My favorite seminary has revamped their website. Looks great.
By the way - I know every seminary says this about their faculty - this seminary actually lives it.
Make sure to check out this incredible resource.
And the seminary bookstore is now available online.
30 September 2008
Mohler: Regeneration
Al Mohler on the new birth, and how some Buddhists (for a small fee) are seeking to be born again through an elaborate ritual that is the exact opposite of what Jesus prescribes in John 3.
29 September 2008
Helpful
This first question and answer from the DG conference's second panel, concerning Bob Kauflin's 3-year experience of emotional darkness, is well worth watching. I find it a salutary reminder to my own heart to rid myself, in the gospel, of the quenchless quest for the approval of men.
24 September 2008
Not Helpful
Among the many helpful things I glean from Christianity Today, I read this today on the back cover, advertising the alleged results of a seminary's DMin program:
In his first 16 years of ministry, Bryan _______ took a church of 50 people in a 'run-down little building' on Long Island, New York, and helped it grow to a congregation of more than 500. His preaching and pastoral skills did not go unnoticed, and in 1999 he was offered the pastorate at Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts, a congregation of 2,000.
Thank you, CT, for once again reminding me of what I'm not shooting for in pastoral ministry.
The temptations to adjudicate significance as the world does already rage inside my sinful heart--do these unhelpful flames need to be fueled by evangelicalism's flagship magazine?
Have the hundreds of faithful pastors who took churches of 50 people twenty years ago and are now at 60 people--or 40--"gone unnoticed"?
Only by those whose notice will not, in the most important sense, matter. That's ok. God sees.
"And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, declares the LORD." --Jer 45:5
In his first 16 years of ministry, Bryan _______ took a church of 50 people in a 'run-down little building' on Long Island, New York, and helped it grow to a congregation of more than 500. His preaching and pastoral skills did not go unnoticed, and in 1999 he was offered the pastorate at Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts, a congregation of 2,000.
Thank you, CT, for once again reminding me of what I'm not shooting for in pastoral ministry.
The temptations to adjudicate significance as the world does already rage inside my sinful heart--do these unhelpful flames need to be fueled by evangelicalism's flagship magazine?
Have the hundreds of faithful pastors who took churches of 50 people twenty years ago and are now at 60 people--or 40--"gone unnoticed"?
Only by those whose notice will not, in the most important sense, matter. That's ok. God sees.
"And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, declares the LORD." --Jer 45:5
Calvin: Psalm 73
Calvin is at his best when reflecting on Ps 73, a text we are reading for the Calvin class I'm currently in. On the Lord's providence, for example, he says:
As to ourselves, experience shows how slight impressions we have of the providence of God. We no doubt all agree in admitting that the world is governed by the hand of God; but were this truth deeply rooted in our hearts, our faith would be distinguished by far greater steadiness and perseverance in surmounting the temptations with which we are assailed in adversity. But when the smallest temptation which we meet with dislodges this doctrine from our minds, it is manifest that we have not yet been truly and in good earnest convinced of its truth.
My hand is raised: guilty!
--Calvin's Commentaries, Commentary on Psalms, p. 121
Here's another excerpt, this time from that life-giving and idol-deflating verse, Ps 73:25: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you." Calvin reflects:
David declares that he desires nothing, either in heaven or in earth, except God alone, and that without God, all other objects which usually draw the hearts of men towards them were unattractive to him. And, undoubtedly, God then obtains from us the glory to which he is entitled, when, instead of being carried first to one object, and then to another, we hold exclusively by him, being satisfied with him alone.
--p. 154
As to ourselves, experience shows how slight impressions we have of the providence of God. We no doubt all agree in admitting that the world is governed by the hand of God; but were this truth deeply rooted in our hearts, our faith would be distinguished by far greater steadiness and perseverance in surmounting the temptations with which we are assailed in adversity. But when the smallest temptation which we meet with dislodges this doctrine from our minds, it is manifest that we have not yet been truly and in good earnest convinced of its truth.
My hand is raised: guilty!
