The whole idea “he’s so heavenly, he’s for no earthly good” would have made the Puritans turn in their grave. The more heavenly you are, the more earthly good you’ll do because the more you’re like Jesus, the more you’ll love people, the more you’ll be an evangelist, the more you’ll spread the gospel, the... Continue Reading

It’s helpful how Luther doesn’t just point fingers and say other people are blockheaded and unteachable. He notes that we all have this “strange propensity.” It is for sure something we need to pray against: “Lord, please keep my heart and mind open to truth, wisdom, and reasonableness. Help me freely admit when I’m wrong.   Luther... Continue Reading

Explicitly denying personhood to a human being, upon whom neonatal surgeons are performing medical procedures, who have human DNA, who were conceived by humans, who gestate within a human mother, who are otherwise treated as humans medically is simply bizarre. Our knowledge of human development has never been greater or clearer. The viability of infants... Continue Reading

Sins that had seemed shocking to one generation had come to seem light and trivial to the next. Older people, who could remember the days of Solomon, must have looked back and wondered, “What in the world happened in our nation?    1 Kings tells us of two men. Ahab and Elijah, who two took very... Continue Reading

Thomas Nagel—one of my favorite philosophers, and also an atheist—openly admits that he simply doesn’t want theism to be true. Of course, this isn’t the only reason he has for being an atheist, but his preference will no doubt influence how he evaluates arguments for and against God. Something similar can be said about my... Continue Reading

Apart from the Gospel, no one can savingly know God. No one can gain eternal life. Yet by Christ’s assumption of humanity, God provided us with a full revelation of God. In Christ, we see God. We have the first insight into God through our union with Christ.    In Romans, Paul explains that people... Continue Reading

Gabler himself made it clear that he was no great fan of orthodox systematics, and his method proved popular and influential with others in the field of Biblical Studies who were uncomfortable with what they regarded as a Procustean bed of dogma.  In short, his approach essentially untethered analysis of the content of scripture from what he and his... Continue Reading

The spirituality of the church teaches that given the nature of the church under the mediatorial reign of Christ there are limits to church power and that this power must not be confused with the power of the state. Through most of Reformed history, the spirituality of the church has not entailed a silence on all political... Continue Reading

At the very outset, it should be noted that every label has a history and its own limitations. In the present case, some who don’t fully embrace the divinely created differences between men and women (egalitarians) still espouse some form of complementarity, recognizing biological and possibly other differences yet minimizing or denying biblical male authority,... Continue Reading

Jesus’ speech in Matt 18 addresses what the new covenant community of Christ-followers should look like. It speaks to such things as humility, compassion, initiative, conflict, restoration, and forgiveness. This speech particularly highlights how to handle the sin that will inevitably infect the community.   Perhaps you’ve heard that Jesus is specially present when two or... Continue Reading