I added an Audio tab to the site (parallel to Publications).

I previously linked to some of these MP3s hosted on other sites, but after a few years, many of the URLs no longer work. So I uploaded 26 MP3s and link to them here.

In January, Bob Yarbrough and Don Carson spoke at the EFCA’s theology conference: “Understanding the Complementarian Position: Considering Implications and Exploring Practices in the Home and the Local Church” (TGC report). The MP3s are well worth listening to.

In a Q&A someone asked Don Carson about William Webb’s redemptive-movement hermeneutic, and Carson replied that it is unconvincing. Carson followed up with an email (see this 3-page PDF): “As for bibliography,” writes Carson, “the literature is pretty extensive, but the two most substantive review articles evaluating Webb’s book are” these:

1. Thomas R. Schreiner. “William J. Webb’s Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: A Review Article.” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 6, no. 1 (2002): 46–65.
2. Wayne Grudem. “Review Article: Should We Move Beyond the New Testament to a Better Ethic? An Analysis of William J. Webb, Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 47 (2004): 299–346.

Justin Buzzard, Date Your Wife: A Husband’s Guide (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 23–25 (numbering added):

A dream is what drives a man. As a boy grows up, he gradually forms a dream for his future marriage. . . .

Some men dream about marrying a woman who will satisfy their every desire, preference, and need.

Some men form an antidream; they simply dream of a marriage that is not like their parents’ marriage (or lack of marriage). Early on, they decide they want a wife who is not like mom. They decide they want to be a man who is not like dad.

Some men dream of a marriage that is conflict free or not a lot of work.

Some men dream of a marriage that honors God and that is a lot of fun.

The dream that drove you to that first date, that drove you to the altar, is likely still driving your marriage today. That dream set the course, and is probably still setting the course, of your marriage. . . .

The way to uncover something is to ask more questions. . . .

1. What is the earliest memory of marriage that you can think of? How has that memory influenced you?
2. Who taught you about marriage? Who taught you about what it means to be a man and how that’s different from what it means to be a woman? What did these teachers teach you?
3. What is the healthiest, happiest marriage you’ve ever seen? What made that marriage so attractive?
4. What is the most dysfunctional marriage you’ve ever seen? What made that marriage so unattractive?
5. What kind of a man was your dad? What kind of a relationship did you/do you have with him? If we were having coffee together, what would you tell me about what it was like growing up as his son?
6. What is your greatest fear for your marriage?
7. What is your greatest frustration with yourself, with your wife, and with your marriage?
8. What is your wife’s greatest complaint about being married to you? What does she appreciate most about being married to you?
9. What is your greatest hope for your marriage? What do you really want to see happen in you, in your marriage, and in your life before you die? How’s it going to happen?

You just deconstructed the dream that’s been driving your marriage. Each answer to the questions above represents one piece of the dream that drives how you operate as a husband. All the pieces don’t make complete sense yet. Right now we’re staring at an engine that’s been taken apart. The aim of this book is to make better sense of these different pieces, to do some clean-up work, and then to rebuild the engine to run better than before.

Eckhard Schnabel, 40 Questions About the End Times (40 Questions; Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2011), 321 (numbering added):

1. Archer, Gleason L., ed. Three Views on the Rapture: Pre-, Mid-, or Post-Tribulation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.  [The second edition came out in 2010, and the only repeat author is Doug Moo.]
2. Blomberg, Craig L., and Sung Wook Chung, eds. A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to “Left Behind” Eschatology. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009.  [See A. J. Gibson’s review in Themelios.]
3. Bock, Darrell L., ed. Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999.
4. Clouse, Robert G., ed. The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1977.
5. Hays, J. Daniel, J. Scott Duvall, and C. Marvin Pate. Dictionary of Biblical Prophecy and End Times. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007.
6. Mounce, Robert H. The Book of Revelation. Revised edition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
7. Osborne, Grant R. Revelation. BECNT. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002.
8. Walker, Peter W. L., ed. Jerusalem Past and Present in the Purposes of God. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992. [2nd ed., 1994]
9. Walls, Jerry L., ed. The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
10. Witherington, Ben. Jesus, Paul, and the End of the World: A Comparative Study in New Testament Eschatology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992.

In 2010, Ray Ortlund preached a series on Proverbs, and it’s now available in Kent Hughes’s Preaching the Word series:

Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. Proverbs: Wisdom That Works. Preaching the Word. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012. 216 pp. (28-page sample PDF)

How do you preach the book of Proverbs? Chapters 1–9 form logical units that one may preach sequentially, but the logical arrangement is hard to discern for much of the rest (especially 10:1–22:16). Here is how Ortlund preaches the book in twenty-one sermons:

Dave Harvey, Am I Called? The Summons to Pastoral Ministry  (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 63–64:

[E]verything we’ll talk about presupposes that your sense of call is focused more on serving the church than on fulfilling a dream.

Here are some questions you should think about now, because they’re going to make a big difference later.

• What’s your present involvement in a local church? If you were a pastor, would you be any more committed to the church than you already are? What does your answer say about you?
• If you were offered a position serving your present church as a pastor, would you take it? Why or why not?
• If you were asked to take the pastorate at a church where you didn’t know anybody and nobody knew you, what would influence your decision to take it or not?
• Under what circumstances could you see yourself leaving a church you were shepherding?
• What is your church’s or denomination’s accepted practice of training and deploying pastors? Where do you agree with this practice? Where do you have questions about it?
• If you were asked by a church you were pastoring to step down in favor of another man leading the church, would you look for another church to pastor, or would you remain at the church as a faithful member? What would determine your next move?

Mike Bullmore: “I will be putting this book to regular use with young men at my church.”

The concluding chapter of this new book lays out six key theses about Luke’s theology:

Darrell L. Bock. A Theology of Luke and Acts: God’s Promised Program, Realized for All Nations. Biblical Theology of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012.

