If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the brand new Jan/Feb issue of Modern Reformation magazine. We are proud to report that two Mockingbird contributors have pieces published within its pages. The first is a feature(!) by Jacob Smith entitled The Authority Of The Bible: “It ain’t IS necessarily so!” The priceless tagline for the piece is “The Bible is authoritative not because it is a manual for living, but because it reveals to us Jesus who has the power to cut through all of humanity’s baloney. And the first paragraph reads as follows:
The world seems to be screaming the same question Pilate posed to Christ in the Gospel of John: “What is truth?” And naturally, people seem to be looking for the answer to that question in all the wrong places. When confronted with the content of the Bible and its authority as the answer to the question of truth, most people recoil and like Sportin’ Life in George Gershwin’s great opera Porgy and Bess scream, “It ain’t necessarily so!” This is especially true in a society where feelings and emotions possess as much influence, if not more, than objective facts. People, when confronted with biblical authority, are either outraged or they glare at you with indifference and throw back the old cultural defeater, “How can an ancient and frankly offensive book be in any way authoritative over me, especially if I don’t make it authoritative?” The great battle facing the church today, from within–as the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have recently demonstrated–and without, is one of epistemology: What is and where can one find truth? Therefore, the great question facing the church today is: How does the Bible, as believed by Bible Protestants,
To read the whole thing, you can go to their website and sign up for a free trial. An annual subscription is incredibly reasonable ($32) and highly, highly recommended.
The second article is actually a transcription of an inspired sermon of John Zahl’s, entitled “Purple Penguins”. The text is available only in the print edition but the audio file can be downloaded on our website.
Well done, Jacob and John!
COMMENTS
6 responses to “The Power To Cut Through Humanity’s Baloney: Mockingbird in Modern Reformation”
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"Purple Penguins" is one of my personal favorites from the resource page. Contgrats, JAZ!
Jacob,
What a timely piece, Indeed it is important to note that we do not look to the scripture purely for instruction but for the WORD made flesh. I loved the article. GO JACOB!!!
awesome guys. . . way to go!
Great stuff, guys!
By the way, White Horse Inn (the publishers of Modern Reformation) also recently drew attention to Jeff Hual's pieces on the MB Blog:
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/archives/310.html
Way to go, everybody!
I too like the "Purple Penguins" sermon. I especially liked John Zahl's closing prayer when he thanked God for the law, that it shows us what we need to see about ourselves.
jacob and jaz,
well done!! can't wait to read it…