Goldsworthy on a Whole Bible Theology

Graeme Goldsworthy recently delivered the following Gheens Lectures at Southern Seminary entitled "And Beginning with Moses and All the Prophets: Biblical Theology in the Church, the Academy, and the Home." (HT: The Road to Emmaus)

"The Necessity and Viability of Biblical Theology" (MP3) (PDF)

"Biblical Theology in the Seminary and Bible College" (MP3) (PDF)

"Biblical Theology and Its Pastoral Application" (MP3) (PDF)

A friend in Christian education recently used an illustration that highlights the necessity of helping people grasp the Bible's big picture. "Too often," he said, "we're dropping students in the middle of the desert and having them analyze grains of sand but they have no idea where they are."

Ten Indispensable Resources for Bible Study

Chad Knudson at The Road to Emmaus has assembled a helpul annotated list.

The Law of Moses and the Christian

Nathan Busenitz at Pulpit Magazine has begun a two-week series of posts on the relationship of the Christian to the Mosaic law (Part I ).

In defense of the perpetuity of the Old Testament law, Greg Bahnsen has argued that without it the Christian has no basis for condemning bestiality since the New Testament, unlike the Old, contains no explicit prohibition of such acts. A few years ago I presented a paper at a national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in which I challenged that argument. The paper, To Beast or Not to Beast: Does the Law of Christ Forbid Zoophilia?, is available online via Reclaiming the Mind Ministries' free ETS Theological Paper Library.

Technorati Tags: theology Christian ethics ethics hermeneutics dispensationalism covenant theology Mosaic law theonomy Greg Bahnsen

Challenges to the Gospel

That's the theme of the new 9Marks newsletter (available in a PDF version) which contains the following articles:

The Therapeutic Gospel by David Powlison
The therapeutic gospel limits itself to giving people what they want, instead of calling for a change of what they ultimately want.

Brian McLaren and the Gospel of Here & Now by Greg Gilbert
This emerging leader is alright on the “already,” but neglects the “not yet.”

Satanism, Starbucks, and Other Gospel Challenges an interview with David Wells
The medium is the message, and theologian David Wells says the gospel message is increasingly compromised by “relevant” methods.

Leaving Home, Returning Home by Michael Lawrence
This biblical theology of the Fall identifies precisely why a gospel is necessary.

The Devil’s Favorite Domino—the Penal in Penal Substitution by Jonathan Leeman
Here’s why the penal in penal substitution is all precious, and why the devil always topples it first.

Gospel Coalition Travelogue by Michael McKinley
A report from the frontline of Carson and Keller’s Gospel Coalition Conference.

There is also a roundtable discussion on explaining the gospel to unbelievers and reviews of the following books: N. T. Wright's Simply Christian, Leonard Sweet's The Gospel According to Starbucks, and Erwin McManus' Soul Cravings.

"It Begins in the Mind"

This week's Kairos Journal update includes the following quote from A. W. Tozer on the origin and progression of idolatry:

Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place. “When they knew God,” wrote Paul, “they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

Then followed the worship of idols fashioned after the likeness of men and birds and beasts and creeping things. But this series of degrading acts began in the mind. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.

Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and her moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God. - A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (San Francisco: HaperCollins, 1961), 3-4.