The latest episode of the edifying and motivating Dispatches from the Front DVD Series releases on April 1: The Fourth Man.
Episode 10 is set in the Middle East in southern Arabia and northern Iraq, and it features our friends Dave and Gloria Furman (and others). When my DVD arrived in the mail, I promptly sat down with my daughters to watch it together. [Read more…] about Episode 10 of Dispatches from the Front (set in the Middle East in southern Arabia and northern Iraq)
Here’s my attempt to explain how to interpret and apply the Bible:
Andrew David Naselli. How to Understand and Apply the New Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2017. xxx + 384 pages.
The book’s structure is simple. It begins by introducing exegesis and theology, which I break down into twelve steps. Those twelve steps are the book’s twelve chapters. [Read more…] about How to Understand and Apply the New Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology
This new set releases on March 31:
John Piper. The Collected Works of John Piper. Edited by David Mathis and Justin Taylor. 13 vols. + one volume of indexes. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017. 8,464 pages. Available from Amazon 
and Westminster Bookstore 
.
Both Justin Taylor and David Mathis have spent years serving as John Piper’s assistant, and they know Piper and his publications unusually well. Justin wrote his fascinating PhD dissertation on Piper, and David is the executive editor for Desiring God.
The editors explain in the introduction to volume 1, [Read more…] about The Collected Works of John Piper
This commentary released this month:
Alan J. Thompson. Luke. Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2017. xliv + 414 pp. [Read more…] about Alan Thompson on the Gospel of Luke in Greek
In C. S. Lewis’s brilliant address “The Weight of Glory,” he talks about our “desire for our own far-off country.” Then he asks,
Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years.
On March 1 I preached a sermon on 1 John 2:15–17 in Bethlehem College & Seminary chapel about breaking “the evil enchantment of worldliness.” (By the way, preachers used to address worldliness more often. I searched Charles Spurgeon’s published sermons and discovered that he used the word worldliness over 350 times.)
Here’s a video of the 40-minute sermon:
I ask and briefly answer twelve questions about 1 John 2:15–17: [Read more…] about Do Not Love the World: Breaking the Evil Enchantment of Worldliness
My favorite two sentences in the Bible are Romans 11:36:
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Here’s how I trace the argument in Romans 11:33–36:
(I wrote a PhD dissertation on that passage, focusing on the previous two sentences—published in 2012.)
I asked Joe Tyrpak, one of my accountability partners, if he would design Romans 11:36 for canvas so that I could display it over the fireplace in our home and over my desk in my school office. Most people think of Joe as a faithful pastor and gifted preacher (and he is), but he also has an undergraduate degree in graphic design. Here’s what he designed for me:
[Read more…] about My Favorite Two Sentences in the Bible (Romans 11:36) on Canvas
I’m planning to help lead a trip to Israel in October:
The other leaders are Travis Myers, Keith Anderson, Rick Segal, and Brad Nelson.
There are still some spots available for others to join us.
More info here.
Jason DeRouchie gave an outstanding lecture on February 23 to commemorate his promotion to Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology. (He is the first Bethlehem College & Seminary full professor whom our young school has promoted from within the faculty ranks.)
The title of his lecture was “Is Every Promise ‘Yes’? Old Testament Promises and the Christian.” I am not aware of anyone who has thought so carefully about how the people of God under the new covenant can claim promises God made to his people under the old covenant.
Here’s a video of the 80-minute lecture:
DeRouchie shares his outline and slides here.
We plan for the next issue of Themelios (~April 25) to include DeRouchie’s lecture as an article.
Update (4/25/2017): The latest issue of Themelios includes the updated version of DeRouchie’s lecture (web version | PDF).