Justin Taylor's Blog, page 108

How to Train Your Kids: Free Online Training Tonight

Brett Kunkle of Stand to Reason:

Faced with the daunting task of raising kids amidst such challenges, the parental impulse to over-protect is strong. “It’s a big bad world out there, so hide the kids in the basement. For the rest of their lives.” Yeah, that approach won’t do. Even though we’re not called to be of the world, we’re still called to be in it. Hiding out is not an option, so let me suggest a different strategy: don’t isolate your kids, inoculate them. Protection is appropriate at certain stages, but it can’t be our overall strategy. Instead, we must be proactive. We must equip our kids with the truth so they’re not taken captive by false ideas (Colossians 2:8). But how? What can we do? What practical steps do we need to take?

Well, this Thursday night, April 24th, at 7:00 pm (Pacific Time), I’ll try to help layout a practical strategy and answer your questions. “How To Train Your Kids” is a free online training event to help parents, youth leaders, pastors and Christian educators equip their students with the truth. You can join the discussion several different ways:

Watch and ask questions on Google+
Watch and ask questions on YouTube
Watch and ask questions on the STR Blog
Ask questions via Twitter, using the hashtag #STRask

I’m in this battle right alongside you, have been for the last 20 years. I spent 11 years as a youth pastor in Southern California and in Colorado. I also have five kids of my own, ages 19, 12, 11, 6, and 2. I’ve made my share of mistakes, and I’ve also learned a lot along the way. I hope to offer some practical strategies that I’ve used with my youth groups and with my own kids. So let’s talk this Thursday night. I hope you’ll join us!

The Discipline of Secrecy and the Joy of Honoring Others

I recently said publicly that retweeting a compliment is sinful. (You can find some interaction with that idea here and here.) I might qualify that to say that I think it’s usually sinful and almost never wise or edifying.

Last night I read a quote from Dallas Willard that is not unrelated to this discussion:

One of the greatest fallacies of our faith, and actually one of the greatest acts of unbelief, is the thought that our spiritual acts and virtues need to be advertised to be known. The frantic efforts of religious personages and groups to advertise and certify themselves is a stunning revelation of their lack of substance and faith. . . .

Secrecy rightly practiced enables us to place our public relations department entirely in the hands of God, who lit our candles so we could be the light of the world, not so we could hide under a bushel (Matt. 5:14-16). We allow him to decide when our deeds will be known and when our light will be noticed.

Secrecy at its best teaches love and humility before God and others. And that love and humility encourages us to see our associates in the best possible light, even to the point of our hoping they will do better and appear better than us. It actually becomes possible for us to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than ourselves,” as Philippians 2:3 advises. And what a relief that can be! If you want to experience the flow of love as never before, the next time you are in a competitive situation, pray that the others around you will be more outstanding, more praised, and more used of God than yourself. Really pull for them and rejoice for their successes. If Christians were universally to do this for each other, the earth would soon be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory. The discipline of secrecy can lead us into this sort of wonderful experience.

—Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives (New York: HarperCollins, 1988), 173-74.

Why There Is No Such Thing as “Casual Sex”

Dallas Willard:

We are sexual beings: “male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:27). This crucial passage ties sexuality to our creation in the image of God. It is a part of our power with which to serve him. In sexuality the intermingling of person, the knowing and being known that is characteristic of God’s basic nature, is provided in a special form for embodied personality. In the full sexual union, the person is known in his or her whole body and knows the other by means of his or her whole body. The depth of involvement is so deep that there can be no such thing as “casual sex.” It is a contradiction of terms—something very well understood by the apostle Paul, who, accordingly, taught that fornication is a sin against one’s own body (1 Cor. 6:18).

—Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives (New York: HarperCollins, 1988), 171.

Why Book-Length Responses to Other Books Can Be Helpful

Should Christians ever take the time to assemble an entire book in response to another book? It depends on the significance of the book, the impact it could have, and the value of the response.

As someone invested in promoting the health of the church, who values robust interaction, and who is interested in publishing developments, two new books have decided to do exactly that, but through different means.

The first involves a multi-author response in print to Bart Ehrman’s new book, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of  Jewish Preach from Galilee. RNS explains:

The two books are an unusual publishing experiment, in which HarperCollins subsidiaries arranged to have a team of evangelical scholars write a counterargument to the hot-selling superstar writer. [The arrangement was actually proposed by Michael Bird.] Ehrman and the evangelical team exchanged manuscripts and signed nondisclosure agreements so as not to pre-empt each other, but otherwise worked independently for their own HarperCollins imprints, HarperOne and Zondervan.

The books were released simultaneously. Anything Ehrman writes attracts mainstream attention, so it is helpful to have his arguments and fallacies publicly refuted from the get-go by the likes of Michael Bird, Craig Evans, Simon Gathercole, Charles Hill, and Chris Tilling. At the Gospel Coalition, Andreas Köstenberger has reviewed both books: How Jesus Became God (by Ehrman) and How God Became Jesus (by Bird and company).

The second example is a new book, releasing today, authored by Matthew Vines, God and the Gay Christian: God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships. The book is a popularization of standard revisionist scholarship, but it is done by someone young, winsome, and purporting to believe in the full inspiration of Scripture.

In response, the folks at Southern Seminary have simultaneously published a free eBook response to the book, edited by Albert Mohler. The book consists of five short but substantive essays:

Albert Mohler, “God, the Gospel and the Gay Challenge: A Response to Matthew Vines”
James Hamilton, “How to Condone What the Bible Condemns: Matthew Vines Takes on the Old Testament”
Denny Burk, “Suppressing the Truth in Unrighteousness: Matthew Vines Takes on the New Testament”
Owen Strachan, “What Has the Church Believed and Taught?”
Heath Lambert, “Is a ‘Gay Christian’ Consistent with the Gospel of Christ?”

Dr. Mohler writes, “The church has often failed people with same-sex attractions, and failed them horribly. We must not fail them now by forfeiting the only message that leads to salvation, holiness, and faithfulness.”

There are often two sorts of reactions to book-length responses like this.

On the one hand, some celebrate that this ends the discussion (the book has been decisively refuted).

Others lament that this only provides free publicity (the book is being made into a bigger deal than it is).

Both responses could be true, depending on the book, the author, the critics, and the cultural moment.

But let me suggest a third alternative: responses like this can help to sway those who are uncomfortable with the revisionist proposal but do not know how to answer them adequately and carefully. This is not merely preaching to the choir, but the strengthening and equipping of the choir, as well as a timely word to those outside the choir who may be listening and unsure of what to think or how to respond. We should thank God for those who have the time, energy, gifts, and skills to assemble such learned and thoughtful interaction with proposals that undermine the teaching of God’s holy word.

So hats off to these brothers who have labored to give us careful, thoughtful, and timely responses to critics of the faith once delivered. I am happy to commend these responses as helpful tools for the church.

Livestream: ERLC Leadership Summit on “The Gospel and Human Sexuality”

The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is hosting a summit on the gospel and sexuality, beginning today and going through Wednesday. You can stream the main sessions and panels here. The schedule is below. All times are central.

Monday, April 21, 2014

1:00-2:15 PM: Heath Lambert, “Finally Free: The Gospel and Pornography”

2:45-4:15 PM Brief Reflection: Jason Dees

Panel: “The Gospel and the Pastor’s Purity,” Moderator: Phillip Bethancourt, J. Kie Bowman, Denny Burk, Heath Lambert

7:00-9:30 PM J.D. Greear, “Mending Fences: The Gospel and Pastoral Care for Sexual Sin”

Panel: “The Gospel and Homosexuality,” Moderator: Andrew Walker, Greg Belser, Jimmy Scroggins, J.D. Greear, Mark Regnerus

Tuesday, April 22, 2014



8:30-10:00 AM Keynote: Mark Regnerus, “Sex in America: Sociological Trends in American Sexuality”

Brief Reflection: Paul Jimenez, “Biblical Reflection on Sexuality”

10:00-11:30 AM Russell D. Moore, “Q&A on Ethics, Culture and the Public Square”

1:00-2:30 PM: David Prince, “The Birds and the Bees: The Gospel and Your Childrens’ Sexuality”

Brief Reflection: Bart Barber, “Religious Liberty and Sexuality”

3:00-4:15 PM Brief Reflection: Matt Carter, “Biblical Reflection on Sexuality”

Panel 3: “The Gospel and Biblical Manhood,” Moderator: Phillip Bethancourt , Russell D. Moore, David Prince, Clint Pressley, Matt Carter

7:00-9:30 PM: Russell D. Moore “Walking the Line: The Gospel and Moral Purity”

Panel: “Ministering in a Sex-saturated Society,” Moderator: Phillip Bethancourt, Russell D. Moore, Tony Merida, Dean Inserra, Nathan Lino, Kelly Rosati

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

10:00-11:30 AM Brief Reflection: Trillia Newbell, “Women and Sexuality”

Keynote: Kevin Smith, “Keeping the Marriage Bed Pure: The Gospel and Marital Sexuality”

τετέλεσται

The curtain is torn in two.

The cross and the tomb are empty.

The cup of wrath is drained.

The victory is won.

The serpent is crushed.

The new creation is dawning.

The throne is occupied.

It is finished (τετέλεσται).

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Holy Week, Day 8: Sunday

Sunday, April 5, AD 33.

The following video, filmed in conjunction with our book The Final Days of Jesus, features short explanations from and interviews with New Testament professors Doug Moo and Andreas Köstenberger on the importance of women being the first to discover the empty tomb and the meaning of Easter Sunday.

Holy Week, Day 7: Saturday

Saturday, April 4, AD 33.

The following video, filmed in conjunction with our book The Final Days of Jesus, features short explanations from and interviews with New Testament scholars Andreas Köstenberger and Douglas Moo. Dr. Köstenberger looks at the role of Joseph of Arimathea in Jesus’s burial, the rules for burial at the time, and what we know about first-century tombs. Dr. Moo answers the question of where Jesus was between his death and his resurrection, focusing on 1 Peter 3, which says that Christ preached to spirits in prison. Is this a reference to Jesus descending into Hades?

It’s Friday—But Sunday’s Comin’

I never get tired of listen to this Easter meditation S.M. Lockridge (1913-2000), pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in San Diego from 1953 to 1993.

It’s Friday

Jesus is praying

Peter’s a sleeping

Judas is betraying

But Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday

Pilate’s struggling

The council is conspiring

The crowd is vilifying

They don’t even know

That Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday

The disciples are running

Like sheep without a shepherd

Mary’s crying

Peter is denying

But they don’t know

That Sunday’s a comin’

It’s Friday

The Romans beat my Jesus

They robe him in scarlet

They crown him with thorns

But they don’t know

That Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday

See Jesus walking to Calvary

His blood dripping

His body stumbling

And his spirit’s burdened

But you see, it’s only Friday

Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday

The world’s winning

People are sinning

And evil’s grinning

It’s Friday

The soldiers nail my Savior’s hands

To the cross

They nail my Savior’s feet

To the cross

And then they raise him up

Next to criminals

It’s Friday

But let me tell you something

Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday

The disciples are questioning

What has happened to their King

And the Pharisees are celebrating

That their scheming

Has been achieved

But they don’t know

It’s only Friday

Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday

He’s hanging on the cross

Feeling forsaken by his Father

Left alone and dying

Can nobody save him?

Ooooh

It’s Friday

But Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday

The earth trembles

The sky grows dark

My King yields his spirit

It’s Friday

Hope is lost

Death has won

Sin has conquered

and Satan’s just a laughin’

It’s Friday

Jesus is buried

A soldier stands guard

And a rock is rolled into place

But it’s Friday

It is only Friday

Sunday is a comin’!

Holy Week, Day 6: Friday

Friday, April 3, AD 33.

The following video, filmed in conjunction with our book The Final Days of Jesus, features short explanations from and interviews with historian Paul Maier and New Testament scholar Andreas Köstenberger, looking at the origin, object, and purpose of Roman crucifixion, along with one difference in emphasis between the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) and John on suffering and glory.