Between Two Worlds

From Frank James at RTS-Orlando:

After nearly seven years of serving RTS, both as Chief Academic Officer and then as President of the Orlando campus, the time has come for me to return to the classroom and my writing. The Chancellor and I have mutually agreed that the time is right for such a transition. I look forward to working with the next president as he leads the campus into the future. At the request of the Chancellor, I will continue to serve the Orlando campus as president until a new president or an interim is appointed. In addition, Ric has asked me to serve as Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Academic Relationships. In this position, I will continue to serve on the Chancellor’s Cabinet and on the institutional Management Team and I will work to build relationships with schools in the US and abroad where our students seek entrance into Ph.D. programs. I will also counsel and aid students throughout the RTS campus system who are seeking entrance into Ph.D. programs.

Let me add that it has been one of the great blessings of my life to serve as President alongside a wonderful staff and outstanding faculty. You are more than colleagues—you are dear brothers and sisters in Christ. I will faithfully pray for all of you and ask that you join me in praying for Ric and the Board as they seek a new president for RTS Orlando.

Dr. James is an outstanding classroom teacher. I look forward to the future fruit of his writing and teaching labors.

Grace Evangelical Free Church in La Mirada, CA, is offering their worship CD for free, for a limited time. It's entitled Praise the Living God. Look on the right hand side where you can submit your name and email to get all the songs for free.

You can also visit Walt Harrah's site for more songs, as well as his blog for biblical thoughts on singing and worship.

An interesting article here by Michael Sleasman, Managing Director and Research Scholar for The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity.

I found the categorizations in bold to be especially helpful:

Within one camp of responses are Christian thinkers such as Quentin Schultze. Schultze (Habits of the High-Tech Heart. Baker, 2002) diagnoses the prevailing cyberculture with a bad case of informationism that desperately seeks more information at greater speeds of access. He and others call for careful examination and suggest a sentimentalist rejection of these emerging technologies. By this sentimentalism rejection I mean an appeal to a less technologically available age, where the technology itself is the real problem. The technological sentimentalism expressed by these types of respondents have led to the charge that Christians are technological luddites—a pejorative charge aimed at marginalizing any critical response to the unhindered pursuit of technological progress.

Technology here is a threat, something inherently evil. This technological sentimentalism is labeled by Carl Mitcham as Ancient Skepticism, which questions the value of the new. In a worldview where tradition and longstanding practice and beliefs is valued, innovation is perceived as a wrong or an evil to be avoided. In the culture wars, technological advancement has become a divisive political topic.

On the other end of the continuum, only a small minority of the population have been involved in any sort of technological messianism. Here technology is savior of society and thus is something inherently good and to be desired. Despite only having a small following, the majority of contemporary Christians appropriate a form of chastened technological optimism, thus, defaulting to a naïve technological pragmatism uncritically appropriating technology via a consumerist mentality. We want what we want, when we want it. This is not only expressed in the mainstream consumer markets, but similar sentiments can be seen in medical and scientific communities as well. Technicism in its purist form is more of a cultural artifact of a secularized mindset rooted in a form of scientism—the belief that human ingenuity will solve all of problems through unhindered scientific research.

A third category of engagement is the reflection of what I have begun to refer to as technological responsibilists. Stephen Monsma offers a Christian definition of technology as “a distinct human cultural activity in which human beings exercise freedom and responsibility in response to God by forming and transforming the natural creation, with the aid of tools and procedures, for practical ends or purposes” (Monsma 1986, 19). He and others like Jacques Ellul and Albert Borgmann offer a position of critical uneasiness with the ubiquity of our technological immersion and its impacts upon our humanity. They seek to call our attention to the line between tool and homo faber that increasingly has blurred, but in a manner that demonstrates sophisticated understanding of the technologies themselves.

Read the whole thing.

The Common Cause Partnership (a federation of eight Anglican jurisdictions and organizations in North America linked with the bishops and congregations of Kenya, Uganda, and South America’s Southern Cone) has begun to form a new North American Church that they hope will be recognized as a province. You can read the press release online.

If you want a background summary on the Anglican schism, this may be helpful:

All the different Anglican churches in an area gather in a diocese; over the diocese the head pastor is a bishop. In a geographical area (like British Columbia) a group of dioceses form together, and one of their bishops is elected to be archbishop. Canada together is called a province, and one of the archbishops is elected to be a primate. Each province has a primate. The primates meet once every two years. The Archbishop of Canterbury is “first among equals” and calls together the Lambeth Conference.

