Between Two Worlds

An insightful and witty look at the three Republican frontrunners for President (Romney, McCain, and Giuliani): The Rise of the Metro Republicans. Conclusion: "our first urban, Italian, thrice-married president may come to us through the modern Republican party, which, as everyone knows, is rural, racist, Dixiecrat, redneck, uptight, and wholly intolerant of personal slippage. Nothing stands still for long, not even our parties. And what would the map look like then?"

CT's Peter Chattaway reviews the new FoxFaith movie, The Sin Eater, directed by Michael Landon, Jr. and adapted from the novel of the same name by Francine Rivers.

Here's an interesting lecture by Alister McGrath, responding to Richard Dawkins: Is God a Delusion? Atheism and the Meaning of Life (MP3). It was given at the City Church of San Francisco in the fall of 2006.

McGrath is Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford and Director of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. He is the author of Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life, as well as The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World.

McGrath's wife is Joanna Collicutt McGrath, lecturer in the psychology of religion at University of London. They recently coauthored a response to Dawkin's The God Delusion, entitled The Dawkins Delusion? It just came out in the UK, and will be published by IVP in the US in May 2007. He was recently interviewed about the book and about Dawkins in the Belfast Telegraph.

Here is an excellent message from John Piper on Adoption: The Heart of the Gospel (55 min).

Taking Gal. 4:4-8 and Rom. 8:14-17 as his main texts, Piper demonstrates eight similarities between God's adopting of us and our adopting of children:

1. Adoption was for God, and is for us, costly (Gal. 4:4-5; Gal. 3:13).
2. Adoption did for God, and does for us, involve the legal status of the child (Gal. 4:4-6).
3. Adoption was blessed, and is blessed, with God's pouring out a spirit of sonship (Gal. 4:6).
4. Adoption was for God, and is for us, marked by moral transformation through the Spirit (Rom. 8:14).
5. Adoption brought us, and brings our children, the rights of being heirs of the father (Gal. 4:4-6; Rom. 8:16-17; 1 Cor. 3:21-23).
6. Adoption was for God, and is for us, seriously planned (Eph. 1:4-6).
7. Adoption was for God, and often is for us, from very bad situations (Eph. 2:3).
8. Adoption meant for all Christians, and means for parents, that we suffer now, and experience the glory later(Rom. 8:22-23).

He also reads a letter that he wrote to his wife, confirming the decision to adopt their daughter, Talitha. (You can read an excerpt of the letter embedded in this sermon.)

Though I haven't listened to it yet, Mike Bullmore recently delivered a sermon called "Adopted into the Family" (stream | download), based on 1 John 3:1-2, that has been recommended as well.

(HT: Jeff Brewer)

Emily Parker writes in the WSJ about online matchmaking.

Russell Moore writes that

Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, delivered the Norton Lectures at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary yesterday and today. The lectures dealt with issues ranging from embryo ethics to marriage to judicial usurpation of American democracy. The question and answer sessions were valuable as well with Professor George fielding and answering questions from Southern Seminary students on issues ranging from sexual morality to pastoral response to infertility.

You can access Professor George's three lectures online here.

I look forward to listening to these lectures. I've never heard Professor George lecture, but I have read some of his writings. He is among the most thoughtful and articulate public philosophers working today.

Thabiti Anyabwile asks: "Can the Predominantly African-American Church Be Reformed?" See his answers in part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Gene Veith points to a good lesson in economics:

Tortilla prices have doubled in Mexico, causing Mexico's legions of poor people, who depend on tortillas as a major staple of their diet, to riot, destablize the government, and, one suspects, motivating more of them to illegally immigrate to the United States. Why are tortilla prices soaring? Because of the push in the U.S. to replace gasoline with ethanol.

The demand for ethanol, subsidized by the government at the rate of some 50 cents per gallon, has sent corn prices to the moon. This pleases the farm belt, of course, but the high corn prices are not only impacting tortillas, they will soon show up in higher meat prices. The tangled web of unintended consequences. . . .

Henry Hazlitt said it best in Economics In One Lesson:

"The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. The bad economist sees only the direct consequences of a proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad economist sees only what the effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups."

"The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or public policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."

Another application of Hazlitt's principle is the enthusiasm for an increase in the minimum wage (recently passed), despite the fact that it increases unemployment. Sound economic principles are often counterintuitive and unpopular because they require taking into account long-term consequences.

