Click to see the photo sequence that culiminated in the cute photo above. Even better, read the comments below the photo sequence. The photo was good enough, but the comments are priceless. A volcano of internet debate erupts. Passionate attempts are made at convincing each other through reasoning that large dogs should or should not be allowed near small babies. Amidst the reasoning there is a hysterically funny flame war in which people accuse each other of potential manslaughter, call others pansies and sign off with “I killed Nazis with my bare hands.” Rich stuff.

More on the ship.

HT: Targuman.

The first take on the Gospel Coalition website went live today. I was able to attend much of the conference (in May) and greatly appreciated it. Right now they have video and audio up from some of the plenary sessions (Tim Keller, DA Carson, John Piper). Also the founding documents, which deserve a close read. (You can tell that much thought went in to these).

(Update: It’s the end of the day and I still find this extremely funny and oddly apt.)

The iWarOnTerror.

HT: Da Seester.

I am currently working on a paper for a Systematic Theology class. I’ve been wanting to sort through NT Wright (no relation), so I chose to write on Wright and justification. I have a way of not making things easy for myself.

It’s been one of my most challenging and humbling learning experiences ever, as I’ve struggled to “get” his way of reading things. I hope to write a bit about it when the paper is done. But here are a few preliminary thoughts on this first encounter with Wright.

• The man is a brilliant reader of and thinker about scripture.
• Trying to substantively disagree with a small part of his work without first immersing oneself in his larger approach is hopeless.
• Reading Wright will sharpen your (I include myself) understanding of scripture, whether you agree, disagree, or partly agree. In most any area you read of Wright’s large body of work, you will come away thinking about scripture (and its message) in new and fruitful ways.
• I am annoyed at the sub-Christian and unconstructive way this Christian is treated by some in some sectors (e.g., some in some Reformed sectors: here is an extreme example–search for the word “heresiarch”). I am also more understanding of why he causes alarm in those sectors, although that understandable alarm does not justify uncharitable discourse. (Wright himself can incur blame for reducing the level discourse, too).
• An adequate response to his work cannot rely merely on classical Protestant systematic theologies/confessions, because complex underlying presuppositional differences. Exegesis (that’s more obvious), Hermeneutics, and Biblical Theology all must be involved in evaluating Wright.
• At the same time, I am sympathetic with those who would rather just fence out his approach by appealing to Systematic Theology, because an adequate response is complex, requires much study and is at times highly frustrating to work towards. Further, he is not approaching things from a Systematics stand-point at all. Someone with a well-established Systematics/confession can be understood if they initially want to say: “Why should I have to re-cover so much ground that my Systematics/confession has already covered?”. I now better understand the impulses of some in the Reformed world who would rather appeal to Reformed confessions and move on. (Although, again, this won’t ultimately yield adequate responses).
• He is both a great resource for and a great challenge to Protestant approaches on Scripture, the Gospel, and theology.
• I disagree with him on a lot, but also agree with him on a lot (particularly the way he sheds light on how Jesus is the Messiah in accordance with and fulfillment of the scriptures). I am grateful for his scholarship.
• This blunt iron has been sharpened a bit by NT Wright.

Vice President Cheney is claiming that he is not part of the executive branch (because he has no executive duties). His office has used this claim to exempt itself from an executive order requiring executive agencies to account for their handling of classified data. Apparently, the president agrees with this self-proclaimed exemption from presidential order (which the president himself renewed and updated).

This is rich stuff.

“Opinions you should have,” a political humor site goes with the idea that Cheney has effectively created a new branch of government. Best line:

The title of the [new] branch of government — and Mr. Cheney’s actual title — is classified.

Fabulous and funny, 50 points of advice for seminary students at BaptistBlog.

He had me at:

#1: There is no such thing as a tenant of Arminian theology.

I like bridges and I like Google Earth.  Here’s a blog post that combines the two.  The blog, Google Sightseeing, is dedicated to interesting places and images from Google Earth and is a lot of fun to follow.

Any suggestions on a blog category  for this kind of thing?

Assuming Kendall Harmon is right, it looks as if Brevard Childs has passed on. Harmon provides some links to info on Childs and a useful short interview with Childs.

Update: Here’s Yale’s page on Childs.

HT: Jim West.

I currently follow 140+ blogs, by which I mean that I am aware when these blogs have new content and I decide whether that new content is something I want to read or skip. Following that many blogs would be impossible the traditional way, which is to go to the website for each blog and check for any new content since your last visit. Enter: the more up-to-date way of following blogs: subscribing to blog feeds (sometimes called rss feeds) and then checking for updates to those feeds in one consolidated place, a feed reader. If you are interested in following the blogosphere, this really is a must way of doing things. And it’s also a gigantic time-saver. If you’ve never done this, consider watching this very helpful and simple how-to video, which will help you get started.

One additional note: if you decide to end up using Google Reader as your feed subscription reader, you can use Google’s subscribe bookmark to subscribe to any blog you are currently visiting. Simply drag the link below to your bookmark toolbar (this works in Firefox, I don’t know about other browsers, although it should work in others). This will create a “Subscribe” button on your toolbar. Then, when you are visiting a blog and decide you want to subscribe to it in Google Reader (make sure you have already signed up for a Google reader account before you do all of this), you simply click the “Subscribe” button on the toolbar.

Here’s the link you can drag to your toolbar:

Subscribe…