Categories
Soteriology

Hypothetical Universalism in Paul’s Epistles

About eight years ago, after decades of affirming the “limited atonement” which John Owen had defended at length, I became convinced that the “hypothetical universalism,” which was espoused by the classic moderate Calvinist contingent of the English Reformed delegates to the Synod of Dort, better represented biblical teaching. I believe that this still makes me […]

Categories
Ecclesiology

A small “b” baptist perspective on the rebaptism of mature believers

Last year The Gospel Coalition ran an interesting series, in which they asked pastors and theologians why they changed their mind on baptism. Gavin Ortlund: Why I Changed My Mind About Baptism Sean Michael Lucas: Why I Changed My Mind About Baptizing Infants Liam Goligher: Why I Changed My Mind About Infant Baptism More recently, a piece by […]

Categories
Roman Catholicism Soteriology

Peter Kreeft’s accessibilist perspective re: the unevangelized

In Tough Questions Christians Ask, published by Christianity Today in 1989 and then reprinted as a web only article in 2003, Peter Kreeft answers 35 questions about eternity, mostly with regard to heaven. (The few questions about hell are answered interestingly, but it is difficult to tell from those answers alone whether or not Kreeft affirms […]

Categories
Spirituality

Credo-baptists and pedo-baptists at prayer together about their baptismal covenant

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 […]

Categories
Ecclesiology

Baptism of “believers and their children”: A surprising covenantal discontinuity.

When I was studying at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, I had a number of very interesting conversations about baptism with Norman Shepherd, with whom I took a couple of seminars. I was at a Presbyterian seminary because I wanted to study in a context where Reformed theology was a shared conviction. As a Baptist, I […]

Categories
Books Eschatology Soteriology

Union with Christ in death and resurrection

            Robert Letham concludes his fine book with a chapter that describes the eschatological entailments of the union of members of Christ’s church with himself. Letham’s presentation Though our current experience of union with Christ is wonderful, its gloriousness will only be fully manifested at his return when we are […]

Categories
Ecclesiology

Baptism and church membership revisited

Last March, I wrote about “an open approach to church membership” and described a proposal that was being put forward by leadership at Bethlehem Baptist Church, in Minneapolis. I concluded my comments with this statement: All in all, I think that the elders at Bethlehem Baptist have struck a very nice balance and I wish […]

Categories
Ecclesiology

An open approach to church membership

The Gospel Coalition blog has been running an interesting “forum” on church membership, which the editor introduces this way:  How do baptism and church membership relate? What are the biblical bounds? Baptists debate, ‘”ust one be baptized as a believer in order to join a local church?” Meanwhile, Presbyterians and other paedobaptists consider, “Should one […]