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The Blessed Cursed Tree
Article by May 2013
An important biblical theological idea emerges out of Paul's use of Deuteronomy 21:23 in Galatians 3:13. In the middle of the most polemical book in the New Testament, Paul made the astounding declaration: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree')." The immediate context shows that the curse to which Paul is referring is the curse of the law (Gal. 3:10-11). Returning to Deuteronomy 21, out of which Paul takes the command for capital punishment and applies it to Christ, we discover the theological riches of Gal. 3:13. In Deuteronomy 21:23 we read:
"If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God." (Deut. 21:22-23) continue
Chesterton: The Nightmare Goodness of God
Article by May 2013
Ralph C. Wood, Chesterton: The Nightmare Goodness of God (Baylor University Press, 2011)$34.95, hardcover, 325 pagesIn Book eight, Chapter twelve of his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle asserts a seemingly common-sense truth that has been progressively forgotten, ignored, or repressed over the course... continue
Communion with Christ and His People: The Spirituality of C.H. Spurgeon
Article by May 2013
Peter J. Morden, Communion with Christ and his people: The Spirituality of C. H. Spurgeon, Centre for Baptist History and Heritage Studies (Regent's Park College, Oxford), 2010, 318pp., paperback, £25Peter Morden, tutor in Church History and Spirituality at Spurgeon's College, has given... continue
Logic
Article by May 2013
Vern Sheridan Poythress, Logic: A God-Centered Approach to the Foundation of Western Thought (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 730pp., $45.00I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Crossway for their gracious provision of a review copy of this book.The term "polymath"... continue
Vatican Files no. 20
Article by May 2013
After a couple of eventful months surrounding the Vatican, the time has come to shift into a more routine mood. Pope Francis has attracted a lot of attention from the media and has sent various messages of change and renewal. After the initial surprise, the various Vatican departments are coming to terms with a less pompous papacy, and the Pope himself is beginning to shape his own views on a number of open issues that are on the Vatican agenda. continue
What We Talk About When We Talk About God
Article by May 2013
Rob Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God (New York: HarperOne, 2013), 240 pp., $16.00"Detheologizing" ChristianityFor those who have read Rob Bell's other books (such as Love Wins and Velvet Elvis), the tone, disposition, and content of... continue
Crossing the Chasm
Article by May 2013
Last month we began to consider the mode of "persuasion" as a central aspect of our defense of Christianity. We ended our previous article with the affirmation that the Word of God must be our foundation in apologetics. That's where we stand when we engage in a defense of the faith. We don't pretend to stand on the same platform as those to whom we speak. Whatever platform the unbeliever attempts to mount is nothing more than a mist; one may think that it feels, at times, like it is something substantial, but, in reality, its supposed strength is only an illusion, nothing more than a midsummer's madness. continue
Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation
Article by April 2013
Richard A. Muller, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 288pp., paperback, $39.99Richard Muller's latest book, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition, is the product of many decades... continue
What if Life Was Complex?
Article by April 2013
This month, I thought I would use this column to indulge in a little thought experiment. What, I wonder, if the conservative evangelical church world came to be dominated by a symbiotic network of high profile and charismatic leaders (think more Weber than Wimber), media organisations, and big conferences? What if leadership, doctrine, and policy were no longer rooted in the primacy of biblical polity and the local church? What if, in other words, all of this become a function of an Evangelical Industrial Complex? continue
God and the Atlantic: America, Europe, and the Religious Divide
Article by April 2013
A Truly Divisive PondA Review of Thomas Albert Howard, God and the Atlantic: America, Europe, and the Religious Divide (Oxford University Press, 2013) PB, $29.95One of the most striking differences between the USA, my adopted residence, and the UK, my... continue
Vatican Files no. 19
Article by April 2013
"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of words" (Socrates). If you define a word in a certain way you make claims about reality. Our postmodern culture has stirred us to come to terms with the fact that words do not have stable meanings but exist in an flux that drives them in one way or another depending on the interests of their users. This is the current situation of the word "Evangelical". continue
A Christian's Pocket Guide to Baptism
Article by April 2013
Robert Letham, A Christian's Pocket Guide to Baptism: The Water that Unites. Fearn: Christian Focus, 2012. Paper. $7.99.Baptism is one of the more regularly practiced rites in the church, but is likely one of the least understood. Though churches use... continue
Some Thoughts on Gay Rights
Article by April 2013
