Justin Taylor's Blog, page 78

It’s Friday, but Sunday (= Mother’s Day!) Is Coming

WTS Books has some excellent resources for sale for wives and moms, including 5 books, 6 Bibles, and a hymnal.

You can check them out here.

For more information on the ESV Women’s Devotional Bible in particular, the videos below provide some more information:

Top 10 Questions the Supreme Court Justices Asked on the Constitutional Right to Same-Sex Marriage

Russell Moore and Andrew Walker have listed the top 10 questions they heard yesterday during the oral arguments before the Supreme Court on gay marriage.

Here they are:

Chief Justice Roberts asked whether expanding marriage to include gay couples would lead to marriage’s redefinition.
Justice Kennedy expressed concern about whether it was prudent for the Supreme Court to step in and change the definition of an institution that was as old, to use his language as “millennia.” In short, he asked whether it was is imprudent and unwise to suggest that the Supreme Court knows better than ancient history and its belief about marriage.
Justice Alito expressed skepticism at the idea that traditional or biblical marriage “demeans” gay people. He asked the lawyer in support of same-sex marriage whether that was a “primary purpose.”
Along this same line of questioning, Justice Alito observed that while ancient cultures like Greece embraced homosexuality, they still held marriage as distinct. He asked, “So their limiting marriage to couples of the opposite sex was not based on prejudice against gay people, was it?”
Justice Breyer hinted at perhaps the most important aspect of this particular case: Letting the states decide. He suggested that this debate is working itself out in the states, asking why not “wait and see whether in fact doing so in other states is or is not harmful to marriage?”
Because marriage policy should always be based on sound principle, Justice Alito questioned whether redefining marriage to include same-sex couples would allow polygamous couples to marry. He asked: “What would be the logic of denying them the same right?”
Referencing Bob Jones University’s wrong and sinful banning of interracial dating, Alito asked whether redefining marriage would eventually pose risks (such as the loss of tax-exempt status) to the religious liberty of religious institutions.
Several of the Court’s more liberal justices pressed what the actual harms are of same-sex marriage. They seemed insistent that redefining marriage to include same-sex couples will not result in tangible harms to society. In short, they thought the state lacked sufficient purpose to deny same-sex couples the right to marry. Along the same lines, they argued that there are “dignitary harms” of denying children the opportunity to grow up in a married same-sex household.
Justice Sotomayor stated that marriage is a right embedded in the Constitution. Her question was how to continue exercising that right and finding a just cause for excluding some groups from marrying and not others.
Justice Ginsberg questioned the attorney defending traditional marriage whether a procreative definition of marriage required prohibiting 70-year olds from marrying (on the biological assumption that elderly individuals cannot and will not procreate).

For Moore and Walker’s answers to and interaction with these questions, you can read the whole thing.

Ryan Anderson, who was inside the Court, also provides an excellent analysis.

You can access the transcripts and audio of the historic day of argumentation below:

Supreme Court oral arguments on gay marriage (Part 1)

Supreme Court oral arguments on gay marriage (Part 2)

Audio part 1 and part 2.

When Is the Last Time You Heard a Sermon on Ezekiel?

Don Carson, teaching on Ezekiel 40-48, at the TGC 2015 National Conference:

You can access all of the 2015 TGC resources here.

An Interview with Joe Thorn on the Hardest Year of His Life and the New Book That Came Out of It

My conversation with Pastor Joe Thorn, author of Experiencing the Trinity: The Grace of God for the People of God (Crossway, 2015).

To read a sample of the book, go here. Endorsements are below:

“All Christians believe in the Trinity, but most Christians, if we’re honest, don’t like to think about the Trinity that much. The doctrine seems abstract, dry, and distant from everyday life. This book will change that for you. Joe Thorn points us to the joy of a God who is Father, Son, and Spirit, showing us how this truth should prompt us to worship, pray, and trust. He applies this great doctrine without putting us out of its mystery. This book can better equip you to praise the God from whom all blessings flow.”

