Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Andy Naselli

Why John Piper Doesn’t Own a TV

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Sam Storms, “Christian Hedonism: Piper and Edwards on the Pursuit of Joy in God,” in For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper (ed. Sam Storms and Justin Taylor; Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 49–50.

John Piper is known for many things. . . .

Some would likely mention the fact that he’s never owned a television! I vividly remember my first visit to John’s home in 1992. He had invited me to speak at his annual pastor’s conference which, as it turns out, is regularly scheduled during the week following the Super Bowl. Upon arriving at his home after the Sunday service, I told John that I had been looking forward for quite some time to watching the game with him. “Not at my house,” he said. “We don’t have a TV.” After I recovered from the initial shock, John graciously agreed to take me to the home of a church member where I could indulge myself in this annual affair. And yes, John stayed and actually watched the game! [Read more…] about Why John Piper Doesn’t Own a TV

God’s in Charge of the Weather

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We’re scheduled to fly today from Greenville to Green Bay via Detroit (for Northland’s Heart Conference), but snowmageddon in the Midwest is canceling and delaying flights.

“God’s in Charge of the Weather” (from J Is for Jesus ) keeps playing in our heads:

God makes the sun shine;
God makes the rain fall.
God’s in charge of the weather.

God makes the thunder;
God makes the lightning.
God’s in charge of the weather.

God can make it wet or dry;
God’s the big boss of the sky.

God makes the sun shine;
God makes the rain fall.
God’s in charge of the weather.

Sometimes adults benefit more from children’s music than children do.

Crusty Christians vs. Hugging Theologians

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“The Crust and the Core” is the clever epilogue to this book (pp. 241–44):

Kevin DeYoung. The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism. Chicago: Moody, 2010. 252 pp.

Excerpts:

This has been a book about theology, about knowing theology and loving theology. But if we’ve really paid attention to the Heidelberg Catechism, this should also be a book about warmhearted experiential faith. In fact, knowing and loving theological truth is what produces the warmhearted experiential faith.

Sadly, too many Christians are asked to choose between theology and experience, between head and heart, between having convictions and being kind. These are false dichotomies . . . . We ought to be hugging theologians . . . . [W]e need to have a theological core without being theologically crusty. . . . [Read more…] about Crusty Christians vs. Hugging Theologians

Three Central Emphases of Tim Keller’s Preaching

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Dennis E. Johnson summarizes three central emphases of Tim Keller‘s homiletic approach to illustrate how “the gospel changes everything” in “an approach to evangelistic, edificatory redemptive-historical preaching” (Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures [Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2007], 54–61):

1) What both the unbeliever and the believer need to hear in preaching is the gospel, with its implications for a life lived in confident gratitude in response to amazing grace. Christians are constantly tempted to relapse into legalistic attitudes in their pursuit of sanctification, so we never outgrow our need to hear the good news of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ. . . .

[Read more…] about Three Central Emphases of Tim Keller’s Preaching

Six Reasons to Preach from the OT

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Sidney Greidanus lists six “reasons for preaching from the Old Testament as well as the New” (Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999], 25–32):

  1. The Old Testament is part of the Christian canon.
  2. The Old Testament discloses the history of redemption leading to Christ.
  3. The Old Testament proclaims truths not found in the New Testament.
  4. The Old Testament helps us to understand the New Testament. [Understatement!]
  5. The Old Testament prevents misunderstanding the New Testament.
  6. The Old Testament provides a fuller understanding of Christ.

Historians’ Fallacies

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I first learned about this book in class with John Woodbridge:

David Hackett Fischer. Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. xxii + 338 pp.

Woodbridge recommended it and said that it helped give Don Carson the idea to write Exegetical Fallacies , which references Fischer over a dozen times.

Here’s how Carl Trueman prefaces his chapter “A Fistful of Fallacies” in Histories and Fallacies: Problems Faced in the Writing of History (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 141:

In this final chapter, I want to offer a brief survey of some of the more common fallacies that historians commit. It is by no means exhaustive, and the reader who wants to read more about these kinds of issues should consult the old but still very useful, and at times very funny, book by David Hackett Fischer, Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. Fischer deals with so many fallacies in such a devastatingly clear and ruthless manner that most, if not all, of us will blush as we read it, recognizing our own foolishness and ineptitude at various points in his narrative.

I don’t call myself a historian in the same way that most lay people don’t call themselves theologians. But nearly everyone’s a theologian; some are good ones.

A historian is someone (anyone) who asks an open-ended question about past events and answers it with selected facts which are arranged in the form of an explanatory paradigm. (Fischer, p. xv)

So nearly everyone’s a historian. This forty-year-old book will help you be a better one.

Praying about Your Plans for the Day

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Two years ago when C. J. Mahaney interviewed Wayne Grudem (parts 1, 2, 3, 4), Grudem served me well by sharing how he transitions from his morning devotions (reading the Bible and praying) to the rest of the day.

From part 1:

At the end of the time I will usually bring before the Lord my “to do” list, and pray about various items on the list, asking the Lord to help me know what to make a top priority today, and asking his blessing on the things that I plan to do.

From part 2:

I find the most helpful thing I do regarding use of time is to spend time in prayer each morning bringing my plans and my “to do” list before the Lord and seeking his direction.

A Sonnet on Hell

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D. A. Carson, Holy Sonnets of the Twentieth Century (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 117 (reflecting on Rev 14:9–11; 21:8):

There are no friends in hell: the residents
With zeal display self-love’s destructive art
In narcissistic rage. The better part,
The milk of human kindness, no defense
Against a graceless world, robbed of pretense,
Decays and burns away. To have a heart
Whose every beat demands that God depart—
This is both final curse and gross offense.

Say not that metaphor’s inadequate,
A fearful mask that hides a lake less grim:
Relentless, pain-streaked language seeks to cut
A swath to bleak despair, devoid of him.

This second death’s a wretched, endless thing,
Eternal winter with no hope of spring.