Your Work Never Goes Unseen
Our work is done for God's glory and fame, not our own. It's not done for the praise or accolades of man but for the sake of our Savior.
So friends, if you are working hard for the Lord, don’t give up. Don’t despair. All your work done for God’s glory is storing up for you eternal treasures that far outweigh any accolades or acknowledgement in the here and now. None of it is wasted or lost. Your quiet faithfulness in all things, even... Continue Reading
The Trinity: God is Not an Undifferentiated Monad
The God of Scripture is Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is a Triunity.
“To put it another way, God’s unity is ontological and not just ethical. God’s unity is not the result of a harmonious unanimous vote within the Godhead. The three persons do not form a committee. God’s unity just is the complete and whole interpenetration of the three persons of Father, Son, and Spirit.” Some... Continue Reading
Racism, Guilt – Other People’s, and Our Repentance
“How am I guilty of sins committed by others, sins I had nothing to do with since I was not even there?!”
At the very least, there are covenantal applications with reference to the guilt of sin. These covenantal applications cross both space (trans-spatial) and time (trans-temporal). This does not mean personal culpability, responsibility for the sin. It does mean personal experience of the consequences of such guilt. Yes, the parameters and details of this need to be worked out,... Continue Reading
The Trinity-Subordinationism Debate and the Opportunity Before Us
If the current trinitarian debate over a version of complementarianism was inevitable, what does this mean for the next stage of faithful thinking and practice?
It also means more hopefully that, despite our anxiety and listlessness in the midst of this contemporary sexual revolution, the Church, dutifully sanctified and reformed by and according to Holy Scripture, may in fact be in a position to survive this cultural upheaval with something to say, both to it and to herself, as the Church. She may yet... Continue Reading
What I Can’t Know If I Don’t Know the Trinity
When you don’t know God as Trinity, there’s not much you can know about the Gospel
Without a knowledge that God is eternally Father to the Son, we will not understand the marvel of that highest privilege of the gospel: the adoption unto Sonship into which are admitted in union with Christ by which we can cry “Abba, Father!” I’ve already written of the recent controversy over the Trinity and... Continue Reading
Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age
Medical technology brings no peace like trusting in a God who is actively at work
“We can only be grateful for the powerful technology we have. Yet because the United States has more of it than any other country, we who have access to it are challenged to restrain our tendency to use it. But it will always be difficult to use wisely as long as the world is as... Continue Reading
Barnes and Ayres Weigh In on the Debate on the Relationships Within the Trinity
Michael Barnes and Lewis Ayres weigh in on the current debate on the current debate over the eternal generation and eternal subordination of the Son.
To be honest, I mean Bruce Ware and friends no ill, I think they are sincere, they’re trying their best to be faithful theologians and readers of Scripture, and wanting to pursue practical applications. But I just don’t know if it is possible to salvage the subordinationist argument for marital submission after Lewis Ayres and... Continue Reading
Tor and the Trinity
It started with a hijab during Advent, and ends with a foundational lesson in the Trinity
The Second Vatican Council declared that Muslims profess “to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God.” Later: “Muslims worship God, who is one, the Creator of heaven and earth,” and said that the “Muslim religion” is “deserving of our admiration for all that is good and true... Continue Reading
The Mystery of the Trinity
There are several monotheistic religions and even more polytheistic religions, but the witness of the Scripture and the Christian faith is that God is both one and three.
As Berkhof explains, if we depart from the specific teachings of Scripture and begin to speculate about the nature of the Trinity, it is very easy to fall into error. If one denies the unified essence of being of the three Persons, it will inevitably lead to tritheism (the belief in three separate and distinct... Continue Reading
The Primacy of the Trinity in Theology and Apologetics: Herman Bavinck on Trinitarian Dogma
The pursuit of a faithful systematic theology begins and ends with the doctrine of the Trinity.
The orthodox doctrine of the Trinity is a package deal for Bavinck, it must come as a whole or not be useful to us at all. It also connects for us dots from theology proper to the other loci of systematic theology, including the doctrines of revelation and creation. For these reasons, indeed, it is... Continue Reading