Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Three Central Emphases of Tim Keller’s Preaching

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Dennis E. Johnson summarizes three central emphases of Tim Keller‘s homiletic approach to illustrate how “the gospel changes everything” in “an approach to evangelistic, edificatory redemptive-historical preaching” (Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures [Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2007], 54–61):

1) What both the unbeliever and the believer need to hear in preaching is the gospel, with its implications for a life lived in confident gratitude in response to amazing grace. Christians are constantly tempted to relapse into legalistic attitudes in their pursuit of sanctification, so we never outgrow our need to hear the good news of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ. . . .

[Read more…] about Three Central Emphases of Tim Keller’s Preaching

Six Reasons to Preach from the OT

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Sidney Greidanus lists six “reasons for preaching from the Old Testament as well as the New” (Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999], 25–32):

  1. The Old Testament is part of the Christian canon.
  2. The Old Testament discloses the history of redemption leading to Christ.
  3. The Old Testament proclaims truths not found in the New Testament.
  4. The Old Testament helps us to understand the New Testament. [Understatement!]
  5. The Old Testament prevents misunderstanding the New Testament.
  6. The Old Testament provides a fuller understanding of Christ.

Historians’ Fallacies

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I first learned about this book in class with John Woodbridge:

David Hackett Fischer. Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. xxii + 338 pp.

Woodbridge recommended it and said that it helped give Don Carson the idea to write Exegetical Fallacies , which references Fischer over a dozen times.

Here’s how Carl Trueman prefaces his chapter “A Fistful of Fallacies” in Histories and Fallacies: Problems Faced in the Writing of History (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 141:

In this final chapter, I want to offer a brief survey of some of the more common fallacies that historians commit. It is by no means exhaustive, and the reader who wants to read more about these kinds of issues should consult the old but still very useful, and at times very funny, book by David Hackett Fischer, Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. Fischer deals with so many fallacies in such a devastatingly clear and ruthless manner that most, if not all, of us will blush as we read it, recognizing our own foolishness and ineptitude at various points in his narrative.

I don’t call myself a historian in the same way that most lay people don’t call themselves theologians. But nearly everyone’s a theologian; some are good ones.

A historian is someone (anyone) who asks an open-ended question about past events and answers it with selected facts which are arranged in the form of an explanatory paradigm. (Fischer, p. xv)

So nearly everyone’s a historian. This forty-year-old book will help you be a better one.

Praying about Your Plans for the Day

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Two years ago when C. J. Mahaney interviewed Wayne Grudem (parts 1, 2, 3, 4), Grudem served me well by sharing how he transitions from his morning devotions (reading the Bible and praying) to the rest of the day.

From part 1:

At the end of the time I will usually bring before the Lord my “to do” list, and pray about various items on the list, asking the Lord to help me know what to make a top priority today, and asking his blessing on the things that I plan to do.

From part 2:

I find the most helpful thing I do regarding use of time is to spend time in prayer each morning bringing my plans and my “to do” list before the Lord and seeking his direction.

A Sonnet on Hell

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D. A. Carson, Holy Sonnets of the Twentieth Century (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 117 (reflecting on Rev 14:9–11; 21:8):

There are no friends in hell: the residents
With zeal display self-love’s destructive art
In narcissistic rage. The better part,
The milk of human kindness, no defense
Against a graceless world, robbed of pretense,
Decays and burns away. To have a heart
Whose every beat demands that God depart—
This is both final curse and gross offense.

Say not that metaphor’s inadequate,
A fearful mask that hides a lake less grim:
Relentless, pain-streaked language seeks to cut
A swath to bleak despair, devoid of him.

This second death’s a wretched, endless thing,
Eternal winter with no hope of spring.

The Rebellious Child

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John Bunyan. “A Book for Boys and Girls: or, Temporal Things Spiritualized.” Pages 746–62 in vol. 3 of The Works of John Bunyan. Edited by George Offor. 3 vols. London: Blackie and Son, 1853. Logos

Upon the Disobedient Child [pp. 761–62]

Children become, while little, our delights!
When they grow bigger, they begin to fright’s.
Their sinful nature prompts them to rebel,
And to delight in paths that lead to hell.
Their parents’ love and care they overlook,
As if relation had them quite forsook.
They take the counsels of the wanton’s, rather
Than the most grave instructions of a father.
They reckon parents ought to do for them,
Though they the fifth commandment do contemn;
They snap and snarl if parents them control,
Though but in things most hurtful to the soul.
They reckon they are masters, and that we
Who parents are, should to them subject be!
If parents fain would have a hand in choosing,
The children have a heart will in refusing.
They’ll by wrong doings, under parents gather,
And say it is no sin to rob a father.
They’ll jostle parents out of place and power,
They’ll make themselves the head, and them devour.
How many children, by becoming head,
Have brought their parents to a piece of bread!
Thus they who, at the first, were parents joy,
Turn that to bitterness, themselves destroy.
But, wretched child, how canst thou thus requite
Thy aged parents, for that great delight
They took in thee, when thou, as helpless, lay
In their indulgent bosoms day by day?
Thy mother, long before she brought thee forth,
Took care thou shouldst want neither food nor cloth.
Thy father glad was at his very heart,
Had he to thee a portion to impart.
Comfort they promised themselves in thee,
But thou, it seems, to them a grief wilt be.
How oft, how willingly brake they their sleep,
If thou, their bantling, didst but winch or weep.
Their love to thee was such they could have giv’n,
That thou mightst live, almost their part of heav’n.
But now, behold how they rewarded are!
For their indulgent love and tender care;
All is forgot, this love he doth despise.
They brought this bird up to pick out their eyes.

God, Make Me a Man

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Darrin Patrick, Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 12:

Being a man is about being tough and tender.

I have three beautiful daughters . . . . But I also have a son, Drew, and because of my keen awareness of and pastoral interaction with the cultural influence of Bans [i.e., “a hybrid of both boy and man,” p. 9], I know that my work is cut out for me when it comes to raising a godly man. As with all of us dads with similar aspirations, my only hope is the Holy Spirit. So I recently wrote a little prayer that reflects the kind of men we need. Drew and I pray this prayer together almost every night. It is a prayer for him and for me:

God, make me a man with thick skin and a soft heart. Make me a man who is tough and tender. Make me tough so I can handle life. Make me tender so I can love people. God, make me a man.

Watch Darrin explain that prayer from about 47:30 to 49:00 in the below video: [Read more…] about God, Make Me a Man

The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

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“The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.”

That’s the opening line to Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994).

Carl Trueman plays on that title in his latest book: The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Chicago: Moody, 2011). (This 41-page book is available only electronically in the Kindle format.)

Some excerpts:

Is there an evangelical mind active today? Nearly two decades ago Mark Noll concluded any evangelical mind had gone soft through lack of use. Today the question is whether a healthy evangelicalism exists to host such a mind. I am not sure, theologically, that such a thing still thrives. (p. 13) [Read more…] about The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind