What does the Bible say about Mary?

From Moore College’s Priscilla and Aquila Centre:

“What does the Bible say about Mary, mother of Jesus? Is she the second Eve? Find out at the last Priscilla & Aquila Centre Evening Seminar this year. Peter Jensen, Former Archbishop of Sydney, will look into this topic.

When: Wednesday 21st October 2015 7:00 – 9:00pm
Where: 15 King Street, Newtown

Pre-registration is necessary, register online here.”

Knowing Christ

Mark Jones, who has just written a book entitled “Knowing Christ”, speaks with J.I. Packer (who wrote the foreword for the book).

Read the foreword and watch the interview here.

Perspective on the New Perspective (2) – The Moral Centre

“In our last post we used used Romans 4:5 as a test-case to highlight a key difference between the New Perspective and Reformed theology.

We saw that for N. T. Wright and James Dunn the ‘ungodly’ are those who are outside the covenant community and ‘justification’ means to be brought into the covenant. In this post I want to talk about some of the difficulties with this new interpretation…”

– Dr Peter Orr’s second post (first one here) on the New Perspective is worth your time to read, and is a powerful reminder of God’s glory as revealed in the gospel.

Multi-Ethnic Churches: 9Marks Journal

The latest 9Marks Journal is now available for free download. The theme of this issue is Multi-ethnic Churches.

From Editor Jonathan Leeman:

“Satan has always loved to exploit the lines of ethnic division. Think of how the Egyptians in Exodus hold the Jews in contempt. Or how the brand new Jerusalem church, price sticker still on the backseat window, divides in Acts 6 between Greek-speaking and Hebrew-speaking Jews.

So churches today too often mimic their host culture’s ethnic rivalries, whether in South Africa, India, or America. Or at least, too often they forget they possess a resource for overcoming racial or ethnic strife that the world does not have: the gospel.”

Free eBook: Are We Together?

“Pope Francis is the first Pope to visit the United States since 2008. His visit has provoked many Christians to ask sincere questions concerning Roman Catholicism. In light of this, Reformation Trust is making the ebook editions of R.C. Sproul’s Are We Together? free until the end of September.”

– From Ligonier Ministries.

Chapters are: 1 Scripture, 2 Justification, 3 The Church, 4 The Sacraments, 5 The Papacy, Mary.

Also until the end of September is a free download of 5 lectures by R.C. Sproul on Roman Catholicism: 1 Scripture and Tradition, 2 Papal Infallibility, 3 The Church and Salvation, 4 Sacraments, 5 The Virgin Mary.

(To download these resources, you need to sign up for an account – however there is no charge for them this month.)

Perspective on the New Perspective (1)

“Because part of my job involves teaching Paul’s epistles, I am frequently asked what I think about the ‘New Perspective’ on Paul.

This is a hard question to answer because the New Perspective is not a monolithic movement. We should perhaps more accurately speak of new perspectives (plural) on Paul since the people associated with this ‘movement’ (for want of a better word), people like James Dunn and Tom Wright, actually have very significant differences in how they read Paul. …”

– Dr. Peter Orr at Moore College identifies a key verse in understanding the New Perspective — at The Gospel Coalition Australia.

Graeme Goldsworthy on the Gospel, Atonement, Satisfaction and Justification

“Graeme Goldsworthy, former Moore College lecturer, is a highly influential theological thinker and author of recent times. His “trilogy” is available on Amazon Kindle right now for the stunning price of 20 cents. [14 US cents on the US store – ed.] It includes three key works: Gospel and Kingdom, Gospel and Wisdom, and The Gospel in Revelation. …

Goldsworthy’s life work is built on integrating the grand sweep of biblical narrative with its central theme, the gospel. The gospel, for Goldsworthy, has at its very heart the amazing truth that Christ died as a satisfaction for sin (in doctrinal terms, “penal substitutionary atonement”).

I thought it would be worth providing a few select quotes from Goldsworthy in his chapter on “Justification by Faith in Revelation” to illustrate this. Here he is seeking to integrate the historic reformed articulation of the gospel with the biblical narrative of Christ’s victory in the book of Revelation. …”

– Lionel Windsor has some really helpful quotes at his blog, Forget the Channel.

Knowing your Bible is key to OT narrative

“One of the things that struck me about 1 Kings 1 is how the original readers’ Bible knowledge would have made a great difference to their reading. To us, the story is full of colour and detail but it doesn’t really resonate with the 2 Samuel story as it should…”

– Adrian Reynolds at The Proclaimer points out a problem for which a remedy is needed – know your Bible better.

Getting ready for the Plebiscite

“To guide your holiday reading and listening, here is a selection of resources for a sermon series on marriage in preparation for the possibility of an upcoming plebiscite…”

– David Cook provides a useful list of resources, plus the outline of a sermon series planned for the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Sydney. Very useful for ministers helping their congregations think through what the Bible says on these important issues.

(Photo: David & Maxine Cook. David is the Moderator General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.)

Packer on Preaching

“When did you last hear a sermon that spent 50% of the time on application? J. I. Packer has insightfully analysed contemporary and historic approaches to preaching over his years as a pastor and scholar. In this featured article, drawn from the summer edition of Churchman, Benjamin Dean outlines Packer’s approach to preaching…”

– Today’s post on Church Society’s blog.

Thomas Cranmer and the fear of death

“On 21st March 1556, Thomas Cranmer, was marched out to Oxford’s University Church.

However many thousands of services he had attended in over twenty years serving as Archbishop of Canterbury, this was to be his last. Condemned as a heretic, he was to be burned, like so many of his protestant colleagues and friends under the short but bloody reign of Mary. A small cobbled cross on Oxford’s Broad Street still marks the spot to this day…”

– For Church Society’s Formulary Friday, Sam Brewster draws us to consider the ninth Homily, ‘An Exhortation Against The Fear Of Death”.

Catching up on the Annual Moore College Lectures

If you missed the 38th Annual Moore College Lecture series by Professor Kevin Vanhoozer, you can catch up here.

A Biblical Doctrine of Humanity

Tim Keller spoke at this year’s Evangelical Ministry Assembly in London – on a doctrine of humanity.

You can watch it here, thanks to the Proclamation Trust. Very relevant to many contemporary situations.

(The theme of this year’s EMA: “Identity Crisis: Preaching to a Confused World”. The audio files are already available.)

Creation and new creation

“In this second part of his consideration of Psalm 104, Dan Wu looks at the difference between the world’s sinfulness, the joy of the psalm and how we should respond.”