Theology Central
Theology Central exists as a place of conversation and information for faculty and friends of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Posts include seminary news, information, and opinion pieces about ministry, theology, and scholarship.Evangelicals and Catholics Together…on Textual Criticism
Peter Gurry elaborates on Pius XII’s Divino Afflante Spiritu and shows similarities between Evangelical and Roman views of textual criticism and inerrancy.
In the present day indeed this art, which is called textual criticism and which is used with great and praiseworthy results in the editions of profane writings, is also quite rightly employed in the case of the Sacred Books, because of that very reverence which is due to the Divine Oracles. For its very purpose is to insure that the sacred text be restored, as perfectly as possible, be purified from the corruptions due to the carelessness of the copyists and be freed, as far as may be done, from glosses and omissions, from the interchange and repetition of words and from all other kinds of mistakes, which are wont to make their way gradually into writings handed down through many centuries.
Bill Barrick’s Book of the Week
See his recommendation here.
The World’s Most Difficult Philosopher
There is very little about Hegel that I find amusing–certainly not reading him. Even less amusing are those pontificateurs who pretend to understand him and are prepared to defend him. I’ve never read a thing about Hegel that proved to be even mildly amusing.
Until now.
Roger Kimball takes Hegel and his interpreters to task in the New Criterion, and he does a masterfully amusing job of it.
What should we think of this argument? Badly, anyway. It threatens to destabilize the meaning of some perfectly good words by, so to speak, falsely existentializing them. If at noontime someone said to Hegel, “George, bring me that book now,” and he waited until night to do it because, after all, that was when he had inscribed the word “now” on a piece of paper, we wouldn’t think him clever. Part of learning language is learning the limits of language: grasping what it cannot tell us as well as what it can. On my desk at the moment is Big and Little: A Book of Opposites by Richard Scarry, a very different sort of philosopher from Hegel. It recounts in vivid detail the doings of Hilda the hippo, Squeaky the mouse, and many others. Our son, aetat. two, has absorbed the difference between big and little, up and down, now and then, this and that without once positing the negative or mediating the immediate. I asked him about what Hegel said and he just laughed. Whom would you trust?
The Importance of Corporate Worship
Scripture never describes angels or humans in heaven as tucked away in their own private corners offering solitary prayer, but as joining their voices together in corporate adoration to God. Hebrews refers to “thousands upon thousands of angels” and to the “church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven” (Heb 12:22–23). Revelation expands the ranks to include “ten thousand times ten thousand” angels (Rev 5:11). Heaven is above all a place of worship, and more specifically a place of corporate worship. . . . [O]ur ascription of glory to God in worship here on earth anticipates and even now is part of heavenly worship. What we will be doing in heaven perfectly forever we begin doing, however imperfectly, here on earth. This is surely why God takes such great delight in our glorifying him through worship now, and why we rightly see worship—and particularly corporate worship—as the chief way we glorify and enjoy him.
VanDrunen, David. God’s Glory Alone—The Majestic Heart of Christian Faith and Life: What the Reformers Taught…and Why It Still Matters (The Five Solas Series) (p. 113). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Why Did I Get a B?
Writing for McSweeney’s, Shannon Reed offers four fables in answer to a question that every professor hears.
Aftershocks of the 1983 Bob Jones Decision
The Supreme Court’s 1983 decision in Bob Jones University v United States cost the university its tax exemption. It may end up costing all biblical Christians considerably more. Samuel D. Brunson and David J. Herzig explore the possibilities in a lengthy paper for the Valparaiso University Legal Studies Research Paper Series.
Why Preachers Need to Be Trained
Preachers need to be well trained and able to speak clearly. They need to be able to rightly divide and apply the word of truth. They need to be able to study. There will always be the occasional Charles Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who, with little or no formal training were yet outstanding preachers, but they are the exceptions, not the rule, and even they might have been better had they been taught the biblical languages. There is a reason why the Reformers required rigorous study as a prerequisite for pastoral ministry: most aspiring ministers urgently need that if they are to preach the word with any degree of competence.
—Trueman, Carl R. Grace Alone—Salvation as a Gift of God: What the Reformers Taught…and Why It Still Matters (The Five Solas Series) (p. 192). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
They Almost Sound Like Fundamentalists
Moore, Duncan, and Keller discuss the sine qua non of creationism within orthodoxy.
