Official Christianity, of late years, has been having what is known as “a bad press.” We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine--“dull dogma,” as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man--and the dogma is the drama.
As the waters continued to rise in New Orleans, the Pentagon began mounting one of the biggest search-and-rescue operations in U.S. history, sending four Navy ships to the Gulf Coast with drinking water and other emergency supplies, along with the hospital ship USNS Comfort, search helicopters and eight swift-water rescue teams. Red Cross workers from across the country converged on the devastated region.
The Army Corps of Engineers said it planned to use heavy-duty Chinook helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags Wednesday into the 500-foot gap in the failed floodwall. But the agency said it was having trouble getting the sandbags and dozens of 15-foot highway barriers to the site because the city's waterways were blocked by loose barges, boats and large debris.
Officials said they were also looking at a more audacious plan: finding a barge to plug the 500-foot hole.
The death toll from Hurricane Katrina reached at least 110 in Mississippi alone, while Louisiana put aside the counting of the dead to concentrate on rescuing the living, many of whom were still trapped on rooftops and in attics.
The Red Cross reported it had about 40,000 people in 200 shelters across the area in one of the biggest urban disasters the nation has ever seen.
A full day after the Big Easy thought it had escaped Katrina's full fury, two levees broke and spilled water into the streets Tuesday, swamping an estimated 80 percent of the bowl-shaped, below-sea-level city, inundating miles and miles of homes and rendering much of New Orleans uninhabitable for weeks or months.
"We are looking at 12 to 16 weeks before people can come in," Mayor Ray Nagin said on ABC's "Good Morning America, "and the other issue that's concerning me is we have dead bodies in the water. At some point in time the dead bodies are going to start to create a serious disease issue."
Blanco said she wanted the Superdome _ which had become a shelter of last resort for about 20,000 people _ evacuated within two days, along with other gathering points for storm refugees. The situation inside the dank and sweltering Superdome was becoming desperate: The water was rising, the air conditioning was out, toilets were broken, and tempers were rising.
At the same time, sections of Interstate 10, the only major freeway leading into New Orleans from the east, lay shattered, dozens of huge slabs of concrete floating in the floodwaters. I-10 is the only route for commercial trucking across southern Louisiana.
The sweltering city of 480,000 people _ an estimated 80 percent of whom obeyed orders to evacuate as Katrina closed in over the weekend _ also had no drinkable water, the electricity could be out for weeks, and looters were ransacking stores around town.
"The logistical problems are impossible and we have to evacuate people in shelters," the governor said. "It's becoming untenable. There's no power. It's getting more difficult to get food and water supplies in, just basic essentials."
She gave no details on exactly where the refugees would be taken. But in Houston, Rusty Cornelius, a county emergency official, said at least 25,000 of them would travel in a bus convoy to Houston starting Wednesday and would be sheltered at the 40-year-old Astrodome, which is no longer used for professional sporting events.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was considering putting people on cruise ships, in tent cities, mobile home parks, and so-called floating dormitories _ boats the agency uses to house its own employees.
Once the levees are fixed, Maj. Gen. Don Riley of the Army Corps of Engineers said, it could take close to a month to get the water out of the city. If the water rises a few feet higher, it could also wipe out the water system for the whole city, said New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert.
A helicopter view of the devastation over Louisiana and Mississippi revealed people standing on black rooftops, baking in the sunshine while waiting for rescue boats.
"I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour after touring the destruction by air Tuesday.
Christ and Katrina
August 29, 2005
I am from Biloxi, Mississippi. My family members are there now, enduring the brunt of Hurricane Katrina despite pleas to evacuate. As my father puts it, "Only sissies and Yankees evacuate" (I think this is sufficient explanation for why my ancestors lost the war). As I spent most of the night praying and flipping from Fox News to CNN to MSNBC, I am reminded of just how unnatural natural disasters really are. Read Full Commentary ...
Few would pay attention to political preachers if these ministers did not have access to television and radio. And they would not have TV programs if people did not send them money which, in addition to buying TV time, is used to set most of them up in lifestyles that resemble the "rich young ruler."
