Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Book Review The Call of Grace: How the Covenant Illuminates Salvation & Evangelism by Norman Shepherd The Call of Grace is an excellent manual to put in the hands of laymen to teach them how to rest in God’s grace while taking seriously the prize of the upward call of…
My Role as a Parent in My Children’s Salvation Evangeline Jael Horne is our third child. My two boys were born while we were at seminary and we had the privilege of giving them to Jeff Meyers, our pastor at that time, for baptism. When Evangeline was born, however, I…
John Calvin writes in the Institutes about the possibility of admitting children to the Lord’s Supper by virtue of their baptism once and only once: At length they object, that there is not greater reason for admitting infants to baptism than to the Lord’s Supper, to which, however, they are…
The debate over paedocommunion does not seem to have made much headway on either side in recent years. Certainly both sides have made a solid effort to argue for their position. But no resolution seems to be forthcoming in the near future. As a convinced paedocommunionist, I find the church’s…
Lots of conservative Protestants want to answer “no” to this question. The problem with this position is that conservative Protestants are bound to believe what the Bible teaches. And the Bible says inconvenient things, like “baptism now saves you” (1 Peter 3.21), or “all of you who were baptized into…
This paper is something of a follow-up to my earlier study, “ Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition: Past, Present, and Future .” One of the more controversial aspects of that paper was my claim that Calvin held to a very high view of baptismal efficacy. Indeed, he was a…
Showing page 238 of 309
Showing page 3 of 43
Stephen Holmes’s The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity is a learned, sharp challenge to the “Trinitarian revival” of the 20th century. One of his central criticisms is that recent Trinitarian theology, in contrast to patristic theology, focuses almost exclusively on the New…
I’m still absorbing parts of NT Wright’s recent JSNT essay, “Paul and the Patriarch: The Role of Abraham in Romans 4.” A couple of his points are very compelling. First, he disputes what he calls a “customary” way of understanding Paul’s reference to “justification of the ungodly” in Romans 4:5.…
Since Deleuze’s Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque , the fold and its use in Baroque art, music, and philosophy have become a leading trope for postmodern thought and culture. Deleuze describes the significance of the Baroque in opposition to the clarity of Cartesian straight lines: “The Baroque refers not to…
Isaiah charges that the people of Judah ascend mountains to sacrifice sacrifices (57:7; lizboach zavach ). That’s normal: Every ancient people ascended toward heaven for worship. The furniture that Judah sets up on the mountain is, however, unusual. They set up a bed , not an altar, on the high…
In one of His most intense exchanges with His enemies, Jesus says that they “do the deeds of your father” in seeking to kill Jesus. He means that the devil is their father (John 8:39, 44). They protest that they are children of Abraham and sons of God (vv. 39,…
Isaiah condemns the people of Judah as “sons of a sorceress” (57:3). “Sorceress” translates ‘anan , which is derived from a verb “to cover” and sometimes refers to the gathering of clouds (Genesis 9:14). This particular form of the verb is typically used for the “dark arts” that take place…
Showing page 749 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
