The Gospel Coalition

Trinity Forum Chairman Al Sikes looks at the economic crisis as a teachable moment. It’s time again to address our higher responsibility. He writes:

So where are we at this moment? Are we in a serious financial crisis that will over time prove seminal? Or are we experiencing a predictive moment in an inexorable decline? Economists forecast that we are in for a deep recession. If they are correct, perhaps this will be an instructive event that will reacquaint us with transcendent truths…Today’s crisis is said to be about money (too little liquidity); I believe it is about character.

Read the whole thing here.

In August I flew to Colorado Springs to meet with Multnomah’s (my publisher) sales and marketing people to talk about Unfashionable. While I was there they shot a short video of me explaining the main thrust of Unfashionable. You can watch it here. 

Warren Buffet, currently the richest man in the world, wrote an opinion column in the New York Times where he gave his counter-intuitive reason why he continues to buy U.S. stocks during this economic crisis. I laughed out loud when I read his blunt, unapologetic perspective: 

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.

You have to at least appreciate his honesty! 
 

Erroll Hulse reviews my friend Collin Hansen’s excellent book Young, Restless, and Reformed. In the book, Collin, an editor for Christianity Today, explores the new resurgence of interest in Reformed Theology among young adults. Hulse concludes his review by writing:

Criticisms? No! This is an easy to read book with a fine balance of personal testimonies and reports of interviews. Suggestions? Yes! In the next edition Collin Hansen should seek again an interview with John MacArthur Jr., his first request having been declined. The ministries led by MacArthur represent a large proportion of the Calvinistic resurgence. Likewise interviews with RC Sproul who leads a large annual conference and Tim Keller of Manhattan, New York, will help give a balanced perspective. A review of the ministry of the Reformed Theological Seminaries will add value to the volume.

Read the rest here.

Tim Keller was recently interviewed here by Sally Quinn of the Washington Post. He was asked about things like sin, atheism, and skepticism. Tim shows once again why, in my opinion, he is the most astute spokesperson for the Gospel alive today. It would be a mistake not to watch this five minute video.

(HT: Reformissionary)

In addition to making my final edits to Unfashionable, I’m also working on some revisions for a re-release of Do I Know God which will come out at the same time that Unfashionable does (April 2009).

As many of you know, I wrote Do I Know God  (August 2007) to answer two basic questions: Is God knowable, and if he is, how can we know that we know him. I say in the book that if you know God, he wants you to know it. And if you don’t know God he wants you to know it. The two things God does not want are for you to think you know God if you don’t or for you to think you don’t know God if you do. It was a book that I felt needed to be written given the fact that Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23 that there will be multitudes of people who go through life thinking they know God when in fact they don’t.

Anyway, here is a section that I have added to the revised edition. Let me know what you think.

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Over the past three chapters, I’ve shown you three ways that you can know you know God: when you believe in his promises, when you love what he loves and hate what he hates, and when your life shows the outward evidence of the living faith inside you.

Another helpful way to put this is that if you want to know whether or not you have a relationship to God, it involves retrospection, introspection, and extrospection.

By retrospection I mean looking back and remembering the relational promises of God that we examined in chapter 6. This involves your thinking capacities because it has to do with believing. It takes careful thought to properly evaluate the relational promises that God makes to sinners and to believe them. Unlike various eastern religions which encourage the disengagement of the mind, knowing God demands strong intellectual engagement. I’m not saying you have to be an intellectual to be a child of God. I simply mean there is no way any of us can truly know God if we check our minds at the door. Serious, thoughtful, inquiry into the eternal promises that God lays out in the Bible will help all of us attain a fuller assurance of our salvation.

By introspection I mean looking in and examining God’s presence in your life, a presence we defined in chapter 7. Is God the object of your most passionate desires? Do you love what God loves and hate what God hates? Do you long for God, hunger for God, thirst for God? This inevitably involves your emotional capacities because it has to do with feeling. Obviously, because our feelings are tainted with sin, our desires will always be somewhat of a mixed bag. Sometimes we will feel God and other times we won’t. Sometimes we will desire God, and other times we won’t. The real question is whether we want to desire God or not. I find myself praying on a regular basis, “O God help me to want to want you.” That’s the real issue. If we have no feelings for God whatsoever, then it’s safe to say that we don’t know him.

And by extrospection I mean looking out and observing the external production of God in your life. This involves your volitional capacities because it has to do with obedience. Do you seek to obey God? Do you love others? Do the patterns of your life indicate movement toward the will of God or movement away from the will of God? Are you working hard, by God’s grace and with God’s power, to do what pleases God?
 

One of the best books I read while I was in seminary was The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses by Vern Poythress, a New Testament Scholar who teaches at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Dr. Poythress helped me see for the first time the Christ-centeredness of the Old Testament in general and the Old Testament law in particular. It was fascinating.

Well, I just came across this helpful litttle article from Dr. Poythress (written for the ESV Study Bible) in which he highlights the fact that the Bible tells one story and points to one figure, namely Christ. He provides an overiew of the Bible by surveying the history of salvation beginning in the OT and showing how all of the Bible’s parts fit together so that we never lose sight of the main story line. 

It’s an important and insightful read.

Justin Taylor lets us know that the ESV Study Bible is now available and where we can get it.

Kevin Boling, host of the radio program “Knowing the Truth”, interviewed Rick Phillips, Carl Robbins, Dan Cruver, Jason Kovacs, and me yesterday about the Together for Adoption Conference taking place in Greenville, South Carolina on November 1st.

You can listen to the hour-long discussion here.

Years ago, this video put out by Third Millenium Ministries helped me understand infant baptism like I had never understood it before. It is, in my opinion, the best resource out there for anyone who wants to better understand what paedobaptists (infant baptizers) believe and why they believe it.

Dr. Richard Pratt describes the video:

Throughout the history of Christianity, faithful and sincere Christians have disagreed over who should be baptized. Should it be believers only? Or should we baptize the children of believers as well? Most Christian denominations baptize believers as well as children, but this practice can be confusing to those who do not understand it. This lesson promotes mutual understanding and respect among believers, even as they come to different conclusions on the baptism of children.

You can watch this 40 minute video online here.