More TGC Resources on the Gospel in the OT

Three panel discussions were hosted at The Gospel Coalition by BibleMesh.com. The panel discussions which promise to be insightful and helpful, were well attended. The BibleMesh Blog has posted the video from the panel discussions. I’m going to want to carve out some time to watch these.

Gospel Coalition-BibleMesh Panel 1: What I have learned after years of preaching Christ in the Old Testament [moderator: Owen Strachan / on the panel: Alistair Begg, Mark Dever, and Philip Ryken]

The Gospel Coalition-BibleMesh Panel 2: Getting to Know the Bible Personally as One Grand Narrative [moderator: Michael McClenahan / on the panel: Kent Hughes, David Jackman, and Ligon Duncan]

The Gospel Coalition-BibleMesh Panel 3: How to Teach Children and Youth the Gospel Story [moderator: Greg Thornbury / on the panel: Russell Moore, David Helm, and Kimberly Thornbury]

BibleMesh is the software for an online, whole-Bible discipleship course, and helps sponsor The Gospel Coalition Preaching Christ in the Old Testament resource page. You can learn more about BibleMesh at BibleMesh.com.

The Reformed Cast to Interview Me on KJV-Onlyism Tonight

Today, April 25 at 6pm Central Time, I’ll be interviewed by my friend Scott Oakland of The Reformed Cast on the topic: “What is KJV-Onlyism?

Additional details of the interview can be found here. You’ll be able to listen live at Talkshoe.com (you can also find a player at Scott’s website: ReformedCast.com). You’ll also be able to download it from there, or via SermonAudio or iTunes (see ReformedCast.com for links or subscribe buttons).

I’ve been interviewed by Scott before on Fundamentalism and Reformed Theology, and am looking forward to being on his show again.

I’m interested if any of my readers have any requests for something I should cover. We have an hour and I’m sure Scott will have his own questions too. I’d love to try to deal with points that readers raise here, however. So feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

For the extra ambitious, you can listen to the last podcast I did on this topic over at Understanding Our Times radio.

UPDATE: The audio from tonight’s interview is now available for free download at ReformedCast.com.

Live at The Gospel Coalition Conference – 2

Here is a brief overview of each of the plenary sessions from yesterday’s conference. I’ll have more to say about books and the Band of Bloggers event I went to later.

The music was led by Keith and Kristyn Getty. It was more upbeat and lively than I expected, which was actually nice. The Irish flair was there with even a bagpipe solo. They are introducing a fairly new song of theirs, “By Faith” and also did an even newer one. Prior to session 2, the music at one point dropped out and the congregation was heard more clearly singing “O Church Arise”. The 5,000 or so voices singing that song together was powerful. Praise to Jesus for bringing together his people in places like this conference center (the massive McCormick Place in Chicago) and all around the world…

Session 1: Al Mohler – Studying the Scriptures and Finding Jesus (John 5)
–Download audio–

Mohler explains the problem of a Christless Old Testament, and explains how studying the Scriptures is supposed to result in finding Jesus. He shows how so many people are practical Marcionites, claiming the New Testament is the Christian book, the OT is Hebrew Scriptures. Basically, some would have us do synagogue lectures when we teach from the OT. Don’t get me wrong, his tone wasn’t combative at all. It was a very helpful and hope filled lecture on the importance of seeing Christ in the OT.

Session 2: Tim Keller – Getting Out (Exodus 14)
–Download audio–

Keller showed multiple links from the Exodus account to the New Testament. He explained that the story of the Israelites could be described as this: They were slaves in bondage with no hope and a sentence of death, finding redemption by hiding under the blood atonement, crossing over from death to life, then having a promise of going to a new country. They’re not there yet, but they’re on the way and God has given them his law and a worship system so they treasure and remember His work for them. Keller then says, that’s exactly how you would describe the people of God today, too. He goes on to discuss the layers of bondage and the redemption and how it was accomplished (all by Grace).

Session 3: Alistair Begg – From a Foreigner to King Jesus (Ruth)
–Download audio–

Begg gave us sketches of the beautiful story of Ruth. He showed how Boaz, particularly, was the goel, kinsman redeemer and foreshadows Christ. He also drew parallels from the locale of Ruth’s story and then David’s childhood tending sheep there in Bethlehem, to Christ and the Bethlehem shepherds coming at his birth in Bethlehem. Much to see Christ from in this book.

