nominally allowing “religious” people to believe in the supernatural so long as they support his left-wing agenda and join forces with him in a “worldly” secularism, what he says about the Bible and about biblical scholarship is so blatantly committed to philosophical naturalism and historical minimalism that even the most mild supernaturalism is ridiculed: no allowance can be made for divine revelation, anyone who thinks Moses existed is not really a scholar, biblical studies can be called “scientific” only if the scholars themselves do not preach, and so forth. Boer consistently damns everyone on the right by ridiculing the obvious targets, but probably he would not appreciate it if a counterpart on the right ridiculed those on the left by skewering Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot. It turns out that Boer wants to “rescue” the Bible not only from what people on the right say that it means but from what the Bible itself says, for whenever the Bible, in all its multivalence, disagrees with Boer’s vision of the summum bonum, it is to be undermined, set aside, and mocked—not even wrestled with. Readers are repeatedly told that those nasty right-wingers have “stolen” the Bible. Boer never considers the possibility that quite a few left-wingers have simply abandoned the Bible, leaving the terrain open for those who at least take it seriously. What will satisfy Boer, it seems, is not the liberation of the Bible but the liberation of the Bible from any agenda he considers right-wing, so that it can be locked in servitude to a left-wing agenda. Boer’s dismissive arguments to prove the Bible is hopelessly multivalent—a commonplace among many modern and postmodern readers today—is spectacularly unconvincing because he does not interact with any serious literature (and there is two thousand years’ worth of such literature) that argues, with various degrees of success, how the Bible does hang together. But perhaps this is not too surprising from an author who cherishes chaos precisely because chaos undermines God’s authority—and all authority save Boer’s must be overthrown. I think that many biblical writers would call that choice idolatry. At the end of the day, Boer is trying to rescue the Bible from God.
From Bloglines to Google Reader
Yesterday I switched my blog reader from Bloglines to Google Reader. (If you don’t use a blog reader or aren’t certain what one is, perhaps you’d find my short tutorial on blogs to be helpful.)
Four of my friends and former seminary classmates in Greenville just persuaded me. (They also happen to be bloggers: Brian Collins, Phil Gons, Matt Hoskinson, and Mark Ward.) After a day using Google Reader, I’m sold (though it took a little work to figure out how to set it up for maximum efficiency). The shortcuts are great, especially hitting the j-key to advance immediately from blog post to blog post.
Kudos to Google for another free first-class product.
Google : Internet :: kudzu : southeastern United States
The Gospel Coalition’s New Website
It’s finally up and running: www.TheGospelCoalition.org.
Here are a few features to check out:
- Resources: This links to audio, visual, and written resources by TGC council members. For example, check out the resources for D. A. Carson and Mike Bullmore.
- Themelios: The first new issue is available as a 103-page PDF.
- 2009 Conference: This includes speakers, topics, and dates for The Gospel Coalition’s 2009 national conference.
- About: This includes descriptions of TGC council members.
More updates are forthcoming, including a series of video interviews.
Pithy Quotes from Carl Trueman’s “Minority Report”
I recently reviewed Carl R. Trueman‘s Minority Report: Unpopular Thoughts on Everything from Ancient Christianity to Zen-Calvinism (Scotland: Mentor, 2008). (You may read the front front matter and introduction here.) This second volume of his collected essays follows in the train of his first: Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historic and Contemporary Evangelicalism (Scotland: Mentor, 2004). It’s typical Trueman: provocative, humorous, wry, clever, witty, engaging, thought-provoking, delightful, entertaining.
I didn’t have space in my review to share pithy quotes from Trueman’s twenty short essays in the volume, so I’ll share some here:
[Read more…] about Pithy Quotes from Carl Trueman’s “Minority Report”
Kevin Bauder: “Baptist Church Cooperation”
Kevin Bauder just finished another thoughtful series of short essays: “Baptist Church Cooperation.”
- Introduction
- The Associational Principle
- The Service Organization
- The Approval System
- The Preachers’ Fellowship
- The Ecclesiastical Conglomerate
- The Ad Hoc Model
- The End of the Matter
Note: Central Seminary emails these essays every Friday afternoon. You can join the mailing list (as well as access the archives) here.
Two Sermons on 1 Timothy 2:1-8
Here are links to a couple sermons I recently preached:
- Pray For Those In Authority (1 Tim 2:1-8) (6-22-08) | MP3 (48:13) | outline
- Does God Have Two Wills? Does He Want All People to Be Saved in One Sense and Not Want All People to Be Saved in Another Sense? (1 Tim 2:4) (6-29-08) | MP3 (45:26) | outline
The first is expositional, the second more theological (and heavily indebted to John Frame’s The Doctrine of God and John Piper’s “Are There Two Wills in God?”).
Don’t Waste Your Cancer
Two and a half years ago, John Piper wrote a moving article entitled “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” I’m now observing one of my best friends, Matt Hoskinson, evidence God’s grace in yet another way—this time by modeling Piper’s wise advice. Check out Matt’s letter that Danny Brooks read to Heritage Bible Church this morning.
(Matt is the tallest one in the pic below.)