“Although there are many themes,” Bock notes, “six issues within the scholarly conversation are most important” (p. 448–50):

1. Divine Direction, Salvation History, Continuity of Promise, and Mission

The predominant idea in Luke-Acts is that Jesus’ coming represents the inauguration and culmination of a program of promise God introduced to Israel through the covenants to Abraham, David, and the offer of a new covenant. This salvation history did not replace eschatology as Conzelmann claimed, but rather was the eschatology of divine promise outlined in the program of Scripture and event that was a part of the Hebrew tradition. Israel’s story was about promise, including the promise to include the nations in blessing. Jesus and the mission of the new community involved announcing the coming of the realization of that promise in Jesus’ coming and work. In a sense, Luke-Acts is a Missionsgeschichte (“history of mission”). It explains why the new faith and its new community exist and what drives it.

2. Israel’s Story Includes the Nations and Is Not Anti-Semitic

This theme makes the point that the conflict one sees in Luke-Acts is not a reflection of anti-Semitism, as J. T. Sanders claimed. Rather, it reflects the kind of in-house debate about legitimacy that one also sees the prophets engage Israel within the Hebrew Scripture. Israel’s story is the key concern of Luke from the infancy material, where the hymns are drenched in the language of Israel’s hope, to the final remarks of Paul in Acts 28, where he says that he is in chains for the hope of Israel. . . .

3. The Spirit as the Sign of the New Era

. . . Jesus’ bestowal of the Spirit is a sign of the arrival of the new age. The Spirit is not merely a spirit of prophecy but is an enabler, the arrival of divine power that also purges humanity and enables mission. The Spirit’s coming also is evidence that Jesus has been raised, vindicated, and shown to be the Messiah-Lord. The community’s reception of the Spirit means that Jesus sits at God’s right hand, sharing in the execution of the divine program.

4. Salvation and Identity Tied to Jesus’ Work

Luke spends little time explaining how Jesus saves. Death for sin is mentioned explicitly only twice in these two volumes (Luke 22:18–20; Acts 20:28). Rather, what Luke seeks to achieve is a sense of solidarity and identification with Jesus through what he has done, and Luke highlights Jesus’ unique position in the offer of salvation. Salvation is an act of God’s grace. It is obtained by seeking God’s mercy. It is not an entitlement that comes automatically because of effort or heritage. . . .

5. A New Era and Structure in a Trinitarian Story

Without using the word, these two volumes tell a trinitarian story. God is the main actor as he sends Jesus as his key representative agent. Jesus in turn gives the Spirit to energize his people and to rule the kingdom from within the hearts and souls of his people. All of this is the result of forgiveness and grace, rooted in divine promise. There is continuity in promise and hope, even as there is discontinuity in structure. . . .

6. Realized Promise in Prophecy and Pattern

All that has been done is what was promised in the Hebrew Scriptures. Events tied to Jesus have made these connections clearer, but they are a part of what God had always revealed he would do. The new community is really an old faith. Blessing has come to the world with Jew and Gentile in a reconciled community for which Jesus has cleared the way. In that community resides the Spirit, who not only sanctifies this newly organized social group, but who also calls them to a mission and life that represents God well. The calling is to live in a manner he always had designed people to reflect—to love God and one’s neighbor. Both the Messiah’s glory and suffering were outlined in the sacred texts of old, as was the hope that one day the promise to Abraham would result in blessing for the nations.

[Summary]

These are the core themes of Luke-Acts. There is much more than the few paragraphs indicate, but these are the most central points around which Luke builds his theology.

Some related works by Bock:

1. Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock, eds. Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church: The Search for Definition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.
2. Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock. Progressive Dispensationalism. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993.
3. Darrell L. Bock. Luke. IVP New Testament Commentary 3. Downers Grove: IVP, 1994.
4. Darrell L. Bock. Luke: Volume 1: 1:1–9:50. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994.
5. Darrell L. Bock. Luke: Volume 2: 9:51–24:53. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996.
6. Darrell L. Bock. Luke. NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.
7. Darrell L. Bock. “The Hermeneutics of Progressive Dispensationalism.” Pages 85–101 in Three Central Issues in Contemporary Dispensationalism: A Comparison of Traditional and Progressive Views. Edited by Herbert W. Bateman IV. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999.
8. Darrell L. Bock. Jesus according to Scripture: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002.
9. Darrell L. Bock. Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002.
10. Darrell L. Bock. Acts. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007.
11. Darrell L. Bock. “Single Meaning, Multiple Contexts and Referents: The New Testament’s Legitimate, Accurate, and Multifaceted Use of the Old.” Pages 105–51 (responses: 90–95, 226–31) in Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Edited by Kenneth Berding and Jonathan Lunde. Counterpoints. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008.
12. Darrell L. Bock.“The Historical Jesus: An Evangelical View.” Pages 249–81 in The Historical Jesus: Five Views. Edited by James K. Beilby and Paul R. Eddy. Downers Grove: IVP, 2009.

Admission: I read a book about the Harry Potter series. And I liked (most of) it:

John Granger. How Harry Cast His Spell: The Meaning Behind the Mania for J. K. Rowling’s Bestselling Books. 4th ed. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2006. 304 pp. (34-page sample PDF)

I actually read a few others, too:

• Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader
• One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter
• The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles

But they weren’t as captivating as this one (at least as this one starts out—it fizzles a bit).

I didn’t plan to read to read it straight through. I checked it out via my public library’s inter-library loan, and I planned to give it about 30 to 60 minutes. But after reading the first few chapters, I bought it in Kindle format and marked it up as I read the whole thing straight through. Chapters 1–10 and 19–20 are more interesting than the others.

The book is popular, not academic, and sometimes it is a bit corny. But its insights are worth the read. I don’t follow all of the symbolic connections Granger makes in this book: some of them seem like too much of a stretch (especially when deriving hidden meanings via tenuous etymologies), but most of them make sense.

