Why learn Biblical languages
Elizabeth Groves, who lectures at Westminster Seminary, speaks on why learning the biblical languages is so important. Worth watching on YouTube (h/t Ian Clary.)
Inspiring People: John Anderson
Former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson speaks with Karl Faase at one of last week’s ‘Inspiring People’ events – about what’s wrong with Australian society. See the 1 min 45 sec clip on Vimeo.
(Thanks to SydneyAnglicans.net)
Christian radio and the gospel
Moody Bible Institute graduate and radio feature producer Paul Butler reports on a look at Christian radio in the US, and asks what is really Christian about much of it.
While the territory is not quite the same in Australia, the questions raised could be put equally well to Christians at work or at home – are we really any different?
Hear the two segments of the programme at Paul Butler’s Production Blog. (h/t Justin Taylor.)
Anglican Identity and Mission paper
Last month, Bishop Robert Forsyth spoke at the Anglican Identity and Mission Conference in Adelaide.
“We have a crisis in which some Anglicans have removed themselves from the Anglican Churches of their provinces or dioceses, claiming that in doing so they, not the province or diocese, embody Anglican identity. Or at least are still really Anglican despite the breach with their bishop or national church. Are they? How would we go about answering that question?”
The paper he presented is now available here as a PDF file.
As well, the Diocese of Adelaide’s Guardian (PDF file) has a report (pages 4 & 5) on the conference. (With thanks to Rob Forsyth. Photo: The Guardian.)
Bioethics and Future Hope lectures online
Audio files of the talks from last week’s New College Lecture Series on Bioethics And Future Hope by Professor John Wyatt are now available, courtesy of New College.
See the New College website to download the files.
At his Just in CASE blog, Trevor Cairney also provides helpful thoughts on the lectures:
Two worldviews: Two views of life and death
Bioethics and Redemption: Understanding pain, suffering and death
Bioethics and Future Hope: An Eschatological View of the Future
(Related: Tom Hargreaves recommends a Firefox plugin called DownThemAll for downloading links from web pages – useful for getting all the audio files linked from a page.)
Confess or Die audio
The audio files of the Confess or Die conference held at the Presbyterian Theological College in Sydney last month are now available for download, with thanks to the PTC.
“The contemporary church seems to have amnesia about what it really believes. This two day conference is here to jolt the church’s memory, and give it new life for mission. …”
Carl Trueman – Talk 1, Talk 2, Talk 3
John McClean – Bible and Confessions
Mark Thompson – The 39 Articles and Global Anglicanism
Geoff Tacon – The AFES Doctrinal Basis
Chris Balzer – WCF and Presbyterian Church of Australia (Text only)
Source: Confess or Die website.
The need for GAFCON
“The immediate cause for GAFCON was the invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams to those who had consecrated Gene Robinson as a Bishop to attend the Lambeth Conference. This invitation was sent in July 2007, and the timing was significant as I will show later.
Following this invitation, Archbishop Peter Akinola made a visit in October 2007 at his own expense to London to meet with Archbishop Rowan Williams to ask him most seriously to delay the Lambeth Conference until the issue of the consecration of Gene Robinson by the Episcopal Church could be resolved. When Archbishop Williams proved immovable on this certain things became crystal clear to Archbishop Akinola and his colleagues. …”
– Chris Sugden spoke at last week’s launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Southern Africa. Read the full text at Anglican Mainstream.
Book Review — Words from the Fire
“We’ve seen a steady stream of books come from Mohler’s pen in the past couple of years. I have read them all and am quite comfortable saying that this one is the best of the bunch.”
– Tim Challies reviews Albert Mohler’s new book, “Words from the Fire: Hearing the Voice of God in the 10 Commandments”.
John Wycliffe’s Work and Worth
“It was not by accident that Archbishop Arundel chose Oxford for the scene of the prohibition of English Bibles. In his letter to John XXIII in 1412 he describes our Reformer [John Wycliffe] as ‘that wretched and pestilent fellow, of damnable memory, that son of the old serpent, the very herald and child of Antichrist,’ who ‘to fill up the measure of his malice, devised the expedient of a new translation of the Scriptures into the mother tongue.’…”
– In 1933, R. M. Wilson wrote this fascinating article about John Wycliffe, ‘the morning-star of the Reformation’. It was published in Churchman and has just been republished on Church Society’s website (PDF file).
Related: John Wycliffe and the English Bible – by F F Bruce.
A New Evangelical Anglican Vision?
“Just this past term I have had the great pleasure of co-teaching – with Professor Ashley Null, the renowned Cranmer scholar – a MA unit offered here at Moore College entitled ‘Anglican Identity’. In it we made careful study of the development of the English reformation and the works of leading figures like Fisher, Cranmer and Hooker.
A highlight was reading the moving testimony of Catherine Parr, last wife of Henry VIII, to her conversion to the gospel of justification by faith.
I was curious, however, as to why so few Sydney clergy thought this was a subject that might interest them, or that the study of the founding documents of our denomination might be well worth their while…
More than ever, we need to renew our vision of what it means to be an evangelical Anglican. My conviction is that not only is being evangelical the most authentic way of being Anglican – we’ve been saying that for years – but also that being Anglican is a great way of being evangelical.”
– Read Michael Jensen’s full post at The Blogging Parson.
ACL Centenary Dinner Address
The Rev. Ed Loane gave this reflection on the history of the Anglican Church League at the ACL’s Centenary Dinner on Thursday 3rd September 2009:
I’ve been asked this evening to offer some account of the work of the ACL over the last 100 years. So I humbly put on my amateur historian hat – and amateur should be read in capital letters in light of present company – and I offer these reflections…
It has often been claimed that Sydney Diocese, with its pervasive and dominant conservative evangelicalism, is unique within the Anglican Communion – particularly within western Anglicanism. One of the chief questions that this situation raises is ‘how did this come to be?’ Read more
Edinburgh Expositors’ Conference audio
Audio files from the 2009 Expositors’ Conference held at the Faith Mission Bible College in Edinburgh the week before last have now been made available.
Iain Murray’s talk on The Expository Ministry of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones is well worth hearing.
The files are on the College website. (h/t Colin Adams.)
Focussed on Christ
“The holiest Christians are not those most concerned about holiness as such, but whose minds and hearts and goals and purposes and love and hope are most fully focussed on our Lord Jesus Christ.”
– J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit.
With thanks to Of First Importance.
Tea or Tanks on the Lambeth Palace Lawn?
“This week, seven ‘Communion Partner’ bishops from The Episcopal Church made a private visit to the Archbishop of Canterbury. We might well imagine them enjoying a cup of tea in the Lambeth Palace gardens and little more imagination is needed to guess the reason for their call…”
– Charles Raven’s latest piece on events in the Anglican Communion may be found at SPREAD.
Related: Canterbury hosts seven Episcopal bishops for private meeting – from EpiscopalLifeOnline.
Moralism is not the gospel
“Far too many believers and their churches succumb to the logic of moralism and reduce the Gospel to a message of moral improvement. In other words, we communicate to lost persons the message that what God desires for them and demands of them is to get their lives straight.…”
– Albert Mohler writes on the very real danger of preaching a false gospel.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…