Dude.

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Mute Math: Chaos

Review of The Shack by Wax

Though I failed miserably at my attempt to get a review of The Shack done (I might pick it up again when things calm down), Trevin Wax does a decent job highlighting the good things and bad things about the book.

In the end, I found that The Shack wasn’t nearly as good as some had said, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as others had charged. It has everything positive about contemporary evangelicalism, and yet it has all the drawbacks of current evangelical expression too.

Read it.

Mohler: Moralism is Not the Gospel

Al Mohler, on "Why Moralism is Not The Gospel":

Moralists can be categorized as both liberal and conservative. In each case, a specific set of moral concerns frames the moral expectation. As a generalization, it is often true that liberals focus on a set of moral expectations related to social ethics while conservatives tend to focus on personal ethics. The essence of moralism is apparent in both -- the belief that we can achieve righteousness by means of proper behavior.

The theological temptation of moralism is one many Christians and churches find it difficult to resist. The danger is that the church will communicate by both direct and indirect means that what God expects of fallen humanity is moral improvement. In so doing, the church subverts the Gospel and communicates a false gospel to a fallen world.

[...]

We sin against Christ and we misrepresent the Gospel when we suggest to sinners that what God demands of them is moral improvement in accordance with the Law. Moralism makes sense to sinners, for it is but an expansion of what we have been taught from our earliest days. But moralism is not the Gospel, and it will not save. The only gospel that saves is the Gospel of Christ. As Paul reminded the Galatians, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." [Gal. 4:4-5]

We are justified by faith alone, saved by grace alone, and redeemed from our sin by Christ alone. Moralism produces sinners who are (potentially) better behaved. The Gospel of Christ transforms sinners into the adopted sons and daughters of God.

All of it.

On the 7th Day the Lord...

Conan O'Brien--that's right, Conan O'Brien--last night on the announcement of the revision of the NIV Bible for 2011:

This is a weird story: The top-selling Bible in North America is being revised for the first time in 25 years to reflect changes in English usage. The language is changing so they're revising the Bible. For instance, the Book of Genesis now includes the line, "On the Seventh Day the Lord chillaxed."

HT: CT Liveblog (click over for the video, starting at 6:11)

Humility Agrees That All We Have is a Gift From God

1 Corinthians 4:6-7:

I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

John Piper comments:

Humility agrees and is glad that everything we have is a free gift of God, and that this severs the root of boasting in our distinctives. Whatever talents, whatever intelligence, what ever skills, whatever gifts, whatever looks, whatever pedigree, whatever possessions, whatever wit, whatever influence you have, put away all pride because it is a gift, and put away all despair because it is a gift from God.

So Many Links (01 SEPT 2009)

Crazy: The TNIV is going off the market in 2011. Go buy as many as you can RB!

Word of the day: Fecund.

Of course running barefoot is better for you.

Gospel-centered reader.

"The administration hasn’t been able to pull it off. From the stimulus to health care, it has joined itself at the hip to the liberal leadership in Congress. The White House has failed to veto measures, like the pork-laden omnibus spending bill, that would have demonstrated independence and fiscal restraint. By force of circumstances and by design, the president has promoted one policy after another that increases spending and centralizes power in Washington."

Good: Tactical bacon.

Better: Chicken sandwich that uses bacon as bread.

Best: Bacon briefcase.

Good job: Brian McLaren takes part in Ramadan.

Doug Wilson responds.

Do we have free will?

Say it ain't so...Reading Rainbow cancelled? So long:

Churchless Christianity is the for the Immature

Kevin DeYoung (also in the post belwo this one) was interviewed by CT on his new book Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion. This was the standout quote:

You say people are disillusioned with the church for many reasons. Which is the hardest for people to get over?

I think the personal reasons are definitely the hardest and most frequent. There are enough sinners in all of our churches, and we need to be willing to listen to people when they are genuinely hurt. But I think a lot of this "church is lame" stuff is really immaturity.

Hopefully people will look back and say, "We were kind of like petulant children getting tired of our parents and thinking that they didn't know anything." Then you get married and have your own kids and realize, "Maybe I didn't always see everything as clearly as I thought I did."

Unfortunately, we have so many choices of churches that we don't have to work through those things (and the growth that God might want to give us through the painful process).

Mothers More Profoundly Affected By Childbirth Than Fathers

Interesting review this morn from Kevin DeYoung of Charles Murray's Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. Though the whole thing is worth reading (Young talks about Murray's discovery that Christianity has had quite a lot to do with societies greatest accomplishments), one quote from the book stood out to me:

Exceptions exist, but, as a rule, the experience of pregnancy and birth appears to be a more profoundly life-altering experience for women than becoming a father is for men. So closely is giving birth linked to the fundamental human goal of giving meaning to one’s life that is had been argued that, ultimately, it is not so much that motherhood keeps women from doing great things outside the home as it is men’s inability to give birth that forces them to look for substitutes.

Ashmamed Not to Respond to Such Love

Bernard of Clairvaux:

On the contrary, the faithful know how utterly they stand in need of Jesus and him crucified. They wonder at and reach out to that supreme love of his, which passes all knowledge. They are shamed not to respond to such love and deserving with the little they have to give.