Justin Taylor's Blog, page 367

Fujimura Exhibit in Chicago

For those in Chicago and Chicagoland, Makoto Fujimura will exhibiting his artwork from The Four Holy Gospels at the Addington Gallery on Saturday, January 22, from 7-9 PM.

Happy 448th!

On its big birthday, Fred Sanders explains why you should read the Heidelberg Catechism, "one of the best pieces of theology ever written."

The Theology Program Online and Onsite Classes Begin Next Week

I've blogged before about The Theology Program.

This isn't a substitute for seminary. But for those who would love to take a formal class in theology but didn't have the time or opportunity, this is something to consider. You may not agree with every jot and tittle presented, but you'll find it a great way to learn the basics of theology and to explain what you believe and why you believe it.

The folks at The Theology Program have now made it possible to take the class virtually in a live classroom setting.

Here's an overview from them:

The Skinny

For ten weeks, you will join C. Michael Patton, live from the Credo House of Theology in Edmond Oklahoma, in an audio/visual virtual classroom. With one click of the computer, you will enter into the Credo House with students from all over the world.

First, you will watch an hour long video online.

Then on Tuesday night you enter the virtual classroom for a special "back stage" seminar about the topic. You can do homework, attend private student sessions (TableTalks), interact with Michael Patton and other students, or just kick back and enjoy the top-rate education.

Endorsements

Chuck Swindoll: "If it is your desire to know what you believe and why you believe it, then The Theology Program is for you."

Dan Wallace: "If this kind of program could be multiplied in churches throughout America and the world, there would be hope for the evangelical church."

J.P. Moreland: "For 25 years I have been laboring to call the church to love God with its mind, and wherever I go I am constantly asked for examples of local church curriculum that responds to this call with excellence. Well, look no further. The Theology Program is the best thing I have seen to date and recommend it with great excitement."

The Theology Program online school is for everyone since theology is for everyone. You won't regret it.

Details

When: Tuesday Evenings From 6-7pm CST starting Jan. 25.
How Long: 10 Weeks
Time Commitment: If you are going for the certificate, about 2-3 hours per week.
Cost: $100*
Place: Online or at the Credo House in Edmond, Oklahoma

To find out more or enroll, go here or call the Credo House at 405-748-4288.

*Scholarships are available upon request.

**Enroll before Friday and receive 2 for 1.

***Get a group together and do this from you home as a small group.

Gospel Grace and Sexual Assault

This is one of those books I wish Crossway didn't have to publish. Which is different from saying that I wish Crossway didn't publish it. I am, in fact, deeply grateful.

I'm referring to Justin and Lindsey Holcomb's new book, Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing for Victims of Sexual Assault, due out this month.

This husband-and-wife team has spent countless hours in counseling victims and poring over God's work, applying the gospel into the lives of people by sexual sin against them. If you've ever wondered what the gospel has to say to the victims of sexual assault, you'll see it in this book. They labor to show that "the gospel applies grace to disgrace and redeems what is destroyed," that "one-way love heals and replaces the destruction caused by one-way violence."

You can read Mark Driscoll's foreword, the table of contents, and the first chapter online for free.

Below are some endorsements, followed by a 15-minute conversation I had with the Holcombs about the book:

"I can't express how grateful I am that someone is tackling this subject with both a pastoral heart and an understanding of how the devastating effects of sexual assault can wreak havoc for decades after the abuse. It is an epidemic issue where resources are scarce. There isn't a weekend that goes by where we aren't told a gut-wrenching tale of innocence stolen and left trying to help a man or woman make sense of their pain. I praise God for the gospel that can heal and restore and for the Holcombs that had the courage and wisdom to write this book for us."

—Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Highland Village, Texas

"Having experienced much sexual brokenness in my own life and now having pastored a church that ministers to thousands of broken people, I can say with confidence that this book is desperately needed. Justin and Lindsey write to help the abused and to help those who help the abused. It is a must-read for all those who live and minister in this sexually broken world."

