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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Federal Vision

Justification by Union with Christ Only Through Living Faith

A Brief Comparison of Calvin’s Institutes with the Westminster Confession and Catechisms regarding the shape of imputation This essay is a brief argument that the soteriology of John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion regarding union with Christ and the imputation of his righteousness is the same as…

by Mark HorneJune 5, 2003
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Baptism

Some Thoughts on the Means of Grace: A Few Proposals

The thoughts in this paper were largely prompted by a study of Walter E. Krebs, “The Word and the Sacraments,” Mercersburg Review (July, 1867), 366-383. The discussion in this paper presupposes my earlier studies of baptism, “Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition: Past, Present, and Future” and “Calvin on Baptism,…

by Rich LuskJune 3, 2003
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Baptism

Faith, Baptism, & Justification

Sometimes our systematic theology creates an illusion of precision. For example, we distinguish the ground and instrument of justification. Justification is grounded in Christ’s work alone, and is instrumentally received by faith alone. That makes good sense and guards us from thinking that faith itself is somehow meritorious. All the…

by Rich LuskJune 1, 2003
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Covenant

DO THIS AS MY MEMORIAL: Understanding How the Lord’s Supper Reminds God to Keep Covenant

Whenever we participate in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we remember Christ and His Work for us. We remember. And in remembering, we imitate God, as His creatures made after His image. God remembers. This is mysterious to us because we usually think of remembering in the context of our…

by Mark HorneMay 30, 2003
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Baptism

Calvin & the Efficacy of Infant Baptism

It is standard in paedobaptist circles to argue for the baptism of infants out of the Old Covenant system. Because there is no explicit command in the New Testament, we are left to the broader principles and patterns of Scripture. In the Old Covenant, we continually find that the children…

by Rich LuskMay 30, 2003
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Biblical Theology

Why the Law/Gospel Paradigm is Flawed

Luther popularized the law/gospel hermeneutic. Luther argued that any demands God made upon us fell into the category of “law” and could only condemn. By contrast, anything God gave us was “gospel” and came with no strings attached. Calvin paid lip service to this law/gospel antithesis, even though it was…

by Rich LuskMay 29, 2003

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God in Ancient China

Finding God in Ancient China by Chan Kai Thong and Charlene Fu is one of a number of studies attempting to show that the ancient Chinese worshiped the God of Noah and of Israel. The authors assemble evidence from ancient writings, the Chinese language, ancient Chinese beliefs about God, and…

June 17, 2014

Fourth Political Theory

Alexander Dugin, the man sometimes called “Putin’s brain,” outlines a “fourth political theory” in a book of that title. Communism and Fascism have collapsed, and liberalism, the final twentieth-century ideology, turned into libertine postmodernism as soon as it triumphed. The collapse of modern ideology opens space for what modernity excluded,…

June 17, 2014
Gratitude

Gratitude

You can hear Beeson Divinity School Dean Timothy George interview me about Gratitude: An Intellectual History on the Beeson podcast .

June 17, 2014

Spirit in the Midst

Isaiah 63:10-14 reviews Yahweh’s history with Israel. He saved them through the “angel of His face,” lifted them up from the sea and carried them (like the daughter of Pharaoh rescuing Moses from the Nile). He put His Spirit “in the midst” ( qereb ) of Israel. But they rebelled,…

June 16, 2014

World’s Policeman

Writing at the New Yorker , Dexter Filkins argues that America’s withdrawal from Iraq left the Iraqi Prime Minister with freedom to destroy the country: “When the Americans invaded, in March, 2003, they destroyed the Iraqi state—its military, its bureaucracy, its police force, and most everything else that might hold…

June 16, 2014

Book of Beginnings

James Jordan teaches the first course of Trinity House’s 2014-15 year, an August course on the book of Genesis. Click here for information and registration.

June 16, 2014

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