Mike Wittmer

Month: May 2011

  • ohio sports

    Think you’re having a bad day? Pity the poor guy trying to sell this. On the bright side, tomorrow night Akron’s favorite son takes the first step toward his inevitable NBA championship, and the Cleveland Indians, though having lost three of their last four games, are still the best team in baseball. The people most excited about this…

  • the Bible says

    This week Jeff Cook posted a response to the trailer for Francis Chan’s upcoming response book to Rob Bell’s book. I’m not sure why it’s acceptable to respond to one book’s trailer and not another’s, and I’m not even sure why they call them trailers (usually a trailer follows along behind—if your trailer is out…

  • can your city do this?

    Last year in a fit of irony Newsweek claimed that Grand Rapids was a dying city. Since Newsweek knows what it feels like to be dying, we took this claim seriously. Here is our response (credit goes to Rob Bliss, who put this together).

  • not sure about the new earth

    John Piper interviews Rick Warren about The Purpose Driven Life, and at 36:14 he asks Warren his views about our final destiny. Warren admits that he hasn’t studied this topic as he should, and he isn’t sure whether our resurrected bodies and animals (Is. 65:25) will live forever in heaven or on a new earth. Personally,…

  • this makes sense

    Thanks to Pete Scribner, who alerted me to this “final solution.” http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:onionsportsnetwork.com:377752 Onion SportsDome

  • one last thought on Camping

    I will resist the easy jokes about the rapture that didn’t occur last weekend–you know, where I say how I expected you to be here on Monday regardless of what happened on Saturday–and instead go in a more helpful, pastoral direction.  I think that Christians were right to scoff at Camping’s prediction, but it bothered me that sometimes…

  • giants still walk among us

    I mentioned two posts ago that Neal Plantinga was retiring from the presidency of Calvin Seminary, and today I received my seminary magazine devoted to his ten years of leadership. Even if you have never met Neal or attended Calvin Seminary, you will enjoy reading about the man behind the books you love so much. If…

  • protect this house

    I read a disturbing story in yesterday’s newspaper about a local church, which led me to write this new entry for “Our Daily Journey.” As always, any ideas for improvement are appreciated. The Barth reference comes from his Church Dogmatics IV/1, p. 691-92 (T & T Clark, 1956). When Under Armour wanted athletes to notice…

  • the Christian imagination

    I just returned from my colleague Jeremy Grinnell’s doctoral defense on C. S. Lewis’ use of myth. Jeremy, now Dr. Grinnell, has produced an insightful contribution to our understanding of Lewis, the Christian imagination, and the biblical doctrine of the Fall. Best of all, Jeremy’s doktorvater is Neal Plantinga, so you would be hard pressed…

  • what is your mission?

    I just returned from three days serving as a chaperone at my son’s sixth grade camp, where I survived weaponized cans of Ax body spray (I now know who buys this stuff) and a few kids who have little respect for authority. It probably doesn’t help their humility when, after being asked to thank their…