I didn’t know that there are “Potter Scholars,” but TIME calls John Granger the “Dean of Harry Potter Scholars.”

One point that Granger demonstrates very well is that all seven Harry Potter books are filled with implicit and explicit Christian themes. He begins to unpack his argument in this sample PDF, but the rest of the book relentlessly and overwhelmingly proves that argument.

Here’s a figure from chapter 2:

And here’s a table from chapter 3that illustrates that “the Harry Potter books are laid out according to a formula repeated in each story” (the table is spread over two pages so that the seven Potter books appear in seven parallel columns):

Granger writes,

“My ‘Great Book’ test has three parts:

• Does it address the big questions of human life?
• Does the artistry of the work support the answers given to these questions?
• Are the answers about edifying relationships with God, man, and the world? (This last, in light of historic English literature being almost exclusively by Christians for other Christians, can be rephrased more simply, ‘Are the answers Christian?’)

“The Harry Potter books are classics—and not just as ‘kid-lit’ but as classics of world literature.” (p. 53)

Related:

1. Harry Potter
2. Rebuked about Harry Potter
3. Successful Rereading: Maintaining the Magic

Update: Just to clarify, I’m referring to the Harry Potter books, not the films. As I say here, “Don’t judge a book by its movie.”

This week Jenni and I finished re-listening to Jim Dale’s masterful reading of the Harry Potter series.

We enjoyed it so much the first time that we read the books again two years later, and the timing was just right. We loved it right out of the gate in book 1. We made so many more thematic connections the second time through that we missed the first time. (We initially focused on putting together the broad storyline.) What a pleasure.

We can relate to what Alan Jacobs writes about here—at least with reference to Harry Potter and Narnia—in The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011):

Children often have this experience:

• the Harry Potter saga has wrapped up,
• the Anne of Green Gables tales are done.

Neil Gaiman, that gifted writer of fantasies for children and adults, gave a talk a few years ago in which he described the centrality of C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books to his early life:

“I remember what I did on my seventh birthday—I lay on my bed and I read the books all through, from first to the last. For the next four or five years I continued to read them. I would read other books, of course, but in my heart I knew that I read them only because there wasn’t an infinite number of Narnia books to read.”

It’s no wonder

• that writers besiege C. S. Lewis’s estate seeking permission to write further Narnian adventures,
• or that responsibility for Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys hash been passed on to several generations of authors, who will continue to invent new mysteries for the young sleuths to unravel probably until the world’s end.

But adults can feel the same grief:

• how many thousands of readers have never been able to reconcile themselves to the fact that Jane Austen wrote only six novels? Thus the recent sequels to Pride and Prejudice—even, in a perverse way, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies—and the attempts by various authors to complete the novels Austen was working on when she died.
• A similar speculative eagerness surrounds Dickens’s unfinished Mystery of Edward Drood: Why did Dickens have to die at fifty-eight? Surely, he had not only this novel but half-a-dozen more in him!

So we turn again and again to our favorites, striving to calculate how best to maintain the magic.

• I have had several conversations with my son over the years at moments when he was undecided whether his last encounter with the Harry Potter books had receded sufficiently in his memory that a successful rereading was possible.
• And success in such endeavors is a doubtful thing: there is always the possibility, devotees know all too well, that too many rereadings squeezed into too narrow a time frame will drain the books’ power and leave them forever inert on the shelves. And this would be lamentable.
• (Lately I have been asking myself whether I have sufficiently forgotten the details of Patrick O’Brian’s novels of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars that I can return to them with vibrant pleasure. I hover over those memories like a cook over a stewpot: in another year, I think, the books and I will be ready.)

(pp. 34–35, formatting added)

Related:

1. Harry Potter
2. Rebuked about Harry Potter
3. Harry Potter Is Filled with Implicit and Explicit Christian Themes

Jenni and I coauthored this review article:

“Give Them Jesus: Parenting with the Gospel; A Review of Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus.”  Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood 17:1 (2012): 52–56.

It has six parts:

1. Give Them Grace? We explain the book’s title.
2. Tracing the Argument. We summarize each of the book’s ten chapters in one sentence.
3. Weaknesses. We highlight just two relatively minor issues.
4. Yes, Grace, but . . . . I check if the book passes what I call “the God-forbid test.”
5. A Mom’s Perspective. Jenni humbly shares her perspective. (I love my wife!)
6. Conclusion. We compare the book to three other popular Christian parenting books.

Last paragraph:

A book on parenting is an excellent place to teach theology and demonstrate how important and practical it is. Fitzpatrick and Thompson keep the main thing the main thing by explaining the gospel to parents and insightfully showing how it applies to shepherding children.

Update: The above link to the PDF is adding characters after the “.pdf” for some reason. This is the link: http://andynaselli.com/wp-content/uploads/2012_review_Fitzpatrick.pdf

My oldest daughter just finished hearing The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time. After we finished The Last Battle, Kara asked wistfully, “Daddy, are there any more Narnia books?” I had to confirm what she already knew: there are only seven Narnia books.

But she’s already looking forward to reading them again and again and again.

We utilized ten resources to enjoy Narnia, and I recommend them all:

1. The Unabridged Books

These are essential. All other resources merely supplement them.

It is pure pleasure to read these aloud to your children.

I chose to get a boxed set in hardcover. 

It’s also available in softcover.

Those sets have the same simple illustrations by Pauline Baynes sprinkled throughout them that I recall seeing when reading this set as a child.

This one-volume set (which I think is the same as this one) is large but very nice. It includes the original illustrations by Pauline Baynes, but they are hand-colored instead of black and white.

You can view thirteen of Pauline Baynes’s color illustrations and seven maps at the bottom of this page.

2. Graphic Novels

Robin Lawrie abridged and illustrated two graphic novels:

1. The Magician’s Nephew: Graphic Novel (64 pp.)
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Graphic Novel (64 pp.)

