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.David Van Drunen on False Dualisms
Scripture requires a high view of creation and of cultural activity, but it also requires a distinction between the holy things of Christ’s heavenly kingdom and the common things of the present world. It requires a distinction between God’s providential sustaining of human culture for the whole of the human race and his glorious redemption of a chosen people that he has gathered into a church now and will gather into the new creation for eternity. Some people indeed fall into unwarranted “dualisms,” but dualism-phobia must not override our ability to make clear and necessary distinctions. Some people indeed are guilty of promoting a godless and amoral “secular” realm, but the fear of a godless secularism should not eliminate our ability to speak of a divinely-ordained common kingdom that is legitimate but not holy.
VanDrunen, David. Living in God’s Two Kingdoms: A Biblical Vision for Christianity and Culture (Kindle Locations 292-298). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Kostenberger’s “Lion and the Lamb” Is 99 Cents
The Kindle edition, that is. At Amazon.
![The Lion and the Lamb by [Köstenberger, Andreas J., Kellum, L. Scott, Quarles, Charles L]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51BPv5RuhFL.jpg)
Our Blessed Hope
David Huffstutler writes about our expectation of Jesus’ coming. Here is his conclusion:
[W]e do not doubt but patiently wait for Christ to come again. Until then, we should abide in Him, suffer as God sees necessary, and live blamelessly before Him. Our hope is not just in Christ Himself, but also the many blessings His coming brings. We are reunited with the believing dead and raptured together to Him. Our faith is then praised, and we are rewarded for our service to God. What an amazing return this will be! This truly is our blessed hope!
The whole essay is worth reading.
D.Min. Course on Preaching Narrative
Registration is open for Dr. Steve Thomas’s Doctor of Ministry course on “Preaching Narrative,” January 24-27. Most of us know how to preach epistolary literature, but we struggle with narrative and poetry. The Central Seminary D.Min. in public ministry aims to correct that deficiency. Here is what Dr. Thomas says about his course:
This course is intended to help the student develop deeper commitment to and enhanced abilities in the work of expository preaching. This is achieved by 1) exploring theological and historical data that shape understanding of the preacher’s role, 2) identifying hermeneutical issues specific to narrative preaching, and 3) practicing exegetical and homiletical skills key to faithful exposition.
Dr. Thomas has studied at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Reformed Theological Seminary.
The class will meet from 7:30 on Tuesday morning until 5:00 on Friday afternoon. We have adopted a Tuesday through Friday schedule to allow travel time for pastors who wish to be in their own pulpits on Sunday.
The Central Seminary D.Min. in public ministry offers courses in preaching narrative, preaching imaginative literature (poetry, wisdom, and parable), public worship, and public defense of the faith. If you are interested in pursuing the D.Min., you can contact Kevin Bauder. Tuition for the first course is free for every qualified D.Min. applicant!
MacArthur’s “Standing Strong” For Kindle On Sale
At Amazon. 99 cents. This is a good book on spiritual warfare. It balances out the nonsense in evangelicalism today.
![Standing Strong: How to Resist the Enemy of Your Soul (John MacArthur Study) by [MacArthur Jr., John]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41KRdFzUS3L.jpg)
Zacharias’s “Recapture the Wonder” For Kindle On Sale
At Amazon. For $1.99.
![Recapture the Wonder by [Zacharias, Ravi]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/417pqafRBpL.jpg)
Clerihew on the Passing of Janet Reno
Attorney General Janet Reno
Brought an early end to many a bambino.
Let’s be frank:
She sent the tank.
MacArthur’s “Parables” for Kindle On Sale
At Amazon for $1.99.
![Parables: The Mysteries of God's Kingdom Revealed Through the Stories Jesus Told by [MacArthur, John F.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511OPQt8FEL.jpg)
Anthony Esolen, Providence College, and Vanishing Freedom
You really need to know about the uproar at Providence College. Professor Anthony Esolen had the effrontery to publish against the diversity agenda that’s showing up in most schools of higher learning. He is paying the price. If you think that you don’t need to worry because, after all, Providence is a Catholic institution, think again. There are plenty of people who would like to see this same thing happening at fundamentalist schools. Here’s part of Esolen’s response:
It is time to rebuild. There can be no more pretense of a culture around us that is Christian or that is even content with Christianity being in its midst. We must be for the world by being against the world: Athanasius contra mundum. The world is leveling every cultural institution in its path — we must save them or rebuild them from the dust, for the world’s own sake, and for God’s.
The Witness Protection Program
Ever wonder how the government’s Witness Protection Program works? Or where it came from? Alex Mayyasi gives you some answers at Pricenomics.
A Board Members Guide to Accreditation
Some fundamentalist schools resisted accreditation for years. A handful still do. One possible reason may be because they do not understand how accreditation works.
The organization that accredits the accreditors–CHEA–has recently released “A Board Member’s Guide to Accreditation” by Judith S. Eaton. It is a 28-page document aimed (obviously) at people who serve on the boards of institutions of higher learning. It is also a valuable document for anyone who wishes to understand what accreditation is or how it works.
There are still a few institutions that resist accreditation on principle. A few more simply don’t want to go through the work and expense of accreditation. Several fear that they simply could not live up to the organizational and academic requirements of accreditation.
Board members of both accredited and unaccredited schools will find this document helpful. So will others who wish to understand what accreditation is and how it works. It is available for download as a PDF file.
