Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Celebrating Life: Tim Tebow’s 2010 Super Bowl Ad

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(I know that Tim Tebow isn’t as trendy in the media this week after losing to the Patriots last Saturday, but I scheduled this post over a month ago for this week since January 22 is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.)

Remember Tim Tebow’s controversial 2010 Super Bowl ad? He talks about it in his book, Through My Eyes (HarperCollins, 2011):

Even as we were thinking about what possibilities my next platform that God had in store might bring, another opportunity arose. In conjunction with Bill Heavener and Focus on the Family, we decided to create an advertisement to be played during the Super Bowl. We were very fortunate that Focus on the Family had donors set up to fund the ad.

Mom and I were the main actors in the ad and had a lot of fun shooting the commercial. But we didn’t let the subject matter of the script get out, and as soon as word got out that we were doing an ad with Focus on the Family, it instantly created a huge swirl of attention—with both supporters and detractors trying to figure out what the ad was all about. It was fun to see the speculation on every front as to the message the ad would convey. Because of the story surrounding the circumstances of my birth [see pp. 3–6], everybody on both sides of the issue immediately assumed that it was a pro-life message. So many columnists took me to task for something they assumed was going to be in the ad, but wasn’t. [Read more…] about Celebrating Life: Tim Tebow’s 2010 Super Bowl Ad

Does God Care Whether Tim Tebow Wins on Saturday?

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I’m grateful that The Atlantic gave my buddy Owen Strachan a platform to preach the gospel on the front page of their website yesterday (and it’s still on their front page today). They asked him earlier this week out of the blue to write this article: “Does God Care Whether Tim Tebow Wins on Saturday?”

It’s similar to one Owen wrote a month ago for TGC (“Tebow, Calvin, and the Hand of God in Sports”), but it’s more evangelistic since he wrote it for a different audience.

Related recent articles on Tim Tebow:

  1. Randy Alcorn, “How Tim Tebow Messed Up My Plans and Forced Me to Preach This Coming Weekend”
  2. Rick Holland, “If I Were Tim Tebow’s Pastor”
  3. Nathan Busenitz, “Tebow Time: 10 Thoughts and a Cloud of Dust”
  4. Michael Flaherty and Nathan Whitaker, “Tim Tebow’s Role Model”
  5. Rick Reilly, “I Believe in Tim Tebow”

How Did C. S. Lewis View War?

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J. Daryl Charles and Timothy J. Demy, War, Peace, and Christianity: Questions and Answers from a Just-War Perspective (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 377–81 (numbering added):

[Question 99 of 104]

How did C. S. Lewis view war?

Lewis’s views on war sprang out of deep conviction and were tempered by personal experience. As an infantry officer wounded in the First World War, Lewis experienced firsthand the death and devastation wrought by war. [n. 77: For a fuller evaluation of Lewis’s experiences and reflections on war, see Timothy J. Demy, “Technology, Progress, and the Human Condition in the Life and Thought of C. S. Lewis” (PhD diss., Salve Regina University, 2004), 76–84, 250–67.] Yet he can be understood to stand firmly within the just-war tradition, as his writings indicate. As a matter of conviction, Lewis thought that most people would become confused if they tried to sort out just-war principles and apply them to each real or potential conflict. Therefore, he encouraged citizens and soldiers, especially those of religious faith, to be keenly aware of their responsibilities vis-à-vis unlawful orders. In so doing, not only would they serve the cause of justice, but they would also provide a unified witness of moral principle to the onlooking world. [Read more…] about How Did C. S. Lewis View War?

Two Critical and Thoughtful Reviews of Tim Tebow’s Book

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I’ve been following Tim Tebow pretty closely for the last two years, and the last three months have been a lot of fun!

I shared some thoughts about Tebow’s autobiography last August, and today I read two other critical and thoughtful reviews:

  1. Ted Kluck
  2. Daniel Threlfall

The reviews and authors differ:

  • Ted’s review is old (September 20, 2011); Daniel’s is new (posted today). But rereading Ted’s review today in light of what has happened since September is especially interesting.
  • Ted is a professional sports writer; Daniel doesn’t really follow sports. (Daniel is a good friend; we’re in the same small group in our church.)
  • Ted almost got the job to help write Tebow’s book; Daniel just read the book recently out of curiosity.

But both reviews are critical and thoughtful.

While not necessarily disagreeing with them, [Read more…] about Two Critical and Thoughtful Reviews of Tim Tebow’s Book

A New Book on Christology

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If you want to study Christology (and you should), then here’s a book to add to your reading list:

Robert A. Peterson. Salvation Accomplished by the Son: The Work of Christ. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012. 619 pp.

John Frame, professor of systematic theology and philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, says this of the book:

Dr. Peterson told me in correspondence, “my work is not [systematic theology] as much as laying biblical foundations for systematics.” Well, people can define terms as they like. But I think Salvation Accomplished by the Son is systematic theology at its very best. It deals with doctrines of systematic theology by bringing them into closest proximity with the biblical texts that justify them. That is the kind of systematics of which we need much more. This is the book to which, after Scripture itself, I would first turn to explore any question about Jesus’s incarnation, atonement, or resurrection.

Am I Really a Christian?

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This is probably the best all-around book to give to someone who is struggling with “assurance of salvation”:

Mike McKinley. Am I Really a Christian? The Most Important Question You’re Not Asking. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011.

(See Brian Hedges’s review and my previous blog post on Mike’s first book, Church Planting Is for Wimps.)

The book’s website has several videos. In this one Mike answers the question, “Can someone believe the gospel but not really be repentant?”

 

 

In Praise of Paradox

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K. Scott Oliphint, God with Us: Divine Condescension and the Attributes of God  (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 225–26:

In Praise of Paradox

I mentioned in the introduction that we must get used to the idea that antinomy and paradox will inevitably surround discussions such as this one. But the appeal to antinomy, paradox, and mystery is oftentimes troubling to those sympathetic to a less-than-Reformed understanding of God’s character and decree. In an attempted refutation of Calvinism and the “problem” of divine sovereignty, Jack Cottrell complains: [Read more…] about In Praise of Paradox