Category Archives: Weekly Links

Weekly Links (11/1/2013)

Faith therefore must be purely taught: namely, that thou art so entirely joined unto Christ, that He and thou art made as it were one person: so that thou mayest boldly say, I am now one with Christ, that is to say, Christ’s righteousness, victory, and life are mine. And again, Christ may say, I am that sinner, that is, his sins and his death are Mine, because he is united and joined unto Me, and I unto him. (Martin Luther)

by Richard Shin

  • R.C. Sproul Jr. answers the question: “Why did God command the children of Israel to kill every man, woman and child in the Promised Land?”
  • Joe Carter always has interesting topics for his “9 Things You Should Know About” posts. I turn your attention to two: down syndrome and persecution of Christians.
  • Bliss Spillar shares three reasons we need to read both old and new theologians.
  • In honor of Reformation Day, here‘s a bit of a primer on the difference between the Catholic theology and the gospel. And here‘s a post on the history of Reformation Day.
  • On that note, Pastor Jim Kang from LBCEB shares why Martin Luther matters.

We’re keeping it shorter this time in light of the retreat. Have a great weekend!

Coram Deo

Weekly Links – Strange Fire Conference

“One other thing. Continuationists may believe that the Strange Fire guys are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But they should begin their response by acknowledging that in the contemporary charismatic world, there is an awful lot of bathwater, and — even on their accounting — not very much baby. This is something that needed to be done, and because there has not been (to my knowledge) a large continuationist conference rebuking the manifest excesses of the wahoo brethren, this conference was inevitable.” (Douglas Wilson, Excesses of the Wahoo Brethren)

by Stephen Rodgers

Since the Strange Fire conference was such a significant topic recently, I wanted to do a post collecting a number of resources and perspectives related to it. After trying to organize the material a few different ways (topically? chronologically?), I finally threw up my hands and decided to do a mix of both: some of this will be organized by source, and some by chronology.  So without further ado, here we go.

I also may add to this article as more resources become available, but I wanted to get this up since a number of folks at the church have asked about it.

Editor’s Note: This page has been updated numerous times since it’s original publication.  The most recent update was on 3/10/2015.

Introduction

Lyndon Unger wrote a series of posts that laid out the origins and issues relevant to the (then) upcoming Strange Fire Conference.  They’re still probably the most interesting and readable introduction to the subject.

Media

Primary sources are important. Before you spend too much time studying what other people thought about the messages, you should probably listen to the messages yourself. I’m also including Pastor Patrick’s reflections on the conference since this is the LBC Beacon after all.

GTY

Grace to You is the ministry of John MacArthur and Grace Community Church. These are the folks who who organized the conference in the first place.

Here are their articles recounting the specific days of the conference:

And here are several articles responding to particular issues after the conference:

The Cripplegate

The Cripplegate is a teamblog from a number of pastors and seminary students who either are directly associated with Grace Community Church and TMS, or used to be and have moved on to ministry in other areas.

Here are their articles summarizing the specific sessions of the conference:

And here are several articles responding to particular issues after the conference:

The Cripplegate is also re-posting the Butler / Unger review of Authentic Fire (original links below in the “Reviews, Responses, and Books” section):

Pyromaniacs

Pyromaniacs was originally the blog of Phil Johnson (a speaker at the conference and the Director of GTY). He retired a while back, but Dan Phillips and Frank Turk have been keeping the doors open in his absence.

Since the conference, Dan Phillips has been doing a series of articles (and a sermon or two) recounting his thoughts on the conference:

Tim Challies

Tim Challies runs one of the more prominent sites in terms of conservative Christian blogs. He also has a reputation for being a fairly level-headed guy. He watched the conference on livestream and blogged his thoughts on the sessions:

Reviews, Responses, and Books

There have been a couple of books published in response to both the Strange Fire conference and the Strange Fire book. This section collects responses and evaluations of those books.

The first book to respond was Frank Viola’s Pouring Holy Water on Strange Fire. Lyndon Unger reviewed it (unfavorably, to put it mildly), and eventually an updated and corrected version was released.

