ESV Study Bible in the works
A Study Bible based on the ESV is in its final stages of preparation and it is due to be published (in the US) in October.
Details are available at www.esvstudybible.org.
Huldreich Zwingli, Swiss Reformer
“Zwingli was born on January 1st, 1484, a few weeks after Luther, in a tiny village high in the Alps above Lake Zurich. Of peasant stock, he early showed his brilliance, and graduated at the University of Vienna in 1505, where he met Wittenbach. Ordained in 1506 and appointed to the pastoral charge of Glarus, he laboured there ten years studying the classics, the Fathers, and the Bible at the same time.
In 1516 he removed to Einsiedeln, where he began to show his real theology. He preached that Christ, not Mary, is our only salvation, and gained his reputation as a preacher. He was promoted to Zurich in 1518 and by his Biblical preaching began to formulate the principles and doctrines of the Reformation. …”
In 1961, Churchman published an article by James Atkinson on this Swiss Reformer. Happily, Church Society are continuing their tradition of republishing helpful Churchman articles, and this one has just been placed online.
It’s available as a PDF file here.
Gnosticism in the bookshops
Dr. Michael Horton and friends at the “White Horse Inn” broadcast continue their series on “Christless Christianity”.
This week, it’s part 2 of “The Gospel According to Barnes and Noble”. So what’s popular in US bookshops? – The same books are probably already on sale in Australia.
– from The White Horse Inn.
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones audio online
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one of the great preachers of the 20th century and was highly influential among British evangelicals. ‘The Doctor’ was born in Wales but laboured for almost thirty years at London’s Westminster Chapel where many came to hear him expound God’s Word.
Until recently, audio recordings of his sermons have not been easy to come by. Now, however, the D M Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust has begun to sell copies on CD – and to produce a weekly programme. Each typically has a sermon over two weeks and is in Windows Media or Real Audio format.
Faith by Hearing points out that One Place has just begun to host these broadcasts. These are available as mp3 files as well as the other formats. So far, part one of a sermon on Galatians 1:3-5 is online.
See One Place for the free download. (Photo of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones via One Place.)
Don’t waste your life
What does the ‘unwasted life’ look life?
All Christians need to be continually challenged on this. Hear John Piper on The Appearance of the Unwasted Life – Part 1 (audio and video) and Part 2.
Invest your time by being challenged to treasure Christ more.
The Limits of Fellowship – Phillip D Jensen
This important address given by Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, at the Sydney Lambeth Decision Briefing on March 14 has attracted widespread interest.
Although it is already available as a 70 minute audio file and a PDF file, we are also making it available as a web page, for greater accessibility.
Click here to read it all – in our Resources section.
Concerning Preaching
Could it be that the devil considers the best strategy to seduce evangelicals away from the power of true biblical proclamation is actually to focus their attention and energies on preaching more and more?
– William Philip, now Minister at The Tron in central Glasgow, wrote this paper for the Proclamation Trust when he was their Director of Ministry.
Read the paper here – and see what other resources Proc Trust has on offer.
The Reason for God – Tim Keller
Why does God allow suffering in the world?
How could a loving God send people to Hell?
Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive?
How can one religion be ‘right’ and the others ‘wrong’?
Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced doubts skeptics bring to his church as well as the most important reasons for faith. In his new book, The Reason for God, he addresses each.
See the book’s website at www.thereasonforgod.com.
Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor
I must admit, once I started Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, I could barely put it down. This has to be one of the most challenging and yet encouraging books I have read in quite some time.
As far as biographies go, this one was unlike any other biography I have ever read. …
Read this review of Don Carson’s book about his Dad.
Biographical sketch of D.A. Carson
Professor Don Carson spoke at Moore College in Sydney yesterday. Andreas Köstenberger writes, “While many know D. A. Carson for his mind and his impressive scholarly writings, fewer people know the heart that produces those works.”
Professor Köstenberger (Professor of New Testament at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) has written a helpful biographical sketch of Don Carson – available as a PDF file.
(Thanks to Between Two Worlds for the link.)
Christianity vs. Liberalism
What are the main differences between classical vs. liberal approaches to the Christian faith? In the 1920s, J. Gresham Machen argued that these two perspectives were, in reality, two completely different religious systems. Was he right?
Dr. Michael Horton and friends at The White Horse Inn broadcast are continuing their discussion on “Christless Christianity”. Very helpful.
(Preachers: How clear is the gospel you preach at funerals? Are you preaching a liberal ‘gospel’?) Listen to this week’s episode at The White Horse Inn.
On a related topic, Al Mohler asks, “Has the Notion of Sin Disappeared?”
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?
To answer the question of Jesus’ resurrection from a historical standpoint, we must first determine what facts concerning the fate of Jesus of Nazareth can be credibly established on the basis of the evidence …
A useful summary by William Lane Craig on Baptist Press.
See also SBTS President Al Mohler’s column on “Must One Believe in the Resurrection to be a Christian?” –
Now, [Deepak Chopra, the New Age president of the Alliance for a New Humanity] writes as one who knows he is “someone outside the Christian faith,” but what makes his point so interesting is that it is almost precisely the argument made by liberal Protestant theology – that it is enough to believe that the Apostles experienced a special consciousness of the risen Christ.
Spurgeon on Preaching Christ
“I believe that those sermons which are fullest of Christ are the most likely to be blessed to the conversion of the hearers. Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the gospel. As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. …”
Advice from C. H. Spurgeon, via Between Two Worlds.
The Intensity of Christ’s Love and the Intentionality of His Death
The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his suffering was intentional. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). If he was intentional in laying down his life, it was for us. It was love. “When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Every step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”
– a meditation from John Piper.
The Anglican Debacle: Roots and Patterns
“The first thing to note about the crisis the Anglican Communion is facing today is that it has been coming for a very long time.
I remember almost twenty years ago reading an article by Robert Doyle in The Briefing entitled ‘No Golden Age’.1 (It’s shocking that it is actually so long ago!)
The gist of the article was that the idea of a golden age of Anglicanism, in which biblical patterns of doctrine and practice were accepted by the majority, is nothing but an illusion. …”
Read the full text of ACL President Dr. Mark Thompson’s paper delivered at the Sydney ‘Lambeth Decision Briefing’ at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, Friday 14th March 2008.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…