THE Reformed faith includes reference to total inability, unconditional election, the limited efficiency of Christ’s satisfaction, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints not as the sum total of the church’s confession, but as elements that can be understood only in the context of a larger body of teachingContinue Reading
What impact would it have had on the church in our late-modern, scientific day and age if the author(s) of the Apostles’ Creed had included a statement about the reality of angelic activity and spiritual warfare in the Christian life? I envision such a statement as reading like this: “IContinue Reading
We rightly think of the Protestant Reformation as the recovery of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. But the Reformation no less recovered the biblical doctrine of sanctification. It recognized that one may have clarity about justification only if one also has clarity about sanctification. In its confessions,Continue Reading
Back in late 2009, some ministerial colleagues and I were discussing with concern the apparently growing influence of evolutionary thinking in the Canadian Reformed Churches. What could we do about it? Five of us decided to collaborate on an article, “Ten Reasons Why Evolution is Dangerous and Evil.” Authored byContinue Reading
If evolution does not account for the origin of the world, does it not at least give a rational account of the development of things out of primordial matter, and thus explain the origin of the present species of plants and animals (including man), and also the various phenomena ofContinue Reading
Episode 8 of the Christianity Today podcast “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” illustrates the degree to which the restless, feather-swallowing (according to Luther) anti-canonical spirit has influenced modern evangelical theology, piety and practice. The Reformation principle (if not always its practice) was the sufficiency of the Scriptures for theContinue Reading
As Christians turn to social media to decry the new abuse of the day, a sad development is happening. Both of the current responses in crying for social justice or redeeming the state, are having the same sad effect on the church. We are being swallowed up in these pursuitsContinue Reading
Job 19:25-27: 25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! Many peopleContinue Reading
Contrary to what some Dispensational writers have claimed, the Christian church, in the post-apostolic period, has always taught covenant theology. The Epistle of Barnabas (c. AD 120) wrote a fairly mature covenantal explanation of the history of redemption, the unity of the covenant [of grace], and the centrality of ChristContinue Reading
The Bible is structured by architectonic principles. Reformed theologians have, by and large, agreed that all of God’s special revelation is structured by a Covenant of Works and a Covenant of Grace. This is not to say (as many have wrongly charged) that Covenant theologians do not believe in aContinue Reading
According to Mark Driscoll, when someone quite reasonably questioned the validity of his claim to have received a direct revelation, he scoffed. Who could doubt its validity, since it was in accord with Scripture and his aims were true? Well, any Reformed Christian would and should seriously question any claim madeContinue Reading