Around the Jollysphere

Haven't had much time or inspiration to post these last couple of days so I thought I would share a few good things I have seen on blogs.

The Pearcey Report is up and running.  This from Nancy and Rick Pearcey.  Nancy hinted a few months back that this was coming and I'm glad to see it has come to fruition.  She's got one of the best minds out there and it will be good to see more of her writing.  She's also tracking a lot of good news items.  BTW, she does have an rss feed so you can keep track of what's going on.

The penal substition debate is back up and running.  This has been a hot button issue for my buddy Adrian Warnock for some time.  Adrian talked about it here, and has a followup here.

What Adrian is following up on is this post and this one from the Matchstick Man.

On that second post, Matchstick Man is following up on this post from Steve at Deep Calls to Deep and this one from Sven at Theology and Biblical Studies.

I haven't given this debate near the time it deserves, but hey, a guy can only stick his nose into so many controversies, right.  Still, I'd like to pose a question for Steve and Sven or anyone else who is against the penal substitution view which you have probably already answered but which I haven't taken the time to find.  In general is there any kind of penalty for sin and/or do unbelievers face any kind of prospect of a penalty for their sin?  In other words, is there a penalty for sin?  If so, why can we not conceive of the atoning work of Christ as a work of penal substitution?  If not, what are the consequences of sin for unbelievers? And how does the atoning work of Christ relate to these consequences?

Some good new blogs I'm enjoying . .  .

George Grant used to post these epic treatises on his blog from a guy I had never heard of named Ben House.  In fact, a couple of times I got permission from George to repost stuff he had reposted from Ben.  Now, Ben has his own blog - Houseblog - go read it, you'll be glad you did.

Ray Van Neste is a reformed baptist pastor and professor who is blogging at Oversight of Souls.  I'd recommend him to my friends in ministry.

Travis Prinzi, whom I've noticed getting sloshed many times over at the Tavern has a couple of interesting blogs that look very good.  One is called A Resting Place and the other is Sword of Gryffindor where he seems to write on Harry Potter and fantasy literature and has bravely waded into a debate with Richard Abanes.

Comments

[Steve]

Hi

I missed the boat on that post, in terms of my knowledge of spurgeon (and paid for it with the reaction) :-)

I must confess that I stuck my own nose into the debate a little, becasue I'm off work ill and a little bored. I would normally stay on the sideline of such a hotly debated topic! We've been back and forth a little, and it raises very strong feelings. I have posted where I'm coming from on this on my blog, but forgive me if I don't comment further here, - I simply wanted to say hi...

Steve

[Travis Prinzi]

David, Thanks for the nod to my blogs. I've got one more section to go on the present Abanes debate, but eventually I plan to pick up his newer book on the issue and turn up the heat a bit on that one.

I've really enjoyed your blog as well. Keep up the good work!