James Jordan is never afraid to throw a new idea on the table. As he says, “that’s my job.” But he’s also ever quick to remind his audience that what he has said is never the last word on a subject.
Brian Mattson writes:
Honest-to-goodness scholars are people who think, analyze, teach, and write in good faith.
“Identify…”
Part 1 here.
Doug Wilson recently gave a good rundown on his own doctrinal journey over the years since he began pastoring. It’s well worth a read. But the thing that stuck in my mind was his reason for moving to the practice of paedobaptism. Since he had already become Reformed in his doctrine, another minister said he should “put his water where his mouth is.” I know it was a call to consistency, but to me it highlights how the conflation of the Covenant sign with parenting allows baptism to usurp the place of preaching. It’s putting water where your mouth ought to be.
From Steve Jeffery’s blog:
This kind of thoughtful analysis is just one of the many reasons why Don Carson is such a blessing to the church, and one of the many reasons why he will be remembered when the impact of other – perhaps noisier – men has faded.
Here’s one particularly striking extract:
Continue reading
In his post You Will Never Guess Who Is Really Responsible For The Softening of Males In The Church, Mark Sayers shifts the blame for the current “sea of passivity” in modern males from feminism to men like John Newton.
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Charles Stone introduces his book, ‘Five Ministry Killers and How to Kill Them‘ with an account of how a Church fired their Pastor. As I started the first paragraph, I thought it was a fictional parable used to kick off the main topic of the book. Wrong!
Tim Gallant has a beautiful piece over at the BH blog:
One of the most beautiful promises of Scripture is Zephaniah 3.17: “Yahweh your God is in your midst; the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”
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In The Covenant Key, you’ll see the structure and purpose of all Biblical Covenants laid bare. It hammers home what is promised and what is at stake (the future), and how it all hinges on one simple thing — obedience.
“Real supernatural power is always found in the last place we want to look, the place of humble submission to God and His Law.”
Without fail, the simple passing of time exposes all the man-made isms for what they are: sophisticated attempts to obtain the blessings of God while avoiding obedience to the Law of God.
“So I commended
…..enjoyment,
……….because a man
……….has nothing better
……………under the sun
…..…..than to eat,
…..drink,
and be merry…”
(Eccles. 8:15)
If you love the chiasmi of the Bible, why not arrange a “Covenant” Christmas banquet using the Bible Matrix?*
People do not drift toward Holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
–D. A. Carson
(HT: Rob Lamont)
Spotted by Bojidar Marinov at Manoah’s Wife blog, and well worth sharing:
“It may very well be that the Communists, who are so anti-Christ, are closer to Him than those who see Him as a sentimentalist and vague moral reformer. The Communists have at least decided that if He wins, they lose; the others are afraid to consider Him either as winning or losing, because they are not prepared to meet the moral demands which this victory would make on their souls.
Bible Matrix blog
