Justin Taylor's Blog, page 41

A Documentary on How the Gospel Is Advancing in the Middle East

I am thankful for the Dispatches from the Front documentary series, as Tim Keesee takes us to various parts of the world to visit with missionaries who are laboring to introduce people to Christ.

Here’s a description of the newly released episode 10 (running time: 67 minutes) where we go into the Middle East to observe the advance of the gospel:

“He is risen!”—three words that change everything. This wonderfully good news that was first announced to the women at the Empty Tomb is still being declared boldly in the Middle East by the Risen King’s messengers!

Dispatches from the Front goes into this region of centuries-old darkness and division that is now overshadowed by the fierce violence of ISIS terror. Yet, the Gospel is powerfully at work in the Middle East, and Christ is building His Church there just as He said He would. Neither the gates of hell nor the gates of Islam can withstand the work of our Risen King!

From mega-cities in Arabia to refugee camps left in the wake of ISIS terror, The Fourth Man goes beyond the headlines to showcase the Gospel’s power to save, the mercy and love of believers, and their abiding joy as Christ walks through the fires of persecution with them.

You can preview all of the episodes in this series here.

You can buy the 10-episode DVD set for $50 total (retail: $150). For just the next couple of days they are also selling this latest DVD for $6.

My Favorite Christian Music Video

Fernando Ortega’s tribute to Ruth Bell Graham (1920-2007):

5.5 Hours of Teaching through the Letter to the Galatians (Piper, Carson, Keller, and More)

Here are the videos from the expository plenaries at the Gospel Coalition National Conference (April 3-5, 2017) in Indianapolis, with the theme of “No Other Gospel.”

Galatians 1 | Paul’s Pilgrimage, Paul’s Plea

John Piper

Galatians 2 | Apostolic Confrontation: The Exclusive Sufficiency of Christ 

Sandy Willson

Galatians 3 | The Gospel of Grace: How to Read the Bible, Part 1 

Peter Adam

Galatians 4 | The Gospel of Grace: How to Read the Bible, Part 2 

Don Carson

Galatians 5 | Gospel Freedom, Gospel Fruit

Thabiti Anyabwile

Galatians 6 | Boasting in Nothing Except the Cross

Tim Keller

MLK50: Gospel Reflections from the Mountaintop

Introducing mlk50conference.com, a conference on April 4, 2018, to reflect upon the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

For the next 50 days, this one-day conference in Memphis will be on sale for only $50.

For more information, see mlk50conference.com.

Jacques Barzun’s 20 Principles for Simple and Direct Writing

Jacques Barzun offers 20 principles for good writing in Simple and Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers:

Have a point and make it by means of the best word.
Weed out the jargon.
Look for all fancy wordings and get rid of them.
Make sure you know not only the meaning but also the bearing of the words you use.
Consult your second thoughts about slang, euphemisms, and “what everybody says,” so as to make your diction entirely your own choice.
Respect the integrity of set phrases, partitives, clichés, and complex modifiers.
Ideas connected in reality require words similarly linked, by nearness or by suitable linking words.
For a plain style, avoid everything that can be called roundabout—in idea, in linking, or in expression.
Agreement is as pleasant in prose as it is in personal relations, and no more difficult to work for.
Cling to your meaning. The tense or mood of a verb in a linked pair can destroy it.
Do not borrow plumes.
To be plain and straightforward, resist equally the appeal of old finery and the temptation of smart novelties.
The mark of a plain tone is combined lucidity and force.
Trifles matter in two ways: magnified, they lead to pedantry; overlooked, they generate nonsense.
Make fewer words do more work by proper balance, matching parts, and tight construction.
Worship no images and question the validity of all.
In each portion of the work, begin from a point clear to you and the reader and move forward without wobble or meander.
The writing of a sentence is finished only when the order of the words cannot be changed without damage to the thought or its visibility.
In whatever paragraphs or essays you write, verify the sequence of ideas and take out or transpose everything that interrupts the march of thought and feeling.
Read and revise, reread and revise, keep reading and revising until your text seems adequate to your thought.

For more from Barzun, see my post, Jacques Barzun’s 10-point Checklist for Revising Your Prose.

The TGC National Conference Livestream Schedule

All times Eastern Daylight.

Monday, April 3

1:00 pm John Piper | Paul’s Pilgrimage, Paul’s Plea | Galatians 1

3:00 pm Sandy Willson | Apostolic Confrontation: The Exclusive Sufficiency of Christ | Galatians 2

4:00 pm Stephen Nichols | On Martin Luther

7:30 pm Kevin DeYoung | On John Calvin

Tuesday, April 4

8:00 am Ben Sasse| What Does Washington Have to Do with Jerusalem?

