Content Roundup #1 (Feb 3-Feb 7, 2020)

By Derek DeMars on February 7, 2020 • ( 2 )

Trying something new this week. Well, actually it’s something old — bloggers have long done weekly roundups of Internet content they found interesting. But I thought it might be constructive to share my thoughts on a few items I read this week and thought were worth talking about.

I don’t necessarily aim to do a roundup every week; just here and there as I find material worth curating. So let’s give it a go. Here’s what I feel like talking about this week:

1) This is an older post, but I was happy to stumble upon it: Jeffrey Poor wrote a nice, succinct summary of how the Bible works and why The Bible is Not a Book of Answers (go read it to see what he means and why it’s important). I was particularly pleased that Poor quoted N. T. Wright’s fantastic book, Scripture and the Authority of God. If you haven’t read that yet, go read it right now, it’s superb.

2) Nick Cady, a pastor from Colorado whose blog I follow, posted a well-written book review of The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture by Christian Smith. Cady’s points of critique highlight the problems of taking the Bible too far away from being an inspired authority on beliefs and practice. Reading this back-to-back with Poor’s article above made for a nice balance.

3) In his thought-provoking post, The Atonement and Rethinking Hell, fellow theoblogger Haden Clark is pondering whether the traditional doctrine of hell as “eternal conscious torment” actually holds up to either Scripture or logic, and whether more believers should be open to the doctrine of conditional immortality (or “annihilationism”). I appreciate Clark’s frankness in wrestling with this topic, and in many ways I think he and I are essentially in the same boat here. His logical objection to ECT is one that I, too, find most potent. Anyone wanting to dig into it more would do well to check out the book Four Views on Hell (Second Edition).

4) Last but not least, a piece that was very disheartening: reports show that many Christian nonprofits like IJM are now hurting for support after recent foreign aid cuts. A common response I keep seeing is, “Well, the funding shouldn’t be coming from the government. If the church would just step up and be the church and . . .” Yeah, I know. So here’s your chance, church: If you care about seeing the cause of justice and care for the poor advanced in the world (y’know, like Jesus did), and if you aren’t already, then go and help support an organization like these that is actively making a difference around the world.

See you down the path.