Russell D. Moore, President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; author, Tempted and Tried

“Experiencing the Trinity will help us focus on God in the midst of the dark clouds and thundering waves that threaten to sink us. The book you hold now is short, but the truths contained therein are neither flippant nor light. It’s just the kind of ballast you need in life’s storms.”

Gloria Furman, Pastor’s wife, Redeemer Church of Dubai; mother of four; author, Glimpses of Grace and Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full

“Here’s gospel gold emerging from the furnace of affliction. Truth that’s been lived becomes life giving as Joe comforts others with the comfort with which he has been comforted by God. I hope and pray that these beautiful meditations will do you as much good as they did me.”

David P. Murray, Professor of Old Testament, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary; pastor, Grand Rapids Free Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan; author, Jesus on Every Page and The Happy Christian

“When we are confused and discouraged, where do we find and place our hope? Thorn has written insightful reflections on how knowing God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit transforms us. Experiencing the Trinity gives us the framework for finding lasting hope in God and will leave an impression on your soul.”

Trillia Newbell, author, United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity and Fear and Faith

“Are you weary, discouraged, spiritually dry? Joe Thorn has found a deep well of living water in the desert, and each reading in this wonderful book provides a glorious supply for the parched in spirit. Experiencing the Trinity is real medicine for the soul.”

Jared C. Wilson, Director of Content Strategy, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Joe Thorn is a pastor-theologian. He also, however, is a broken man. In this book he shares how Joe Thorn the pastor-theologian ministered to Joe Thorn the broken man—how reflection on the reality of all the graces of the triune God put him on the road to healing. Every pastor should want all of his church members to digest this book. It will encourage them toward a more profound dependence upon the grace of God. It will help them abandon all reservations they have to be grateful to God for all things. It will make them become better listeners to doctrinal preaching and will make the preacher himself a much more sensitive, reflective, and truth-oriented proclaimer of the Word of God.”

Tom J. Nettles, Professor of Historical Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; author, By His Grace and for His Glory

 

Hyper-Headship and the Scandal of Domestic Abuse in the Church

Jason Meyer, pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, gave a powerful and important sermon this past Sunday.

In it, he defined things like “hyper-headship”:

Hyper-headship is a satanic distortion of male leadership, but it can fly under the radar of discernment because it is disguised as strong male leadership. Make no mistake—it is harsh, oppressive, and controlling. In other words, hyper-headship becomes a breeding ground for domestic abuse.

Meyer also addressed the issue of domestic abuse, highlighting three lessons in particular they had learned:

Not all abuse cases are the same, even though they may share certain things in common. If you have seen one abuse case, you have seen one abuse case.
We need to distinguish between two types of marital sinfulness: normative sinfulness and abusive sinfulness.
There are spectrums and varieties of domestic abuse. A good working definition of domestic abuse is “a godless pattern of abusive behavior among spouses involving physical, psychological, and/or emotional means to exert and obtain power and control over a spouse for the achievement of selfish ends” (John Henderson).

Calling it a “draw-a-line-in-the-sand kind of moment” for the church, Meyer read a statement from the elders about domestic abuse:

We, the council of elders at Bethlehem Baptist Church, are resolved to root out all forms of domestic abuse (mental, emotional, physical, and sexual) in our midst. This destructive way of relating to a spouse is a satanic distortion of Christ-like male leadership because it defaces the depiction of Christ’s love for his bride. The shepherds of Bethlehem stand at the ready to protect the abused, call abusers to repentance, discipline the unrepentant, and hold up high the stunning picture of how much Christ loves his church.

The statement goes on to give information about whom to contact when abuse is occurring.

Meyer addressed abusers:

If you are an abuser, I call you right now to repent and bear fruit in keeping with repentance. The only hope is on the other side of repentance—getting out of denial so you can own your sin. That is the only hope because if you confess it as sin, there is a sacrifice for sin. There is no sacrifice for denial.

