Moving to wordpress - Day 2

I was busy putting the final touches on our new bathroom yesterday, so progress on the move was pretty minimal. So far I've been able to get the new domain setup on the web server. I've also downloaded wordpress.org. Time permitting, I'll get it setup on the web server this weekend. Stay tuned.

More books to review

I wanted to to extend my thanks to the folks at Crossway Books for sending me several review copies. Reviews to follow soon. The books are as follows:

Quote of the Day

Many Christians today lack grounding in the riches of church history. We may find ourselves "rootless and drifting in a barren secular and ecclesiastical landscape." The church fathers offer us context and tradition that will help establish the roots we need. They do so by taking us deeper into the rich resources of Scripture, helping us to read holy writings with ancient eyes.

Ancient Christian Devotional: A Year of Weekly Readings (Page 7)

The Move to Wordpress Begins

Well, I've finally decided to take the plunge and move to wordpress. In my last post related to web hosting, I indicated that I was looking to host an additional domain name. I just wrapped up purchasing: biblegeekgonewild.com. In addition to moving my blog to wordpress, it will also be moving to this new domain name. While I plan to still use shauntabatt.com, the focus will change. Rather than hosting my blog, it will become the personal homepage of some guy who thinks he's an aspiring author and Biblical scholar. : ) I'll keep all of you updated as things progress.

Quote of the Day

The judgment seat of Christ has the potential either to bring a Christ-follower to his or her knees in terror or to cause them to stand and shout "glory!" How can one event evoke such a diverse response? Misunderstanding.

The judgment seat of Christ is the most important day in your future and an important subject often neglected in Christian Literature.

Facing Your final Job Review: The Judgment Seat of Christ, Salvation, And Eternal Rewards (Page 45)

Birth Control As Selfishness

There is a discussion on the topic of birth control as selfishness going on over at Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth. You can read the whole message thread here. I've posted the comment I left below:

The birth control subject is a touchy one. Many of the arguments I’ve heard from people for using birth control is to prevent conception at the present time, so they can achieve this goal, wait to have kids until they earn more money, etc. I’ve heard sermons indicating some forms of birth control are a form of stewardship (i.e. have only as many kids as you can afford). On the other side of the argument you have people who view children as a blessing and they’re going to have as many children as God blesses them with. This group is sometimes known as the “quiverfull movement”. Personally, I have 5 children, so I’ll let you guess which way I lean on this issue. : ) Mark Driscoll preached a great sermon about birth control. My only critique on this sermon is that he gave mostly negative examples of the home schooling, quiverfull crowd. Otherwise, I thought it was a thorough treatment of the issues. Here are a few interesting books related to birth control, quiverfull movement, etc.:

Be Fruitful & Multiply - Nancy Campbell

A Full Quiver - Rick & Jan Hess

Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions - Randy Alcorn

To host or not to host....that is the question

I've been using GoDaddy as my web host for several years.  Overall, I have been very pleased with their service.  I'm thinking about hosting more than one web site, so I'll need to upgrade my hosting account. This will increase the overall yearly cost an additional $15-$20.  I was wondering what hosting services some of you utilize for your sites and blogs.  Who do you feel has the best overall value for a reasonable cost?  Would it be more beneficial to just redirect the new URL to a wordpress.com blog, rather than buying additional hosting?  I look forward to your feedback, so I can make an informed decision.

Quote of the Day

"And I think that rebellion starts from the top down... That if we didn't do something by the end of Clinton's presidency people were going to be fornicating (or worse yet, dancing) in the streets of Grand Rapids and Wheaton."

Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) - Page 60

Finding myself on the web...

I was doing some searching for "Bible Geek Gone Wild" on google and noticed that a quote from my mini book review of In the Shadow of Grace was mentioned on Richard Morgan's web site. You can click on the picture below to see the quote in context. : )

Review: A Reader's Hebrew Bible

General Editor: A. Phillip Brown II, Bryan W. Smith
Binding: Italian Duo-Tone
Page Count: 1680 Pages
Publisher: Zondervan
Publication Date: March 2008
ISBN-10: 0310269741
ISBN-13: 9780310269748

Based on the success Zondervan had with A Reader’s Greek New Testament, you knew it was only a matter of time before they’d put together a similar resource for the Hebrew Bible. To the delight of many, A Reader’s Hebrew Bible was released this past March. I’ve been looking forward to writing this review and wanted to express a word of thanks to the folks at Zondervan for sending me a review copy. I’ll be breaking this review into two parts. Part one will discuss the physical characteristics and also the packaging for this Bible. Part two will take a look at what’s inside this Bible.