Much of what is proclaimed as G-d's will on TV and in fundraising appeals is false religion. People who respond with checks are either ignorant or willfully disobedient to what their spiritual commander-in-chief and the early apostles taught and practiced.
See his excellent one-page summary about neither overstating or understating the case for adult stem cells.
Do No Harm now lists 65 diseases that are being treated using adult stem cells.
And what about embryonic stem cells that we acquire through the killing of innocent human beings? How many conditions are being treated using embryonic stem cells? Zero.
Also included in the issue are articles by Paul Zahl ("Turning Romeward? Not an Option"), Daryl Hart ("Does Protestantism Have What Evangelicals are Looking For?" using Noll and Nystrom's Is the Reformation Over?), Tom Wenger's "A Brief History of the Papacy," and a proposed 10 Theses for Roman Catholic-Evangelical Dialog.
This fall Crossway Books will publish, Translating Truth: The Case for Essentially Literal Bible Translation1. Are Only Some Words of Scripture Breathed Out by God? Why Plenary Inspiration Favors “Essentially Literal” Bible Translation
Wayne Grudem
2. Five Myths About Essentially Literal Bible Translation
Leland Ryken
3. What the Reader Wants and the Translator Can Give: 1 John as a Test Case
C. John Collins
4. Truth and Fullness of Meaning: Fullness Versus Reductionistic Semantics in Biblical Interpretation
Vern Sheridan Poythress
5. Revelation Versus Rhetoric: Paul and the First-century Corinthian Fad
Bruce Winter
Dating is an issue of Christian controversy--and for good reason. This fascinating new book brings together some of the most important thinkers and writers on this issue, producing a dialogue that will stretch the mind and encourage Christian thinking. Read this book--it's sure to become a focus of much conversation.
--R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky
Recent books on courtship and dating have raised some difficult questions about the proper approach Christians should take for finding a life partner. This book lays out the major views and unpacks their scriptural arguments. If you're trying to understand all the views and think carefully through their biblical merit, here is the book you are looking for.
--John MacArthur, pastor and author
Alex Chediak has done the church a great favor by detailing in clear language the ways serious believers may think about the path to marriage. Though he shows there is no "one size fits all" in this adventure in discipleship, he helps the reader discern God's will by offering illuminating points of comparison and contrast among the options. Plus, the anecdotes and stories he tells make the book fun to read. In the future, I hope he'll try his hand at other issues where Christians may legitimately disagree.
--Ben Patterson, campus pastor, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California
Jeffrey Jue, What's Emerging in the Church? Postmodernity, The Emergent Church, and The Reformation
Carl Trueman, Breeding Ferrets on Watership Down
Michael Travers, Review of Gilead
And on the Ref 21 blog, Derek Thomas tells us that Calvin would have been--or was in some sense--a blogger!
First, let us all learn once again to lament. Read the psalms over and over until you have the vocabulary, grammar, and syntax necessary to lay your heart before God in lamentation. If you do this, you will have the resources to cope with your own times of suffering, despair and heartbreak, and to keep worshipping and trusting through even the blackest of days; you will also develop a greater understanding of fellow Christians whose agonies of, say, bereavement, depression, or despair, sometimes make it difficult for them to prance around in ecstasy singing "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" on a Sunday morning; and you will have more credible things to say to those shattered and broken individuals--be they burned-out bank managers or down-and-out junkies--to whom you may be called to be a witness of God's unconditional mercy and grace to the unloved and lovely. For such, as the Bible might put it, were some of you...
Second, seek to make the priorities of the biblical prayers the priorites of your own prayers. You can read all the trendy sociology and postmodern primers you want, and they may well give you valuable technical insights, but unless your studies, your preaching, your church life, your family life, indeed your whole life, are soaked in prayer and reflect the priorites of the Bible, they will be of no profit to you or anybody else.
And finally, as regards personal ambitions and life-plans, "Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross."
