Between Two Worlds

All 20 years' worth of Desiring God Pastors Conferences audio files are now available online for free.

“This is about a procedure that any parent would want her daughter to have access to if she needed it. And to frame it as an abortion issue is doing a disservice to medicine and to our young women and our country. So I hope we can get the focus back on the fact that this Supreme Court is deciding what medical procedures are necessary for child-bearing women.”
--Quoted in San Francisco Chronicle.

(HT: Denny Burk)

Joshua Sowin interviews Tim Challies.

Thabiti Anyabwile is continuing his series of interviews with Reformed black pastors. Today he interviews Lance Lewis, a church planter in West Philly.

InterVarsity Press has launched three blogs:

InterVarsity Press launched three new blogs on its website that are intended to give readers an inside look at the publishing process as well as the discussions that take place as books are developed and sold. Combined, these discussion boards give an unprecedented glimpse into the thoughts and practices of a successful editorial department in the Christian book industry.

Behind the Books will deal with publications in the IVP Books line, and will include the thoughts and comments of editors Al Hsu, Cindy Bunch and Dave Zimmerman, as well as others in the editorial department, as they consider issues, trends and news related to the general publishing program. . . .

Andy Unedited will be written by IVP's editorial director for twenty-two years, Andrew T. Le Peau, and will include his thoughts on the publishing industry in general. According to Le Peau, the reason for the creation of the blogs is threefold: "We want to give readers and authors and folks in the industry a behind-the-scenes look at IVP, help create stickiness for our website, and increase customer loyalty and interest in our books. I also look forward to hearing what others have to say as we discuss our interests in publishing, books and the world of ideas."

Addenda & Errata will focus on the IVP Academic line, and will include contributions by academic and reference editors Dan Reid, Joel Scandrett, Jim Hoover and Gary Deddo. In explaining the function of this blog, Reid states, "Academically speaking, blogs are the faculty lounge or student commons-informal venues for exchanging ideas, catching up and even engaging in the occasional friendly debate. Editors inhabit this chattering world as comfortably as penguins on an iceberg-and while we may not be as cute, we can talk with style."

With over sixty years of combined academic publishing experience, there should be a great deal to talk about.

(HT: MB)

There is a new Together for the Gospel video online--a continuing conversation among Mark Dever, Albert Mohler, Ligon Duncan, and C.J. Mahaney.

Registration for T4G 2008 opens soon.

The book built from the 2006 conference--Preaching the Cross--is now available.

John Fonville--who has done a lot of thinking about "growing in holiness by living in Union with Christ"--has started a new blog: Gospel-Driven Blog. His first few posts explain his journey from legalism to gospel-centered sanctification.

Throughout the years my friend James Grant, Jr.--pastor of First Baptist Rossville in Rossville, TN--has taught me a lot about the gospel and how to live in light of the gospel. I'm delighted he's decided to start a blog, appropriately titled In Light of the Gospel. I expect it to be a site worth bookmarking for its gospel-centered meditations and resources.

Ligonier has posted the April 2007 issue of Tabletalk online for free:

As we mourn with the students and families directly impacted by the tragic killings at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute on April 16, 2007, we who are believers in the one, true God turn to His promises for comfort (Psalm 119:50).

With the hope that we might assist those struggling with the questions and feelings raised by this horrific event, Ligonier Ministries humbly offers for your reading the feature articles and columns from the April 2007 issue of Tabletalk magazine, which, in God’s providence, discusses the subject of grief.

We pray that these resources, in some small way, will help you find comfort in the arms of our sovereign God and will help you look for the day when He will “wipe away every tear” from the eyes of His people who rest assured in the finished work of Jesus Christ (Revelation 21:4).

April 2007 Tabletalk Articles:

• Sin, Death, and Grief by Burk Parsons
  


• A Grief Observed by R.C. Sproul
  


• From Grief to Glory by Jim Coffield
  


• Mourn with Those Who Mourn by Archie Parrish
  


• Good Grief? by Anthony Carter
  


• True Shepherding by Joel R. Beeke
  


• Hope by R.C. Sproul Jr.
  


• A Tale of Two Funerals by Gene Edward Veith

(HT: Heidelblog)

Howard Kurtz, media critic for the Washington Post:

In all the years I've been chronicling the media, I have rarely seen the tidal wave of resentment that has washed over television organizations that showed the now-infamous Cho video. In the minds of many Americans, this was a horribly offensive act, and no amount of explanation about the obligations of journalism is going to change that view.

In Him We Proclaim, Dennis Johnson writes:

Exegesis itself is impoverished when specialization and professional pressures in the academy inculcate into faculty and students a model of biblical interpretation that aborts the process short of application, depriving it of its sweetest fruit.

. . . Just as interpretation without proclamation in the Academy is fruitless, so proclamation without sound interpretation in the pulpit is rootless.

We need to rediscover the church’s older insight, drawn from the Bible itself, that the purpose of understanding Scripture is nothing less than to believe and obey its Author, and the purpose of preaching Scripture is to ground hearers’ faith and life in the depths of wisdom, justice, and grace hidden in Christ and unveiled in infinite variety on every page.

I've only read portions of this book thus far, but based on what I've seen, I would encourage every seminarian and pastor (and others!) to purchase and digest this excellent book!

Douglas Wilson looks at the new atheism (ala Dawkins, Harris, et al) and the Virginia Tech murders.

Mark Lauterbach on the importance of Christ's beauty and the relative unimportance of introspection.

