Jul 16, 2011

The Return of Christ

  
I just received a copy of The Return of Christ edited by David L. Allen and Steve W. Lemke  and published by B & H Academic. I will be doing a review in the near future, but for now here is the publisher's description.

In the study of end times (eschatology), evangelical Christians usually adhere to one of three positions. Premillennialism holds that Christ will return to earth before He reigns over an earthly kingdom for one thousand years. Postmillennialism says the kingdom of God will become realized on this earth through the church's influence, even before Christ's return. Amillennialism suggests the millennium is not a literal thousand-year reign, but that Christ's return will usher in eternity.

The Return of Christ gathers presentations from the Acts 1:11 Conference where church leaders spoke in support of the premillennial position and pre-tribulation rapture. Regardless of whether or not a reader holds this same position, the text emphasizes the deep importance of eschatology in Christ's teaching ministry and as the focus for our hope. Indeed, without the promise of Christ's return, Christianity has little to offer the unbeliever.

The book's dozen contributors include Jerry Vines, Ergun Caner, Danny Akin, Paige Patterson, David Allen, Richard Land, Junior Hill, Stanton R. Norman, Craig Blaising, Lamar Cooper, Steven Cox, and Michael Vlach.
  

Jul 15, 2011

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

  
The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below.
  
Alicia J. Batten
Friendship and Benefaction in James
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7811
Reviewed by Oda Wischmeyer
 
Michael W. Duggan
The Consuming Fire: A Christian Guide to the Old Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7754
Reviewed by Wilhelm J. Wessels
 
Steven J. Friesen, Daniel N. Schowalter, and James C. Walters, eds.
Corinth in Context: Comparative Studies on Religion and Society
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7855
Reviewed by Dennis E. Smith
 
Marianne Bjelland Kartzow
Gossip and Gender: Othering of Speech in the Pastoral Epistles
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7637
Reviewed by Korinna Zamfir
 
Jerome Murphy-O'Connor
Keys to Second Corinthians: Revisiting the Major Issues
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7776
Reviewed by Victor Paul Furnish
Reviewed by vanThanh Nguyen
 
Christopher Rollston
Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from the Iron Age
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7813
Reviewed by Johannes Schnocks
Reviewed by Ian Young
 
Robert L. Webb and Duane F. Watson, eds.
Reading Second Peter with New Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of Second Peter
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7626
Reviewed by David K. Burge
   

Jul 14, 2011

The Problem With Preaching

  
See this Huffington Post article. I would suggest that a number of these problems could be addressed by solid expository preaching in that expository preaching explains, illustrates, and applies a passage of Scripture.
 

Jul 13, 2011

Burk on Hell

  
Denny Burk has some interesting thoughts on how Christians should feel about hell here.
 

Jul 12, 2011

1 Corinthians, the Early Church and Today's Church

  
"The notion that early Christianity is a perfect model that all successive followers of Jesus Christ should imitate is clearly undermined in 1 Corinthians, and elsewhere in the New Testament as well. The early church, as we shall repeatedly see, had the same frailties and difficulties as ever subsequent Christian generation. Since this is the case, the way in which such difficulties are resolved should be particularly illuminating for the contemporary church, where many of these same issues are reflected, not least of which is the problem of the disunity and fragmentation of Christianity."

Karl Paul Donfried, The Dynamic Word: New Testament Insights for Contemporary Christians (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981), 30.
  

Jul 11, 2011

Latest Issue of the Bulletin for Biblical Research: Vol. 21 No. 2

 
The main articles are:

Old Testament Gemstones: Philological, Geological, and Archaeological Assessment of the Septuagint
James A. Harrell

A Communion of Subjects: Zoological Classification and Human/Animal Relations in Psalm 104
Richard Whitekettle

Building House to House (Isaiah 5:8): Theological Reflection on Land Development and Creation Care
Heath A. Thomas

NT Scholars’ Use of OT Lament Terminology and Its Theological and Interdisciplinary Implications
D. Keith Campbell

Peter and the Prophetic Word: The Theology of Prophecy Traced through Peter’s Sermons and Epistles
Paul A. Himes
  

Jul 10, 2011

Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

  
The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below.
  
Willis Barnstone
The Restored New Testament: A New Translation with Commentary, Including the Gnostic Gospels Thomas, Mary, and Judas
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7383
Reviewed by Marvin J. Hudson
 
Rowan A. Greer
Theodore of Mopsuestia: Commentary on the Minor Pauline Epistles
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7873
Reviewed by Frederick G. McLeod
 
David G. Horrell, Cherryl Hunt, Christopher Southgate, and Francesca Stavrakopoulou, eds.
Ecological Hermeneutics: Biblical, Historical and Theological Perspectives
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7868
Reviewed by Russell Pregeant
 
Matthew W. Mitchell
Abortion and the Apostolate: A Study in Pauline Conversion, Rhetoric, and Scholarship
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7548
Reviewed by William S. Campbell
 
John J. Ranieri
Disturbing Revelation: Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin, and the Bible
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7057
Reviewed by George Heyman
 
Sandra L. Richter
The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=6976
Reviewed by Russell Meek
Reviewed by Stephen Moyise
 
Richard G. Smith
The Fate of Justice and Righteousness during David's Reign: Narrative Ethics and Rereading the Court History According to 2 Samuel 8:15-20:26
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7482
Reviewed by Walter Dietrich
 
Einar Thomassen, ed.
Canon and Canonicity: The Formation and Use of Scripture
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=7360
Reviewed by Donatella Scaiola