The best theologians have typically been pastors (e.g., Augustine, Calvin, Owen, Edwards). And the theologians I enjoy reading the most are those who had/have real pastoral experience. There is a purpose to their writing that sometimes isn't found when scholars attempt to write for the church. (I...

We must be careful not to speak flippantly about Christ's obedience. The nature, quality, and difficulty of what he actually went through in order to save us will always be beyond our abilities to fully grasp in this life; but that does not mean we should not try to understand something of what it...

I spent the last three days with Paul Levy and his family. Great fun. Levy gave me directions to get to a train near his house, but the grammar and spelling were so bad that I ended up in a hot air balloon over the Thames River, where I saw Jeremy Walker at Bunhill fields, giving a tour to Japanese...

Contrary to popular opinion, Charles Darwin did not invent the theory of biological evolution. But his famous work, The Origin of Species , certainly gave impetus to an idea that would quickly become orthodoxy in the scientific establishment. In his work he made several significant points that have...

Sitting in the Heathrow airport en route to Johannesburg to lecture Seminary students, I thought it might be good to disclose my vision for a course at Seminary that, I believe, is nowhere offered at any major Reformed seminary in America. The course would be called "Ant Farm 101". Students hoping...

In my mind, the only person fully equipped to be a mega-church pastor is Christ, who knows all of his sheep by name. He alone, by his Spirit, can minister to each of his sheep. He alone, by his Spirit, can meet the spiritual needs of all his flock (Jn. 14:16-17). In connection with that, Jesus has...

Why do we love justification and sanctification? And do we love one more than the other? If you've ever been in a position where you think you might die, your theology really begins to matter, and you learn a great deal about yourself and what you believe. A legalistic type of Christian probably...

After reading a rather punchy and critical review by Thomas McCall, "a Wesleyan-Arminian Christian (and thus only "Reformed" in a fairly broad sense)," I thought it might be a good time to discuss briefly the topic of book puffs/commendations, and also perhaps the worrying direction of Ref21...

Now the great design of all believers is to be like Jesus Christ, in all grace, and all the exercise of it. He is in all things their pattern and example . Wherefore, when they have a view of the glory of any grace as it was exercised in Christ, and a sense of their own defect and lack of...

The life he lived, he lived by faith in God who loved him and gave the Holy Spirit to him. The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness furnishes us with clear evidence that the life he lived he lived by faith in God. He trusted in the God who was able to help him in his time of need (Heb. 2:13)...

People who have an excellent understanding of the Scriptures really impress me. If there's one thing I detest, besides Manchester United, it's Bible studies or theological discussions where the Scriptures function like the crumbs in a bag of chips: you get to them only if you're desperate. As...

"For my part, I had much rather my lot should be found among them who do really believe with the heart unto righteousness, though they are not able to give a tolerable definition of faith unto others, than among them who can endlessly dispute about it with seeming accuracy and skill, but are...

With bad news on the horizon....I am taking this opportunity to post before the storm. In the interests of showing that I am happy to receive "push-back" on articles, here is Denny Burk responding to my post, A Plea For Realism . Now, I only found out about this post today. But I have written two...

Here is the first of two posts: "Why I Pour" & "Why I Baptize Babies." They are both roughly 900 words each. Should we only baptize by immersion, the full submersion of the body under water? Should we argue that baptizo means immerse and get on with it? Isn't Romans six a water-tight case...

I'm terribly sorry to disappoint, but no more responses from me on this topic. I just realized that I am running out of friends: first the baptists ; second the twitteristas ; third the republicationists ; fourth the masturbationists ; fifth the ubiquitarians ; sixth the covenanters ; seventh the...

Presbyterian ecclesiology has some advantages. For example, we try to refrain from being sectarian. There is a healthy catholicity to our ecclesiology, which is seen in our communion practice (section 7; see also PCA, BOCO 57-5). In relation to our healthy catholicity, I want to raise some...

Comments are not allowed here at Reformation21. Why? Well, someone has to be in charge of editing out all of the stupid, vitriolic, inane, off-topic, and poorly worded comments that appear with great regularity on blogs that sometimes discuss controversial issues. If those wishing to comment are...

Today was a special day for me: I crossed the border to pick up my Amazon orders, which included a Nacho Libre mask (for Halloween), and a couple of books. The book that immediately impressed me the most is Chad van Dixhoorn's latest, Confessing the Faith: A Reader's Guide to the Westminster...

Sorry, glitch with the first post. Had to republish this again. "Virtually all of the Reformed theologians of the era recognized, albeit in varying degrees, that there could be no relationship between God and the finite, mutable creature apart from grace. This was also the burden of the medieval...

The Baptists love their water; The Covenanters love their Psalter; But mess with the Klineans, You'll soon be on the altar! The good folk at Ref21 - that is, the top men - were so chuffed with my entrance into this intra-Reformed debate, that they'd like to see more publications on republication...

Warning: this post may be offensive to people with absolutely no sense of humour: Twitter can be a dangerous place for trying to do theology. Information sharing is one thing; but "tweeting" - is that a word? - theology is quite another. Personally, theology is not easy at the best of times - you...

A council member from - ahem - The Gospel Coalition sent me this today. We here at Reformation21 nominate the entire Gospel Coalition, all 1,000,000+ of you. Carl Trueman's Ice-Bucket challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7XUU6DWSjU Some observations are in order: 1. We know Carl is against...

Why do good things happen to bad people and why do bad things happen to good people? Strictly speaking, there has only ever been one good person who has had bad things happen to him, and he volunteered! But the Scriptures are filled with examples of good things happening to bad people (Mal. 3:15;...

In his book, "Tough Topics" , Sam Storms addresses the question of Christ's impeccability ("Could Jesus Sin?"). He writes: "For many years I strongly advocated the impeccability of Christ, insisting that because he was God incarnate, he was incapable of sinning. Now, make no mistake, he was and...