Tommy

Hermeneutics and Teaching Children

Aug 062008

Here is an interesting post by John Walton about children’s Bible curricula.

If we are negligent of sound hermeneutics when we teach Bible to children, should it be any wonder that when they get into youth groups, Bible studies and become adults in the church, that they do not know how to derive the authoritative teaching from the text?

He identifies 5 common and easily avoidable mistakes. The fifth I found particularly convicting:

Focus on people rather than God: The Bible is God’s revelation of himself and its message and teaching is largely based on what it tells us about God. This is particularly true of narrative (stories). While we are drawn to observe the people in the stories, we cannot forget that the stories are intended to teach us about God more than about people. If in the end, the final point is “We should/shouldn’t be like X (= some biblical character)” there is probably a problem unless the “X” is Jesus or God. Better is “we can learn through X’s story that God . . .”

Read the whole thing at Zondervan’s recently launched koinonia blog.

Spreading Bad Reports

Christian Living No Responses »

Aug 052008

Tim Keller and David Powlison offer some biblical reflections on what we should do when we hear negative criticism about an individual. Justin Taylor indicates that such biblical reflection is particularly important for bloggers.

Alternative Readings of the Gospel of Judas

Christian Theology and History No Responses »

Aug 042008

Here is Darrell Bock on Gesine Robinson on the recently-hyped Gospel of Judas.

Marcion, the NT, and God’s Care of His Church

Christian Theology and History No Responses »

Aug 042008

I have come across a wealth of interesting quotes as I prepare for New Testament Introduction class next term. Here’s one on the importance of Marcion (remember Marcion, the 2nd century semi-gnostic theologian who created his own canon?) in the development of the church’s canon consciousness:

The theological and methodological deficiencies of [Marcion's] canon should not…prevent us from appreciating the fundamental importance of the attempt. Marcion’s bible tabled once for all the question of a new canon, that is, the question of the ‘authentic’ witnesses to the original gospel, which were to provide the standard of all later tradition and the norm for the preaching of the Church. The Church as she was then situatied could not ignore this question if she wished to hold her own. But there was still a long way to go, through crises and controversies of many different kinds, before an answer was found. That answer stands today as our New Testament; but at the outset of the conflict such a thing did not exist. (Campenhausen, Hans. The Formation of the Christian Bible. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972. p165).

It’s a powerful reminder of God’s gracious providence in history, especially in times of trial and opposition. A man who fought against God’s gospel with incredible passion and consistency ultimately spurred the Church on to recognize what we know today as the New Testament.

Should the President Twitter?

Culture 4 Responses »

Aug 032008

As a computer nerd who nevertheless has a strange love of LPs and dusty old books, I found this article interesting. Here are a couple of highlights:

While 73 percent of American adults use the Internet (only 35 percent 65 or older), according to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, it’s likely that many of them would rather have a president who can get Osama bin Laden than get online. And there is a common belief that says being president should be more a “vision” job than a “management” job, and that the clutter of a digital life can only distract from the Big Picture and Deep Thoughts a leader should be concerned with. In other words, would we really want a president “friending” from the Oval Office, scouring Wikipedia for information on Iran’s nuclear program or fielding e-mail from someone claiming to be “Nigerian general” seeking an American bank account for embezzled millions?

Computers have become something of a cultural marker — in politics and in the real world. Proficiency with them suggests a basic familiarity with the day-to-day experience of most Americans — just as ignorance to them can suggest someone is “out of touch,” or “old.”

“I do understand the importance of the computer,” Mr. McCain reassured in The San Francisco Chronicle last week. “I understand the importance of the blogs.” He said, “I am forcing myself — let me put it this way, I am using the computer more and more every day.” But keeping up with technology “doesn’t mean that I have to e-mail people,” he said. “Now, I read e-mails.” The staff is “constantly showing them to me as the news breaks during the day.”

Read the whole thing.

Turn Any Printable Document into a PDF

Software 1 Response »

Aug 012008

If you use Openoffice.org or run a Linux operating system, saving any document as a PDF is easy. There is also a plugin for recent versions of Microsoft Office that can do this. But what about exporting web pages, or documents created by other software? For this you will need a “Print to PDF” driver. A “Print to PDF” Driver works exactly like any other printer, only instead of actually printing your document it generates a PDF in a folder of your choosing. This is very easy to set up: here are the details.

Linux provides the same functionality. Most distributions include a driver that does this: just go to your printer settings dialog, “Add” a printer, and look for an entry like “Print to PDF.” I’m sure MAC users have something similar, so perhaps one of our MAC readers could post a comment regarding how to set that up.

New Testament Theology, by Thomas Schreiner

What I'm Reading No Responses »

Aug 012008

The Centrality of the Gospel

Bible and Hermeneutics No Responses »

Jul 312008

Lee Irons has a nice post about 1 Cor. 15. Here are a couple of highlights.

What is the gospel?” Paul answers the question by pointing to the central reality of substitutionary atonement (”that Christ died for our sins”), as well as his burial and resurrection on the third day, confirming that his sacrifice of atonement had been accepted. The prepositional phrase in the death-formula, ”for our sins” (ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν), is critical, because it identifies the death of Christ as a penal substitution. That is, he died the death that we deserved for our sins.

This is also relevant for us in helping us to decide what our relationship ought to be with broader evangelicalism, and indeed with all professing Christians. They may be confused about many matters. They may have a low view of the church and the sacraments. They may be too quick to reject the traditions and creeds of the church. They may hold to something less than a purely monergistic soteriology. They may think baptism must be preceded by a profession of faith. But if they have received, stand firm in, and preach this gospel, then they are to be received as brothers in Christ and to be encouraged to continue in the gospel, even as we also discuss other matters with them (just as Paul does in his letters to the Corinthians).

Read the whole post.

Sharing Large Files

Software 4 Responses »

Jul 312008

A friend and I recently ran into a little problem: we wanted to share files with each other, but the files in question were larger than could be sent via email. Sure you can mail a CD, or meet up for coffee with a USB drive, but those options require both time and trouble.

Enter Drop.io. It’s a simple, private, password-protected file-sharing service that allows individuals or groups to exchange data quickly and safely over the internet. You “drop” your data in a folder with either a randomized name, or a name of your choosing, then send the link to whoever you want to access the data. You can set password protection, automatic deletion dates, and a variety of different permissions (view, view/add, or view/add/delete). Furthermore, drop.io provides a variety of different interfaces by which you can interact with its services: Web, email, phone, fax, and even a desktop widget. Even Twitter-integration is provided for those seasoned in the Web 2.0 world.

You can create as many drops as you like, though individual drops are limited to 100mb at the moment. All drops are anonymous (that’s right, you don’t even have to create an account!). Upgrades are available at $10 per gigabyter per year.