Category Archives: Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight

Aggregators and the Aggregated

J-Gerald-Harris

Justin Taylor does an interesting job of posting various and sundry. But as always, I have a few questions: 1) Do we need to read Piper in order to have access to the high priest of Christian hedonism, Jonathan Edwards? Why can’t we receive Edwards without a mixer? 2) Has Jed been reading Chuck Colson?… Read More→

Posted in Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight | Tagged , , , , , , | 31 Comments

Adolf, Justin, and Mark

maypo mascot_54

This is a pretty amusing video, if not for the abuse of a profoundly good movie. But the juxtaposition may supply needed perspective on all the coalitions, alliances, and group hugs going on out there among celebrity pastors and their enabling bloggers.

Posted in Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Faint Resemblance

Pablo Picasso

One of the truisms of intellectual exchange is the need to represent other persons’ views correctly so that they recognize their position or argument. Even when you disagree — or especially when you do — for debate to clarify more than antagonize you need to present your opponent’s views in such a way that he… Read More→

Posted in Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight | Tagged , , , | 52 Comments

Things You Won’t Hear the Young and Restless Say

montreat youth

This video has not gone viral the way that the one about Jesus hating religion did, but it offers another window into Calvinism among the millennials and shows that the likes of Driscoll, Mahaney, Piper, and Keller don’t have a corner on the demographic. Deciphering the logos on t- and sweatshirts and interpreting the prayers… Read More→

Also posted in New World Presbyterianism | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

Comments Open and Closed

In-Treatment

Alliances close comments, churches open them. That conclusion is hard to avoid after recent developments in the PCA and at the Gospel Coalition. The PCA sponsored an enclave of fifty officers, a “Meeting of Understanding,” to discuss challenges and differences within the denomination. The rationale for the meeting was akin to marriage counseling. Spouses who… Read More→

Also posted in Jure Divino Presbyterianism | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

Reservations about Evangelical Coalitions Are Not Reserved to Old Life

walmart-sign

Carl Trueman has a very good essay about the ways in which megachurch and multi-site pastors, along with large-scale parachurch organizations are undermining small congregations and denominations. Here is an excerpt: I noticed recently one individual marketing himself as someone who had planted numerous churches. This was clearly being presented as an unconditionally good thing.… Read More→

Posted in Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

Cherry Picking Alert (and boy are those trunks sappy!)

cherries

The Gospel Coalition has launched a year-long series of blog posts about Princeton Theological Seminary, a school that celebrates its bicentennial this year. The first post introduces PTS by likening the institution to the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement. Controversies swirl around celebrity pastors and their best-selling books. Evangelicals unite across denominational lines to share… Read More→

Also posted in Adventures in Church History | Tagged , , , , , , , | 31 Comments

If Wrapping Yourself in the U.S. Flag is in Bad Taste, What About Wrapping Yourself in the Gospel?

flag wrapped pooch

Matthew Lee Anderson has a series of posts in which he responds to Jared Wilson’s new book, Gospel Wakefulness. Since I haven’t read the book but have only seen a few posts about its argument, I can’t take Anderson or Wilson’s side (not as if they are all that antagonistic). But one thing caught my… Read More→

Posted in Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Any Tie to John Frame?

mr. potato head

I wish so, but I don’t see one. Also, if a connection between the Baylys and the Gospel Coalition existed, I’d like to find it. But I can’t. Old Life is a responsible blog, after all. Though there is a Tim Keller reference here that is not of my doing (mmmmmmm TKNY). The Baylys have… Read More→

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A Theological Wonder Who Was Wrong about the Church and Sacraments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

All Frame and his students all the time this week. Pardon the obsession. Justin Taylor continues to aggregate with a post about the value of reading Calvin’s Institutes. He includes several quotations from J. I. Packer (though why gospel-co-allies should pay attention to Barth I’m not sure): The Institutes is one of the wonders of… Read More→

Also posted in Evangelicalism | Tagged , , , , | 41 Comments