I’m surprised that there aren’t more books like these. I wish there were seven and not just two of them.

Although these books horrify purists, I like them. I used them to introduce these two stories to Kara, and they helped draw her into the world of Narnia. She loves these books (though now she loves the unabridged books more). She loves pictures paired with stories; they engage her and stimulate her imagination.

The first book of the seven books that we read is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and we read the graphic novel first:

• When we got to the part where the white witch kills Aslan, Kara started sobbing with grief.
• When we got to the next chapter and read the title, “The Spell Is Broken,” she cheerfully remarked through her tears, “That’s good news!”
• When I asked her if Aslan reminded her of anyone (and this is during her first time ever hearing the story), without blinking she replied, “Jesus.”
• The day after finishing the book, I asked her, “So what do you think of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?” She replied, “Well, I don’t like the witch, but I like the lion and the wardrobe.”

3. Focus on the Family Radio Theatre

Focus on the Family Radio Theatre’s dramatized version of the Narnia books is outstanding. First-class.

It’s abridged. The unabridged audio is about 31 hours, and this is about 22 hours. Among other things, this abridged version removes the few instances of objectionable language (see resource #9 below: “Some Caveats”).

Douglas Gresham, one of C. S. Lewis’s two step-sons, briefly introduces and concludes each book.

Related: Here are other Focus on the Family Radio Theatre stories:

1. Amazing Grace: The Inspirational Stories of William Wilberforce, John Newton, and Olaudah Equiano
2. Anne of Green Gables: An Endearing Story of a Young Girl Whose Spirit Could Never Be Broken
3. At the Back of the North Wind
4. Ben Hur: An Epic Tale of Revenge and Redemption
5. Billy Budd, Sailor: A Classic Tale of Innocence Betrayed on the High Seas; Adapted from the Novel by Herman Melville
6. Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Freedom; A Man Whose Message Could Not Be Silenced (cf. my thoughts)
7. A Christmas Carol: By Charles Dickens
8. Father Gilbert Mysteries: Collector’s Edition; All 9 Father Gilbert Mysteries
9. The Hiding Place: The Acclaimed Story of Corrie Ten Boom
10. The Legend of Squanto: An Unknown Hero Who Changed the Course of American History
11. The Life of Jesus: Dramatic Eyewitness Accounts from the Luke Reports (cf. my thoughts)
12. Little Women
13. Les Misérables: Victor Hugo’s Masterpiece
14. The Screwtape Letters: First Ever Full-cast Dramatization of the Diabolical Classic (cf. my review)
15. The Secret Garden: Frances Hodgson Burnett; A New Way to Experience the Beloved Classic
16. Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe; The Transforming Power of a Child’s Love
17. Traveling Home for Christmas: Four Stories That Journey to the Heart of Christmas (The Shoemaker’s Gift, The Gift of the Maji, Christmas Day at Kirkby Cottage, and Christmas by Injunction)

4. Unabridged Audiobooks

We also listened to the unabridged audiobooks by Harper Children’s Audio:

They are very high quality (though not in the same class as Jim Dale’s masterful reading of the Harry Potter series).

A different narrator reads each book, and all of them are English actors.

1. The Magician’s Nephew, narrated by Kenneth Branagh (who stars in Henry V)
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, narrated by Michael York
3. The Horse and His Boy, narrated by Alex Jennings
4. Prince Caspian, narrated by Lynn Redgrave
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, narrated by Derek Jacobi
6. The Silver Chair, narrated by Jeremy Northam
7. The Last Battle, narrated by Patrick Stewart

(These free podcasts are not as high quality as the above audiobooks.)

5. BBC’s TV Serial

From 1988 to 1990, BBC aired a TV serial (available on 3 DVDs) that they produced based on four of the Narnia books (Wikipedia):

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (169 min.)
2. Prince Caspian (56 min.)
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (109 min.)
4. The Silver Chair (168 min.)

We watched these films after reading and listening to the corresponding book and audiobook.

I watched these many times as a child on VHS and loved them. Now I own them on DVD so my children can enjoy them, too.

Compared to modern films, the pace is slow (which serves my daughter well) and the special effects tame.

The films stick pretty closely to the storyline of the books, but Kara was quick to point out ways that the films deviate (even if only slightly) from the books!

6. Blockbuster Films

Three of the Narnia books are adapted into blockbuster films (Wikipedia):

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005, Disney)
2. Prince Caspian (2008, Disney)
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010, 20th Century Fox)

(On the possibility of future films, see here.)

Pros:

1. quality cinematography
2. cool special effects
3. good acting

Cons:

1. They focus on intense scenes, especially violent battle scenes. We skipped the really intense scenes and watched other intense scenes at 4x speed or higher because they are too intense for a little girl.
2. They drastically revise the storyline of the books.
3. They gut the books of their core message and turn them into feel-good messages about believing in yourself and having faith (I always ask, “Faith in what or whom?!”). For example, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ends with Carrie Underwood singing “There’s a Place for Us.” Is the message of the book really that “we can be the kings and queens of anything if we believe” and that “exactly who we are is just enough”? Incredible. They turn a book steeped in Christian themes into narcissistic self-esteemism.

See Doug Wilson’s reviews (which are generous!):

• Prince Caspian (May 17, 2008)
• Dawn Treader (December 11, 2010)

Wilson concludes,

So, here is my gradebook on these movies as adaptations so far:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — B
2. Prince Caspian — D minus
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — C

Here is how I would rate the movies as stand alone ventures, if C. S. Lewis had never existed, and producers had not been laboring under the burden of finding someone who understood the books. Of course, we shouldn’t be too hard on them. They only have many millions of dollars. How could they possibly find somebody who understands the books? Give them a break.

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — A
2. Prince Caspian — B
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — A minus

See also Christopher Cowan, “C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, and Women in Combat: Part 1 and Part 2,” Gender Blog (May 20–21, 2008).

