Category: Theology
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How Many Kingdoms? Covenants of Commonality and Particularity
Read more: How Many Kingdoms? Covenants of Commonality and Particularity“…historic Reformed doctrines affirm a sharp distinction between the church as the non-violent kingdom of Christ and the sword bearing, coercive state. Hence, the state is not and cannot be the kingdom of Christ and… the demise of Christendom can be celebrated rather than mourned.” This quote from David VanDrunen in his book Natural Law…
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God with Us
Read more: God with Us…A manger was His Throne. From “Rise and Shine” by Andrew Peterson The aforementioned lyric from Andrew Peterson serves as a great illustration of the paradox that is “God with us.” Stop and think about that for a minute: God with us. Not God for us, or God near us; God with us! If that…
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How Many Kingdoms?
Read more: How Many Kingdoms?We are less than a year away from the 2012 presidential elections and I suspect that I am not the only one who often finds political pontification in Christian circles (right, left or otherwise) to be an obscene bore. But it’s not just Christian circles. It’s every circle. What makes political discourse so confusing is…
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Adoration of Adoption
Read more: Adoration of AdoptionNovember, for those unaware, is National Adoption Month. For many American’s, adoption has transformed lives in many powerful ways. And for those of us who know the Lord, adoption is certainly one of the most powerful realities true about us today. In fact, J.I. Packer goes so far as to say that his summary answer…
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The Reformation and Civil Disobedience: Guest Post
Read more: The Reformation and Civil Disobedience: Guest PostUpon John Dunne’s request, I am going to write something relating Romans 13 and civil disobedience. This post does not represent my thinking on the matter but rather gives a historical perspective to the problem with hopes that a later post, reflecting my thoughts, will bring about thought provoking and engaging conversation. I will quickly…
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The Albatross of Inerrancy?
Read more: The Albatross of Inerrancy?Many evangelical churches’ and colleges’ professions of faith contain a statement on the inerrancy of the Bible. The Bible, so it goes, is inspired by God and is inerrant in the original manuscripts. This belief certainly has its staunch–and I mean staunch!–proponents, but it seems to me that a great many people are, frankly, embarrassed…
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What Does “Biblical” Mean?
Read more: What Does “Biblical” Mean?Yesterday, Richard Beck of Experimental Theology wrote a post on what the word “biblical” means. As will be obvious, I don’t much care for what he had to say. In fact, it made me so grumpy that I thought I’d respond. I hope he takes it as a compliment. In his piece he concludes: Biblical is…
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Changing the World
Read more: Changing the World“Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world.” This quote, posted by Mark Zuckerberg in tribute to Steve Jobs on the day of his passing last week, makes a pretty incredible statement: Steve Jobs qualifies to be remembered as a person of such influence, that he can go down in history as…
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Is the aNTi Wright Polemic Justified?
Read more: Is the aNTi Wright Polemic Justified?We all know Wright has received a bad wrap from many conservative Christians over the years. I can remember being introduced to Wright’s view on Justification in a context in which I was told how detrimental his ideas were. Furthermore, one of the most influential figures for my theological thinking, John Piper, wrote an extensive…
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Why Theology Sucks
Read more: Why Theology SucksI recently had a pastor tell me that the in-depth, formal study of what is commonly called “systematic theology” would be a waste of my time and would not have a real benefit for the church. When I tried to engage yet another pastor in discussion about theology he remarked flatly, “theology is boring.” Both…