The Gospel Coalition

Tim Keller on two kinds of popularity:

There are two very different motivations for adapting and accommodating our message to the sensibilities of a group of people. The first motive is ‘ambition’ — we do it for our sake, for our own glory and approval. The other reason we may accommodate people is for their sake, so that we can gradually win their trust until they become open to the truth they need so much. The first motive will so control us that we will never offend people. The second motive will help us choose our battles and not offend people unnecessarily.

Tullian Tchividjian is thankful for pain:

To be thankful for our comforts only is to make an idol of this life. “God-sent afflictions”, says Maurice Roberts, “have a health-giving effect upon the soul” because they are the medicine used to purge the soul of self-centeredness and this world’s vanities. Pain, in other words, sharpens us, matures us, and gives us clear “eye-sight.” Pain transforms us like nothing else can. It turns us into “solid” people. Roberts continues, “Those who have been in the crucible have lost more of their scum.” All of this should cause us to be deeply thankful.

It’s been said that pain is the second best thing because it leads us to the Best Thing (God). For, it is only when we come to the end of ourselves that we come to the beginning of God. And it is only when we come to the beginning of God that we come to the beginning of life.

An additional reason to believe that infants who die go to be with Jesus:

Remember that there were entire civilizations that had come and gone prior to the time of Christ, and many others that were extinct prior to the time they first had access to the gospel. Most evangelicals agree that conscious faith in Christ is normally necessary for salvation, with the possible exceptions of infants, very young children, and the developmentally challenged. So if inclusivism is not an option (and I think it isn’t) how is it that there are people fromevery people group around God’s throne if some people groups never had access to the gospel? I think the answer is that there are infants from every people group who have, by God’s grace, been redeemed, and therefore are now believers in the presence of their King.

An interesting news story that explores the increasing contributions of Southern Seminary to the scholarship represented at the Evangelical Theological Society:

At the year’s largest gathering of evangelical scholars, theologians and ministers, Southern Seminary faculty members and students presented 27 papers in the daily sessions, including the presidential address by Bruce A. Ware, ETS president for 2009. Ware, who serves as professor of theology at Southern, is the seminary’s first-ever faculty member to serve in ETS’s highest office.