Faith’s centrality

Most times I hear of discussions of love and selfishness in the Christian life, I feel like we are stuck on a treadmill inside a maze on a foggy night.
I don’t think the ultimate issues boil down to selfish motives v. selfless motives. I think we’d be better off asking, “Who do you trust?” […]

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The Tower of Babel in the Gospels?

Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.” (Mathew 12.25).
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; (Luke 1.51b).
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the […]

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From post-reformation to post-mortem

The day it is acceptable for a Reformed minister to defend Reformed doctrine by quoting Hebrews that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and mean by “Jesus” a document produced by human tradition is a day in which the Reformation needs to be declared D. O. A. The day it is acceptable […]

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Church Landmines: extrapolating from anomalies

A group of speakers that is interdenominational (Reformed, Baptist, Charismatic) but all belong to a distinctive group are on the radio show run by one of them. I’ll call the group, off the cuff, Objectivist/Conceptual. They represent, they obviously believe, the best of ecumenical predestinarian soteriology, theology, and church practice, and they are […]

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Drinking blood

Adding a couple of thoughts to this post on the subject.
Blood was not simply prohibited. In Leviticus, when Israel was in the camp, every sanctuary animal that was slaughtered, even for a normal meal, had its blood put on the altar. In Deuteronomy, when Moses readies Israel for a situation when the sanctuary […]

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R&RJ for only $14!

Following up on this post Reformation and Revival Journal is out and contains my brief essay on “Why Not Get Rid of Doctrine?” (You’ll have to read it to find out which way I vote). There is some great stuff in that article, including an heplful piece by PCA pastor Craig Higgins.
Just to clarify, […]

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sickness

We are approaching the year anniversary to my interview in Saint Louis that eventually led to my move and my new call. That’s the good news. The not so good news is that the weather in St. Louis was quite different than Oklahoma at that point. I got sick and stayed sick until […]

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The ESV

Interesting: this post has made it into the commercial blogosphere. I suppose a couple of comments are in order. First off, I began preaching and teaching from the ESV when it came out and I am quite happy with that decision. It was confirmed for me when I moved to providence and found […]

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Is mature faith the fruit of works?

Something is bothering me about James 2.14-26. Verse 26 is probably the biggest (though not the only) irritation to what I thought I understood about the passage: “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” In my thinking, faith has always been this […]

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Unjustified corporationism

This brief comment about N. T. Wright is gratifying to see. Not only does Wright write about personal justification all the time, but he is quite concerned about reproducing Paul’s ordo salutis. In fact, Wright is as concnerned about the ordo salutis for an individual sinner as any traditional Reformed theologian.

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Liturgy inescapable: a picture (or chart/bulletin) worth a thousand words

Scroll down to “Every church does a liturgy. The only question is, what kind will you do?”
Hat tip: Alastair

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Micro-revisionism

OK. There is this position known as paedocommunion. It has been around as a discussion between parties within Reformed circles since at least the late seventies, though it goes back to the early Church and was even advocated some (but not much) during the Reformation. The only reason I bring it up […]

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Waking Up: The Exposition

Awhile back, I wrote:
If you’re not reading the Bible for fun you need to consider if maybe you’re doing it wrong.
which Todd liked but Paul compared to footprints (Ah, the sacrifices I make to be a great aphorist).
The other day, at the library I impulsively picked up a commentary on Leviticus. Since I am […]

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Human sacrifice is still the blood under the foundation

I avoid reading editorials. Invariably they tempt me to visit my favorite right-wing anarchist commentators, which leads me to blog about war or something, which leads to all sorts of strife. Or else I stick to establishment types and then want to make negative comments about foxnews, etc, with similar results.
But I’m glad […]

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Self-diagnostic tool for theologians and apologists

If you need to engage in special pleading to “defend” the system from Scripture, then the system is false or you need to learn about it at least as much as the people you hope to convince.

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Was Isaiah an Arminian?

The Woodruff Road session:
We reject the FV use of a separate theological language concurrent with, but separate from traditional systematic theology. Whether the FV supporters realize it or not, this dual language methodology is inherently deceptive. When the FV proponents speak, in what they call, their “decretal” language, they speak in the realm of the […]

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