“Basham is right that many ‘shepherds’ are, in fact, ‘for sale.’ But the unintended irony… of her book is that the corrupting money is not on the evangelical left, as she claims, but on the populist right.” - The Dispatch

“My purpose here is to ask the kind of question that people in the pews are asking…. Does the fact that God is in control strip away responsibility for our choices?….do we see each and every event in life as part of God’s foreordained plan?” - Church Leaders

“I sat with some GenZ college students and talked about the history of fundamentalism…. These sincere young men told me that they had never even heard of the doctrine of ecclesiastical separation, even though they had grown up in fundamental Baptist churches” - P&D

“In light of ongoing questions surrounding the recent events at the ERLC, the executive board of the trustees wishes to affirm our support for Brent Leatherwood as president and his leadership of the organization. Our goal is to do everything within our power to set up the ERLC and its staff for success” - Baptist Press

What is Jesus saying at John 14:2-3? What is “my Father’s house?” Where is it? When will Jesus take believers there? In the last article, we examined the theory that it refers to being “up there” in heaven, and that Jesus takes believers there at an event called the pre-tribulational rapture. We concluded this idea isn’t supported by the text and gave it a “D” rating for probability. That doesn’t mean the pre-tribulation rapture is false—it just means to “see” it in John 14:2-3 you must smuggle it in from elsewhere.

See the rest of the series here. Today, we’ll look at three other options in turn. Here we go …

“In the end, Shaw offers 13 very good arguments for the reliability of the New Testament. And while each one is compelling in its own way, the impact of 13 following one after the other is tremendously encouraging and faith-building.” - Challies

“Any one of these kills would represent the most high-profile Israeli strike against an enemy of Israel since the October 7^th attacks. Taken together, they are a strategic boon.” - Providence

“On a regular basis, I catch King-James-Onlyists acknowledging my point…. Such is our story today, my friends—a story which begins on the blog of leading King-James-Onlyist, Kent Brandenburg.” - Mark Ward

“Dawkins wrote as if God is just a bigger and stronger human, a being like the rest of us who merely happens to be very powerful.” - Breakpoint

“Religious freedom no longer exists in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, where religious leaders have been abducted and sometimes tortured, several Ukrainian journalists said during a recent visit to the United States.” - The Baptist Paper

A crowd of roughly 40 Biblical and theological educators met at Maranatha Baptist University in Watertown, Wis., from Monday through Wednesday, July 29 to 31, for this year’s edition of the annual Bible Faculty Summit.

Those in attendance represented the following colleges and seminaries:

“Did Erasmus back translate the last five verses of Revelation from Latin to Greek in his textual critical work or did he place the Latin in the Greek text as a placeholder until his publisher was able to find a Greek text containing those five verses?” - Ref21

“About four-in-ten adults ages 50 and older who never had children (38%) say there was a time when they wanted to have them. About a third (32%) say they never wanted to have children, while a quarter say they weren’t sure whether or not they wanted to do so.” - Pew

“Around 3 in 10 (29%) U.S. Protestant churchgoers say their church’s ministry activities and methods would fit best in a time period before the turn of the new millennium….Close to half (52%) say their church’s ministry belongs in the 2000s or later. Another 19% aren’t sure.” - Baptist Press

“Can we please God? Should we try to? Is there a place for striving in the Christian life? Can God be disappointed with the Christian? Does the gospel make any demands? These are good questions that require a good deal of nuance and precision to answer well.” - Kevin DeYoung

“Paradoxically, the faster government debt escalates toward an inevitable debt crisis, the less politicians and voters seem to care…. In the past eight years, President Donald Trump and then Biden enacted $12 trillion in deficit-expanding legislation” - Reason

Schaeffer on the Christian Life, by William Edgar, Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2013, 206 pages, paperback.

“1. Once a year: Study Break…. 2. Each week: Half prep-time for a future week / Half prep-time for this week…. 3. Continual: The Notes app on my phone and handwritten notes in back covers” - Eric Geiger

“To be a member of the Gideons, one must be an adult man and conform to a set of spiritual beliefs that are entirely uncontroversial for most Biblical Christians. Among these requisites is the commitment to ‘the Biblical standard of marriage being between one biological man and one biological woman.’” - Juicy Ecumenism

“A million Neville Chamberlains leaning over balconies with hands outstretched, declaring, ‘We have achieved peace for our time’ would not ensure that human history is ever anything but one continuous Munich.” - RC Sproul

“When God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush He identified Himself as being—the ‘I am’ (Ex. 3:14). Unlike everyone else, He is not from somewhere or the fruit of ancestors. He is not even a species within a genus.” - Credo

Related: I AM: Simplicity - P&D

“Do creeds and confessions conflict with Baptist theology? I suggest not…. To prove this, I cover the general benefits of confessions, the historical use of confessions in Baptist life, and conclude by providing a confessional test case.” - London Lyceum

“In contrast to this popular reading of the passage, I contend that Paul describes his life under the Mosaic Law (or impersonates someone living under the Mosaic Law) before his redemption in Christ and the endowment of life in the Spirit.” - Word by Word

“Gavin Ortlund and Pat Flynn discuss arguments for God, classical theism, and Christian worldview.” - Truth Unites

“But what’s the truth about Darby? What responsibility does he bear for the spread of dispensationalism and Zionist politics?” - TGC

The Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) highlighted this German finding, saying it ‘poses a formidable challenge to the presumption of permanence of gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults.’” - Daily Citizen

From Lectures to My Students: A Selection from Addresses Delivered to the Students of The Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle

First Series, Lecture X
By C.H. Spurgeon

Read the series.

“Instead of spending our limited resources on phone calls, mailings, and media buys aimed at already convinced pro-life voters, we must be laser-focused on reaching what could be called the ‘mushy middle.’” - CPost

“The recent display at the Paris Olympics stirred up a lot of controversy. Conservative sites are outraged…. The event reminded me of 1 Jn 3.13: ‘Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.’” - P&D

“According to an announcement released Friday, the two parties stated that they ‘have reached a global resolution agreement settling all outstanding disputes on both legal and personal matters.’” - CPost