Two new books worth noting: the first, Sinclair Ferguson and Mark Dever write fascinating articles on the theme of puritan preaching, drawing from the instruction offered in Westminster Dircetory for Public Worship (1645). Westminster Directory of Public Worship Discussedby Mark Dever and Sinclair...

Part 2 of Guy Waters' radio interview in which he discusses N. T. Wright's latest book (his response to John Piper) can be heard here .

I have just finished a series of 38 messages on Ezra/Nehemiah at First Pres, Jackson. Several things struck me as I brought the series to a close. The first was something most consecutive-expository preachers feel at the end of a series: I now think I should start again since I think I understand...

Today, I had the privilege of teaching one of my seminars with a small group of students. The topic: New Perspective on Paul. No, it isn't an obsession. It just "happened" that this was the topic for today. Next door, through very thin walls, the resonant voice of Ligon Duncan could be heard...

Dr. Greg Beale's new book, The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism (Crossway, 2009), has appeared. The Christ the Center panel, augmented by Dr. Carl R. Trueman, interacts with Dr. Greg K. Beale, the Kenneth T. Wessner Professor of New Testament and coordinator of the MA program in Biblical...

Here .

"Catabaptists" is Calvin's term for "Anabaptists" - the sixteenth century radicals who basically wanted nothing to do with the earthly state, and did not encourage concern for the office of a magistrate or (in this case) the monarch. Calvin is keen to demonstrate to the King that Protestants,...

Rome's antagonism towards the Reformers, and Calvin in particular, was that what they taught was "new" and "of recent birth." To this charge Calvin responds with evident feeling: "First, by calling it "new" they do great wrong to God, whose Sacred Word does not deserve to be accused of novelty...

Phil is out of the country and asked me to post this: Tenth Presbyterian Church is hosting its 4 th annual Workshop on Biblical Exposition, February 4 to 6, on the theme of Apocalyptic Literature. The workshop is sponsored by the Charles Simeon Trust and supported by the Alliance of Confessing...

Over at Christianity Today, Collin Hansen has compiled his list of the " Top Ten Theological Stories of 2008 ." It includes the phenomenal success of the poorly written and theologically confused, The Shack , The Year of the Study Bible, and the departure of Pete Enns from Westminster Seminary...

Two British missionaries in Gambia, West Africa, have been imprisoned for a year for sending anti-Islamic e-mail. See the full story here .

David Meredith (Free Church of Scotland, Smithton/Culloden) sent me the following: The new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary has caused some raised eyebrows in educational circles. Several supposedly old-fashioned words have been removed. A report in the Daily Telegraph shows that many of the...

Pope Benedict XVI has declared the world in need of saving - from homosexuality and gender bending. And this, two days before Christmas! Has the man no taste or decency? The press is understandably in an uproar - it has been after all a fairly slow news week thus far, with the juiciest story being...

Our friend Martin Downes has alerted me to the following discussion on the atonement, particularly penal substitution and Christus Victor with Mike Ovey and Andrew Sachs here .

I have just come across a blog by "Jeffrey" who describes himself as having been an evangelical Christian until April 2008 until, that is. Christianity "failed the insider test." Sad as this is, his latest blog lists five books which he deems important in answering the question, "but is it true?"...

This month's BBC Music Magazine (Dec 08) contains a fascinating piece on the "50 Greatest Carols." Over fifty choir directors from some of the prestigious cathedrals and music schools in Britain were asked to choose their top five. There are some relatively unknown carols (sung largely by cathedral...

Phil Ryken was interviewed by our friends over at Christ the Center. You can listen here .

Ligon Duncan was the guest on Al Mohler's radio show this week. You can listen to it here .

This past week, I received a copy of the 50th anniversary edition of John Stott's widely acclaimed best-seller, Basic Christianity. I first read this book in December 1971 as a thoroughly agnostic non-church-going freshman at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. I was reading Karl Popper at the...

The guys over at Christ the Center have been interviewing Steve Nichols concerning his new book Getting the Blues . You may want to stick with the interview until 37.06 when Steve and the gang bring my expertise into the program. All of a sudden, the quality improves exponentially! The photo was...

Steve, we share a common disinterest in sports! Sadly, I knew all about the Phillies since my wife is a baseball obsessive! She has said to me several times already "there's no more baseball now until Spring Training in March." That's way too soon. Ligon at lunch today did suggest that I began a...

For those following Mark Johnston's series on the Apostles' Creed on ref21, you may be interested in a new web site for the church where he has been ministering for more than a dozen years in London: http://www.grovechapel.org/ .

I had lunch yesterday with a dear friend who knows a thing or two about economics. He's an accountant by profession and I couldn't resist asking him a few pointed questons about "the economy." I uttered a few soundbites: "Did he think that Adam Smith was correct when he wrote that divorced from its...

In a recent radio program with Ligon, we were talking about a hymn by the Anglican Bishop, William Walsham How (the hymn was, "O Word of God Incarnate"). In the course of our conversation we came across this quotation (cited in Ernest E. Ryden's English Hymnody ): Bishop How once gave a striking...