“If we regard the resurrection as simply a kind of certificate of authenticity for the atonement and sterling evidence for life beyond the grave, we have sold the resurrection [ahem, the gospel] short.” So Mike Bird, in Evangelical Theology, 435-436. Which leads me to an opening question for this post: If we factor in the resurrection, or if we make resurrection central, what happens to the gospel? What is the gospel if resurrection is a focal element of the gospel story?... Read more
Megyn Kelly declared that both Santa and Jesus were “white” and she set off a storm of ripostes against her claims, ripostes fueled in part by political correctness, by raw politics and some desire to get history straightened out. All mixed into one little brouhaha. (She now claims, to control the damage, her comments were an “off-handed jest.”) There are about fifty things to say, but I will limit myself to the patience of you my readers. My major idea... Read more
Rebecca Schuman, at Slate, proposes an end to mandatory papers in mandatory classes: Everybody in college hates papers. Students hate writing them so much that they buy, borrow, or steal them instead. Plagiarism is now so commonplace that if we flunked every kid who did it, we’d have a worse attrition rate than a MOOC. And on those rare occasions undergrads do deign to compose their own essays, said exegetic masterpieces usually take them all of half an hour at 4 a.m. to write, and consist accordingly... Read more
Earlier this year Scot posted on several chapters in a new book Reading Genesis 1-2: An Evangelical Conversation. Today I’d like to consider another of the chapters in this book – Teaching Genesis 1 at a Christian College by Kenneth Turner. Dr. Turner received his Ph.D. in Old Testament from Southern Seminary and is currently a professor of biblical studies at Bryan College in Dayton Tennessee. I had the privilege to meet and speak with Dr. Turner and his colleague Brian... Read more
The top two Christian leaders of the 20th Century I would most want to sit down with are Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John RW Stott. I met Stott once, and he gave me a big bear hug because of some correspondence we had, but I never got to sit down with him. (Bonhoeffer, of course, was murdered nearly a decade before I was born.) Stott has always exhibited careful exposition of Scripture wrapped in humble resolution. I’m not sure he wrote... Read more
Andrew Streett nailed the clue for the To Scot from Scot gift. Here’s the picture: a lithium battery powered cordless drill. Read more
Source: MPHOnline.org Read more
There are people who listen to a Shakespeare play about ancient Rome and think the man was an authority on Roman politics and history; there are those who read Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and think the man had special insight on what heaven would be like; and there are those who read the Bible and think it is talking about their pet peeve — or special concern, like science or business or leadership. Where is the Bible authoritative? Or over what is... Read more
Publishers are concerned about platform, and how to measure that is changing. Evidently Mark Driscoll has a new line of books with Tyndale called Resurgence, and I provide below the questions being asked of potential authors about their platform. Publishers are businesses, of course, and they want to make money on each book. They want to accomplish this ethically and reasonably and efficiently and abundantly. OK, within reason, that’s fair. I have some concerns. First, I’m not convinced twitter followers... Read more
Source: (NEWSER) – “Layaway Santas” started popping up around the country in 2011, and the uplifting trend appears to be on the rise this season, NBC News reports. The way it works: “Secret Santas” visit a store that offers layaway and pay down strangers’ accounts. (At many stores, the final payments for holiday presents are due at the end of this week, meaning that if an account isn’t paid off, those gifts end up back on store shelves.) Walmart has tracked more than 1,000 cases... Read more
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