(HT: Gary Steward for final link)

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Steve Smallman about, among other things, his work on the "spiritual birthline," the gospel, evangelism, discipleship, and being "missional."

Stephen, can you tell us a little bit about yourself--your family, vocation, writing, etc.?

Tim Stafford writes: "Andrew Walls was mildly incredulous when I phoned him in Aberdeen, Scotland, to ask for an interview. Of course he would gladly help me, he said in a restrained Scotch brogue, but was I sure I had the right person? He couldn't understand why Christianity Today would want to write about him. The reason is simple: Andrew Walls may be the most important person you don't know."

Read the whole thing. I was particularly struck by Jonathan Bonk's phrase to describe Walls's work: "His magnum opus is people."

For Walls's books, see The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in Transmission of Faith and The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith. Regent also has a couple of audio lectures of his available for purchase.

Jonathan Pennington at the Spring Theology Conference of the Norwestern Baptist Association of Oklahoma.

• The kingdom of God in the Old Testament
• The kingdom of God in the New Testament
• The ethics of the kingdom of God
• The proclamation of the kingdom of God
• Q&A Session

(HT: Timmy Brister)

Past guests in the archives include folks like J. P. Moreland, Dan Wallace, John Frame, Mark Noll, Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, etc.

To particpate, go to http://www.paltalk.com and download Paltalk--"a chat program that provides excellent voice quality."

The Converse with Scholars events are in a room called "Reclaiming the Mind Ministries."

The guest for Thursday, Feb. 8 [9 pm EST, 8 pm CST] is Jim Hamilton, author of God's Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments. Jim is a professor at Southwestern. You can check out his blog here.

You can read endorsements for the book (from folks like Tom Schreiner and T.D. Alexander here).

He'll be answering questions like: What are the differences and similarities between OT and NT believers? Did God dwell in OT believers as he does in NT believers? Were OT believers "born again" (that is, did they experience regeneration)? What do the words "indwelling" and "regeneration" mean? How is the Holy Spirit's ministry similar or different during OT and NT times?

For those who are interested, here are some free MP3s of Jim addressing some of these issues at last year's Northbrook Conference.

BTW, Kelly Kapic and I will be guests on the show next week, talking about John Owen.

Here are the final sessions for the DG pastors' conference.

Audio of William Mackenzie, Words for the World: Rejoicing in God’s Global Use of Christian Literature (notes here).

Audio of the panel (questions here).

Again, hats off to the DG team for the hard work and late-night hours to make the audio and notes available quickly and for free.

Sproul's third and final message, Holiness and Justice, is now online [audio | notes]

For those who might have their curiosity piqued by Piper's address on Andrew Fuller, here are some additional resources being developed:

The Andrew Fuller Works Project is underway. "The aim of this project is to publish a modern critical edition of the entire corpus of Andrew Fuller’s published and unpublished works. It is expected that this edition will comprise at least twelve volumes and take eight to ten years to publish." Volume 1 (pictured to the left) is available from Amazon.com.

Michael Haykin announced last fall that a conference on “Andrew Fuller the Reader” will be held at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, August 27-28, 2007. Topics and speakers include: “The Contemporary significance of Andrew Fuller” (Russell Moore); “Andrew Fuller: Heir of the Reformation” (Jeff Jue); “John Owen’s Influence on Andrew Fuller” (Carl Trueman); and “Jonathan Edwards—Theological Mentor to Andrew Fuller” (Tom Nettles).

The Elephant of Kettering: "This blog serves to increase people's knowledge of one of the greatest Baptist theologians of all time. Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) was an able pastor, theologian, missionary statesman, and godly follower of Jesus Christ. Posts will be made that offer a contribution to the life and thought of Andrew Fuller. This will also be a site dedicated to promoting books, articles, conferences, etc. on Andrew Fuller."

Those who have been involved in evidential apologetics undoubtedly already know about this article. But for some it may be new. Over 20 years old now, it was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examining the physical aspects of Jesus' crucifixion. It is a sobering read. Even more sobering to consider that the physical aspect of Christ's pain paled in comparison to the pain of being rejected by his Father and propitiating his Father's wrath that we deserve.

