Philip Pullman, the author of the trilogy, His Dark Materials ("Lord of the Rings" it is not), is to release a book this coming weekend called, The Good man Jesus, and the Scoundrel Christ . Ahead of the launch, he has, it appears, received threats as to his safety -- though this accountin The...

Just landed on my desk: a copy of The Trials of Theology: Becoming a 'Proven Worker' in a Dangerous Business edited by Andrew J. B. Cameron and Brian S. Rosner (Christian Focus). Essays include voices from the past (Luther, Spurgeon, Warfield, Bonhoeffer and Lewis) and the present (John Woodhouse,...

Further to Carl's comments on Barthian preaching... Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Barthian preaching is their belief that something happens in preaching that happens nowhere else. Lacking an authoritative epistemological base, Barthians assume the posture all too common elsewhere -- "you...

Discouraged in ministry by the likes of Trotter et al? I have been trying to keep Del Boy from responding too his errant younger brother but I fear his ire will explode soon. In the mean time, you should avail yourself of four addresses given by Sean Lucas at RTS Jackson's Spiritual Life Conference...

I have just received a copy of Phil Ryken's new (almost) book, Discovering God in Stories from the Bible (P & R) in which he examines the attributes of God from the stories of Moses, Saul, David and Job and others. This is a reprint from a work Phil published a decade ago but can now be...

I am preaching on the doctrine of providence tomorrow from a text in 1 Samuel. For some inexplicable reason, I have called the sermon, "The Saints and the providence of God." And, as it happens, I picked up this week a brand new publication of Calvin's monumental writing, "The Secret Providence of...

I recently heard that Pilgrim Radio will be broadcasting Christ the Center on FM radio. Pilgrim Radio airs 24 hours a day in 5 States . They broadcast The Al Mohler Program , as well as R.C. Sproul, John Piper, and Alistair Begg. Christ the Center is the weekly podcast of the Reformed Forum . The...

"If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him" (Matt.7:11) Several things emerge from these words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount: First, prayer is asking the Father for help, to...

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matt. 5:17). It is unwise to attempt to pin down what "fulfill" means in this breathtaking statement by Jesus. For starters, "the Law" may well be fulfilled in a different way to...

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matt. 4:1) Jesus' encounter with the devil was an appointment he had to keep. It was established within the terms of the covenant of redemption in the counsels of eternity. In order for the kingdom of God to be...

I'm reading, Welcoming Justice: God's Movement Toward Beloved Community (IVP, just published) By Charles Marsh and John Perkins (foreword by Philip Yancey). I have met John Perkins many times (interestingly more often than not, on board airplanes when we have been placed next to each other). He is...

I have been mulling over the books I most enjoyed reading this past year (limiting myself to those published in 2009): There was Perspectives on Christian Worship: 5 Views , ed. J. Matthew Pinson (B & H Publishers). Actually, six views but Michael Lawrence and Mark Dever are counted as one. The...

More on sacraments - additional ones invented by men. Using the formula that sacraments are "visible signs of an invisible grace" Calvin notes that there is no limit to the inventions that can pass this test. Reverting again to the argument of recent novelty, Calvin argues that the seven sacraments...

Private Communion (or Masses): Calvin is against them. True, he is against the Mass "period"; but mutatis mutandis he is against private celebrations of the Lord's Supper for the same reason: the Supper is meant to define the communion of the body, not its separation and individuality. As for the...

Scottish Highland Presbyterians need to hold their breath for a second while Calvin refers to an annual Lord's Supper ritual as "a veritable invention of the devil" [4.17.46]. Calvin then adds, something which he has been cited for ever since, that the Supper should be "spread at least once a week...

Calvin identifies in the polemics of transubstantiation a fatal hermeneutical flaw: interpret the text to fit the theory rather than allow the theory to be governed (in this case, abandoned) by the text. Add to this a suspicion about Scripture's perspicuity (the Westminster Confession a century...

Transubstantiation and consubstantiation equally infer the ubiquity of Christ's physical body, a matter which Calvin now begins to address. The notion that Christ's physical body (in Bethlehem's manger, on the cross, resurrected in walking along the Galilean shore) is in every place at the same...

Further to recent blogs on the topic "How Can a loving God send People to Hell?" readers might like to watch a video clip (posted by Martin Downes) of Don Carson answering this question, here .

Another objection to infant baptism is considered: infants are incapable of understanding the gospel and therefore cannot be regenerated. Therefore they should not be baptized. If, Calvin argues, they are not in Christ, they must be in Adam (there is no middle ground). This means that all infants...

Martin Downes draws my attention to a lecture on hell and annhilation given by J. I. Packer in Cardiff in 1991. You can find an audio file here .

Various problems are now dealt with: those baptized (infants) often wait many years before repentance is seen. Does this invalidate the baptism? No, "This promise was offered to us in baptism; therefore, let us embrace it by faith." Is there not an example of re-baptism in the case of the Ephesians...

Crossway have just published a brand new edition of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress , edited by C. J. Lovik with superb (breathtaking) illustrations by Mike Wimmer. "If any smoothing of Bunyan's seventeenth century language plus new colored pictures can set Pilgrim's Progress aglow in the hearts of...

Common as it is today to cast the burden of examination prior to participation at the Lord's Supper upon the participant, Calvin saw it otherwise: knowingly and willingly to admit "an unworthy person whom he could rightfully turn away, is as guilty of sacrilege as if he had cast the Lord's body to...

Should ministers of the gospel also be found in the world of civilian politics? No, according to Calvin, citing Ambrose: "to the emperor belongs the palaces; to the priest the churches." The Genevan reformer has in mind the aggregation of civil power by the bishops and especially the Pope of the...