The M'Cheyne daily Bible reading calendar12/31/2007
For those who use, or want to use, the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan, here's a helpful site with various formats to print, view, or receive online.
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9Marks on Corporate Prayer12/30/2007
The latest 9Marks newsletter--is it still a "newsletter" when it's 46 pages--is now available online. You can read it as a PDF or on their webpage.
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The Golden Compass - Snoresville12/29/2007
Well, it turns out that the much-ballyhooed Golden Compass is a crashing bore. I finally got around to seeing it last night. There were three other people in the theater. Several things struck me.
1. Yes, the movie's production quality was better than the Narnia film, and at points on par with Peter Jackson's LOTR, but movie's appeal suffered from not having a larger fan base that already knew the story from the books. Consequently, the uninitiated have to be instructed in the vagueries of Pullman's imaginary world, and as a result the momentum is glacial.
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Paying a price on the Women's Issue12/29/2007
Our good friend, Stafford Carson -- formerly Academic Dean at Westminster Theological Seminary and now minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Portadown, Northern Ireland -- has made the headlines over Christmas by refusing to allow a female minister to speak in his congregation at Christmas, thereby ending a longstanding tradition of exchanging pulpits at this time of year with neighboring congregations. See the full story here.
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We'll Have to Pray to Make It12/27/2007
I was delighted by our church's recent decision to increase our budget by something like 23% for coming fiscal year. Now, there is some context for this. The 2007 budget involved a scaling back, as the church began the year without a senior pastor. In the last six months, our attendance has been blessed with increase. Moreover, by calling me to the pulpit, the actual commitments for 2007 ended up being higher than the budget reflects. But still, our new budget involves a whopping increase. The increase mainly occurs in three areas: 1) the calling of a new assistant minister; 2) deferred maintaince on our building; and 3) an increase to our missions program.
I comment on this for two main reasons. The first is that I have come to the belief that most of our church budgets are too low. Most especially, we are not giving to missions in the way that we should. In the midst of our great affluence, and at a time when the Holy Spirit is moving with such power in so many developing nations where money is scarce, we should be extending ourselves significantly above our current level of commitment. But this is true in other areas: we are not as aggressive as we should be in our local outreach and in other important areas of ministry and mission. We have developed a retreat mentality in which we are all-too-happy to have our own nice church situation, without a zeal for the world lost in darkness.
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Another good reason why I could never become Catholic 12/22/2007
I could never be a member of any club that would have Tony Blair as a member:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7157409.stm
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His Story12/21/2007
History is (of course) an essential category to use in describing the Bible. The Bible has a narrative structure. What kind of narrative is it? A theologically-annotated one (see previous post). Also, an historical one. It is not enough to say that the Bible is a true story, because stories can be true in different ways. We must also assert and defend the claim that the Bible is true history.
That having been said, it should also be said that even calling the Bible "history" may not be sufficient in these post-modern times, because history itself is increasingly viewed as a perspectival enterprise. We do not have facts, only differing perspectives on what happened. In this context, it may be important to say that the Bible is divinely authored history that gives a God's-eye perspective of what happened. God doesn't have a point of view; he has a complete view.
I also still want to say that narrative or story is a useful (if by itself incomplete) category for understanding the Bible. It reminds us that the Bible is unified, not simply because its propositions are logically consistent, but also because it tells one grand story of the one true God and his one people in history. Also, we ourselves are part of the story that the Bible tells. The term "history" is usually understood to refer to things that have happened in the past. But the Bible also tells us our story -- the story of what God is doing in the universe today, until the end of time.
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Virginity and Humility12/21/2007
A friend has written with a seasonal quotation from Bernard of
Clairvaux's sermons on Advent:
"Who is this Virgin so reverently saluted by the angel? and so lowly
as to be espoused to a carpenter ? Beautiful commingling of
virginity with humility! That soul is in no small degree pleasing to
God, in whom humility commends virginity, and virginity adorns
humility. But how much more worthy of veneration is she, in whom
fecundity exalts humility, and child-bearing consecrates virginity.
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Interview with Mike Ovey12/21/2007
Well, Derek, not even Rick can be wrong about everything (hard though that is to imagine at first glance).
Just noticed this interview with Mike Ovey, new Principal of Oak Hill. As the guard changes and a new generation steps up here as elsewhere, it's great to see that the strong tradition of orthodoxy is set to continue for the next generation.
http://www.oakhill.ac.uk/news/2007_news/summer_07/mike_ovey_interview.html
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Christmas season cordial12/20/2007
Trueman agreeing with Phillips. It must be Christmas.
On the resurrection, I noted some time ago the following from J. I. Packer's response to Anthony Flew:
The Easter event, so they affirm, demonstrated Jesus’ deity; validated his teaching, attested the completion of his work of atonement for sin; confirms his present cosmic dominion and his coming reappearance as Judge; assures us that his personal pardon, presence, and power in people’s lives today is fact; and guarantees each believer’s own re-embodiment by Resurrection in the world to come. [Gary Habermas and Antony Flew, Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987), xi].
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It's against my religion but.....12/20/2007
Ok, it's against my religion, but I'm going to have to agree with Rick here. I remember when I was on faculty at the University of Aberdeen hearing a brilliant piece of NT theology/exegesis from a respected colleague. But when it came to questions such as `Did the resurrection actually happen?', he became very concerned that that was a modernist-fundamentalist kind of question, with no real relevance to the theological point being made.
Obviously, there are deep philosophical issues involved in the whole complex issue of narrative, historical construction, linguistic referentiality etc which need to be seriously addressed; and my own thinking on the gospels in particular has been shattered and reshaped by reading some of the great narrative-theological commentaries of the last decade. But, as nuanced and complicated as these issues may be, if the tomb wasn't empty, if Christ wasn't raised, then our faith is in vain and we are more to be pitied than anybody else. The narrative opens our eyes but it doesn't save; only the act of God in Christ in space and time saves.
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Story or History?12/19/2007
Thanks, Phil, for sharing Paul Tripp's description of the Bible as a story with God's annotated notes. I think that is a good way of putting it. But I have started to use 'story" less and have been using the term "history" instead. I know that "story" is effective in highlighting the integrated narrative of the Bible. But I worry that post-moderns may be comfortable with story without being comfortable with the Bible as history. It is a great story, but it also has really happened in such a way as to authoritatively define human experience. Now, of course, this is something covered in God's annotated notes: the strength of Paul's expression is that it adds in the didactic and dogmatic element. But I just worry that the current vogue of always highlighting the Bible "story" we may be playing into postmodern hands.
What do you think? How about the Bible as a history with annotated notes from God.
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Dr and Mrs Delboy, Sex, the Song of Songs, and Today's ESV12/19/2007
Just ploughing through Dr and Mrs Delboy's new book on the Song of Songs (see post froma few days ago). It's accessible, clearly written and biblically faithful. Nevertheless, it does highlight one problem with moving from the biblical world to the present day:
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"Wonder . . . 12/18/2007
. . . is involuntary praise." This marvelous statement from Edward Young appears on the cover of Wheaton College's 2007 Christmas card.
Gentle reader, may this be for you the most wonder-full time of year, in which your mind and heart are frequently prompted to involuntary praise.
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