He addressed victims:

If you are being abused, the bulletin gives information on next steps. Please let us help. God hates abuse, and so do we. We are committed to help. If you have come to us for help before and have been disappointed, please give us another chance. We believe that the tide of awareness has risen on all three campuses and that positive changes are happening.

And he addressed children:

If you are a child and have seen one of your parents abuse the other, it is not right, and it is not your fault. You are not to blame. We want to get you help as well. You may think telling someone will tear your family apart, but it may be the only thing that can bring your family back together. If you are a child and you are being abused, let us help. Don’t walk this road alone. Tell someone. Please tell the children’s pastor or your youth pastor or a Sunday school worker.

He then closed with an address to men in particular:

Men of Bethlehem, let me address you. I will lay it on the line. At first glance, it looks like there are three possible doors the men of this church can take.

Door 1: side with the abusersm
Door 2: take no side, or
Door 3: side with the abused and stand up to the abusers.

If you are tempted to open Door 2, please know that it is a slide that just takes you to the same place as Door 1. Doing nothing is doing something: it is looking the other way so the abusers can do their thing without worrying who is watching. Saying nothing is saying something—it’s saying, “Go ahead, we don’t care enough to do anything.”

I would strongly encourage you to read the entire sermon, which contains careful definitions of the various kinds of abuse and various principles about abuse. You can listen to the audio here.

For some resources on abuse, see Justin and Lindsey Holcomb’s resources:

Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing for Victims of Sexual Assault
Rid of My Disgrace: Small Group Discussion Guide
Is It My Fault? Hope and Healing for Those Suffering Domestic Violence
God Made All of Me: A Book to Help Children Protect Their Bodies (forthcoming in September)

See also:

Edward Welch,  Living with an Angry Spouse: Help for Victims of Abuse
David Powlison,  Recovering from Child Abuse: Healing and Hope for Victims
John Henderson,  Abuse: Finding Hope in Christ
Deepak Reju, On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church
Paul Tripp, David Powlison, Ed Welch,  Domestic Abuse: How to Help
Diane Langberg, Bringing Christ to Abused Women: Learning to See and Respond

John Piper on How John Owen Can Help Us Battle Sin and Temptation

From John Piper’s foreword to John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation:

* * *

Tragically Light Healing vs.  Long-Term, Deep Growth in Grace

As I look across the Christian landscape, I think it is fair to say concerning sin, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly” (Jer. 6:14; 8:11, ESV). I take this to refer to leaders who should be helping the church know and feel the seriousness of indwelling sin (Rom. 7:20), and how to fight it and kill it (Rom. 8:13). Instead the depth and complexity and ugliness and danger of sin in professing Christians is either minimized—since we are already justified—or psychologized as a symptom of woundedness rather than corruption.

This is a tragically light healing. I call it a tragedy because by making life easier for ourselves in minimizing the nature and seriousness of our sin, we become greater victims of it. We are in fact not healing ourselves. Those who say that they already feel bad enough without being told about the corruptions of indwelling sin misread the path to peace. When our people have not been taught well about the real nature of sin and how it works and how to put it to death, most of the miseries people report are not owing to the disease but its symptoms. They feel a general malaise and don’t know why, their marriages are at the breaking point, they feel weak in their spiritual witness and devotion, their workplace is embattled, their church is tense with unrest, their fuse is short with the children, etc. They report these miseries as if they were the disease. And they want the symptoms removed.

We proceed to heal the wound of the people lightly. We look first and mainly for circumstantial causes for the misery—present or past. If we’re good at it, we can find partial causes and give some relief. But the healing is light. We have not done the kind of soul surgery that is possible only when the soul doctor knows the kind of things Owen talks about in these books, and when the patient is willing to let the doctor’s scalpel go deep.

What Owen offers is not quick relief, but long-term, deep growth in grace that can make strong, healthy trees where there was once a fragile sapling. I pray that thousands—especially teachers and pastors and other leaders—will choose the harder, long-term path of growth, not the easier, short-term path of circumstantial relief.

