Why Do I Always Have The Plank And My Brother Always Has The Speck?
Why am I the only one with a plank in my eye?
If I had spent as much effort in my life trying to convince myself to be more godly and obedient as I have spent trying to convince other people of some opinion of mine, I would be a very different man than I am. And that’s why I always have the plank and the other guy... Continue Reading
Should Ole Aquinas be Forgot and Never Brought to Mind
A Response to Dewey Roberts’ “Aquinas Not a Safe Guide for Protestants”
One of the reasons so many Reformational Christians shy away from St. Thomas is because, during the Council of Trent, Thomas’ great Summa was set in the middle of the council and consulted often as Rome gave its conciliar canons and anathemas against the Reformation. Since then, many lay Evangelicals have understandably wondered how a... Continue Reading
Tone Deaf Ref
When the faith is on the line, the tone is necessarily strong.
From Athanasius’s talk of ‘Ariomaniacs’ to Zwingli’s salvoes against Anabaptist fanatics, the rhetoric was always as high as the stakes involved, and rightly so. Indeed, I can think of no cardinal doctrine of the faith which was established through expressions of politeness towards error. Yes, we must avoid slander and unnecessary meanness. But we must... Continue Reading
No Theology Without Doxology
How do you know if you are doing theology as it should be done?
“A crucial litmus test of the authenticity of our theology is where it ultimately leads us. Since God relates to us in the totality of our being – not merely as disembodied mind or spirit – then theology will always reflect those wider dimensions. God’s purpose for the church is that she may ‘be to... Continue Reading
What Is the Biblical Basis for Human Dignity?
As a Christian, I do not believe that human beings have intrinsic dignity
“Dignity, by biblical definition, is tied to the biblical concept of glory. God’s glory, His weightiness, His importance, His significance, is what the Bible uses to describe the fountainhead of all dignity. And only God has eternal value and intrinsic (that is, in and of Himself) significance.” As a Christian, I do not believe... Continue Reading
A Cross-Shaped View of God’s Attributes
May the cross richly inform our sense of what God is like
“Descriptions of God as just, merciful, wise, and true are accurate. But those words as such, no matter how artfully defined or movingly recited, don’t grip us the way that concrete stories demonstrating God’s justice, mercy, wisdom, and truthfulness do. And no story — that is, no historical event — puts God’s attributes more vividly... Continue Reading
How Do You Reconcile God’s Justice with His Mercy?
God will always do what is right; and what is right is also always good
“Instead of dealing with the tension some sanitize the conversation with theological language. The matter is theological, but theology is not to be done in test tubes; it intersects with real life and a living God. Abraham was overlooking a city that had the dark clouds of death hovering about it with angels marching toward... Continue Reading
Which Old-Testament Promises Apply to Me?
Christians may rightly embrace the promises of the Old Testament made to Israel, because in union with the Messiah, Jesus, we are Israel, we are the true Israel
“Let me see if I can simplify some very complex issues and provide a two-step process that enables Joe and the rest of us Christians to appropriate the Old Testament, especially the promises for our use as Christians in the 21st century.” We get a lot of questions in the inbox about how to... Continue Reading
Running the Race of Redemption
After his diagnosis, John entered a race--a race in which he acknowledged his need for Christ to carry him across the finish line.
John's life became a glorious testimony to God's redeeming grace. As painful as it was for me to sit by his bedside as he lay dying, my mind was repeatedly filled with a sense of the infinite wisdom of God in crafting the circumstances of John's life in order to draw him to His Son. One minute, John was a law enforcement hero, the next, he was a weak man who recognized his need for Christ and his utter dependence on God to sustain his life.
Sexuality and the Gospel
Homosexuality, in Paul’s view, represents as obvious and intentional an inversion of the created order as is this idolatry.
It is so obvious, to Paul, that God designed the bodies of men and women for sexual relationship with one another, that one needs to willfully suppress this truth to imagine that directing sexual passion to one’s own sex is in line with the creation order. Paul’s argument is not that these people’s conduct is so bad because their passions are so disordered. His argument is that their conduct is so obviously out of accord with God’s purposes in creation that it shows them to have been given over to the same sort of willful self-deception that is at the root of idolatry.