Best commentaries
John Dyer, a graduate of Dallas Seminary, has produced a resource many will find very helpful. Using many published sources, he seeks to bring together information on the best Bible commentaries in the English language.
See it at bestcommentaries.com
Gerald Bray on Tertullian and the Early Church
Useful resource:
Professor Gerald Bray examines the history of the early church with particular reference to the great Latin theologian, Tertullian.
Audio file: 8MB / 74 minutes, from The Theologian.
God and the Artist – New College Lectures
The New College Lectures are coming up in early September (2, 3 and 4) – Professor Trevor Hart, Professor of Divinity and Director of the Institute of Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews, Scotland is this year’s speaker.
Download an invitation (100kb pdf file) with all the details from New College.
Confessions of Augustine – free audiobook
Step back 1600 years. The Confessions of Saint Augustine is available as a free audiobook until the end of this month (August 2008) at Christian Audio.
The unabridged recording – with the English voice of Simon Vance – is a 350MB mp3 download (i.e. if you are on a 300MB / month broadband plan, you may want to think twice).
To receive it, go to Christian Audio and use the coupon code AUG2008, before August 31.
(Who was Augustine of Hippo? See this summary and links at CCEL.)
Moore College School of Theology: Deliver us from Evil
“With a revival of the notion of evil in our world what does the gospel have to say? As the postmodern world is more open to evil forces and beings at play with individual lives and in society, what kind of solution does Christ offer? As the Christian sub-culture continues to witness the re-emergence of strategies and ministries of direct dealing with the devil and his forces, is this a good thing to be welcomed, or something to be discouraged? As ordinary people struggle to live with all their fears within, and fears without, what does it mean to say, ‘deliver us from evil’?”
– Read about the Moore College School of Theology – September 17 and 18 2008.
Test Revival with Doctrine
“Lee Grady, the editor of Charisma, one of the main charismatic magazines, has written a lament and critique of the Lakeland ‘revival’ which is now in a tailspin over the leader’s announced separation from his wife.
Grady’s summons to pray for the church and our nation is right, and among his commendable questions and observations are these…”
– Read John Piper’s comments at Desiring God.
And from the Charisma article to which he refers –
“Why did God TV tell people that ‘any criticism of Todd Bentley is demonic’?
This ridiculous statement was actually made on one of God TV’s pre-shows. In fact, the network’s hosts also warned listeners that if they listened to criticism of Bentley, they could lose their healings.”
Chappo’s book reviewed
Mark Tubbs reviews Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life by John Chapman – at Discerning Reader –
Chapman’s calling as an evangelist informs this book from cover to cover. He presents the good news of the crucified Christ in clear and accessible ways, and quotes large swaths of Scripture, knowing that the Word of God alone has the power to convict and save. Using the parable of the rich fool, Chapman hits hard early on, showing how Jesus labels the person who fails to consider the next life a fool. …
Want to buy multiple copies to give to your friends and relatives? (Of course you do.) See Matthias Media, Moore Books or Evangelism Ministries. (The other place has them too.)
Open Evangelicalism, NEAC 2008 and the future of the Church of England
The Church of England Evangelical Council website is now advertising ‘NEAC 2008’ – a consultation in continuity with the previous ‘National Evangelical Anglican Consultations’. Meanwhile, on the Fulcrum website, there are rumblings about whether this is going to be truly ‘representative’ of the current state of Anglican Evangelicalism in England. …
Fulcrum was founded in reaction to the direction being taken during the organizing of the last residential NEAC, at Blackpool in 2003. … Since then, Fulcrum has claimed the ‘Evangelical Centre’ and, simultaneously, has steadfastly opposed more Conservative groupings such as Reform, and initiatives such as GAFCON. In effect, therefore, it has formalized the divisions in Evangelicalism between its Conservative and Open strands.
Thus Evangelical unity in the Church of England is probably at an all-time low since the end of the Second World War. …
– John Richardson provides an insight into the state of ‘evangelicalism’ in the Church of England at The Ugley Vicar.