Trump’s Surprise Victory Sends Shock Through Higher Ed
So says the Chronicle of Higher Education. We’re shocked. Shocked, I say.
White male voters without a college degree largely powered his stunning victory. That leaves academic leaders facing an existential question: What’s their place in a society with which they now appear to be so profoundly out of touch?
Pardon me while I chortle.
Report, Apology, and Editorial Comment
The visit to Bob Jones University went well. It’s an exciting place right now. I spent my time with the seminary, which has been strengthened by the addition of Neil Cushman (Ph.D. from Clarks Summit) and Greg Stiekes (Ph.D. from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary). I was glad to get a look at it. Taken on balance, I believe that I can recommend Bob Jones University more highly than ever.
Unfortunately, my commitments yesterday left me without opportunity to update the Central Seminary blog. I try to make that a daily occurrence. My apologies for having to skip a day.
It was an odd feeling to know that a president was being elected, but to be so bound up with activity that the political events hardly even registered. When I collapsed in bed last night, I had no interest in hearing how the election had turned out.
I fully expected to wake up to news about another President Clinton this morning. To my surprise I learned that we shall have President Trump. I am not unhappy with this turn of events. While neither was a good choice, I dreaded the prospect of four years with Hillary and the helm.
Having said that, I hardly look at President-To-Be Trump as the savior of America. Conservatism is not the same thing as nationalism. It is not the same thing as fiscal responsibility (though conservatism does entail fiscal responsibility)–and, in any event, we have no reason to believe that President Trump will be fiscally responsible. True patriotism is never promoted through braggadocio and bluster. We will have a president who has publicly boasted about doing the kind of things for which Hillary’s husband was subjected to public shame. That we could have a President Trump is a statement about how much America has changed, how far our expectations have been degraded, how much virtue has been lost, and how brazenly we have learned to celebrate the vile.
I am relieved that we appear to have dodged a bullet, but I am not hopeful about the next four years.
The Printing Press, Literacy, and the Rise and Fall of the Secret Society of Adults
Brett and Kate McKay are at it again, with a followup to the recent article on the problem of immaturity among young men. They’ve been reading some of the right stuff and they are drawing some good conclusions. Again, well worth a read.
The central problem can be summarized this way: in world where “everything is for everybody,” an illusion emerges that “everybody knows everything.” Which is to say, the current media landscape leads one to believe that all knowledge is out there and easily accessible, and that it can, and should be, economically summarized. Yet while breadth of knowledge has decidedly expanded (Eric Schmidt once noted that we create as much information every two days as was created in the whole of human history up to 2003), depth of knowledge has shrunk. Adults no longer acknowledge the hidden expanses lying beneath a subject that might yet be plumbed.
A Biblical Case for Prepping?
It’s been provided by Brian Crosby at Reformation 21. Here’s his conclusion.
Why Read Old, Pagan Books?
So asks Jason Baxter at The Imaginative Conservative. Here is part of his answer:
Antiquity, then, especially in the Archaic Age, has become for us a kind of buried Atlantis, wherein we can potentially find truth and beauty of exceptional rarity. And the modern student becomes a kind of intellectual archaeologist, or to borrow a better metaphor from Hannah Arrendt, a pearl diver, who dives deep into the depths of the past.
Why Growing Up Is Hard To Do
As far as I know, Brett and Kate McKay are not Christians. Nevertheless, they grasp the significance of a serious social problem: the lack of maturity among young (and sometimes older) men. They’ve published a pretty thoughtful essay on the topic at The Art of Manliness. It’s well worth a read.
When people say they don’t want to embrace adulthood, what they really mean is that they don’t want to be a grownup themselves, but they want to live in a world where everyone else is. They want competent, effective politicians to represent them; they want their journalists and doctors to be smart and level-headed with a comforting mantle of gravitas; they want their children’s teachers to be dedicated and on-the-ball; they want customer service to be friendly and efficient; they want police officers to be honest and fair. They want the world to be stable, predictable…so they can afford to be erratic and irresponsible. They want to be kids, but live in an adult world, where grownups are at the ready to take care of their every need.
Bauder to Deliver the Stewart Custer Lectures at Bob Jones University
On Tuesday I’ll be at Bob Jones University lecturing on the history of Baptist fundamentalism. These lectures are in honor of Stewart Custer, one of the most important scholars in the history of the university. I don’t know whether the lectures are open to the public, but if you’re going to be in Greenville, I’m sure the university offices could tell you.
Children of Hurin–Great Price
J. R. R. Tolkien’s Children of Hurin for Kindle is under two bucks at Amazon. I thought you’d want to know.
Herbert’s “Prayer (I)”
Prayer (I)
George Herbert
Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,
God’s breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth
Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,
The land of spices; something understood.
George Herbert wrote this sonnet in 1633, and the historical context must be remembered while unpacking some of its meaning. The poem provides a wonderful example of the analogical nature of art. It consists of a series of metaphors, each of which is meant to provide an image of prayer.
- List the metaphors, then ask yourself exactly how prayer is like the thing in each image.
- More specifically, what sorts of prayers would correspond to each image? Does Herbert see prayer as a single exercise, or as a variety of exercises?
- If Herbert is right about prayer, then how should it be practiced? What place should it occupy in a believer’s life?
APPLICATION & AID