Let us be quite clear about what is going on. These people define themselves not just by their careful exegesis of Pauline texts but also by their rejection of the Augustinian and Lutheran trajectories on justification. That is what they consider to be an essential part of what makes them so special, and what makes their contribution so important. What they are proposing in consequence is that the whole Western tradition has for most of the last two millennia been fundamentally wrong- headed about justification.
That is a claim which is staggering in its theological implications and awesome in its ecclesiological consequences. It requires that we be very cautious and careful before we embrace it with open arms. They could, of course, be correct; but surely these earth-shattering implications place them under obligation to deal seriously with the relevant primary texts of the tradition and to demonstrate in their analysis of them the same exegetical and historical sensitivity which they boast of as distinguishing their approach to the New Testament? To reject the entire tradition on the basis of am apparent bibliography that would look less than thin at the end of an undergraduate assignment is a move that can only be described as one of breath taking arrogance and awesome irresponsibility. Reject Luther and the tradition if you wish; but first make sure you know what it is that you are rejecting. And that requires studying primary texts in historical context.
This leads me to my final comment. The story is told of Bernard Shaw being taken to see the lights of Las Vegas late one night. 'It must be beautiful,' he commented, 'if you can't read.' I confess that the New Perspective approach to Luther strikes me a little that way. It too must be beautiful, but only if you don't know the primary texts. Its portrait of the Reformer certainly appears persuasive and impressive but that is because of the confidence with which it is presented to an audience whose culture generally considers novelty a good thing and tradition to be bad. A close examination of his theology in context reveals this portraits manifest deficiencies and palpable errors.
"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we are trying to assassinate him, we should go ahead and do it," Robertson said Monday. "It's a whole lot easier than starting a war, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."
(Via FoxNews.com)"I didn't say 'assassination,'" clarified Robertson during a broadcast of his "The 700 Club" Wednesday morning. "I said our special forces should go 'take him out,' and 'take him out' could be a number of things, including kidnapping."
He blamed The Associated Press for making him seem to advocate the assassination of a foreign leader.
"There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him," Robertson said. "I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time."
God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”
has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6This book is a cry from the heart of John Piper. He is pleading that God himself, as revealed in Christ’s death and resurrection, is the ultimate and greatest gift of the gospel.
None of Christ’s gospel deeds and none of our gospel blessings are good news except as means of seeing and savoring the glory of Christ. Forgiveness is good news because it opens the way to the enjoyment of God himself. Justification is good news because it wins access to the presence and pleasures of God himself. Eternal life is good news because it becomes the everlasting enjoyment of Christ.
All God’s gifts are loving only to the degree that they lead us to God himself. That is what God’s love is: his commitment to do everything necessary (most painfully the death of his only Son) to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying—namely, himself.
Saturated with Scripture, centered on the cross, and seriously joyful, this book leads us to satisfaction for the deep hungers of the soul. It touches us at the root of life where practical transformation gets its daily power. It awakens our longing for Christ and opens our eyes to his beauty.
Piper writes for the soul-thirsty who have turned away empty and in desperation from the mirage of methodology. He invites us to slow down and drink from a deeper spring. “This is eternal life,” Jesus said, “that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This is what makes the gospel—and this book—good news.
"A superbly researched, documented, and engagingly argued case that a new era in Catholic/evangelical relations is dawning. Less clear is why this has happened. Is it because of diminished Catholic identity, disintegrating evangelical theology, or the intrusions of (post)modernity which incline people to be neither Protestant nor Catholic but simply religious? It is hard to know."--David F. Wells, Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology
Steve Salerno is a reporter with wide experience. As a freelance feature writer, Salerno has written for magazines including Harper's, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and many others. He has contributed articles to the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Many of his articles have focused upon "money stories," that deal with financial scandals and controversies in the business world. Now, he is ready to report on the biggest scandal he has ever encountered--America's self-help movement.
Salerno writes: "In twenty-four years as a business writer and an investigative journalist, I have covered all kinds of 'money stories.' I have written about boondoggles on bankers' row and sleight of hand at Seventh Avenue fashion houses. I've written about the gyrations of the stock market as well as the myriad forces that surround, yet never quite explain, investing itself. I've written about money as it relates to sales, money as it relates to sports, money as it relates to music, money as it relates to love. It's safe to say that if it involves money, combined with some form of human aspiration, I've probably written about it."
