Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Don Carson on Assurance of Salvation

by

Six resources by D. A. Carson on assurance of salvation (all available from TGC as PDFs or MP3s):

  1. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, Letters Along the Way: A Novel of the Christian Life (Wheaton: Crossway, 1993), 15–25 (letters 2 and 3).
  2. D. A. Carson, “Johannine Perspectives on the Doctrine of Assurance,” Explorations 10 (1996): 59–97.
  3. ———. “Reflections on Christian Assurance,” in Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace (ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and Bruce A. Ware; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 247–76.
  4. ———. “The Johannine Letters,” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (ed. T. Desmond Alexander and Brian S. Rosner; Downers Grove: IVP, 2000), 351–55.
  5. ———. “The SBJT Forum: Granted that there are spurious conversions in the Bible, what criteria help us to discern that a profession of faith is genuine?” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 5, no. 1 (2001): 78–81.
  6. ———. Five-part sermon series on 1 John.

Two New Booklets by Rob Plummer

by

40_questionsThis book came out in 2010:

Robert L. Plummer. 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible. 40 Questions Series. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2010.

Rob has prepared two short, lay-friendly booklets (under 100 pages) that derive from his 40 Questions book:

1. The Story of Scripture: How We Got Our Bible and Why We Can Trust It. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2013. [Read more…] about Two New Booklets by Rob Plummer

Carson: The most painful things I’ve ever borne are betrayals by Christian friends

by

Here’s how Don Carson recently replied to a question about suffering during a Q&A. (This is a lightly edited transcript from 13:37 to 14:40 in the audio file.)

  • We grew up in some of the suffering of French Canada.
  • I’ve had typhoid because I went to Africa and came within death’s door.
  • I’ve had two or three other diseases that have almost taken me out.
  • My wife’s had cancer that has almost taken her out. She didn’t expect to live to 50; she just turned 59.
  • But that’s part of the stuff of life, isn’t it? And if you’re a Christian leader, then sooner or later you go through situations in churches and relationships that are really tough. The most painful things I’ve ever borne are betrayals by Christian friends.

  • [Read more…] about Carson: The most painful things I’ve ever borne are betrayals by Christian friends

By nature editors hate error, but by vocation they are called to deal with it daily

by

I’ve been doing a lot copy-editing over the last seven years. This made me laugh:

By nature editors hate error, but by vocation they are called to deal with it daily. And painfully enough, it is sometimes their own.

Daniel G. Reid, “Commentaries and Commentators from a Publisher’s Perspective,” On the Writing of New Testament Commentaries: Festschrift for Grant R. Osborne on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday (ed. Stanley E. Porter and Eckhard J. Schnabel; Texts and Editions for New Testament Study 8; Leiden: Brill, 2013), 464.

The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek: Grammar, Syntax, and Diagramming

by

HuffmanThis little book’s title sums it up:

Douglas S. Huffman. The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek: Grammar, Syntax, and Diagramming. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2012. 112 pp.

This 13-page PDF excerpt includes the table of contents.

Part 3 (pp. 83-106) is by far the most helpful section of the book.

Outline of part 3: [Read more…] about The Handy Guide to New Testament Greek: Grammar, Syntax, and Diagramming

Are Theological Discussions a Waste of Time?

by

ware_2Bruce A. Ware, The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Questions on the Humanity of Christ   (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 55–56:

Another application from this brief account of Jesus’s boyhood experience in Jerusalem is that Jesus understood the importance of engaging in biblical and theological discussion and learning. We don’t know the exact content of the discussion that took place, but [Read more…] about Are Theological Discussions a Waste of Time?

Carson: How Do We Know If God Is Disciplining Us?

by

Don Carson answered that question recently for TGC’s blog.

He draws three inferences:

  1. We are likely to make exegetical and theological mistakes when we take any one of these passages and treat it as if it explains all suffering.
  2. In any suffering, or in any other event for that matter, God is doubtless doing many things, perhaps thousands of things, millions of things, even if we can only detect two or three or a handful. [Cf. Piper’s tweet.]
  3. It follows that when we face suffering of any kind, we should use the occasion for self-examination.

Conclusion: “We sometimes observe that hard cases make bad theology. But easy, formulaic answers to questions of suffering are invariably reductionistic — and they make bad theology, too.”

Read the whole thing.