Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Rounding Out the Traditional Doctrine of Justification Justification and the Church The traditional Protestant doctrine of justification fails to fully hold together the soteriological (forgiveness of sins) and the ecclesiological (covenant membership). This is part of a larger problem, of course, namely, the dichotomizing of church and salvation. Biblically and…
John Piper’s book, Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2002) is, from any perspective, a passionate work. Nevertheless, I find I need to disagree with parts of it. The reason I do this is not because John Piper’s book does…
What follows is a handout for a Sunday School class I have taught recently at my church . Presbyterian doctrine teaches what the Bible says about God sovereign control over history and his unconditional choice (election) to bring some people to everlasting glory while allowing others to remain in unbelief…
“Covenantal Nomism” sounds like a description of tiny contract-loving creatures who live underground. But it is actually a recent term used to describe the pattern of religious belief and practice in first-century Palestinian Judaism. The idea is that God graciously establishes a structured relationship based on promises, a “covenant,” with…
What follows deals primarily with two essays, one by Dr. Douglas Kelly and the other by The Rev. Richard Phillips . My reason for writing this essay is that many people are confidently saying things about N. T. Wright that I believe are contrary to fact. I choose Dr. Kelly…
The Bible is often treated as a book of rules with directions for living. To some extent, that is true; but it is neither the whole truth nor the most important truth about the book. Ultimately, the Bible is a story about God and man and their reconciliation in Christ.…
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One Body Through the Cross , the Princeton Proposal for Christianity Unity, criticizes the ecumenical movement for “liberal indifference” to orthodoxy, which has sometimes provoked a reaction of “divisive sectarianism.” For some, the solution is to stress traditional doctrinal formulations, but this cure is part of the disease. As Margaret…
The Princeton Proposal for Christian Unity ( One Body Through the Cross ) works within two “poles”: On the one hand, there is an already-established unity, “a bond of faith and communion in Christ, established by the action of God.” On the other hand, we are called to “a deeper…
The Princeton Proposal on Christian Unity ( In One Body Through the Cross ) claims that “division breeds never-ending diversion from authentic mission” (section 35), and offers a shrewd diagnosis of how this occurs. It happens when “the distinct identities of our churches tempt us to relish the special marks…
In his Unitive Protestantism , John T. McNeill sketches the “communio” ecclesiology of the Reformers: “They interpreted the creedal tenet of ‘the Holy Catholic Church’ in terms of the communio sanctorum , and identified the latter both with the invisible communion of the saved and with the true visible church…
Jeremiah 35 introduces the Rechabites. This is a clan within Israel that had refrained from wine, lived in tents, and refused to sow seed or plant vineyards for generations. The sole basis for this abstinence from normal life was the command of Jonadab the son of Rechab who commanded “You…
One of the delights of Philip Ball’s forthcoming Invisible is to see how frequently rationalists and materialists were have been taken in by charlatans. One might have thought that those who came-of-age and were Enlightened by reason would be immune to tricks, beliefs in ghosts, and in fairies and sprites.…
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