The rise of gay rights, including, now, the all but inevitable legal support for same-sex marriage at home and abroad, has the effect of a tidal wave: better get out of the way, or be drowned in obscurity. Sure, there will be ups and downs, advances and setbacks. But things are moving fast. Two Presidents have changed their minds about the subject. President Obama, in a very public announcement last spring, declared that his views had "evolved," followed by his second inaugural address, where he actually called for gay marriages. And former President Bill Clinton has recently disavowed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which he had signed into law seventeen years previously continue
All Other Ground is Sinking Sand
Article by April 2013
What I would like for us to begin to think about in this post is a Reformed theology of persuasion in apologetics. Possibly one of the more frustrating aspects of a Covenantal apologetic for some may be that, with any answer to any objection, there always remain questions that could have come up, issues that might have been discussed, objections that were not addressed. continue
The Devil and Pierre Gernet: Stories
Article by April 2013
The Devil and Pierre Gernet: Storiesby David Bentley HartEerdmans, 2012$25.00, paper, 176 pages My Dinner with D. B. Hart Though much has been written, and continues to be written, on the dramatic monologues of Robert Browning, far too few critics have celebrated, or even noticed,... continue
An Orientation to China's Reforming Churches: Part Three
Article by April 2013
The need for church development, so acute in China, exists wherever the gospel is bearing fruit. Indeed, the proper goal of the church's mission is not just to announce the good news to those who have not heard or to call unbelievers to faith and repentance; the church's mission has always included establishing a well-ordered church in every land for the welfare of Godís people and perpetuation of the ministry. continue
Augustine: For Professors, Poets and Pastors
Article by March 2013
I remember the first time I read Augustine. I was a final year undergraduate at Cambridge on the Classical tripos but taking the course, Christian Life and Thought to A.D. 451 from outside my faculty. Those were the days: university courses could actually use the term 'A.D.' to refer to exactly the same start date as 'C.E.' but without risk of being accused of oppressing anybody and thus standing on a line of obvious continuity with every crime against humanity of the last 500 years. A lost age of almost unimaginable Eloi-style innocence, untouched by the Morlockean mindset of political correctness. continue
Vatican Files no. 18
Article by March 2013
The Three Tasks of Pope Francis
The election of Cardinal Bergoglio to the papacy responds to three basic concerns that the conclave felt it necessary to address. These concerns helped to sketch the profile of the new Pope and Cardinal Bergoglio fitted it.
continue
Intinction and Extinction: Where is Our Good Faith?
Article by March 2013
To the surprise of some of my fellow elders in my Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) presbytery, I voted against the proposed language change to the Book of Church Order 58-5 concerning intinction.(1) It is not because I believe or practice intinction. In fact, in my estimation, the exegetical and historical arguments against intinction deliver a knockout blow continue
How the Evangelical Church Awoke to the Abortion Issue: The Convergent Labors of Harold O. J. Brown, Francis Schaeffer, and C. Everett Koop
Article by March 2013
With the news of C. Everett Koop's death last week, we are given the occasion to return to a question raised only a few months ago by a blog post on CNN.com which provoked reactions far and wide. The question concerns exactly when and how evangelicals came to embrace the pro-life (or as it was known then, the right to life) position. continue


- Chesterton: The Nightmare Goodness of God
- Communion with Christ and His People: The Spirituality of C.H. Spurgeon
- Logic
- What We Talk About When We Talk About God
- Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation
- God and the Atlantic: America, Europe, and the Religious Divide
- A Christian's Pocket Guide to Baptism
- The Devil and Pierre Gernet: Stories
- A Good Day to Die Hard
- Zero Dark Thirty

What John the Baptist Teaches us About the Gospel
Preaching through John's gospel, I have paused to meditate upon the person and work of John the Baptist. Here was one who came as a "witness, to bear witness about the Light" (Jn 1:6). Consistently (1:7, 14, 20) we are told that the Baptist was not the Light but a witness to the Light.
Preaching through John's gospel, I have paused to meditate upon the person and work of John the Baptist. Here was one who came as a "witness, to bear witness about the Light" (Jn 1:6). Consistently (1:7, 14, 20) we are told that the Baptist was not the Light but a witness to the Light.
Doubting on Your Part Does Not Constitute a Crisis of Faith on Mine
One of the amusing things I have noticed in the last twelve months or so has been a shift in the rhetoric used by members of the older generation (40 plus) surrounding what twenty- and thirty-somethings will believe. Five years...
One of the amusing things I have noticed in the last twelve months or so has been a shift in the rhetoric used by members of the older generation (40 plus) surrounding what twenty- and thirty-somethings will believe. Five years...