Session 4: Round-table discussion – Tim Keller, John Piper, Crawford Loritts, Don Carson, Bryan Chapell
–Download audio–

Highlights from that are really anything Keller or Carson said. Loritts emphasized the role of the preacher’s walk with Christ too, in preaching. Piper emphasized not ignoring the context of the OT text itself when preaching from it.

Keller explained his preaching as a fourfold trajectory often: 1) What you should do (as evidenced by this OT text); 2) You can’t do this (due to your sinfulness); 3) Christ has done it for you (i.e. the Gospel applied); 4) Until you rest in what He’s done, you can’t do it (living the gospel life).

Piper mentioned Graeme Goldsworthy’s book on Preaching the Whole Bible As Christian Scripture as containing a line that really got Piper thinking and has changed how he preaches. Goldsworthy said “If a Muslim liked your sermon, you didn’t preach a Christian sermon. If a Jewish person liked your sermon, you didn’t preach a Christian sermon.”

Carson brought out the Temple theme as one of many trajectories that are traced through Scripture and which really do point to Christ. He stressed everything doesn’t point to Christ the same way, but when you are in a text that addresses one of these types or trajectories that aligns to Christ, you have a warrant for going to Christ. Carson was also asked by Chapell, “Can you preach Proverbs without going to the New Testament?” Carson immediately responded, “Why would I want to? It wouldn’t even occur to me to do so.” He also pointed out that it’s the same with texts like Isaiah, too. Carson then went on to stress that the NT relates to the OT yes in terms of not only prophecy (OT) and fulfillment (NT), but also message hidden (OT) and message revealed (NT). Personally I find that very helpful, yes some things are plainly clear, but other things were hidden until Christ clearly revealed them.

At the end of the discussion, Chapell fired off a list of helpful resources for preaching Christ from the OT. I thought that list (plus Bryan Chapell’s own book, Christ-Centered Preaching) was excellent. You’ll have to listen to the audio though since he gave it out so quickly.

At the end of the roundtable discussion Tim Keller, John Piper, Dr. John Woodhouse and Lane Dennis (president of Crossway), presented a book written in Carson’s honor, commemorating his long service to the church and his 65th birthday.

My Reformed Cast Interview

Last night, I was privileged to be on the debut episode of Reformed Cast, a new weekly podcast hosted by Scott Oakland. Here’s some information about the podcast.

This weekly podcast is dedicated to the discussion of all things Reformed, including all aspects of Reformed theology and practice, as well as its relationship to the culture at large. We broadcast live on Ustream every Monday at 7:00 PM Eastern Time.

I was interviewed about fundamentalism and my change from fundamentalism to Reformed Theology. Here are the show notes, and a link to the mp3.

In our debut episode, we talked a little about the purpose of this podcast, and then entered into our discussion on fundamentalism with Bob Hayton. We discussed what fundamentalism is, its errors, and how it may be “reformed” into a more Biblical movement. Bob Hayton has a BA in Pastoral Theology with a Greek emphasis and a MA in Bible from Fairhaven Baptist College and Seminary in Chesterton, IN. He currently works in technical sales support for Boston Scientific, and actively serves at Beacon of Hope Church, St. Paul. Since 2005, he has been blogging theology at www.fundamentallyreformed.com. He is the founder of www.KJVOnlyDebate.com and can also be found at www.Re-Fundamentals.org and www.CrossFocusedReviews.com.

You can listen online here, or download the mp3 here. I encourage you to bookmark Scott’s site and subscribe to his podcast. Next week, Dr. Sean Michael Lucas of Covenant Theological Seminary will be on the program.

Announcement: Taking the KJV Only Debate ON AIR

Saturday evening, we’ll be taking the KJV Only debate…
ON AIR.

Kevin Thompson of Understanding Our Times Radio, has asked me to guest host his radio show for him this week. He’s had me on the show as a guest before discussing Fundamentalism and Reformed Theology. With Kevin’s blessing, I’ve decided to throw open the phone lines and discuss the issues surrounding KJV Onlyism. I’ll share my own story as a former TR-Onlyist. And I may have another KJVO Debate contributor with me as a co-host (Damien).

So please feel free to tune in to the show live, or download the free podcast in .mp3 or other formats. The download is available pretty much immediately after the show’s completion. If you have a question you’d like to call in with, we’ll be taking callers. Details are below.

Understanding Our Times Radio Show
Guest Host: Bob Hayton
Time: Saturday 5:00-5:30pm CST
Where: online at BlogTalkRadio
Call-in Number: 347-945-7171

UPDATE: Click here and then click on the download button (or else just listen online). The direct link for the mp3 is here.

~cross-posted from my KJV Only Debate blog