Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Videos of Israel’s Tabernacle, First Temple, and Temple at the Time of Jesus

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1. Israel’s Tabernacle

“Illustrated Tabernacle (Exodus 26-27)” (6:24 min.): This video illustrates the dimensions and instructions God gives in Exodus 26–27.

“3D Tabernacle of Moses” (1:52 min.)

“Tabernacle of Moses” (3:49 min.)

“The Tabernacle and What It Reveals to Us” (5:17 min.)

2. Israel’s First Temple (Solomon’s Temple)

“Solomon’s Temple 3D” (3:42 min.)

“Solomon’s Temple Explained” (10:20 min.)

3. Israel’s Temple at the Time of Jesus (Herod’s Temple)

Second Temple Judaism refers to Jewish history and literature from the time that Zerubbabel completed the second temple (c. 516 B.C.) to when the Romans destroyed Herod’s temple in A.D. 70.

“Jerusalem Temple at the Time of Jesus” (1:51 min.)

“3D Model of Herod’s Temple” (4:02 min.): Leen Ritmeyer comments, “This is the best 3D rendition of the Temple Mount I have seen so far” (“Herod’s Temple Mount in Jerusalem in 3D).” (Ritmeyer is an archaeological architect who has been involved in all of Jerusalem’s major excavations.)

“Herod’s Temple Mount – 3D Information Videos” (23:57 min.)

“Jerusalem’s Temple: Building the Most Detailed Depiction of Herod’s Temple” (14:50 min.): Leen Ritmeyer comments, “This is truly a masterful video that aims to bring together the extensive research that began at the Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem in 1968, directed by the late Professor Benjamin Mazar. Many scholars have analysed the result of this and other excavations in Jerusalem to get a full picture of what Herod’s Magnum opus may have looked like. We understand that this 3D video is the first of a series designed to help people better understand this sacred structure.”

Compare images of the temple in the ESV Study Bible.

(Feel free to contact me to alert me to similar videos.)

Related sermon: “The Temple and Light in the Bible’s Storyline” (11/27/2022):

The Drivetrain: The MacArthur Center’s New Podcast Episode on Theological Triage

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The MacArthur Center’s new podcast episode is on theological triage: “The Drivetrain.”

Austin Duncan and his team produce this podcast with excellence. They obviously put a lot of work into their podcast episodes because they are clear, engaging, and high-quality in both content and form. They piece together various interviews and add sound effects and music. It’s high-caliber audio journalism—like NPR but with good content. It’s the best quality podcast I know of in confessional evangelical circles.

It was my pleasure to contribute to “The Drivetrain” episode on theological triage. Al Mohler popularized this terminology for distinguishing the importance of Bible teachings in his 2005 article “A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity.”

Here’s how I like to present three levels of importance (a version of this table appears in my forthcoming book Predestination: An Introduction, p. 18):

It’s easy to misunderstand and misapply that taxonomy. That’s what “The Drivetrain” is about.

Don’t Believe Culture’s Lies about Men and Women: A Review of Rosaria Butterfield’s “Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age”

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Here’s my review of a new book on human sexuality:

Naselli, Andrew David. “Don’t Believe Culture’s Lies about Men and Women: A Review of Rosaria Butterfield’s Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age.” American Reformer, 1 September 2023.

From the introduction:

Rosaria Butterfield used to be a lesbian activist who lived with a woman partner while serving as a tenured professor of English and women’s studies at Syracuse University in New York. Now she is a Christian who is married to a Presbyterian pastor and who invests her time as a homeschool mom and grandmother and as a hospitable neighbor in North Carolina. (When she wrote this book, her four adopted children spanned ages sixteen to thirty-four.) The title of her new book specifies what she is warning against: Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023).

In the book review, I …

  • summarize the five lies
  • suggest three small ways I think Butterfield’s book could be even better
  • conclude with ten features I appreciate about Butterfield’s book

Related:

  1. God’s Good Design for Sex: A Review of Michael Clary’s God’s Good Design
  2. Winsomeness Can Be a Virtue or a Vice: Winning Some vs. Pleasing Some
  3. What If Your Neighbor Asks You to Call Her a Him? An Interview with a Suburban Christian Dad

What If Your Neighbor Asks You to Call Her a Him? An Interview with a Suburban Christian Dad

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New article:

Naselli, Andrew David. “What If Your Neighbor Asks You to Call Her a Him? An Interview with a Suburban Christian Dad.” American Reformer, 28 August 2023.

From the introduction:

LGBT is a reigning ideology in America right now, and its tentacles are spreading and thickening as they squeeze soul after soul. You might expect this in the bluest parts of the country, but it is also happening in red suburbs and counties. It is happening everywhere.

This is a true story about it happening this summer in a middle-class Minneapolis suburb to some dear friends in my church. To respect the privacy of the people in this story, I’ll use fictitious names and be vague about some details. I’ll tell the story in an interview format with my friend Jonathan.