7. Theater

It just so happened that a nearby play of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe coincided with our reading the Narnia books.

It was Kara’s second play, and she loved the experience. But as with the film adaptations, she disliked how much artistic license the play took with the storyline. (I agree.)

8. Pretending

We (mostly my dear wife!) have spent dozens of hours play-acting with Kara as all sorts of Narnia characters. Kara lives in an imaginary world, and she constantly reenacts scenes and improvises new ones using the characters from the stories (and sometimes conflates imaginary worlds: Narnia meets Winnie the Pooh!).

It can get exhausting living in this pretend world, but it’s worth it. It’s good for her on so many levels (e.g., see Nurture Shock, ch. 8).

We took our time enjoying the seven books, spending about two to three weeks in each one. We read each at least three times before moving on to the next one:

• I read the unabridged version aloud once.
• We listened to the abridged version by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre at least once.
• We listened to the unabridged version at least once.

9. Some Caveats

Kevin Bauder’s “The Christian and Fantastic Literature—Part Six: The Chronicles of Narnia” (In the Nick of Time [March 25, 2005]) praises the Narnia series but adds two caveats:

This is not to say that the story is without flaws. In fact, it has two defects that sharply limit its usefulness. A discussion of the Chronicles would not be complete without mentioning these defects.

First, Lewis sometimes puts profane language in the mouths of his characters [e.g., taking the Lord’s name in vain and Uncle Andrew’s repeated line in The Magician’s Nephew]. To be fair, Lewis would probably not have regarded these uses as profanity. Most likely he would have argued that the language was not gratuitous and, therefore, was not speaking in vain of holy things. This is not convincing, however. A certain number of oaths serve no apparent purpose other than to add color to the story. They do cross the line into profanity, which is especially disappointing in stories that were written for children. Even though these occasions are rare, once is too often.

Second, some of Lewis’s theology was aberrant, and one or two of his quirks do show up in these stories. Probably the most serious is Lewis’s inclusivism. In the final story (The Last Battle) a young worshipper of the demon Tash is admitted into the “true Narnia”—Lewis’s version of heaven. Lewis uses Aslan to explain that whatever worship was offered sincerely to Tash was really offered to Aslan. Such episodes reflect one of the errors of Lewis’s theology, namely, that all sincere people can be received by God, even if they have not received the truth of Christianity. This is not a minor error.

The error is compounded precisely because the fantastic presentation makes it seem appealing and palatable. The flaw is magnified further by being offered to children who cannot be expected to recognize it for what it is. Lewis’s story has the power to capture the child’s imagination and to render it sympathetic to inclusivism before the child ever develops the capacity to think critically about the issue. This is a serious matter.

Kevin DeYoung’s “Cautions for Mere Christianity” (January 28, 2011) highlights “two significant problems” with Mere Christianity, and the second in particular appears in the Narnia series:

1. Lewis rejects a penal substitutionary atonement.
2. Lewis “believed in what we might roughly call ‘anonymous Christians.’ That is, people may be saved through Christ without putting explicit faith in Christ.”

Cf. John Piper, “Lessons from an Inconsolable Soul: Learning from the Mind and Heart of C. S. Lewis,” 2010 Pastors Conference (February 2, 2010).

10. Douglas Wilson’s Book on Narnia

I read this book three times—twice with my ears and once with my eyes:

Douglas Wilson. What I Learned in Narnia. Moscow, ID: Canon, 2010.

I listened to this audiobook both before and after reading the series with my daughter, and then I read it and marked it up. Wilson draws insightful lessons from the Narnia stories.

I was going to share some excerpts, but I highlighted far too many pithy, shrewd observations to fit here.

Relatively few books are worth reading a second or third time. This is one of them.

Some trivia: My favorite character (other than Aslan, of course) is Puddleglum. As Wilson says, “Puddleglum is a character who has a comically dour and gloomy exterior, but he turns out to be quite useful, fiercely loyal, and suspicious about the world in all the right ways” (p. 91).

Related

Articles

1. “That’s Why It’s Called Progressive Sanctification” (Eustace Scrubb illustration)
2. “Is C. S. Lewis the Patron Saint of American Evangelicalism?”
3. C. S. Lewis, “On Three Ways of Writing for Children,” in Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories (New York: Harvest, 1966), 22–34.
4. Alan Jacobs, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” in The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis (ed. Robert MacSwain and Michael Ward; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 265–80.
5. Thomas C. Peters, “The Chronicles of Narnia,” in Simply C. S. Lewis: A Beginner’s Guide to the Life and Works of C. S. Lewis (Wheaton: Crossway, 1997), 77–110.
6. George Sayer, “Into Narnia,” in Jack: A Life of C. S. Lewis (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005), 311–19.
7. Into the Wardrobe—a C. S. Lewis web site

Books

1. Alan Jacobs, The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2005).
2. Paul F. Ford, Companion to Narnia: A Complete Guide to the Magical World of C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia (2nd ed.; San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005). Includes 21 illustrations and 11 diagrams. Abridged: Pocket Companion to Narnia: A Guide to the Magical World of C. S. Lewis.
3. Planet Narnia: You may find Michael Ward’s thesis fantastical at first, but at the end you’ll be much less skeptical if not convinced. Watch BBC’s The Narnia Code, and read one of his two books: Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), which is the longer and more academic version, or The Narnia Code: C. S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2010).
4. Colin Duriez, A Field Guide to Narnia (Downers Grove: IVP, 2004). The cover says, “An Overview of the Life and Word of C. S. Lewis | A-to-Z Coverage of Narnian Beings, Places, Things and Events | An Introduction to Key Spiritual Themes.” It’s an accessible, brief introduction (240 pp.). Cf. Colin Duriez, The C. S. Lewis Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to His Life, Thought, and Writings (Wheaton: Crossway, 2000).
5. Christin Ditchfield, A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C. S. Lewis’s the Chronicles of Narnia (Wheaton: Crossway, 2003). Two later books by Ditchfield repeat corresponding sections from this book but include illustrations by Justin Gerard: (1) A Family Guide to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005) and (2) A Family Guide to Prince Caspian (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008).
6. Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware, Finding God in the Land of Narnia (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2004).
7. Brian Sibley, The Land of Narnia (New York: Harper & Row, 1990).

