Bobspotted Blogroll: March 31, 2006

GEMS FROM REFORMATION THEOLOGY

• Nathan Pitchford writes on the Christocentricity of the Psalms in “Augustine on Psalm One”. This is excellent! If you like this, be sure to check out his earlier post, “The Reformers’ Hermeneutic: Grammatical, Historical, and Christ-Centered” [I blogged about that one, here].
• Pastor John Samson highlights comments by Dr. James White (from his website: aomin.org) which brilliantly defend limited atonement. This article also is enlightening for its discussion of logical flaws (real or wrongly supposed) in argumentation.
• Finally, check out an essay critiquing the “Free Grace” movement written by Phillip Simpson. To get a taste for the essay check out the comments. It looks like a worthy effort to speak up against a theology that in affirming free grace, actually denies grace. This is the theology that leads people to claim that people who ever once decide to believe, can walk away from Christ for the rest of their lives, and yet meet Him one day in heaven [I blogged about this before in my “Once Saved, Always Saved?!?!” post].

FROM THE IFBX BEAT

• The Texas Baptist Underground has been busy lately! James Spurgeon has pointed out some pitiful examples of IFBx rationale as seen in LBT’s The Baptist Magazine here. He gave an excellent example of IFBx preaching while plugging three new links in this post. And then he commented on the “ministry” of a radio station with the hilarious call letters: WKJO (We are King James Only)!
• My friend regularjoe over at The Big Orange Truck has been busy posting about Lord Vader of the bus ministry’s dark side! You can check out his posts on that subject here and here.
• Also, thanks to James Spurgeon of The Texas Baptist Underground, I ran across a new blog attempting to become the underground ministry for First Baptist Church of Hammond, IN! You’ll have to check out Matt and Josh Richard’s first few posts over at Bread and Circuses. It promises to be both interesting and important.
• By the way, I recently discovered a new version of the old Fighting Fundamentalist Forums. It is much more moderated than what the old FFF has devolved into. Anyway, I registered, and plan to post there off and on. You may want to check it out; the new name is The Fighting Fundamental Forums. [Interestingly it is moderated by someone I went to school with and knew fairly well.]

ON UNITY

• You absolutely must check out Nathan Pitchford‘s excellent article entitled “Love, Unity, and Doctrinal Precision”. It should be required reading for anyone thinking through the issues facing fundamentalism (and indeed conservative evangelicalism) today.
• Along these lines, my blogging friend Mathew Sims concludes that the separatism expressed in fundamentalism today could be termed (sadly) genocidal fundamentalism. I second his assessment and stress that this is happening over the most minor issues. This article and the one I mention above stress how such a view of separatism actually minimizes the importance of the major and key doctrines around which fundamentalists and evangelicals unite. [Check out my post regarding my new banner and motto, for more of these sentiments.]

LASTLY

• I leave you with an encouraging book recommendation by Mathew Sims on The Bruised Reed by the Puritan Richard Sibbes. May you be encouraged as I was.