Month: August 2011
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Meet Colossians
I. Why Read Colossians? The book of Colossians is tiny (95 verses in 4 chapters), but its scope is enormous. In this letter, Paul looks from prison up to heaven, “where Christ is seated at the right hand of God,” and scans the history of God’s mighty work of salvation from creation to the return…
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Grace and then Law
Even if all you read from Wesley’s Standard Sermons is the table of contents, you can see the basic shape of the Christian life. There are two major blocks of material in the Sermons, just as there are two major factors in the Christian life. The collection begins with a loud, clear, trumpet-blast of grace.…
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Kitsch Caught on YouTube
Does Paul Spears irrationally hate decorative plates? Does John Mark Reynolds irrationally love them? Is kitsch more than just tacky? Can value be found in bad culture? In a time when even the most candid moments can end up on YouTube, can professors afford to be silly around their students? Join the aforementioned professors and…
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Wesley the Worker
John Wesley was a hard worker, and had tremendous confidence. At age 23, he wrote to Charles, “Leisure and I have taken leave of one another. I propose to be busy as long as I live, if my health is so long indulged me.” He carried out that resolution. Bishop J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) noted Wesley’s…
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The Battle of Roncesvalles: History and Legend
Today, August 15, marks the 1,233rd anniversary of the Battle of Roncesvalles, a pitch battle fought by a contingent of Charlemagne’s army led by Roland, the prefect of the Breton March, against a Basque attack on the Roncesvalles pass while Roland’s men were on the retreat. This battle gave birth, about four-hundred years later, to…
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Gordon Kaufman (1925-2011): Theologian of God in Quotes
In late July, theologian Gordon Kaufman died. His death is noted by Harvard Divinity School, where he taught for over 45 years. “The depth and scale of Kaufman’s work, and his placement at Harvard,” noted Gary Dorrien in 2006, “made him the leading theological liberal in the estimation of many observers. Often he was cited…
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"Deep Things" as Seminary Textbook
I’ve been really glad to see that my 2010 book The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything has been adopted as a textbook by professors at several seminaries. I wrote the book for a general audience, including Christians without formal theological training, but it’s meaty enough for grad students, and I’ve been…
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Archduke Otto von Habsburg: A Belated Eulogy
It has been one month since the passing of one of my greatest heroes of the twentieth century. I heard of his passing from my friend Charles Coulombe when I rang him that day, July 4. Both of us agreed that he had been a salient influence in our lives from childhood. He had been…
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Fixing Everything
There are a lot of messes in the world (poverty, disease, oil spills, etc.) and a lot of different ways to try to clean them up. How should Christians think about this process? Whose responsibility is this job of “fixing everything”? Join Dr. John Mark Reynolds and Dr. Fred Sanders of the Torrey Honors Institute…
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Evangelicals Recommending Books
A hundred years ago, in a 1911 issue of The King’s Business, the founders of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles made this proclamation: “Buying and selling books with some, is like buying and selling potatoes –a mere perfunctory business. With us, buying and selling books is a matter of as much spiritual import as…