The Messiah by Mr Handel & Mr Newton

Dr Alec Motyer, Bishop Timothy Dudley-Smith and others speak about Handel’s “The Messiah” at The John Newton Project.

In preparation for Easter, learn about John Newton’s little-known connection with Handel’s Messiah.

Where do we go from here? — Fulcrum

The leadership team of Fulcrum, the Church of England’s ‘open evangelical’ group seems to have accepted the reality of the situation in the Anglican Communion in a post on their website –

“The bishops and Standing Committees of The Episcopal Church (USA) have consented to the election of Mary Glasspool as bishop suffragan in the diocese of Los Angeles. That consent sadly confirms that TEC is determined to ignore all the repeated appeals of the wider Communion and, in the closing words of The Windsor Report, ‘walk apart’…

It is important that this is not simply a matter of disagreement about biblical interpretation and sexual ethics although these are central and important. It is now very clearly also a fundamental matter of truth-telling and trust.”

– Read the full article.

And John Richardson comments: ‘Fulcrum: their challenge to Canterbury and the challenge they must face’.

“Understandably, the statement is at pains to recognise Rowan Williams’s past efforts. Yet it is remarkably frank in the call it now makes upon him…”

(Photo courtesy ACNS/Rosenthal.)

‘The Heart’ in the Old Testament

Barry Newman has posted a PDF file of his latest series – this one on ‘The Heart’ in the New Testament.

It’s a follow-up to his earlier series on ‘The Soul’.

There’s a link on this page.

The Trials of Theology

At Reformation21, Derek Thomas thinks Carl Trueman’s essay in The Trials of Theology, edited by Andrew Cameron and Brian Rosner, is alone worth the price of the book.

(There’s some other excellent stuff in there too.)

John Piper writes this about the book:

When I began my theological studies in 1968 I devoured Helmut Thielicke’s A Little Exercise for Young Theologians.

If I were starting today I would devour The Trials of Theology.
Here is counsel from the proven dead and the wise living.

“Do we need theology”?
We may as well ask, “Do we need to know God?” Ten thousand times yes.

“Is studying theology perilous?”
Yes. But less perilous than ignorance.

“Will it be costly?”
Let the Bible answer: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Ps. 119:71).

Without the “trials of theology” we remain on the surface of the statutes of God. May the Spirit of truth make this book a means of true thinking about God, deep affections for God, and beautiful obedience to God, through Jesus Christ who is God.

Moore Books has copies.

God, Sex, and ‘Christianity Lite’

Albert Mohler:

“A project of theological revisionism is easy to start, but hard to stop. Like a spreading acid, theological liberalism moves from one doctrine to the next, developing patterns of argument that arise over and over again.”

– from his latest blog posting.

And then it’s worth re-reading Mark Thompson’s ‘The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns’:

“It is increasingly clear that the gospel of salvation by the cross and resurrection of Jesus, with its call to faith and repentance has been replaced in some quarters by a liberal gospel of universal reconciliation, what some call ‘the gospel of inclusion’…”

TEC reaps the whirlwind

“Well it is now official: The Episcopal Church (TEC), a province of Anglican dioceses in the USA (and some neighbouring countries) has declared that it doesn’t care what the vast majority of the Anglican Communion believes to be the teaching of the Bible concerning sexuality. It simply does not care…”

– Bishop Glenn Davies writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Related: The TEC Diocese of Central New York, which evicted the Church of the Good Shepherd at 74 Conklin Avenue in Binghamton, appears to have found a new use for (at least some of) the empty building. (Earlier posts.)

Do Your friends know what Easter means?

“In Raised With Christ I argue that many have never heard the real gospel of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Today I share with you some research that demonstrates the truth of this.

Quite simply this is strong evidence that we are not speaking about the resurrection enough…”

– Adrian Warnock (in the UK) writes about the latest US research.

Do our Australian friends know what Easter means?

Don’t Be Afraid

Even though Australians are unaffected by US health care reform, Russell Moore (at Southern Baptist Seminary) has some great advice.

“The United States House of Representatives just passed a health care reform bill that I and lots of other Christians opposed. Such legislation should concern us. There are some bad consequences for the weakest and most vulnerable among us, principally unborn children. But should it also concern us that so many of us are talking today about how afraid we are?…”

– Read it all here.

Christopher Ash on Job

Colin Adams at Unashamed Workman writes:

If you want some good bread for your soul, here are the sermons given by Christopher Ash [Proc Trust] at the Winter 2009 [at The Castle] event. Five expositions on Job, plus  a helpful Q & A.

See his direct links to the audio files here.

Preachers who don’t believe

“‘Preachers Who Are Not Believers’ is a stunning and revealing report that lays bare a level of heresy, apostasy, and hypocrisy that staggers the mind …”

– Albert Mohler says that this report – written by a ‘new athest’ – is a wake-up call to the church.

Related: Vanishing Christianity — A Lesson from the Presbyterians.

That’s Easter — Death to Life

Last year, St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London produced a couple of very helpful short videos for Easter. You may like to consider how you could use this one.

No faith in their hatred

“The Global Atheists Convention in Melbourne last weekend worked a miracle on me. I’ve never felt more like believing in God. Especially the Christian one.

My near conversion occurred because the convention’s speakers managed to confirm my worst fear.

No, it’s not that God may actually exist, and be cross that I doubted. It’s that if the Christian God really is dead, then there’s not much to stop people here from being barbarians. …”

– Andrew Bolt, columnist with the Herald-Sun in Melbourne.

Importantly, see also the preview of Peter Hitchens, “The Rage Against God” – at Between Two Worlds. (Peter Hitchens is Christopher Hitchens’ brother.)

David Cook on ‘Persuasive preaching’

Last month, David Cook, Principal of Sydney Missionary Bible College, was at Oak Hill College in London for their School of Preaching.

His talks focussed “on the evangelism we can do in our preaching, on the theology we need to have in place and the practical areas we need to work on”. Very helpful and encouraging.

Oak Hill has kindly made the audio recordings available.

Honouring Christ

“We are beset by problems.

Outside the Church is the collapsing nature of society as it abandons its Christian heritage; this impacts families, the workplace, school, and the Church. At its worst is the growing antagonism to Biblical Christianity.

Inside the Church we see the fruit of theological liberalism in false teaching, decline and immorality. Ritualism is now accepted as the norm and much so-called evangelicalism now believes what liberals believed a generation ago.

In the midst of all this how can we honour Christ? …”

– David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society, writes in the Winter 2010 edition of Cross†Way. (PDF file.)

The Trellis and the Vine discussion guide

At The Sola Panel, Ian Carmichael reports:

“We at Matthias Media have recently made available a free and downloadable discussion guide for Col Marshall and Tony Payne’s The Trellis and the Vine. Download it from our Australian or North American store.”

– Read more and get the links here. (Plug from Mark Dever here.)

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