In the ongoing dialogue regarding the relations between “Christ” and “Culture” one of the slogans that gets tossed about concerns a “nature/grace dualism.” I see people using this expression as if everyone knows what it means or as if it means the . . . Continue reading →
nature and grace
Strangers And Aliens (13b): Living Among The Pagans (1 Peter 3:1–6)
1Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2when they see your respectful and pure conduct. 3Do not let . . . Continue reading →
The Making Of Lawrence Phillips
There must be many ex-football players or ex-athletes and at least a few famous athletes who have ended their athletic careers by committing crimes. Most of those cases simply fall into obscurity but not that of Lawrence Phillips (1975–2016), who was a . . . Continue reading →
What Passion City Gets Right And Wrong About The Sabbath
The last time we saw Atlanta Pastor Louie Giglio it was January 2013 and he was embroiled in controversy because he had been invited by President Obama to participate in his second inauguration. It had been discovered that Giglio held the biblical . . . Continue reading →
Same-Sex Attraction Is Not A Means Of Grace Or Why We Distinguish Nature And Grace
Jeffrey Stivason has a helpful interaction with an August 2018 essay by Wesley Hill in which Hill seeks to justify the Revoice Conference, held last July (2018), and in which justifies his conclusion that he has an immutable same-sex attraction. Stivason notes that . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation Of Vocation
In the period between the early post-apostolic church (e.g., the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD) and the Reformation (beginning in the early 16th century AD) the church came to develop some unbiblical and therefore unhelpful and unhealthy ways of relating creation and . . . Continue reading →
New Resources Pages On Common Grace And The Sacred/Secular Distinction
These are contentious issues but the popular discussion of them, including some ecclesiastical publications, is not always well-informed by the history of Christian thought. These two resource pages are composed partly out of the HB archives and partly of bibliography. Both sets . . . Continue reading →
Federal Court Upholds The Right Of Religious Schools To Adhere To Their Stated Convictions Regarding Sex
Or Grace Does Not Obliterate Nature
…This action concerns the expulsion of two students from a seminary school for violating school policies against same-sex marriage and extramarital sexual activity. Plaintiffs claim violations of: (1) Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681, et seq. . . . Continue reading →
Bavinck: Grace Does Not Destroy Nature
Regeneration does not erase individuality, personality or character, Continue reading →
Briefly: Why The Reformed Approach To Nature And Grace Is Superior To The Anabaptist Approach
“People don’t need therapists. People need Christ. The last thing any of us needs is more human wisdom.” This was the claim made by an anonymous writer (“Magnolia”) on social media. Continue reading
Grace Neither Obliterates Nor Transforms Nature
This morning we were working through the first article of the first question of Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. Continue reading
Heidelcast 178: Responding To Criticisms Regarding Ontology, Feminism, Nature, and Grace
With this episode (the second this week) I am interrupting the series, on eschatology and 1 Peter, As it Was In The Days Of Noah, for a brief reply to some comments recently made on another podcast. In this episode I play . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 179: As It Was In The Days Of Noah (22): How Eschatology Helps Us With Christ And Culture
In this series we have been considering Christian eschatology, i.e., what should we think about the last days, about the relations between heaven and earth, and how that informs how we think about and live the Christian life between the ascension and . . . Continue reading →
Culture Is Important But It Is Not The Most Important Thing
Culture is important but it is not the most important thing. Continue reading
Suicide By Theocracy
If American evangelicalism dies, suicide will be the cause of death listed on the official Coroner’s report. American evangelicalism will likely not die due to external persecution. Historically, persecution tends to strengthen the church. If it dies, it will die because it . . . Continue reading →
The Language Of A “Twofold Kingdom” Has Deep Roots In Reformed Orthodoxy
Once more: it was John Calvin (1509–64) who distinguished between the two spheres on God’s kingdom: Continue reading
Are P&R Churches “Wholly Inadequate” To Investigate Abuse?
Why The Gospel Is Not In The Stars: Nature Is Not Grace
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 . . . Continue reading →
A Notable Omission In The PCA Report On Sexuality: Nature
In that sense, the Bible’s view of sexuality is not motivated by small-mindedness, unloving moralism, discrimination, violence, and bullying, as its critics claim. Biblical sexuality comes from a theistic understanding of the universe, deeply rooted in the being of God Himself, which . . . Continue reading →
Your Ethnic Identity Is Important But It Is Not Ultimate
Christians are not Gnostics. Against the Gnostics, Christians have, since the first quarter of the second century, affirmed the essential, inherent goodness of creation. Against the Gnostics and Marcionites we also affirmed the unity of the covenant of grace. Both of those truths help us to address the problem of ethnic tensions in Christ’s church. Continue reading