I just found what looks like an awesome website of resources on Pauline theology by professor Barry Smith of Crandall University, a Baptist school up in Canada. I’ve been skimming his material on Paul and the law, and it’s very well done and quite helpful. In particular, he sticks extremely close to the text, which helps to see where certain doctrines come from and what the interpretive issues are. Plus, he occasionally has nifty little graphics that help illustrate his point (usually ugly, but functional).
Check it out. Seems like a handy page to bookmark.
I have often wondered how the names we give to personality types (introvert, extrovert, all the Myers-Briggs categories, the StrengthsFinder stuff) plays into our process of sanctification. These categories of personality tell us who we are, but while we can have a God-diversity in personality, we are nevertheless not who we wish to be at a core level. We are simultaneously justified and yet still sinners. So we cannot let our “personality” be an excuse for the desires of the flesh.
In this regard, consider how an introvert (I’m one) might use these categories as a cover up for the flesh. They might say, “I know the Bible says to be hospitable, but I’m an introvert and frankly don’t like having people over. I’d rather spend this time by myself, others are more gifted at hospitality.” Sounds all too familiar.
In the style of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, Jared Wilson has written an interesting piece on this.
As if there were any doubt, the USC men’s tennis team wrapped up their 4th straight NCAA Championship a few days ago, taking down #3 Virginia 4-2. And Stevie J. at #1 singles is rolling onward with 68 straight singles wins to hopefully wrap up a 2nd straight individual championship in a few days.
It’s a good time to be a Trojan.
I wish the audio quality on this was a bit better. Craziness though, especially the last minute and a half.
Two puzzling thoughts.
1. Upon inspection, it is incredible how many major evangelical seminaries have little to no Church History departments whatsoever. Some very large evangelical seminaries seem to have as many as 15 biblical studies professors, with only 1 adjunct person with any sort of specialization in history. The historians need to make their relevance felt once again. (on the positive side, some of the old mainline institutions like Yale Divinity and Princeton Seminary still have a plethora of profs. in history land)
2. When evangelical institutions do have Church History/Historical Theology professors, why does it seem like every one and their sister specializes in either American Religious History or the ever-so-related field of Jonathan Edwards studies???
Feel the angst.
Indulgences are most pernicious because they induce complacency and thereby imperil salvation. Those person are damned who think that letters of indulgence make them certain of salvation. God works by contraries so that a man feels himself to be lost in the very moment when he is on the point of being saved. When God is about to justify a man, he damns him. Whom he would make alive he must first kill. God’s favor is so communicated in the form of wrath that it seems farthest when it is at hand. Man must first cry out that there is no health in him. He must be consumed with horror. This is the pain of purgatory. I do not know where it is located, but I do know that it can be experienced in this life. I know a man who has gone through such pains that had they lasted for one tenth of an hour he would have been reduced to ashes. In this disturbance salvation begins. When a man believes himself to be utterly lost, light breaks. Peace comes in the word of Christ through faith. He who does not have this is lost even though he be absolved a million times by the pope, and he who does have it may not wish to be released from purgatory, for true contrition seeks penalty. Christians should be encouraged to bear the cross. He who is baptized into Christ must be as a sheep for the slaughter. The merits of Christ are vastly more potent when they bring crosses than when they bring remissions.
There is some heavy stuff in that paragraph.
