Among Reformed scholars, we hear a great deal of discussion these days about the law and the gospel. Getting this right is important, but it is not as simple as it sounds. In a recent blog post, Paul Helm had some thoughts which I found helpful and I pass them on for your consideration. Helm […]
The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it. So wrote Martin Luther, in the last one of the 28 theses that he composed for the disputation on April 26, 1518. Those theses and their […]
I have spent all my life in a very similar context to the kind of evangelical environment that Roger Olson describes as his experience. My parents were evangelical missionaries; I attended a missionary boarding school for all but one of my years of elementary and high school education; I attended an evangelical Bible College, graduate […]
Augustine was definitely correct when he wrote in City of God: “It is a certainty that all people want to be happy” (X.1). But people have very different ideas about what happiness is and how we can achieve it. Ryan Hoselton gives us an interesting comparison between the proposal of pop singer Pharrell and the […]
Reasons for encouragement about God’s work in the Roman Catholic Church I listened to an mp3 conversion of the video from the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast recently, and I enjoyed it very much. You can watch it here: This year’s guest speakers were his Eminence Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Robert P. George of […]
When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we find it easy at the start. We do want our heavenly Father’s name to be reverenced, and we do want his kingdom to come, which means that his “will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are also happy to ask God for our daily […]
I wrote Providence and Prayer because of my keen interest in the way different models of divine providence lead to different prayers of petition and thanksgiving. Last week, as I prayed the prayer appointed for the week, from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime, it occurred to me that it is a good […]
I have been a Calvinist for almost 47 years now, and my reading of Scripture continues to confirm the correctness of that monergist framework. The God I have learned to love with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength is the one who chose me to be one of his adopted children, before he created […]
For some time now, I have been memorizing the New City Catechism and I am finding it very beneficial. I’m taking my time at it, but I have now gotten a fair handle on the first 12 questions and answers, so I’m finished the questions on the ten commandments. I very much appreciate the way […]
Learning, like riches, may add to usefulness, when sanctified. But, like riches, it exposes to snares and temptations; it is hard to have it without trusting in it. (John Newton) In recent decades there have been numerous expressions of concern about anti-intellectualism among evangelicals these days. Mark Noll’s 1995 book, The Scandal of the Evangelical […]