Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Where do we go from here? Depending on one’s perspective, the American story can plausibly be interpreted in different ways. Looked at from past to present , we can see a great deal of continuity from medieval Christendom and the Reformation to America’s founding. The War for Independence, after all,…
Click HERE for Part 1 Civic Religion: American or Christian? We have already traced out the basic contours of the shift in America from an ecclesiocentric, theocratic social order to a secular one. Building on Locke and Hobbes, the Enlightenment accomplished an astonishing coup of Christendom. That victory for the…
Author’s Introductory Note: Engaging in broad historical interpretation as I am about to do is always risky. Necessarily, one “stylizes” history by simplifying, over generalizing, and stereotyping. But the narrative qualities of history are not simply due to the imposition of human rationality upon brute facts; rather history is always…
A. Repentance to life involves endeavoring to believe real hard that you’re saved. reject infant baptism. stop watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. walk with God in all the ways of his commandments. B. What is necessary so that no sinner may expect to be forgiven unless he does it? Only…
The machine works mechanically and it is flawless. Slander/libel a group of Presbyterian ministers as “Romanist” because robes and James 2 are no worse than praying to Mary or relying on purgatory to pay for unconfessed sins. Drive off anyone who disagrees. Of that number, there may be a tiny…
If we take as a starting point the Tribal / Monarchical / Empire model, we can then add to it the Late Empire Phase. The particular ‘marker sin’ of Empire is false intermarriage, which signifies pluralism and syncretism. Empires by definition are “cosmopolitan” dominated by cities, high culture, many cultures,…
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On page 159 of her extraordinary Rituals of Spontaneity , Lori Branch writes an “if” as an “id.”
In May 1757, Christopher Smart, Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, renowned poet, writer for John Newbery, was involuntarily incarcerated in a London madhouse, where he spent the next seven years. His crime: Spontaneous public prayer, which arose from his conviction that it was a crime to resist the impulse to…
John says in 1 John 5:15: “if we know he hears, we know we have. His hearing and our having are identified. As soon as God hears, we have; as soon as God hears, He gives. There is no lapse between request and gift. There is a time lapse between…
We are baptized, Jesus said, into the “name” of the Triune God. John says that we also “believe into the name” (1 John 5:13). Among other things, baptism is a road sign pointing faith in the right direction, toward the “name” of God. As such, baptism’s efficacy continues beyond the…
The doctrine of the Trinity is the pre-condition for forgiveness. Consider: “If a man sins against another man, God will mediate for him; but if man sins against God, who can intercede for Him” (1 Samuel 2:25). God stands between man and man, and can reconcile; but who stands between…
John says, “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he will ask and he will give life” (1 John 5:16). Some commentators suggest a change of subject in the main clause: The brother “asks” but God “gives life.” That’s grammatically awkward, and Stott bites the bullet…
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