Justin Taylor's Blog, page 370

R. C. Sproul on Abortion

A 23-minute interview, well worth your time:

Dr. Sproul's book, Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue, has been re-released on its 20th anniversary. You can read the foreword, table of contents, and first chapter here.

Here are links to an older online video series from Dr. Sproul on what he calls "the number one ethical issue that this nation has ever faced."

What Are the Key Issues?
How Sacred Is Human Life?
When Does Life Begin?
What Is the Relationship of Church and State?
What About Those Who Demand Their Rights?
What Is Your Verdict?

The Blame Game after the Tucson Murders

Ross Douthat has the best commentary I've seen on this. The whole thing is worth reading.

He provides some good historical context of previous assassinations and then writes:

Chances are that Loughner's motives will prove as irreducibly complex as those of most of his predecessors in assassination. Violence in American politics tends to bubble up from a world that's far stranger than any Glenn Beck monologue — a murky landscape where worldviews get cobbled together from a host of baroque conspiracy theories, and where the line between ideological extremism and mental illness gets blurry fast.

Here's the closing:

When our politicians and media loudmouths act like fools and zealots, they should be held responsible for being fools and zealots. They shouldn't be held responsible for the darkness that always waits to swallow up the unstable and the lost.

We should remember, too, that there are places where mainstream political movements really are responsible for violence against their rivals. (Last week's assassination of a Pakistani politician who dared to defend a Christian is a stark reminder of what that sort of world can look like.) Not so in America: From the Republican leadership to the Tea Party grass roots, all of Gabrielle Giffords's political opponents were united in horror at the weekend's events. There is no faction in American politics that actually wants its opponents dead.

That may seem like a small blessing, amid so much tragedy and loss. But it is a blessing worth remembering nonetheless.

Christians and Internet Presence

Some wise words in this roundtable discussion with Trevin Wax, Steve McCoy, Jared Wilson, and Brandon Smith.

Proverbs 31:28

Sudan—A Historic Day: Pray

If you go to iTunes and download the song "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" ($.99), 100% of the proceeds go to His Voice Global to build a fourth orphanage in Southern Sudan. Sudan is a war-torn country with over 2 million dead, and scores of orphans. Once build, the orphanage will be self-sustained by HVG's trucking company there.

The song is by Swoope, ft. Lecrae, Tedashii, and Jai. Here's a new video:

Swoope "Actions Speak Louder" ft. Lecrae, Tedashii, and Jai from Collision Recs on Vimeo.

Here is a snippet from CNN on what is going to happen tomorrow (Sunday, January 9, 2011):

Several million people will decide in the next week or so whether to give birth to the world's newest nation.

They will cast ballots on whether to declare independence at polling stations sprinkled across the vast, flat plains of Southern Sudan, an East African landscape long riven by chaos.

War and famine have ravaged generations in the south for as long as anyone can remember. Fighting forced more people from their homes than in any other nation on earth. Hope remained elusive.

Yet the vote has given many southerners the rare sense of exhilaration that is borne of new beginnings.

From January 9 to January 15, the black Christians and animists in the autonomous region of Southern Sudan will vote on whether to declare independence from a northern government dominated by Arab Muslims. The two sides fought a war that killed 2 million people from 1983 to 2005, when a peace treaty set the stage for the upcoming vote.

Nearly 4 million have registered to cast ballots. Few doubt the outcome. . .

[Read the rest.]

And pray. HVG shares 6 ways to pray on the eve of this historic vote.

How Can You Live a Gospel-Centered Life?

Let Paul's perspective of gospel-in-community instruct you through his letter to the Philippians:

You can partner with others in the gospel (Phil. 1:5).
You can defend the gospel (Phil. 1:7, 16).
You can confirm the gospel (Phil. 1:7).
You can help to advance the gospel (Phil. 1:12).
You can live a life worthy of the gospel (Phil. 1:27).
You can strive side by side with others for the faith of the gospel (Phil. 1:27).
You can serve with and labor side-by-side with others in the gospel (Phil. 2:21; 4:2).

The Book David Wells Would Like to Become the Most Influential This Year

David Wells:

The book I would love to see become the year's most influential is J.I . Packer and Gary Parrett's Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way. It argues that our churches should be catechizing because this kind of teaching, especially of our young, preserves doctrine. Biblical doctrine is what makes the church the church. We are stumbling in passing on the doctrinal core of the faith, and that goes to the heart of the church's weakness today.

From an interview with Tabletalk, which is worth reading.

Lost

"Unapproachable, inaccessible in location or situation, untouched, untouchable, disconnected, unable to be met or out of touch. These are all words and descriptions given for yet another word: Unreached."

HT: Bill Walsh

4 in 10 Pregnancies in NYC End in Abortion

Wesley J. Smith:

Pro-choicers say they want abortion to be safe, legal, and rare. But we will see whether major pro choice organizations react to the awful statistic that 39 percent of pregnancies in NYC result in induced abortion. From the story:

In 2009, there were 225,667 pregnancies in the City with 126,774 resulting in live births and 87,273 resulting in abortions.

Have you ever considered fasting and praying about this great moral evil?

T.S. Eliot Reading "Journey of the Magi"

Here is a BBC recording of T.S. Eliot reading his Christmas poem, "Journey of the Magi."