Month: October 2009
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Happy Birthday to Matthew Henry: Read the Bible and Pray
Today (October 18) is the day Matthew Henry (1662-1714) was born. The right way to celebrate his birthday is to read the Bible and pray. Henry left a literary legacy that helps you do both. His commentary on the Bible is a remarkable achievement: a one-man show, available in one volume (though the classic form…
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Aquinas on Divine Missions
At the very end of Thomas Aquinas’ treatise on the Trinity (questions 27-43 of the first part of the Summa Theologiae), he deals with the way the Son and Spirit are sent into the world by the Father. That is, he takes up the subject of the divine missions. It’s a brilliant discussion in its…
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F. F. Bruce’s Birthday
Today (October 12) is the birthday of Frederick Fyvie Bruce (1910-1990), a great Bible scholar who described himself as an “unhyphenated evangelical.” A collection of Bruce’s shorter writings bears the title A Mind for What Matters, and the phrase fits him well. In fact, it can be downright intimidating to read Bruce and to see…
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Words, Words, Words: A Homily for Katherine and Peter van Elswyk
I write this while sitting in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, waiting for my flight back to Los Angeles after officiating at the wedding of and celebrating with Kat and Peter van Elswyk. What a great day, graced by an unseasonably early dusting of Minnesota snow. Having known Kat and Peter for just over four years,…
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Arminius the Calvinist
Today (October 10) is the birthday of Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), the Dutch theologian whose given name was Jakob Harmenszoon. If he had been American, we’d have called him Jimmy Harmenson. But he wrote theology in Latin, and for some reason it has been the latinized version of his name that caught on. We don’t call…
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Buddhism Repackaged: More Thoughts On The "New New Age"
This podcast continues last week’s discussion on the “visualization” trend in modern spiritual circles. How did “pop religion” develop such a following, and how can the Church avoid its nicely packaged seductions? Why are so many people convinced that they are transmission towers for positive energy? Tune in once again to hear Dr. John Mark…
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Gratitude for the Council of Chalcedon
Today (October 8 ) is the day that the Fourth Ecumenical Council, the Council of Chalcedon, began in 451. In a 2007 blog post about Chalcedon, I said Chalcedon means classic christology. Of course Chalcedon was a city near Constantinople, but the theological meeting held there in 451 was so important and influential that for…
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Tyndale’s Achievement
Today (October 6) is the day the martyrdom of William Tyndale in 1536 is commemorated. Tyndale changed the world with a revolutionary Bible translation that moved straight from the original languages into English with no Latin middle-man. The very words of Scripture were thus unleashed to conduct their own sovereign interrogation of the sixteenth-century church.…
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The Trinitarian Theology of Nicky Cruz
Nicky Cruz is not famous for his trinitarian theology. He is famous for having been the “warlord” of a violent street gang called the Mau-Maus in New York City in the 1950s, and for the dramatic story of his 1958 conversion to Christianity. At the center of his conversion story was a confrontation between this…
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The Secret of Marriage (for Paul and Charity)
If the old-fairy-tale ending “They lived happily ever after” is taken to mean “They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married,” then it says what probably never was nor ever would be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were. Who could bear to live…
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Oprah-Style Religion: Choosing The Truth Over "The Secret"
One of the most popular trends in modern spirituality is the “visualization” approach, which claims that health, wealth, and happiness are only a positive thought away. These principles seem harmless, perhaps even beneficial for everyday life–but are there dangers below the surface? What’s in store for the many who follow these coffee-shop religions? Listen as…