The Anglican Communion is a global body made up of 38 interdependent provinces (i.e., national churches). (Canada is a province; the US is a province; Kenya is a province; England is a province; New Zealand is a province; etc.) The global communion is, at it were, 38 ships that are all chained together in the historic faith that we have received in the Scriptures, that is expressed in the creeds, in the formularies of the Anglican Church. We are a flotilla of 38 ships sailing toward, say, England. Since 2002, two of the independent provinces [US and Canada] have decided that we are going to sail in a different direction, say, Australia. So the chain that binds all these provinces together is being stretched and stretched. The ships are calling on two of the ships—Canada and the US—to turn around and head in the historic direction that the church has been heading.

In 2003, the primates said that if Canada and the US continued, they will have torn the fabric, broken the chains—so much so that many of these provinces have said we are going to have to cut the chains and allow those two ships to go their own way. The polite Anglican language to speak about that is “to walk apart.”

Many of us in Canada and the US don’t want to go to Australia. We believe that the direction set for us in the Scriptures and in the historic church is the right direction and God has not changed his mind. We want to be part of the global communion, sailing in this direction.

What’s happening now is that a number of orthodox groups are being forced out of their provinces in Canada and the US, and the other provinces are coming along and saying, “You belong to us”—building links and chains, saying “We will take you with us.” A little bit like a rescue option. It’s unprecedented. Never before have two provinces sought to move away from the communion theologically, and never before has there been a rescue mission for those who want to belong to the rest of the church.

In the view of the majority of the communion, schism has taken place. 22 of 38 have indicated “completely broken” or “impaired” communion with Canada and the US. The reason it’s taken 5 years to fall out is because the global communion has (rightly) wanted to be as patient and gracious and careful as possible, calling for moratoriums on same-sex unions. There is still the possibility that the churches in Canada and the US would turn back.

Same-sex unions is really an iceberg issue. 19/20 of the iceberg is below the water. Several issues rise above the water (same-sex blessings; the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ; etc.) What drives this disagreement is a different view of God, of the Bible, of what Jesus came to do, of what the church is all about. That’s below the surface of the water. It’s not so much interpretation of the Bible; it’s the authority of the Bible—how the Word of God functions in the life of the ordinary believer.

A very good list (and bookmark!) from Justin Buzzard.

In the Fall 2008 issue of The Paris Review Sarah Fay interviews acclaimed novelist Marilynne Robinson. (The interview unfolded over five months in six different settings!)

HT: Get Religion

From Grace Reformation Church of Woodland:

• Thomas Schreiner on Credobaptism
• David VanDrunen on Paedobaptism
• Interactive Forum
  

A few examples from Ralph Davis:

• "An Older Nativity Story" (Judges 13)
• "A Whole Bunch of Dead Folks for Christmas" (1 Chronicles 1-9)
• "What You Need for Christmas Is . . . Preaching!" (Isaiah 40:1-11)
  

D.A. Carson will be doing a half-day conference on gender just prior to the DG Pastor's Conference (Feb. 2, 2009). It will being at 1 PM and end at 4:30 PM.

The two talks will be:

• The Flow of Thought in I Timothy 2
• Is the Culture Shaping Us or Are We Shaping the Culture?
• Q&A
  

It's only $20 to register.

Andreas Kostenberger:

The end (of the year) is near, and once again it’s time to list the best books in biblical and theological studies that appeared in 2008. This year seems to have been an especially fruitful year for publications in these areas.

Read his annotated list here.

When I was at ETS I bought a copy of this expanded edition of Wulfert De Greef's book, The Writings of John Calvin: An Introductory Guide, translated from the Dutch by Lyle Bierma.

What pushed me over the edge to buy the book was the nature of a couple of the endorsements on the back. For example, Richard Muller says that this book "stands as a first, best resource for beginning students and established scholars alike."

And John Thompson, Professor of Historical Theology and Reformed Theology at Fuller, says:

This handbook is one of those very few books of which I keep copies both at my office and at home, for it wonderfully concentrates and organizes an abundance of pertinent information. By placing each of Calvin's writings in its historical setting and linking it to his other contemporary writings, controversies, and activities, de Greef encourages students to read Calvin firmly in his sixteenth-century context. I have come to regard The Writings of John Calvin as an essential took--often, the starting place--for any inquiry into the life, writings, and theology of John Calvin.

Dan Phillips reviews Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds, by Chris Brauns:

This is really an excellent book on many levels. For starters, who would think that a doctrinal book on such a complex topic would be a page-turner? Yet this is. Brauns masterfully interweaves real-life dramas and traumas as illustrative to his treatment of a subject. He'll set up a nightmarish situation, then turn from it to the Biblical teachings, and then return to the outcome of the scenario. Again and again I was reading, ran out of time, hated to have to put the book down, and hustled to get back into it — to find out how the incident developed.

