Review: What’s the Difference?: Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible

John Piper. What’s the Difference?: Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, June 29th 2001.  91 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

The author John Piper is one of the editors along with Wayne Grudem of the massive Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  In fact this present book was originally written as a chapter for the larger work and while Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.  While that work is more detailed in providing exegetical support and the reasons for why Piper and company takes the position they take yet Piper published What’s the Difference? as a stand-alone book is to present “a Biblical vision of manhood and womanhood as clearly and concisely as possible, and to leave the comprehensive technical discussion for other publications” (14).  Piper also wrote in chapter one that he wanted to have What’s the Difference? as a “portrayal of the vision that satisfies the head as well as the heart” (16).  In other words Piper’s second purpose is his desire to show how a biblical view of manhood and womanhood is “deeply satisfying gift of grace from a loving God” (16).

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Review: Work and Our Labor in the Lord

James M. Hamilton Jr. Work and Our Labor in the Lord.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, January 31^st, 2017.  144 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Westminster | Amazon

Over the years there has been more books coming out on a biblical view of work and vocation but what I like about this particular work is that the author James M. Hamilton Jr. takes a biblical theology approach to the topic.  By biblical theology I mean a study of what Scripture has to say with the consideration of the progressive revelation of the Bible in terms of redemptive history and the canonical context of passages that is cited.  I have been enjoying more and more books taking a biblical theological approach to a subject as it helps avoid some of the claims that systematic theology is merely engaged in proof text.

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Review: An Invitation to Academic Studies

Jay D. Green. An Invitation to Academic Studies.  Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, July 14^th, 2014. 36 pp.

This booklet is the first installment for the Faithful Learning Series published by Presbyterian and Reformed that provides an introductory look at various academic discipline from the perspective of the Christian worldview.  As the first volume the series’ editor Jay Green lays the foundation for the rest of the works to follow by discussing how the Christian faith and academic discipline intersect.  It so happened that I read this series out of order.  I have earlier read the series’ work on literature, political science, music and chemistry and have been blessed by them (especially the political science one) that I wanted to read the rest of the series including An Invitation to Academic Studies.  Here is my review of this work.

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Biblically Evaluating Huff Post Religion: “6 Things Christians Should Stop Saying To People Who Doubt”

Over at the liberal Huffington Post there’s an article titled “6 Things Christians Should Stop Saying To People Who Doubt” written yesterday by one of their associate editor name Carol Kuruvilla.  I’m struck at how many millennials are in the leadership and staff at Huff Po.  This girl just graduated college in 2011.  There’s nothing in of itself wrong with youth but I think sometimes their immaturity shows itself (note: I’m a Millennial myself).  In this particular piece the author wrote clearly what the intent of her post is:

here are 6 things I wish Christians would stop saying to people who are doubting their faith.

I’m sure some Christians can sometime say the wrong thing to those who doubt.  Some of the things mentioned in the article also made me cringe.  Though I cringe at time for different reasons than the reason the writer presented.  For the Christian the thing that’s most important is being biblical.  So in my post I want to biblically evaluate this Huff Po Religion piece.  I do so because she’s specifically targeting Christians and Christians must be biblical in how they engage with others.

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The Coup and My Concern for Turkey

It seems right now there’s a lot of confusion concerning Turkey.

My concern isn’t necessarily with both the current president or the segment of the military in revolt.  My concern is whether there will be instability that as a result allows for the florish of radical Islam.  Don’t forget that the Islamic State touches the border with Turkey.  There’s a dangerous parallel with Syria.  Like Syria, Turkey has become the country in which foreign fighters make their way to Iraq for the jihadist adventure.  Like Syria, Turkey had some foreign radical Muslims not go all the way to Iraq but instead have stayed behind and cause problems.

The thing I’m fearful for is to see Turkey get more unstable and as a result bring instability not only to the region of the Middle East and the Islamic world, but threaten to spill over unto Europe with even more refugees and also a gateway for even more radicals.

Pray for Turkey.  Pray for the Gospel to advance in the midst of this.

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Apologetic Sermon Illustration #35: Marines’ Body Armor and Trust or Criticism of What One Believes

GO TO PART 34

Point: Many people today think it is wrong for Christians to correct wrong beliefs and worldview of others.  Sure Christians must do so with love but pointing out what is wrong and especially pointing out the wrong gospel that doesn’t save isn’t wrong.  Similarly some people need to understand that after hearing the true and biblical Gospel they need to trust in the Gospel (and that means trusting in Christ’s person and work).  Is there any helpful illustration to convey this?

Picture: When I was younger I was in the Marines and went to Iraq.  This is a tale of two Marines and their body Armor.

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Urgent since rights of Christian are at stake: Say No to SB1146

Note: This is an urgent guest post by one of our readers we are sharing this immediately given that this is threatening tolerance of Christian beliefs of the Bible.

http://www.opposesb1146.com/images/sb1146-square.png

By B Dub

Freedom of religion is a central feature of our liberties as Americans.  It is a right affirmed in the First Amendment.  Once a society starts stripping its citizens of their essential freedoms, including religious liberty, it cannot long survive as a free society.  There is a bill in the California assembly numbered SB1146.  It could potentially be very bad for California Christian Colleges and Universities.

As of the Time of this writing it has passed the California Senate and is making its way through the California Assembly and is being review in committees.  As it is written now, it could cause real problems for religious institutions in California.  Once it makes it to Jerry Brown’s desk, he is likely to sign it.

The advocates of the bill claim it as a non-discrimination policy, but it disallows religious institutions to uphold their beliefs.   In this way it is in fact discriminatory. It says that religious requirements must be approved by the state. It could be a problem for a college enforcing their moral beliefs stemming from the religion.  For example they wouldn’t be able to talk against homosexual marriage or abortion.   This section in particular is biggest issue:

Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit discrimination on the basis of disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes set forth in Section 422.55 of the Penal Code, including the perception that the person has any of those characteristics or that the person is associated with a person who has, or is perceived to have, any of those characteristics.

As you can see, by the wording it claims to not be discriminatory.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.   By not allowing religious institutions’ freedom of conscious, it discriminates against their ability to enforce principles in accordance with their beliefs.

The whole text and history of the bill can be found here for reference and context.
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB1146#content_anchor

Here is what several religious institutions in California are saying and how it affects them:

Concordia University Irvine: http://www.cui.edu/aboutcui/sb1146

Biola: http://now.biola.edu/news/article/2016/jun/08/preserve-faith-based-higher-education/

Western Baptist University: http://www.opposesb1146.com/

As well as another blogger talking about it.

 

What can be done?

Those of you in California contact your representatives.  Even if you are not you can still contact them.  Urge them to vote no.

If you don’t know who your representative is, you can find out here.
http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

Tell your friends about this.  Let the word get out about this and why this bill is bad news.

Also, prayer is always encouraged.

Here is a site with more suggestions on what to do.

https://wcbc.edu/oppose-sb-1146

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