Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

The Life of David Brainerd: A Documentary by Joe Tyrpak

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Joe Tyrpak recently produced an edifying 57-minute documentary called The Life of David Brainerd. It introduces the most influential book on missions in modern history—the most popular book authored by American’s greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards. Joe also wrote a corresponding 44-page devotional. (If you order the DVD and devotional together, you save $2.)

Joe and I are close friends and accountability partners. He pastors Tri-County Bible Church in Madison, Ohio, and he is currently finishing his Doctor of Ministry in Applied Theology at Southern Seminary. His DMin thesis is on David Brainerd.

Joe’s a great guy, and his documentary is well done. My family enjoyed watching it together.

Joe did his homework. The people he interviewed include Ken Minkema and Doug Sweeney, both scholars on Jonathan Edwards. (He briefly interviewed me as well regarding spirituality, but the Edwards scholars are particularly helpful.)

Historian Nathan Finn reviewed the documentary very positively for the Jonathan Edwards Center at TEDS.

Update on 8/18/2015: Here’s a trailer (3:19 min.):

A Funny Footnote

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This is probably the most entertaining grammar I’ve read. (It’s lightweight intermediate Greek.)

David Alan Black. It’s Still Greek to Me: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to Intermediate Greek. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998.

The book ends with a funny footnote (p. 157):

Black

It may appear a bit self-serving to list here so many of my own writings on New Testament studies, but I assure you, dear reader, that all royalties I receive go directly to needy children.

[Footnote] My own.

Interview with Sharon Gerber on Her New Celloasis Album

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My family loves Sharon Gerber’s cello music.

cellocase cellolake

Kaffeemusik1Our girls listen to her Eine Kleine Kaffeemusik each night, and according to iTunes, we’ve played that album over 15,000 times! It’s beautifully soothing. (See also albums 2 and 3.)

In the first half of this 7.5-minute video for Sharon’s church, she explains why she experienced a tragic divorce, how that caused her to doubt everything she believed about God, and how God showed grace to Sharon through members in her new church. Then she introduces her latest cello album, Into the Night, and shares the background to the song “Jehova-Rohi,” which the second half of the video features.

Sharon kindly let me interview her earlier this month:

1. How did this video come about? [Read more…] about Interview with Sharon Gerber on Her New Celloasis Album

Do Complementarians Consistently Apply How Paul Argues from Creation in 1 Cor 11:8–10 and 1 Tim 2:13–14?

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In 1 Cor 11:2–16 Paul says that a wife should wear a head covering when praying or prophesying when the church gathers to worship, and in 1 Tim 2:9–15 he says that a woman should not teach or exercise authority over a man.

Most complementarians today do not insist that women in all cultures must wear head coverings, but they do argue that women should not teach or exercise authority over a man. Yet in both passages Paul argues from creation:

  • 1 Cor 11:8–10 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
  • 1 Tim 2:13–14 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Do complementarians consistently apply how Paul argues from creation in 1 Cor 11:8–10 and 1 Tim 2:13–14?  [Read more…] about Do Complementarians Consistently Apply How Paul Argues from Creation in 1 Cor 11:8–10 and 1 Tim 2:13–14?

John Calvin Had 300 Books in His Personal Library

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Calvin“Calvin’s personal library has been estimated at three hundred to three hundred fifty volumes; after his death, his heirs sold the majority of the books to Geneva’s magistrates for inclusion in the library of the Academy.”

—Scott M. Manetsch, Calvin’s Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536–1609, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 222.

When I read that, I recalled how I concluded a review article in 2006: [Read more…] about John Calvin Had 300 Books in His Personal Library

Essays in Honor of Douglas J. Moo

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On November 19, 2014 in San Diego during the Evangelical Theological Society’s annual meeting, Biblica, the Committee on Bible Translation, and Zondervan presented “The NIV 50th Anniversary Dinner and Program: Celebrating the Commissioning of the NIV.”

At the event Doug Moo, chair of the Committee on Bible Translation, spoke about the NIV. Here’s what he said (available as a free PDF): [Read more…] about Essays in Honor of Douglas J. Moo