Jonathan Edwards vs. John Owen

The two dead pastor-theologians of the English-speaking world who have nourished and taught me most are Jonathan Edwards and John Owen. Some will say Edwards is unsurpassed. Some say Owen was the greater. We don’t need to decide. We have the privilege of knowing them both as our friends and teachers. What an amazing gift of God’s providence that these brothers were raised up and that hundreds of years after they have died we may sit at their feet. We cannot properly estimate the blessing of soaking our minds in the Bible-saturated thinking of the likes of John Owen. What he was able to see in the Bible and preserve for us in writing is simply magnificent. It is so sad—a travesty, I want to say—how many Christian leaders of our day do not strive to penetrate the wisdom of John Owen, but instead read books and magazines that are superficial in their grasp of the Bible.

Owen’s Vision Is a Rare Gift

We act as though there was nothing extraordinary about John Owen’s vision of biblical truth—that he was not a rare gift to the church. But he was rare. There are very few people like this whom God raises up in the history of the church. Why does God do this? Why does he give an Owen or an Edwards to the church and then ordain that what they saw of God should be preserved in books? Is it not because he loves us? Is it not because he would share Owen’s vision with his church? Great trees that are covered with the richest life-giving fruit are not for museums. God preserves them and their fruit for the health of his church.

I know that all Christians cannot read all such giants. Even one mountain is too high to climb for most of us. But we can pick one or two, and then ask God to teach us what he taught them. The really great writers are not valuable for their cleverness but for their straightforward and astonishing insight into what the Bible really says about great realities. This is what we need.

The Bible is God’s word. Therefore, it is profound. How could it not be? God inspired it. He understands himself and the human heart infinitely. He is not playing games with us. He really means to communicate the profoundest things about sin and hell and heaven and Christ and faith and salvation and holiness and death. Paul does not sing out in vain, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33, ESV). No. He summons us to stop settling for pop culture and to learn what the Bible really has to say about the imponderable depths of sin and grace.

Owen’s Shocking Pastoral Insights

Owen is especially worthy of our attention because he is shocking in his insights. That is my impression again and again. He shocks me out of my platitudinous ways of thinking about God and man. Here are a few random recollections from what you are (I hope) about to read. You will find others on your own.

1. “There is no death of sin without the death of Christ” (Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, chapter 7).

Owen loves the cross and knows what happened there better than anyone I have read. The battle with sin that you are about to read about is no superficial technique of behavior modification. It is a profound dealing with what was accomplished on the cross in relation to the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit through the deep and wonderful mysteries of faith.

2. “To kill sin is the work of living men; where men are dead (as all unbelievers, the best of them, are dead), sin is alive, and will live” (chapter 7).

Oh, the pastoral insights that emerge from Owen! As here: If you are fighting sin, you are alive. Take heart. But if sin holds sway unopposed, you are dead no matter how lively this sin makes you feel. Take heart, embattled saint!

3. “God says, ‘Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost'” (chapter 8).

Astonishing! God ordains to leave a lust with me till I become the sort of warrior who will still seek his aid when this victory is won. God knows when we can bear the triumphs of his grace.

4. “Is there the guilt of any great sin lying upon you unrepented of? A new sin may be permitted, as well as a new affliction sent, to bring an old sin to remembrance” (chapter 9).

What? God ordains that we be tested by another sin so that an old one might be better known and fought? Sin is one of God’s weapons against sin?

5. “The difference between believers and unbelievers as to knowledge is not so much in the matter of their knowledge as in the manner of knowing. Unbelievers, some of them, may know more and be able to say more of God, his perfections, and his will, than many believers; but they know nothing as they ought, nothing in a right manner, nothing spiritually and savingly, nothing with a holy, heavenly light. The excellency of a believer is, not that he has a large apprehension of things, but that what he does apprehend, which perhaps may be very little, he sees it in the light of the Spirit of God, in a saving, soul-transforming light; and this is that which gives us communion with God, and not prying thoughts or curious-raised notions” (chapter 12).

How then will we labor to help people know much and know it “in a right manner”? What is that?

