I have a number of reasons for blogging. However, I have never intended this blog to be a place to air grievances, a means of exposing "heretics," or a forum to tear down brothers and sisters in the church. Sadly, this is what a lot of blogs are used for.

Last week, Bruce Waltke resigned from his position as professor of Old Testament studies at the Orlando campus of Reformed Theological Seminary. It was quite clear from the outset that his sudden resignation was linked in some way to a video he had appeared in posted by the Biologos Foundation, in which he argued for the necessity of accepting theistic evolution, although there was no official statement released giving the details of Waltke's resignation.

Not surprisingly, then, the blogosphere lit up as many took the opportunity to offer their opinions and speculations (disguised, of course, as factual statements) regarding what happened. Also of little surprise were the scathing remarks the vast majority of these bloggers had for RTS claiming that the seminary had forced Waltke to resign and criticising the school both for its limiting of academic freedom and for its adherence to a position regarding creation that science has proven to be untenable.

A lot of us around the campus spent time last week trying to figure out exactly what had happened because we were not being given many details. Having only received a very short email from the administration saying that Waltke had resigned, and nothing more, we were especially confused when the reports started coming out that RTS had forced Waltke to step down. I expressed my desire to some of the staff members at the seminary to see an official statement filling us in on the details. On the one hand, this would make us aware of what was going on, and on the other hand, could prove the wide-ranging speculations being promulgated on the internet wrong, which they later did. You can find chancellor Ric Cannada's statement here, and Uri Brito has also posted a letter Waltke himself wrote to his colleagues regarding the situation.

The best report available online right now is provided by The Aquila Report, who the other day posted this extensive and helpful statement. It was affirmed by some of the staff at RTS that this is indeed the most balanced and fair treatment of the events that have transpired in the past few weeks, and although there are some minor factual inaccuracies (the details surrounding the relationship of Enns and Waltke, I have been told, are somewhat inaccurate), it largely avoids the mud-slinging and finger-pointing that have characterised so many of the others "reports." To that end, I ask that you please read this report instead of the incorrect and speculative posts you find on most blogs, including the unhelpful piece Inside Higher Education recently posted

As with almost everything else, there is an ethic when it comes to publishing information, be it in a newspaper or magazine, or on a personal blog. Perhaps the power to click the "publish" button on the bottom of the screen overrides better judgment in some cases, but unfortunately there is no way to control who is publishing what online. One of our professors was remarking yesterday that actual investigative reporting is on the wane these days. Reporters now have their sources in various places and use the information they receive from these sources to make their reports. While these are often regulated as much as possible with the necessary checks and balances to ensure factual accuracy, this can hardly be said for the blogosphere. Using wisdom and abiding by an ethical standard becomes solely the responsibility of the blogger. More often than not, then, Lord Acton's dictum rings true: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Being a student at RTS Orlando, this hit very close to home. I was deeply saddened to hear of Waltke's resignation. Not only have we lost one of—if not the—most preeminent Old Testament scholar alive today, but we have lost a man whose love for the Lord was without measure, whose love for the church was inspiring, and whose love of the Word of God was infectious. One example I can share that demonstrates his character comes from working in the bookstore at the seminary. A number of times, Waltke has purchased some of his own books and shipped them, at great cost to himself, to pastors in countries in the developing world who had little or not access to good theological resources.

I do not believe the issue surrounding Waltke's resignation warranted such drastic action. While I do not adhere to theistic evolution myself, Waltke was clear in his affirmation of God as creator and of the historicity of Adam and Eve. As such, I do not think he falls outside the bounds of orthodoxy. It has been said a few times in the past week (though as far as I know, it remains unverified) that even one of the stalwarts of Reformed theology, B. B. Warfield, was an adherent of theistic evolution.

I never had the privilege of having Waltke as a professor, due to scheduling conflicts with my classes. But he has been an immense blessing to our community here at RTS, and to me particularly in his writing. Sad as we are to see him go, we wish him the Lord's richest blessings in whatever endeavour he undertakes next.

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Welcome to the new site. The video below explains a little about why I transferred over to Posterous (and it allows me the opportunity to simultaneously make a bit of a fool of myself and test out some of their features). Be sure to update your feed reader with the new RSS feed so we can stay connected.

Update 13 March 2010: You may have noticed that there are several hundred posts that pre-date this one, and that is because I recently merged much of my old blog with this one. This was the first post I posted when I switched over to Posterous. All the previous posts were originally published on my old Blogger blog.

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Earlier today I found a nice used copy of John Stott's book on preaching, Between Two Worlds (which now, somewhat ironically, sits right beside Martyn Lloyd-Jones', Preaching and Preachers, on the bookshelf). I opened the book at random to page 69, where I found this:

It is difficult to imagine the world in the year A.D. 2000, by which time versatile micro-processors are likely to be as common as simple calculators are today. We should certainly welcome the fact that the silicon chip will transcend human brain-power, as the machine has transcended human muscle-power. Much less welcome will be the probable reduction of human contact as the new electronic network renders personal relationships ever less necessary. In such a dehumanized society the fellowship of the local church will become increasingly important, whose members meet one another, and talk and listen to one another in person rather than on screen. In this human context of mutual love the speaking and hearing of the Word of God is also likely to become more necessary for the preservation of our humanness, not less.

I guess he was off by a few years, as the social networking revolution came along a little later than 2000, but he made a pretty fair assessment back in 1982 when the book was published.

What do you make of his call to the local church in response?

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Back in July of last year, I posted a list here of forty-two suggestions for resisting modernity. The list was compiled by one of my professors, John Muether. I appreciated the list a lot, and keep it on my bulletin board in my office where I look over it every now and then.

The other day, after reading one of Human3rror's posts on blogging tips where he suggested that having a post series is a good thing, I decided that taking a number of the items on this list and blogging about them once a week (on Monday) would make for an interesting series. I plan to take that up starting next week Monday.

For now, though, I need your help. I can't come up with a title for this series. My initial idea was to go with alliteration, but as you can see from the title to this post, I have yet to come up with a synonym for "resisting" that begins with an "M." If you've got any ideas, I'd love to hear your suggestions (it doesn't even need to be English). I'm open to switching days as well if you can think of something good that incorporates another day of the week.

Update, March 2: In the end, I decided to go with John's suggestion of using the term mortify. As he mentions in the comments here, that term has had robust usage in Reformed spirituality. You will find it often, for example, in the writings of the Puritans, who, incidentally, are also responsible for helping us recapture the idea of being pilgrims. Since the focus the Christian pilgrimage and of this series and list is to help us gain some perspective on what it means to live in but not be of the world, I chose to employ the title, "Mondays are for Mortifying Modernity."

Thanks for all your suggestions!

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I linked to this the other day over at GoingtoSeminary.com, but I want to do it again here just to get the word out, because it is such a great resource. You may have seen it linked to already somewhere, but in case you haven't, check this out.

J.R. Woodward, who is the director of Kairos Los Angeles, a network of neighborhood churches in LA, has compiled what can only be described as the definitive list of resources available on the web for information about the theology, history, and recent developments of the missional church movement. Books, articles, blogs, even a video, you name it—it's all there. What he has put together must have taken him hours, and we owe him a great deal of thanks for his efforts. Virtually anything you want to know about the missional church can be found here. Be sure to check it out.
(HT: Tony Stiff)

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