What I Read Online – 08/29/2013 (p.m.)

• Connecting Evangelism and Church | 9Marks

  • 4. The Church Is an Apologetic in Evangelism

     

  • Evangelism should lead to baptism and membership

• A Letter from Kabwata: The Zambian Reformed Conferences–Third Day

  • I end this report by saying that assurance of salvation is an important part of our peace of mind and our effectiveness as Christians in this life. Being falsely assured also has very serious eternal consequences. Hence, these messages by Thabiti are worth listening to again and again.

• Blog – Benefits of a musical education – splash.abc.net.au

  • What are the benefits of a musical education, and how long should students stick with playing? Emma Ayres is a musician and presenter of ABC Classic FM’s breakfast program. She highlights many advantages of playing an instrument.

• The Greatest Challenge to the Faith of Serious Students of the Scriptures | in partibus infidelium (in the land of infidels)

  • While the spate of diatribes by new atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens over the last ten years attracted many angry and disillusioned young professing Christians, it didn’t really influence serious students because, well, it was blind faith posing as science or bad philosophy.
  • What then is the great challenge that possesses genuine power to lead students of Scripture away from confidence in Scripture and undermine their faith? The answer: Old Testament Studies, specifically, OT higher criticism.  Over the last few years a growing number of evangelical OT scholars have begun to promote the idea that since the OT bears similarities to other Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) writings (often written before the corresponding OT texts), we ought to interpret the OT as a document (or collection of documents) in the same manner that we do the ANE texts.

• Told You So: Church ‘Sued’ Over Gay Marriage, and BBC Cheers Polyamory | Mike Judge

  • The ink is not yet dry on David Cameron’s gay marriage Bill and already two stories in the news this week show that the Bill’s critics have been proved right. A wealthy gay couple say they “have launched” legal action to force gay weddings on the Church of England; and the BBC is cheerleading for polyamory (mutiple-partner relationships).

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.