2011 December | βλογάπη

Jesus Among Other Gods

I was thrilled and deeply encouraged by this testimony—and it is full of great sermon illustrations.

Posted by Mark L Ward Jr on Dec 30, 2011 in Culture, Mission, Theology | 1 comment

Great Article Ya Gotta Read It

If you’ve been wanting a good summation of the hot issue of Christian political involvement, look no further. I read this article a little while back when it came out, and when just now I ran across a few quotes I saved from it, I knew I had to recommend it to you and you.

Dan Strange writes with exceptional clarity on a hot issue, and I love his title: “The Sufficiency of Scripture for Public Theology.” Not everyone, it seems, believes in that sufficiency. Here’s Strange laying out the program for his article.

In what follows I compare and contrast two broad positions within Reformed theology:

The first, and at the risk of caricature, are those who both for theological and tactical reasons argue for the ‘insufficiency’ (or maybe less polemically ‘illegitimacy’) of the use of the Bible in the public realm but rather the ‘sufficiency’ (or probably better, ‘legitimacy’) of natural revelation embodied in a natural law.

The second argue for precisely the opposite.

To whet your appetite further, here’s a great quote he offers from John Frame:

The Great Commission is the republication of the cultural mandate for the semi-eschatological age. Unlike the original cultural mandate, it presupposes the existence of sin and the accomplishment of redemption. It recognizes that if the world is to be filled with worshippers of God, subduing the earth as his vassal kings, they must first be converted to Christ through the preaching of the gospel.

And lest you be afraid of anyone who brings up the cultural mandate at all, look at his summary of the view he argues for:

In this vision, if cultural transformation is a desired end, this should not and will not come about by imposed morality but by men and women being converted and willingly submitting themselves to the King of Kings and his rule.

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Posted by Mark L Ward Jr on Dec 29, 2011 in ChurchLife, Culture | 0 comments

Review: Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft

Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft by Thor Heyerdahl

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If not a book for guys, at least a book clearly written by one. There wasn’t a single word about the relationship of the six guys on the raft that I noted—it’s all adventure.

My rating: 5 stars for bravery, 4 for literary merit (Heyerdahl does write well; I found myself wondering how a Norwegian native could have such a command of English, but I was unable to ascertain if a translator or editor was employed), but only 3 overall—because I felt the book was long on adventure and short on depth.

“Short on depth.” That’s not nearly as good English as Heyerdahl’s. A good vacation read. It stirred my desire to buy and read a book whose Kindle sample captivated me: 1491.

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Posted by Mark L Ward Jr on Dec 28, 2011 in Books, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Book Recommendations from Worldview/Apologetics Teacher, Or, Mount Calvary Baptist Church Usher Reads The Following Books When Not Ushing

My friend Brent Cook, BJU apologetics and worldview teacher, gave me permission to post the following list. This is what he wrote to introduce it:

Several have asked for book recommendations related to the classes I’ve taught this semester. Here is a partial list I threw together last night. (“Recommendation” does not imply endorsement of all content.) I’ve also include a general section of fun reads. —B. Cook

All of the following links go to Amazon except the ten or so which were carried by Westminster Books.