For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles

October 27, 2014 by Andrew Spencer

For the Life of The World: Letters to the Exiles is a recent video series produced by the Acton Institute. The purpose of the series is to help Christians answer the question: “What is our salvation actually for?" This is a question that is vitally important as Christians consider how to engage the culture in an increasing post-Christian world.

The production is comprised of seven distinct episodes, which could be watched in close succession like a feature film or in distinct units as part of a study. Each episode is in the neighborhood of twenty minutes, with a total runtime of about two hours. The episodes pick up distinct pieces of the answer to the central question of why Christians remain on the earth after being saved.

Truth Matters

October 23, 2014 by Andrew Spencer in Book Review

This is a good book. It’s a book that I wish I had owned when I was in college because it answers many of the questions that my friends and I discussed. It answers these questions with grace and authority.

Though this book does not answer every possible objection to the authority of Scripture and the validity of the Christian faith, it does provide an important tool for equipping young students to maintain a robust faith in the face of skeptical friends and sometimes hostile professors at colleges. It does not provide the full answer to every objection or slam-dunk solutions to every conundrum that cynical opponents of Christianity often levy. However, Truth Matters provides good reason to doubt the doubts that are often accepted as an intellectual rite of passage among late adolescent students. This is an important book because it targets a need for churches and parents that are rightly concerned about their children losing, or at least temporarily denying, their faith once they are away from home.

There is no panacea for a failure to disciple children and equip them for the world before they head out of the house, but this book is something parents should strongly consider sending with their kids when they leave home. Kӧstenberger, Bock, and Chatraw have done a service for the church by writing this book.

The Eroding Foundations of Education

October 20, 2014 by Andrew Spencer

Recently the Wall Street Journal published an article detailing the failure of many colleges to require courses in economics, history, government, or foreign languages. As a result, the study shows, “A majority of U.S. college graduates don’t know the length of a congressional term, what the Emancipation Proclamation was, or which Revolutionary War general led the American troops at Yorktown.” More significant than the absence of basic facts are the growing complains from employers “that graduates are entering the workforce without basic skills such as critical thinking.” Representatives of some of the institutions negatively implicated by the report question the validity of the survey, pointing to an interdisciplinary approach where aspects of history and economics may be wrapped in an art or science class.

Scholars often lament the compartmentalization of the university, where academic disciplines become isolated. This often results in and perhaps is caused by academics focusing on narrower and narrower fields. As I’ve heard it explained previously: a good scholar will work to know more and more about less and less until eventually she knows everything about nothing. This is tongue in cheek, but does represent the trend of specialization and the lack of an integrated community of learning that exists in most academic institutions.

This Book Changes Nothing

October 16, 2014 by Andrew Spencer

I came to this book as an environmental ethicist, hoping to read an engaging book that would bring me into an important discussion from a different angle. I wanted a thoughtful critique that wrestled with the economic and social issues of the day. What I found was a book that will sell a lot of copies because it is being well-publicized and tells a segment of the population what they already believe and want to have reinforced. Such an approach will continue to reduce the opportunities for bi-partisanship, a fact she notes at one point in her diatribe, because it demonstrates exactly the shallow engagement and failure to dialogue that characterizes so much contemporary debate. In the end, this book is not about seeking truth and convincing people of its value, it’s about making money by speaking the words people want to hear. Ironically, given its success on the New York Times Bestseller list, This Changes Everything will be a capitalistic success.

On Being Discipled in an Internet Age

October 13, 2014 by Andrew Spencer

It is easy to focus on the negative aspects of technology and the Christian man: distraction, access to pornography, isolation, etc. Discussing the dangers of technology is important, but we should not forget to celebrate the positive contributions of technology.

One example of a hugely positive contribution that technology has brought to men in the 21st century is the ability to find amazing quantities of high quality discipleship material. Among the dangerous websites, sources of distraction and bad doctrines, there are brilliant examples of phenomenal Christian content available and ready. It really eliminates any excuse that a modern man has of not being discipled.

Certainly sermons, podcasts, blogs, and e-books will never replace person-on-person accountability. However, never before have so many excellent resources been made available, often at no cost.

My words vs. His handiwork

October 10, 2014 by Andrew Spencer

God's handwriting is so big and so bold we should delight in it. Our words are insignificant in comparison and yet we think them terrifically important. We rarely stop to consider whether they are worth anything, as special as we think they are. Maybe we need to rethink our perspective.

“18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. ”

— Romans 5:18-19

Meditation on Romans 5:18-19

October 08, 2014 by Andrew Spencer

The power of the gospel is amazing. Adam's sin led to the corruption of human nature, which leads us all to sin. God's punishment for sin is death. And yet he provided a way to reconcile all things to himself through Christ.

The blood of the animals pointed toward the sacrifice which was to come, namely the blood of God. Yes, God himself took on the humble form of a man to die on the cross to undo what the first Adam had done.

Just as Adam's sin led to death, so Christ's death leads to grace and life in God. Hallelujah for the cross.

God's Mercies are New Every Day

October 06, 2014 by Andrew Spencer

My wife was out of town the past few days travelling with the kids for a family event. I found out on Saturday they had been on I-40, heading from Nashville to Murfreesboro to eat dinner, but they didn't make it there because the highway was closed down.

It turns out there was an accident. A six-car pileup only a little ways ahead. Instead of being the 2nd car, my family was in the 102nd car. They are safe.

In that wreckage was a student from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, his wife, and their kids. They all died.

Translation Options for Genesis 2:15

October 05, 2014 by Andrew Spencer

Many environmentally concerned Christians use Scripture as a guide for ecological action, as is proper. Sometimes, however, they misunderstand the texts. Retranslation of Genesis 2:15 is one way a properly biblical view of the humanity-creation relationship has been obscured, even by use of Scripture itself. This post outlines three common views of this text.