“You are going to die. Take a moment to let that sink in. You are going to die.”

Those cheerful words open this book:

Michael E. Wittmer. The Last Enemy: Preparing to Win the Fight of Your Life. Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 2012. (13-page sample PDF)

This devotional book is sober and edifying, and Mike is a gifted writer.

Related: Mike Wittmer reflects on his book:

1. The Last Enemy
2. Why a Book on Death?
3. What I Learned about Death
4. Fear and Faith
5. Deadly Denial

Good news: Videos of all 44 stories in The Jesus Storybook Bible are now available. (Before only some of them were available.)

Sally Lloyd-Jones and Sam Shammas. The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name; Curriculum Kit: 44 Lessons for Early–Middle Elementary; with Notes for Teachers Based on Material by Timothy Keller. Grand Rapids: Zonderkidz, 2012.

Bad news: The stories don’t play continuously. You have to click on each individual one. (They are about five minutes each.)

Good news: The videos come on a DVD loaded with PDFs of a new children’s curriculum that supplements The Jesus Storybook Bible. (View two PDFs here: the table of contents and introduction and a sample lesson.)

Related:

1. Jesus Storybook Bible Deluxe Edition
2. Theology for Kids
3. Bible Memory for Young Children
4. A Good Bible-Story Book with Thousands of Pictures

Jonathan K. Dodson,“Gospel-Centered Questions to Ask,” appendix 1 in Gospel-Centered Discipleship  (Re:Lit; Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 155–56 (formatting added):

Here is a list of questions to help you cultivate gospel motivations.

Questions 11–15 are taken from Sam Storms’s book A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ.

See . . . forty-five more questions in David Powlison’s list of “X-ray Questions.”

1. What do you desire more than anything else?
2. What do you find yourself daydreaming or fantasizing about?
3. What lies do you subtly believe that undermine the truth of the gospel?
4. Are you astonished with the gospel?
5. Where have you made much of yourself and little of God?
6. Is technology interrupting your communion with God?
7. Is work a source of significance? How?
8. Where do your thoughts drift when you enter a social setting?
9. What fears keep you from resting in Christ?
10. What consumes your thoughts when you have alone time?
11. When people see how you spend money, do they conclude that God is a priceless treasure, exceedingly valuable above all worldly goods?
12. When people observe your relationship with others, are they alerted to the power of Christ’s forgiveness of you that alone accounts for your forgiveness of them?
13. If you are complimented for some accomplishment, does the way you receive it drive onlookers to give thanks to the Lord?
14. Is your use of leisure time or devotion to a hobby or how you speak of your spouse the sort that persuades others that your heart is content with what God is for you in Christ?
15. Does your reaction to bad news produce in you doubt or fear, or does it inspire confidence to trust in God’s providence?

This accessible booklet came out at the end of last month:

Jim Newcomer. Help! I Can’t Forgive. Living in a Fallen World. Leominster, England: Day One, 2012.

It’s 64 pages, but its dimensions are only 5.6 x 4 inches. (Many paperbacks are about 8 x 5 inches.)

Newcomer unpacks and applies Matthew 18.

How do you know whether you should lovingly confront someone about an offense (pp. 54–55)?

1. if the relationship is broken
2. if it is a serious offense against someone else
3. if the offender is in danger

When you say “I forgive you” to someone, what exactly are you promising (pp. 55–57)?

1. I promise I will not hold this offense in my heart.
2. I promise I will not spread this around to others.
3. I promise I will not bring this up against you.

Newcomer recommends four books, two articles, and two websites for further help:

1. Jay Adams, From Forgiven to Forgiving: Learning to Forgive One Another God’s Way  (Amityville, NY: Calvary, 1994).
2. Chris Brauns, Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds  (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008).
3. John MacArthur, The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009).
4. Ken Sande, The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004).
5. Tim Crater, “Counsel on Being Reconciled to Our Brother,” Journal of Pastoral Practice 5:3 (1982): 25–34.
6. Tim Lane, “Pursuing and Granting Forgiveness,” Journal of Biblical Counseling 23:2 (2005): 52–59.
7. Peacemaker Ministries
8. Christian Counseling Education Foundation

This book is part of the new “Living in a Fallen World” series, edited by Paul Tautges (and endorsed by Wayne Mack). It’s basically DayOne’s version of the CCEF booklet series, though the “Living in a Fallen World” booklets are about twice as long (64 pages).

The “Living in a Fallen World” series currently has twenty-four booklets (with more on the way):

1. Dave Coats, Help! My Teen Is Rebellious (2011)
2. Rachel Coyle, Help! She’s Struggling with Pornography (2011)
3. Brian Croft, Help! He’s Struggling with Pornography (2010)
4. Adam Embry, Help! I Can’t Get Motivated (2011)
5. Brenda Frields, Help! I Have Breast Cancer (2010)
6. Glenda Hotton, Help! I Can’t Submit to My Husband (2012)
7. Deborah Howard, Help! Someone I Love Has Alzheimer’s (2012)
8. Deborah Howard, Help! Someone I Love Has Cancer (2010)
9. Joel James, Help! I Can’t Handle All These Trials (2012)
10. Joel James, Help! I’m Confused about Dating (2011)
11. Ben Marshall, Help! My Teen Is Gay (2011)
12. Shannon Kay McCoy, Help! I’m a Slave to Food (2011)
13. Jim Newcomer, Help! I Can’t Forgive (2012)
14. Jim Newheiser, Help! I Want to Change (2012)
15. Jim Newheiser, Help! Someone I Love Has Been Abused (2010)
16. Sue Nicewander, Help! I Feel Ashamed (2012)
17. Mike Summers, Help! My Spouse Has Been Unfaithful (2010)
18. Paul and Karen Tautges, Help! My Toddler Rules the House (2010)
19. John Temple, Help! I’m Drowning in Debt (2011)
20. Rick Thomas, Help! My Marriage Has Grown Cold (2010)
21. Carol Trahan, Help! I’m a Single Mom (2011)
22. Carol Trahan, Help! I Am Depressed (2012)
23. Reggie Weems, Help! My Baby Has Died (2010)
24. Reggie Weems, Help! I’m Living with Terminal Illness (2012)