6. “[Christ] is the head from whence the new man must have influences of life and strength, or it will decay every day” (chapter 14).

Oh, that our people would feel the urgency of daily supplies of grace because “grace decays.” Do they know this? Is it a category in their mind—that grace decays? How many try to live their lives on automatic pilot with no sense of urgency that means of grace are given so that the riches of Christ may daily be obtained with fresh supplies of grace.

The list could go on and on. For me, to read Owen is to wake up to ways of seeing that are so clearly biblical that I wonder how I could have been so blind. May that be your joyful experience as well.

 

To find out more information on Overcoming Sin and Temptation—an unabridged modern scholarly edition of Owen’s trilogy with introductions, outlines, glossary, etc.—go here. There you can download sample content, see the table of contents, read the endorsements, etc.

Posted with permission of Crossway Books.

The New Testament, the Ring of Truth, and the Difference with Mythological Legends

J. B. Phillips (1906-1982) is perhaps best known today for his book, Your God Is Too Small. He was also a periphrastic Bible translator, working from the Greek text to put the New Testament into a breezy, British, mid-20th-century vernacular. In 1947 he published Letters to  Young Churches. In 1952, he added the Gospels, followed by the book of Acts in 1955 (The Young Church in Action). In 1958 he published the entire New Testament in Modern English, with revisions in 1961 and 1972.

In 1967 he wrote a memoir describing the experience, entitled Ring of Truth: A Translator’s Testimony.

In it he describes his view of the text before he began his work:

I must, in common justice, confess here that for years I had viewed the Greek of the New Testament with a rather snobbish disdain. I had read the best of classical Greek both at school and Cambridge for over ten years. . . . Although I did my utmost to preserve an emotional detachment, I found again and again that the material under my hands was strangely alive; it spoke to my condition in the most uncanny way. I say “uncanny” for want of a better word, but it was a very strange experience to sense, not occasionally but almost continually, the living quality of those rather strangely assorted books. To me it is the more remarkable because I had no fundamentalist upbringing, and although as a priest of the Anglican Church I had a great respect for Holy Scripture, this very close contact of several years of translation produced an effect of “inspiration” which I have never experienced, even in the remotest degree, in any other work. (pp. 24-25)

There he describes how working directly with the Greek text changed him.

For me, the translator, this fifteenth chapter [of 1 Corinthian] seemed alive and vibrant, not with pious hope, but with inspired certainty.

Quite suddenly I realized that no man had ever written such words before. As I pressed on with the task of translation I came to feel utterly convinced of the truth of the resurrection. Something of literally life-and-death importance had happened in mortal history, and I was reading the actual words of people who had seen Christ after his resurrection and had seen men and women deeply changed by his living power.

Previously, although I had known something of the “comfort of the Scriptures” and had never thought them to be false, I must have been insulated from their reality simply because they were known as “scripture”. Now I was compelled to come to the closest possible terms with this writing and I was enormously impressed, and still am. On the one hand these letters were written over quite a period of years, but there is not the slightest discernible diminution of faith. And on the other hand it was borne in upon me with irresistable force that these letters could never have been written at all if there had been no Jesus Christ, no crucifixion and no resurrection. The more I thought about it, the more unthinkable it became that any of this new courageous, joyful life could have originated in any kind of concocted story or wishful thinking. There had been a stupendous event, and from that was flowing all this strength and utter conviction. (pp. 26-27)

Phillips also wrote about the differences between the Gospels and the myths he had read elsewhere:

It is, in my experience, the people who have never troubled seriously to study the four Gospels who are the loudest in their protests that there was no such person. I felt, and feel, without any shadow of doubt that close contact with the text of the Gospels builds up in the heart and mind a character of awe-inspiring stature and quality. I have read, in Greek and Latin, scores of myths but I did not find the slightest flavor of myth here. There is no hysteria, no careful working for effect and no attempt at collusion. These are not embroidered tales: the material is cut to the bone. One sensed again and again that understatement which we have been taught to think is more “British” than Oriental. There is an almost childlike candor and simplicity, and the total effect is tremendous. No man could ever have invented such a character as Jesus. No man could have set down such artless and vulnerable accounts as these unless some real event lay behind them. (pp. 57-58)