Brauns' writing style is engaging and lively, yet the contents are deeply Biblical, Christ-centered, and challenging. He writes with passion, humor, biblically-instructed intelligence, and a pastor's heart. This is no lab-report issued from a research cell in a high tower somewhere above the city, where some brainiac theoretician bloodlessly relays his findings, and leaves the rabble to work out the details. Brauns gets right down into the details. His conviction is that "There is no wound too deep for God to heal; there is no question too complex for him to answer" (p. 23).

Read the whole thing.

Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things, has a long and interesting article suggesting that we are now living in the golden age of children's literature. Here's a relevant paragraph (links added) for those who want some suggestions:

Want some Christmas presents to give this year, books you may not know well, drawn from our new canon of children’s literature? Start with the Victoriana of Charlotte Yonge’s serious The Heir of Redclyffe and Lucretia Peabody Hale’s comic Peterkin Papers. Then move to Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals and the poems in X.J. Kennedy’s Brats. And end with some of the great newer stories: Diana Wynne Jones’ The Lives of Christopher Chant, for instance, and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

Any of them can sit unembarrassed beside The Wind in the Willows and The Just So Stories and Treasure Island and The Tailor of Gloucester—all the books we’ve somehow always known.

Read the whole thing (and you can also listen to an interview about the article below).

Sinclair Ferguson:

we may denigrate our Lord with a Santa Claus Christology. How sadly common it is for the church to manufacture a Jesus who is a mirror refection of Santa Claus. He becomes Santa Christ.

Santa Christ is sometimes a Pelagian Jesus. Like Santa, he simply asks us whether we have been good. More exactly, since the assumption is that we are all naturally good, Santa Christ asks us whether we have been "good enough." So just as Christmas dinner is simply the better dinner we really deserve, Jesus becomes a kind of added bonus who makes a good life even better. He is not seen as the Savior of helpless sinners.

Or Santa Christ may be a Semi-Pelagian Jesus -- a slightly more sophisticated Jesus who, Santa-like, gives gifts to those who have already done the best they could! Thus, Jesus' hand, like Santa's sack, opens only when we can give an upper-percentile answer to the none-too-weighty probe, "Have you done your best this year?" The only difference from medieval theology here is that we do not use its Latin phraseology: facere quod in se est (to do what one is capable of doing on one's own, or, in common parlance, "Heaven helps those who help themselves").

Then again, Santa Christ may be a mystical Jesus, who, like Santa Claus, is important because of the good experiences we have when we think about him, irrespective of his historical reality. It doesn't really matter whether the story is true or not; the important thing is the spirit of Santa Christ. For that matter, while it would spoil things to tell the children this, everyone can make up his or her own Santa Christ. As long as we have the right spirit of Santa Christ, all is well.

But Jesus is not to be identified with Santa Claus; worldly thinking -- however much it employs Jesus-language--is not to be confused with biblical truth.

Read the whole thing, where Ferguson explains why the true Christ of Christmas "is a disturbing event of the deepest proportions."

Fred Sanders, from a recent sermon on the Trinity in the book of Romans:

Look at the bigger picture: You can outline the first half of Romans this way: From chapter one up to chapter three, we have God the lawgiver, whose wrath is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness, who justifies both Jew and Gentile so he can be Father of both. Then from the middle of chapter 3 to the end of chapter 5 we see the Son of God as our propitiation, who takes our situation on himself and restores us to a right relationship with God. Then from chapter five to chapter eight the Holy Spirit comes to the front in applying the work of Christ and delivering us from sin. So we have

1. The Father’s judgment
2. The Son’s propitiation
3. The Spirit’s deliverance.

The whole structure of the book has been Trinitarian, because the Trinity has been lurking in this inspired book. We didn’t need to be saying the T word every week to be immersed in the reality of the Triune God. What matters is not that we say the word Trinity over and over, but that we come to the Father through Jesus the Son, guided by the Holy Spirit. I’m not doing this sermon to make sure that for once in our lives we’re Trinitarian: in our preaching and worship, we’ve been Trinitarian all along.

So then, if we’ve been successfully Trinitarian all along, what’s the benefit of being explicit about it now?

The benefit is that we are trying to be alert to the Trinity. Being alive to God, let us now be alert to the Trinity.

