Not overthrown by scholarship

The conviction was growing in me that life is too short and the church is too precious for a minister of the Word to spend his life trying to recreate a conjectured Jesus. There was work to be done—very hard work—to see what is really there in the God-given portrayal of Jesus in the New Testament Gospels. [... T]he portrayal of Jesus in the four Gospels has not been overthrown by scholarship. The appearance of overthrow arises from the unwarranted creation of criteria of authenticity that by definition will rule out aspects of the New Testament portrayal. Thankfully, God has raised up several generations of careful, rigorous, and faithful scholars who are not cowed by the radical critics and who patiently go about their work establishing the historical credibility of the four Gospels. I thank God for them. I don’t mean that they provide proof of the Gospels. I mean they show that the attacks on the historical validity of the portrayal of Jesus in the Gospels are not compelling.

-John Piper, "What Jesus Demands from the World" (pp. 32, 33)

The peculiar notion that he alone is Lord.

So, I'm not sure what my exact thoughts are on Mark Driscoll's (alleged) pulpit "etiquette", but what I do know is that the sassy truth he speaks is, at times, very refreshing... not to mention that it just makes me laugh out loud!

I just started reading John Piper's "What Jesus Demands from the World" today, and here is what Driscoll had to say about the book (taken from the back cover):

"This is a peculiar book. It assumes that the four Gospels are true and unified. It assumes that Jesus not only does things for us but also makes demands of us. And it assumes that Jesus has authority over everyone regardless of their religion, gender, race, income, sexuality, nationality, or culture. You will likely not agree with every point. But you will hear from a Jesus who is more than a soft-spoken, effeminate, marginalized, Galilean hippie-peasant in a dress and has the peculiar notion that he alone is Lord."