Between Two Worlds

This week's special discount at the Westminster Bookstore is on the CCEF (Christian Counseling & Education Foundation) books, which are all excellent. The books are 50% off, and the shipping is a flat rate of $5 no matter how big the order. Check 'em out.

Thursday's Albert Mohler Radio Program:

Francis Beckwith's recent announcement that he was resigning his position as president of the Evangelical Theological Society, and withdrawing his membership, due to his return to the Roman Catholic Church, has prompted a flurry of discussion. On today's program, Dr. Mohler is joined by Dr. Bruce Ware, vice president of ETS, to attempt to analyze what Beckwith's announcement suggests of how evangelical identity should best be understood.

HT: Matt Hall

Here's round two of their exchange.

Follow what Wilson is doing here. He's using a presuppositional approach to apologetics, which I commend as biblical and effective (in God's providence).

For more, see James Grant's thoughts on presuppositionalism as it applies to this debate.

David Neff interviews Frank Beckwith.

On "Nightline" tonight Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron will debate two members of the so-called "Rational Response Squad." The debate will be available online at 1 p.m. Central today on ABC News Now.

From what I know of it, I don't think this debate or the Comfort-Cameron strategy are good ideas. But we should pray that God would use this and refrain from mocking them if we disagree with their approach.

Last week Joshua Sowin explained his discomfort with Comfort's approach. Today Stan Guthrie weighs in:

The RRS [Rational Response Squad], as you may know, has organized the Web-based "Blasphemy Challenge" to encourage people to blaspheme the Holy Spirit as a way to declare their freedom from and lack of fear over all religious beliefs. The founder of the movement, Brian Sapient, equates theism with belief in the tooth fairy, saying, "There isn't any good reason to believe in God."

. . . I've heard Comfort, a bold street evangelist, speak, and I expect him to do well. I am concerned, however, over the parameters of this debate. Comfort promises to "prove" God's existence scientifically and without reference to the Bible or faith. First, while faith in God is eminently reasonable (the world's greatest minds, including everyone from C.S. Lewis to Isaac Newton to Francis Collins have affirmed Christian faith), faith is still required, for "without faith it is impossible to please God." Second, while acknowledging Christian faith made scientific discovery posasible and many of the world's first and greatest scientists have been Christians, restricting the debate to things scientific unfortunately plays into the current prejudice that the only "facts" that are real or valiid are based in science. But there are many fields of inquiry that are not open to the scientific method (history being one of them). Thus, the terms of the debate will only take us so far.

I remember the time my wife and I sat down with a friend who had lots of questions about Christianity. At the onset I asked him if he would become a Christian if we answered all his questions. He said yes. Then we talked and we answered his questions, one by one. But he still declined to become a Christian. It was not for a lack of facts. It was a lack of will. As the Bible says, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" I don't think a debate restricted to scientific facts, however it goes, will change that.

Here's a confession. With the advent of increasingly sophisticated electronic Bible software, I stopped purchasing (and started selling) my printed copies of the Hebrew OT and the Greek NT.

But I recently learned about a resource that I think belongs on the shelf of every serious Bible student: the NET Bible and Nestle Aland (27th edition) Greek-English Diglot New Testament.

I encourage pastors and seminarians--and any serious student of Scripture--to check it out.

Here are the features listed on the Bible.org website:

• Internationally-acclaimed standard Nestle-Aland 27th Edition Greek text of the New Testament, 8th corrected printing (the most current available version of NA27) NA27, including the complete textual apparatus and all appendices
• More user friendly
• Includes a highly customized set of NET Bible notes offering additional technical information
• Notes are focused on issues of consequence for exegesis and language study
• Notes include comparisons with a variety of other major English versions
• Specially edited set of text-critical notes (which use abbreviations corresponding to those in NA27 apparatus)
• Every variant reading where NET Bible differs from NA27 now marked with double dagger
• Key scholarly works are cited in the notes for easy reference
• Includes a new 70-page appendix with additional text-critical discussions
• Also includes the color German Bible Society maps as end pages

In personal correspondence, Dan Wallace suggested that he thinks this is "the best bargain in biblical studies right now for serious students of Scripture."

Click here for a screenshot of the pages.

You can also see a PDF of the English pages (with an explanation of features).

You can order it directly from Bible.org.