Let me start by talking about the physical characteristics of A Reader’s Hebrew Bible. It has a very appealing look about it; one might go so far as to say it’s beautiful. The binding is a light brown Italian Duo-Tone. You will find the title stamped on the front cover and the spine in silver lettering. The page edges match the lettering as they are also gilded silver. This volume measures 7.2 in. wide by 9.9 in. high by 2.1 in. deep, which makes it a bit larger than the other Hebrew Bibles I am familiar with. The paper used for this Bible is a bit thinner than the paper used in some of the other Zondervan Bibles in my library. It is slightly transparent as you’re able to make out some of the text on the other side of each page. However, this in no way hinders the readability of the Hebrew text. I felt that the decision to go with this paper was probably design-related as it lends to the overall elegant look and feel of the Bible. In addition to the great look and feel of this Bible, Zondervan went the extra mile by creating great packaging for it. This Bible comes in what I would consider a presentation quality box. The front of the box is windowed to show the front cover with the title in silver lettering. The back of the box has a well laid out list of information that will be important to someone who is looking to buy this Bible.

Next, I wanted to take a look at the inside of A Reader’s Hebrew Bible. There are 28 pages of worthwhile introductory material at the front of the Bible. This includes the Author’s Preface, a Quick User’s Guide, an Introduction, and Abbreviations & Sigla. I am very excited to note that all of the introductory material is written in English. Many of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles available in the bookstores of Bible Colleges and seminaries come from the German Bible Society. The difficulty for many American students is that the introductory material is written in German. Since most of the students are not fluent in German, they miss out on the introductory information, which will help them to make the best possible use of their new Bible. Following the introductory material is the actual Hebrew text. I really appreciate that the Hebrew text goes across the entire page, with all of the notes appearing at the bottom. This serves to make the text more readable as you don’t have any notes or references in the margins, breaking up the text as you’re trying to read it. I think this will be especially useful to first year students who are working on their Hebrew reading as it will minimizes the distractions on the page. When the reader comes across a word they’re not quite sure about, they can refer to the notes at the bottom of the page which contain glosses and definitions of Hebrew words occurring 100 times or less and Aramaic words occurring 25 times or less. These notes will prove very useful to the 1st year student as well as the more casual reader whose Hebrew skills may be a bit out of practice.

Let me summarize by saying that I think Zondervan did a great job with A Reader’s Hebrew Bible. It’s a very attractive and high quality Hebrew Bible at a reasonable price. The layout and notes will be invaluable for the 1st year student or the more casual reader. It will make a great gift for students, pastors, or the layperson interested in Biblical Hebrew.




A. Philip Brown II (PhD, Bob Jones University) is associate professor of Bible and Theology at God’s Bible School and College in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the author for the 4th edition of Handbook of New Testament Greek, a publication for Bob Jones University.


Bryan W. Smith (PhD, Bob Jones University) is Bible integration coordinator at Bob Jones University Press.


You may download a PDF of this review here: LINK.

Bible Geek Gone Wild Visit Count Exceeds 4000

Another small milestone has been achieved today.  The visit count for my blog has exceeded 4000.  I wanted to say thanks to all of my friends and acquaintances who read my blog and link to me.  Now, onward and upward to 5000.

They grow up so fast, be sure to set aside time for your kids.

Every now and then we try to plan a Mommy or Daddy date with each of our children. Today I was able to leave work a little early and head out on a "Daddy date" with my oldest son. We headed over to the Mall of America to the Lego Imagination Center. If you're a big fan of Legos, this is the place for you. We spent over an hour browsing in the Lego store and looking at all of the larger than life Lego sculptures. He was very excited to have his picture taken with a life-size bionicle. We had a great time. For those of you with children, I encourage you to set aside time to do something a little special or out of the ordinary with each of your children. The old saying is correct, they do grow up so fast.

What's your day job?

I know many of us moonlight as the aspiring Biblical scholars of tomorrow on our blogs. However, I'm curious about what some of you do for a day job as I'm pretty sure most of you aren't supporting yourselves as professional bloggers. If you are, please let me in on the secret. As for me, I work as a customer support manager for a software company. We have a team with 17 support engineers. I manage 7 of them.

Shiny new books arrived from Amazon today

When I arrived home from work today, I discovered a box from Amazon on my desk and to my delight, it was filled with shiny new books. Well, not quite filled, but there were two books. As it turns out, I was the big winner in Nick Norelli's Win Free Books, Because I'm Such A Nice Guy Contest. As fate would have it, my name was chosen out of the hat. After the judges tabulated the votes, I was indeed the legitimate winner of fabulous prizes. The prizes were as follows:


Nick, thanks for hosting the contest. I'm excited to add these titles to my library.

