Reformation21

If we're awake, we will have a keen sense of the powerful undertow of a culture that has discarded almost every reference to, or value of, Jesus Christ. To the world, the church is too often considered an obsolete community with little to say and even less to offer by way of 'relevance'. Given room...

In the Nicene Creed we confess that the church is "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic." Of these four marks, the third mark--the catholicity of the church--is probably the most susceptible to misunderstanding among evangelical Protestants. The catholicity of the church, according to common...

I've been slowly working my way through Katherine Sonderegger's Systematic Theology Volume 1: The Doctrine of God . Released this year, it is the sort of book that pastor-theologians or theological students could make the focus of a reading group. It is beautifully written, fresh, biblical in...

This is the sixth post in a twelve-part series on the current Christological confusion taking root in China's emerging Reformed community (see part 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 and 5 ). Second Statement: Platonic Dualism As noted at the end of the previous post (see part 5 ), his discussion of the incarnation...

My first article began with the observation that Satan ambitiously aims to attack the church at the very points that are intended by God for its defence. He seeks to bring the world into the church through its elders, and at the heart of its public worship. Having considered the growing problem of...

My first article began with the observation that Satan ambitiously aims to attack the church at the very points that are intended by God for its defence. He seeks to bring the world into the church through its elders, and at the heart of its public worship. Having considered the growing problem of...

Christian catechisms of the question and answer variety came into their own in the sixteenth century. The German Reformer Johannes Brenz developed a Q. & A. catechism for propagating the (revised) Christian faith as early as 1527. Luther followed suit two years later with his Large and Short...

Somewhat curiously, Calvin judged "the great number of inns" populating the landscape of his day to be rather obvious "evidence of our depravity" -- the "our" in question being, in the first instance, early modern Europeans. What prompted such disapproval of something as seemingly innocuous, if not...

I have the delightful day job of teaching systematic or dogmatic theology. The study and teaching of systematic theology is delightful because systematic theology is preeminently concerned with the Bible, the living and loving address of the Most High God to poor and miserable sinners in the gospel...

Never say "never", and never say "always" when making a claim about the Reformed tradition. That's rule number one, and it can save you from a lot of embarrassment. I plan to post on this in the future and bring into light some Reformed voices who have made bold claims in an attempt to cast...