If you’re preaching through Revelation, you’ll want to include this book on your shortlist of helps:

James M. Hamilton Jr. Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches. Preaching the Word. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012. 457 pp. (20-page sample PDF)

Jim embraces historic premillennialism.

His sermons in print follow this basic structure (pp. 15–16, formatting added):

In the introduction I seek to do five things:

• (1) Grab attention.
• (2) Raise awareness of a real need that people have, a need that is addressed by the teaching of the text. The goal is to make people feel that they need to listen closely. Ideally, the need we have will be connected somehow to the opening attention-grabber.
• (3) State the main point of the text. The main idea of the text is the main idea of the sermon. This main idea seeks to meet the need that has just been raised.
• (4) Preview the structure of the text that will be preached. The structure of the text will then become the structure of the sermon.
• (5) Give the wider context of the passage at hand. Depending on the details of the text, the discussion of the wider context will focus on either the book of Revelation or the whole canon of Scripture, and relevant information from the historical background might be introduced here as well.

The body of the sermon then proceeds through the structure of the text.

• There are as many points in the sermon as there are sections in the text being preached.
• In addition to expositing the meaning of each section of the passage,
• I seek (1) to connect the main ideas in this section to the main point of the passage, and
• (2) to apply the teaching of this section of text to the congregation.
• In thinking about how to apply texts, I have benefited from Mark Dever’s “Application Grid.”

The conclusion of the sermon

• seeks to restate the key ideas in the sections of the text, which should naturally lead to a restatement of the main idea of the passage.
• A sermon might also conclude with some poignant example or illustration that communicates the burden of the sermon.

Expository preaching happens when the main point of the text is the main point of the sermon and the structure of the text is the structure of the sermon. More gifted expositors may be able to exposit texts in a variety of ways. The rest of us are helped by “cookie-cutter” structures like the one I have just outlined.

Related:

1. Jim Hamilton’s sermons on Revelation (at the bottom of the page)
2. Jason McClanahan interviews Jim Hamilton on Revelation (audio)
3. Crossway interviews Jim Hamilton on Revelation
4. Denny Burk interviews Jim Hamilton on Revelation
5. Kevin Boling interviews Jim Hamilton on Revelation (audio)
6. Matt Smethhurst interviews Jim Hamilton on Revelation

This is the most thorough resource I’m aware of that explains why the temple’s curtain tore in two when Jesus died:

Daniel M. Gurtner. The Torn Veil: Matthew’s Exposition of the Death of Jesus. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 139. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

It focuses on Matt 27:51a but takes into account the other Synoptic references and the explanations in Hebrews.

Dan Gurtner teaches New Testament at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and serves as an elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church (where John Piper is pastor for preaching and vision). He earned his PhD at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland under Richard Bauckham, and this book is the published version of his dissertation on the tearing of the temple’s curtain in Matthew 27:51a.

Among other things, Gurtner convincingly argues that the temple curtain that tore is the inner veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place (the Holy of Holies).

Cf. D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in Matthew–Mark  (Revised Expositor’s Bible Commentary 9; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 649–50:

If the death of Jesus opened up a fresh access to God that made the OT sacrificial system and the Levitical high priesthood obsolete, then an entire change in the Mosaic covenant must follow. It is impossible to grapple with Matthew’s fulfillment themes (see comments at 5:17–20; 11:11–13) and see how even the law points prophetically to Messiah and hear Jesus’ promise of a new covenant grounded in his death (26:26–29) without seeing that the tearing of the veil signifies the obsolescence of the temple ritual and the law governing it. Jesus himself is the New Temple, the meeting place of God and man (see comments at 26:61); the old is obsolete. The rent veil does indeed serve as a sign of the temple’s impending destruction—a destruction conceived not as a brute fact but as a theological necessity. For extensive discussion, see Daniel M. Gurtner, The Torn Veil: Matthew’s Exposition of the Death of Jesus (SNTSMS 139; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007).

Related: Justin Taylor, “What Did the Temple Look Like in Jesus’ Time?”

Books on the rise of Jeremy Lin are starting to become available (e.g., Ted Kluck and Timothy Dalrymple), and I just read one of them:

Mike Yorkey. Linspired: The Remarkable Rise of Jeremy Lin. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012. 176 pp.

Yorkey was following Lin long before Linsanity began.

(By the way, Lin had surgery on his knee this week, and the Knicks expect him to miss the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs.)

Yorkey’s book reads like a breezy series of articles in a sports magazine. It’s theologically shallow, but it’s an interesting and fast read.