Nevertheless, Salerno's experience in reporting still left him amazed when he confronted an industry whose story "represents the ultimate marriage of money and aspiration." That story is the rise and dominance of what he calls the "Self-Help and Actualization Movement"--identified in his book by the acronym SHAM.
Christ commanded us to be wise as a serpent but innocent as a dove. In this case at least, it appears that Pat Robertson is as innocent as a serpent and as wise as a dove. I hope he will take Al Mohler's counsel to heart, apologizing quickly and unequivocally.All human beings are capable of making outrageous comments, fraudulent claims, and scandalous conversation. That is part of the human condition -- part of being a sinner. Language is a powerful gift, but the evil use of language can do great and grave damage.
This is painfully clear in the aftermath of Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson's comments about the potential assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Here are Robertson's comments from Monday's edition of CBN's "The 700 Club:"
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said of Chavez in Monday's broadcast of "The 700 Club." "We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."
With unmistakable clarity and an apparent lack of self-consciousness, Robertson simply called for an assassination, presumably to be undertaken by U.S. military forces in violation of U.S. law.
In so doing he gave the Venezuelan leader a propaganda gold mine, embarrassed the Bush administration, and left millions of viewers perplexed and troubled. More importantly, he brought shame to the cause of Christ. This is the kind of outrageous statement that makes evangelism all the more difficult. Missing from the entire context is the Christian understanding that violence can never be blessed as a good, but may only be employed under circumstances that would justify the limited use of lethal force in order to prevent even greater violence. Our witness to the Gospel is inevitably and deeply harmed when a recognized Christian leader casually recommends the assassination of a world leader.
Hugo Chavez is a dangerous and reckless factor on the world scene. His extreme nationalism, combined with Marxism, has led his country directly into conflict with the U.S. and much of the civilized world. He has befriended Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and given support to forces of global anarchy. Credible sources link him to support -- direct or indirect -- of groups involved in terrorism.
Nevertheless, Pat Robertson's comments lacked any indication that he even understood the gravity of his proposal. He has brought embarrassment upon us all.
I am thankful for every person who has been reached for the Gospel through Pat Robertson's vast ministry. I am thankful for his brave support of unpopular Christian causes. I respect what he has done through Regent University. He has been courageous in defense of many moral causes when others were silent.
Now, with so much at stake, Pat Robertson bears responsibility to retract, rethink, repent, and restate his position on this issue. Otherwise, what could have been a temporary lapse of judgment can become an enduring obstacle to the Gospel. Mr. Robertson, it's back in your court. Your Christian brothers and sisters must love you enough to tell you the truth -- and encourage you to set the record straight.
Cannon's new music video "Can I Live?" tells a tale that's very different from a gangsta's paradise of dirty dancing and booty calls that Cannon may be sandwiched in between on MTV or BET. In the song, the hip-hop pop star tells his life story — or at least the beginning of it and his mom's close call with abortion.
Cannon, 24, appears in the video as a ghost (or an angel, if you prefer) and sings, "Mommy, I don't like this clinic. Hopefully you'll make the right decision, and don't go through with the knife decision."
A scared teen, his mother was on a gurney — that's how close the call was — but got up, and, at least in the video version, ran.
He points out to his mother something she got on some level, or she wouldn't have gotten up: "That's a life inside you, look at your tummy. What is becoming Ma, I am Oprah bound. You can tell he's a star from the Ultrasound."
The video images tell a stirring, gripping story regardless of where you fall in the abortion debate.
Babies are being saved on account of this video. Cannon is currently collected testimonials for a forthcoming book.
As both a long-time pastor and current seminary president, I want to say simply and clearly: I love this book! I want to give it to all the pastors-in-training in our Masters of Divinity program, all our graduates now serving around the world, all the church workers in our denomination, and all my friends who love and serve the Church.
