Linkathon 3/21, part 1

Former Mars Hill Church elder Paul Petry’s new blog, Joyful Exiles, was posted just a few days ago but has already brought out some reaction in the blogosphere.

While neither Mars Hill itself nor Mars Hill-sympathetic churches/bloggers have yet to respond, others have:

Bob Hyatt

Bill Kinnon

Matt Redmond

UnREFORMED

Wartburg Watch

Ben Irwin

Howell Scott (HT Wartburg Watch)

Wenatchee the Hatchet: “If it were possible to set up a single post that could be used as a “one stop shopping place” to find everything that I, the Alsups, or the Petrys (of late) have publicly discussed about Mars Hill past and present this is a candidate.  I’ve been trying to compile not just what we have separately written but to also compile public statements by MH as an institution and individuals.“

Kip’s story from the Mars Hill Refuge blog.

Rachel Held Evans’ 15 reasons she left church and returned to the Church.

Rachel Held Evans spoke at Fuller Seminary.

Karen Spears Zacharias on the conundrum of compassion.

Dan Edelen on when Christian celebrities crash and burn.

Matthew Barrett and Michael A.G. Haykin review N.T. Wright’s When God Became King.

Ben Burleson takes a look at Lent.

A church history reading list from a Catholic perspective.

Frank Viola on the coming revival.

Don Bryant on the reformed as Luddites.

Mike Cosper on social networking and the discipline of secrecy.

Mike Horton on what is antinomianism and antinomianism in church history.

Understanding complementarianism according to Don Carson and Bob Yarbrough.

For “new Calvinists” (and anyone else who’s interested): nine lessons from the life of Charles Hodge.

Al Mohler’s 2012 book recommendations for preachers, via Tim Challies.

Finally: last week I linked to a post by a Southeastern Seminary student, William Birch. Mr. Birch was recently charged with sexual assault (more information here and here). I will remove the link to that particular post, and other posts of his I may have linked to.

This isn’t because I think Mr. Birch has now become unredeemable, or unforgivable; though what he did is sad and reprehensible, if what he did cannot be forgiven by Jesus and covered by His blood…none of our sins can be. This isn’t a statement of excusing his or our sin, it’s a statement of the incredible, undeserved mercy of God.

Still, there are consequences to our sin on this earth, and Mr. Birch certainly will have to deal with the consequences of his. Here, I’m removing the links to assure readers that a) I’m aware of the circumstances b) I’m not overlooking them by keeping the links up c) I don’t want to present a ‘stumbling block’ to anyone who might come here and see those links.