—Darrin Patrick, Founding Pastor of The Journey Church, St Louis, MO; author, Church Planter

"God sees, knows, heals, restores, and redeems. This is the message of hope this book offers, to all who have suffered from abuse. How desperately needed this message is in our culture today! In my interaction with teens and young adults, I have heard many stories of sexual abuse. I am so thrilled that there is a resource like this book that offers relevant, practical, biblical hope and healing words of life."

—Rebecca St. James, singer; author; actress

"Jesus says, 'Blessed are those who mourn.' Rid of My Disgrace gives sexual assault victims, and those who love and serve them, the freedom to grieve the violence against them and the tools to experience healing and hope in Jesus. I am so thankful for this major contribution to my life and the people I love."

—Grace Driscoll, pastor's wife, mother of five, conference speaker, author

"The world—and too often the church—encourages victims of sexual assault to do more. Self-help advice just adds more layers of guilt and a sense of powerlessness. The authors of this excellent book have good news: literally, a gospel that answers our disgrace with the grace of God in Christ. For anyone who suffers from abuse—as well as those who minister to them—Rid of My Disgrace is powerful, healing medicine."

—Michael S. Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics, Westminster Seminary California

"Some books are easy to read, but this isn't one of them. Its difficulty, however, is not a matter of style or prose but of substance. We don't like thinking about sexual assault and abuse. We'd rather pretend they don't exist. But the church can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to the extent of this problem or to ignore the devastation it brings to both body and soul. What makes this book so worthy of your attention, notwithstanding the discomfort it may cause you to feel, is the wealth of wisdom, gospel grace, and pastoral sensitivity that the Holcombs bring to bear on those affected by this experience. No matter how deep the pain or sense of loss endured by the victims of sexual assault, God's healing grace and power are greater still. Highly recommended!"

—Sam Storms, Pastor, Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City, OK; Founder, Enjoying God Ministries

"Careful research, lots of Scripture, and a demonstration that the work of Christ says 'you are washed clean' to those who feel like outcasts, which will speak to victims of sexual abuse."

—Ed Welch, Counselor and Faculty, The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation

A World Without Jobs

Andy Crouch reflects on the secular gospel of Steve Jobs and what his absence will mean for our culture.

How to Build a Nice Little Classical Music Collection for $15

Step 1: Go to Amazon.com.

Step 2: Download the MP3s for the following albums:

The 99 Most Essential Bach Masterpieces
The 99 Most Essential Mozart Masterpieces
The 99 Most Essential Beethoven Masterpieces

Each one is only $5. You can see all of their albums in that collection here.

Step 3: Transfer them into your iTunes or however you listen to music on your computer or MP3 player.

So for only $15, you'll have nearly 300 classical pieces—over 30 hours—at your disposal.

Summer Institute for Biblical Languages

This may be the best way to learn the original biblical languages: an intensive summer-immersion course at RTS Jackson.

Here's a press release:

The RTS Jackson Summer Institute for Biblical Languages (SIBL) has been created in order to provide thorough, intensive introductions to all three biblical languages. Hebrew and Greek will be offered each year during the summer, five days a week, three hours per day, for seven weeks. During this seven-week period, students will complete a full year of language study (Hebrew 1 and 2 or Greek 1 and 2). Aramaic can be offered every other year or as needed by request (two hours a day, five days per week for three weeks – 2 credit hours).

These courses are intended to provide a better educational context for the biblical languages given the increasing part-time nature of student enrollment. Any RTS student at an RTS campus can take these courses for credit. Additionally, pastors who would like to brush up on biblical language skills may find it to better fit their current ministry contexts. Also, RTS alumni can take the courses for free.

Benefits to this system are:

Complete an entire year of language study in 7 weeks;
The intensive, immersion context is better suited for language acquisition than intermittent exposure during a regular academic year full of other distractions. Your proficiency after 7 intensive weeks will normally be better than after one year at a regular academic pace.
This intensive environment also creates strong community. We eat together. We play ultimate frisbee together. We study together. We worship together!

