Friday in the wild: February 3, 2011

Friday again! Time to round up the stuff on the blogosphere that made me stop and take notice.

Tim Challies posted his parents' story of their encounter with Francis Schaeffer, whose hundredth birthday would have been this past Tuesday:

Schaeffer and the workers at English L'Abri helped us lay a new foundation for Christian living—the Bible, the Bible, the Bible—known from cover to cover, as the foundation of all life and thought. Unchanging. Absolute. Knowable. Mirroring the unchanging, absolute, knowable God. No more theological chaos. Rest for our souls.

I know many appreciated Francis Schaeffer's philosophical and cultural insights. They were penetrating, timely, and prophetic—certainly what he is best known for. But, for us—primarily, he was our first Sola Scriptura expositor. The absolute biblical certainty behind the philosophical and cultural insights was what changed our lives. And for this, we are eternally grateful.

[Read How Francis Schaeffer Saved My Saved Soul]

Tim also posted about Schaeffer's interesting coinages, such as true truth and nothing nothing. (My personal favourite, which I have adopted for my own use, is brute fact.)

A few weeks back, I highlighted Matt Moore's Greek omelette recipe on Have Her Over for Dinner. (It was delicious.) Making an omelette can be tricky business, but Matt has posted again, this time on the Art of Manliness blog, about the basics of omelette-making. He also includes a few of his favourite combinations.

My favourite omelette isn't on his list: artichoke hearts, sliced black olives, and Brie cheese. My runner-up is a typical Denver omelette—onions, green peppers, and ham—except with smoked Gouda instead of cheddar.

The big story in the Christian blogosphere this week was the fallout over the Elephant Room 2 conference last week, hosted by James MacDonald and Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago, and controversially featuring Oneness-Pentecostal-or-is-he and prosperity gospel advocate T. D. Jakes. Inside, Jakes, MacDonald, and Mark Driscoll discussed the limits of fellowship, while bloggers and theologians on the outside questioned (quite rightly, in my opinion) whether inviting Jakes to the Elephant Room didn't exceed those limits.

I don't think I've yet blogged a podcast on Friday, but James White's Thursday Dividing Line was a must-hear. His guest was Voddie Baucham, who had been invited to participate in the Elephant Room but declined, and was subsequently dis-invited from speaking at another conference hosted by Harvest. They talk primarily about the politics of race around the controversy. Baucham pulls no punches. I think he's my new hero.

Fred Butler noted the other elephant in the room. No one raised the issue of Jakes' blab-it-and-grab-it teaching, even though both MacDonald and Driscoll have soundly condemned that theology in the past. Not a year ago, James MacDonald was arguing passionately that congregational goverment was from Satan. In less than 9 months he's gone from hard-liner to squish. Go figure.

Perhaps MacDonald et al could learn a lesson or two from Tim Tebow about lending credence to false teachers.

Finally: dictionary nerd humour.

Enjoy. See you next Friday.