Abraham Piper writes:

Many parents are brokenhearted and completely baffled by their unbelieving son or daughter. They have no clue why the child they raised well is making such awful, destructive decisions. I’ve never been one of these parents, but I have been one of these sons. Reflecting back on that experience, I offer these suggestions to help you reach out to your wayward child.

Read the whole thing.

Colin Adams continues his excellent Ten Questions for Expositors series by interviewing Thabiti Anyabwile.

Albert Mohler:

New York City's famous temple of Protestant liberalism, the Riverside Church, is looking for a new pastor. As The New York Times reports, the search committee is not having an easy time of it.

The paper describes the historic church as "the Vatican for America's mainstream Protestants," but also as "the capital of a theological movement that has been slowly eroding."

Read Mohler's commentary for more history on this church and the role of liberalism.

Today’s New York Times reports: “About 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.”

Denny Burk:

This clash is not about “preventing disability.” That’s a euphemism that every rational person should reject. It’s about whether or not we should execute disabled persons before they can become a “burden” to their parents and society.

On this issue Christians must offer a prophetic word to the culture. All people are created in God’s image (including people with Down Syndrome) and are thereby to be treated with the dignity that God commands towards those who bear His image. To kill innocent humans because they are inconvenient or unwanted is an assault on the image of God.

A just community does not execute people who are financial and emotional burdens to their families or to society. On the contrary, a just community tries to find ways to care for them. Why would we treat people with Down Syndrome any differently?

Todd Bolen is providing analysis of the discovery.

(HT: Matt Reimer)

The Encyclopedia Puritannica Project sounds like an exciting project:

The Encyclopedia Puritannica Project (EPP) is an inter-denominational federation of Christians who are committed to the orthodox truths of Scripture. We believe these truths to be well understood, articulated, and applied by the Puritans and other Reformed teachers—both past and present. Many of their works have been forgotten by the modern church and have thus become practically inaccessible. It is our desire to see these works, among the best in the history of Christendom, go forth to the nations once again. This project, begun in 1998, is dedicated to the accomplishment of this task.

In the early 1990s, after the advent of the scanner and OCR software, it became possible to convert printed material to computer text with relative ease. In 1998, EPP began to harness these technologies in order to produce quality digital texts from Puritan and Reformed books. Our long-term goal is to make every public domain, Puritan book available as digital text.

EPP puts a strong emphasis on textual quality. To ensure faithfulness to the original source, we usually proofread our digital text back to the printed book several times. We also refrain from editing or modernizing the text, other than correcting obvious printing errors and standardizing such things as Bible references and dates. We desire to leave the text just as it was printed.

To God be the glory, forever and ever!"

(HT: H.C. Ross)

Here is a statement from ETS regarding Frank Beckwith (HT: Collin Hansen):

Statement of the ETS Executive Committee regarding
Dr. Frank Beckwith’s Resignation as ETS President
May 8, 2007

On May 5, 2007, Dr. Frank Beckwith resigned as President of the Evangelical Theological Society. This resignation has come as a result of his decision to be received into full communion in the Roman Catholic Church, which he did on April 29, 2007. Dr. Beckwith has informed the Executive Committee that this was a decision he came to “after much prayer, counsel, and consideration.” Subsequently, after further prayer and reflection, Dr. Beckwith has voluntarily withdrawn his membership from the Society as well.

The members of the Executive Committee wish Dr. Beckwith well in his ongoing professional work. We have come to appreciate him as a scholar and a friend. On behalf of the Society, we want to express our gratitude for his work organizing and coordinating the 2006 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., with the theme, “Evangelicals in the Public Square.” No one, perhaps, appreciates how much labor is involved in such a task, except those who have undertaken it in the past, as is the case with most of the members of the Executive Committee. And so, we thank Dr. Beckwith for his service to the Society.

At the same time, the Executive Committee recognizes Dr. Beckwith’s resignation as President and subsequent withdrawal from membership as appropriate in light of the purpose and doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Theological Society and in light of the requirements of wholehearted confessional agreement with the Roman Catholic Church.

The work of the Evangelical Theological Society as a scholarly forum proceeds on the basis that “the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs.” This affirmation, together with the statement on the Trinity, forms the basis for membership in the ETS to which all members annually subscribe in writing. Confessional Catholicism, as defined by the Roman Catholic Church’s declarations from the Council of Trent to Vatican II, sets forth a more expansive view of verbal, infallible revelation.

