The next issue of Themelios doesn’t release for a few months, but we are releasing the lead article in that issue early because it is so timely:
Carson, D. A. “Subtle Ways to Abandon the Authority of Scripture in Our Lives.” Themelios 42 (2017): 1–12. [web version | PDF]
Carson addresses a number of controversial issues, including what Jen and Brandon Hatmaker have recently argued to support monogamous same-sex marriage.
I just updated my article “How I Set Up My Desks: One for Sitting, One for Walking.”
I tweaked the entire article and added two new bits:
This little book released last month:
Chris Anderson, Joe Tyrpak, Andy Naselli, and Carl Trueman. Gospel Meditations on the Reformation. Madison, OH: Church Works, 2016. [Read more…] about Gospel Meditations on the Reformation
I benefitted from carefully reading this book:
Timothy Keller. Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical. New York: Viking, 2016.
It’s a prequel to Keller’s The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, a New York Times best seller and the modern version of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.
To learn why Keller wrote this prequel, read Matt Smethurst’s interview with Keller.
Then read Andrew Wilson’s review.
Then watch the talk Keller gave to employees of Google: [Read more…] about Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical
In 2006 I compiled all of D. A. Carson’s MP3s I could find.
In 2009 I organized a comprehensive collection of Carson’s MP3s for The Gospel Coalition to host.
Logos Bible Software just took that a step further with the D. A. Carson Sermon Archive by transcribing each sermon. Outstanding.
This book opened my eyes to how social media emotionally crushes so many people:
Donna Freitas, The Happiness Effect: How Social Media Is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Freitas is a sociologist who previously wrote a book on the hookup culture among college students. The more she researched college students, the more she realized how social media is sucking happiness out of them. [Read more…] about Social Media Can Make You Unhappy While Pressuring You to Always Appear Happy
That’s the title of my article (PDF | web version) for the latest issue of Themelios.
From the introduction:
My goal is to motivate you to say no to pornography by God’s grace. This article does not comprehensively address how to deal with pornography. Other resources do that well, and I recommend several of them below. My burden in this article is to motivate you not to indulge in pornography. I am particularly burdened to motivate people who habitually indulge in pornography and who are not killing their sin of lust. If that describes you, then this article is a way of metaphorically taking you firmly by the shoulders, looking you directly in the eyes, and soberly warning you, “Wake up! Do you realize what the consequences are for indulging in pornography?!”
I argue that you should not indulge in pornography for at least seven reasons:
1. It will send you to hell.
2. It does not glorify God with your body.
3. It is a poisonous, fleeting pleasure. [Read more…] about Seven Reasons You Should Not Indulge in Pornography
Two resources helped me answer that question when I was in high school and college:
George suggests four criteria for evaluating whether God has called you to serve as a pastor, and you can remember them with the acrostic CALL: [Read more…] about Has God Called You to Vocational Christian Ministry?