Jim Congdon is concerned about recent messianic Jewish leaders who have been imposing Torah-centered living as normative on their congregations. He argues that Christ is the culmination of the Law of Moses based on Matthew 5:17-48 and Romans 10:4. Whether from the Reformed or from the Jewish Torah-observer, attempting to use Matthew 5:17-20 to argue for obligation to the law proves too much. Jesus declares that the entire law remains in force. The Reformed distinctions between moral, civil and ceremonial laws cannot be sustained against the weight of Jesus’ words. For the Jewish insist... [read more]

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Newsweek's cover story last week read "The Religious Case For Gay Marriage."  Inside, Lisa Miller's article "Our Mutual Joy" attempted to argue that the Bible actually supports gay marriage.  Read her article here.Two very insightful responses have already gone up from Al Mohler and John Mark Reynolds.  Rather than responding myself, I will simply point you to them.  Al Mohler:  Turning the Bible on its Head -- Newsweek Goes for Gay MarriageJohn Mark Reynolds:  An Obvious Truth: The Bible Supports Traditional Marrriage

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Oxford's latest version of their Junior Dictionary has undergone a major revision.  In order to reflect the changing times, many words having to do with religion (specifically Christianity), and with a rural setting (such as certain kinds of flowers and trees) are being omitted and replaced with words like "blog" and "MP3 player."  OUP says:  "When you look back at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples of flowers for instance. That was because many children lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons. Nowadays, the environment has chang... [read more]

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Some people have argued that historical theology has little relevance to postmoderns, therefore the church must reflect the current culture to reach them. William Henard contends that historical theology is still relevant, using Jonathan Edwards as an example. For one, though Edwards did not face every manifestation of sin present today, he did encounter the same basic sins. Second, many of today’s youth and leaders are drawn to the Reformers, as evidenced in Colin Hansen’s Young, Restless, Reformed. Since sinners now seem to be in the hands of the Emergent church, Edwards must join the... [read more]

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The preacher at the church I attended today read this, and it struck me as an excellent meditation piece. It's from a sermon by S.M. Lockridge...He's enduringly strong. He's entirely sincere. He's eternally steadfast. He's immortally graceful. He's imperially powerful. He's impartially merciful. That's my King. He's God's Son. He's the sinner's saviour. He's the centerpiece of civilization. He stands alone in Himself. He's honest. He's unique. He's unparalleled. He's unprecedented. He's supreme. He's pre-eminent. He's the grandest idea in literature. He's the highest personality in philosop... [read more]

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I was going to write a summary of G.K. Beale's excellent lecture that argued for inerrancy based on the book of Revelation, but Jim Hamilton beat me to it.Here's a teaser:This year’s Crossway Lecture at ETS was presented by G. K. Beale. Beale argued that Inerrancy is not a scholastic theological deduction made by interpreters of the Bible, but rather that it is an exegetical observation of a theological deduction that at least one biblical author has already made within the text of the Bible itself. Citing the logic of innerancy:  God is true and trustworthy, and he never lies, ... [read more]

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Mark Wittmer contends that many of the “new” ideas proposed by Brian McLaren were addressed 85 years ago by J. Gresham Machen in his classic work Christianity and Liberalism (1923, Eerdmans). His paper contrasted the teaching of McLaren and Machen in six important areas. Living like Jesus is more important than believing in him. McLaren suggests that what people believe is of little importance and likely not relevant to our salvation. What is important is right action as modeled by Jesus. McLaren believes that some people (conservatives) use John 14:6 (“I am the way, the truth, ... [read more]

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