Phillips’s comment reminds me of something that C. S. Lewis wrote:

All I am in private life is a literary critic and historian, that’s my job. And I am prepared to say on that basis if anyone thinks the Gospels are either legend or novels, then that person is simply showing his incompetence as a literary critic. I’ve read a great many novels and I know a fair amount about the legends that grew up among early people, and I know perfectly well the Gospels are not that kind of stuff. (C. S. Lewis, interview with J. W. Welch, BBC, July 19, 1943)

Christians, Culture, and Strategic Withdrawal Attentiveness

Rod Dreher:

What I call the Benedict Option is this: a limited, strategic withdrawal of Christians from the mainstream of American popular culture, for the sake of shoring up our understanding of what the church is, and what we must do to be the church. We must do this because the strongly anti-Christian nature of contemporary popular culture occludes the meaning of the Gospel, and hides from us the kinds of habits and practices we need to engage in to be truly faithful to what we have been given.

David French responded to Dreher, and Alan Jacobs in turn responded to French. Here is an excerpt:

In most of the rest of his response French emphasizes strictly political issues, for instance, current debates over the extent of free speech. But Rod doesn’t say anything about withdrawing from electoral politics — he doesn’t say anything about politics at all, except insofar as building and strengthening the ekklesia is political (which it is — see below).

It’s not likely that French and I could ever come to much agreement about the core issues here, since he so readily conflates Christianity and conservatism. (“The surprising box office of God’s Not Dead, the overwhelming success of American Sniper, celebrating the life of a Christian warrior” — I … I … — “and the consistent ratings for Bible-themed television demonstrate that there remains a large-scale appetite for works of art that advance, whether by intention or by effect, a substantially more conservative point of view.”) But his response to Rod has the effect of forcing some important questions on those of us who think that the current social and political climate calls for new strategies: What exactly do we mean by “withdraw,” and how far do we withdraw? What specifically do we withdraw from? What are the political implications of cultural withdrawal?

Rod, in the post I quoted at the outset, does a fantastic job of laying out very briefly and concisely the work that needs to be done to strengthen local religious communities. But time, energy, attention, and money are all plagued by scarcity, which is why some kind of “withdrawal” is unavoidable — if I’m going to put more money into my church, that means less money available elsewhere. And if I’m going to devote more attention to active love of God and active love of my neighbor, from what should I withdraw my attention?

All of this is going to remain excessively vague and abstract until we can see specific instances of such withdrawal. . . .

So I wonder if a better way to think about the Benedict Option is not as a strategic withdrawal from anything in particular but a strategic attentiveness to the institutions and forms of life within which Christians can flourish. In other words, Rod’s post is the right starting place, and the language of “withdrawal” something of a distraction from what that post is all about.

My own inclination — but then I have been a teacher for thirtysomething years — is to think that our primary focus should be on the two chief modes of Bildung: paideia and catechesis. And I do not mean for either of these modes to be confined to the formation of children.

You can read the whole thing here.

An Interview with Kevin DeYoung on What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality

I highly recommend Kevin DeYoung’s new book, What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? (You can get it for less than $10 at Amazon. WTS also sells them by the case.)

The book has a simple structure.

The first part is on understanding God’s Word:

One Man, One Woman, One Flesh
Those Infamous Cities (Genesis 19)
Taking a Strange Book Seriously (Leviticus 18, 20)
The Romans Road in the Wrong Direction (Romans 1)
A New Word from an Old Place (1 Corinthians 6; 1 Timothy 1)

The second part is on answering objections:

“The Bible Hardly Ever Mentions Homosexuality”
“Not That Kind of Homosexuality”
“What about Gluttony and Divorce?”
“The Church Is Supposed to Be a Place for Broken People”
“You’re on the Wrong Side of History”
“It’s Not Fair”
“The God I Worship Is a God of Love”

He then closes with three appendices:

What about Same-Sex Marriage?
Same-Sex Attraction: Three Building Blocks
The Church and Homosexuality: Ten Commitments

All of this in 160 pages.

