J.D. Crowley, God-glorifying missionary to Cambodia, has preached two excellent messages in the Bob Jones University chapel services these past two days. Here’s the first one. He said it all so well and illustrated it so wisely (and, at times, hilariously!). I can...
Theology
Intellectualism/Voluntarism and Evidentialism/Presuppositionalism
I’ve been digging into an old debate for my dissertation, the one between intellectualists and voluntarists. There is considerable variation in each category, probably more in the latter, but there are some common threads in each. Basically, intellectualists think...
Charles Hodge on Love in 1873
I rarely do this, but I felt Hodge was worth quoting at length (I added paragraph breaks and updated the Scripture reference format): Love in us includes complacency and delight in its object, with the desire of possession and communion. The schoolmen, and often the...
What Is the Will? Eight Views
Vernon Bourke's 1964 book Will in Western Thought has become a standard in its field. My roving dissertation eye brought me to it recently, and Inter-Library Loan did the rest. I just read the first chapter, and it was genuinely helpful for a section I'm writing on...
American Evangelical Protestants are Blissful People
I guess my BJU Bible education and my stints as religious newsletter editor, religion researcher, Bible textbook author, and blogger have all been worthwhile, because I’m not ashamed to say that I aced the Pew Research Center’s 15-question Religious Knowledge Quiz....
Our Father Which Art in a Lab Coat
I was driving to church Sunday and passing through downtown Greenville, hoping to avoid traffic created by a poorly placed bike race, when I glanced over at the car next to me. I saw a decal on its bumper that I hadn’t seen before. It’s a fish (reminiscent of a...
Faith vs. Reason; Religion vs. Science
Religious thought may be vulnerable on any number of fronts, but it is not vulnerable to the criticism that in contrast to scientific or empirical thought, it rests on mere faith.... The epistemological critique of religion—it is an inferior way of knowing—is the flip...
Balancing Edwards
It is appropriate and necessary for preachers to judge the needs of their congregation when they teach Scripture. I do it every time I preach, because my goal is to help the people use the Bible. As someone has pointed out, people don’t really understand a portion of...
Two Sides of Legalism
A reporter goes up to smokers in a New York City park and asks them to put out their cigarettes. It’s an experiment, because smoking in such public places could possibly become illegal there. A few smokers approached in parks were courteous, or cowed, enough to put...
Stanley Fish’s NYTimes.com Columns Are Usually Interesting
There are a few themes that have developed on this blog. Usage Determines Meaning. Technology gives and technology takes away. Think carefully about your Bible software purchases. The standard view of ἀγάπη love out there is suspect. Stanley Fish’s NYTimes.com columns...
Beckwith Back With Rome
Frances Beckwith, former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, has converted back to the Roman Catholicism of his youth. That’s old news as the blogosphere counts slackness. It’s becoming old news, too, that Dinesh D’Souza, who a lot of people thought was...
Preaching Ruts
I don’t preach incredibly often. Maybe an average of once or twice a month. But I still find that it’s easy to fall into ruts. I’ve been taught better, but my wheels still tend to press into the mud. I need help sometimes to see how wide the road is, how many biblical...