Do you love the Gospel? Then come study the biblical languages in Jackson, Miss, during the summer. If God has called you to Gospel ministry then he has called you to study the biblical languages, all of them, not just to get by and use the tools, but to know better God's Word and be transformed by that Word into a minister of God's gospel! Martin Luther once said, "Without the languages, the Gospel will surely perish!"

If you need persuasion or motivation regarding the importance of the original languages, consider this quote by Martin Luther:

We will not long preserve the gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath in which this sword of the Spirit is contained; they are the casket in which this jewel is enshrined; they are the vessel in which this wine is held; they are the larder in which this food is stored; and, as the gospel itself points out, they are the baskets in which are kept these loaves and fishes and fragments.

Rod Decker has collected some helpful reading here:

John Piper, "Brothers, Bitzer Was a Banker!" The Standard, June 1983, 18-19.
A. T. Robertson, The Minister and His Greek New Testament (1923): Chapter 1, "The Minister's Use of His Greek New Testament"; Chapter 7, "Grammar and Preaching"; Chapter 9, "John Brown of Haddington or Learning Greek Without a Teacher"

Also see Jason DeRouchie's talk, "Biblical and Historical Perspectives on the Need for the Biblical Languages," with the following seven arguments:

Using the biblical languages exalts Jesus and affirms God's wisdom in giving us his Word in a book.
Using the biblical languages enables us to observe more accurately and thoroughly, understand more clearly, evaluate more fairly, and interpret more confidently the inspired details of the biblical text.
Using the biblical languages allows us to use more efficiently and evaluate more fairly the best secondary tools for biblical interpretation.
Using the biblical languages fosters a depth of character, commitment, conviction, and satisfaction in life and ministry that results in a validated witness in the world.
Using the biblical languages provides a warranted boldness, a sustained freshness, and a more articulated, sure, and helpful witness to the Truth in preaching and teaching.
Using the biblical languages equips us to defend the Gospel and to hold others accountable more confidently.
Using the biblical languages helps preserve the purity of the Gospel and a joyful glorifying of God by his Church into the next generation.

Truly Missional

"We can't be truly missional without preserving a place for, and giving priority to, the pursuit of the unreached. It doesn't matter how much a church may say that it is being missional; it is not fully missional in the biblical sense if it is not both pursuing mission at home among native reached people and being an engaged sender in support of missionaries to the unreached."

—David Mathis, Don't Call It a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day

HT: Z

Do Pro-lifers Care about Life after Birth?

Helen Alvaré, Greg Pfundstein, Matthew Schmitz and Ryan T. Anderson look at "The Lazy Slander of the Pro-Life Cause."

One of the most frequently repeated truisms of the abortion debate is that pro-lifers really don't care about life. As much as they talk about protecting the unborn, we are told, pro-lifers do nothing to support mothers and infants who are already in the world. Liberal writers such as Matthew Yglesias are given to observing that pro-lifers believe that "life begins at conception and ends at birth." At Commonweal, David Gibson, a journalist who frequently covers the abortion debate, asks how much pro-lifers do for mothers: "I just want to know what realistic steps they are proposing or backing. I'm not sure I'd expect to hear anything from pro-life groups now since there's really been nothing for years."

This lazy slander is as common as it is untrue. Of course, there is much more that needs to be done, but in the decades since Roe v. Wade, pro-lifers have taken the lead in offering vital services to mothers and infants in need. Operating with little support—and often actual opposition—from agencies, foundations, and local governments, pro-lifers have relied upon a network of committed donors and volunteers to make great strides in supporting mothers and their infants. It's time the media takes notice.

You can read the whole thing here.

Ted Haggard

Having watched the first episode of Ted Haggard's new reality TV show—for those counting, this is his second reality show/documentary—it's hard not to agree with the conclusion to Carl Trueman's most recent column:

"When you hang your head in shame, the last thing you should be thinking about is whether the camera has caught your good side."