9:00 am Peter Adam | The Gospel of Grace: How to Read the Bible, Part 1 | Galatians 3

11:00 am Don Carson | The Gospel of Grace: How to Read the Bible, Part 2 | Galatians 4

7:30 pm Ligon Duncan | The Reformed Tradition Beyond Calvin

Wednesday, April 5

9:00 am Thabiti Anyabwile | Gospel Freedom, Gospel Fruit | Galatians 5

11:00 am Tim Keller | Boasting in Nothing Except the Cross | Galatians 6

Tim Keller Introduces the New City Catechism

Tim Keller, who helped to create the New City Catechism, explains why it is needed:

Collin Hansen adds:

The New City Catechism (NCC) is 52 questions and answers developed and adapted from the Reformation catechisms. Until now, the NCC has only been offered in app (iTunes | Google Play) and online form.

Since its release in 2012, we have heard regularly from readers who loved the NCC, but didn’t want to use an electronic device in their devotions or with their children at bedtime. So we are grateful to Crossway for partnering with TGC and Redeemer Presbyterian Church to make it available in print—now available in two different products and on sale for more than 50 percent off next week at our national conference.

The New City Catechism Devotional will not only help adults learn the 52 questions and answers of the catechism, it will also help readers go deeper in understanding the theological concepts covered.

Each question is accompanied by contemporary commentary from pastors and TGC Council members, including Thabiti Anyabwile, Don Carson, Kevin DeYoung, Tim Keller, and John Piper. Every entry also includes an original prayer, supporting Scripture passage, and historical reading from figures such as Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Jonathan Edwards, and John Calvin.

In addition to this devotional for adults, The New City Catechism is a basic print version of the NCC for use in families, small groups, and churches.

You can also visit NewCityCatechism.com or download the new and improved apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android to find original children’s music to aid in memorization.

Additionally, TGC is in the process of producing a children’s curriculum suitable for Sunday schools and homeschooling based on The New City Catechism, which we plan to release in summer 2018.

An FAQ on The Collected Works of John Piper (3 Million Words over 13 volumes + an Index Volume)

Crossway has now published The Collected Works of John Piper, a set many years in the making—four years in the editing and nearly fifty years in the writing.

Below is an FAQ, adapted from the introduction to the set written by David Mathis and me.

Who Is John Piper?

The son of a traveling evangelist, John Stephen Piper was born on January 11, 1946, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. That summer, Bob Jones College moved from Cleveland, Tennessee, to Greenville, South Carolina, and the Pipers, who were happy fundamentalists, moved with the school. John graduated from Wade Hampton High School in 1964, and then earned his bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College (1964-1968), his divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary (1968-1971), and his doctorate from the University of Munich (1971-1974). For the next six years, he taught biblical studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota (1974-1980), before becoming senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota (1980-2013).

In December of 1968, John Piper married Noël Henry. They have four sons, one daughter, and twelve grandchildren.

Piper has served as the founder, cofounder, or an early influencer or founding member of several organizations, including the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (1987), Desiring God (1994), the Passion conferences (1997), The Gospel Coalition (2005), Together for the Gospel (2006), Bethlehem College & Seminary (2009), and the CROSS Conference (2014). Since his transition from local pastoral ministry in March of 2013, Piper’s primary teaching, speaking, and writing have happened through Desiring God. He also has served part-time as chancellor and professor for Bethlehem College and Seminary.

Piper’s stated mission for his life, and the purpose of his writing and speaking ministry, is “to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.”

Why Collect Piper’s Writings in One Set?

The years of work that have gone into collecting this set have been guided by the conviction that these writings have already been used of God for over four decades to equip, convict, instruct, and edify the church, and to glorify the worth and excellence of God’s name. We pray that the result of assembling into one place all of Piper’s writings—not only all of his books but also all of his other published pieces—will be an ongoing means of grace for the body of Christ.

To read all of Piper’s published writings individually would require the acquisition of more than one hundred volumes, along with tracking down dozens of older articles and reviews in obscure publications. By editing, assembling, and standardizing these volumes in one definitive set, we hope to provide convenient access to the work of a proven and trustworthy teacher.

We also hope that the hundreds of pages of indices—tracking every Scripture passage, author cited, and subject matter—will be a helpful too for preachers and all students of God’s Word.

What Writings Are Included in the Collected Works?

