Grace to You is mailing free copies of this book:

It’s the book’s third edition. The first was in 1993.

• If you’re already on Grace to You’s mailing list, then you’ll have an opportunity to request your free copy shortly.
• If not, sign up here. The deal expires February 17.

D. A. Carson’s next book comes out this month: Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010).

It’s based on five sermons that Carson preached in December 2008:

1. The Ironies of the Cross (Matthew 27:27–51a)
2. The Center of the Whole Bible (Romans 3:21–26)
3. The Strange Triumph of a Slaughtered Lamb (Revelation 12)
4. A Miracle Full of Surprises (John 11:1–53)
5. Doubting the Resurrection of Jesus (John 20:24–31)

The latest CCI article just became available. It’s impressive.

If you’re in or near Greenville, South Carolina, this conference on April 9–10 may serve you (brochure | online registration). I’m looking forward to it.

In my post on iPhone Resources, I mention that Logos Bible Software (more info) is one of my favorite apps. Someone asked this in the comments:

Have you had a chance to use the Olive Tree Bible app at all? Any thoughts on comparisons with the Logos app?

I replied,

I haven’t used the various Olive Tree apps because my understanding is that Logos can do everything they can and more (esp. if you use Logos 4) for free. I may be wrong on that.

Well, I was wrong on that—at least for now.

1. What is Olive Tree Bible software?

Here’s how it describes itself:

Olive Tree Bible Software provides mobile Bible versions and study tools for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Palm OS, Pocket PC, Smartphone and Symbian cell phones. We currently offer over 500 mobile resources including over 100 translations of the Bible as well as commentaries, dictionaries, devotionals, eBooks, and Strong’s numbering system. The Bible is offered in various languages, including German, French, Spanish, Chinese and many others. Original Hebrew and Greek texts are also available. Additionally, we provide online web and cell phone (WAP) Bible search engines.

2. What does Olive Tree Bible software offer for the iPhone and iPod Touch?

1. Bibles. Hebrew, Greek, LXX, ESV, NIV, NASB, NET, NLT, The Message, and more.
2. Study Bibles. ESVSB, NET notes, NIVSB, NLTSB, and more. Continue Reading »

I got an iPhone this month, and it surpassed my high expectations. It’s amazing.

My 3GS model is 16 GB and weighs 4.8 ounces. That means that the little phone I keep in my pocket holds eight times as much space as the laptop I used from college through my first PhD (1998–2006).

If you have an iPhone (or iPod Touch), these resources may help you use the tool more efficiently.

1. iPhone Apps

The iPhone comes with several apps already installed, and over 100,000 apps are available through the iTunes Store.

Here’s a screen-shot of my apps as they appear iTunes (click on the image to enlarge):

• Cf. Phil Gons’s list of the main iPhone apps that he uses on his iPod Touch.
• My favorite apps include Logos Bible Software (more info), Google Mobile App, Dragon Dictation, Red Laser ($1.99), Dropbox, and Mint.com Personal Finance.
• There are many other useful apps that I’ve chosen not to use for various reasons (e.g., PIM, news, sports).

Here are some practices I’ve found to be helpful:

Continue Reading »

How’s that for the title of a sermon on the story of Adam and Eve’s fall in Genesis 3? It popped into my head while my daughter and I read that story from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

(Jenni and I are currently listening to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy [1, 2, 3] in which the “One Ring to rule them all” is prominent.)

Less than one week remains before Logos Bible Software releases the Tyndale Commentaries, a 49-volume series that covers the OT and NT. The pre-pub price is $179.95, which is about $3.67 per volume, and it will go up after the product ships.

The Student Global Impact National Conference, a missions conference for college students and young adults, took place this week at Inter-City Baptist Church in the metro Detroit area. About 340 people attended.

• 36 free MP3s (including several by Dave Doran, Mark Minnick, and Matthew Hoskinson)
• Live-blogged by Joe Tyrpak

In 2008, Jenni and I profited from reading two “documentary novels” by Paul Maier:

1. Pontius Pilate
2. The Flames of Rome

We recently received six of his books for children, and they’re outstanding.

1. The Real Story of Creation

2. The Real Story of the Flood

3. The Real Story of the Exodus

4. The Very First Christmas

Jenni warmly recalls reading this many times as a child.

5. The Very First Easter

6. The Very First Christians

The picture of Agrippa (p. 27) reminds me of someone I know!

Related: About a year ago, Jenni and I reviewed several hundred children’s books and highlighted our favorites: “Theology for Kids.”

I’ve recently begun researching the use of some OT passages in extracanonical Jewish literature for a dissertation chapter. Six primary bodies of literature are most significant for NT studies:

1. OT Apocrypha
2. OT Pseudepigrapha
3. Dead Sea Scrolls
4. Philo
5. Josephus
6. Rabbinic literature (i.e., Targums, Talmuds, and midrash)

This may raise two questions.

1. Why is extracanonical Jewish literature significant for NT studies?

G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson give five reasons (“Introduction,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament [ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007], p. xxiv, bullet points added) [Amazon | WTS Books]:

How is the OT quotation or source handled in the literature of Second Temple Judaism or (more broadly yet) of early Judaism? The reasons for asking this question and the possible answers that might be advanced are many. It is not that either Jewish or Christian authorities judge, say, Jubilees or 4 Ezra to be as authoritative as Genesis or Isaiah. But attentiveness to these and many other important Jewish sources may provide several different kinds of help. Continue Reading »

Dan Forrest is a young award-winning pianist and composer of church and concert music, both choral and instrumental. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Kansas, and his music is fresh, contemplative, and edifying.

