One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us but our wives. —Tertullian, “The Apology,” cap. 39 in Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, . . . Continue reading →
Christ and Culture
The Constantinian Turn Was Definitive
The conversion of Constantine marks a watershed in the patristic period. In the second and third centuries the Church was a relatively private community, suffering from time to time the threats and the actuality of imperial persecution and looking for the end . . . Continue reading →
Vos: Distinguishing Two Ages Is Not Platonism
If further inquiring into the characteristics of the aionion, still keeping its formal aspect rather than its substantial content in view, the first feature obtruding itself is that of the imperishableness, including the unchangeableness, of the things pertaining to it. Paul declares, . . . Continue reading →
Audio: Bob Godfrey On How Christians Ought To Respond To Same-Sex Marriage
Bob Godfrey recently recorded two episodes of Abounding Grace Radio with my pastor and friend, Chris Gordon. They were discussing how Christians ought to respond to the recent SCOTUS decision (Obergefell v Hodges) decision legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states. Here . . . Continue reading →
The Gospel Is Not Social
Between Monasticism And Transformation
Like Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) before him, Rauschenbusch’s Pietism had not equipped him to address the challenges before him. Like Schleiermacher, Rauschenbusch turned to the liberals for answers. He synthesized his Pietist theology with Albrecht Ritschl’s theology of the Kingdom of God. The Social Gospel movement wanted to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. Their optimistic eschatology (doctrine of last things) told them that they could do it. They were inspired by the Modern idea of the universal brotherhood of humanity and the universal fatherhood of God. As many others before them had done the Social Gospel movement harassed the Christian faith to their social agenda. Continue reading →
The Three Points Of Synod Kalamazoo (1924)
Synod, having considered that part of the Advice of the Committee in General which is found in point III under the head: Treatment of the Three Points, comes to the following conclusions The First Point Concerning the first point, touching the favorable . . . Continue reading →
Presbyterians And Homosexuals Together: The Crisis Of Christ And Culture
The New York Times reported yesterday that a sufficient number of presbyteries of the liberal, mainline Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) have voted to approve gay marriage that church order Book of Order will, beginning in June of this year, define marriage no . . . Continue reading →
Reconsidering Margaret Sanger In Christianity Today?
Where Is Carl Henry When We Need Him?
Margaret Sanger, 1879–1966 Continue reading →
Godfrey On The Crusades
A Lonely Citadel Against The 24/7-Culture
If you’re old enough to remember when blue laws were common, Bergen on a Sunday is a nostalgia trip. Kids play road hockey, skateboarders practice kickflips on open swaths of pavement, and you may suddenly notice the cawing of blue jays. The . . . Continue reading →
Concupiscence: Sin And The Mother Of Sin
Introduction In recent years, the study of virtue has experienced a renaissance.1 While we are recovering our classical grammar of virtue, we should also to recover our vocabulary of vice as well. Concupiscence is among our choicest words to be recovered. Because . . . Continue reading →
Does The RPW = Homogeneity?
In July, 2013 Trip Lee published a provocative essay, to which I was just pointed via Twitter. The original piece has been removed but a remnant remains at the Aquila Report. My intent here is not to engage the piece at length . . . Continue reading →
Contra Natalis Solis Invictis
CHRISTMAS (from Old English Cristes maesse “Christ’s mass”).† Observance commemorating the birth of Jesus. In the Western church, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord was first celebrated on December 25 ca. A.D. 336, the date apparently chosen to counter the . . . Continue reading →
Melville: Two Kings, Two Kingdoms
Sir, we will always humbly reverence your majesty in public; but since we have this occasion to be with your majesty in private, and since you are brought in extreme danger both of your life and crown, and along with you the . . . Continue reading →
Law, Wisdom, And Charity: Life In A Twofold Kingdom
Under the subject line “2k” P writes, If Abraham the sojourner had no trouble making secular deals with people in Canaan, why did he refuse the offer of possessions from the king of Sodom? What would have been so wrong if the . . . Continue reading →
The Next Church-Growth Trend?
The Telegraph (UK) has a story about a flamenco-dancing priest in Spain. According to the story Fr. Pepe is wildly popular and especially with the ladies. They love it when, as part of the mass, he dances the flamenco. It’s no . . . Continue reading →
But Is It Biblical?
Anthony Bradley has posted a provocative essay arguing that church planting is insufficient for social change. He appeals to his own experience and to the history of education and Christendom. His post begs some questions and raises others. As to the former, . . . Continue reading →
Is The URCNA Going Forward, Backward, Or Sideways?
Years ago a Protestant Reformed minister told me that the URCNA was nothing more than the CRCNA of the 1950s. I took exception to that statement but it did make me wonder how much truth was in it. Would the URC be . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Divine Covenants And Moral Order
In the 16th and 17th centuries, indeed, from the 2nd century until the 20th century there was little question among Christians whether God has revealed his moral law in nature and in the conscience. In the 20th century, however, that verity came to . . . Continue reading →
Rauschenbusch, The Lost Gospel, Outrage, And The Mob
In Bottum’s revisionist account, Protestant preacher Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) looms as the figure who most succinctly defined the spiritual mission of 20th-century Mainline Protestantism and its heirs. He put “social sins” at the front of the Mainline imagination. “The six social sins, . . . Continue reading →