Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Andy Naselli

Confront and Engage

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Carl R. Trueman, Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow  (2nd ed.; Fearn, Scotland: Focus, 2011), 8–9:

[W]ere I to write the book today, it would be different in certain respects. . . . I would want to modify, or at least off-set, my promotion of biblical theological teaching and preaching by emphasizing the need for the preacher to confront and engage his hearers. ‘Hey, I bet you never saw Jesus in this text before,’ is not an adequate application of the Bible; and yet too many so-called redemptive historical preachers and teachers in the Vos (or perhaps, to be charitable and not to impute the sins of the followers to the founder) pseudo-Vos tradition, consider their job to be done when they produced a nice, neat, dry-as-dust lecture on a passage which does just that and no more.

Five Exegetical Flash Points in the Justification Debate

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An introductory essay to IVP’s latest debate-book elaborates on five exegetical flash points in the justification debate:

  1. Paul’s attitude toward Judaism
  2. The role of works in final justification/judgment
  3. Justification/righteousness in the Old Testament
  4. Justifying righteousness: imputation, transformation or incorporation?
  5. The meaning of pistis

—Paul Rhodes Eddy, James K. Beilby, and Steven E. Enderlein, “Justification in Contemporary Debate,” in Justification: Five Views (ed. James K. Beilby and Paul R. Eddy; Spectrum Multiview Books; Downers Grove: IVP, 2011), pp. 67–81:

Here are the book’s five views:

  1. Michael S. Horton, traditional Reformed
  2. Michael F. Bird, progressive Reformed
  3. James D. G. Dunn, new perspective view
  4. Veli-Matti Käkkäinen, deification
  5. Gerald O’Collins, S.J. and Oliver P. Rafferty, Roman Catholic

Cf. Tom Schreiner’s review.

Omit Needless Words

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I agree with Jim.

James M. Hamilton Jr., “Appreciation, Agreement, and a Few Minor Quibbles: A Response to G. K. Beale,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 10, no. 1 (2011): 67:

I want to register a stylistic complaint. Beale is prolix. It’s as though he is exclaiming, “Why should I say in three words what I can expand to ten?!” In the “Introduction” to “the little book,” E. B. White epitomizes Professor Strunk: “‘Omit needless words!’ cries the author on page 23, and into that imperative Will Strunk really put his heart and soul.” Imagine the pleasure Strunk would take eliminating words from Beale’s oeuvre. To take one example, consider the title of his second lecture, “The Inaugurated End-Time Tribulation and Its Bearing on the Church Office of Elder and on Christian Living in General.” Edwardsian in its fullness, but would not “Elders and the End-Times” have been sufficient? I love the ideas that Beale communicates, but I wonder whether he hopes to be paid on the Dickensian wage (critics of Charles Dickens complain that his books are so long because he was paid a penny a word).

Is C. S. Lewis the Patron Saint of American Evangelicalism?

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Phil Ryken, president of Wheaton College, makes that argument in this essay:

Philip Graham Ryken. “Lewis as the Patron Saint of American Evangelicalism.” Pages 174–85 in C. S. Lewis and the Church: Essays in Honour of Walter Hooper. Edited by Judith Wolfe and Brendan N. Wolfe. London: T&T Clark, 2011.

Ryken first presented this talk to the Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society in 1995. The essay also appears in Beyond Aslan (2006), which you can read online via Google Books (pp. 69–81).

Ryken opens by quoting A. N. Wilson:

‘At Wheaton College in Illinois,’ he said, ‘where they are rather stupid fundamentalists, they have made C. S. Lewis into a god. They think he gives intellectual support for all their prejudices.’ (p. 174)

Ryken gives several reasons that Lewis is so popular among American evangelicals:

  1. Britishness. “Lewis evokes for Americans all the sophistication and quaintness of England” (p. 175). His “peerless academic credentials” help give evangelicals “a sense of intellectual credibility” (p. 176). [Read more…] about Is C. S. Lewis the Patron Saint of American Evangelicalism?

A Good Bible-Story Book with Thousands of Pictures

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I recently finished reading all 215 stories in this book to my three-year-old daughter:

Doug Mauss, ed. The Action Bible: God’s Redemptive Story.  Illustrated by Sergio Cariello. Colorado Springs, CO: Cook, 2010. 748 pp. Audiobook, 10.2-hours.

Thoughts:

  1. I was skeptical at first how a comic-book approach like this would work, but the book responsibly presents the Bible’s storyline chronologically. It’s divided into 215 short stories spanning Genesis to Revelation.
  2. It’s attention-grabbing and attention-keeping. My daughter loves it! She daily asked me, “Daddy, would you please read God’s Redemptive Story to me tonight?!” And after each story ended, she would immediately ask, “Would you read another one?!” She was riveted to the pages as we worked our way through the Bible’s storyline. I’d estimate that it took us about 15–20 hours to read together, and she enjoyed every minute of it. [Read more…] about A Good Bible-Story Book with Thousands of Pictures

How to Manipulate People to Make (Fake) Professions of Faith

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Jack Hyles, “The Invitation Time,” chapter 27 in The Hyles Church Manual (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord, 1968), 279–82 (numbering added; this chapter reprints most of ch. 7 in Hyles’s Let’s Build an Evangelistic Church):

After observing for nearly twenty-two years the preaching of hundreds of preachers across America, I have come to the conclusion that many of us need intensive help in the conducting of a public invitation. Many wonderful gospel messages can be rendered ineffective by a weak invitation.

On the other hand, many average preachers can be rewarded greatly with the use of an effective, pungent, public invitation. Though in many places a public invitation is seldom used and even considered out of date, it is still true that the greatest soul-winning churches utilize an effective, spiritual, Spirit-filled, powerful invitation as their greatest means of evangelism. May we look at a few practical pointers concerning the invitation.

1. Starting the Invitation

  1. Do not reveal the closing of the sermon. When the sermon reaches a high point or a climax, then would be a good time to close abruptly. Even if the sermon is not completed, sometimes God may lead one to close prematurely in order to start the invitation from a high spiritual plane. This also prevents the unsaved from “digging in,” so to speak, before the invitation is given. [Read more…] about How to Manipulate People to Make (Fake) Professions of Faith