Brian McLaren’s new book

Kevin DeYoung thoroughly (pdf 12 pages long) reviews all ten premises of Brian McClaren’s new book A New Kind of Christianity here. Kevin’s describes his approach at the outset: I want to be fair with McLaren. I want to understand his ideas and evaluate them based on their merits. If I misunderstand a point or [...]

effect of literature

Kevin DeYoung wonders what hath literature wrought? I agree strongly with his conclusion: I’ll take passionate and logical romantic rationalism over the tired tirades of false dichotomies any day. plus, I enjoy his perfect parallel prose. anyone who reads here long knows that I adore appropriate alliteration.

easily offended

Kevin DeYoung asks why are we always so offended all the time in this culture. I think he gets to the heart of the answer in this paragraph. For starters, being hurt is easier than being right. To prove you’re offended you just have to rustle up moral indignation and tell the world about it. [...]

new calvinism in the Christian Century

Kevin DeYoung has some thoughts about this article. here is one paragraph from the article: Moreover, the New Calvinism displays considerable diversity. African-American rapper Curtis “Voice” Allen is known for his distinctively Calvinist lyrics (“I been exposed to bright lights, the doctrines of grace, I’m elected, imputed perfected . . . Cuz nothing can stop [...]

helpful reminder

here is a helpful reminder of our role in the scheme of things from Jeremiah Burroughs courtesy of Kevin DeYoung. I beseech you to consider that God does not deal by you as you deal with him. Should God make the worst interpretation of all your ways towards him, as you do of his towards you, [...]

manhatten declaration

An interesting controversy has cropped up in an unexpected place. The Manhatten Declaration is circulating for signatures. Kevin DeYoung has a thorough and balanced explanation of the controversy, including why there is a controversy and the positions of both sides. here is his position: So where do I stand on The Manhattan Declaration? Well, I [...]

gospel coalition

Kevin DeYoung and Justin Taylor have moved their blogs over to the Gospel Coalition’s site. Here are their new digs: DeYoung Restless and Reformed Between Two Worlds

Deep Church?

Kevin DeYoung takes a good long look at Deep Church by Jim Belcher. As you know, Kevin wrote his own book about the emerging church movement, so he knows whereof he speaks. he approached this new book with trepidation: I am always skeptical of “third way” books anyways. Usually, the “third way” is basically the [...]

general principles

Kevin DeYoung gleans some general principles from Risking the Truth: Handling Error in the Church, the collection of interviews by Martin Downes. You won’t agree with every line, just like those being interviewed don’t always agree with each other, but there is a remarkable similarity in the general approach to truth and error given by [...]

When Helping Hurts

Kevin DeYoung has put up a three part look at the book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourselfby Brian Fikkert. It looks like a good book to read for guidance as we attempt to take on the job of loving people like we should love them. When Helping [...]

are you or am I emergent?

Challies quotesKevin DeYoung’s test of whether we are emergent or not. Kevin says that “if all or most” of these apply to you then you are emergent. So let’s use 75% as a threshhold.  Look at my answers below and you tell me.  Am I emergent?  I think not, but they have some good points. [...]

more on Justification

I have mentioned the topic of the Justification debate between John Piper and N.T. Wright before. I also linked once to John Piper being interviewed on the topic. Anyone who wants to know the Biblical basis for them to be declared righteous before God should listen to the podcast at the last link above. Now [...]

a modern allegory

Kevin DeYoung has posted three parts of four of a modern day allegory named Many Are Called but Few Are Chosen in the tradition of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. I highly recommend Kevin’s work. It is delightful. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 here is part of the beginning to tease you over there. Don’t [...]

John Newton on false and wasteful pleasures

Kevin DeYoung has a great quote from John Newton putting in perspective most of the things that we enjoy. “If you were to send me an inventory of your pleasures, how charmingly your time runs on, and how dexterously it is divided between the coffee-houses, play-house, the card-table, and tavern, with intervals of balls, concerts, [...]

learning someone else’s lessons

John Mark went to the Advance 2009 conference where the topic of hero worship of celebrity pastors came up. John Piper and Kevin DeYoung have some thoughts about “celebrity pastors” in our current environment. There is a very interesting and thin line between appreciating, learning from, admiring, seeking to imitate on the one hand and [...]

mysticism

Kevin DeYoung takes a look at mysticism. What it is, where it can lead and why it is dangerous. go read the whole thing, but this is how he ends it: The pattern has been repeated many times. People start to pay less and less attention to Scripture, saying it has errors or it can’t [...]

original sin, part 2

about a month ago, I posted on Original Sin. Specifically, one of the leaders of the emerging church had decided that he didn’t believe this doctrine and Kevin DeYoung called him out on it with scripture. yesterday, I received this comment to moderate: Bkingr, There’s a huge difference between “inclined toward evil” that you quoted [...]

truth and doctrine

Kevin DeYoung has a great series of four posts on Truths that Transform, Doctrines that Damn. Here are his summary conclusions, but go read all four posts. First off, we see that anyone who says they have a church with no doctrinal center does not have a Christian church. Second, we see that the early [...]

Original Sin

Kevin DeYoung points to a series of posts by Emerging Church leader Tony Jones in which Tony makes the statement: “I have come to reject the notion of Original Sin. I consider it neither biblically, philosophically, nor scientifically tenable.” [emphasis in original] Kevin then quotes from the Epilogue of a book he is finishing including [...]

What “reformed” means to Kevin DeYoung

Kevin DeYoung has written about what it means to him to be called “reformed”. The whole post is very good and you should read it, but I especially liked these two paragraphs. I delight in the glory of God and in God’s delight for his own glory which brings me, on my best days, unspeakable [...]

another helpful reminder

here is another helpful reminder from Kevin DeYoung. What’s more, lots of the people who came to church over the weekend did more than just attend. They taught Sunday school, handed out bulletins, played the guitar, stacked chairs, and held babies in the nursery–all without getting a dime for any of it. In fact, many [...]

McDonald’s cappucino and football

Kevin DeYoung reminds us that Jesus came for Grimace and Hamburglar too with this video: Kevin adds: I mention all of this because so much that passes for spirituality these days is nothing more than middle class, 20something coffee culture. If you like jazz, soul patches, earth tone furniture, and lattes, that’s cool. But this [...]