The Bible is Gods very word and therefore carries the authority of God himself. And that word of God, Scripture tells us, is a powerful thingliving and active and sharper than even a two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). It floods the soul with its resplendent rays, laying bare Gods truth and putting all darkness to flight. Yet, as this text tells us, not all receive the truth of this light, and some esteem it as folly itself. How can this be? If Scripture is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16), how could any reject its authoritative claims?
Dr. John Walton, Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School, will present Origins Today: Genesis Through Ancient Eyes at 51蹤獲. John Waltons work on Genesis 1-3 offers a fresh perspective on the complex issue of faith and science by seeking to understand the message of Scripture within its ancient context.
Often times it seems that harder the church tries to be relevant, the more irrelevant we become. The Bible is full of this kind of upside down logic. The self-clingers lose themselves, the prideful end up humbled, those jostling to be first end last, and, now it seems, those trying the hardest to be relevant end up most irrelevant. Thaddeus Williams explores what happens when the church puts relevance to culture ahead of reverence to Christ.
Dyothelitism means that Jesus possesses two wills, one divine and one human. God the Father and God the Son are distinct persons, but they share the same divine will. The difference of Jesus will from his Fathers will in Gethsemane is his human will. By incarnation, God the Son took up a second way of living as a man. He now possesses two natures. Each nature is complete, including a will for each. I define will as the spiritual capacity for desires and choice in the exercise of personal agency. A caution to remember is that these are mysterious operations (desiring, choosing) of mysterious realities (persons, wills, Trinity) that may leave us continuing to wonder even after thinking it all through as best we can. We will consider briefly Jesus divine will, his human will, the situation of Gethsemane, and how this affects our thinking about the Trinity.
Esta semana se conmemoran los d穩as m獺s importantes para el cristianismo y, por consiguiente, para todo el mundo. La muerte y resurrecci籀n de Jesucristo marcan el eje central de nuestra fe. Durante la semana santa recordamos la muerte de Jes繳s en la cruz por nuestros pecados y su victoria sobre la muerte a trav矇s de su gloriosa resurrecci籀n.
Recuerdo que el pastor de la iglesia donde crec穩 repet穩a constantemente esta frase el amor es un producto de la voluntad. Estas palabras se convirtieron en una expresi籀n com繳n en la iglesia y se mencionaban constantemente en diferentes contextos. Me parece que lo que el pastor quer穩a comunicar era que la acci籀n de amar est獺 basada principalmente en una decisi籀n y no solamente en emociones. Nuestras emociones cambian, pero cuando decidimos amar a Dios y a nuestro pr籀jimo independientemente de nuestro estado de 獺nimo entonces estamos as穩 cumpliendo la ley de Cristo. Estoy de acuerdo con la idea general, pero creo que el amor va mucho m獺s all獺 de nuestra voluntad. El amor se centra en la persona de Dios y nosotros tenemos el gran privilegio de participar y demostrar el amor divino.
Jesus prayed for His church to form a kind of angled mirror, bonded together with the kind of love that directs the worlds gaze upward to behold the Triune God of love (Jn. 17:11-24). Are we reflecting the Triune God clearly, or do our churches often form more of a cracked mirror, fragmented shards with animosities and apathies caked like mud, refracting little light from above? Dr. Williams explores one reason we may often fail to reflect the Trinity, namely, the lack of a robust doctrine of "the anti-Trinity."
Talbot faculty members share some of their picks for the best books released in 2012. Read about their recommendedations here, listed in alphabetical order:
Hell. I don't think about this subject often, so you can imagine my surprise when I found such moving thoughts on hell from an author I regard: John Bunyan.
As we near the outset of a new academic semester, I thought this comment from John Frame was a fitting word of encouragement for Talbot faculty and students alike concerning the nature of our engagement with Gods word.
This week the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School have grabbed our attention for understandable reasons. The atrocity of killing 26 people, mostly children in their first grade classroom, is inconceivable to all who think about the event. Though I do not know any of the families affected, as a parent and grandparent, I have felt deep sorrow since that time, and have prayed for those who had such great losses. One of the classes I teach for 51蹤獲s School of Education is predominantly elementary school teachers. An assignment was already posted on Friday for interaction in an online discussion group, but I sensed the need to change the subject and invite these teachers to talk about the days events. One of the elementary school teachers was really struggling that day, and wrote her concerns and questions in the blog. She expressed her heartache for the parents and their children, and her desire to present God as a God of love and compassion. Yet, she was stuck on the question, How could a loving God allow something like this to happen? Realizing none of us can fully explain the whys of tragedy in our world, I decided to respond with the words that follow:
Al mundo paz naci籀 Jes繳s es el inicio de un popular villancico navide簽o que resume magistralmente esta temporada de fiesta por la llegada del Hijo de Dios entre nosotros. La navidad celebra el cumplimiento de la promesa de la venida del Pr穩ncipe de paz (Is. 9:6). La segunda persona de la trinidad se hizo hombre y habit籀 entre nosotros para despu矇s darnos vida a trav矇s de su sacrificio expiatorio en la cruz. Por lo tanto, la navidad es un acontecimiento digno de celebrarse.
Con Campbells new book, Paul and Union with Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012, 479 pages, $34.99 softcover) is one of the most important books Ive read in a long time. I predict that scholars and serious students of the Bible will be referring to this book for years to come. The reason is simple: Campbell has meticulously and even-handedly taken one of the Apostle Pauls central themes, union with Christ, and has painstakingly examined it both through an exegetical and a theological lens.
