Were the Earliest Christians Only Concerned about Oral Tradition?
Early Christianity was a religion of textuality, even if most its adherents were illiterate.
There’s little doubt that oral tradition still played a role in the second century and beyond. But, the evidence suggests that there’s little reason to prefer oral tradition as the default, catch-all explanation for the Gospel tradition in the Apostolic Fathers. Over the last number of years, I’ve had the opportunity to spend a... Continue Reading
A Reformed Ministry—And Some Practical Problems
There are no pat answers.
Is it possible that we are treating some things as being of the essence of the faith, when in fact they are only inherited from a past century, or are part and parcel of the twentieth-century middle-class culture? Are we in fact defending and propagating practices that can be dispensed with, without any compromise of... Continue Reading
Divine Aseity and Christian Apologetics
Why God's self-existence matters for defending the faith.
Apparently, we depend on God in every possible way, not just as physical life requires. We cannot hold the simplest thought together without God. We cannot value rightly without God. We cannot see anything as really beautiful apart from his light shining into our hearts and minds. Break free? Of God? Let us rather rejoice in... Continue Reading
What Makes Food Different from Sexual Immorality? (1 Cor. 6:13)
What we eat is inconsequential, but that sexual immorality carries with it the most serious consequences possible.
Among the Seven Deadly Sins as formulated by medieval Christians, the deadly sin of Gluttony was always linked closely with the deadly sin of Lust and sexual immorality (Willimon, Sinning Like a Christian, 133). The fourth-century desert monk Evagrius of Pontus famously called gluttony the “mother of lust.” Even after the Reformation, the Westminster Larger Catechism includes gluttony... Continue Reading
Devotional Minimalism
What you need to realize is that your relationship with Jesus Christ is not just one more priority you need to work on—it is your very identity.
Soccer practice and work commitments are part of life, but they are not life. God is. Your goal is not to survive or thrive in society. Your goal is to glorify God. And yes, society is an arena for that, but when it edges Jesus out of your schedule, you are missing the point of... Continue Reading
The Offensively Ordinary Steps to Godliness
God teaches us how holiness happens all over his word, and yet we often overlook one prevalent lesson: very often, holiness hides in small things.
How does holiness happen? How do stumbling, distracted pray-ers begin to pray without ceasing? How do worriers learn to roll even their biggest cares onto God? How does pride turn to poverty of spirit, apathy to zeal for righteousness, stinginess to an open hand, restlessness to relentless calm? How do we come not only to... Continue Reading
The Law-Fulfilling Jesus
It will do much spiritual good to our souls to search the record of the Gospels in order to discover the ways in which Jesus kept the moral law of God in our place.
We have not always adequately explained the various ways in which Christ fulfilled each of the Ten Commandments for us. Many theologians have written helpful expositions of the Ten Commandments. Several of them will end by reminding us that we need Jesus’ death to atone for our violations of each commandment. Some of them will... Continue Reading
On a “Need to Know” Basis
Why do we ask why?
When events happen in our own lives, we want to understand. We want to make sense of things. From personal matters like the loss of a job or the death of a child to philosophical complaints like the existence of evil or the unfairness of life, we want to ask God, “Why?” If we knew... Continue Reading
Jesus: Salvation Is Through Faith Alone Because Jesus Is Enough
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith."
Paul there clearly makes faith the instrument of our salvation and contrasts it with works. These are two distinct principles, faith and works (Rom 11:6). Further, Paul knows nothing of two stages of salvation. Paul did not say, “For you are initially saved through faith alone but you will be finally saved through your works. That thought never entered... Continue Reading
The Devil Will Hang on His Own Gallows
There’s a bigger story playing out than just the one we’re watching.
You remember Haman. He’s the villain in the biblical account of Esther, the made-for-film historical drama that played out mainly in the Persian capital of Susa — today, the Iranian city of Shush — in the fifth century B.C. This story is an archetype of the biblical pattern, the grand story in miniature. “The... Continue Reading