Let’s bring this out of the back of our minds, into the spotlight of our conscious attention. This is something we all know, but we should take care that we know we know.

Once when I was a little kid, I was standing on the front lawn of my great-grandmother’s farm watching clouds pass in front of the moon. It was early evening, the sun had just gone down, the moon was already very bright, and the clouds were blowing quickly across the face of the moon. It was very beautiful, and I was standing on the front lawn, just looking at it. My uncle Dan came out and asked, “What are you looking at?” I said, “I’m watching the clouds go by the moon.” He asked, “What does that make you think about?” I replied, “Well, really I’m waiting to see if any of the clouds will go behind the moon. So far they’ve all gone in front of it.”

Uncle Dan stood there with me watching clouds, and after a while he asked, “Where is the moon?”

“It’s in outer space.”

Some more time went by. “And where are clouds?”

“They’re in our upper atmosphere,” I said.

More silence.

“Ohhhh…. Right,” it dawned on me. “I’m going to stand here a long time before I see a cloud going behind the moon. In fact, it’s not going to happen.”

What I always come back to in that story is the question: Did I know that, or did I not know that? I had in my mind all the information I needed, but I had never put it together. You might say I knew, but I didn’t know that I knew. And that put me in an awkward position, made it very likely that I would say foolish things and even waste my time waiting for something that was never going to happen.

If you’re trusting Jesus to be your salvation, you already know the Trinity. But it’s a great benefit to know that you know the Trinity. It’s great benefit to know that you’re a Christian because you’ve received a Spirit of adoption from the Father, that lets you call God “Abba, Father.”

The Trinity is lurking in Romans, and I hope you can see that it is lurking in the life of every believer. This trinitarian reality is going on in your life whether you know that you know it or not.

You can listen to the whole sermon online.

Jim Hamilton:

This year’s Crossway Lecture at ETS was presented by G. K. Beale. Beale argued that Inerrancy is not a scholastic theological deduction made by interpreters of the Bible, but rather that it is an exegetical observation of a theological deduction that at least one biblical author has already made within the text of the Bible itself. Citing the logic of innerancy:

• God is true and trustworthy, and he never lies, deceives, or makes mistakes.
• The Bible is God’s revelation of himself.
• Therefore the Bible never lies, deceives, or makes mistakes.

Beale argued that John has already made this argument and drawn this conclusion for us in the book of Revelation.

To see Beale's argument from the Book of Revelation on this point, read Jim's whole post.

Beale's new book is now available: The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism: Responding to New Challenges to Biblical Authority.

Al Mohler writes about the disappointment caused by Michelle Obama's decision to be a "stay at home" Mom in the White House, given priority to her two girls:

The entire controversy is illuminating. The eruption of the "mommy wars" is virtually inevitable whenever a woman in the public's eye makes a similar choice. Whether the words are used or not, the accusation is that such a woman is "letting down the team."

In that light, Michelle Obama's choice -- and her candor -- are truly encouraging. She has almost instantly served as a witness to the importance of motherhood and the honor of rearing children. In so doing, she served the nation -- as well as her children -- well.

We cannot know in advance how Michelle Obama will be remembered as a First Lady. If her statements are mere public relations, we will know soon enough. All current evidence points to the authenticity of her words. Many of us have had, now have, and will almost surely in the future have significant disagreements with Michelle Obama over issues of public policy and our basic vision for the nation. Nevertheless, with respect to her elevation of motherhood and the priority of children as an honored choice, she deserves our appreciation and support -- and our prayers.

Read the whole thing.

For a multi-media tour of what it is like to have AIDS as a child in Africa, click here.

Some moving photos here after the smoke has cleared from the terrorist attacks.

HT: Abraham Piper

Mike Horton interviews Collin Hansen about the Young, Restless, and Reformed.

HT: James Grant

Ralph Davis:

I simply wonder if a good bit of our 'problem' with the OT might be a heart problem. Maybe our problem is a spiritual one--maybe we are not salivating for the triune God as we read our Bibles. Maybe we're focused on sermons rather than worship. If once you have found God fascinating . . . that goes a long way towards curing the 'problem' of the OT.

Read the whole thing.

If you're looking for a good introduction to John Calvin, it'd be hard to go wrong with John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology, edited by Burk Parsons.

At Ligonier you can read the Table of Contents and Sample Chapter.

And at the DG blog you can read a helpful interview with Burk Parsons about the book and why he put it together.