Yup.
Doug Wilson considers the role that tradition plays, particularly for those who think they don’t have one. The observation is part of a larger question about the relationship between biblicism and assumptions.
Now given that absolutely everyone has controlling presuppositions, I want to do everything in my power to keep mine out where I can see them. As Socrates put it once, the unexamined presupposition is not worth sitting on. Presuppositions can be sneaky little busters, and they really bear watching.
But they all have names. When you get to know them, they cause a lot less trouble.
And incidentally, my desires in this, however noble they might be, do not mean that I have successfully examined all of my assumptions. No, I know that I have not. But I do know that I have examined a lot more of them, in the light of Scripture, than I had done back in the day when I thought that I didn’t have any.
Wiersbe’s “Be” Series on the Gospels for $1.99
That’s six volumes in the Kindle edition: be loyal, diligent, compassionate, courageous, alive, transformed. On sale at Amazon.
![The BE Series Bundle: The Gospels: Be Loyal, Be Diligent, Be Compassionate, Be Courageous, Be Alive, and Be Transformed (The BE Series Commentary) by [Wiersbe, Warren W.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51t7sGiT1GL.jpg)
Eschatology in Matthew 19:28
Michael Vlach defends four doctrinal propositions from Matthew 19:28. Here’s the verse:
And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
And here are the propositions:
- There is a coming renewal of planet earth.
- The Davidic throne of Jesus is future.
- The nation of Israel will be restored.
- The apostles will rule over a restored national Israel.
Take the time to read the essay.
Why Preachers Need to Be Trained
Preachers need to be well trained and able to speak clearly. They need to be able to rightly divide and apply the word of truth. They need to be able to study. There will always be the occasional Charles Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who, with little or no formal training were yet outstanding preachers, but they are the exceptions, not the rule, and even they might have been better had they been taught the biblical languages. There is a reason why the Reformers required rigorous study as a prerequisite for pastoral ministry: most aspiring ministers urgently need that if they are to preach the word with any degree of competence.
Trueman, Carl R. Grace Alone—Salvation as a Gift of God: What the Reformers Taught…and Why It Still Matters (The Five Solas Series) (p. 192). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Al Mohler on the Nashville Statement
Read Mohler’s reason for signing it.
Only in Minnesota
Split Rock Lighthouse
Polychromatic Lobsters?
You can see them at the Boston Aquarium: blue, yellow, orange, black, calico, and all very rare. Read the article and, more importantly, see the photos at Atlas Obscura.
White Supremacy and Multiculturalism
In one of the most insightful recent articles dealing with race, Scott Aniol argues that White Supremacy and Multiculturalism stem from the same error.
Incidentally, this error is widespread within Evangelicalism. Its repetition in “An Open Letter from Christian Scholars on Racism in America Today” (which, without qualification, linked “white cultural dominance” with “racial injustice”) is the main reason that I could not sign that document, much as I wished to.
Rosalia Butterfield on Why She Signed the Nashville Statement
Worthwhile reading.
Latin for Every Man
Not the whole language. Just the words and phrases that show up in English usage. There’s a pretty good listing at The Art of Manliness.
Distraction in Worship
[B]eing distracted is not sinful per se, and we may be tempted to dismiss deep contemplation as only the province of professional scholars. But in fact, there is at least one area of life in which focused attention and deep reflection are crucial for all Christians: worship and prayer. God is not honored (and we ourselves are little edified) by worship rendered with distracted hearts and minds unwilling—or even unable—to probe “the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God” (Rom 11:33). We saw in the previous chapter that Scripture on many occasions speaks about Christians glorifying God, and it envisions Christians doing so above all through worship. Thus, to the extent that our new technology pushes us to distraction and threatens to hinder our ability to concentrate and to dig deeply into worthy matters, it behooves us to be on guard against its encroachment into the whole of life.
VanDrunen, David. God’s Glory Alone—The Majestic Heart of Christian Faith and Life: What the Reformers Taught…and Why It Still Matters (The Five Solas Series) (p. 110). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
In the Nick of Time
Kevin Bauder writes about his most interesting reading during the 2016-2017 academic year.
APPLICATION & AID