What the Thunder Said...

...and you should too!

Reading: Ridderbos' Redemptive History and the New Testament Scriptures
Enjoying: my new Moto HS850
Listening: Modest Mouse

This week is midterms (technically only two more to go!), and Saturday is the Amillenial super conference. The following week, Samantha and I are heading up into Cali to do a little exploring and take a much needed vacation over spring break. So other than conference notes, posting might be a bit spotty. To tide you over, here's some of the links I've been perusing.

Before we get to those, I just wanted to point out few things in the sidebar. You can click on |Noteworthy Posts| or |Blund Web Comments| to see other places I've been busy with. See what sites I've been visiting, get involved with the discussion, and show me where you've been. I'm curious to see where you spend your time. And now on with the links!


Mouw on Kuyper on Culture
President Mouw gave the address, “Culture, Church, and Civil Society: Kuyper for the New Century” for the Kuyper Prize Lecture. These are some notes.
(HT: Macht)

Nicolas of Lyra, Aristotle, and Redemptive Historical Hermeneutics
Dr. Peter Leithart notes that there may have been a "double literal" meaning to the text, and we shouldn't be surprised if the original Hebrew audience understood the Messianic referent. Oh yeah, it also makes sense with Aristotelian philosophy as well.

John Frame on N.T. Wright on the Bible
Prof. Frame reviews Dr. Wright's recent The Last Word. Overall, Frame is disappointed.
(HT: JT)

A Man Ahead of His Time
This is the man to elect president for all the conservatives who want the border fixed, international relations solved, and fiscal solutions.

Also, by Augustine X:
Alas, alas: How the Next Generation Dresses
(I was trying to find one of his war posts, but can't find it...)

Carl Trueman on How To Revise the Westminster Standards
Ok, a tad over the top. More of his opinions about it than anything else.

Overcoming A Frat Party Reputation
The new direction of the beer hall. "Respect Beer."

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** Intermission **

During the intermission, enjoy this video:
Foo Fighters Everlong at Hyde Park 2006



I think this is an amazing example of the intimacy so many feel at concerts, this despite the fact you are surrounded (in this case) by 79,999 other strangers. This was quite a moving performance; I was amazed at how Grohl captured the closeness of an acoustic coffee house and a rock tour. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
source
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Of Piscator and Denying the Imputation of Christ's Active Righteousness
As it applies to the FV and NPP movements. Good research, good reading, and good debates.

Church Growth Model: The Lego Church
Words fail. For Regulative Principle advocates, is this an element or circumstance?
(HT: Macht)

You might say that some of his forays into philosophy are at best sophomoric, but that would be unfair to sophomores...
Sir Plantinga on Dawkin's latest. "...the fact is (grade inflation aside), many of his arguments would receive a failing grade in a sophomore philosophy class. "
(HT: Dr. Mohler)

Are the Dutch Returning to Biblical (Reformed?) Roots?
An important percentage of the country - frustrated with the licentious urban - are turning to biblical values, and giving the conservative, biblical political parties more control.
(HT: Byzantine-Rite Calvinist)

Book of Common Prayer Lectionary Readings
How do you order your Bible readings? This has been my morning pattern for about four months now.

Leftward Christian Soldiers
Darryl G. Hart on why the Religious Right may not always be in the GOP stable.

Promoting Family Worship
Joe Thorn weighs in on family worship, and then again with Dr. Tom Ascol.
(HT: JT)

The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification
The 1692 monograph by Walter Marshall. A must read, especially in pairing objective and subjective, union with Christ and His benefits. I'm working on putting together a handy, readable and edited version to print out. Email (or comment) if you'd like a copy, and I'll let you know when its done.

Well that's all. Thanks, and hope you enjoyed the tour. Have a great week, and a blessed Palm Sunday | Holy Week.

Labels: blogging, theology

I just saw this at Prosthesis, and had to point it out. Enjoy!

Kiwi!

(HT: Macht)

Labels: Art | Culture, Philosophy

Reading: Kitchen Ancient Orient and Old Testament
Enjoying: grape juice, and the thought of a cozy bed
Listening: AFI

The subject of application in preaching has been much on my mind lately, including being the subject of a paper I produced in the first semester at seminary ("Preaching As Sacrament"). This video is 208 seconds of Piper explaining how he understands his preaching to function in God's grace and application.


source

What do you think? Is Piper consistent with his theology? With broader Reformed theology?

We here at What the Thunder Said hope to think through this issue more with you, but hope you'll get the conversation going in the comments! Let's hear it: how should application function in sermons with God's grace?

(HT: DG Blog)

Labels: the long war, theology

Reading: The Reformed Pastor: Lectures on Pastoral Theology (Princeton Theological Monograph) ed. Sam Hastra, Jr.
Enjoying: cho-co-la-te
Listening: Evanescence and SOAD

Seeing as how tomorrow is the Lord's Day, one of the better things to occupy a Saturday evening with is preparing for the next day. To that end, here is a helpful post on dealing with listening to the sermon.

How you can stop sermons being boring

We realize that the link above seems to put stock in whether something is exciting, and the title of the post (and hopefully, series) of "worshipping well" probably sounds pragmatic, but just actually read the linked article and see if you still think so (and if you still do, send hate mail in the comments).

From the article:

It would be odd if your pastor turned up one Sunday with no notes, and simply asked, “Has anyone got any ideas what I should preach on this morning?”. But is that our attitude when we come to hear a sermon?...

A sermon is served like a Sunday dinner, not like an intravenous drip. It has to be chewed, digested and swallowed. We cannot simply sit back and expect to be fed...

Too often we equate worship with singing. Certainly our singing ought to be worshipful, but the whole service is a worship service. Everything that we do during a Sunday service ought to be worshipful, and that includes listening to the sermon...

So how do we stop sermons being boring? With a soul that is prepared, a mind that is alert, a Bible that is open, a heart that is receptive, and a life that is ready to spring into action.

What are your thoughts? Does he capture all the elements of good sermon listening? Try employing what he suggests tomorrow morning or the next time you sit under God's word. (How well did it work for you? How did it make you feel? What were the benefits? < /end sarcasm>.) Leave your reflections, responses and opinions in the comments. If the sermon is truly God speaking through the mouth piece of the minister, we need to give the sermon its due.

Labels: the long war

Perspectives: Body Count Evangelism

From the concluding paragraph:

The inescapable conclusion is this: the Body of Christ in America is not growing -- either numerically or spiritually. It is, relatively speaking, shrinking -- burdened by crass commercialism, a lack of integrity, and the quest for power and glory of celebrity preachers. An all but inescapable second conclusion is this: the rest of us, if we do not speak out against the lies of those who practice "body-count evangelism," are standing by just as Paul stood by when he guarded the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen. We, likewise, are guarding this cloak of falsehood -- subjecting the Body of Christ to a modern stoning of its own.

Click on the title to read the rest regarding mission in America.

Whether or not his research is acceptable, it does seem fairly conclusive that, if evangelism and church growth are moving in a such a positive direction - and from every corner: missional, emergent, Billy Graham, megachurch, etc. - where are the effects? We've commented here before on American [Pragmatic] Morality and that crisis. If the seeds are really growing as so many claim they are, where is the fruit?

Share some of your theories in the comments, or email with your ideas.

You may also want to check out this post with maps of the demographics of religion in America.

(HT: Craig S.)

Labels: City of Man, the long war, theology

Apologies to all, but updating to the latest form of Blogger is playing with the settings of the site. A lot of ancient posts are being republished, which will only affect those reading by RSS or Atom (XML) subscriptions. We heartily apologize and suggest ignoring the feed or unsubscribing for a bit until we can get things back up and running. Thanks for your patience.

The Management

Labels: blogging, WtTS Stuff

The Apostle Paul
Paul in Prison
St. Paul at his writing desk
Self Portrait

Labels: Art | Culture

If you are in the North County area, come check out the action. Sorry ladies, they're spoken for. (Or was I not supposed to give that away until they were already inside?...)

Matt Haeck MySpace
Austin Britton MySpace

Labels: Art | Culture, Events

For those of you who don't keep your fingers on the pulse beat of contemporary short fiction, here is Nate "Son of Doug from Moscow" Wilson's The Rise and Fall of Circumcision. Apparently, Esquire sent out calls for a short story that could be fit on to a napkin, and the above story is Mr. Wilson's harvest.

The story is suggestively well done, and it reminds us of the dark grace to be found in Flannery O'Connor's works (which is, of course, a compliment). We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Best Lines

"I'm Jewish," he says... "Right," I say. "So am I." I'm not.

"Three most dangerous jobs on this continent," he says, holding up fingers. "NY cop, bounty hunter, graveyard in a c-store." He nods like I don't believe him. "Not necessarily in that order."

"Huh," I say. I want to say less.

There are a few other zingers, but we don't want to give any of it away. What do you think? What were your favorite lines? What is other good literature out there on the internets? Write your thoughts in a napkin the comments below!

(HT: Wilson Sr.)

Labels: Art | Culture, books

Despite our bed & breakfast induced absence from the blogosphere, we were able to keep abreast of the Pastor MacArthur | Premillenialism fiasco. Now, it seems there are too many links to point to in order to capture the hoo-rah, but here is Challies' comments, Rev. Riddlebarger's thoughts, and Mr. Phil Pyro-Johnson, for a sampling of some of the buzz.

Now, its clear that everyone has a dog in this fight; who's going to be impartial? So we're in a bit of a pickle: on the one hand, we have immense mad love for JMac (that's what we call him when we hit the links together), are thankful for his witness to the Word, and for what he has done for so many people. Heck, I think he may be my wife's favorite preacher to listen to on the radio. Most importantly, I don't want to slander a minister of the church, or my theological-more mature-wiser elder. But on the other hand, we think he's wrong on this point. What to do?

Simple! You find quotes by dead guys and let them contradict MacArthur! While there is no doubt scads of stuff out there giving another reading to what Pastor MacArthur came away with, we simply point you to one of our past posts concerning G. Vos and Premillenialism. We hope you enjoy his thoughts.

Labels: theology

Reading: Bryan Chapell's Christ Centered Preaching
Enjoying: cup o' joe
Listening: soof-yan


As much as it saddens me to say this, the Lund|Escondido Inn is officially closed down for the visiting season. Our last guest vacated the premises over the weekend (fortunately Samantha came back!), and then there were two. It was a ton of fun having everyone out, and we hope we're as popular next year. Lodging rates will definitely be going up, however.

All total, we count 17 people made their way through our doors. Family, friends, prospective students, and the odd "how is she related to you again?" all graced us with their presence. Now don't worry, not everyone in that mob actually stayed in our apartment - several stayed at the nearby Holiday Inn. We're not sure who's sanity was being protected in those scenarios, but it always seemed to work out well. Sam and I are thinking of developing an award gala to celebrate the tourist season - you know: "Favorite Relative to stay with us," "Least Knowledge of Personal Hygiene," "Wore Out Their Welcome FastestMarathon Man," etc. All told, we had a blast with everyone, and our only regret was when our friends and family had to leave. And the fact that I didn't snap as many pictures as we could of (though get a blast from the past - go see our first visitors again.)

The upside of all of this is a return to blogging for me. So, there will be more posts again at What the Thunder Said..., and it remains to be seen if that is a good thing or a bad thing!

Labels: bio, blogging