This is the most biblically directed and practically helpful discussion of “applied ecclesiology” that I have read. The Deliberate Church has a bit of the feel of Luther’s Tischreden (Table Talks); i.e., it is a young pastor-scholar (Alexander) listening to an experienced pastor-scholar (Dever) about the church and recording that conversation. This talk begins where it simply must begin for those committed to the authority of Scripture: namely, God telling us what He intended His church to be. Only when we have listened to that do we learn from Dever and Alexander about what the church should do. (Prayerfully, what our churches do will be directed by what our Father says we are!) And only then do we arrive where so many evangelical churches want to begin—thinking about how we organize our activity. Dever and Alexander guide us in a very practical way through the implications of the truths of God’s Word about the daily workings of a local church.
My reading of The Deliberate Church has fanned into a greater flame my ongoing love for the church. The book has rekindled my passion to serve a church in which the Gospel is central. It has recreated a longing for “a church that is an increasingly clear display of God’s wisdom and glory to the heavenly powers and to the surrounding community.”
—GREG WAYBRIGHT
President, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
“Here is one of the most faithful and insightful pastors of our time, addressing the most crucial issues of church life. Mark Dever refuses to separate theology and congregational life, combining pastoral insight with clear biblical teaching. This book is a powerful antidote to the merely pragmatic approaches of our day—and a refutation to those who argue that theology just isn’t practical.”
—R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“This book is the perfect example of what a truly practical book on church health and growth should be—it gives concrete guidance for and examples of biblical principles being put into practice in the life and ministry of the local congregation.”
—J. Ligon Duncan III, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi
“Rare indeed are books on the church that begin with the Gospel. Rarer still are books that derive methodology for building the church from the Gospel. This excellent book does both.”
—C. J. Mahaney, Sovereign Grace Ministries
“The Deliberate Church shares many of the ministry lessons that Dr. Dever and his colleagues have learned from Scripture and sought to implement in the life of their church community. This book is for anyone who wants to get serious about following the biblical pattern for the church and is looking for down-to-earth practical help.”
—Philip Graham Ryken, Senior Minister, Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia
“Here is a novel idea: use the Bible as a handbook to gather and guide the church! And The Deliberate Church is a novel volume indeed, standing amid the spate of ‘church-as-corporation, pastor-as-CEO’ manuals that glut church life. Here is a book that wafts a radical, refreshing breeze from the pages of Scripture that will breathe life into the church. A crucial read.”
—R. Kent Hughes, Senior Pastor, College Church in Wheaton (Illinois)
On the surface, this incident is remarkable enough but its underlying message is even more significant. I think it signals the defeat and decline of the pro-choice movement in the foreseeable future.Senators will continue to debate; legislative battles will be waged on the state level; protesters will still scream at each other in the streets. But the very fact that NARAL -- America's leading advocate for abortion rights -- thought blatant dishonesty was the strongest card to play reveals a shocking depth of intellectual bankruptcy that is too common in the overall movement....
As a pro-choice advocate, I am ashamed of NARAL, an organization with which I never associated. I am ashamed of the anti-Roberts ad that typifies much of pro-choice rhetoric: a scorched-earth policy in which goodwill and truth are the first two items incinerated....
...The pro-choice side must acknowledge the legitimate arguments pro-life advocates have brought to the debate. For example, although I argue for legalized abortion, from listening to pro-life positions I now have profound moral doubts about abortion and strenuously encourage alternate solutions, like adoption.
She also has some good words about how pro-lifers need to be more vocal in condemning violence against abortion clinics.
Review of Most of All, Jesus Loves You, written by Noel Piper, illustrated by Debby Anderson (Crossway Books, 2004)
Reviewed by
This 16-page children’s book is written by Noel Piper, wife of John Piper, and illustrated by Debby Anderson. The dedication to the book gives a little glimpse into their household and sets the stage for the book.
To Talitha Ruth
When you were small,
I would tuck you into your crib and say goodnight.
Then as I stepped away, I could hear you mulling over what you’d heard—
“Ma-ma . . . Da-da . . . mo-o-O-OH, D’SUS!”
You’ve outgrown baby talk now.
But may you never outgrow the truth.