Here is one of the things I appreciate about Kevin. Not only is he an excellent writer and an insightful thinker, but he brings pastoral wisdom and care to this contentious and often personal discussion. For example, here is one section from the book that I appreciated, something that conservatives (in particular) who care about this issue should take to heart:

Of the many complexities involving the church and homosexuality, one of the most difficult is how the former should speak of the latter. Even for those Christians who agree that homosexual practice is contrary to the will of God, there is little agreement on how we ought to speak about it being contrary to the will of God. Much of this disagreement exists because we have many different constituencies in mind when we broach the subject. There are various groups that may be listening when we speak about homosexuality, and the group we think we are addressing usually dictates how we speak.

If we are speaking to cultural elites who despise us and our beliefs, we want to be bold and courageous.
If we are speaking to strugglers who fight against same-sex attraction, we want to be patient and sympathetic.
If we are speaking to sufferers who have been mistreated by the church, we want to be winsome and humble.
If we are speaking to shaky Christians who seem ready to compromise the faith for society’s approval, we want to be persuasive and persistent.
If we are speaking to those who are living as the Scriptures would not have them live, we want to be straightforward and earnest.
If we are speaking to belligerent Christians who hate or fear persons who identify as gay or lesbian, we want to be clear and corrective.

In the following video, I was able to sit down with Kevin to ask him a few questions about the topic and the book.

In the following video, I was able to sit down with Kevin to ask him a few questions about the topic and the book.

And here is a special talk Kevin gave, seeking to answer four categories of objections to traditional biblical ethics:

not that much—Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality, we are only dealing with a few verses
not the same—there was a different kind of homosexuality in the ancient world
not a big deal—we are all broken, we ignore other sins, can’t we find a third way?
not fair—the traditional view doesn’t lead to human flourishing and doesn’t lead to fruitful ministry

For more information on the book—including a sample chapter and a free study guide—go here.

Finally, here are some endorsements for the book:

“This book provides a short, accessible, and pastoral toolbox for all Christians to navigate the shifting cultural landscape of sexuality and find confidence and hope in how the Bible directs our steps. DeYoung offers wise and readable apologetics here, providing his readers with both motive and model for how to think and talk about homosexuality and the Christian faith in a way that honors Christ and gives hope to a watching world.”

—Rosaria Butterfield , former tenured Professor of English at Syracuse University; author, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert; mother, pastor’s wife, and speaker

“DeYoung takes on the most pressing issue of our day: whether we will be conformed to the spirit of the age or whether we will follow Christ. Against the sexual revolution and its high priests, DeYoung presents an alternative vision, the ancient wisdom of a Christian sexual ethic. This is the best book on this subject that I have read. Every Christian confronted with these issues, which means every Christian, should read this book. You will finish this book better equipped to preach the gospel, to love the lost, to welcome the wounded, and to stand up for Jesus and his Word.”

—Russell D. Moore, President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; author, Tempted and Tried

“What a gift this book is to the church! Kevin approaches the difficult question of sexuality with compassion and clarity, showing us what God’s Word says about it and why it is important. Well researched, accessibly written, and gospel saturated—this, in my opinion, is now the book on this subject for our generation!”

—J. D. Greear, Lead Pastor, The Summit Church, Durham, North Carolina; author, Jesus, Continued…Why the Spirit Inside You Is Better than Jesus Beside You

“A superb, accessible resource for lay people in every walk of life who need help making sense of one of the most critical, defining issues of our day. Kevin DeYoung approaches this highly controversial topic in a way that is biblically faithful, pastorally sensitive, historically in-formed, and culturally aware. The stakes are high. We cannot afford not to understand what Kevin has so helpfully laid out for us here.”

