Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

John Piper’s Tribute to Don Carson

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I love this. One of my favorite people affirms one of my favorite people:

Though I am Don Carson’s elder (by eleven months), and count him a personal friend, I revere him both spiritually and academically. The level at which Don works in the academic guild is beyond my ability and bent. I stand outside and below, looking up with profound admiration and respect. Make no mistake, my admiration is not awakened by fame and notoriety. It rises for real excellence and faithfulness and usefulness. Don has taken the bricks and mortar of his academic trade and built structures where God’s people have found safety and nourishment and joy and power. [Read more…] about John Piper’s Tribute to Don Carson

20 Resources on the Protestant Reformation

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2017 is the 500th anniversary of an event that strangely ignited the Protestant Reformation.

If you want to learn more about the Protestant Reformation, consider these helpful resources. I combed through about 800 relevant resources in my Zotero library and selected only twenty—including some picture books and videos.

1. Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther.

New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950.

After hearing so many historians recommend this biography as a classic, I finally read it last year. It’s still in print for good reasons.

[Read more…] about 20 Resources on the Protestant Reformation

Episode 10 of Dispatches from the Front (set in the Middle East in southern Arabia and northern Iraq)

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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)

How to Understand and Apply the New Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology

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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.

Contents

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

The Collected Works of John Piper

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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

Do Not Love the World: Breaking the Evil Enchantment of Worldliness

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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