When we read the Gospel accounts we can be tempted to disconnect them from the historical context in which the life of Christ occurred. One of the several functions of this line in the Apostles’ Creed, “suffered under Pontius Pilate” is to . . . Continue reading →
An internet search for “suffering” turns up an astonishing array of results. Because of the internet we are now aware of global suffering in a way, with an immediacy that no other generation has ever experienced. Despite our increased awareness, history tells . . . Continue reading →
To many, the topics of common grace and atonement would seem to be mutually exclusive, as if we should either hold to common grace or to definite atonement, but not to both. There are, however, good biblical and theological reasons for holding . . . Continue reading →
…Strange as it may sound, it is true, that many—perhaps the majority—of those who feed their souls on this great declaration, seem to have trained themselves to think, when it falls upon their ears, in the first instance at least, not so . . . Continue reading →
There is a Modernist creed. It is a short creed but it is highly influential and it is the default view of many Americans who think of themselves as Christians. That creed says 1) Humans are basically good and getting better; 2) . . . Continue reading →
Neither the ends of the earth nor the kingdoms of this age are of any use to me. It is better for me to die for Jesus Christ than to rule over the ends of the earth. Him I seek, who died . . . Continue reading →
Canon VI: Wherefore, we can not agree with the opinion of those who teach: l) that God, moved by philanthropy, or a kind of special love for the fallen of the human race, did, in a kind of conditioned willing, first moving . . . Continue reading →
Canon IV: Before the creation of the world, God decreed in Christ Jesus our Lord according to his eternal purpose (Eph 3:11), in which, from the mere good pleasure of his own will, without any prevision of the merit of works or . . . Continue reading →
He had undergone, for our sakes, though innocent, the sentence of death. For, in His own Person, He bore the sentence righteously pronounced against sinners by the Law. For He became ‘a curse for us’, according to the Scripture: ‘For cursed is . . . Continue reading →
He [‘Christ’] suffered these things, not for His own sake but for ours. ‘Thou has made Thy wrath to rest upon me’ [Psalm 88:7, 16] . . . He suffered for us, and bore in Himself the wrath that was the penalty . . . Continue reading →
Penelope Soto is doing 30 days in a county jail because she needed to learn a hard lesson. The odd thing is that many are shocked by that reality. The reaction her case says something about where we are as a culture. . . . Continue reading →
Without a doubt, one of the Reformed doctrines which evangelical and fundamentalist Christians find most scandalous is the doctrine of definite, personal or limited atonement. This rejection happens, in part, because the Reformed teaching is not always well understood. Sometimes the misunderstandings . . . Continue reading →
Martin explains at AH.
In the recent discussions of the atonement the impression is sometimes created that the penal-substitution doctrine is a mere construct, a figment of the imagination that rests on no biblical foundation. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nick’s list of resources . . . Continue reading →
Part 2 16. Why must he be a true and righteous man? Because the justice of God requires1 that the same human nature which has sinned should make satisfaction for sin, but one who is himself a sinner, cannot satisfy for others.2 . . . Continue reading →
Without a doubt, one of the Reformed doctrines which evangelical and fundamentalist Christians find most scandalous is the doctrine of definite, personal or limited atonement.1 This rejection happens, in part, because the Reformed teaching is not always well understood. Sometimes the misunderstandings . . . Continue reading →
Martin has been posting great stuff on the atonement. Note the last bit he quotes. Pop quiz: To what covenant(s) does he refer when he calls Christ a “surety”?
At DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed.
“In rejecting the Arminian errors regarding the death of Christ, the authors of the Canons now turn to the weakest point in the so-called ‘universal atonement’ position. In the Arminian scheme of redemption, the death of Christ does not actually save any . . . Continue reading →