—Nancy Leigh DeMoss, author; radio host, Revive Our Hearts

“Anyone looking for an accessible, reader-friendly, “one-stop” treatment of the biblical underpinnings of traditional Christian marriage and sexual ethics would do well to read this book. It is lucid but not simplistic, judicious but not obscure, and convicted but not shrill.”

—Wesley Hill , Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, Trinity School for Ministry; author, Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality

“Kevin DeYoung has written a good and faithful treatment on the Bible and homosexual practice for the average churchgoer. His work addresses most of the main issues and does so in a succinct and articulate manner. I commend it.”

—Robert Gagnon, Associate Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary; author, The Bible and Homosexual Practice

“In the heated atmosphere that currently surrounds discussion of every aspect of homosexuality, the most important domain where we need careful thinking and constrained rhetoric is what the Bible does and does not say on the matter. With his customary directness and clarity, Kevin DeYoung has now met this need. For those interested in careful exegesis of the relevant passages and patient discussion of the issues that arise from it, packaged in brevity and simplicity, it would be difficult to better this book.”

—D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“DeYoung provides a much-needed resource that addresses the important biblical and theological issues related to homosexuality while maintaining accessibility to a broad readership. The Ten Commitments at the end of this book display DeYoung’s pastoral heart and his understanding that regardless of our vices or virtues, we must preach the gospel, together strive for holiness, and exalt Christ above all things.”

—Christopher Yuan, Bible Teacher; speaker; author, Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God

“Written with the deftness, clarity, and tender grace we’ve come to expect from DeYoung, What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? answers, point by point, the revisionist theology making inroads in even the most conservative theological circles. It is simply the very best resource any follower of Christ can have to answer the challenge of homosexuality in the church.”

—Gregory Koukl, President of Stand to Reason (str.org); author, Tactics and Relativism

“Solid exegesis and tight writing make this book stand out. Kevin DeYoung concisely explains the key biblical passages and clearly responds to the key objections.”

—Marvin Olasky, Editor in Chief, World News Group

David Foster Wallace: “There Is No Such Thing as Not Worshipping”

Alissa Wilkinson’s Books & Culture essay on David Foster Wallace is worth reading in full.

Here is an excerpt:

The philosopher Charles Taylor suggests that the difference between believers and unbelievers is not what they think as much as how they deal with three things humans experience: fullness, that feeling of euphoria and rightness you get when you’re happiest; absence, the exact opposite; and the middle condition, the things-are-pretty-okay place in which many of us are fortunate enough to live our daily lives. Everyone wants to experience fullness, and most everyone structures their lives around that pursuit, Taylor argues. But to believers, the place to find fullness is God, or something godlike; for unbelievers, it’s to be sought within ourselves.

Wallace hung himself while his wife was out for a walk. He did this after a life-time of struggling with depression, which might be best described as the unabated experience of absence. In his most popular work, “This Is Water,” a commencement speech he delivered at Kenyon College, he talks about the struggle of living in that middle condition, the everyday banality graduates were about to enter—the harried commute, the line at the grocery store, the grumpy cashier—and the “myriad petty, unsexy” choices one must make, every day, to live as if other people are real beings with feelings.

When you read the rest of his work, you realize that speech functions as Wallace’s ideal of what he wishes life could be. It lays out his own yearning for fullness—for a world in which everyone is aware of and careful with others. Be mindful of those around you, he says—something that sounds a lot like the unbeliever’s tactic for dealing with it all. “None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death,” he says near the end of the speech.

Except it totally is, and he knows that, because he also says this: “Here’s something else that’s weird but true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” You can read his earlier declaration about religion at face value, or you can know that Wallace is always trying to connect with his audience, and detect a characteristic hyper-awareness of his listeners’ prejudices in his stretch to imprint something on their brains. What we worship, the thing we stretch for beyond ourselves that gets us closer to fullness, is his obsession.

You can read the whole thing here.

You can listen below to DFW’s 2005 Kenyon College address (note: language).