The Week-est Link, February 1, 2008

1. Read the comment by Reid Monaghan from yesterday's post. Click on the comments at the bottom of the post. Great stuff.

2. Very interesting stuff about the cozy relationship between InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Catholicism. I am particularly concerned by this article on one evangelical's conversion to Catholicism, which appeared in the IVCF email newsletter. Why was this article featured in an evangelical newsletter? I pray with many others that IVCF will hew to a scripturally faithful path in the future and not compromise its evangelical witness on many college campuses. As a former IVCF leader, I am concerned about this matter, and hopeful that the gospel will not be muddled and confused by a desire for ecumenism. I may disagree with them on (very) significant theological matters, but I respect Catholics who practice a strong brand of their religion rather than a watered-down version. It bothers me when both sides of this question--whether evangelicals or Catholics--pretend as if significant theological disagreements do not exist between us. We have much in common, and there is much to admire about Catholicism's stance on key scriptural doctrines including social and theological ethics, but at the end of the day, we have two very different understandings of salvation. This makes all the difference. This is not to say that a Catholic cannot be born again, that some Catholics are not born again even as they attend a Catholic assembly, and that evangelicals and Catholics cannot be friends and cultural co-conspirators. I hope that we will be. (Update: I will be blogging on the above article on conversion to Catholicism next week.)

3. A fun post by Mike McKinley over at the 9Marks blog. We just had quite a week here in Deerfield. Mark Driscoll and Mark Dever were both in town, and Dever spoke at an Acts 29 event. For those who don't know what this means, it's significant, because Acts 29 and 9Marks (Dever's parachurch outfit) put forth pretty different models for ministry. It was great to see the two come together. Hopefully, they'll each pick up helpful material from the other. See also this post on the trip. I really appreciated Driscoll's Tuesday chapel address, which I've heard was a bit controversial in certain TEDS circles.

4. A very sad and beautiful song by Tracy Chapman. It's old (by current standards) but I could care less. I can listen to this all day. Trust me, I wouldn't put it up here if it wasn't worth five minutes of your time.

5. First Things also linked to a talk by Alvin Plantinga at my alma mater, Southern Seminary. Interesting that they would find this, though I guess Plantinga draws a crowd, for good reasons.

Have a nice weekend, all.