I end the interview by recommending some helpful resources on transgenderism:

  1. Riccardi, Mike. Male and Female He Created Them: Part 1 and Part 2. Grace Community Church, April 23 and 30, 2023. This is sound teaching on the transgender delusion. Riccardi explains five truths about gender: (1) granted by our Creator, (2) grounded in biology, (3) a gift of God’s loving care, (4) the goodness of the body, and (5) the glory of our distinctiveness.
  2. Butterfield, Rosaria. Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023. Butterfield, a former lesbian activist, shows why LGBTQ+ ideology is incompatible with Christianity. She gives wise and practical advice about how to love family and friends who are captured by this ideology. See also Rosaria Butterfield, “Why I No Longer Use Transgender Pronouns—and Why You Shouldn’t, Either,” Reformation21, 3 April 2023.
  3. Walker, Andrew T. God and the Transgender Debate: What Does the Bible Actually Say about Gender Identity. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: The Good Book, 2022. This helpful overview is by the managing editor of WORLD Opinions and a professor of Christian ethics and public theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. See also Andrew T. Walker, “Christians Volunteering Pronouns? Capitulation to Falsehood Is Not Christian Kindness,” American Reformer, 19 August 2022.
  4. Burk, Denny, David Closson, and Colin Smothers. Male and Female He Created Them: A Study on Gender and Sexuality. Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2023. This 125-page book is an eight-week study for small groups.

Winsomeness Can Be a Virtue or a Vice: Winning Some vs. Pleasing Some

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New article:

Naselli, Andrew David. “Winsomeness Can Be a Virtue or a Vice: Winning Some vs. Pleasing Some.” American Reformer, August 24, 2023.

The article has five headings:

  1. What Could Possibly Be Wrong with Winsomeness?
  2. Tim Keller’s Winsome Third Way
  3. Four Kinds of Winsomeness: A Taxonomy
  4. So How Can Winsomeness Be Sinful?
  5. How Should We Then Be Winsome?

Related:

  1. “How Empathy Can Be Sinful”
  2. “Ten Resources That Have Helped Me Make Sense of Our Current Culture and How Christians Are Responding to It”
  3. Wood, James R. “How I Evolved on Tim Keller.” First Things, 6 May 2022.
  4. ———. “This Article Is Not about Tim Keller.” American Reformer, 12 May 2022.
  5. ———. “How I Evolved on Tim Keller: A Follow-Up.” First Things, 24 June 2022.
  6. ———. “The Limits of Winsome Politics: Protestants Must Be Willing to Wield Power in Pursuit of the Common Good.” The American Conservative, 21 September 2022.
  7. ———. “Sheep, Wolves, and Fools: On the Perils of a Winsome Ministry.” American Reformer, 4 October 2022.
  8. Dunson, Ben C. “The Winsomeness Wars.” American Reformer, 11 January 2023.
  9. DeYoung, Kevin. “An American Evangelist.” First Things, May 2023.

Are You a Gentle Man? Must We Be Weak to Be Gentle?

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New article:

Naselli, Andrew David. “Are You a Gentle Man? Must We Be Weak to Be Gentle?” American Reformer, August 7, 2023.

This article is an overflow from when I prepared this talk: “The Pastor and His Family: Managing Your Household Well—How a Faithful Father Shepherds His Wife and Children” (a breakout session for Serious Joy: The 35th Bethlehem Conference for Pastors in St. Paul, MN, January 30, 2023).

I condensed the gist of that talk into a short article: “What Does It Mean for a Man to Manage His Household Well?” (Christ Over All, May 2, 2023).

In the Panel Discussion (with Jonathon Woodyard and Jason Wredberg) that followed my talk, I elaborated on gentleness—particularly whether we should always be gentle or whether there may be times when it would be sinful to be gentle (see 9:58 to 14:30 in the panel).

My article on gentleness updates my research:

  • I start with a basic word study on gentleness.
  • I define gentleness as the virtue of humbly and wisely showing tender kindness to someone.
  • I unpack that definition and argue that wisdom is necessary to be gentle because sometimes it is sinful to be gentle.
  • I conclude that men should be both strong and gentle—tough and tender, authoritative and compassionate, brick and velvet.

Yet Another Attempt to Justify What God Forbids: A Response to Cynthia Lang Westfall, “Male and Female, One in Christ” (on Galatians 3:28)

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The latest issue of Eikon is mostly a chapter-by-chapter review of the third edition of Discovering Biblical Equality.

I contributed an article on Galatians 3:28:

Naselli, Andrew David. “Yet Another Attempt to Justify What God Forbids: A Response to Cynthia Lang Westfall, ‘Male and Female, One in Christ.’” Eikon: A Journal for Biblical Anthropology 5.1 (2023): 32–39.

Here’s my phrase diagram of Galatians 3:26–29:

[Read more…] about Yet Another Attempt to Justify What God Forbids: A Response to Cynthia Lang Westfall, “Male and Female, One in Christ” (on Galatians 3:28)