Our basic criterion for selection has been to include everything that John Piper has written for publication in printed books, magazines, and journals. The result is forty-five books, sixty articles and reviews, twenty-three forewords, and forty-two chapters—totaling around three million words (all of this is in addition to his sermon manuscripts and online articles already available, free of charge, at desiringGod.org).

For further information on what is included and excluded, see the introduction to the annotated chronological bibliography in the final volume of this set.

What Time Period Does This Cover?

The time period covered in these first thirteen volumes of Piper’s Collected Works begins in 1970 (with his first published book review, as a seminary student) and extends through 2015.

What is the binding and how many pages is the total set?

The volumes are clothbound hardcovers, totaling 8,464 pages.

Will an electronic edition be published?

In order to make the arrangements with the other publishers, we are only able to offer this as a product in print. No digital editions will be forthcoming.

Will individual volumes be available separately?

This will only be sold as a set.

What Editions of the Books Are Used?

Some of Piper’s books have gone through multiple expanded and updated editions. A couple of books have been retitled. In this collection, we have included the latest version of every book that Piper has written. For bibliographic purposes, therefore, the version of the books included in this set can now be cited as a the standardized forms of Piper’s writings.

Are the Books Included in the Collected Works Only Those Published by Crossway?

No. Crossway, as the publisher of this set, has worked out an arrangement with the other four publishers—Multnomah, Baker, B&H, and Christian Focus—to include all the books that John Piper has published through 2015.

What Was John Piper’s Role in the Production of These Works?

In addition to granting approval for any significant changes in wording, Piper wrote a fresh preface-essay for each of the first thirteen volumes, identifying the origin and motivation for the works, common themes, and suggestions for reading them. These substantive reflections for this set and offer a unique personal retrospective on Piper’s writings.

Can You Provide an Excerpt from One of Piper’s Preface-Essays?

After a few pages of detailing the origin of Desiring God and The Pleasures of God (volume 2), Piper reflects on the relationship between these two foundational books:

It is not hard to see how deeply these two books are related in their subject matter. Desiring God focuses on the happy biblical mandate that we should desire God above all things—to have God as our all-satisfying Treasure. It blasts forever the deadly notion that we must, or should, choose between seeking our joy and seeking God’s glory. It cannot be, and dare not be, if indeed God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

What are we to do? How are we to desire God with a desire anything close to befitting his infinite worth? Is not the answer that we must desire him with his own desire for his own glory? Must we not delight in him with the very delight that he has in himself? Must we not “enter into the joy of [our] master” (Matt. 25:21)? Must we not have his joy fulfilled in ourselves (John 17:13), and his love for the most Lovely become the love that we have for him (John 17:26)?

Which means that The Pleasures of God points to the supreme passion of the universe: God’s delight in the glory of God. If we would desire God in a way that would fully glorify God, then our desire must be more than we can produce. Surely, this is why Christian joy—Christ-exalting joy—is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and not a merely human product. And is not the work of the Holy Spirit to communicate, as God’s very presence in us, the joy that God has in God?

Thus my prayer for those I love most, as you can see at the end of the preface to The Pleasures of God, and now my prayer for you, is this: “In God’s time, may your satisfaction in God be without measure, as it becomes the very pleasure of God in God.”

Piper offers these kinds of extended reflections for each collected volume.

What Was the Editorial Philosophy for the Collected Works?

The entire collection was edited line by line to provide reasonable consistency in formatting, to make occasional clarifications (with Piper’s approval), and to update sources. We have tried to minimize major redundancies among the writings. For example, a number of the chapters in The Justification of God were originally published as academic articles. Rather than reprint both, we have included only the final book version. Or, as another example, the chapters in Brothers, We Are Not Professionals were originally published in a denominational magazine. They are included here only in their final book version. To see a comprehensive tracking of Piper’s publishing year by year, please consult the final volume.

In terms of providing the reader with the original context and background for the various writings, we have leaned on Piper’s new prefaces along with the original front matter for each book. The major exception comes in volumes 12 and 13, where we seek to provide an introductory footnote for Piper’s non-book writings (reviews, articles, chapters, forewords) in order to provide explanatory background information.

Are the Writings Presented in Chronological Order?

Yes and no. The basic order is chronological, according to original publication dates, but we arranged some volumes more thematically.

The two books in the first volume, Love Your Enemies and The Justification of God, are Piper’s first two books and also his most technical and academic.

The next two books, comprising the second volume, are Desiring God and The Pleasures of God. Piper published one book between these two, but we determined that these two foundational books fit naturally together as their own volume.

The thematic arrangement should be fairly obvious in other volumes. For example, the six books of eighteen historical biographies in The Swans Are Not Silent series make up volume 9.

