By Rev. Dr Simon Jooste The proclamation of the crucified Christ and the cost of Christian discipleship is folly to the world. This is because the world, particularly Western culture, naturally gravitates towards a theology of glory. Whether atheist or not, most forms of modern Western spirituality exalt human autonomyContinue Reading
By Rev. Dr Simon Jooste The Christian is not to be conformed to the world’s pattern of thinking (Romans 12:2). But it is particularly tempting to bow the knee to the pharmacological fruits for therapeutic narcissism and its pragmatic ethics, particularly when the billows of suffering roll in. Prozac canContinue Reading
How often do we Christians go about life as if we were practical agnostics, as if God were not a given? A major impetus of Modernity, that is, the Enlightenment movements that swept across Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, was to reject the historic Christian understanding of theContinue Reading
Making salvation by grace and works or by grace and faithfulness necessarily turns our eyes back upon our own performance and the quality of our faith and the quality of our sanctification. That is a spiritual dead-end. Suspending our future salvation upon our present performance has never and can never beContinue Reading
Our obedience is either the ground (the basis), the instrument (the means), or the evidence (the fruit) of our salvation. The Reformed doctrine is the latter. It is the case that believers will be progressively sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit, through the due use of ordinary means,Continue Reading
R. Scott Clark writes: Much of modern evangelical theology, piety and practice is not driven by Scripture as much as it is driven by history. Many evangelicals assume, as I once did, that the altar call is a biblical practice. They do not know, as I did not, that theContinue Reading
Christianity is a dogmatic religion, on that much the greatest theologians across the Christian spectrum agree, from Martin Luther to John Henry Newman. There is a famous saying of Dorothy L. Sayers with which I begin my class on the Doctrine of God at Grove City College each year: “TheContinue Reading
If you are around a Reformed church long enough, you will probably hear the term means of grace. This refers to the divinely established ways we encounter and commune with God as we learn and experience His grace through Christ’s redemption. These include the ability to hear the Word asContinue Reading
By Rev. Dr Simon Jooste Christians suffer in this life. This is because they live in a fallen world, but also because of their cross-bearing identity with Jesus Christ. Depression is one way that believers hurt. The difficulty for Christians – who see humans as both body and soul –Continue Reading
By Rev. Dr Simon Jooste If Adam had not sinned in Paradise, he would have entered into a state of eternal embodied bliss. However, the story did not end that way. Instead, since the Fall of Adam and Eve death and decay have ravaged body and soul. Things are notContinue Reading