Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

The Gospel Coalition Network

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Last week The Gospel Coalition Network (TGCN) opened using a version of Zondervan’s “The City.” Adrian Warnock shares the details.

One of the challenges of maintaining a network like this is administrating it. Consequently, last week D. A. Carson drafted the terms of use that distinguish between “participants” and “members” (posted here with permission):

Welcome to The Gospel Coalition Network!

We invite individuals to sign up to TGCN on one of two levels.

  1. Participants need only fill out the digital forms that follow, and join in the discussion. You do not have to agree with The Gospel Coalition; you do not have to be a Christian. The “participants” level is for anyone wanting to engage in networking and in discussion of common themes with other people.
  2. Members are asked to take a further step in the registration process: you are asked to read our Foundation Documents, all of which are available online—Preamble, Statement of Faith, and Theological Vision of Ministry—and signal your agreement with these documents, without mental reservation. Only members will be allowed to start new groups on the Network.

You have every right to know what our reasoning is.

First, we take some inspiration from the brilliant organizational skills of John Wesley. [Read more…] about The Gospel Coalition Network

From Benny Hinn to R. C. Sproul?

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Christianity Today interviewed Ted Haggard back in 2005, and Haggard expressed his love for the diversity of evangelicalism (apparently defining the movement from a social science standpoint):

“Evangelicalism is a continuum of theologies all the way from Benny Hinn to R. C. Sproul. The R. C. Sproul crowd has a hard time with Benny Hinn, and the Benny Hinn crowd has a hard time with R. C. Sproul. But they’re all evangelicals.

“Evangelical does not mean any particular political ideology,” Haggard continues. “The African American [evangelical] community has an honorable concern for social justice, and that affects their politics. That concern comes from the Scripture. The Anglo community has a different history, so different Scriptures stand out to them. To the Anglo [evangelical] community, most of their sermons are theological. It’s salvation by grace through faith, and other theological points, so social-justice issues don’t have the same compelling justification.

“I have a deep love and appreciation for that diversity. I think it’s some of the wonder of the body of Christ. I feel like my role is to help the various members of the body respect one another and appreciate one another, and work together.”

HT: Collin Hansen

The Gospel Coalition’s 2009 National Conference

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On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week, over 3,000 Christian servants will gather in Chicago for The Gospel Coalition’s 2009 National Conference.

  • The 36-page program that those attending will receive when they register is available as a PDF.
  • The ten plenary sessions (not the workshops) will be available as live webcasts.
  • “Audio and video for each session will be made available online, free of charge, within one day of each session ending. Visit www.TheGospelCoalition.org to download” (from the inside front cover of the conference program).

Tony Payne: “On Being Generous”

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Tony Payne, publishing director at Matthias Media and a Sydney Anglican Evangelical, explains why he is generous to fundamentalists but not to “those who have given up on the fundamentals and who seek to teach others likewise.”

  • The former, he argues, are orthodox believers (albeit ones, from his perspective, who “may be or think or do all sorts of things that we find strange, unattractive or even distasteful”).
  • The latter, he argues, are people whom the NT urges him to fight.

Manhunt

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Justin Taylor just posted on this book:

James L. Swanson, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. New York: William Morrow, 2006. 448 pp. Available in the following formats: paperback, hardcover, Kindle, audio CD, and audio download.

Jenni and I loved listening to the nine-hour (abridged) audio book last month (HT to JT again for recommending it to me!). It was so fascinating that we ended up listening to the whole audio book in just two evenings!

Theological Pride

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“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” –Jesus (Matt 5:3)

Poverty of spirit is the personal acknowledgment of spiritual bankruptcy. It is the conscious confession of unworth before God. As such, it is the deepest form of repentance. . . .

Poverty of spirit cannot be artificially induced by self-hatred. Still less does it have in common with showy humility. It cannot be aped successfully by the spiritually haughty who covet its qualities. Such efforts may achieve token success before peers; they never deceive God. Indeed, most of us are repulsed by sham humility, whether our own or that of others.

I suspect that there is no pride more deadly than that which finds its roots in great learning, great external piety, or a showy defense of orthodoxy. My suspicion does not call into question the value of learning, piety, or orthodoxy; rather, it exposes professing believers to the full glare of this beatitude. Pride based on genuine virtues has the greatest potential for self-deception; but our Lord will allow none of it. Poverty of spirit he insists on—a full, honest, factual, conscious, and conscientious recognition before God of personal moral unworth. It is, as I have said, the deepest form of repentance.

–D. A. Carson, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: An Exposition of Matthew 5–10 (Grand Rapids: Global Christian Publishers, 1999), 18 (emphasis added; originally preached in 1975 and published in 1978).

Related: Doug Moo on Theological Humility