Why the Gender Issue Is the Issue

Mark Dever reflects upon why so many evangelicals believe the debate over gender issues to be so important. He writes:

Dear reader, you may not agree with me on this. And I don’t desire to be right in my fears. But it seems to me and others (many who are younger than myself) that this issue of egalitarianism and complementarianism is increasingly acting as the watershed distinguishing those who will accomodate Scripture to culture, and those who will attempt to shape culture by Scripture. You may disagree, but this is our honest concern before God. It is no lack of charity, nor honesty. It is no desire for power or tradition for tradition’s sake. It is our sober conclusion from observing the last 50 years (source).

I am in agreement with Dever on this, and it is precisely why I make such a fuss about it myself. I really do believe that the greatest threat to the authority of scripture today is not coming mainly from those arguing about the nature of scripture but from those who adopt an interpretive approach that domesticates the Bible’s message at precisely those points at which it should be confronting us and the culture.

This is, by the way, the same reason that I blog so much on the emerging church.
(HT: Justin Taylor)

Book Notice

Thank the Lord! The book is done and has been published in Sheffield Phoenix Press’s New Testament Monographs series. The book is number 14 in the series, and the title is Articular Infinitives in the Greek of the New Testament: On the Exegetical Benefit of Grammatical Precision.

As you can tell from the title, this book promises to be a real page-turner. I fully anticipate for my wife and me to be able to retire on the proceeds that I will receive from this blockbuster treatise. This book will likely be the surprise hit of the summer, and I expect it will be flying off book store shelves so fast it will make The Prayer of Jabez look like a backwater snail race. Look out Purpose Driven Life! Here I come!

Seriously though, last year some readers of this blog sent me suggestions for a title that might be more appealing to a broader Christian audience. Here are some of my favorites:

The Gospel and Reformed Theology

When I was in seminary, a friend once told me that J. I. Packer’s introductory essay in John Owen’s Death of Death in the Death of Christ was worth the price of the whole book. My friend was right. Packer’s essay has become somewhat of a classic among reformed evangelicals in North America and beyond. It puts in sharp relief the God-centered vision of classic reformed theology as it stands against the ever popular, man-centered Arminian point of view.

One passage, however, from this otherwise outstanding essay raises a question in my mind about the gospel. Let me share the passage and then my question. Packer writes:

Something I Will Never Get Over

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and there are many war movies being shown on television. Tonight, I am watching “Saving Private Ryan,” which I believe is probably the best WWII movie ever made (and I have seen many).

Every time I watch this movie, I’m reminded of something I will never quite get over. In 1998, “Saving Private Ryan” was nominated for best picture along with “Life Is Beautiful,” “Thin Red Line,” “Elizabeth,” and “Shakespeare in Love.” Believe it or not, “Shakespeare in Love” won best picture and beat out “Saving Private Ryan,” to my lasting chagrin.

Now you tell me, which movie has proven to be the classic and which one has gone the way of the dodo?

(Full Disclosure: I never saw “Shakespeare in Love” and don’t ever plan to.)

Gandalf Says the Bible Is Fiction

Just in case you didn’t see this, I wanted to put it here. In a Today Show interview last week, Gandalf (a.k.a. Ian McKellen) said that the Bible is fiction. Matt Lauer asked the cast how they would have felt if the DaVinci Code movie had included a disclaimer at the beginning saying that the story was fiction. McKellen replied with the following:

Well, I’ve often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction.

Emerging Liberalism

Not a few critics of the emerging church have charged that the emerging movement often looks like made-over liberalism. While the charge is probably overly simplistic, there is nevertheless something that rings true about it.

A recent essay by Walter Hengar in byFaith magazine explores the emerging movement’s outreach to old liberal protestantism. The essay is titled “More than a Fad: Understanding the Emerging Church.” In it Hengar writes:

Enron Convictions: A Rush to Judgment

There has been a rush to judgment. But I’m not referring to a federal jury’s decision yesterday to convict former Enron chairman Kenneth L. Lay and his protégé Jeffrey K. Skilling (see Washington Post coverage). What I am talking about is a rush to condemn President Bush along with Lay and Skilling.

The South Rises Again on American Idol

I’ve already theorized in an earlier post why southerners dominate the American Idol competition. Now that Alabama-native Taylor Hicks has won, the winning streak continues. Here’s the money quote from the Washington Post:

Taylor Hicks, the 29-year-old Captain K ringer from Birmingham, kept up the South’s winning streak on the most popular television show in the country (source).

“Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton, Old times there are not forgotten . . .” Okay, I’ll stop gloating. 🙂

First Human-to-Human Transmission of Bird-Flu

From the Washington Post:

The outbreak in the North Sumatran village of Kubu Sembilang, was not only the largest bird flu cluster in the world but also the first in which investigators believe the virus was passed from one person to another and then to a third (source).

From the New York Times:

International health officials emphasized that laboratory tests from the family did not suggest that the A(H5N1) bird flu virus had mutated in any way that would allow it to spread among humans more readily, which scientists have said could set off a devastating worldwide pandemic (source).

We will be watching this story very closely.

Intro to Hermeneutics Lecture

I gave an introductory lecture on Hermeneutics at FBC Dallas tonight, and I promised the folks who attended the lecture that I would post the notes here on my blog. So for whoever is interested, you can click on the following link and download the lecture.

Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics

It’s a PDF file, so you’ll need to dowload and install the Adobe reader in order to view it.