Here's a link to the audio of John Piper's biographical address on Andrew Fuller:

Holy Faith, Worthy Gospel, World Vision: Andrew Fuller’s Broadsides Against Sandemanianism, Hyper-Calvinism, and Global Unbelief.

I'll update this post tomorrow when the manuscript is available (D.V.).

Update: Piper's manuscript is now online. Here are a few quotes:

"The reason I said at the beginning that it is totally possible that Andrew Fuller’s impact on history, by the time Jesus returns, will be far greater and different than it is now, is that there are three volumes of his writings still in print, and he was an unusually brilliant theologian. So quite apart from his influence on the rise of modern missions, his biblical insights may have an impact for good on future generations all out of proportion to his obscure place in the small town of Kettering, England. We will see some of his theological genius as we work our way backward from effect to cause—from his engagement with the new missionary movement to the spiritual life and theology that set it in motion."

"What I will try to do is show how his engagement with Sandemanianism recovered and preserved a kind of vital faith that is essential for missions, and his engagement with Hyper-Calvinism (or what he more often called High Calvinism) recovered and preserved a kind of preaching that is essential for missions. And in both cases, the battle was distinctly exegetical and doctrinal even though the all-important outcomes were deeply experiential and globally practical."

"By his own testimony, John Owen ranks first in his esteem of all the writers that influenced him. 'I never met with anything of importance in his writings on which I saw any reason to animadvert; so far from it, that I know of no writer for whom I have so great an esteem.' But even if he esteems Owen above all others, almost everyone who studies Fuller’s works agree that Jonathan Edwards was the most decisively influential in helping him break free from his Hyper-Calvinistic roots.”

"The sum of the matter is that Fuller had one great enemy he wanted to defeat—global unbelief in Jesus Christ. He believed that the kingdom of Christ would triumph, and he meant to be an instrument in the conquering of unbelief in India and to the ends of the earth. Standing in the way of that triumph in his generation were false views of justifying faith and false views of gospel preaching. Sandemanianism had ripped the life and power out of faith so that it was powerless in worship and missions. Hyper-Calvinism had muzzled the gospel cry of the Bride (“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price,” Revelation 22:17). For the sake of the life of the church and the salvation of the nations, Fuller took up the battle for truth."

Ted Haggard has now completed three weeks of intensive counseling in an Arizona treatment center. Rev. Tim Ralph, one of four members of an oversight committee, says: "He is completely heterosexual. That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."

In an email to parishioners, Haggard mentions that he may be moving his family to Iowa or Missouri, and that he and his wife are enrolled in online courses to receive their masters degrees in psychology.

Audio and notes.

Here is a quote from the notes:

"I am not obsessed with holiness because I am holy. I love the holiness of God because it is my only hope. Without his mercy and holiness there would be no restraint to my wickedness."

The audio and notes for Thabiti Anyabwile's DG Pastors Conference address are now online.

Thabiti drew 10 points of application from Ezekiel 8-9.

1. Promote holiness to make people fit for heaven.

2. Choose your leaders wisely.

3. Take oversight of the people.

4. Be clear on the difference between justification and sanctification.

5. Meditate on the truth that judgment begins in the household of God.

6. Meditate on the plight of the lost.

7. Surround yourself with those who sigh and cry over sin.

8. The holiness of God goes together with the glory of his presence.

9. Commit yourself to intercession before the judgment comes.

10. Pursue holiness in the joy of the gospel promise.

Erik Raymond writes:

I have encountered a problem for as long as I can remember with the tracts that were available. Often times I find ultra cool looking tracts but they lack the evangelistic clarity to be called gospel tracts (you kinda need the evangel to do evangelism :/ ). On the other extreme I have seen tracts that are strong in terms of gospel presentation but look like something that was made 50 years ago. So I have been dreaming of this reality, clear biblically articulate gospel tracts with a distinctly Calvinistic flavor while also having a fresh aesthetic appeal.

You can access them here.

J. Todd Billings explains The Problem with Mere Christianity.

J. Alan Groves, an OT professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, has entered into the joy of his master. An obituary can be read at wts.edu. You can also read his family blog, where his wife has posted a moving account of his final hours.

Here is John Piper's foreword to Thabiti Anyabwile's forthcoming book, The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three African American Pastors.

The audio for R. C. Sproul's first message at the DG Pastors Conference--delivered last night--is now online. You can also read the notes taken by Abraham.

Hats off to DG for making these available so quickly!