--Calvin's Commentaries, Commentary on Psalms, p. 121
Here's another excerpt, this time from that life-giving and idol-deflating verse, Ps 73:25: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you." Calvin reflects:
David declares that he desires nothing, either in heaven or in earth, except God alone, and that without God, all other objects which usually draw the hearts of men towards them were unattractive to him. And, undoubtedly, God then obtains from us the glory to which he is entitled, when, instead of being carried first to one object, and then to another, we hold exclusively by him, being satisfied with him alone.
--p. 154
23 September 2008
More Edwards
Two new biographical sketches, both of them short, have just been released. One is George Marsden's A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards (120 pp), with an intriguing blurb from Tim Keller), which is evidently not a summation of his earlier biography; the other is James Byrd's Jonathan Edwards for Armchair Theologians (180 pp). I will definitely be reading Marsden's over Xmas, and probably wait to hear reports on Byrd's book.
Thanks for more help in understanding this indescribably helpful Christian, gentlemen.
Thanks for more help in understanding this indescribably helpful Christian, gentlemen.
Bultmann and the Emerging Church
On a recommendation from one of my brothers I'm slowly working my way through Robert Yarbrough's The Salvation-Historical Fallacy? Reassessing the History of New Testament Theology. I have been struck by the similarities between those who have taken a more existential (vs. salvation-historical) approach to biblical theology and the (dying?) emerging church. At one point Yarbrough describes "Bultmann's view of New Testament theology as a presentation of certain New Testament writers' believing self-understanding with reference to a kerygma which is conceptually ineffable and indescribable." Footnoting this statement for further clarification, he says: "I.e. its content is not accessible by cognitive means and does not admit to being expressed in or apprehended by means of propositional statements. The kerygmatic proclamation does not convey information but opens up relational possibilities."
Whoa. For a moment there I thought I was reading one of our friends from the emerging church. The truth is, I have learned much from reading Doug Pagitt, Tim Keel, Tony Jones, Erwin McManus, and others. They have helped me. I approach theology and relationships with others and how to practically live out my faith differently (for the better) as a result, and I need to continue to listen to them, because many of them put hands and feet on their faith in a way that consistently, and rightly, rebukes me.
But I see in both Bultmann and Co. (I would take it back to Schleiermacher) as well as some associated with the EC the same impulse to downplay concrete propositions for the sake of more fuzzy subjectivity in speaking of truth and knowledge--a downplaying which is, in my opinion, shooting oneself in the foot. It is in (not in avoiding) propositional clarity that existential experience of God ignites.
Whoa. For a moment there I thought I was reading one of our friends from the emerging church. The truth is, I have learned much from reading Doug Pagitt, Tim Keel, Tony Jones, Erwin McManus, and others. They have helped me. I approach theology and relationships with others and how to practically live out my faith differently (for the better) as a result, and I need to continue to listen to them, because many of them put hands and feet on their faith in a way that consistently, and rightly, rebukes me.
But I see in both Bultmann and Co. (I would take it back to Schleiermacher) as well as some associated with the EC the same impulse to downplay concrete propositions for the sake of more fuzzy subjectivity in speaking of truth and knowledge--a downplaying which is, in my opinion, shooting oneself in the foot. It is in (not in avoiding) propositional clarity that existential experience of God ignites.
22 September 2008
Two Kinds of Knowledge
I enjoyed discovering this in my dad's Isaiah commentary today, reflecting on Isa 31-32.
Jonathan Edwards explained how the human being makes contact with reality. We know things at two levels. We grasp things with conceptual knowledge in our heads. We also enter into things with the sense of the heart. It’s the difference between reading a recipe for apple pie and actually putting a piece of hot apple pie a la mode into your mouth. God has made us to know him at both levels – with the thoughts of our minds and with a sense in our hearts. And it’s the sense of the heart that gives us traction. When his assurances in the gospel melt into our hearts, we experience the power of hope.
--God Saves Sinners, p. 180
Jonathan Edwards explained how the human being makes contact with reality. We know things at two levels. We grasp things with conceptual knowledge in our heads. We also enter into things with the sense of the heart. It’s the difference between reading a recipe for apple pie and actually putting a piece of hot apple pie a la mode into your mouth. God has made us to know him at both levels – with the thoughts of our minds and with a sense in our hearts. And it’s the sense of the heart that gives us traction. When his assurances in the gospel melt into our hearts, we experience the power of hope.
--God Saves Sinners, p. 180
19 September 2008
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