Michael Kruger has written a gem of a book, addressing one of the most prominent issues troubling the church today. Increasingly, we are faced with stories about pastors who misuse their position of authority to achieve their own selfish ends to the . . . Continue reading →
Although it is bad practice to believe in golden ages in the absolute sense, the present is certainly a high point for the church in the specific sense of the English-speaking world gaining increasing access to rich material from Protestant Orthodoxy that . . . Continue reading →
Over the last few years, I have given increased thought toward God’s ordinary means of grace. That designation itself is worth reflection, by which I have recently come to be thoroughly amazed. First, the means are God’s. They belong to him and . . . Continue reading →
Pastoral character, responsibility, accountability, and confessionalism have weighed heavily on my mind and heart for the past several years. We must by now be tired of the proliferation of scandals about pastoral abuse even in Reformed churches. I realize that some of . . . Continue reading →
Not long ago, Reformed circles found it fashionable to criticize those on the other side of our intramural debates as being too Lutheran. If being too Lutheran means thinking anything like Todd Hains and reading Scripture with the care and purpose for . . . Continue reading →
Churches in the modern world must increasingly realize that we have to reckon with difficult issues involving mental wellbeing, disability, and related concerns. As a pastor in London, one of the world’s largest urban centers where there were fewer ways even just . . . Continue reading →
I recently wrote a book review about a volume by an author whose works usually prompt me to significant disagreement, but, in this case, whether because of a change of his mind or coincidence of the material, I found that I generally . . . Continue reading →
This two-part series engages recent confessional Baptist publications on the nature of covenant theology in order to help Reformed readers understand the Baptistic view better and to have some starting points for responding to it. Part one looked at new developments in . . . Continue reading →
The elephant in the room of any discussion about the development of redemptive history is the disagreement between Baptist and Reformed theologies about the unity of the covenant of grace, including the whole language of the covenant’s substance and administration. Continue reading →
Dr. Richard Gaffin, professor emeritus of biblical and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia), is famous for his emphasis on redemptive history and the historia salutis, or the factors concerning Christ’s once-for-all accomplishment of redemption. Claiming the legacy of Geerhardus Vos . . . Continue reading →
When I finished reading Adonis Vidu’s excellent new book on the divine missions to review it for the Heidelblog, I set a goal to interact with what I found most useful in the book. Rather that using the generic review tactic of . . . Continue reading →
This series considers Adonis Vidu’s new book about relating a classical theology proper to God’s plan of salvation. So far, after surveying the book’s contents, we have thought about the covenant of grace and the nature of salvation concerning how those holding . . . Continue reading →
This series of essays reflects upon Adonis Vidu’s new book about the divine missions to see how we who hold specifically to confessionally Reformed theology can think about and appropriate his arguments. The first post surveyed the book’s contents, and the second . . . Continue reading →
This series interacts with Adonis Vidu’s thought-provoking new work about the divine missions. His project, fitting well in the recent retrieval of classical theism, is to explain how God’s ad intra operations, namely the personal processions of each person of the Godhead, . . . Continue reading →
Recent years have seen a flourishing of new research and reflection upon classical trinitarian theology, producing a large swath of publications on theology proper. This development has most welcomely highlighted areas where Protestant theology had lost its diligence and rigor in listening . . . Continue reading →
Fred Sanders is likely the best-known name in recent theology concerning the doctrine of the Trinity and rightly so. He has addressed the topic at the academic and popular levels, providing hermeneutical advancements and introductory treatments.1 His most recent book, Fountain of . . . Continue reading →
Previously began a discussion about parachurch ministries in relation to the church. The point was to raise a concern about how, frequently, parachurch ministries implicitly, if (perhaps) unintentionally, try to usurp the visible, institutional church’s primary role in God’s plan to save . . . Continue reading →
The church has a mission and purpose, received directly from Christ’s appointment. Despite her imperfections, Scripture does not seem to suggest that Jesus thought the church would need support from further external organizations. Rather, the Bible indicates that the church would perform . . . Continue reading →
Western culture is ripping apart, to varying degrees depending on the country, over issues of social justice and cultural welfare. That increasing pressure has also often included the advocates of various social causes demanding assent from everyone else. This no exception approach to ideological uniformity has also often affected the church, as proponents of cultural issues impose their views upon us as another institution that must get in line with secular orthodoxy. Continue reading →
The relationship between biblical authority and ecclesiology has always been interesting. The Reformed commitment to sola Scriptura was never biblicism, as if it were solo Scriptura.1 The Reformed tradition from its outset was at the same time devoted to the Bible’s ultimate . . . Continue reading →