Crossway has just released a book I wrote on the doctrine of divine impassibility. The title is God is Impassible and Impassioned: Toward a Theology of Divine Emotion.
I just returned from the Evangelical Theological Society annual meetings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I picked up a copy of D. A. Carsons new little book, Jesus the Son of God: A Christological Title Often Overlooked, Sometimes Misunderstood, and Currently Disputed (Crossway). On the taxi ride from the airport to the conference, I briefly tried to share the Lord with a taxi driver named Hassan. We were about a minute into the conversation when Hassan commented rather ardently, We Muslims believe that Jesus is a prophet, and not the son of God. I explained to him that Christians dont believe that God had physical relations with Mary that led to her pregnancy, as many Muslims assume and consider blasphemous. The problem for dialogue with Muslims like Hassan is that many Muslims think that is precisely what we Christians mean when we use the expression Son of God in reference to Jesuswhich, of course, we dont. So what if you were a Bible translator in a Muslim country and knew that many of your readers would make the same assumption that Hassan did about the expression Son of God? Perhaps you should change the words Son of God to something else that is proximate in meaning but less offensive. Or maybe you shouldnt
Bueno, pero Dios sigue estando en su trono es una frase que he escuchado bastante veces en los 繳ltimos d穩as. Los que la pronuncian generalmente lo hacen con un tono de resignaci籀n al ver que las cosas no se han dado como inicialmente esperaban. Me da la impresi籀n que recuerdan que Dios est獺 en control de las circunstancias solamente como un premio de consolaci籀n al ver que su candidato perdi籀 las elecciones o enfrentan otras decepciones en la vida. Tristemente en estos casos, estas personas se olvidan que nuestro Dios siempre es victorioso, siempre est獺 en control y que nada ni nadie obstruye su soberan穩a sobre todo. Dios no deber穩a ser el premio de consolaci籀n de los perdedores sino el premio mayor de todos los d穩as sin importar lo que est矇 sucediendo a nuestro alrededor.
The recent statistics released by The Pew Forum on Religious & Public Life showing a decline among Americans who consider themselves religious are sure to alarm many concerned about the spiritual state of the nation. For evangelicals, the most potentially jarring of these statistics shows that for the first time in its history the United States does not have a Protestant majority. The study found that about 20% of Americans say they have no religious affiliation, an increase from 15% in the last five years. The sobering reality in all this for evangelicals is that, although our churches continue to grow, our evangelistic effectiveness has significantly lagged behind the US population growth. This study is a clear challenge to evangelicals to live up to our name and proclaim the good news in a culture where we can no longer assume common theological foundations. Evangelical Christians have to learn to preach the gospel in a culture where we are no longer part of the Protestant majority. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. A few observations about the data shows that the picture is not as bleak as it may seem.
El Esp穩ritu Santo es esencial para la vida y ense簽anza cristiana. De hecho, no creo exagerar al afirmar que sin la ayuda y poder del Esp穩ritu Santo todos nuestros esfuerzos tanto para agradar a Dios como para ense簽ar a otros a hacerlo carecen de sentido y, por lo tanto, los resultados son insignificantes. Desgraciadamente, en muchas ocasiones el Esp穩ritu Santo es olvidado, minimizado o incluso relevado a solamente una teor穩a teol籀gica que creemos porque se encuentra en la Biblia, pero que no tiene ninguna relevancia en nuestra vida diaria. De hecho, llegu矇 a escuchar a un profesor de un seminario afirmar que muchos cristianos de forma pr獺ctica creen que la santa trinidad est獺 compuesta por el Padre, el Hijo y las Santas Escrituras. De esta manera, la presencia del Esp穩ritu Santo es totalmente olvidada.
Insofar as Jesus Christ is emplaced in glorified resurrection embodiment at the Fathers right hand in heavenly session, that place shapes and orients all other place claims.
Many of you have probably heard of The Book of Mormonnot the book itself, but the Broadway musical that garnered nine Tony awards in 2011, including Best Musical, and earned a Grammy as well. It tells the story of two bright-eyed American Mormon missionaries who attempt to bring their good news to a remote village in Uganda racked by war, poverty, AIDS, and famine. (From the summary on Wikipedia). It is a powerfulalbeit raunchysatire of religion from the creators of that epitome of high-brow, cultured entertainment, South Park. I have not seen the musical myself, but I have viewed several segments on YouTube, and found myself (I admit it!) snickering at the delicious lampoon of Mormon doctrine, marveling at the music and vocal performances, and also deeply challenged by the message of the show.
I wince when I look at the photo. Don and I are standing in the sun with our firstborn son, flanked by Dons elderly grandparents. Grandpa has just lifted up our son toward heaven to give thanks. All of us are beaming with joy. And I am wearing a very short dress.
El que espera, desespera dice un refr獺n popular. Esperar algo no es satisfactorio para nadie y en ocasiones las salas de espera en oficinas y consultorios se convierten en salas de tortura para muchos que, como yo, son impacientes y perciben el tiempo de espera como un tiempo perdido. Esta creencia com繳n puede percibir a la esperanza como algo negativo y algo no muy deseado.
Below is an excerpt from a commentary I'm writing on the Greek text of Philippians. The section I've copied is a rough first draft treating a key Christological phrase from 2:6. The commentary will be part of a series called The Exegetical Guidebook to the Greek New Testament (B&H Publications). It's aimed at seminary grads and pastors who have actually learned and retained their Greek...like Talbot students, we hope! You can get the abbreviations from Murray Harris's volume on Colossians, but they should be familiar to NT students (e.g., TDNT = "Kittel," etc.). Enjoy!