Check out his recordings:

1. Arise, Shine! The Choral Music of Dan Forrest (2009)

You can sample excerpts from this CD on Dan’s site (on the right side of the screen). Cf. Scott Aniol’s review.

2. In Remembrance: Hymns for Communion (2009)

Piano solos played and arranged by Dan Forrest Continue Reading »

• Breathing is evidence of a living body, and good works is evidence of a living faith.
• Not breathing is evidence of a dead body, and the absence of good works is evidence of a dead faith.
• You can’t revitalize a corpse by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and you can’t create genuine faith by good works.

That’s my paraphrase of Dan G. McCartney on James 2:14–26 (James [BECNT; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009]). An 18-page PDF sampling of the commentary includes “Excursus 2: Faith, Works, and Justification in James and Paul” (pp. 272–79). Here’s how McCartney concludes his chapter on James 2:14–26 (p. 172):

James’s principal point is not in doubt, in any case: that which distinguishes living faith from dead faith is works of faith. By no means does any of this suggest that one could create genuine faith by works, any more than an effort at mouth-to-mouth resuscitation could revitalize a corpse.

I keep thinking about this statement that John Piper posted three days ago:

God never does only one thing. In everything he does he is doing thousands of things. Of these we know perhaps half a dozen.

–noun (used with a singular verb)

1. the art and science of interpretation, esp. of the Bible. Commonly distinguished from exegesis, which interprets the text by applying those principles.
2. the skill of all but totally ignoring the Bible while appearing to accept it.

The playful definition comes from Moisés Silva, “The New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Text Form and Authority,” in Scripture and Truth (ed. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983), 156:

During the past decade or two, biblical scholarship has shown a growing obsession with the issue of hermeneutics, a harmless enough word, but one occasionally used as a euphemism for “the skill of all but totally ignoring the Bible while appearing to accept it.” Although one may be excused for feeling irritated at the way the word is thrown about as the ultimate panacea, it would be a grave mistake to dismiss the issue altogether. It is so easy for us to read the evening paper and understand it—that is, interpret it accurately—that we tend to think of interpretation as an eminently simple process. In reality, we depend on a massive framework of assumptions slowly formed by innumerable experiences. As a result, those aspects of interpretation that appear to us to be the most obvious are often the ones that cause us the greatest difficulty. In particular, when we confront a text written by someone whose “framework of assumptions” differs significantly from ours, how can we possibly bridge the two? The attempt to answer that question is what hermeneutics is all about.

Over the past month or so, I’ve read over 300 books and articles (often only parts of them) about the book of Job for a dissertation chapter I just drafted. Here are three of the most edifying and accessible resources:

1. D. A. Carson. “Job: Mystery and Faith.” Pages 135–57 in How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006. [Amazon | WTS Books]

Penetrating insight, pastoral warmth.

2. Layton Talbert. Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2007. [Amazon]

See my review.

3. Derek Kidner. “The Book of Job: A World Well Managed?” and “Job in Academic Discussion.” Pages 56–89 in The Wisdom of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes: An Introduction to Wisdom Literature. Downers Grove: IVP, 1985. [Amazon | WTS Books]

Pithy.

Earlier this week I mentioned how much Jenni and I enjoyed listening to J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

Several good-intentioned people rebuked me on the premise that Harry Potter is dark literature that Christians should avoid. I privately asked each person three questions:

1. Have you read Kevin Bauder’s series on fantasy literature (I link to it in my post)?
2. Do you have a problem with C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia or J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings?
3. Have you read any of the Harry Potter books?

Their answers were consistent:

1. No.
2. I’m not sure because I haven’t read them. (Some added a comment like this: But I’ve seen The Lord of the Rings movies, and I think Christians should avoid those, too.)
3. No.

I don’t mind disagreement on this issue. The underlying desire to glorify God by avoiding worldliness is commendable. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask that people be more informed about this issue before admonishing others about it.

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936), “Introduction to the Book of Job”:

The modern habit of saying “Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and it suits me”—the habit of saying this is mere weak-mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon.

Jenni and I just finished listening to the best-selling book series of all time: Harry Potter.

Jim Dale masterfully reads the seven-volume unabridged audiobook. It’s 4.8 days long (about 115 hours), but we thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on date nights and road trips. We’re sad it’s over.

The series is not without objectionable elements (e.g., the protagonist and his friends tell lies without negative consequences), but overall J. K. Rowling’s story is brilliant, creative, intriguing, and entertaining. Its literary quality is not as exquisite as J. R. R. Tolkien or C. S. Lewis, but it isn’t junk food either (cf. Kevin Bauder’s series “The Christian and Fantasy Literature”). (The movies, on the other hand, do qualify as junk food.)

By the way, this may explain one of my Facebook status updates a couple of months ago:

If I become a professor at a college or seminary, I may suggest a different title than the typical “Professor of New Testament” or “Professor of Systematic Theology.” How about “Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts”?

Update: See my follow-up post, “Rebuked about Harry Potter.”

It’s the time of year that we play our Christmas playlists in iTunes, and I’ve been reminded several times how much I love listening to Kathleen Battle sing “Mary, Did You Know?” accompanied by my favorite guitarist, Christopher Parkening. You can download the track for just 99 cents.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new,
And the child that you delivered, will soon deliver you?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would give sight to the blind man?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod,
And when you kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God?

The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy was heaven’s perfect Lamb,
And this sleeping child you’re holding is the great I AM?