Stuck in the Present

Pooping Elephants

The Battle for Hell

Ecclesiastes, Songs of Songs (Holman Old Testament Commentary, Vol. 14)

The Last Men's Book You'll Ever Need

Good Christians, Good Husbands?

THE TEMPLE AND THE TABERNACLE

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The Temple and the Tabernacle is one of those books I can recommend with gusto.

The text of the book is gorgeously accented with loads of pictures. Baker has done a truly stellar job with the production of this book.

Hays is a careful reader of Scripture. He does not make wild claims, yet there are many wonderful insights throughout his book.

I learned much from this book. It is accessible, but loaded with insight.

My safe guess is that it will help you make better sense of the tabernacle and the temple.

A CATHOLIC INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT

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As a Protestant with small c catholic sensibilities, there is much to like about this book. I made over 400 notes in the margins.

The writing is clear, the scholarship is impressive, and the various charts and graphs add a lot to the text. 

It is ecumenical in the best sense of that word as it interacts with much scholarship outside the Roman Catholic.

There are certainly areas of disagreement like the immaculate conception and whether Rom. 3:1,2 about the Jews being entrusted with the oracles of God is significant for the extent of the Old Testament canon. I think it is whereas Pitre and Bergsma do not.

All in all, it is a remarkable achievement and one I will be recommending.

STILL NOT WILD AT HEART

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The largely disembodied, behavioristic models of sanctification need to be shown a better way. I am troubled and have written a bit (book reviews of Wild at Heart, Prayer of Jabez, and a “men’s” book) on the silly and superficial models that are all too easy to criticize. Several men I know who raved about the life-changing nature of Wild at Heart boot camps and Promise Keepers remain immature as Paul said “in their thinking.”

Historic Christianity has the resources to offer compelling models that address the whole person. My fear is that pastors and other Christian leaders are increasingly ignorant of the riches that largely remain buried.

 

HISTORY OR GOD?!

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I just watched Lin-Manuel Miranda apologize for not speaking about more forcefully about injustice towards Blacks. I am willing to agree with him on this, but his closing statement is stunning. 

Miranda closes by saying, “History has its eyes on all of us.” I certainly get his point, but it got me thinking whether history is a big enough motivation.

I think the fear of God is not only the true motivation, but one that has lasting fruit.

PREDICTING THE FUTURE

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Os Guinness told me that he has no respect for self-styled scholars who think they can predict the future. It usually results in more heat than light.

Yes, we are in troubled times. Responsible people are not futurists, but responsible people are aware when upheaval due to competing ideas is afoot. We are definitely at such a time.

People like the Princeton historian, Daniel Rodgers, along with the political theorist, Yuval Levin, use the word fracture to describe what is going on in America. We have fractured, and so split into various tribes that are turning on one another.

There are now very different visions of what it means to be an American. A shared story/idea seems like an impossibility, yet we Christians have hope. And yet, that hope is eschatological, so our country as we’ve known it may be altering in ways we never imagined.

 

JOHN LOCKE OR JOHN CALVIN?

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A friend asked about the individual in Christianity. Here is what I dashed off:

It is a big topic of course so here is where I typically begin. We now live on the other side of the Enlightenment. It sought to make the self sovereign.

The “self as individual” idea emerges which is a novel one for understanding personhood.

Westerners now look at the Bible through a lens that over privileges the individual (literally undivided one).

Yes, every single person is precious, a sinner, and in need of redemption, but groups and various associations are talked about a lot in the Bible. Groups of people are talked about both favorably and unfavorably. In those groups when one sins (Achan at Ai) all suffer.

Yes, there is still individual accountability per Ez 18, but nations will also be judged. Americans do not have a great way to understand all this other than those who believe large sections of the Old Testament no longer applies to Christians.

I’m afraid our exegesis is at times more beholden to John Locke than John Calvin!

MAKE THE TRINITY GREAT AGAIN!

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I find the trinity attractive, compelling, and there are desires we all have for community and individual impact that showcase we are created in the image of a triune God. My next door neighbor who is not a Christian said this made sense to him. 

Our culture emphasizes a faux unity that kills true diversity or a faux diversity that kills true unity. The trinity elevates both in glorious splendor. There is much Christians have to offer our chaotic culture. Sadly, I’m not convinced many Christians are that interested in having both diversity and unity.

Sadly, I’ve found many Christians confused in their thinking about the trinity. Here are five errors I’ve heard the most in my conversations with a number of Christians:

Thinking that the incomprehensible nature of the trinity means I can’t say anything meaningful about the trinity. 

Thinking the trinity is illogical.

Thinking the trinity is impractical.

Thinking the trinity is something Christians can disagree about like other unimportant matters such as the proper mode of baptism.

Thinking the trinity is simply a river in Texas.(HT: To my friend, Helen Reeves!)

MAKE THE TRINITY GREAT AGAIN! Hey lawyer friends: Can I copyright that?! 🙂

MADISON’S RELEVANCE TODAY

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Madison’s political philosophy was greatly influenced by preacher and Princeton president, John Witherspoon.  Witherspoon’s influence is apparent in places like the Federalist Papers where you see Madison’s realistic view of man’s fallen nature.

“Democracies allow the greatest number of citizens in ruling, Witherspoon notes, but often, as he learned from Aristotle, they degenerate into mob rule, ‘deceived by demagogues’ and ‘subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage.’”

Do you think that is a word for us today?

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