The second book to respond was Michael Brown’s Authentic Fire. Lyndon Unger and Fred Butler teamed up to do a response to that book. As I write this, that review is still in progress. Since they cross-post a lot, I’m going to list the relevant links according to the corresponding chapters in the book.

Lyndon Unger (again)

Since this all began, Mr. Unger has written enough that I really can’t fit him into the “misc” section anymore.

Post-Event Roundup / Miscellaneous Articles

Here’s a collection of articles from various folk who I consider interesting and/or noteworthy.

Editor’s Note: Craig S. Keener is a noteworthy charismatic scholar.  I don’t mind including his review here for the sake of completeness, but the website that is hosting it (pneumareview.com) seems to be splitting the review across a riduculously-large number of pages, most likely in an effort to exploit pageviews. Shame on them. Just be aware.

The Driscoll Incident

So one odd thing happened at the conference: Mark Driscoll showed up on the last day and made an impromptu and unscheduled appearance. Here are a few articles related to that event (including his own explanation of what happened).

Editor’s Note: this is included for the sake of completeness; if you somehow are under the impression that this is central to the content of the conference itself, then please stop…do not pass GO…do not collect $200. Remember Tim Challies? He wrote a book a few years ago that might help you with your much more immediate problem.

For Further Study

If there’s sufficient interest, it might be worthwhile to build a full-blown hub post on charasmaticism in general and the sign gifts in particular.  In the meantime, here are a few resources you can avail yourself to:

Weekly Links (10/25/2013)

The cross which is the object of faith, is also, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the cause of it. Sit down and watch the dying Saviour till faith springs up spontaneously in your heart. There is no place like Calvary for creating confidence. The air of that sacred hill brings health to trembling faith. (Charles Spurgeon)

by Richard Shin

Is it really nearing the end of October? Goodness gracious. Don’t be too sad; we have articles for you!

  • Kevin DeYoung has a short series on how to be better Bereans (Acts 17:11). You can find them in three parts: part 1, part 2, and part 3.
  • Jesse Johnson compiled 1-2 sentence summaries of each session, the Challies summaries, and the Cripplegate manuscripts. On that note, the Grace to You staff shares some closing thoughts on the conference here.
  • Al Mohler recently addressed the faculty at Brigham Young University, the hub of Mormon intellectualism, on the state of religious freedom in America. You can find the transcript here.
  • Have you wondered why faith is not considered a “work”? Matthew Barrett from the Gospel Coalition answers this question in the most recent edition of “You Asked”.
  • Jonathan Holmes from the Biblical Counseling Coalition shares a word on doubt and answers the question on whether it is fatal or futile. He shares some insight from the Epistle of Jude that helps us understand how to deal with doubt.
  • The Wall Street Journal did a profile piece on Russell Moore. And you can find his response to the article here.
  • The Gospel Project blog has a new series on the God-centered worldview. It’s still only a couple posts in, but you can find the entire series here.
  • And last but not least, Thabiti Anyabwile has a knack for writing in a way that provokes the reader to reflect deeply. He does it again after watching Ja Rule’s interview (yes, the rapper). You can find the interview and his post here.

Coram Deo

Weekly Links (10/18/2013)

Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. We may as well try to instruct leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment.  (A. W. Tozer)

by Richard Shin

  • First off, we want to make you aware of the free book the Logos is offering: Brothers, We Are Not Professionals by John Piper. There are also some other discounts on the page of which you can take advantage if that’s your cup of tea.
  • The Strange Fire conference is currently being held at Grace Community Church, hosted by Grace to You. You can still follow the last day via live stream here. Or if you prefer, you can follow Tim Challies’ conference notes here. Mike Riccardi from the Cripplegate blog is also writing summaries here.
  • Do you desire to become a missionary overseas? If so, perhaps you should check your reasons. Laura Parker shares ten reasons you shouldn’t become a missionary.
  • Last week, I linked you to an article by Al Mohler on how pornography affects the brain. In the same week, John Piper wrote a similar article on the addictiveness to pornography. And he followed up this week with four observations that give people hope for renewal.
  • Jeremy Walker is doing a series on effective personal evangelism. He gives the introduction here. The first requirement of an effective evangelist here. And the second here.
  • And not for naught, Southern Seminary released a documentary on Al Mohler here. If you don’t know the history behind the Southern Baptist Convention, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and their rampant liberalism of the past, you would do good to watch this video.

