It depends upon who is doing the defining. Todd Billings has a helpful essay on this very question that echoes some of the same themes I tried to raise during our Missional and Reformed conference.
reformed
Muether on Van Til: A Review
It is hard to overstate the influence of Cornelius Van Til on confessional and conservative Reformed theology since the early 20th century. I’ll use myself as an an example because I think that what I experienced is fairly representative of what others . . . Continue reading →
Coming This Fall: Reforming or Conforming?
Thanks to Gary Johnson and Ron Gleason for their editorial work. David Wells wrote the foreword. Contributors include Paul Helm, Paul Wells, R. Scott Clark, John Bolt, Jeffrey Waddington, Paul Kjoss Helseth, and Martin Downes (HT: Martin Downes). Crossway says that this . . . Continue reading →
Missional and Reformed: Online and Free
The annual January faculty conference focused on the relations between Reformed theology, piety, and practice and the emerging/emergent missional movement(s). The text of the talks are now available for free on the WSC website. They include: Friends or Foes: The Mission and . . . Continue reading →
True Confessions
Sometime back my friend and neighbor Jim Renihan, who directs the Institute for Reformed Baptist Studies that meets on campus at WSC, very graciously gave me a copy of his new edited collection of confessions from the 16th and 17th centuries. In . . . Continue reading →
The Rejection of Errors (1): A Brief History of the Antithesis
Part two of this series is here. ___ Kim Riddlebarger is working his way through the Canons of Dort. He’s covering the Rejection of Errors. The RE was the Synod of Dort’s way of re-asserting the anthesis between the Reformed faith and . . . Continue reading →
Lutheran or Reformed? You Make the Call!
This is why so much depends on the benefit of justification, and it is rightly denominated the article on which the church either stands or falls. For the fundamental question that arises in this connection is this: What is the way that . . . Continue reading →
Reformed and Evangelical Redux
Josh writes to ask how confessionally Reformed Christians should relate to contemporary (as distinct from it’s use as a synonym of “historic, confessional Protestant”) evangelicals?
Young, Restless, and Arbitrary?
I’m watching a video interview of Collin Hansen, author of Young, Restless, and Reformed. At about 21 minutes into the interview I heard a familiar voice: WSC alumnus Jonathan King (MA, HT), now a PhD student at TEDS. You might know JK . . . Continue reading →
The Gift of Confessional Elders (2)
Part 1 Before we can see how and why our elders need to be confessional we needed to understand, in the first place, what an elder is. Next, we need to understand what it means to be “confessional” and then, in the . . . Continue reading →
Once More: Reformed and Charismatic?
A Response to Pastor Koleoso and DGM
Our friends at DGM have done it again. This time it’s a lecture by Tope Koleoso that has folks discussing the question of the relations between the charismatic movement(s) and Reformed theology, piety, and practice. This topic was covered on the HB . . . Continue reading →
Beyond Bishops And Isolation
Americans are an independent lot. The original colonists left the old world for the new. Their revolutionary successors in the 18th century formalized that independence with a war and constitutional documents. The American desire for independence helped to propel us west beyond . . . Continue reading →
Machen: Evangelical Is Not Enough
“Evangelical,” on the other hand, although it is a fine term, does not quite seem to designate clearly enough the position of those who hold specifically to the system of doctrine taught in the Westminster Confession of Faith, as distinguished from other . . . Continue reading →
Of Confessional Christianity And The Cult Of Personality
The danger of the cult of personality has ever been with us. Paul warned the Corinthian church: I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among . . . Continue reading →
What The Spirit Is Doing Or What We Are Saying? Distinguishing Reformed And Pentecostal Piety
Introduction Since the early 19th century American Christianity has been largely dominated by a revival of the original Anabaptist theology, piety, and practice. One can transpose much of what took place in the 19th century over the first generation Anabaptists (1520s) and . . . Continue reading →
Distinguishing Reformed From Evangelicalism: Realism
As evangelicals become dissatisfied with the emphasis on personalities, annoying trendiness, and the shallowness of Modern evangelical theology, piety, and practice they begin to look around for an alternative. One challenge they face right away is that, in many cases, their religious . . . Continue reading →
On Sale Now For $25: On Being Reformed (UPDATED)
This slender volume contains four essays. One written jointly by Crawford Gribben and Chris Caughey, one by Matthew Bingham, one by D. G. Hart, and one by yours truly. Ordinarily this volume is, for its size, rather expensive. It is a little . . . Continue reading →
Why The Mission Needs The Marks
Doubtless the one of the most significant movements within evangelicalism at the moment is the “emergent” or “emerging churches” movement. The adjectives “emerging” and “emergent” designate different wings of the movement. Generally, the “emergent” wing is more radical and the “emerging” wing a little less radical. Just as frequently, however, in the contemporary rhetoric from both wings of the movement no distinction is made and this essay will speak of the “emerging movement” (hereafter, EM). Like their older evangelical brothers and sisters, the EM also rejects (at least elements of) fundamentalism and revivalism. In their place, they are constructing a cross-traditional, eclectic synthesis. Continue reading →
On Sale Until August 20, 2020: On Being Reformed $24.00
If you have been waiting for this expensive little volume to drop to a reasonable price, here it is. Order here. Code: BIGPAL20 MORE INFORMATION Office Hours: On Being Reformed Paul Helm Reviews On Being Reformed Pre-Order Now—On Being Reformed: Debates Over . . . Continue reading →
On Being Reformed Discounted 50% Now Until December 31
That should bring the price of the hardcopy to about $35.o0 and the e-book to about $27.50, which is approaching a reasonable price. Continue reading