The Need for Creeds & Confessions — 3 Reasons

In this article, I want to discuss three reasons why creeds and confessions, in principle, are necessary for churches. And why the above concerns originate from deep theological and historical misunderstandings of the nature and function of credal and confessional documents.

Were Our Baptist Ancestors “Landmarkers”?

Through a retrieval of Grantham, Crosby demonstrates a distinctly Baptist interest in the “universal catholick church of God” and in the “Protestant” way.

Cautioning Politics in Preaching: A Case Study

In volatile political climates, the church and her elders are ever pressured to use the pulpit as an opportunity to correct the ills of the state.

The One Only True & Living God

We live in a materialistic cultural rut that strives to remove any and all reference to the supernatural. Philosophical and scientific naturalism has stripped the world of its vibrant, spiritual excitement. But is this a good reason to adopt henotheism?

The City of God

If everything we knew faded into history, could we still be a church—constant, remaining, set upon the Rock, identified by that heavenly, unshaking city of God?

The Term “Reformed”: A Hill to Die On?

Whether Baptists are called “Reformed” or not isn’t something self-professing Reformed Baptists ought to be willing to die over. 

My Bible vs. Our Bible

The only Bible you’ve ever seen is at your church. The pastor reads from it every Lord’s Day, and it was produced over the course of a year by a band of monks in a scriptorium a week’s ride from where you live.

Abraham Booth on the Incarnation of the Son

By affirming this orthodox article of the hypostatic union, Booth lays the foundation for avoiding just about every variety of kenotic Christology…

The Theological Psychology of Gregory the Great

In discussing pastoral qualifications, Gregory glosses the psychology of curiosity, earthly cares, and shame. Below, I will look at what he has to say concerning each of these.

Hilary of Poitiers, Incarnation, & Partitive Exegesis

“Being, then, in the form of a servant, Jesus Christ, Who before was in the form of God, said as a man, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.”

Calvin’s Classical Theism

Calvin’s Classical Theism

at minimum, we should be able to conclude from the evidence presented that Calvin held to the classical formulation of divine simplicity.

Limitation of Act by Potency

Limitation of Act by Potency

Contemporary Thomistic studies largely assumes the origins for Thomas’s doctrine “limitation of act by potency” is to be properly and neatly located in Aristotle’s corpus. According to W. Norris Clarke, however, such an assumption is misguided…

When Scripture Becomes A Wax Nose

When Scripture Becomes A Wax Nose

God’s Scriptural appeal is made to rational creatures. And when, by grace, a rational creature is made to accept and trust in the truth of Scripture, his rational appetites are not extinguished but improved.

Philosophy & Preambles of Faith

Philosophy & Preambles of Faith

Philosophy, then, is assigned to inquiry concerning the preambles of faith. And theology is assigned to inquiry concerning the articles of faith revealed through Scripture.

Jeff Johnson, Moved Movers, & Ghostly Paradoxes

Jeff Johnson, Moved Movers, & Ghostly Paradoxes

Johnson seems to believe there is an apparent contradiction in need of explanation. There is, as it were, a paradox in need of resolution. But, as we shall see, such paradoxes are but ghostly phantoms lacking substance.

Prudent Knowledge

Prudent Knowledge

All Christians ought to press on to know God. Not all Christians will know God to the exact same degree.

A Note on Political Theology

A Note on Political Theology

The Noahic Covenant remains. It’s institution is neither causal nor characteristic of the kingdom/domain of darkness. But neither is it’s administration granted to the Redemptive Kingdom, or the Kingdom of the Son.

An Elementary Essay Contra Modal Collapse

An Elementary Essay Contra Modal Collapse

If God is simple, it follows He isn’t made up of anything more basic than Himself to be what He is. In other words, God is non-composed. All that is in God is God. An apparent difficulty arises, however, when we consider God’s will as it relates to the created world.

The Decline of Natural Theology

The Decline of Natural Theology

There isn’t a single place upon the timeline of history to which we might point in an attempt make an historical demonstration of natural theology’s demise.

The Kingdom & Its Implications

The Kingdom & Its Implications

There has been much speculation as to the identity and timing of God’s kingdom. Contemporary speculation on the kingdom of God tends to domesticate and separate the kingdom from Christ and His work, and it fails to account for present-kingdom language used throughout the New Testament.

Uncovering Simplicity in Scripture

Uncovering Simplicity in Scripture

Like the word “Trinity,” the word “simplicity” eludes those making the demand for an express, biblical reference. So, how do we know if it’s biblical? 

The Way Jesus Uses Nature

The Way Jesus Uses Nature

Appeals to natural revelation, and thus the assumption of a natural theology, are rife throughout the didactic work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How Sola Scriptura Presupposes Natural Theology

How Sola Scriptura Presupposes Natural Theology

Sola Scriptura must be defined correctly, not only to avoid subjecting Scripture to the dictates of men, but also that we might retain the requisite tools (assumptions) and categories needed in order to make sense of the Scriptures in the first place.

Considering God’s Transcendence & Immanence

Considering God’s Transcendence & Immanence

But the temptation to “fix” this tension by making the divine essence the transcendent “part” in God, and the Trinity the immanent and complex “part” in God is misguided since it wouldn’t fix any problem at all.

An Essay on Covenantal Natural Theology — (Part VI)

An Essay on Covenantal Natural Theology — (Part VI)

Owen, thus, represents a full-fledged Reformed orthodoxy on this matter. There are others, such as Johann Heinrich Alsted, Stephen Charnock, Herman Witsius, and Petrus Van Mastricht. Yet, any differences between them would be mostly accidental and not relevant to the overall point of the present essay.

An Essay on Covenantal Natural Theology — (Part IV)

An Essay on Covenantal Natural Theology — (Part IV)

Franciscus Junius construes the state of man in a twofold manner when he writes that there are “two states of men, namely, the state of integrity when he was created by God and the state of corruption arising from man’s fall by his own choice.”