The format is quite simple: Mommy,
My 23-month old daughter absolutely loves this book. She now repeats every line, with a hilarious giggle sound added to the end of it!
In reading it aloud, there’s almost a sing-song rhythm to it. And like most books of its genre, it’s quite easy to memorize! The illustrations are delightful. Debby Anderson has a unique way of illustrating childlike joy.
Highly recommended.
Review of God Knows My Name, written and illustrated by Debby Anderson (Crossway Books, 2003)
Reviewed by
This 30-page book is both written and illustrated by kindergarten teacher and mother of four, Debby Anderson. The theme is God’s omniscient care for us. Scripture is not quoted directly; rather, each page summarizes a few key Scripture passages on God’s omniscience, totaling 50 Scripture passages in all.
I became more impressed with the book once I actually took the time to look up the passages that were referenced. For example, here were the passages cited in one of the sections:
Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Psalm 139:9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Job 38:8 "Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, 9 when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, 11 and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?
Job 38:16 "Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Here is the entry in the book:
When I hide in my favorite hiding place,
God can find me! Nothing can hide from God!
Even if I float far across the ocean, God knows.
He tells the waves where to stop.
He’s touched the very bottom of the sea!
Can you find the crab, octopus, starfish, snail, anemone, sea slug, and jellyfish?
It is a theologically accurate, colorful, entertaining book. And it passed the 22-month-old daughter test. Recommended.
My friend John Erickson recently pointed me to a great article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that deals with the questions adoptive parents often receive. Here are sopme of the questions that should be rethought:
“How much did he cost?”
“What happened to her real mom?”
“Why did you adopt overseas when there are so many children here?”
“Why was he put up for adoption?”
“Do you get to go to an orphanage and pick one out?”
“Isn’t she lucky, being raised by loving parents in the U.S.?”
The whole article is quite helpful, in both content and tone. Before I read the article, I compiled a similiar list of things not to say:
In the past couple of years, I’ve heard most of these questions. It’s easy for adoptive parents to get bent out of shape by them, and we must all guard against an unattractive hypersensitivity. But let me suggest three reasons why we should seek to use wise, sensitive, and loving language with regard to adoption:
(1) Adoptive parents can sometimes feel inferior or self-conscious about their children. Saying something innocent like “So what were his parents like?” can reinforce the mistaken notion that the adoptive parents aren’t truly the rightful parents of the child.
(2) Adopted kids are listening, and the language can be confusing. A well-meaning stranger might say something like: “So what does her mom look like?” referring to the birthmother. Perhaps the child doesn’t fully get it yet. Her response will likely be: “But Mom, I thought you were my mommy?”
(3) I think there are theological implications for how we speak about adoption. A friend of mine who has two adopted sons from Russia often gets the question, “Are they brothers?” His answer is: “Well they are now.” And the response often is: “Yes, but are they really brothers?” The implication—again unintentional—is that biological brotherhood is what really counts. But there are spiritual ramifications for this kind of thinking, especially with the New Testament theme of adoption. We have been adopted by God. Therefore, we are his sons. Really his sons. Fellow believers are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Really our brothers. Really our sisters. We have been adopted by God, and He is our Father. We have been united to Christ, who is now our co-heir. By downplaying the reality and legality of adoption with our language, we might unintentionally undermine the presuppositions of the New Testament regarding the new family of God.
"We're proud of our troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. We pray for them, and of course, we're grateful for them. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is launching Operation Bless Our Troops to share the love of Jesus Christ in a tangible way with these servicemembers." -Franklin Graham
You can help the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) share the love of Jesus Christ with troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you have friends or family stationed in these areas, send us their names and addresses right away! We will ship them a packet containing Now and Always: Songs of Hope and Praise on CD and our feature movie Last Flight Out on DVD. This packet will not only bless your loved ones, it will minister to those around them as they listen to the music or watch the film.
Send a Packet
Whether or not you have friends or family stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan, you can partner with BGEA in sharing the Gospel with our troops. Your gift of $10 or more will help us deliver one packet to a servicemember faithfully defending freedom overseas.
