By the way, I accept it as fair that if a person advocates positions in writing, his ideas may be criticized and disagreed with vigorously—I won’t squeal about spirited and rational public discourse. Indeed, more of that may lead to more peace . . . Continue reading →
2016 Archive
Open Discussion Leads To Peace. Squelching Dissent Does Not
Justice Thomas Contra The Majority On Making Up Law As We Go Along
I remain fundamentally opposed to the Court’s abortion jurisprudence. …It is tempting to identify the Court’s invention of a constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113, as the tipping point that transformed third-party standing doctrine and the . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: The Holy Spirit And Sola Scriptura
One of the dominant trends in global Christianity is the growth of the Pentecostal and the Charismatic movements. A 2011 study published by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life says that more than 500 million Christians globally identify . . . Continue reading →
Strangers And Aliens (21b): Be Not Surprised By Fiery Trials (1 Peter 4:12–19)
12Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when . . . Continue reading →
Justice Thomas Contra Racial Preference
I join JUSTICE ALITO’s dissent. As JUSTICE ALITO explains, the Court’s decision today is irreconcilable with strict scrutiny, rests on pernicious assumptions about race, and departs from many of our precedents. I write separately to reaffirm that “a State’s use of race . . . Continue reading →
Why This Controversy Now?
During this same time, there was also groundbreaking historical work done by Richard Muller and those who followed in his wake. Muller’s research definitively smashed the “Calvin against the Calvinists” thesis, and his undeniably strong scholarship produced a whole new generation of . . . Continue reading →
A Response To Grudem’s Appeal To Hodge On Eternal Subordination
Hodge actually makes this restricted application explicit, “The subordination intended is only that which concerns the mode of subsistence and operation, implied in the Scriptural facts that the Son is of the Father, and the Spirit is of the Father and Son, and that the Father operates through the Son, and the Father and the Son through the Spirit.” (Systematic Theology I:461) The point he is making is that there is subordination in “the mode of subsistence and operation” only in the sense that one cannot reverse the orders of relation. They are not said to be subordinate in any sense of eternal submission, but are subordinate relationships in the fact that one relationship leads to the next and we cannot flip those. The Son is Son of the Father and so his Sonship depends on the Father being the Father. Nothing more is entailed or permitted. According to Hodge, the Son is Son in a subordinate way only in the sense that a Son has to have a Father, and that is the mode of subsistence and operation. Continue reading →
Video: Who Are The Reformers? John Calvin
Catecismo De Heidelberg
Cuál es tu único consuelo tanto en la vida como en la muerte? Que yo, con cuerpo y alma, tanto en la vida como en la muerte, no soy dueño de mi vida, sino que pertenezco a mi fiel Salvador Jesucristo, quien . . . Continue reading →
Truly Audacious Proposals
Let us all reflect for a moment on the dramatic significance of Grudem’s claim about eternal generation. What he is saying is that the church catholic has for over 1600 years been affirming theologically and liturgically, as the key ecumenical summary of . . . Continue reading →
Governmental Interpretation Of Religion? A Constitutional Problem
Almost immediately after the attacks on 9/11/2001 federal officials, beginning with the President of the United States, assured the world that the views held by and motivating the attacks by those who perpetrated the attacks did not represent true or genuine Islam. . . . Continue reading →
Calvin’s Letter To Five Missionaries About To Be Martyred For The Gospel
MY VERY DEAR BRETHREN,1—Hitherto I have put off writing to you, fearing that if the letter fell into bad hands, it might give fresh occasion to the enemy to afflict you. And besides, I had been informed how that God wrought so . . . Continue reading →
Note To Evangelicals Revising The Doctrine Of God: The Socinian Vortius Denied Simplicity
Conrad Vorstius also occupies a significant, but nearly entirely negative, place in the development of Reformed orthodox doctrine of the divine attributes. After his successful defense of two of his works, De sancta trinitate (1597), and De personis et officio Christi (1597), . . . Continue reading →
Athanasius On Eternal Generation
As we said above, so now we repeat, that the divine generation must not be compared to the nature of men, nor the Son considered to be part of God, nor the generation to imply any passion whatever; God is not as . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 106: I Will Be A God To You And To Your Children (2)
This is part 2 of the series: I Will Be A God To You And To Your Children. We’re talking about how to read the Scriptures, about what Scripture says about the covenant of grace, its administration, and baptism. One of the . . . Continue reading →
Not Going Away Without A Fight
How To Avoid Biblicism
The basic question at stake is, “What makes a doctrine biblical?” That question is of course important to Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants alike, but it is particularly important for us Protestants, affirming as we do sola scriptura. What I would like to . . . Continue reading →
Frederick Douglass On The Three Boxes Of Civil Rights
“A man’s rights rest in three boxes. The ballot box, jury box and the cartridge box. Let no man be kept from the ballot box because of his color. Let no woman be kept from the ballot box because of her sex.” . . . Continue reading →
The Roof Was Not Strong Enough
My basic point remains: if you argue for EFS and/or reject (or even regard as negotiable) eternal generation, then you stand outside the bounds of the historic Nicene Christian faith as set forth at Constantinople in 381 and held thereafter by the . . . Continue reading →