HQ

A couple of weeks ago, Pastor  John MacArthur told Ben Shapiro that he intends to offend everyone  with the gospel. That's because the good news about Jesus is offensive. It tells us that we are sinners in need of a savior. The gospel makes us sad, but there are two kinds of sadness, a godly sadness and a worldly sadness, one leading to salvation, the other to death. In his second (or, more probably, his third) letter to the church in Corinth, Paul rejoices over the sadness his previous letter had produced in its reader. In his previous letter, Paul lambasted the members of the church for their arrogance and sin. His harsh words evidently had some effect producing sorrow and grief: For even if I made you sad by my letter, I do not regret having written it (even though I did regret it, for I see that my letter made you sad, though only for a short time). Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad, but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made...

In Greek, Jesus is Ἰησοῦς (pronounced, ee-ay-sooce). In early Latin an i could be used either as a vowel (short or long) or as a consonant (as a y ). Thus, the Latin, Iēsus , was pronounced yay-sus. In medievil Latin, the letter j was used to replace i 's that where being used as consonants. The j was pronounced as a y . Hence, in modern Spanish, 'Jesus' is still pronounced Yay-sooce. In English, however, the j was hardened and, consequently, 'Jesus' is pronounced Gee-sus.

I saw a car wreck the other day. I pulled over to see if I could help. The car had rolled down a steep bank into a ditch and hit a tree. Three teenage girls were screaming and walking around the car. I went down to see if there was anything I could do. An emergency team arrived and I backed off. As I got to the top of the bank I noticed a car full of teenage boys so I asked them if they knew the girls. They said they were friends. I wandered why they weren't getting out of the car to help their friends. They didn't seem to care. I told them to go and help; they told me that the girls would be okay without them. I tried to tell them that the girls could do with some friends to stand next to them, offer them a sweatshirt or coat, assure them, put an arm around them, but they weren't interested. As I left I was annoyed by these boys' behavior. Why didn't they want to help? They stayed in their nice warm car, out of the rain, away from the screaming. And then I though...

Over at the Gospel Coalition , there is some debate over an old argument about the claims of Jesus made by C.S Lewis. The argument presents a trilemma: Jesus Christ's claims to be God are believable (or not) depending on whether Christ is Lord, a lunatic who doesn't really know what he's talking about or he is masterful con artist. Apparently, William Lane Craig argues that there is another possibility: Christ's non-existence. If Christ didn't exist then no one really claimed anything. Justin Taylor claims that this makes the argument unsound. I disagree. Tell me what you think (any Lewis experts should chime in either here or over at Justin Taylor's blog ). Here's why I disagree: The argument is not about Christ's existence but the believability of his claim to be God (Lord). It goes something like this: If Jesus is not who he says he is, then he is either deluded or a con man. Jesus is not deluded and he is not a con man.  Therefore, he is ...