In Part 1 I sketched the history and current legal status of the Mt Soledad Cross and I indicated some ambivalence about that use of the cross. On the one hand, it seems clear that some opposition to the cross is less . . . Continue reading →
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 →
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 →
By using this language, the Belgic Confession grounds the civil government in God’s goodness, not his grace, in creation, not redemption. God rules over all things, but in two different ways, as the two kingdoms doctrine of the Reformers expressed. This doctrine . . . Continue reading →
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 →
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 →
Last time we looked briefly at some of the reasons some evangelicals (Dispensationalists) have had difficulty with the biblical and historic Christian doctrine that Jesus is presently reigning over all things and particularly his church. That view is in contrast to the . . . Continue reading →
“Pray for those in authority over you.”
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 →
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 →
Recently the Supreme Court of the United States issued a very significant decision widely known as Obergefell. In that 5–4 ruling, writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy argued that same-sex marriage is protected under the 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the . . . Continue reading →
From the early 4th century, when Christianity was declared a legal religion and properties were returned to Christians and persecution of Christians was forbidden, the Christian church gradually become intertwined with the empire. Gradually, paganism was marginalized and then eventually made illegal. . . . Continue reading →
When, c. 64–66 AD, the Apostle Peter wrote to the churches in Asia Minor (the areas named cover most of modern Turkey) Christians were a small, minority religion in the Greco-Roman world. Nero was Caesar and his reign was shortly coming to . . . Continue reading →
The radicalization of the vulnerable is a sobering reality. Guilt, shame, and the longing for lost innocence can make people do the most terrible things—as long as salvation awaits on the other side. Whether it’s drinking Kool-Aid or strapping on a suicide . . . Continue reading →
Here’s today’s episode of Janet Mefferd Today in which we discussed the “social gospel,” Walter Rauschenbusch, the emergent/emerging church movement and what it means that evangelicals seem to be heading back to this well for inspiration. We also talked about some alternative . . . Continue reading →
I am not a political analyst and I do not play on TV or radio (nor in the pulpit) but Christians do live in a twofold kingdom and I was happy to talk with Chris Buskirk, host of Downstream Politics, about media, . . . Continue reading →
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, . . . Continue reading →
[11.] But what is this, “When He shall deliver up the kingdom?” The Scripture acknowledges two kingdoms of God, the one by appropriation (oikeiwsin), the other by creation. Thus, He is King over all, both Greeks and Jews and devils and His . . . Continue reading →
I love my country. Despite the apparently never-ending efforts of those who seek fundamentally to transform it into a replica of the European social-democratic states (which has provoked a Euro-nationalist-populist reaction), it is still a great country. Pace the president’s casual dismissal . . . Continue reading →