Scott Aniol just announced that he has made available the MP3s and PDF notebooks for the past one-day annual conferences at his church called “The Conference on the Church for God’s Glory.” I profited from attending the first two conferences in May 2003 and 2004.
Packer on De-Godding God
“It was, I think, Voltaire who first observed that ever since God made man in his own image man has been trying to return the compliment. Whoever said it, it is true, and many theological mistakes have been made through likening the God of infinite power, holiness, goodness, and wisdom to finite and fallen humanity.”
These are the stirring opening words to J. I. Packer‘s essay “The Love of God: Universal and Particular,” in Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace (ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and Bruce A. Ware; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 277-91.
Carl Trueman on “Evangelical”
“[John] Owen’s theology is a salutary reminder that we should not allow the current decline in church attendance and status to turn a blind eye in our evangelical ecumenism to the real problems that exist with the evangelical world. I confess here that I am no longer entirely happy being called an evangelical. Where evangelicalism happens to coincide with biblical, historic Christianity, I do not repudiate the description; but in general consider it to be an unhelpful term, if not misleading and meaningless. That it now embraces those, who, for example, hold to positions on God’s knowledge of the future that are Socinian, it has ceased to be a distinctively Christian term.”
—Carl Trueman, “John Owen As a Theologian,” in John Owen: The Man and His Theology: Papers Read at the Conference of the John Owen Centre for Theological Study, September 2000 (ed. Robert W. Oliver; Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2002), 63.
Recommended: Trueman’s five-part lecture series on the life and theology of John Owen (available here).
T4G Video
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the latest “Together for the Gospel” video this morning. I found it both edifying and enjoyable to watch Mark Dever, Al Mohler, Lig Duncan, and C. J. Mahaney interact with each other for over fifty minutes!
Carson’s Review of N. T. Wright’s “Evil and the Justice of God”
Today the Review of Biblical Literature published D. A. Carson‘s review of N. T. Wright‘s Evil and the Justice of God. Carson’s penetrating review is available as a 10-page PDF.
Blomberg MP3s on NT Introduction
BiblicalTraining.org is now offering an “Introduction to the New Testament” course on MP3 by Craig Blomberg (Theopedia | Wikipedia). The first half, Gospels and Acts, is currently available in some thirty-five MP3s (available for free downloads). Blomberg, author of a number of books and articles on the Gospels, has recently penned From Pentecost to Patmos: An Introduction to Acts Through Revelation (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006).
Kevin Bauder on "The Use of Scripture in Theology"
“The Use of Scripture in Theology” is another first-class mini-series of short essays by Kevin Bauder.
- Part 1
- Part 2: The Problem of Ambiguity
- Part 3: The Analogy of Faith
- Part 4: Principles of Comparison
- Part 5: Remaining Considerations
Note: Central Seminary emails these essays every Friday afternoon. You can join the mailing list (as well as access the archives) here.
Joshua Bell As an Illustration of Christ
The title to this blog post may raise some eyebrows. Let me explain.
Joshua Bell (Wikipedia), a world-renowned classical violinist whom I had the pleasure of hearing live back in the late 1990s, is featured in a fascinating article by the Washington Post: “Pearls Before Breakfast: Can one of the nation’s greatest musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? Let’s find out.”
In short, the parallel is this:
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- Indoor rush-hour pedestrian traffic barely noticed one of the world’s finest violinists playing some of the world’s most beautiful music on one of the the world’s most expensive violins.
- The world selfishly carries on with its own concerns and barely notices the universe’s Creator, Sustainer, and Goal. The gospel is offered freely to all without distinction, and multitudes reject it. Yet they are rejecting the all-powerful King of kings.
The parallel is stunning and sobering.