Friday in the wild - May 27, 2005

Every Friday I like to run down the three or four posts that I found most interesting, funny, or thought-provoking in the previous week.

Responding to an article on the STR blog, Rusty at New Covenant goes one step further and addresses the practice of teaching bad theology, pointing out as an example what is probably the most misappropriated verse of the entire Bible:

For instance, how many times have you heard Jeremiah 29:11 quoted as indicative of the blessings God is just waiting to bestow upon us? I've argued before that one must at least read Jeremiah 29:10-14, which is the paragraph that contains verse 11. This is an application of the Never Read a Bible Verse tactic that Greg Koukl, among others, teaches. When this approach is used on the paragraph just mentioned it should become clearly evident that the two sentences which bookend the paragraph, verses 10 and 14, indicate that the blessings mentioned were time, place, and recipient specific.

[read Bad Theology...]

(By the way, am I the only one who doesn't read the STR blog half as much as I ought to, just because they lack an RSS feed?)

I love Sola Scriptura posts, and Aaron over at Grace and Peace to You posted a nice one:

Apostolic auhority is communicated by the canonical writings of the apostles, which carry with them apostolic authority. The Bible as the Word of God [is] the believer’s sole authority for faith and practice. It teaches him what to believe and how to live. God has graced the church with both men and women who possess the gift of teaching. They are invaluable to the well-being of the church, and their importance should never be minimized. Still, God has located ultimate and final authority in his infallible and inerrant Word. . . .

[Read Sola Scriptura - His Word Governs the Church]

Tim Challies, in one of his best posts ever, shakes down the marketroid behind the phenomenon of The Purpose Driven Life:

Pyromarketing is a term developed by Greg Stielstra who was the marketing guru behind The Purpose Driven Life. It is a type of so-called "viral marketing" as it is based on passing information from one person to the next. This is in opposition to marketing that relies on mass media advertising such as television commercials. Think about it, and you'll realize that in all likelihood you never saw a television commercial for The Purpose Driven Life. In fact, it is entirely possible that you never saw any media marketing for it whatsoever. The book did not receive any significant coverage in the press until very recently, long after it had established itself as a major success.

[Read Pyromarketing and The Purpose Driven Life]

Going in the other direction, the weird and wonderful search queries that bring other people to me were pretty dry this week. There was one notable exception. Sometimes you have to wonder why people choose the search terms they do: read the magician's nephew text now arrgh. International Talk Like a Pirate day isn't for about four months.

Finally, I am happy to add two additional blogs to my blogroll: Real Clear Theology Blog and Triablogue. Eric Svendsen and Steve Hays, respectively, both write clearly and plainly to separate theological wheat from the chaff. While I skim many theological blogs and read articles through that catch my attention, these two blogs are amongst the relative few that I read through constantly.

Until next time, enjoy.