• Derek Thomas, blogging over at reformation21, has some interesting thoughts on postmillenialism today.  I think his assessments are on-target – I like Doug Wilson as much as the next guy (OK, maybe more than the PCA!), but postmillenarian theology just doesn’t make sense to me Biblically.  (For the record, my eschatology is pretty much classic amillenialism.  Which is rather fun, since I go to a church populated almost exclusively by dispensationalists!)
• Speaking of Doug Wilson, his son Nate’s book 100 Cupboards is simply wonderful.  Highly recommended for kids ages 8 to, oh, 97 or so.  (Nota bene: If you get all bent out of shape at the use of the word "magic" in the Narnia or Harry Potter books, you may not find 100 Cupboards to be worthwhile.  But you’d be wrong.)
• The annual Ligonier conference is about to kick off.  The sessions will be simulcast here, and Tim Challies will be live-blogging as usual.
• Logos has just announced a new resource focusing on discourse analysis in the Greek New Testament (and also tied to the ESV).  Check out my friend Rick Brannan’s post on the details here.

What does “reckoned righteous” mean?

It comes from Romans 4:1-5 in the New Testament:

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

The idea here is that my standing before God as righteous does not come from my works, but through faith in Jesus.

But I don’t see the word “reckoned” anywhere in that passage.

In the old King James Version, the quotation in Romans 4:3 from Genesis reads “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

Where did you get that quote on your header from?

I heard John MacArthur say it in a sermon. (Or, to be more precise, MacArthur said something very like it; I don’t have the sermon tape anymore to verify the exact words. I don’t think he’d disagree with the wording, though.)

Why are you blogging?

Because I want to show Tim Challies that Americans can blog better than Canadians.

Really?

No. Tim writes thought-provoking stuff every day, and although I’d like to aspire to that level of output, I’d only want to do it if the quality of my writing were at least in the same ballpark as what Tim puts out.

So why are you blogging, really?

Because sometimes I have something to say. Whether or not it’s worth reading will be for you to decide.