Ministerial Students, Calling, and PhD Studies

Sean Michael Lucas has a helpful discussion on ministerial students, calling, and PhD studies. As a PhD student myself I have wrestled with some of the issues that Lucas raises in his post.

Special thanks to Kevin for bringing this post to my attention.

I Never Thought: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz

I never thought I would see a news editorial with the name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (Isaiah 8:1, 3) in it, but here it is in The Valley Dispatch ("Just Be Thankful You're Not Named Mahershalalhashbaz"). The pertinent section states,

Parents have been giving their kids Biblical names as long as the Bible has been around. I wonder if Old Testament parents were thinking, "Hey, that would be a great Bible name someday," There's Caleb, Gabriel, Rebecca, Noah, Jeremiah and Isaiah, who picked out a doozy of a name for his firstborn. Actually, it was the Lord who told Isaiah what to name his son. The boy's name was Mahershalalhashbaz. Try getting that on a keychain.

The Problems of Digital Tithes and Offerings

A growing number of churches are now offering online giving. While such giving is convenient, there is a theological cost. See Bob Smietana’s article “Tithing evolves from offering plate to click of a mouse.” In the article,

Todd Johnson, professor of worship, theology and the arts at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, says that when offerings become digital, church rituals of offering no longer work.

Worship used to be marked by awe, reverence and sacrifice, he says.

“Now it's seen as a spiritual recharge station,” he says. “The church does not know what to do with giving as a ritual.”

The Kingdom of God in the SBJT

The Spring 2008 issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is devoted to the topic of the Kingdom of God. Stephen Wellum's editorial and Brian Vicker's article on "The Kingdom of God in Paul's Gospel" are available as pdf downloads (see links below). See also the article in Towers Online.

Editorial: Stephen J. Wellum
"Reflecting on the Kingdom of God"

Graeme Goldsworthy
“The Kingdom of God as Hermeneutic Grid”

Peter J. Gentry
“Kingdom Through Covenant: Humanity as the Divine Image”

Jonathan T. Pennington
“The Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew”

Brian Vickers
“The Kingdom of God in Paul's Gospel”

Russell D. Moore and Robert E. Sagers
“The Kingdom of God and the Church: A Baptist Reassessment”

Todd L. Miles
“A Kingdom without a King? Evaluating the Kingdom Ethic(s) of the Emerging Church”

Latest Issue of The Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of the Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews that may be of interest to those interested in Bible exposition include:

Paul N. Anderson
The Fourth Gospel and the Quest for Jesus: Modern Foundations Reconsidered
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5879
Reviewed by John Painter

Michael Thomas Davis and Brent A. Strawn, eds.
Qumran Studies: New Approaches, New Questions
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6114
Reviewed by Heinz-Josef Fabry

April D. DeConick
The Original Gospel of Thomas in Translation: With a Commentary and New English Translation of the Complete Gospel
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5655
Reviewed by Stephan Witetschek

Seenam Kim
The Coherence of the Collections in the Book of Proverbs
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6093
Reviewed by Johann Cook
Reviewed by Jutta Krispenz

Sarah Malena and David Miano, eds.
Milk and Honey: Essays on Ancient Israel and the Bible in Appreciation of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5940
Reviewed by Wolfgang Zwickel

Mikael C. Parsons
Body and Character in Luke and Acts: The Subversion of Physiognomy in Early Christianity
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5830
Reviewed by Pieter J. J. Botha
Reviewed by Patrick E. Spencer

Todd Penner and Caroline Vander Stichele, eds.
Moving beyond New Testament Theology? Essays in Conversation with Heikki Räisänen
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5492
Reviewed by Jan van der Watt

Richard L. Rohrbaugh
The New Testament in Cross-Cultural Perspective
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5956
Reviewed by Stephan Joubert

C. Kavin Rowe
Early Narrative Christology: The Lord in the Gospel of Luke
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5966
Reviewed by Christopher Tuckett

Naomi Seidman
Faithful Renderings: Jewish-Christian Difference and the Politics of Translation
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5658
Reviewed by Cameron Boyd-Taylor

Brad H. Young
Meet the Rabbis: Rabbinic Thought and the Teachings of Jesus
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5912
Reviewed by Verlyn D. Verbrugge

Bock on Forthcoming Book

Read the brief interview of Darrell Bock concerning the forthcoming book entitled Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait, written by Paul Verhoeven and Rob van Scheers.

Bible Quiz Controversy

I had reported a few posts back that a story in the Jerusalem Post was reporting that a group religious Zionist rabbis were calling for a boycott of this year's International Bible Quiz because one of the four finalists from Israel is a Messianic Jew. A new Jerusalem Post story now notes that the two chief rabbis of Israel are calling for the cancellation of the quiz altogether.

A Good Reminder

"Only God omniscient can accurately appraise the results of evangelism. Only He can count converts. When through mass evangelism many thousands come to profess faith in Christ, only He who searches the reins and hearts of men (Rev. 2:23) can judge how many of them possess true and abiding faith. And when Robert Morrison, the father of Protestant missions in China, after twenty-eight years of zealous missionary endeavour numbered but ten souls as his hire, only God knew in how many additional hearts his Spirit was about to begin, or even had begun, a good work."

R. B. Kuiper, God-Centered Evangelism (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1966),221