Jesus and Violent Nationalism

February 24, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

Over at Christianity Today is my popular piece When Violent Nationalism Backfired for God’s People. Most of it is behind a paywall, but hey, the CT subscription is always worth it! This article uses Jesus’ rejection of the zealot option for ushering in the kingdom as a lens for understanding the attempted insurrection in the US capitol building. In a nutshell, God’s kingdom does not need revolutionary violence, in fact, Jesus says that the kingdom is explicitly against such violence.... Read more

Some New Podcasts

February 24, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

Hi everyone, Ridley College’s chapel sermons and talks now have their own podcast site on Spotify. You’ll find sermons by Brian Rosner, Rhys Bezzant, John Dickson, Jill Firth, Andrew Malone, Lindsay Wilson, Richard Trist, Kate Tyler, plus many more. Check it out! In addition, I’ve teamed up with Eternity News to come up with the Delving into the New Testament in its World podcast. — Eternity asked Bird what difference each episode of the Delving into the New Testament in its World podcast can... Read more

Ignatius, Bishops, and Baptists

February 21, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

Gavin Ortlund has a good video discussion how some low church evangelicals are converting to Catholicism and Ignatius of Antioch is something of a gateway drug. He then discusses the meaning of “bishops” in Ignatius’ letters and offers a standard protestant critique of it. As to what Ignatius says about bishops: “Let us, therefore, be careful not to oppose the bishop, in order that we may be obedient to God.” (Ign. Eph. 5.3) “For everyone whom the Master of the house sends... Read more

Janelle Peters on Ancient Corinth, Women, and Veils

February 18, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

I’ve always found 1 Cor 11:1-16 to be one of the most perplexing parts of the NT since the whole discussion of head-coverings and gender depends on cultural scripts and house church debates that we are not privy to and do not fully understand. One new article on this front is by Janelle Peters, “Slavery and the Gendered Construction of Worship Veils in 1 Corinthians,” Biblica 101.3 (2020): 431-443 (which you can read at Peters’ academia.edu page). It’s well-written and... Read more

Mike Bird and Nijay Gupta Discussing Romans 16

February 15, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

Nijay and I had a great chat about Roman 16 and how it both caused us to change our views about women in ministry in the early years of our Christian faith. Read more

Responding to the Ravi Zacharias Sexual Abuse Revelations

February 12, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

Many years ago, when I was a new Christian, I picked up a copy of Ravi Zacharias’ book A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism. I loved it! Zacharias wrote with such elegance, insight, and conviction. He had a great conversion story too, a former Hindu becomes a Christian. If you watched any of his videos, he was also a powerful speaker. I knew many people who attended RZIM events, booked Zacharias to speak at their church or conference, and raved... Read more

New Book: Grounded in the Body, in Time and Place, in Scripture

February 12, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

Grounded in The Body, in Time and Place, in Scripture: Papers by Australian Women Scholars in the Evangelical Tradition Edited by Jill Firth and Denise Cooper-Clarke (ACT Monograph Series, forthcoming) “In my bibliographies there are no women in the evangelical tradition, and no Australian women scholars.” This unique volume addresses this gap, with eighteen biblically rich and academically rigorous chapters by established and emerging Australian women scholars in the evangelical tradition. The authors consider our relationship with the land and... Read more

Gospel of Matthew – Jesus as Divine Son

February 9, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

David Bauer’s The Gospel of the Son of God: An Introduction to Matthew really is a good intro to Matthew, quite readable, informative, certainly good for students. I’m still a Mark-guy, but I’ve developed a better appreciation of Matthew in recent years thanks to reading books like Bauer, as well as Pennington, McKnight, Luz, and how could I forget my former PhD students Jason Hood and Danny Zacharias! Here is what Bauer says about Matthew’s construal of Jesus and God: In sum,... Read more

Resurrection and the Hope of Israel

February 6, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

Brandon D. Crowe The Hope of Israel: The Resurrection of Christ in the Acts of the Apostles Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2020. Purchase through Baker or Koorong. The Hope of Israel t0 highlights the focus in Acts on the resurrection of Christ, showing how this theme exposits and explains the theology of Acts. His thesis is that “the resurrection of Christ is one of the major emphases of Acts, which unifies and provides coherence for the theology of Luke’s second volume” (p.... Read more

Is Inerrancy a Fundamentalist Doctrine?

February 4, 2021 By Michael F. Bird

Recently TGC republished a good article by John Woodbridge on Did Fundamentalists Invent Inerrancy? (republished from the Don Carson festschrift which is full of many fine essays). Woodbridge argues that belief in inerrancy is a historical doctrine and not an innovative one. I think Woodbridge is correct in at least two regards. First, that a robust belief in Scripture’s veracity has always been a large part of historical and orthodox Christianity. Second, evangelicals do not make themselves fundamentalists by subscribing to... Read more