Mark Driscoll talks about The Shack

There have been mixed reviews on The Shack. In addition to the video excerpt from Mark Driscoll (above), see what others had to say:

• Tim Challies
• Greg Boyd

I'm intrigued by the varied responses we've seen to this book. Truth be told, I'm going to have to side with Mark Driscoll on this one. If you know of other worthwhile critiques or reviews, please post them in the comments.

Desiring God 2008 National Conference September 26-28

As the summer passes quickly, it'll be fall before we know it. If you're in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area, be sure to mark September 26-28 on your calendar for this year's Desiring God National Conference. Once again, the conference will be held at the Minneapolis convention center. The title for this year's conference is The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. There is a great lineup of speakers for this event.

• Sinclair Ferguson
• Paul Tripp
• Dan Taylor
• Mark Driscoll
• Bob Kauflin
• John Piper

To learn more and register, go here: LINK. Be sure to get your registration in early, it will fill up.

Guess the author: concomitant truth concerning Satan and demons

Who wrote the following:

In an age of spiritual anarchy, shocking immorality, and general world unrest, scientific advance and intellectual sophistication cannot gloss over the evil supernaturalism at work in our society. The deeper explanation of our trouble lies in the Scriptural revelation of sin and our concomitant truth concerning Satan and demons.

Good luck!

Mark Driscoll - Doctrine Sermon Series Complete

Mark Driscoll has completed his 13-week sermon series on Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe. This series will be the basis of the foundational course for new members at Mars Hill Church. The topics covered are:

• Trinity: God Is
  
• Revelation: God Speaks
• Creation: God Makes
• Image: God Loves
• Fall: God Judges
• Covenant: God Pursues
• Incarnation: God Comes
• Cross: God Dies
• Resurrection: God Saves
• Church: God Sends
• Worship: God Transforms
• Stewardship: God Gives
• Kingdom: God Reigns
  

You can access these sermons here: LINK.

ESV Study Bible coming in October 2008

I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss my growing excitement about the upcoming release of the ESV Study Bible. I attend Bethlehem Baptist Church (Moundsview Campus) in Minnesota and we have a large pre-order campaign underway. I picked up one of the brochures last Sunday and paged through it. The brochure had example pages from the gospel of John and 1 Kings. At first glance, the following caught my eye:

• Very useful charts, diagrams, and maps
• Section summaries provide an overview of each section, corresponding to the outline of the book
  
• Beautiful illustrations (the brochure showed the illustration of Solomon's Temple

The list of contributors and editors are some of the best. (Wayne Grudem, J. I. Packer, Mark Futato, Walter Maier III, John Piper, Kent Hughes, and many others) One additional feature I'd like to note is that all who purchase the ESV Study Bible will have free access to the ESV Online Study Bible.

Again, I'm very much looking forward to the release of the ESV Study Bible. The ESV tends to be my translation of choice for personal Bible reading & study. However, my ESV is a hardcover, ESV Classic reference Bible. This edition has minimal notes, so I find myself going to some of my other study Bibles (NIV Study Bible, Archaeological Study Bible) for additional notes and articles. I anticipate that these other study Bibles will get more "shelf time" after I get a copy of the ESV Study Bible. To see it for yourself, be sure to check out the Introduction to the Book of Revelation. and www.esvstudybible.org.

Believe and Listen: God's Talking to You by Jim Wilcox

I wanted to express a word of thanks to my friend Jim Wilcox for providing me with a review copy of his first book titled: Believe and Listen: God's Talking to You. A review will follow shortly. This book review will be a new type of challenge for me as most of the books I review fall under the category of Christianity. This book falls into the category of religion and spirituality. Here is a quote from the preface in which Jim gives the reader insight into the spiritual or religious standpoint from which he wrote this book:

At times I will refer to Jesus and the Christian religion. Those references are intended neither to promote Christianity nor to denigrate it. I hold it at a par with all of the religions of the world. It's simply that I was brought up in the Christian tradition and am more familiar with it than with other religions. This book is about the importance of knowing God - not the importance of knowing religion. While we do a poor job of accepting people who are different than us, God loves everyone regardless of their religion or lack thereof.

This book is available on Amazon. The web site for the book is: www.believeandlisten.com. You may also view the 1st three chapters of the book on the publishers web site: LINK.

GodblogCon 2008 - Sept 20-21

Greetings to all you bibliobloggers out there in cyberspace. I just ran across a post on the Desiring God blog detailing 5 Reasons to Check Out GodblogCon. This is running in tandem with the Blog World & New Media Expo. I'm going to guess the average attendee will be dropping at least $600-$700 between registration, airfare, lodging, etc. My curiosity is definitely peaked. Is anybody else thinking about attending?