Nothing New Under the Sun....

Several hundred years ago, a wise man wrote:

"If the feeble mind of man did not presume to resist the clear evidence of truth, but yielded its infirmity to wholesome doctrines, as to a health-giving medicine, until it obtained from God, by its faith and piety, the grace needed to heal it, they who have just ideas, and express them in suitable language, would need to use no long discourse to refute the errors of empty conjecture. But this mental infirmity is now more prevalent and hurtful than ever, to such an extent that even after the truth has been as fully demonstrated as man can prove it to man, they hold for the very truth their own unreasonable fancies, either on account of their great blindness, which prevents them from seeing what is plainly set before them, or on account of their opinionative obstinacy, which prevents them from acknowledging the force of what they do see. There therefore frequently arises a necessity of speaking more fully on those points which are already clear, that we may, as it were, present them not to the eye, but even to the touch, so that they may be felt even by those who close their eyes against them."

Augustine of Hippo, City of God, Book II, Chapter 1

Words Have Meaning

Words mean things. All words. To the author, and the audience, whether the later is the intended one or not. Just because we are surrounded by words, many of them banal, many of them profane, does not give us excuse for thinking any of them are without meaning. All of them are a window into the author's heart and mind.

To claim that words may be without meaning, or that we cannot know their meaning is not only illogical, but I would submit, is also heresy, and quite possibly even blasphemy.

We should pay attention to our words, the words of others, and the Word of God.

Two of My Favorites

Last year, while in Iraq, I was preparing a sermon out of Lamentations. In my exegesis, I discovered that the Revised Standard Version and English Standard Version were the exact same, for the passage in question. I found that a little odd, so I did some research online when I had a chance.

My Google search led me to Michael Marlowe's excellent site. I read his extensive write-up on the ESV and was impressed, both with Michael's thoroughness and, incidentally the ESV.

As I read more about this translation, I started reading it more on my computer. When I came home on mid-tour leave, I purchased a printed copy and have used it exclusively since.

I have also read quite a bit more of Michael's site. These is a lot of good stuff there. I would encourage you to check it out.

J. Gresham Machen

Finishing up Christianity & Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen. It was given to me by a good friend of mine. Written in the early 20th century, he clearly spells out how the liberal movement in Christianity misses it.

For being almost a hundred years old, it reads like it was written yesterday in so many ways. A quote sums up the spirit of the book.

"Christ died"--that is history; "Christ died for our sins"--that is doctrine. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluble union, there is no Christianity." (p.23) He explains well what he means by this, and the implications are far-reaching.

Considered on of the top 100 books of the millennium by World magazine. I can see why.

Professor Horner's Bible Reading System

I ran across this Bible reading plan about a month ago. I had been using my own system of 5 chapters a day for well over a year and was looking to modify it. I came across this 10 chapter a day plan and decided it was pretty close to what was considering going to anyway.

The idea is you read a chapter each out of ten different sections. Some sections will repeat faster than others. I really like it so far. I thought it might be too much at first, but I find that it seems to really go quickly--it doesn't feel like I'm slogging through.

The Day That Preaching Died

Great presentation by Calvin Pearson at the Southwestern Baptist Seminary 2009 Expository Preaching Conference.

Click here to download through iTunes U.

Very good job of differentiating expository preaching from everything else.

No Dogs Allowed

Andree Seu with an insightful commentary. (Click the title to read it.)

I admit I'm guilty. In the bureaucracy that is the Army, it is a survival mechanism to ignore things until they are raised in volume or frequency. But it is dangerous behavior to generalize.