Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Piper on “Planet Earth”

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Last summer I published a blog post entitled “Planet Earth: A Theological Documentary.”

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Yesterday morning during a painfully freezing (!) early morning run, I was listening to an MP3 from John Piper’s 2007 regional conference on “The Pleasures of God.” In part 2 (MP3 | video), Piper describes the pleasure of God in His creation, and he enthusiastically endorses the above “Planet Earth” DVDs.

In the MP3, start at 38:08 to get the context (“God loves the world that He made”) and listen until 42:43. Here are a few highlights:

  • 39:30: “There are many aspects of nature that no human ever sees.” And then some BBC cameraman comes by and captures it!
  • 40:54: This is where the “Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth” endorsement begins.
  • “My wife and I and little girl have worshipped for eight hours watching these unbelievable works of God! There are all these pagans producing this worship DVD!”
  • While they were watching the DVDs, Piper kept saying to his daughter, “That can’t be happening! That can’t be happening!”
  • “I hate evolution. It is so worship destroying! I mean that. Secular, atheistic evolution is worship destroying.”
  • “I get so much pleasure talking about what God has done in creation. It’s way better than talking about movies, but that’s another story.”

Bible.org Gets a Facelift

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Darrell Bock just posted this note on his blog:

“If you go to our host site, www.Bible.org, you will see a completely new look and feel. It is part of a several year discussion about how to best serve those who visit the site. Check it out.”

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This site is one of my favorites listed on the “theological writings” page of my recommended resources:

*Bible.org: about, NET Bible (cf. my blog post), Daniel Wallace’s “Prof’s Soapbox,” authors, series, reviews, Q&A topics

John Piper’s Fundamentalist Father

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John Piper just posted an article entitled “A Birthday Gift to My Father on His 89th Birthday.” The second section of this brief article—which quotes his father quoting Bob Jones Sr.—opens with this:

“My father was a card-carrying fundamentalist, with a twist. He was irrepressibly happy in the grace of God. I suspect there are a lot of fundamentalists out there like that. For all I know, I may be one. So here is a taste of what I grew up with, which may be why abstaining from dancing, smoking, drinking, movie-going, and card-playing never felt like big sacrifice.”

On a similar note, Piper dedicates The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright to his father:

“This is the year (2007) that my father died. Who can estimate the debt we owe our fathers? Bill Piper preached the gospel of grace for over seventy years, if you count the songs and testimonies at the nursing home. He was an evangelist—the old southern, independent, fundamentalist sort, without the attitude. He remains in my memory the happiest man I ever knew” (p. 9).

Denver Seminary’s 2008 OT and NT Bibliographies

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Denver Seminary recently released updates of two useful lists:

  1. “Annotated Old Testament Bibliography” by M. Daniel Carroll R., Hélène Dallaire, and Richard S. Hess
  2. “New Testament Exegesis Bibliography” by William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg, and Susan M. Hecht

A noteworthy new feature is an RSS feed for The Denver Journal: An Online Review of Current Biblical and Theological Studies.

Bob Jones Jr. on Reading Evangelicals

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Jenni and I are visiting family in Greenville, South Carolina, and this afternoon I guided one of my brothers on a tour of the Jerusalem Chamber at Bob Jones University‘s library. On our way out, I showed him the seminary building, which includes several interactive kiosks, one of which contains video testimonials from faculty, pastors, and graduates attempting to convince prospective students to come to BJU Seminary. That kiosk includes a letter on BJU letterhead with this explanation: “In 1994 a young man preparing for the ministry wrote to Dr. Bob Jones Jr. asking for his advice to someone who is called to preach. The following is Dr. Jones’ reply.”

Bob Jones Jr.

[Read more…] about Bob Jones Jr. on Reading Evangelicals

Adding a Second Screen to a Personal Computer

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Update in May 2014: How I Set Up My Desks: One for Sitting, One for Walking

Earlier this week in “Review article: PNTC, BECNT, and NIGTC in Libronix,” I referenced a 19-page review article I wrote earlier this year. Page 83 of that review includes a paragraph I’d like to follow up on:

“2. Readability: Electronic commentaries are more readable than print commentaries, especially those printed with tiny fonts (e.g., some footnotes). I frequently adjust the text’s font size depending on how far away I am from the screen and how tired my eyes are. I nearly always display the table of contents on the left side of the screen, which allows me to (1) see the logical flow of a commentary, (2) expand or collapse certain sections of the table of contents by clicking on the plus and minus symbols, and (3) jump directly to other sections. I also strongly prefer reading an electronic commentary on a large, good-quality LCD screen rather than a print commentary. At my home office, I currently connect a 22-inch LCD screen to my 17-inch laptop, which allows me to have multiple programs open on different screens. For example, when I am working through electronic commentaries, I prefer to have Libronix open on my 22-inch screen and other programs (Word, Outlook, Firefox, etc.) open on my 17-inch screen.”

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Adding a second screen to a personal computer (laptop or desktop) is very easy to set up. For those using Microsoft Windows XP, plug the second screen’s cable into your computer, right-click on the desktop, and select Properties | Settings | monitor 2 | Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor. (For those using Vista, right-click on the desktop, and select Personalize | Display Settings | Monitor | Extend the desktop onto this monitor.) Then adjust the screen resolution to the right setting, which may involve a bit of trial and error. When the screen resolution for monitor 2 is right, click Apply | OK. (Cf. Microsoft’s directions.) I highly recommend this!