Linked Together: Plugging Audio

I’ve listened to a lecture, a debate, and a sermon recently and recommend them to you. You’ll need your thinking cap, but they’re all worth the effort.

• Calvinism and the Origin of Sin. James Anderson discusses two potential problems Calvinists face in accounting for the first sin. Dr. Anderson also examines problems with other ways of accounting for the first sin—like Molinism, for instance.
  
  This lecture was given at the Greenville Seminary Spring Conference. All the audio for this conference is here. If you prefer reading to listening, try this paper (pdf), from which the lecture comes.
  
  
• The Great Debate: Does God Exist? Everyone should listen to this classic debate between Gordon Stein and Greg Bahnsen at least once. I listened to it first more than 10 years ago and it doesn’t get old. (There’s a transcript of this (pdf), too. HT: Andy Naselli. 
  
  
• Never Spoke a Man Like This Before: Inerrancy, Evangelism and Christ’s Unbreakable Bible. This sermon by Kevin DeYoung was delivered at this year’s T4G Conference. It’s been widely recommended and for good reason. 

Linked Together: People You Should Know

Isaac Watts
May must be Isaac Watts Month at Ligonier Ministries Blog. Through the end of May — only a few days away, so you’ll need to hurry — you can download an eBook edition of Douglas Bond’s The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts. (Isaac Watts is the poet who wrote the words to When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, which is, according to me, the best English language hymn ever written.)

You can also read a few posted excerpts from this book.

• Isaac Watts: A Child Poet
• Isaac Watts: His Rhymed Sermons
• Isaac Watts: Hymns for All Time
• Isaac Watts: The Calvinist 

Lady Jane Grey
I’ve linked to a couple of things on the life of Lady Jane Grey previously. Now, Aimee Byrd quotes from her letters to Heinrich Bullinger and says the are “a great example of appropriate Christian friendship.”

Linked Together: Doctrine

Orthodox
First, from Bobby Jamieson, here are ten reasons to love sound doctrine. You’ll find a short explanation of each point in the original post (Crossway Blog).

1. Sound doctrine re-tells the single story that sweeps through all of Scripture.
2. Sound doctrine summarizes and synthesizes the Bible’s teaching as a coherent whole.
3. Sound doctrine is a guide and guard for reading and teaching the Bible.
4. Sound doctrine is God’s roadmap for the Christian life and the life of the church.
5. Sound doctrine nourishes holiness.
6. Sound doctrine is the ground and pattern of love.
7. Sound doctrine is the foundation of unity in the church.
8. Sound doctrine is fuel for the fire of worship.
9. Sound doctrine equips and emboldens evangelism.
10. Sound doctrine fills up our joy.

And next: Did you know you can use the acronym HANDS to remember 5 arguments from scripture for the deity of Christ?

1. Jesus shares the honors due only to Christ.
2. Jesus shares the attributes of God.
3. Jesus shares the names that are used of God.
4. Jesus shares in the deeds that only God can do.
5. Jesus shares the seat of God — that is, Jesus sits on God’s throne. 

You’ll want to read the whole post to learn more about each of these arguments (Come Reason’s Apologetic Notes). 

Heretical
From Justin Holcomb, two heresies to avoid (Koinonia):

1. Marcionism: “Marcion is relevant to the church today because much contemporary teaching about Jesus and the Bible merely restates Marcion’s claims about the struggle between a God of love and a God of justice.” 
2. Gnosticism: We see traces of gnosticism in contemporary Christianity, too. In songs and books, for instance,  which “teach this world and everything in it is bad… .”