For almost sixty years of his fruitful career as pastor, writer, and evangelical leader, John Stott used a system of note cards to keep track of quotations and stories that he wanted to use in his sermons and books. With the help of his faithful secretary Frances Whitehead, he filed these cards away in his office at All Souls Langham Place, the church in London where he pastored for many years. Here is one of those note cards, with the topic heading “Agnosticism” in the lower right corner: After he died in 2011, these note cards were collected and transcribed…
Logos March Madness is in the final round. Save 55% on resources eliminated in round 5—or more, with dynamic pricing—then go vote for your champions. It’s a battle between Old and New Testament exegesis in the courses final, and between exegesis and exposition in the commentaries final. Check out the eliminated resources below—all 55% off. Round 5 commentaries—55% off New International Version Application Commentary (42 vols.) Most Bible commentaries take us on a one-way trip from our world to the world of the Bible. But they leave us there, focusing on the original meaning of the passage without discussing its…
On Friday the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced the conclusion of a year-long trial against an archbishop in Guam, stating that he has been found guilty of some charges stemming from allegations of sexual abuse of minors and has been removed from office. A source close to the case has confirmed that the archbishop has already appealed the decision…
The mind-boggling discoveries of computers and what we—and God?—still may never know. For Pi Day this year, chew on this: Does God know all the digits in pi? Or does he know the answer to the myriad of unresolved mathematical problems out there today? The great fifth-century African bishop Augustine of Hippo surely would have answered with a resounding yes, though other Christian thinkers might disagree. He also would likely have taken interest in recent mathematical discoveries made possible by today’s computers, discoveries that resurrect some of these unresolved problems. In 2016, Swiss mathematician and evangelical Christian Peter Trüb’s computer…
Society’s moral resolve hinges on the interdependence of the sick and the well. Just a few months ago, Britain announced the appointment of a Minister of Loneliness. The post reflects a rising epidemic that’s unique to 21st-century Western society: Many of us are hyperconnected online but simultaneously disconnected from substantive community. We have dozens of “followers” but few true friendships. We can connect with the world with the touch of a button—or the command of our voice—and yet we hardly know our neighbors. The net result? Loneliness. The increasingly common response: suicide. Each year, more than 44,000 people die by…
Missional leaders must cultivate biblically-shaped leadership and the gospel-structured mission. Eighteenth-century pioneer of missional theology, Nicolaus Zinzendorf, once quipped, “Preach the gospel, die and be forgotten.” Zinzendorf accurately describes the posture of the missional leader. We don’t need celebrities that dictate to us what our ministry should look like. We don’t need trends to which we conform our personality. Instead, our ministry must be formed around the principle of John the Baptist: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). We need to approach leadership with Christ-like humility and pursue the noble labor of gospel ministry. We need to…
A simple definition based in doctrine, history, or sociology won’t do. But a vibrant stream really does exist. Evangelicalism is one of the largest and most dynamic forms of Christianity in the modern world, but there is an amorphous quality to many words that end with the suffix “-ism,” and “evangelicalism” is no exception. “Evangelicalism” does not have the hard and crisp denotation of a concrete noun such as “Jesuit.” This confusion goes back to lexical roots. The English language uses the Anglo-Saxon noun “gospel” for the Greek “evangel” but retains the Greek root for the adjective “evangelical” and the…
American officials and supporters say Andrew Brunson has been “unjustly imprisoned” under false charges. Turkish prosecutors demanded life imprisonment for jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson in an official indictment presented to Izmir’s 2nd Criminal Court on Tuesday. Arrested without bail since October 2016, Brunson is accused of being “a member and executive” of the Islamic movement led by self-exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, accused of orchestrating the failed July 2016 coup attempt to overthrow the Turkish government. According to the semi-official news agency Anadolu Ajansi, the formal indictment also charges the pastor with establishing links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers…
Logos March Madness is nearing completion, and the discounts on runners-up are getting steeper. Get 50% off four bestselling commentary series and four popular Mobile Ed courses. Here are the eliminated resources from round 4. Commentaries—50% off Word Biblical Commentary (WBC) (61 vols.) — A juggernaut among commentaries, this series dominated in earlier rounds until it fell to NICOT/NT (currently projected to win). Emphasizing a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence, the WBC provides judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of texts in their biblical-theological framework. The Anchor Yale Bible (88 vols.) — A prestigious series…
C.S. Lewis famously called the gospel of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection “True Myth.” What he meant was that 1) it really happened (“True”) and 2) it serves as a worldview-forming grand story (“Myth”) for Christians. Other religions and cultures tell such stories without necessarily believing that they really happened—take the Enuma Elish. In this week’s video, I’ll show you how to conduct a New Testament word study on the word “myth” by first examining the use of the term in the Bible and then exploring its use in Greek literature from the same period. Recommended Resources: Liddell and Scott…