Then last week the story began to crumble faster than an ancient papyrus exposed in the windy Sudan. Mr. Askeland found, among the online links that Harvard used as part of its publicity push, images of another fragment, of the Gospel of . . . Continue reading →
Apologetics
Heidelcast 65: Science!
We’re talking a break from the series on nomism and antinomianism to talk about science. Not long ago there was a debate between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Ken Ham the Creationist Guy that garnered a considerable amount of attention. Why did . . . Continue reading →
Are We All Really Abraham’s Children?
Something I heard recently led to a tangent not directly related to his excellent, as always, sermon. He’s been preaching through the life of Abraham. Something he said made me think about the claim that is frequently made about the three great . . . Continue reading →
Ironically, Gnosticism Is A Nasty Business
In preparing to reach CH601 (Ancient Church) this fall, I’ve been reading a lot of primary and secondary texts that I’ve not read or that I’ve not read for a long time. One of the more interesting has been Simon Gathercole’s book, The . . . Continue reading →
Was, With, And Worked: Audio
UPDATE: Here is the audio from Thursday’s chapel message on John 1:1-3. § One of the things I learned from reading Ned Stonehouse was to ask the question: what does this narrative/passage/text say? In our defense of the essential unity of Holy . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 33: Muether On Van Til
Cornelius Van Til is one of the more important figures in modern Reformed history. He was much influenced by Abraham Kuyper but he also had other influences and he has influenced generations of American (and other) Reformed pastors and teachers. He is . . . Continue reading →
How Reza Aslan’s Jesus Gives History A Bad Name
Aslan repeatedly calls revolutionary leaders of the first century “claimed messiahs,” when this crucial term hardly ever appears in our sources and certainly not in the contexts he is claiming. Aslan pontificates on questions such as Jesus’s literacy (or illiteracy, in his . . . Continue reading →
Why Analogies And Illustrations Of The Trinity Fail
Michael writes to say that he recently read an article I wrote in 1999 on the Trinity and to ask if I’m willing to consider an analogy for the Trinity. I reply: Honestly, no. All illustrations of the Trinity end up in . . . Continue reading →
The Selective Genealogies Of Genesis 5 And 11
5:3-32 these verses contain 10 paragraphs, each written in the same form, which one paragraph for each generation in Adam’s line through Seth. There are some similarities, as well as significant differences, between this material and the Sumerian king list (written see. . . . Continue reading →
Of Zombies and Resurrections
Through the history of humanity the pagans have always counterfeited the truth, whether it was ancient creation stories that mimicked aspects of the biblical story, or Gnostics counterfeiting Christianity, or the Qur’an’s tedious one-upmanship. The latest counterfeit is the zombie craze. In . . . Continue reading →
Selective Skepticism
HB correspondent Dave writes with this quotation from someone else: “my parents taught me that the bible is up for interpretation, and it is not the spoken truth.” This is widely held as a truism and it is widely used as a . . . Continue reading →
So We Still Believe in Reality
Like everyone else in America it’s been hard to turn away from the story of Manti Teo. Was he the victim of or the victimizer in an elaborate hoax? Time may tell. One aspect of this episode that interests me is the . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours-Cornelius Van Til: Family Man, Friend, and Pastor
Office Hours talks this week with Dr. John Van Til, nephew of Reformed apologist and theologian Cornelius Van Til, about CVT’s life and ministry. Dr John Van Til is a Fellow for Law & Humanities at the Center for Vision and Values, . . . Continue reading →
I Hope This Happened
Via Adiaphora: “[W. H.] Auden was delighted to read [Joseph] Campbell on the hero in 1946. In 1953 Campbell lectured at Smith and said that Jesus and the Buddha were the same in effect: they were both attacked by spears, but in . . . Continue reading →
Willimon Reviews Ehrman on Theodicy
In the Christian Century (HT: Mike Horton). Willimon: “This book seems an awful lot of fuss to reach so banal a destination.”
If Epistemic Self-Consciousness Came to Football
The Onion illustrates the truth of Van Til’s program (HT: D. J. Goodwiler). This is what happens when Van Til’s “man of water” realizes he’s all wet.
Is the "Gospel in the Stars"? or the Distinction Between Nature and Grace
In 1882 the Lutheran minister Joseph A. Seiss (1823-1904) published the provocative volume, The Gospel in the Stars, Or, Prímeval Astronomy (Philadelphia: E. Claxton & company, 1882). Evidently it found an audience and it has been reprinted as recently as the early . . . Continue reading →
Audio: Muether on Van Til–the CTC Interview
Here. This is a terrific interview about an even better book. If you haven’t read this book, I hope you will. There are many Van Til partisans and critics who have not understood Van Til in his historical-cultural-ecclesiastical context. Further, as Muether . . . Continue reading →
Beale on Inerrancy
Ben gives us a heads up about an important forthcoming book.
Shooting Wasps in the Water Tank
When I was a kid, visiting my grandfather’s farm, we used to go stand at the backdoor of the bunkhouse and plink the wasps that hovered above the water tanks in the corral behind the bunkhouse. It wasn’t very challenging but it . . . Continue reading →