Volumes 10 and 11 contain all of Piper’s devotional readings, followed by all of his published poetry.

Volumes 12 and 13 include all of Piper’s chapters and forewords, as well as reviews and articles for journals and magazines, with all of the items presented chronologically within their category.

What about Future Writings from Piper?

Sometime in the indeterminate future, when Piper’s writing production comes to a conclusion, we plan to publish several additional volumes to complete the set. Our expectation is that the complete set would be sold as one unit, and that the second half would be available for separate purchase for those who would like to supplement this current edition of the Collected Works.

What Is in the Final Volume, and Why Doesn’t It Have a Number?

The Collected Works contains thirteen volumes of Piper’s writings. The final, additional volume includes a year-by-year bibliography of Piper’s published work, including every edition that was published. In addition, all of Piper’s Sunday sermons from his pulpit ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church (1980-2013) are listed in chronological order.

This final volume also contains the indexes to the entire set, allowing readers to reference Piper’s use of Scripture, subjects, and persons. We have decided not to number this volume, but rather to replace it when we publish the full and final edition of the Collected Works. Thus, the first volume in the second half of this set will begin as volume 14.

Where Can I Buy It and Who Has the Best Price?

The retail price for the set is $699. (But if you pay that much, you’re doing it wrong!)

CBD has it for $299 (57% off).
WTS has it for $299 (57% off).
Amazon has it for $319.07 (46% off). [Note, however, that with Prime you get free one-day shipping. You’ll have to do the math if this means a better deal for you.]

If you will be at the TGC conference in Indianapolis next week, Lifeway will be selling it for the $299 price and offering free shipping as well.

I still can’t afford to buy it: any suggestions?

It’d be a wonderful addition to your local library or church library, along with college and seminary libraries. Perhaps you could suggest they purchase it.

Reading the Book Acknowledgments

I know I am odd, but I almost cannot imagine reading a book and not wanting to read the author’s acknowledgments. Even in the most technical of books by the most erudite of authors, the acknowledgments serve as a reminder that the author is a human being, dependent upon the good graces of others to complete the long and lonely work of writing a publishable book.

Several acknowledgments through the years have made me smile. For example, Moisés Silva, after thanking several students and colleagues for reading a draft of the manuscript, made a tongue-in-cheek comment that pokes fun at the cliche about these people not being to blame for any errors that remain:

Of course, all of these friends expressed total agreement with everything claimed in this book, and they take full responsibility for any remaining errors.

B.M. Pietsch—whose fascinating dissertation turned book is actually a delight to read!—decided to have a little fun and blame the people in his life for the book he produced:

I blame all of you. Writing this book has been an exercise in sustained suffering. The casual reader may, perhaps, exempt herself from excessive guilt, but for those of you who have played the larger role in prolonging my agonies with your encouragement and support, well . . . you know who you are, and you owe me.

There are other acknowledgments that leave the reader—at least this one—with a sense of sadness:

I have seen more than one author’s preface include apologies to children who frequently asked during the writing of the book, “When is Daddy going to be finished?” This book has taken so long from start to finish that my children have all grown up and moved away during that time. Maybe they asked about it in former days, but they gave up long ago if they did.

My apology is aimed at others—at those editors, colleagues, family member, employers, students, and ultimately readers whose lives have been made at least somewhat uncomfortable by the book’s delay.

At least it finally got done.

Yikes! I felt guilty just turning the page to begin the book.

The other day I read John Piper’s “A Word of Thanks” in his new book, Reading the Bible Supernaturally: Seeing and Savoring the Glory of God in Scripture, which is a sequel to his book, A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness.

Having co-edited Piper’s Collected Works, I think I have read the acknowledgements in all fifty of his books. But this is a uniquely beautiful meditation on the meaning of gratitude as a writer enters his eighth decade of life.

The kind of thanks one feels at age seventy is not entirely the same as when one was forty. It is more obvious now that every minute of life is a gift. Every pain-free moment is a gift. Every memory of something read or thought, one more year’s gainful employment, each day’s renewal of energy, friends who have not yet died or moved away, hearing the doorbell, seeing words on a page, one more spectacular October maple in Minneapolis just outside my window—all gifts.

Of course, they have always been gifts. But the closer you are to saying good-bye to a friend, the more precious he feels. Don’t get me wrong. My thoughts are indomitably future-oriented. I’m not dead yet. In fact, nearing the end makes me feel more alive, not less. That could be owing to the smell of heaven blowing back into this world. For heaven is a very alive place. Or it could be the adrenaline of urgency with less and less time left to do more and more.

