hughbiquitous

The apostle Paul is the model for polemicists, those who would refute error in others. One of the things to keep in mind is that Paul was an evangelist before he was a polemicist. In fact, all of the apostles who provide us with the biblical materials upon which we base our polemics were first and foremost evangelists… [F]or those who are not gifted in evangelism there is a real sense in which all of ministry must be pointed in an evangelistic direction and a real sense in which a compassion [for] the lost must animate all we do. I wonder if we developed the same zeal for the lost as we do for polemics if this would make a difference in our polemics? This would not do away with polemics but it would give them a different shape for sure.

JOLLYBLOGGER: Throwing Mark Driscoll Under the Bus

Update: this has been refuted. The canada.com link no longer works.

A new law passed by the Iranian parliament would require the country’s Jews and Christians to wear colored badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.

canada.com

Joseph Laconte at OpinionJournal.com ponders what C.S. Lewis’s take on The Da Vinci Code might have been:

Here is the real harm of these modern conspiracy theories: They may appeal to our emotions, but they violate our common sense. They reject reason, just as surely as they reject revelation. “I do not wish to reduce the skeptical element in your minds,” Lewis explained. “I am only suggesting that it need not be reserved exclusively for the New Testament and the Creeds. Try doubting something else.”

Elsewhere, Justin Taylor links to Fern-Seed and Elephants, the essay Mr. Laconte appealed to in his piece.

We should, to begin with, think that God leads a very interesting life, and that he is full of joy. Undoubtedly he is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of his love and generosity is inseparable from his infinite joy. All of the good and beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul-exhilarating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breadth and depth and richness.

John Piper? Nope. (more…)

Christians need not be afraid of real learning… The facts are always on God’s side. But we must remain ever vigilant against the distortions that arise from being impressed by one’s own pursuit of learning. …[It is] not the facts themselves that corrupt but the pride of the inner spirit found in the human mind.

Dr. Graham Walker, president of Patrick Henry College, on the naming of Dr. Gene Edward Veith as the College’s new Academic Dean