Coram Deo

Weekly Links (10/11/2013)

One cannot explain the explosive dynamite, the dunamis, of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see.  By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community.  Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community, but exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there. (Francis Schaeffer)

by Richard Shin

Enjoy.

  • “We must not relegate God to those occasions when he is one cause among others that we can see, measure, and test.  We only have direct access to the natural means, but they are God’s ordinary way of working in the world and in our lives.” Michael Horton teaches us that our God is the God of the ordinary.
  • “Though the unpredictable timing of Lefty Gomez must have been a source of frustration for his teammates, as this vignette reveals, that to Lefty a promise was a promise.” Clint Archer writes about the promises of God.
  • “Men seem to be wired in such a way that pornography hijacks the proper functioning of their brains and has a long-lasting effect on their thoughts and lives.” Dr. Al Mohler pens an article on how pornography affects the brain.
  • “I thought she was saying, ‘I sure would like to spend some time with you dad. Why don’t you put me on your lap?’ Now I believe she was saying, ‘You’ll be glad if you put me on your lap.’ And she was right. But there is no Shannon to comfort me in the loss of Shannon.” R.C. Sproul Jr. updates us a year after his daughter’s passing.
  • “For me or any other writer to claim to know what is going on in all those churches is sheer foolishness. Only God attends every church service in America. Unless he gives us some inside scoop, let’s stop claiming to know what only he knows. Otherwise, we are not helping our pet cause, we are merely slandering Christ bride.” Joe Carter writes on the slandering of Christ’s bride.
  • “I said Hill and Allberry’s books have two things in common. The first is that they accept that this biblical evidence is overwhelming that homosexual practice is not God’s will. The second is that they, as men attracted to other males, believe that the biblical view of homosexuality makes great sense and is even liberating when viewed from within joyful belief of the gospel story.” Tim Keller reviews two books on Christianity and homosexuality penned by two Christian men who are attracted to other men.

Coram Deo

Weekly Links (10/4/2013)

“In the thirty sections of their pamphlet, they have produced a list of difficulties to be met with in reading the Old and New Testament. Had I been aware of their design, I could have enriched the collection with many more, at least as good, if not a little better. But they have compiled, I dare say, what they deemed the best, and, in their own opinion, presented us with the essence of infidelity in a thumb-phial, the very fumes of which, on drawing the cork, are to strike the bench of bishops dead at once.

Let not the unlearned Christian be alarmed, “as though some strange thing had happened to him,” and modern philosophy had discovered arguments to demolish religion, never heard of before. The old ornaments of deism have been “broken off” upon this occasion, “and cast into the fire, and there came out this calf.” These same difficulties have been again and again urged and discussed in public; again and again weighed and considered by learned and sensible men, of the laity as well as the clergy, who have by no means been induced by them to renounce their faith.

Indeed, why should they? For is any man surprised, that difficulties should occur in the books of Scripture, those more especially of the Old Testament? Let him reflect upon the variety of matter on which they treat; the distance of the times to which they refer; the wide difference of ancient manners and customs from those of the age in which we live; the very imperfect knowledge we have of these, as well as of the language in which they are described; the conciseness of the narratives, sufficient for the purpose intended, but not for gratifying a restless curiosity; above all, the errors and defects of translations.

Many and painful are the researches sometimes necessary to be made, for settling points of that kind. Pertness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer. When this is done, the same question shall be triumphantly asked again the next year, as if nothing had ever been written upon the subject. And as people in general, for one reason or another, like short objections better than long answers, in this mode of disputation (if it can be styled such) the odds must ever be against us; and we must be content with those of our friends, who have honesty and erudition, candor and patience, to study both sides of the question – Be it so.” (George Horne, Letters on Infidelity)

by Stephen Rodgers

RESOURCES

ROBERT REYMOND

  • In more somber news, Robert Reymond has passed away; his systematic theology was actually the second systematic I ever bought (and introduced me to the concept that some of the topics were considerably denser than you might realize if all you had read up to that point was Grudem’s fine-but-introductory offering). James White offers up a bit of a eulogy, and Fred Butler has a great summary of the “essential” Reymond works.