Specifically, it posits a larger canon of Scripture than that recognized by evangelical Protestants, including in its canon several writings from the Apocrypha. It also extends the quality of infallibility to certain expressions of church dogma issued by the Magisterium (the teaching office of the Roman Catholic Church), as well as certain pronouncements of the pope, which are delivered ex cathedra, such as doctrines about the immaculate conception and assumption of Mary.

We recognize the right of Roman Catholic theologians to do their theological work on the basis of all the authorities they consider to be revelatory and infallible, even as we wholeheartedly affirm the distinctive contribution and convictional necessity of the work of the Evangelical Theological Society on the basis of the “Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety” as “the Word of God written and . . . inerrant.”

In recent years, Evangelicals and Roman Catholics have often labored together in common cause addressing some of the critical social and moral issues of our contemporary culture. We welcome this and fully expect it to continue. A number of publications have appeared comparing Evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism. Certainly, the two traditions share many common Christian doctrines. However there are important theological differences as well. We expect that the events of these days will bring a renewed discussion of these matters. We welcome and encourage this as well.

Finally, regarding the Presidency of ETS, Dr. Hassell Bullock, President-elect will also serve as acting President until the annual meeting at which time elections for the officers for 2008 will take place.

We are grateful for Dr. Beckwith's past association with ETS, and we pray that God will continue to use his considerable gifts.

C. Hassell Bullock, President-Elect
(Wheaton College)

Bruce A. Ware, Vice-President
(The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)

Edwin M. Yamauchi, At-large member
(Miami University)

Craig A. Blaising, At-large member
(Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary)

Gregory K. Beale, At-large member
(Wheaton College)

David M. Howard, Jr., At-large member
(Bethel Seminary)

James A. Borland, Secretary-Treasurer
(Liberty University)

Andreas J. Köstenberger, JETS Editor
(Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary)

Here is the first installment of Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson's debate on "Is Christianity Good for the World?"

Some scholars (most popularly, Bart Ehrman) have suggested that the deity of Jesus Christ is not necessarily contained in the original NT manuscripts. An excellent response was recently delivered at a regional ETS meeting by Brian James Wright: Jesus as Θεός: Scriptural Fact or Scribal Fantasy?

Why this paper? At least two reasons exist: (1) the ascription of θεός to Jesus is pertinent to NT and Christian Christology and (2) recent textual critics have challenged the authenticity of these ascriptions. This paper, therefore, will examine these textual challenges and assess the likely authenticity of NT ascriptions of θεός to Jesus. First I will define the textual method used to reconstruct the original text. Second I will examine the textual authenticity of each NT passage regarding its textual certainty. Finally I will organize the examined passages into three categories: certain, highly probable, or dubious.

His conclusion is that "the overwhelming evidence clearly attests to the fact that Jesus as θεός is a scriptural fact."

(HT: James White)

Ron Julian:

The prayers of the apostle Paul are a wonderful example of Christian maturity expressed through prayer. In most of the letters he wrote, Paul included a prayer for his readers. Paul's prayers are touching, profound, eloquent, and loving; in addition, however, they are a guide to us in our own journey of faith. Paul's heart was fixed on the essential things, things which are true and important and indispensable. Paul's prayers, then, become a mirror in which we can examine ourselves, asking whether our concerns are anywhere close to Paul's.

Read the whole thing.

Here is Julian's conclusion:

In the middle of a life filled with assaults from all sides, what more important thing can we do than cry out to God for the strength to believe? What more loving thing can we do for each other than to ask God to open all our eyes, strengthen all our hearts? Paul got it right; he knew very well what the churches truly needed. May God have mercy on us and let us see; may our prayers show that we know our true need and know the only One who can meet it.

For an excellent book-length treatment on Paul's prayers, see D. A. Carson's A Call to Spiritual Reformation.

Tis the week for Reformed black brothers to join the blogosphere. Welcome Pastor Lance Lewis (of Christ Liberation Fellowship in West Philly).

Check out his blog: Blaque Tulip.

Here is its purpose:

Reformed theology is biblical theology, God glorifying theology, Christ exalting theology, beautiful theology and life-saving theology. The purpose of BlackTulip.com is to reflect on how that theology impacts our lives and culture with a special emphasis on African-Americans.

(HT: Eric Redmond)

According to this article, a Hebrew University professor of archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod.