9Marks on Gospel Unity and Gospel Division2/29/2008
The latest 9Marks journal is online. (Also available in PDF).
Here's the table of contents:
CHRISTIAN COOPERATION
Fellow Workers for the Truth
By Andy Johnson
Together for What?
By Mark Dever
A Senior Saint on Unity
By Iain Murray
Theological Triage
By R. Albert Mohler
CHRISTIAN SEPARATION
When, Why & Where To Draw Boundaries
By Wayne Grudem
A Pastors' and Theologians' Forum on Fundamentalism
Potential and Pitfalls of Together For The Gospel
By David Doran
A Christian Fundamentalist Travel Guide
By Matthew C. Hoskinson
An Evangelical-Fundamentalist Convergence?
By Ben Wright
Book Review: Promise Unfulfilled
By Roland McCune
Reviewed by Andy Naselli
BOOK & VIDEO REVIEWS
Video Review: NOOMA
By Rob Bell
Reviewed by Greg Gilbert
Book Review: Why We're Not Emergent
By Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck
Reviewed by Jonathan Leeman
Book Review: I Sold My Soul On eBay
By Hemant Mehta
Reviewed by Michael McKinley
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Less than the Least2/29/2008
As of yesterday, David Skeel and Bill Stuntz have begun writing a new blog called "Less than the Least." Law professors at UPenn and Harvard, respectively, David and Bill are close friends who share a faith commitment as well as a career. Here is how they introduce their blog:
We are both law professors and evangelical Protestants – a weird combination in our time. We hope it’s also an interesting combination. We plan to write about the things that interest us, professionally and personally: crime and criminal justice (Stuntz), corporate governance, credit, and bankruptcy (Skeel), the culture wars, politics, literature and the arts, and other topics.
It should also be noted that Professor Skeel is an elder in Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church. Needless to say, it is encouraging to see Christians in academia writing from the perspective of their faith. Readers of Reformation 21 will recognize, I hope, the biblical allusion in the blog's title. It represents the right stance for Christians to take in the public arena.
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Rush -- no, not that one.2/29/2008
This Wednesday, amid fear of being `whacked' by the Taffia, and with rumours that the Keystone Kops were about to name me as a `person of interest' in their undercover investigation into the recent sinister disappearance of a high-profile member of the Reformed community, I went into hiding.
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Richard B. Gaffin - new book on Bavinck and Kuyper's doctrine of Scripture2/28/2008
Reformed Academic Press have just published Richard B. Gaffin's God's Word in Servant Form: Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck on the Doctrine of Scripture. It is available from Westminster Bookstore as well as from Reformed Academic Press (nicholasr@fpcjackson.org). The latter are telling me that the book costs $7.95.
Don Carson writes that the book is "urgently needed to respond to a resurgence of historical nonsense," and Moises Silva adds that it "can only have a positive impact on the present generation's thinking about both the character of Scripture and proper theological reflection."
Copies of Terry Johnson's Reformed Worship may also be obtained directly from Reformed Academic Press (see above for the e-mail address), a must-read resource for all those involved in leading public worship in today's climate of suspicion.
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Iain D. Campbell on Warfield on the Cross2/26/2008
Iain D. Campbell, the pastor of the Back Free Church, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, preached four remarkable missions messages at First Presbyterian Church here in Jackson last week. Too many good things to begin to repeat them all here, but one little treat. This quote/thought from B.B. Warfield - "Jesus dies on the cross, but not of the cross."
Said Iain D. - "And to use the magnificent words of B.B. Warfield, “Jesus dies on the cross, but not of the cross.” The cross was the means by which He died, but not the reason why He died. He died through being crucified, but not because He was crucified. He was nailed to the tree, but that wasn’t the cause of His dying. The cause of His dying is precisely because He is there as the substitutionary atonement for the sins of His people. He dies bearing my sins in His body to that tree, so that I might live; so that through His condemnation at Calvary, the Judge in heaven will say to the sword of justice as it hangs over my head for my sins, ‘Do not slay my son. Jesus has been crucified. He has been put to death’; and I am now pardoned through His dying, justified by His blood, saved from the wrath to come."
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A Contract Out on Me?2/26/2008
Seems it's not only militant homeschoolers, metrotextuals, and the Keystone Kops who have it in for me. Now the fearsome Welsh crime syndicate, the Tafia, have sent out a sinister public warning -- though I do like the fact that they have anglicised the name of the Don. I think Cwrluonu is the real Welsh spelling. Surely Plaid Cymru would not approve of that concession to anglophones.
http://daicorleone.blogspot.com/
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Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 42/23/2008
From the Westminster Bookstore blog:
"Thanks to Baker Publishing, we now offer you the chance to peruse the detailed Table of Contents and thorough Editor’s Introduction from the much-anticipated fourth and final volume of the complete English translation of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics. Volume 4 is titled Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation. It is due out this May."
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David F. Wright's Obituary (in The Scotsman)2/22/2008
The Scotsman (an Edinburgh-based, national, daily Scottish newspaper) has now published an obituary of Professor David F. Wright, written by his longtime colleague, Duncan Forrester. You can read it here, or following.
I have received emails from a number of David's former students, or those who knew him at New College (among them, Jeff Jue and Jon Payne) who have rightly remarked about how gracious David was and how encouraging he was with students. Absolutely true.
He had a ready wit as well. I will never forget sitting next to him during a Faculty of Divinity seminar in the Senatus, listening to a brilliant but spine-tingling lecture on the Council of Chalcedon by the renowned historian Geoffrey de Ste Croix. Ste Croix demonstrated that the Council was "stacked" (take note, all you FV advocates out there!) due in no small part to the influence of a politically-motivated and only nominally-Christian Emperor's thoroughly orthodox, Christian wife, who managed to get the orthodox party over-represented via the most impressive assemblage of senatorial families of the era. David leaned over to me as the appluase was continuing at the lecture's end, with an amused smirk, and said: "Well, after that, you need a doctrine of providence!"
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E.M. Bounds on the Preacher's Personal Holiness2/21/2008
The gospel of Christ does not move by popular waves. It has no self-propagating power. It moves as the men who have charge of it move. The preacher must impersonate the gospel. Its divine, most distinctive features must be embodied in him. The constraining power of love must be in the preacher as a projecting, eccentric, an all-commanding, self-oblivious force. The energy of self-denial must be his being, his heart and blood and bones.
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More on David Wright2/20/2008
Just to add my voice to the chorus of sorrow over the passing of David Wright. He was not only a fearsome scholar; he was also incredibly generous with the time he willingly gave to young academics and very proactive in sending work and professional opportunities their way. Of course, I will always remember him as part of an interview panel at New College, University of Edinburgh, on March 19, 1992 that didn't give me a job! (I remember the date as my wife's birthday, not out of bitterness) -- but that merely confirms his astute judgment. A scholar, a gentleman, and a churchman whose main academic concern was always to be the encouragement and nurturing of younger evangelical academics in the UK.
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And speaking of ye olde Bannere of Trouthe...2/20/2008
From a booklet on Reading The Bible and Praying in Public by Stuart Olyott (just published by the Banner of Truth):
"We believe that the Bible is for all: This being so it needs to be read as a message for all who are present. This message is even for those who have not brought a Bible with them. If the person doing the reading looks down at the page, and those who have a Bible are doing the same, those without Bibles think to themselves, 'All this is nothing to do with me.' You have got to catch their eye! They will be surprised that you looked at them and will suddenly become aware that the reading is intended for them as well. Eye contact is an essential part of good reading. If you don't catch the eye of people without Bibles, it is probably because you do not truly believe that the reading is for them."
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David F Wright2/20/2008
Only yesterday in a class on the Trinity, I happened to mention Professor Wright's fascinating article on the Great Commission (in the latest edition of the Scottish Journal of Evangelical Theology), not knowing at the time that he had died. He was my PhD examiner. It had been rumored for a few years that he was a possible candidate and I had wished that I might avoid his penetrating questions. But it was not to be. I still feel a shudder as I hear him questioning the very central thesis of my dissertation. As my life "passed before me" I would later be honored that I had had the man who had read "everything twice" as my examiner. He was one of those individuals you wished you could have spent time with -- just to listen and take notes.
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The Death of David F. Wright2/19/2008
My friend, Dr. David Reimer of New College has just written to tell me of the passing of one of the great evangelical Patristic and Reformation scholars of our time, David F. Wright. David was for many years Senior Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History at New College, University of Edinburgh, then became (towards the end of his tenure there) Professor of Patristic and Reformation Christianity, then in his retirement, Emeritus Professor and Honorary Fellow. He died in Edinburgh, with his beloved wife, Anne Marie, holding his hand as he left Jordan's stormy banks.
Professor Wright inspired awe (and not a little terror) among a generation of postgraduates at New College, who often said of him: "David has read everything, . . . twice!"
An indefatigable editor and powerful voice for Bible-believing scholarship, David's last work was an article on the Great Commission (David Reimer tells me). How fitting.
David was my own PhD supervisor, and I owe him more than i can possibly express in words.
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Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor2/19/2008
C.J. Mahaney recommends D. A. Carson's new memoir about his dad.
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What St Rowan Really Said2/19/2008
Interesting response to Rowan Williams from N T Wright.
http://covenant-communion.com/?p=569#more-569
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