Mike Wittmer

What I think. What I know. What I think I know.

  • 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…

  • Twain on German

    If you’ve ever had to learn German, you would probably agree with Twain’s musing that the German sentence is like a dog that jumped into the Atlantic Ocean, swam to the other side, and got out with a verb in its mouth. In his autobiography, Twain also humorously pokes at the German tendency to create…

  • Twain on Müller

    I skimmed through volume 1 of Mark Twain’s autobiography—it contains a few good anecdotes about the tribulations of publishing and public speaking—but overall it was not as interesting as I had hoped. Maybe volume 2 will be better. Twain, or Samuel Clemens, didn’t have much good to say about preachers or Christianity, so his short…

  • the question behind the question

    I don’t want to blog too much about Love Wins, as I already put my thoughts into Christ Alone and I don’t want to overly contribute to Rob Bell fatigue. But I do think it’s important to say that many discussions about LW miss the point. LW is dangerously wrong about hell and post-mortem salvation,…

  • give me that old time religion

    Another recent book that I was glad to read was Don’t Call It a Comeback, edited by Kevin DeYoung and with contributions from the young leaders of the Gospel Coalition. It can be strange living in Grand Rapids—the city which continues to push the boundaries of what it means to be an evangelical—and so I…

  • nook and kindle are now available

    I don’t have much to add to this heading, except to say that if you would like to read Christ Alone in an electronic, slightly less expensive version, now you can.