Around The Web-May 20, 2016

God Was Placed in a Womb by Mark Jones

Why Legalistic Preaching Doesn't Work by David Prince

8 Arguments for Why You Should Be Anxious Today (and How the Bible Responds) by Justin Taylor

Preach the Word. Build the Church by Tony Merida

What is the Prayer of Faith? by Sinclair Ferguson

What is Jesus's Evangelism Program? by David Schrock

Albert Mohler on why the Supreme Court ruling on Same-Sex marriage last year will not deliver on its promise



Tim Keller, Michael Horton, and Alan Hirsch on how to teach God's law in an authority-adverse culture

Around the Web-September 25, 2015

How to Use a Study Bible by Andy Naselli

Study Bibles as Theological Tool Kits by Justin Taylor

Same-Sex Marriage is An Opportunity for the Gospel by Jeff Dodge

Why Don’t Protestants Have a Pope? by Kevin DeYoung

9 Things You Should About Pope Francis by Joe Carter

What Won't Be In Heaven by Sam Storms

Francis Chan on why we need the Bible.

Around The Web-May 8, 2015

Why Bible Study Isn't Enough by Jeff Vanderstelt

Why Not to Have a Woman Preach by Thomas Schreiner

The Blessings of Bivocational Ministry by D.A. Horton

The Glory of the Cross Displayed in Daily Following Christ in Everyday Life by Dave Jenkins

This video is a trailer to Jared C Wilson's latest book, The Prodigal Church



Justin Taylor talks with Joe Thorn about his latest book, Experiencing The Trinity

Around The Web-December 26, 2014

Top 10 YouTube Videos by Denny Burk

Collin Hansen shares his top 10 theology stories of 2014

These box-office flops will live in 2014 movie infamy

One writer shares his 10 worse movies of the year

It is also that time of year where a Bible reading plan is picked out. Here are a few sites to check out.

Bible Reading Plans for 2015 from Ligonier

Here is a list Justin Taylor made last year.

This year I began year one of a three year Bible reading plan Tim Chester put together. If you want a reading plan that is not so rushed, this would be the one to do. Cannot wait to begin year two.

Denny Burk's post had a great list of videos. I have to admit I have not seen most of them. There were two videos this year that did catch my attention on YouTube that I would like to share.

The first one is a battle that will most likely never happen in the movies. Comic books? Maybe. It is a battle between Batman and Darth Vader. Yes, you read it correctly, the Dark Knight vs. the Dark Lord of the Sith.



This next video was one I thought was real. If you know the rules of soccer, then you know this was not real but one for good laughs. Goalie Scott Sterling shows his mad skills on the field in a shootout something I hope my daughter, who is the goalie on her team, does not have to do. What made this video even more hilarious are the announcers.



And if that wasn't enough, he gets a Christmas present from the announcers. Yeah, I bet you can guess what will happen.

Around The Web-Reformation Day Edition

Happy Reformation Day. Here are a few posts in tribute to this day:

Reformation Then and Now, Here and There by Dan Doriani

Ninety-Five Theses: What You May Not Know and Why They Matter Today by Justin Holcomb

497 Years Ago Today: An Interview with Carl Trueman by Justin Taylor

Ligonier is offering free downloads today only

John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul talk about Sola Scriptura and the Reformation

Is The Reformation Over? by Kevin DeYoung

Will The Church Be Raptured Before the Tribulation?

Last Week, we looked at if Christians should believe in the rapture as taught in Left Behind. This will always be a tough topic and one for Christians to always have disagreements on. Recently Justin Taylor posted 9 convincing reasons that the church will not be raptured before the Tribulation:

With the new Left Behind movie trailer now online (starring Nicholas Cage), this might be a helpful time to explain why many of us do not believe the idea of Christians be “raptured” to heaven while others are “left behind” is a biblical teaching.

Here is a summary of the arguments from John Piper:


1. The word for “meeting” the Lord in the air in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (apantesin) is used in two other places in the New Testament: Matthew 25:6 and Acts 28:15. In both places it refers to a meeting in which people go out to meet a dignitary and then accompany him in to the place from which they came out. One of these,Matthew 25:6, is even a parable of the second coming and so a strong argument that this is the sense of the meeting here in 1 Thess. 4:17—that we rise to meet the Lord in the air and then welcome him to earth as king.

2. The wording of 2 Thessalonians 1:5-7, when read carefully, shows that Paul expects to attain rest from suffering at the same time and in the same event that he expects the unbelievers to receive punishment, namely, at the revelation of Jesus with mighty angels in flaming fire. This revelation is not the pre-tribulational rapture but the glorious second coming. Which means that Paul did not expect an event at which he and the other believers would be given rest seven years before the glorious appearing of Christ in flaming fire. Vengeance on unbelievers and rest for the persecuted church come on the same day in the same event.

3. The wording of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 suggests that the “assembling to meet him” is the same as “the day of the Lord” about which they are confused. But the assembling is the “rapture” and “the day of the Lord” is the glorious second coming. They appear to be one event.

Supporting this is the reference to “gathering” the elect in Matthew 24:31. Here there is a gathering (same word) but it is clearly a post-tribulational context. So there is no need to see the gathering and the day of the Lord in 2 Thessalonians as separate events.

