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What's what this week

Blogging time is absolutely minimal at the moment with moving house etc  so I've just uploaded a few essays I wrote a few years ago on the Old Testament, with one on Hosea 6:4-6, and one on Psalm 103.

Here's a few noteworthy posts that are worth checking out at the moment:

The anti-emergent posse have been extremely supportive of D A Carson's book Becoming Conversant With Emergent although as Ken Archer points out, Carson has mistakenly assumed that postmodernism is essentially about a shift in epistemology but Carson's own methods and conclusions are severely lacking as he himself does not demonstrate an alternative approach despite advocating one.

Dave over at The Blue Fish is blogging live from the NFI leadership conference. check out his latest post here. Other bloggers on the road include Phillip Johnson who is always an enjoyable read even if I disagree with almost everything he says. He has a post reasserting the need for a refocus on the doctrine of penal substitution and the law-court setting of the atonement. Interesting reading but (as I've said before), I think penal substitution as it is currently thought of is simply unbiblical and full of problems, and despite purporting to 'take sin seriously', it actually does the opposite and diminshes the work of Christ. The law-court image is important, though I think people forget that the biblical law-court model is a covenantal Hebrew one, not a Roman or post-Roman western one but I intend to write something on this as soon as I've moved house.

The Thinklings have a good post on the freedom that God brings, and Adrian has the latest in his series of interviews with the ESV translators. Finally, this week's Christian Carnival is up at the Bible Archive.

A look at Psalm 103

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven; To His feet thy tribute bring. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, Evermore His praises sing: Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise the everlasting King

(Henry F. Lyte)[1]

One of the best known hymns ever written has its origins - perhaps appropriately - in one of the best known psalms, and Psalm 103 still even today continues to yield fresh insight and revelation into the true nature and character of God, and how we as his people may respond appropriately in adoration and worship, both individually and corporately. The psalm is one of praise, both individual thanksgiving (vv2-5) and corporate hymnody (vv6-18)[2], but in my view the real quality and beauty of this psalm is the remarkable journey of faith and worship the psalmist undergoes, and how as his remembrance of God's character grows in certainty and clarity, so does the level of praise and worship God receives.

[1]Lyte, H Hymn Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven (www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/p/r/praisems.htm)

[2]Broyles, C New International Biblical Commentary: Psalms (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1999) p394

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Hosea 6:4-6 - Mercy, not sacrifice

Time to blog is short at the moment but in the meantime here's a discussion on Hosea 6:4-6, the well-known OT passage where God states that it is not sacrifices he wants, but loving obedience.

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