Support Operation Bless Our Troops
Please remember to keep these men and women in your prayers as well, and thank you for blessing our troops!
Finally, the MSM provides a counterbalance to the claims of grieving-but-partisan mom Cindy Sheehan: Newsweek gives an inside glimpse into President Bush's long, tear-stained meetings with grieving families.
Since Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, you might think that there would be no need for a new book about it today.
Unfortunately, there is very much a need for a new book on the subject, not only because of the gross neglect of history in our schools and colleges, but also because of the completely unrealistic view of the world -- past and present -- that prevails, not only among the ignorant but among the intelligentsia as well.Since the 1960s, it has been fashionable in some quarters to take cheap shots at Lincoln, asking such questions as "Why didn't he free all the slaves?" "Why did he wait so long?" "How come the Emancipation Proclamation didn't just come right out and say that slavery was wrong?"
People who indulge themselves in this kind of self-righteous carping act as if Lincoln was someone who could do whatever he damn well pleased, without regard to the law, the Congress, or the Supreme Court. They might as well criticize him for not discovering a cure for cancer.
Fortunately, there is an excellent new book, titled "Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation" by Professor Allen C. Guelzo of Gettysburg College, that sets Lincoln in the context of the world in which he lived. Once you understand the constraints of that world, and how little room for maneuver Lincoln had, you realize what courage and brilliance it took for him to free the slaves.
Read the whole thing. Professor Guelzo, by the way, is also the author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President. (And also the author of perhaps the best book on Edwards' Freedom of the Will.)
Three decades of ministry in the criminal justice arena have taught me that neither conservatives nor liberals have it right. The real answer is not an either/or approach; it is the biblical view, which embraces both the distributive and retributive models.
Biblical justice recognizes that both punishment and meeting social needs are essential to a just society. The Bible calls for punishment—which C.S. Lewis called "balancing the scales of justice"—not necessarily because it is a deterrent, but because justice demands it. But Scripture also demands social justice: Ancient Israelites were told to leave gleanings at the side of the field for the poor, maintain honest scales, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked.
Secularists, both liberal and conservative, fail because they see people as objects—either to be punished or to be serviced—whereas biblical justice is much grander, viewing people as humans made in God's image. As the eminent scholar Neal Plantinga argues in Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, the world is supposed to work in a certain way because that's how God designed it. God seeks shalom, which in the biblical definition means not just the absence of war, but genuine accord and harmony, a society in which people care for one another, a "universal flourishing." "Shalom," Plantinga says, "is the way things ought to be."
The problem is that humans don't behave the way we should in order for human society to function as God intends. The crime problem is caused by neither poverty nor softer crime policies. It is caused by human sin. This is why the Christian view of justice must be aimed toward restoring the shalom that is marred by sin. It means restraining and punishing wrong conduct, but it also means promoting "human flourishing."
This is why Prison Fellowship developed what we call "restorative justice," teaching that we must go beyond punishing wrongdoers by reconciling criminals and victims, asking criminals to make restitution, and restoring offenders to the community. That's why, when inmates are released, Christians should be there to help them find a job, a home, furniture, and friendships—assistance that helps keep them from falling back into crime, assistance that will restore the wholeness of the community.
This is what Christians should be seeking in society. . . .
Let's say you are an 18-year-old kid with a really big brain. You're trying to figure out which field of study you should devote your life to, so you can understand the forces that will be shaping history for decades to come.
Go into the field that barely exists: cultural geography. Study why and how people cluster, why certain national traits endure over centuries, why certain cultures embrace technology and economic growth and others resist them.
This is the line of inquiry that is now impolite to pursue. The gospel of multiculturalism preaches that all groups and cultures are equally wonderful. There are a certain number of close-minded thugs, especially on university campuses, who accuse anybody who asks intelligent questions about groups and enduring traits of being racist or sexist. The economists and scientists tend to assume that material factors drive history - resources and brain chemistry - because that's what they can measure and count.
But none of this helps explain a crucial feature of our time: while global economies are converging, cultures are diverging, and the widening cultural differences are leading us into a period of conflict, inequality and segmentation.
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