The next article consists of J.V. Fesko tackling the “works of the law” in Paul as N.T. Wright construes them, which is to say, as boundary markers. The works of the law for Wright are not the moral good works “which the Reformation tradition loves to hate.” For Wright, the identity markers were things like …
Carpet Bombing Theology
The next article in Tabletalk is by Cornelis Venema, and is entitled “A Future Justification Based on Works?” In it he tackles Wright’s emphasis upon a future justification on the basis of works. Venema’s point is that Wright “radically compromises the scriptural teaching that justification is not based upon works or human performance.” Venema adds …
Introspective Weird Beards in the Monasteries
Al Mohler’s contribution to this edition of Tabletalk, an article entitled “Rethinking the Gospel?” is simply superb. And let me tell you why. First, he acknowledges Wright’s gifts. He is “brilliant, creative, provocative, and fascinating.” He also acknowledges that, as a matter of emphasis, Wright has some real contributions to make when it comes to …
Panglossian Pipe Dreams
The catastrophe in Haiti is one that ought to challenge multiple cherished assumptions, but instead it is just providing us with a venue to put them all on display yet again. I have been to Port au Prince once, when I was in the Navy, and the abject poverty there, when everything was “okay,” was …
Damned for Being Underfoot?
Just ran across this, and it seems to me to be N.T. Wright’s central mistake, one that generates a host of lesser mistakes. “We have got over the old idea that law-keeping was an early form of Pelagianism, by which Pharisees and others sought to earn their justification or salvation by moral effort” (N.T. Wright, …
About The Proprietor
Welcome to Blog & Mablog. The name is taken from the prophet Ezekiel (Eze. 38:14-16), who was referring to a bad dude named Gog (from Magog), and if you make a little pun, you have a cultural and theological blog that sweeps down from the north out of Russia in order to invade the land …
Doing Good and Doing Well
Here is a fine response to N.T. Wright’s most recent book on justification that I commend to you.
Plucking At Your Sleeve
There is a view afoot, I am afraid, that holds that when Paul says law he is always referring to the Torah. The works of the law, therefore, are those works that maintain the covenant boundary markers, which were given by grace. The works of the law understood in this way are part of the …
Well Done
I have commented before on N.T. Wright’s need to be more forthright in his statements about the homosexual issue that is tearing, and now has torn, the Anglican communion apart. I was glad to see this statement from him. One could always quibble (I don’t want to involve Islam as a model for sexual ethics), …
Black Douglas
The Desiring God folks have some video clips up promoting their national conference, and you can look at them here. The first is John Piper explaining, when he first had the thought of inviting me, why he didn’t lie down with a cold compress on his forehead until the feeling went away. In the second …