4. If Paul were a pre-tribulationist why did he not simply say in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 that the Christians don’t need to worry that the day of the Lord is here because all the Christians are still here? Instead he talks just the way you would expect a post-tribulational person to do. He tells them that they should not think that the day of the Lord is here because the apostasy and the man of lawlessness have not appeared. . . .

5. When you read Matthew 24 or Mark 13 or Luke 21, which are Jesus’ descriptions of the end times, there is no mention of a rapture removing believers from the events of the end. A normal reading gives no impression of a departure. On the contrary, he talks as if the believing listeners and then the readers would or could experience the things he mentions. See Mt. 24:4, 9, 15, 23, 25f, 33, etc.

6. Going through tribulation, even when it is appointed by God, is not contrary to Biblical teaching. See especially 1 Peter 4:17; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10; Hebrews 12:3-11. But even so, Revelation 9:4 suggests that the saints will be in some measure protected in the time of distress by the seal of God.

7. The commands to “watch” do not lose their meaning if the second coming is not an any-moment one. See Matt. 25:1-13 where all ten maidens are asleep when the Lord returns. Yet the lesson at the end of the parable is, “Watch!” The point is that watching is not gazing up for an any-moment-return of the Lord; it is the moral vigilance that keeps you ready at all times doing your duty—the wise maidens had full lanterns! They were watchful!

Nor does the teaching that the second coming will be unexpected lose its force if post-tribulationism is true. See Luke 12:46 where the point is that if a servant gets drunk thinking that his master is delayed and will not catch him-that very servant will be surprised and taken off guard. But as 1 Thess. 5:1-5 says, “You (believers) are not in darkness for that day to surprise you like a thief.” We still teach that great moral vigilance and watchfulness is necessary lest we be lulled asleep and fall prey to the deceits of the last days and be overtaken in the judgment.

8. The strongest pre-tribulational text, Rev. 3:10, is open to another interpretation without any twisting. It says, “Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth.” But to “be kept for the hour of testing” is not necessarily to be taken out of the world during this hour, and thus spared suffering. Compare Gal. 1:4 and Jesus’ prayer for his disciples in John 17:15where to “keep from” does not mean physical removal. And notice the inevitability of martyrdom in Rev. 6:9-11. The promise is to be guarded from the hour in the sense of being guarded from the demoralizing forces of that hour.

9. The second coming does not lose its moral power in post-tribulationism. New Testament moral incentive is not that we should fear being caught doing evil, but that we should so love the appearing of the Lord that we want to be pure as the Lord is pure, for whom we hope, as 1 John 3:1-3 says.


Click here to check out the entire post as well as the link with John Piper's summary.

Around The Web-October 4, 2013

Dustin Kensrue discusses why he made a worship album

Ligonier has another great book available for free on Kindle this month only. This time it is on John Calvin called, John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology

Justin Taylor releases what are the best biographies available

Tim Challies reviews Bill O'Reilly's latest book, Killing Jesus

The ESV Gospel Transformation Bible is now available at Westminster Bookstore for 50% off

George and Barbara Witness a Wedding—When a Private Act Sends a Public Message by Albert Mohler

Russell Moore offers some thoughts on Pope Francis

5 Ways to Minister to Someone With Dementia by Dave Jenkins

The State of the Church In America: Hint: It's Not Dying by Ed Stetzer

Around The Web-September 20, 2013

Football analyst, Craig James, fired for criticizing homosexuality

Air Force Shoots Down Vet Over Biblical Marriage Views

Rick Warren tells the story of his son's suicide on CNN

The Hatmakers are coming to HGTV

Finally Justin Taylor talks with Kevin DeYoung about his new book, Crazy Busy. Warning: This is not your typical book interview.

God Became Man: Do You Believe This?

Justin Taylor:

Infinite and yet an infant.
Eternal and yet born of a woman.
Almighty, and yet nursing at a woman’s breast.
Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms.
Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son.

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon

That man should be made in God’s image is a wonder,
but that God should be made in man’s image is a greater wonder.
That the Ancient of Days would be born.
That He who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle?

—Thomas Watson

Man’s Maker was made man
that the Bread might be hungry,
the Fountain thirst,
the Light sleep,
the Way be tired from the journey;
that Strength might be made weak,
that Life might die.

—Augustine

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:14)

Around the Web-December 14, 2012

What Can and Cannot Change in Our Relationship With God by Justin Taylor

Love what Mohler says at the end of this article:
So, in the waning days of Newsweek as a print magazine, the editors decided to take on the New Testament. Readers should note carefully that it is Newsweek, and not the New Testament, that is going out of print.

Apparently in England, Atheists and Pagans are out numbered by Jedi Knights

One Church in Arizona decided to poke a little fun at the Arizona Cardinals. Wonder if this sign will make Ed Stetzer's website?

Speaking of Ed Stetzer, he has a lot of followers on Twitter, I'm one of them, and he follows a lot of people too, I'm one of them as well. Unfortunately with all those followers, he cannot respond to all his messages, so here are six reasons why he cannot respond to our tweets

By the way, in case you did not notice, Wednesday was 12/12/12. In case you did not hear, there were 5 births on 12/12/12 at 12:12

Someone forgot to tell me The Dark Knight Rises was originally filmed in Lego: