A commenter posted a link to the following video in the post-thread which asked, Is Mark Driscoll the kind of leader Southern Baptists need? In the video, Dr. Akin responds to a student who asked him concerning his endorsement of Mark and Grace Driscoll's, Real Marriage >>>
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Below is Part II in answering the question toward Mark Driscoll's latest book, Real Marriage, is he fudging in some of his footnotes? We concluded in Part I he most probably botched his source on Solomon's Song (2:3) from a 1977 book by Joseph C. Dillow. I offered no less than a baker's dozen resources which suggests the quote was, shall we say, half-done. Let's consider Driscoll's quotation from an evangelical scholar >>>
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Earlier, I mentioned two preliminaries concerning Driscoll's newest book, Real Marriage, preliminaries which I felt needed initial attention before I posted a general review of Driscoll's book. The first one dealt with Driscoll's obvious absence of adequately thinking through moral issues within the marital relationship. Contrarily, many suggest Driscoll is a model preacher, clearly presenting the gospel to the lost (one Driscoll supporter offers an honest appraisal, recording both "pros" and "cons" he feels Driscoll brings to the table, with the "pros," however, winning out over the "cons"). I would only add that however great Driscoll is in presenting the gospel, he woefully lacks, from what I've read, in giving consistently sound biblical counsel toward couples who desire a healthy marriage (a.k.a. Real Marriage) >>>
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Over the past few days, I've been considering Mark and Grace Driscoll's latest book, Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together
. Earlier I noted some curious endorsements of this monograph including Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary president, Danny Akin. Of interest is Akin's own contributions to the biblical theme of human sexuality including his book, God on Sex: The Creator's Ideas about Love, Intimacy, and Marriage
, a popular but reliable look into human sexuality from a decidedly biblical perspective--particularly sexuality as expressed in the context of holy matrimony >>>
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I received my review copy of Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together
by Mark and Grace Driscoll (Thomas Nelson: Nashville. copyright 2012 by On Mission, LLC). On the opening page(s) endorsements exist which may or may not be surprising to most Southern Baptists. Nonetheless I remain quite sure many Southern Baptists will do a double take given the saucy encouragement of sexual sodomy the Driscolls unashamedly promote. Below are a few endorsers about which Southern Baptists will undoubtedly have some interest >>>
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Adam Harwood's new book, The Spiritual Condition of Infants: A Biblical-Historical Survey and Systematic Proposal (hereafter, Spiritual Condition) was released this past Spring by Wipf & Stock Publishers (March 2011, $23.00). Dr. Adam Harwood, Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Georgia, answers a profound question which has baffled the greatest minds of the Christian church--the eternal destiny of children. Paige Patterson wrote the Foreword while endorsers include Charles White, James Leo Garrett Jr., Malcolm Yarnell, and Rustin J. Umstattd >>>
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Aaron Weaver (a.k.a. "Big Daddy Weave"), doctoral candidate and Graduate Fellow with the Baylor University Academy for Teaching and Learning, has a new book release entitled, James M. Dunn and Soul Freedom ($14.40, Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Macon, 224 pages) >>>
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J. D. Payne serves as a National Missionary with the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and an Associate Professor of Church Planting and Evangelism in the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Evangelism: A Biblical Response to Today's Questions ($17.99 Biblica Publishing, 2011) answers questions about evangelism from an admittedly Calvinistic perspective (47) >>>
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Since my book, Alcohol Today: abstinence in an age of indulgence (AT) debuted in 2009, I've appreciated many of the reviews that's been posted, reviews both pro and con. I determined early on not to engage those who reviewed my book for the simple reason I did not want anyone who took the time to review my work, and subsequently posting their thoughts about my work, to wonder if the author was going to show up and give them "what for" in misunderstanding his "perfect" literary masterpiece. Truth be told, I've fairly-well kept my self-imposed restriction. And, while AT has not been a runaway "best-seller," I've been pleased with its modest success >>>
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I finally finished my copy of Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person who Ever Lived by Rob Bell (hereafter, Love Wins, HarperOne 2011, $22.99). Some wondered why I have not already written a review. Others questioned my motives for posting a Reformed scholar’s review, while one blogger even strangely implicated me in surfing the internet looking for positive reviews of Bell’s book to post. Two quick points: a) I did not sense the urgency in critiquing Bell’s position before I actually read Bell’s position as did The Gospel Coalition bloggers (along with a few Southern Baptist bloggers); b) I do not schedule blogs to be posted based on others’ curiosities or desires. I have a limited amount of time to dedicate to this site. In short, I can only do so much>>>
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My recent book review of A. Chadwick Mauldin's work entitled, Fullerism as Opposed to Calvinism inspired a follow-up piece citing Dr. David Allen's helpful analysis of Andrew Fuller's theological shift from Hyper-Calvinism to High Calvinism to Moderate Calvinism. In a chapter entitled "Preaching for a Great Commission Resurgence” found in The Great Commission Resurgence: Fulfilling God’s Mandate in our Time, edited by Chuck Lawless and Adam Greenway (B&H, 2010, pp.281-298), Dr. Allen expounds on Andrew Fuller and his move away from what had become the theological norm of English Particular Baptists...>>>
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Recently, Baptist theologian Malcolm Yarnell put up a brief review of Fullerism as Opposed to Calvinism: A Historical and Theological Comparison of the Missiology of Andrew Fuller and John Calvin (hereafter “Fullerism”) by A. Chadwick Mauldin ($12.80 Wipf & Stock Publishers, Eugene, OR, 130 pages). With a Foreword written by Michael A.G. Haykin, Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Mauldin offers an invigorating proposal to contemporary Baptists—perhaps especially to those Baptists among us who insist on making Calvinism proper the theological benchmark for orthodoxy within our specific theological heritage…>>>
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Well I still haven't gotten around to reading Bell's book, Love Wins*
Listen in on this short audio (less than a minute). I know nothing about the background or from what sermon it allegedly came. But, for my part, it is the clearest no nonsense, non-confusing rhetoric I've ever heard Bell speak.** See what you think...
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Many Southern Baptists remain skeptical that there is any significant problem with "Reformed" theology within the Southern Baptist Convention. Often times those of us who lament the undeniable saturation of Reformed thinking in a free church convention of local congregational churches (i.e. the SBC) are chided as being either divisive (arguing for non-essentials), deluded (making issues where none exists), or dead-wrong (just plain ignorant). Indeed sometimes we're told we're all three! I think it's important to offer tangible evidence, evidence we did not produce. Rather, there is abundant evidence from the inside of the Reformed movement itself...>>>
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