Excerpts:

• Throughout high school, he [i.e., Lin] carried a 4.2 grade point average (in the grade point system, an A is worth 4 points, but AP, or Advanced Placement, classes were weighted more heavily because of their difficulty) at Palo Alto High, where he had scored a perfect 800 on his SAT II Math IIC during his freshman year. (pp. 38–39)
• Basketball had become an idol in Jeremy’s life [during his rookie year in the NBA]. (p. 70)
• Some [women], unfortunately, are looking to get impregnated by an NBA player. They see having a child out of wedlock as a fast-track ticket to child support payments that begin in the five figures and can rise to sums of $75,000 a month. The number of illegitimate children of NBA players is staggering—and commonplace in other professional sports too—but it’s generally estimated that 50 to 60 percent of all players have had children out of wedlock. Child support payments are some athletes’ single largest expense. (p. 74)
• You know what I find to be one of the most interesting things about Jeremy Lin? The fact that he doesn’t have any tattoos. . . . So, it seems that Jeremy and Tim [Tebow] are taking the long view. It’s like they heard stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco’s line in a recent performance: “Why would you put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari?” (pp. 116–17)
• Jeremy is the second lowest-paid Knick, but expect this to change in a big way after the season, when he becomes a restricted free agent, meaning the Knicks can match any contract offer he receives. Because of the intricacies of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement and the salary cap, Jeremy figures to see an upgrade to $5 million next season. That princely amount, however, will be dwarfed by what he will make off the court in endorsements. (p. 124)
• Once the 2011–12 season is over, you can be sure that Jeremy will be headed west—toward his hometown in Palo Alto—and even further west to Asia. You see, Jeremy is even more popular in his ancestral home than here in America. (p. 125)

Related:

1. Timothy Darymple, “The Faith and Fate of Jeremy Lin” (2010)
2. Timothy Darymple, “Jeremy Lin, Faith, and Ethnicity” (2010)
3. Carl Parks, “Linsanity and Asian American Christianity”

Last weekend David Crabb interviewed Bruce Ware about three issues:

1. Gender issues (28:25)
2. Fundamentalism and evangelicalism (24:34)
3. Contemporary issues (25:03)

David lists his questions and the time-markers here.

Bob Yarbrough has authored two articles on what 1 Thess 4:3–8 teaches about sex:

1. Robert W. Yarbrough, “Excellence in Christian Living: Sex Ethics à la First Thessalonians 4:3–8,” Reformation and Revival 5:4 (1996): 67–76.

Outline

1. A Modern Ancient Problem
2. Paul’s Commitment to True Excellence
3. God’s Will: Sex Ethics at Center Stage
4. The Gravity of Sexual Misconduct
5. Paul’s (God’s) Call to Excellence Today

Excerpts

• At the core of Paul’s concern for the Thessalonians is the working out of God’s will, or true excellence, in the area of sexual expression. . . . At a minimum they should avoid porneia, here a blanket term for the whole range of attitudes and actions which Scripture prohibits (1 Thess. 4:3). This is key to their Sanctification. (p. 71)
• [M]isconduct in this area implies that one has not really come to know God at all . . . . (p. 73)
• [I]nappropriate sexual conduct is a flat violation of the command to love one’s neighbor . . .  . (p. 73)
• Notoriously, some modern formulations of ethics (even “Christian” ethics) have tended to go with the flow of today’s eroding sexual mores. Porneia has become permissible if it is sincere . . . or loving . . . or culturally acceptable . . . or convenient . . . or medically “safe” . . . or irresistibly enjoyable . . . or psychologically unavoidable (“I was abused as a child”) . . . or spiritually non-lethal via quick use of 1 John 1:9 (the pop-Christian equivalent of the “morning after” pill). The list could doubtless be extended. (p. 74)
• [T]he primary question for sex ethics, or any ethical question taking the Scriptures seriously, must not be simply, “What must/ought/should/may I do?” but rather “To whom am I accountable, and for what?” (p. 75)

2. Robert W. Yarbrough, “Sexual Gratification in 1 Thess 4:1–8,” Trinity Journal 20 (1999): 215–32.

Outline

1. Weib or Leib?
2. “Not in passionate lust”
1. Sex Outside of Marriage
2. Unnatural Sex
3. Defrauding Others
3. “ … in order to please God”
4. Conclusion

Excerpts

• The goal of this article is to see what light study of biblical language and backgrounds might shed on several perennial puzzles found in 1 Thess 4:1–8. (p. 215)
• Immorality, while not universal, was rampant by the first century. Marriage was anything but holy. (p. 223)
• Homosexuality, apparently somewhat common among the Greeks for centuries,  infiltrated Roman culture on a larger scale by the second century BC. Thessalonica, with both Greek history and Roman presence, would have been no stranger to this practice in Paul’s time. (p. 224)
• [U]nder Roman law the husband had far-reaching discretion over his wife, who was his property,  so much so, e.g., that Caligula is said to have paraded his wife Caesonia naked before his friends. It is unlikely that she consented to this, but it is certain that she had no say in the matter. After all, this same Caligula is said never to have kissed her or even a mistress without the words, “And this beautiful throat will be cut when I please.” Women were chattel, and to have sex with someone else’s wife was literally to defraud him, to devalue goods he owned. ¶ But Paul’s words more likely have quite another sense. He did not view either marriage or women in Greco-Roman fashion, as Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 11 indicate; both marriage partners have total and exclusive claims on each other, and the Lord owns them both along with their very marriage, which is a microcosm and metaphor of God’s relationship with his people. . . . Paul does not want his readers to practice sex like the heathens do because he does not want to see the error of πορνεία (immorality) mushroom to the scandal of πλεονεκτεῖν (depriving others of God-given status and dignity), which is clearly transgression (ὑπερβαινεῖν). ¶ What, then, does “not in passionate lust” mean? Quite simply, heathen sexuality was often unrestrained, inappropriately expressed, or both. . . . This does not mean that it must not involve pleasure. It does imply that it is to be reserved for marriage and that it must be imbued with love, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and other spin-offs of Christ’s Spirit and the life regulated by it that may not always characterize sex acts in marriages, including Christian ones. (pp. 225–27)

Related:

1. Twelve Reasons to Give Up Porn
2. The Stain That Stays
3. Internet Pornography: The God of Truth and the Lies of Porn
4. Purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid
5. Accountability