Archive for December, 2009

The Future of Jesus 6: To three thousand-PLUS generations

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

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You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down [...]

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Though not a Baptist, I think parts of this catechism are brilliant and beautiful

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Question 16: What special act of providence did God exercise towards man when he was first created?
Answer: When God had created man, he made a covenant with him that he should live and enjoy all the benefits of creation, but that he would die if he forsook the obedience that comes from faith. God commanded [...]

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Dare we hope that the future of Jesus is getting through?

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

As a 6-year-old growing up at a time when Hal Lindsey’s “Late Great Planet Earth” was holding sway in Southern Baptist churches, Jerry Johnson was fascinated by the talk of end times.
He later earned three theological degrees that prepared him for service at Boyce College, Criswell College and his current role as academic dean at [...]

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Stacking mystery and/or revelation in Paul

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations/Gentiles, according to the command of [...]

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A sin like Adam’s

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even [...]

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Machen’s Warrior Children could be cut off

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root [...]

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If you want to read/listen to the Bible in 2010

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Here are some reading plans, and here is an explanation of what they offer.
Hat Tip
(I wish there were a way to arrange other cycles, like the Psalms and Proverbs once a month.)

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John Piper on the Gracious Law

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

The Law Is Fulfilled by the Obedience of Faith
So the first point in our theology of the law was that love fulfills the law. The second point was that love is the outworking of faith. And the third point was that, therefore, the law itself does not demand meritorious works, but only the obedience which [...]

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RePost: my last article for Ligonier Minstries’ Tabletalk magazine

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Originally posted on 7/30/2007.
Title: HIStory
Column: A Pastor’s Perspective
Date: Don’t have that written down on my copy.  Sometime between around 1999 to 2000.
Magazine: Ligonier Ministries’ TableTalk
Quick! What’s the basic message of the Bible? Summarize it in as few words as possible and say what first comes to mind.
Here’s how I would answer the question:
Boy meets [...]

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Baptism and politics

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

This post is excellent.  It is being published in Ligonier’s Magazine, “Tabletalk.”
The analogy of using a wide-angle lens rather than a zoom lens comes from an impeccable source. (Not just on his blog but also in the Westminster Theological Journal and in at least one of Leithart’s many books)
It is evil that if Peter Leithart [...]

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John Piper on Romans 3.25-26

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood through faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in [...]

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Great Commission & Romans

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And [...]

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Tolkien: better than Klingon!

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

YouTube – J.R.R. Tolkien reciting “Namárië”.

Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,
yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!
Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier
mi oromardi lisse-miruvóreva
Andúnë pella , Vardo tellumar
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
ómaryo airetári -lírinen.
Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?
An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo
ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë,
ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë;
ar sindanóriello caita mornië
i falmalinnar imbë met, ar [...]

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Romans, certainty, and the fear of Protestant disloyalty

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

One can’t read Evangelical commentaries on the book of Romans, with few exceptions, without wondering (if one allows oneself to wonder such things) how they can be so confident about conclusions that allegedly follow from arguments that don’t seem to warrant that sort of confidence.
But the answer probably lies in a fundamental Protestant principle.  One [...]

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Tolkien on Oxford: A Factory for Fees

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Years before I had rejected as disgusting cynicism by an old vulgarian the words of warning given me by old Joseph Wright.
“What do you take Oxford for, lad?”
“A university, a place of learning.”
“Nay, lad, it’s a factory! And what’s it making? I’ll tell you.  It’s making fees. Get that in your head, and you’ll begin [...]

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Interpol above the law thanks to Obama

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is. One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law.
Interpol is the shorthand for the International Criminal Police Organization. It was established in 1923 and operates in about 188 countries. By executive [...]

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What Paul Should have Written

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an [...]

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Questioning Romans

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, [...]

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From Abraham’s faith and hope to our certainty

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered [...]

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Because Anna was not a false prophetess

Monday, December 28th, 2009

Since we’re in the Christmas season, here’s something for you from Luke 2:
And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She [...]

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