What seems like an age ago (1993), we published this article by John on the then state of UK Evangelicalism – in the ACL’s newsletter.
Who needs church?
Two recent broadcasts from ‘The White Horse Inn’ may be of interest to our readers –
1.) Who Needs Church? – “In his recent book Revolution, George Barna suggests that Christians no longer need to join churches, but rather should simply look for life-coaches, and helpful information for spiritual growth via the internet.”
2.) Calling the Sheep to Become “Self-Feeders”? – “A recent study conducted by Willow Creek Community Church discovered that the most committed among their church members were the most vocal about the lack of theological depth, and were among the the most dissatisfied with the worship.”
Both broadcasts look at contemporary attacks on the biblical doctrine of the church.
ESV Study Bible: Jonah
Crossway has posted online the entire book of Jonah – along with the associated introduction and notes – from the forthcoming ESV Study Bible.
It’s available as a free download from Crossway (2.6MB PDF file – direct link).
(See also the interview with Dr. Mark Futato, who contributed the study notes – with thanks to Between Two Worlds.)
Dr Williams and his Bishops: wheels within wheels?
The ability of the Anglican Church to undergo apparently impossible convolutions has been further highlighted by the publication of, on the one hand, letters written between Rowan Williams during his time as Archbishop of Wales and a former Anglican Evangelical and, on the other, a letter supporting Dr Williams signed by nineteen bishops and published in today’s edition of The Times.
Dr Williams’ letters tell us nothing really new in terms of either his theology or his church polity. …
– John Richardson writes at the Ugley Vicar.
Jaffa Cakes with Kent Hughes
As the 2008 Ministry Intensive at St. Andrew’s Cathedral approaches next month, you may enjoy this audio interview with R Kent Hughes – conducted by Lee Gatiss of The Theologian.
Conducted over a cup of tea and a plate of Jaffa cakes, the interview is downloadable from the Theologian.
Reflections on Lambeth’s Reflections
We need to remind ourselves what the Lambeth Conference was convened to achieve. The answer is, nothing. …
And now a Conference called for no particular reason, holding meetings designed to reach no particular conclusions, has produced not a report but a series of reflections. Read them, if you will.
Having decided to decide nothing, it appears that the Conference felt it must comment on everything. Thus the reader who is willing may wade through page after page of good intentions about good causes ranging from disaster relief to carbon footprints. Yet, of course, nothing is (nor could be) specific — not even the gospel which, it is claimed, lies at the heart of the Communion’s concept of mission. …
– John Richardson writes at The Ugley Vicar. Worth reading in full.
GAFCON, the future and the Jerusalem Statement
The Global Anglican Future CONference held in Jerusalem at the end of June 2008 occurred not to stop a split in the Anglican Communion but because there already exists such a split. That is a sad but hard fact. …
In 2002 Rowan Williams was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Rowan Williams had publicly admitted to ordaining a man he knew had a homosexual partner …
– David Holloway, Vicar of Jesmond Parish Church, Newcastle upon Tyne, reflects on the need for GAFCON – at Anglican Mainstream. (Photo: Reform.)
Reports of Anglican demise exaggerated
There is an industry saying that people uncritically accept media reports, except in their area of expertise. Then the media gets it totally wrong. Although I have been a journalist for 30 years, my time in the GAFCON pressroom proved that old adage.
As well as being responsible for Archbishop Jensen’s media liaison, I was privileged to be a part of the GAFCON media team, a group made up of Anglican press officers from around the world: Uganda, Canada, Nigeria, the US and Kenya plus a Norwegian fellow traveller. …
– Russell Powell reflects on the media’s reporting of GAFCON at SydneyAnglicans.net.
(Russell interviews Bishop Al Stewart – with Tim Robinson filming – overlooking the Sea of Galilee . Photo: Zac Veron.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…