Richard Nixon (1913–94) was President of the United States from 1968–74. He resigned from office in disgrace because of his part in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal. By today’s standards, the Watergate scandal might be considered small potatoes. Nixon himself, who . . . Continue reading →
Collin Hansen has a fascinating series of interviews on the Gospel Coalition asking a variety of pastors whether they allow those who make no Christian profession, who regard themselves as non-Christians, non-believers, those we used to call “heathen” or “pagans,” to lead . . . Continue reading →
The great Cappadocian theologian Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–c. 90) had addressed the same concerns expressed by the Nestorians decades before proclaiming: If anyone does not believe that holy Mary is Theotokos, he is severed from the Godhead. If any one should . . . Continue reading →
So said my homiletics (preaching) professor, Derke Bergsma. I do not know if that aphorism was original to Derke (he often quoted R. B. Kuiper to us in class, e.g., “Men, there are three points to every sermon, the text, the text, . . . Continue reading →
We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Deity and also perfect in humanity; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul . . . Continue reading →
It is trite, but just in case you have not heard the story: During the Vietnam War, a Marine Corps colonel is reported to have said, “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.”1 An analogy to this approach . . . Continue reading →
We must read the injunctions to “sing a new song” in light of what the New Testament teaches us about types, (fore)shadows, and copies. Continue reading →
Introduction When in 1618 the Reformed theologian J. H. Alsted (1588–1638) declared that the Protestant doctrine of justification is that “article of faith by which the church stands or falls” (articulus stantis et candentis ecclesiae), he was only repeating what all Protestants . . . Continue reading →
In 1580, when the Lutherans and the Reformed met at Montbeilard, when the topic turned to predestination, Theodore Beza (1519–1605) rose, lifted his copy of Luther’s Concerning Bound Choice (De servo arbitrio), and said, “We stand with Luther.”1 The Lutheran representatives suggested . . . Continue reading →
One of the turning points of my early Christian life was reading J. I. Packer’s Knowing God.1 That book did what better books should do: it helped me understand Scripture and thereby to know God in a true and more profound way. . . . Continue reading →
Regular readers of this space are aware that there is something of a confessional renaissance within the Christian Reformed Church in North America. For example, in 2023, Synod rejected decisively an appeal by a prominent progressive CRC congregation against Synod’s decision upholding . . . Continue reading →
The first part of the fourth article of our “undoubted Christian faith” (Heidelberg Catechism 22), which we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, says Christ “suffered under Pontius Pilate” (passus sub Pontio Pilato). This is a remarkable thing to say. After all, we . . . Continue reading →
Justin Taylor has posted material from Tom Schreiner’s 40 Questions About Christians and Biblical Law, which argues, “I do not believe the Sabbath is required for believers now that the new covenant has arrived in the person of Jesus Christ.”1 Schreiner considers the . . . Continue reading →
I was meditating on Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 3:6–12. Paul was concerned about those in the congregation who were obsessed with and confused over Jesus’ return (parousia). They had what theologians (rightly) call an “over realized eschatology.” In their anticipation of . . . Continue reading →
In 1882 the Lutheran minister Joseph A. Seiss (1823–1904) published the provocative volume, The Gospel in the Stars, Or, Prímeval Astronomy (Philadelphia: E. Claxton & company, 1882). Evidently, it found an audience, and it has been reprinted as recently as the early 1970s and . . . Continue reading →
I was walking amidst the rows of desks as I was engaging the students in a discussion about the humanity of Christ. When I reached the end of the room, as I recall, I was leaning against the wall. Trying to drive . . . Continue reading →
Last Friday, KFI (AM 640 Los Angeles) afternoon talker John Kobylt made the argument that one reason Prop 8 was overturned is that proponents of Prop 8 could not show that homosexual marriage actually creates any adverse effects or bad outcomes. I . . . Continue reading →
Remarkably, after two decades of controversy over the self-described Federal Vision movement, there are pastors and teachers who do not seem to understand it.1 One can see why one might have been confused in the early days of the discussion, but now, . . . Continue reading →
Someone told me in high school that if I passed human physiology we would get to see cadavers. But in order to take human physiology I had to take biology, so I spent a fair bit of time my senior year studying . . . Continue reading →
Already in the New Testament, the church faced one of its greatest and deadliest heresies: the denial of Jesus’ humanity. The Greeks had room for men becoming gods and human-like behavior by the gods, but they had no room for a God-Man. Continue reading →