OTHER

  • The NANC has a new website (and they’re changing their name to the ACBC).  I figured we have enough folks in biblical counseling programs that this would be of interest to you.

That’s it for now.  See you Sunday!

Pro Rege

Weekly Links (9/27/2013)

Those spots which a Christian finds in his own heart can only be washed out in the blood of the Lamb.

‘Oh,’ says such a poor soul, ‘I pray—and yet I sin; I resolve against sin—and yet I sin; I combat against sin—and yet I am carried captive by sin; I have left no outward means unattempted—and yet after all, my sins are too hard for me; after all my sweating, striving, and weeping—I am carried down the stream.’

It is not our strong resolutions or purposes which will be able to overmaster these enemies.

There is nothing now but the actings of faith upon a crucified Christ, which will take off this burden from the soul of man. You must make use of your graces to draw virtue from Christ; now faith must touch the hem of Christ’s garment—or you will never be healed. (Thomas Brooks)

by Richard Shin

  • Russel Moore gave his inaugural address as the President of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention on September 10, 2013. You can read the full transcript here.
  • Jesse Johnson from the Cripplegate shares with us a pastoral letter from Jonathan Edwards to a mourning friend. It balances beautifully the internal, emotional conflict Christians feel from the death of a loved believer.
  • I mentioned Nathan Busenitz’s series on church history last week. He continues his third part this week here.
  • Tim Challies has an excellent article reviewing John MacArthur’s book and conference Strange Fire. If you’re interested in the charismatic movement debate at all, you should read it here.
  • Joe Rigney, with the help of C.S. Lewis and Prince Caspian, pens an article on the lost art of chivalry.
  • Here’s an interesting one: Joe Carter from the Gospel Coalition scores a debate on  whether football is too dangerous for Christians.
  • Ed Welch from the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF) shares a story of how he went to visit an eighty-five year old man at a nursing home and the conversation that followed. Similarly, Ivan Mesa writes four lessons he learned from nursing home ministry. And, well, Brian Croft shares five reasons Christians do not visit the sick and dying.

Coram Deo

Weekly Links (9/20/2013)

If Christ had been murdered by thieves or slain in an insurrection by a raging mob, in such a death there would have been no evidence of satisfaction.

But when he was arraigned before the judgment seat as a criminal, accused and pressed by testimony, and condemned by the mouth of the judge to die—we know by these proofs that he took the role of a guilty man and evildoer.  (John Calvin)

by Richard Shin

  • As the saga of the American moral demise continues, Al Mohler comments on the chaplains who serve in the military that repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
  • Here’s a short anecdote from Trevin Wax on teaching our children the meaning of gathering for worship on Sundays. Indeed, we can easily forget the reason we gather.
  • Nathan Busenitz began a series on the Cripplegate looking at the evidence that the Reformers did not invent anything about the gospel. I enjoyed his narrative of Martin Luther here. He continued his series this past week with part 2 here.
  • Kevin DeYoung and Justin Taylor made a (slightly awkward) interview video promoting DeYoung’s new book Crazy Busy. My favorite part: “… like on Mondays?”
  • Here’s a quote from the book Blood Work Ligonier Ministries is offering for free. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you should.
  • Joe Thorn from the Christward Collective has an article on the gospel and how it leads to godliness. It’s spot on.

I hope you’re having a great flocks week. See you on Sunday!

Coram Deo

Weekly Links (9/13/2013)

I hope what you find in yourself by daily experience, will humble you—but not discourage you.

For if our Physician is almighty—our disease cannot be desperate. Our sins are many—but His mercies are more. Our sins are great—but His righteousness is greater. When our sins prevail, remember that we have an Advocate with the Father, who is able to pity, to pardon, and to save to the uttermost!

It is better to be admiring the compassion and fullness of grace which is in our Savior—than to dwell and pore too much upon our own poverty and vileness. (John Newton)

by Richard Shin

Lots of good stuff. Go at ’em!

Have a great weekend.

Coram Deo