Talking Back to Purity Culture by Rachel Joy Welcher (book review), part 1

This post contains adult subject matter. Here in 2021, it appears that the concept of "purity culture" has imploded upon itself. Joshua Harris was sort of a punchline even before he announced his apostasy. Every Man's Battle series author Stephen Arterburn is on his third marriage. He divorced his second wife after meeting his third …

On Accusations Against Voddie Baucham and Fault Lines, part 2

In part one concerning accusations against Voddie Baucham and his book Fault Lines, I argued: Baucham’s misquotation and misrepresentation of Delgado and Stefancic is a serious error, not a minor formatting mishap. The controversy online appears to have died down, and while the lack of present controversy may generally be a good thing, the reason appears to …

Do You Feel Called by God? by Michael Bennett (book review)

Less than two months into my time on campus at Dallas Seminary, these words of unapologetic careerism came to us from a guest speaker at chapel: If you're in your fourth year — first, second, third-year students listen up — if you're in your fourth year, and you don't have a job offer yet, you've …

On Accusations Against Voddie Baucham and Fault Lines, part 1

On July 30th, Joel McDurmon posted a blog article titled "Voddie's Fault Lines Worse Than Before: Fake Quotations AND Plagiarism." McDurmon previously posted a series of videos critiquing Voddie Baucham's book, Fault Lines, that had not captured my attention despite my having written a review. However, this particular article appeared far more serious in its magnitude. I've …

Mama Bear Apologetics (book review)

I became aware of Mama Bear Apologetics by means of the Wokeness and the Gospel conference last month. The book somehow became in high demand at the bookseller table and sold out. Luckily enough, the parents of one of the authors were attending the conference, so they went home and grabbed a box of more copies. …

Ethnos is not Ethnicity

I've been hearing an argument from our own side of the critical race theory (CRT) fault line as of late. The argument basically goes, "Use biblical terminology. The biblical term is 'ethnicity' (ethnos in Greek), not race. Race doesn't exist." I see a couple of problems with this line of argumentation. First, CRT advocates are …

Everything Wokeness and Gospel (But Not the Conference)

We had a total of three current and former Things Above Us authors at the Wokeness and the Gospel conference this past weekend. It was truly a joy meeting new people, catching up with old friends, and digging into some solid teaching! I plan to have more later concerning the conference itself. For now, please be in …

The Elect by John McWhorter — partial-book review, and it’s not about Calvinism

John McWhorter is a linguist and an assistant professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. I heavily cited his work earlier when previewing Voddie Baucham's Fault Lines and discussing McWhorter's contention that the word "Antiracism," referring to the new woke religion of critical race theory, ought to be capitalized as a proper noun. …

Did They Know Jesus Yet? A Textual Criticism Case Study in John 14:7

For those of you who are tracking the release of the Legacy Standard Bible — the real, actual successor to the NASB 1995 — there's an interesting change in John 14:7 that's more textual criticism than translation. Let's take a look. LSB NASB 1995 John 14:6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and …

Jesus and John Wayne (book review)

Kristin Kobes Du Mez (pronounced "doo may") is a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, she lays out a seventy-five-year history of evangelical culture with an aim towards explaining the cultural rise of Donald …