In any case, I am thankful for every day, and every gift. I love being alive. And I love writing. Some things you just feel made to do. I suppose that’s what Eric Liddell meant when he said, “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.” I’m not fast. In fact, the list of competencies that I don’t have is painfully long. Writing is not about being great. It’s about making something. Writing is my carpentry, my masonry, my culinary arts, my painting and sculpting and carving, my gardening, my knitting and crocheting and needlepoint, my coin collecting.

Writing is about the joy of creating—as Dorothy Sayers would say, sharing “the Mind of the Maker.” What an amazing thing: to make much of the Maker by making like the Maker. So I am thankful for the calling and the freedom and the pressure to write. I am thankful for Desiring God, where I work full-time, and where they expect me to write. They pay me to write. And they expect me to write what is true and what is beautiful. They hold me to it.

What a gift! The whole team is precious to me. And David Mathis, executive editor, stands out, because he reads everything I write, and his suggestions make it better. I thank God for David’s leadership of a great team of writers at Desiring God—Jon Bloom, Tony Reinke, and Marshall Segal. How can one not write with joy when surrounded by such thinkers and writers?

In one sense, publishing is secondary to my writing. If nobody wanted to read what I write, I would still write, because it’s how I see things, and how I savor reality. It’s how I learn. But the fact is that God has blessed me with an amazing partnership with Crossway. I love their vision, and they have been willing to publish my books. This is a gift to me. It’s much more than a business arrangement. It’s a camaraderie in Christ and in his global cause of glorifying the Father.

On the home front, the children are all grown and gone their ways. So only Noël and I (and the dog) are left. That leaves only Noël to celebrate in this paragraph. And what a gift she is! She has supported this calling to write from the beginning. She is a good writer herself. She is working on a biography of a missionary to China. God has been good to me in such a wife. I can’t imagine what life would have been without her. I said to her the other day, “I’m really glad you’re here to come down to from my study at the end of the day.”

Of course, behind all these gifts is the Giver. I thank God for Jesus, and for loving me in him, and for giving me his Holy Spirit, and covering all my sins. Noël and I look to him and say,

The Lord, our God, shall be our strength,

And give us life, whatever length

On earth he please, and make our feet

Like mountain deer, to rise and cleat

The narrow path for man and wife

That rises steep and leads to life.

Simon Gathercole on the Historical Reliability of the Geography in the Gospels

In his 1993 book on The Roman Near East published by Harvard University Press, Fergus Millar—now emeritus professor of ancient history at Oxford University—wrote:

The Gospels provide an extremely vivid, and in geographical terms quite extensive, view of what the area of Jewish settlement was in Jesus’ time.

Not everyone believes or knows that, though.

Simon Gathercole—Reader in New Testament Studies and Director of Studies at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University—recently gave a lecture at Lanier Theological Library in Houston, Texas, on “The Journeys of Jesus and Jewish Geography.”

Here is a description:

The Gospels in the New Testament contain a remarkable amount of geographical information, especially in the quantity of references to areas, towns, and villages that Jesus (and John the Baptist) visited.

Are these genuine or fictitious?

Some Jesus skeptics have doubted the existence of places like Nazareth and Capernaum.

Even many New Testament scholars are unaware of the evidence for Gospel sites.

Strikingly, however, a huge proportion of the place-names in the Gospels are paralleled in Jewish literature outside the New Testament, even down to some of the small villages.

This illustrated lecture will examine the historical evidence, some already known, some presented for the first time, for the places in the Gospel.  It will show how this evidence has clear implications for the reliability of the Gospel narratives.

You can watch the lecture below (and view the slides here):

Gathercole finds attestations of the places in the canonical Gospels in three locations: (1) Old Testament, (2) Josephus, (3) Rabbinic literature.

OT

Jerusalem

Jericho

Tyre

Sidon

Bethlehem

Ephraim

Arimathaea

Josephus

Cana

Capernaum

Gadara

Caesarea

Philippi

Bethsaida

Tiberia

Emmaus

Rabbis

Bethphage

Sychar

Gennesaret

Naim/n

Chorazin

Magdala

Gergesa

Nazareth

Unattested

Magadan

Dalmanutha

Bethany

Aenon

Salim

He closes by comparing the Gospels with both Josephus and Apocrypha.

Gospels: 22 out of 27 places attested = 81%
Josephus: 35 out of 44 places attested = 80%

Apocryphal Gospels:

absence of geographical detail
mistakes of geographical detail

See also Peter Williams’s Lanier lecture on new evidence that the Gospels were based on eyewitness testimony: