The most popular are those that follow Icarus (rise-fall) and Oedipus (fall-rise-fall) arcs and stories that follow more complex arcs, which use the basic building blocks in sequence. Researchers also say that the most popular arcs are those that involved two sequential man-in-hole arcs and a Cinderella arc followed by a tragedy.   From Harry... Continue Reading

“Day after day I participated more and more vigorously with a penitent heart in morning meditation, the Mass, Friday adoration hour, and prayer before the Monstrance.  What else could I do since I was taught that cleansing myself was my responsibility?  I tried harder and harder.”   “[I] would say the rosary even more than... Continue Reading

Bird argues the creeds offer us the best interpretive lens for reading Scripture: “This is because the creeds should be regarded as a biblically generated tradition that meets with the consensus of the universal church about what the main teachings of the Christian faith are…The creeds provide a kind of “Idiot’s Guide to Christianity” by... Continue Reading

“What’s unfolding today is not a drama in which secularist progressivism is slowly but surely eclipsing antiquated religious faith at last, but a contest of competing creeds, and competing first principles. Only when we acknowledge that truth can we see that there is only one way out of this cantankerous, riven place.”   In her... Continue Reading

One of the major flash points in this debate is the term “righteousness of God.” Paul uses this phrase in a number of places, but it takes center stage particularly in Romans. Indeed, one might suggest that the “righteousness of God” is the theme of the entire book: “For in it [the gospel] the righteousness... Continue Reading

Since God has “put eternity into man’s heart” (Ecc. 3.11), people know there is such a thing as true joy and rest.  But since humans are sinful and fallen (Rom. 3), we sinfully think we can find joy and rest in the diversions and distractions of this passing away world.   In several different places of his... Continue Reading

“Campi is an internationally respected scholar who is published in English, French, Italian, and German. This volume makes his valuable research accessible to English students of historical theology.”   Emidio Campi’s, Shifting Patterns of Reformed Tradition, Reformed Historical Theology vol. 27 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014) is an outstanding collection of essays that illustrates unity... Continue Reading

To be sure, cussing is neither calvinistic nor is it Christian. A person who really understands Calvinism will seek to keep his tongue from evil (1 Pet. 3:10). And though drinking alcohol is not a sin, 1) it isn’t something to brag about because it has to do with Christian liberty, and 2) drinking too... Continue Reading

The next time you read or hear a critic attacking the NT portrait of Christ by quoting other sources (like the ‘Gospel of Thomas’ or Q), remember that they have a certain bias and are not using the sources in a right, proper, or honest way.  Don’t let the critics shake your confidence in Christ... Continue Reading

I believe that the view of complementarianism taught by Strachan and Peacock in The Grand Design is a dangerous distortion of Biblical truth. They start with a faulty and unorthodox understanding of the Trinity. They build on that foundation a narrow and unhelpfully limited view of the nature of men and women. They elevate their understanding of gender... Continue Reading