Your Best Life Now

The latest issue of 9News is out from 9Marks, and Greg Gilbert has a great review of Joel Osteen’s book.

Does the Bible Teach Inclusivism? A Review Essay of Terrance L. Tiessen’s, WHO CAN BE SAVED?

A little over a year ago the Lord mercifully spared our home, which is about 30 miles from Galveston, from a hurricane. We did evacuate, and when we evacuated, the Lord gave me a week long break from normal duties, during which I wrote the bulk of this review of Terrance L. Tiessen’s book, Who Can Be Saved? The review will appear in the spring 2007 issue of Trinity Journal, but I have received permission to post a pre-publication draft here.

The Best Way to Wage the War on Terror

The best way to combat terrorism is to boldly share the Gospel, to boldly live out the Gospel, and to pour ourselves into our churches. The church is God’s evangelistic program, and the healthier the church the healthier the witness as it images forth the glory of God.

Go read Justin Taylor’s summary of Al Qaeda’s master plan. Go read the interview he links to with Hugh Hewitt.  And check out Flight 93 from your local public library and watch it.

Then go share the Gospel with every Muslim you meet. Give your money to send missionaries into the Muslim world. And recognize the disparity between Christians and Muslims: they send terrorists to kill innocent people, and we send them missionaries to tell them about the love of Jesus (point this out to the liberals who accuse us of cultural oppression as we seek to evangelize people).

This is the best way to wage the war on terror because evil is self-defeating and nothing can stop the power of the word of God. Nothing can stop the Gospel, it is the power of God for salvation. If they believe the Gospel, they won’t be terrorists. More importantly, they won’t go to hell and God will get the praise he deserves from them.

Why Do I Have to Go to Chapel?

If you’ve asked that question, maybe this post will help.

HT: Michael Haykin

Books Every Seminary Graduate Should Have Read

Let me first say that I did not have all the books listed below read by the time I finished seminary (either time, that is, some I didn’t read until after I was out of school altogether). Let me also say that I have not read every word of all of the books listed below. For instance, while I have read substantial portions of Calvin’s Institutes, I have not read the whole thing. So my apologies to you if you think that makes me a hypocrite. I still think the list is useful.

This is a list of books that I think a person who is theologically educated should have read or be planning to read.

Primary Texts

Bible

The whole Bible in the student’s mother tongue (sadly, this should not be assumed).

The whole New Testament in Greek

Genesis, Joshua, Joel, Jonah, and Ruth in Hebrew (or another substantial cross section)

Apocrypha and Jewish Literature

All of the Dead Sea Scrolls

1 Enoch

All of the Apocrypha

Early Christian Literature

The Apostolic Fathers (1 Clement, 2 Clement, the seven letters of Ignatius, Polycarp to the Philippians, the Martyrdom of Polycarp, the Didache, Barnabas, Hermas, Diognetus, Papias) in English. See Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999).

Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History

Theology and History

Irenaeus, On the Apostolic Preaching

Athanasius, On the Incarnation

Basil, On the Holy Spirit

Augustine, Confessions

Dante, Inferno

Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers

The Baptist Confession of 1689

Jonathan Edwards, The End for Which God Created the World

Modern Secondary Literature

Bible and Interpretation

Stephen Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible, NSBT (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003).

George E. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans).

Thomas R. Schreiner, Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ: A Pauline Theology (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2001).

Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments

Theology, History, and Ministry

Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther

Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church

Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology

Tom Nettles, The Baptists: Beginnings in Britain

J. I. Packer, Knowing God

J. I. Packer, “Introduction to the Death of Death in the Death of Christ” (essay)

John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad

John Stott, The Cross of Christ

David Wells, No Place for Truth

Prayer and the Knowledge of God

Here’s my review of this great book by Graeme Goldsworthy. I hope this gets read as much as Packer’s Knowing God!

Go Read the Comments. . .

Yesterday I linked to this post on my friend Denny Burk’s blog. Anyone who has been discussing gender issues on this blog over the past week or so should go read the comments section of Denny’s post. See especially the comments posted by S. M. Hutchens, author of the book review that prompted Denny’s post.

Review of Milgrom, Leviticus

Here’s my review of Jacob Milgrom’s one volume commentary of Leviticus.

Finally Feminist?

My friend Denny Burk has a great post on a book review in Touchstone. Enjoy!

Making Sense of Paul’s Appeal to Creation in 1 Timothy 2:13-15

I do not believe that Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2:12 are limited to a particular problem in Ephesus because he backs up what he says in verse 12 with an appeal to the pre-fall created order in verses 13-15. I think that if Paul were addressing a particular problem in Ephesus, he would have said so. Since Paul appeals to the pre-fall created order, I understand what he says in 1 Timothy 2:12 to be trans-cultural.
I was enormously helped a few years ago when I heard Tom Schreiner preach Genesis 2, and he made several observations on gender that help explain what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:13-15, 1 Corinthians 11:8-9, and 1 Corinthians 14:34. These “Observations on Gender in Genesis 1-3″ have been noted in print by other scholars, but maybe it will be helpful to post them here as well.