Adrian Warnock reports:

This Easter a clear line was drawn in the sand in British Evangelicalism. For years, whenever the word “evangelical” was mentioned, people in the UK would think almost immediately of Spring Harvest — easily the UK's largest Christian conference. Part of that package has been Word Alive, a distinct all-age event run by UCCF (who owns the UK-based Intervarsity Press) and the Keswick Convention in partnership with Spring Harvest. At the heart of Word Alive has been a separate student track with up to 2,000 students. Beginning in 2008, there will be no more Word Alive at Spring Harvest.

Read the whole thing.
UCCF responds:

Steve Chalke has made his dislike of penal substitution very clear by likening God's act of punishing Jesus in our place to a cosmic child abuser. In good conscience, we simply could not allow Steve to teach during the Word Alive week. We're very sad that after 14 years of fruitful ministry, Spring Harvest has decided to end the Word Alive partnership because we feel unable to shift on this position.

Tony Reinke posts some notes from Mark Dever's talk, Watch the Past: Living Lessons from Dead Theologians, a breakout session at the 2007 Sovereign Grace Ministries Leader's Conference.

That's what Hugh Hewitt is asking about NBC's decision to air video and pictures from the Virginia Tech murderer. More here.

What do you think?

Update: John Mark Reynolds weighs in. An excerpt: "They have the right to do it, but it was not right to do it. . . . NBC should not be censored by the government, but any good person censors self. Freedom to do a thing (which NBC should have) does not make it right or keep the rest of us from making the proper judgment that NBC was wrong."

Joe Carter is posting some entries on PBA:

• The Infanticide Procedure: Doctors Describe Performing Partial Birth Abortions
• The Infanticide Procedure: Part II -- Responding to Objections to the PBA Ban

Yesterday Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, reportedly suggested that in Romans 1-2, Paul's main point was that believers should refrain from judging others--which is a point that is missed by those who oppose homosexual practice and the church's validation of such behavior.

Robert Gagnon responds: Rowan Williams’ Wrong Reading of Romans (also available in PDF).

Lydia Brownback interviews Elyse Fitzpatrick (part 1 | part 2).

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today on Gonzales v. Carhart, 05-380 and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood, 05-1382, upholding a nationwide ban on partial-birth abortion. The Justices voted 5-4 to retain the ban. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens, and David Souter dissented.

Bloomberg: "The law, which has never taken effect, is the first federal abortion restriction since the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision established the constitutional right to end a pregnancy."

Here are some articles from Stand to Reason about partial-birth abortion:

• Partial-birth Abortion Isn't about Abortion
• Paritial-birth Aobrtion: Objections and Misunderstandings
• Nothing Hidden in D&X

The Drudge Report has reactions from the presidential candidates:

Hillary: 'Erosion of our constitutional rights'...
Giuliani: 'I agree with it'...
Obama: 'I strongly disagree'...
Romney: 'A step forward'...
McCain: I'm very happy...
Edwards: 'I could not disagree more strongly'...

The New York Times has set up a page giving information about the victims of the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech.

(HT: Hugh Hewitt)

Voddie Baucham answers Colin Adams' Ten Questions for Expositors.

Bob Kauflin:

Last week I had the privilege of participating in the Sovereign Grace Leader's Conference. What a fire hydrant of grace, encouragement, truth, conviction, and fellowship. RC. Sproul spoke on the holiness of God and the holiness of Christ, David Powlison helped us apply the doctrine of indwelling sin without getting morbidly introspective, and C.J. Mahaney spoke to us on the final night on "Trinitarian Pastoral Ministry" from 2 Cor. 13:14. You can download the messages by R.C., David, and C.J. for $8 at the Sovereign Grace website.

Bob also posts some reflections by Josh Harris on planning your Sunday-morning meetings.

(HT: Z)

Last fall at the Society of Biblical Literature N. T. Wright gave a review, with reflections, on C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. It has now been published in Touchstone Magazine: Simply Lewis: Reflections on a Master Apologist After 60 Years.

ABC News:

[The Children of Hurin,] released today by Houghton Mifflin, is a publishing event: It is the first new book by the creator of "The Lord of the Rings" in 30 years. The publisher calls it the culmination of an effort to bring to the public the vast body of work J.R.R. Tolkien had left unpublished, and largely unfinished, when he died in 1973.

Tolkien began writing "The Children of Hurin" 99 years ago, abandoning it and taking it up again repeatedly throughout his life. Versions of the tale already have appeared in "The Silmarillion," "Unfinished Tales" and as narrative poems or prose sections of the "History of Middle-earth" series.

But they were truncated and contradictory. Outside of Tolkien scholars and Middle-earth fanatics, few read them.

These works were, after all, largely unreadable dense, hard to follow histories and legends of Tolkien's vast, imaginary world, crammed with complicated genealogies, unfamiliar geography and hard-to-pronounce names. Readers who took up such books hoping for another Rings saga or charming yarn such as "The Hobbit" abandoned them after a few pages.

"The Children of Hurin" is the book for which these readers have been longing.

It is the fruit of 30 years labor by Christopher Tolkien, the author's son, who has devoted much of his life to editing and publishing the work his father left behind. By meticulously combining and editing the many published and unpublished versions of the tale, he has produced at last a coherent, vivid and readable narrative. . . .

Christopher Tolkien says that in reconciling the various versions of his father's story, he added no new material, save for an occasional transition. The words, he says, are virtually all his father's.

For a summary, see the rest of the article.

(Inquiring minds want to know: has Tim Keller read it yet, and if so, what does he think?)