This blogroll will necessarily include some older material due to the joyous birth of my daughter interrupting my blogging plans. But I still wanted to compile this blogroll as some of what I read was very interesting and worthy of sharing with you all.
ON PERSEVERANCE
Doug Wilson had a great post on Heb. 3 (See also this recent post of my brother’s treatment of the same issue and passage).
Reformation Theology also had a post on Hebrews 6 which stresses that those who fail to persevere were never genuine belivers in the first place (cf. 1 Jn. 2:19).
Also, check out another good treatment of Hebrews 6 by Mathew Sims.
ON HERMENEUTICS
Reformation Theology gives a great Calvinistic understanding of 1 Tim. 4:10 in this post. (John Piper agrees with this interpretation as well, see his booklet on the 5 points of Calvinism here).
Dan Phillips of the new Pyromaniacs blog has a great post on understanding Proverbs. (This is the first of a 3 part series which promises to be very helpful).
ON BAPTISM
In the recent past, I was involved somewhat in a debate on credo vs. paedo baptism. I posted about it a bit here (including this summary post attempting to clarify what Scriptural bases paedo Baptists had for their views), but the main discussion was over at Pitchford’s Ramblings. You can find the debate recorded in the posts and comments under them listed here.
But more recently, Justin Taylor pointed our attention to another debate on this very issue in this post. Some of you may be interested in looking at the small debates pointed at from that post. For the debate over on Reformation 21 blog, you will have to search by date (this is done by clicking “next” a few times) and you will need to know the debate began on 1/28 and ended (sort of) on 1/30. And the debate at Denny Burk’s blog referenced in Justin’s post is spread over two posts, parts 1 and 2. At the end of part 2 of Burk’s blog, you will find a recent comment by me on the issue, if you are interested.
ON THE CARTOON CONTROVERSY
Justin Taylor brought my attention to some pertinent and insightful comments by John Piper on the current anti-Muslim cartoon controversy.
Also, there is a great satirical post on this controversy (and a little on the End of the Spear controversy: see below) over at NateNotes. (HT: Sharper Iron)
ON GREAT MEN OF THE PAST
Doug Kutilek gives a great article on George Whitfield over at Sharper Iron. This article is full of bibliographical information, and includes some great quotes by the Great Awakening’s most famous evangelist.
Reformation Theology in a post on Sola Scriptura has a good discussion of Martin Luther including his famous words at the Diet of Worms on the authority of Scripture.
ON THE END OF THE SPEAR
I have pretty much avoided talking about the controversy surrounding the placing of the gay actor Chad Allen in the starring role of a movie about Steve Saint and the 4 other missionaries who gave their lives for the conversion of the Wadonai (Acua) Indians in South America, back in the 1950s. I agree it was a wrong move for a professedly Christian movie company to cast Chad, but as it turns out they were not initially aware of his activist stance in the gay community. I do not think that every actor must be straight to play in any good or Christian movie, but it was not wise to give Allen such a platform to advance his agenda with, either.
But Jason Janz of Sharper Iron (whose early articles sparked much of the controversy in the blogworld, eventually reaching the New York Times) recently posted his second critique of the movie centering on its failure to present the Gospel message. I agree with Matt Simms that this is after all a movie. We should not expect it to overtly share the Gospel with pointed clarity. But Jason’s beef lies more in the realm of the movie promoter’s claims that the movie actually does convey the Gospel. I think much of his critique is accurate, and a movie about missionaries giving their lives to spread the gospel and the subsequent amazing changes the gospel made in the life and culture of an Indian tribe, at least should actually point out the main motivating force and prime mover in all of this””the gospel. It was the gospel that drove the men to such sacrificial lengths, and it was the gospel which so amazingly transformed the tribe. And sadly that fact is not explicitly declared in the movie itself. It allows evangelicals who know the story like the back of their hands, practically, to read into the movie what they want to see there. And in effect it does not educate the viewers ignorant of the story about the truly glorious power of the Gospel as shown in the story.
An interesting side development of this story was the controversy surrounding Kevin Bauder’s comments concerning the movie on his blog. For a brief overview of that story check out Phil Johnson’s post over at the Pyromaniacs blog. But I want to point out an excellent response to this by Bauder in which he graciously apologizes and owns up to what he is convinced was error on his part. He exemplifies a Christ-like spirit and presents a great challenge to us all to listen to the rebukes of our friends and be willing to repent when repentance is called for.
AND THANKS
Yes, thanks to Mathew Simms of Under Sovereign Grace and Nathan Fitzsimmons of The New OpinoNate for adding permanent (at least for now :)) links to my blog from their blogs. Oh, and thanks also to Nathan Pitchford for promoting my 1 Thessalonians “one-another” post over at his blog Pitchford’s Ramblings. May the content of my blog continue to earn links elsewhere as I desire to gain as large an audience as possible for the glory of Christ and the edification of His church.