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.
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.)
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.)
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.
John Wycliffe and the English Bible
The Church Society has made available a helpful article on John Wycliffe and the English Bible by F.F. Bruce – first published in Churchman in 1984.
As the Lambeth Conference rolls on, with some defying the clear teaching of the Bible, it’s good to reminded of those who laboured long and hard to make God’s Word accessible to us all.
The article is available as a PDF file – direct link.
Phillip Jensen on Roman Catholicism
“[I]f Martin Luther came into Sydney and saw Roman Catholicism and its Stations of the Cross, he’d say, “Ah, they’ve cleaned up their act.” So there are certain aspects of Catholicism in the Protestant world which are much more acceptable to where Luther would have been.
But no. Things are actually worse than in Luther’s day because since Luther’s day the Roman Catholic Church not only calcified itself explicitly against justification by faith alone, or the authority of the scriptures alone, or salvation by grace alone, et cetera; not only calcified itself against that back at the Council of Trent but since then you’ve had the Vatican I Council in 1870, which clarified the idea that the Pope can speak infallibly. …”
– Dean Phillip Jensen in an edited transcript from The Chat Room – published by The Sydney Morning Herald.
To see the Dean’s comments in context (highly recommended!), watch the full video via SydneyAnglicans.net here. The programme runs for 28 minutes.
A higher quality (but large – at 160MB) mp4 video file is available from this direct link.
ESV Study Bible: Introduction to the Psalms
Crossways Publishers have made available another sample from the forthcoming ESV Study Bible. This one is their Introduction to the Psalms, along with the notes for Psalm 1.
You can see the sample with this 530kb PDF file.
(Thanks to Between Two Worlds.)
Piper on Parker on Calvin
John Piper quotes Parker’s biography of Calvin on Calvin’s labour of preaching –
Those in Geneva who listened Sunday after Sunday, day after day, and did not shut their ears, but were “instructed, admonished, exhorted, and censured,” received a training in Christianity such as had been given to few congregations in Europe since the days of the fathers.
A challenge to preachers today – from Desiring God.
Themelios Journal now a free resource
The well-known evangelical theological journal Themelios is now being published by The Gospel Coalition. The General Editor is D A Carson.
The first fully digital edition (May 2008) has been graciously made available as a free download (5.8MB PDF or as streaming iPaper).
Get it from the Gospel Coalition.
Every word of God
“Imagine, for a moment. You wake up one morning and, as you stumble downstairs to grope for the coffee maker, you notice that the front door of your house is wide open, the brisk morning air blowing into the room and clearing your mind just a little bit. You stare at the door for a moment to process the fact that it is open. Your first thought, of course, is for your family. …”
– Tim Challies shares some helpful thoughts on the reasons for an essentially literal translation of the Bible. At Challies.com.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…