Just finished watching Larry King Live, with James Cameron, Simcha Jacobovici, James Tabor, Albert Mohler, and William Donahue discussing the upcoming Discovery Channel film which claims to have located the “lost tomb” of Jesus Christ. There was, of course, nothing surprising about the show. In the meantime, Pulpit Magazine has compiled a good set of links to various Christian reactions to the controversy:

The Lost Tomb of Jesus?

Be sure to check out the letter penned by Dr. Paul Maier, who several years ago wrote a suspense novel with this type of claim as its plot.

Update #1, 2/27: CNN.com has posted the transcript of the Larry King show mentioned above.

Update #2, 2/27: Pulpit Magazine again weighs in on the “controversy,” with some comments from Nathan Busenitz.

Genesis 32:24

24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. (ESV)

Shannon and I were recently reading through Genesis 32, and I was struck by the sheer poetry of this verse. I don’t mean poetry in the same sense as the Psalms; rather, poetry in the sense of powerful imagery and skillful use of the language.

I don’t remember when I first encountered the story of this pivotal incident in Jacob’s life, but it was probably in some Bible storybook when I was very young. By the time we read this verse today, we know what is coming – the “man” he struggles with turns out to be God Himself. But imagine someone reading Moses’ words for the first time, and not knowing where the story was going… The obvious question becomes, “If Jacob was left alone, who was this man? Where did he come from?”

The drama is only heightened when, in the very next verse, after being matched evenly all night long, the man disables Jacob with a mere touch of his hip joint. Even then, Jacob holds fast, insisting that this man bless him. Why? Jacob surely recognized that this was a man of great strength and power. Just how strong and powerful, he did not yet know.

Jacob doesn’t recognize the stranger until, I believe, verse 28, when the man tells him “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Genesis 32:30

30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” (ESV)

First, a quick baby note – I’ve figured out how to post pics to WordPress (yes, it’s extremely easy – I was making it way more difficult than necessary). So, that means that I will be updating “old” pics that were lost in the migration, as well as posting some new pics now that he’s home and settled.

Secondly, a quick site note – I’m going to be going through and cleaning up formatting on the old posts, applying “categories,” etc. I may also remove some old posts that are no longer relevant (like stuff relating to site updates, Blogger now that I’m using WordPress, etc.).

And finally, here they are, about a week and half’s worth of Random Thoughts… (I’ve been building this post for a while.)

• Desiring God blog recaps the recent DG Pastor’s Conference
• Pastor John Samson reflects on exactly why eating a piece of fruit caused all the suffering in the world
• Charles Biggs summarizes Calvin’s interpretation of Scripture
• Tim Challies is writing a book on discernment, and gives us a very good nutshell definition of this critical skill
• Strange BaptistFire shares some thoughts from Ernest Reisinger on the doctrine of limited atonement
• Expository Thoughts offers some ideas for pastors to evaluate their sermons
• Think About These Things shares Puritan Thomas Boston’s words on the rejoicing of the saints at God’s final judgment
• Justin Taylor points us to some links where we can all enjoy seminary-level classes for free
• Reformation Theology gives some pointers on how to know if we are saved
• Tim Challies reviews Wayne Grudem’s newest, Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism?
• The Philadelphia Inquirer didn’t like Tony Dungy’s comment about his faith, so Melinda at Stand to Reason defends the coach’s comments
• D. J. Phillips is blogging through his (very powerful) testimony in a multi-part post at Pyromaniacs: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Carl Trueman vents his frustrations about preaching to postmoderns
• Strange BaptistFire asks four questions that have not received the attention that they deserve in today’s Church, from Mark Dever’s 9 Marks of a Healthy Church
• Timmy Brister reflects on the death of Anna Nicole Smith, from a Christian viewpoint
• Tim Challies really wants this Lego set, and I do too…
• Speaking of gift ideas for me…
• Unashamed Workman is running an excellent series about how various preachers prepare to teach
• John Piper discusses how the “Prosperity Gospel” is not only wrong, but is deceitful and deadly
• Erik Raymond thinks a lot of American evangelicalism is like lite beer
• Pulpit Magazine stresses the importance of prayer with an essay from J. C. Ryle
• John Piper pays tribute to the late Dr. Bruce Metzger, who died Tuesday
• Frank Turk reminds us that the Bible is actually pretty easy to “get” when we let it…
• Erik Raymond gives a good definition of reformed dispensationalism
• Al Mohler reports out that the secular world is finally figuring out that self-esteem is dangerous

‘Til next time…

As the new year started, I decided to upgrade to the new Blogger. It’s apparently quite cool, all of the things that you can do like new “layouts” with drag-and-drop design, etc. I say “apparently” because it turns out, I will evidently never be able to use those features.

So… I believe I am going to migrate the site to WordPress sometime soon. So keep an eye out for changes to the site, including URL changes (sorry).

UPDATE: Obviously, the site has been migrated. I’ll be updating the template sometime in the next few days, but in the meantime, the site is back up. Also, note that images are offline for the moment. Sorry!

It’s been a while since I’ve had random thoughts – they’ve all been focused on the baby! Seriously, though, here are something things that have caught my interest in the blogosphere lately:

The Problem with Mere Christianity
No, it’s not a critique of C. S. Lewis… It’s an article at Christianity Today by J. Todd Billings: “So-called divisive doctrines get pushed to the side as nonessentials, even when they are truly important.”

Horatius Bonar on Error
Speaking of what is truly important, OldTruth.com provides some 19th century advice for a problem that continues today – speaking truth without fear (albeit gracefully, of course).

New Blog from Piper and Co.
There is a brand new Desiring God blog that has been added to my daily reading. Currently, they’re covering the DG Pastor’s Conference. Good stuff from all involved, especially the always insightful R. C. Sproul.

Screwtape Movie
A lot of folks are blogging the news that Hollywood is making a movie out of Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, so I might as well jump on that bandwagon, too…

Christian Mysticism
Irish Calvinist blogs on his own personal experience as an “evangelical mystic” and the problems that lie therein. (With some bonus insight from Edwards…)

Al Mohler, Renaissance Man
And lastly, Centurion links to a video of Al Mohler that, well, if you are at all familiar with Mohler, is absolutely hysterical.