Here are a few blurbs for the book:

“On the five-hundredth anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, it is utterly fitting that a book of essays should appear that is designed for ordinary Christians, not scholars. The scholars will have their conferences, of course, and rightly so, but here is a collection of essays that will inform and move ordinary readers to grasp something of the profound gift God gave to the church in the person and ministry—and especially the writings—of Calvin. Read this book, then find yourself drawn toward many profitable and stretching hours reading Calvin’s Institutes and some of his many commentaries.”

—D. A. Carson, Research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois

“To my knowledge, there never has been a collection of authors of any edited volume under whose ministry I would rather sit than these. What stands out is that they are humble, holy men of God. Most of them are too old—too seasoned—to care about scoring points. Their lives witness to the preciousness of Christ and the importance of purity. Expect no bombast. Expect humble, measured admiration and wise application. This a good way to meet John Calvin: in the holy hearts of humble servants of Christ. The only better way would be to read the man himself.”

—John Piper, Pastor for preaching and vision, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Deep calls to deep, and Burk Parsons’ rich and insightful work on John Calvin takes us both deep and wide into the heart of this extraordinary saint. Most of all, I’m grateful to God that a whole new generation of believers can now be introduced to one of the greatest theologians of all time. I highly recommend this book to all who are seeking a closer—and deeper—walk with our Savior!”

—Joni Eareckson Tada, Founder, Joni and Friends, International Disability Center, Agoura Hills, California

“There is a fresh breeze blowing in these pages. A new generation has discovered the riches of biblical truth to be found in John Calvin’s work. Written in an inviting and accessible style, this book extends an invitation to all to come and learn as well. However, what they will learn will have far less to do with Calvin and far more to do with the centrality and greatness of the triune God whom he served. Calvin would have wanted it that way, and so do we.”

—David F. Wells, Senior research professor, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts

If you're interested in writing and publishing serious books, you may want to pick up a copy of the new edition of William Germano's Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books. Here's a description from the University of Chicago Press:

Since 2001 William Germano’s Getting It Published has helped thousands of scholars develop a compelling book proposal, find the right academic publisher, evaluate a contract, handle the review process, and, finally, emerge as published authors.

But a lot has changed in the past seven years. With the publishing world both more competitive and more confusing—especially given the increased availability of electronic resources—this second edition of Germano’s best-selling guide has arrived at just the right moment. As he writes in a new chapter, the “via electronica” now touches every aspect of writing and publishing. And although scholars now research, write, and gain tenure in a digital world, they must continue to ensure that their work meets the requirements of their institutions and the needs of their readers.

Germano, a veteran editor with experience in both the university press and commercial worlds, knows this audience. This second edition will teach readers how to think about, describe, and pitch their manuscripts before they submit them. They’ll discover the finer points of publishing etiquette, including how to approach a busy editor and how to work with other publishing professionals on matters of design, marketing, and publicity. In a new afterword, they’ll also find helpful advice on what they can—and must—do to promote their work.

A true insider’s guide to academic publishing, the second edition of Getting It Published will help authors understand what to expect from the publishing process, from manuscript to finished book and beyond.

Mike Bullmore recently completed his exposition of 1 Corinthians with a sermon on chapter 16, entitled, “What We Should Do with Our Money.”

Andy Naselli took notes, and also posted a helpful list of articles and books on the subject of biblical giving. Here is the summary of application points:

1. Our giving should be a planned priority.
2. Our giving should be proportional to our income. Give obediently, generously, and sacrificially. Cf. C. S. Lewis: “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusement, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our giving does not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say it is too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot because our commitment to giving excludes them.”
3. Our giving should be marked by prudence. It should be transparent, above board, and marked by integrity. For example, a church’s giving should have public accountability.
4. Our giving and our teaching about giving should be simple and straightforward. No pressure, no gimmicks, no excessive emotion. Simply put: don’t waste your money; rather, use it for God’s purposes and for his glory.

Olive Tree Bible Software has put together a very nice ESV Study Bible app.

Here are some screenshots from an iPhone:












This Bible includes the BibleReader with the following features:

• Three tap Verse Chooser to quickly go to any verse
• Word search to quickly find any word or phrase in the document
• Palm, Pocket PC, Smartphone, and Symbian also support: phrase search, display options, split screen for viewing multiple resources, scrolling options, and more
  

Supported Mobile Platforms for ESV Study Bible:

• iPhone, iPod Touch
• Palm OS (including LifeDrive, Treo 650, Treo 680, Treo 700p, Tungsten E2, and TX)
• Windows Mobile Pocket PC (including Dell Axim, HP iPAQ, Palm Treo 700wx and Treo 750)
• BlackBerry (including 8703e, Curve and BlackBerry Pearl)