Category: Reformed

  • Ariz. pastors indicted for not reporting sex abuse

    Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/05/2031806/ariz-pastors-indicted-for-not.html#storylink=mirelated#ixzz0wVBMUApb

  • PCUSA Ecumenical speaker tells truth

    Good stuff.

  • The Confession of Dositheus

    Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem (A.D. 1672) QUESTION I. Ought the Divine Scriptures to be read in the vulgar tongue by all Christians? No. For that all Scripture is divinely-inspired and profitable {cf. 2 Timothy 3:16} we know, and is of such necessity, that without the same it is impossible to be…

  • The Nicene Creed

    The Nicene Creed has some problems for a memorialist Protestant. One is: We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Certainly a memorialist Protestant would acknowledge the validity of baptism and believe in the forgiveness of sins, but would have serious problems with linking the two as the creed does. The creed is sacramental…

  • Lutherans, Homosexuals, Minnesota and a Calvinist Prophet

    John Piper has stated in his BLOG that the tornados that struck the Twin Cities were God’s judgment on the Lutheran body meeting to decide the place of homosexuals in the ordained ministry in the ELCA church. The secular press has picked up the story.

  • Critiques of Wright

    I was asked about the following paper: http://www.thirdmill.org/files/english/html/nt/NT.h.Hill.Wright.html The question was “What do I think about this paper?” Well, since you asked, here’s my 2c worth… The good part is that the author of this paper has the core point of Wright correct. That’s not always the case with Wright’s critics. The central point is…

  • From the Mailbox…

    I am no longer comfortable with calling myself a Theonomist. Wright comments that Saunder’s correctly understands that the New Perspective has at least one commonality with the Reformed tradition in that “it sees the Jewish Law as a good thing now fulfilled, rather than (as in much Lutheran thought) a bad thing now abolished.” As…

  • Matthew for Everyone

    I am using the Matthew for Everyone commentary by N. T. Wright to prepare my weekly sermons. I am following the Revised Common Lectionary for text selection. The text for this week is from Matthew 25:31-46. Wright has an interesting way of dealing with this text. The usual way of reading this text is to…

  • Wright for Everyone

    N. T. Wright has a New Testament Bible Commentary set that is intended for laypersons but it quite suitable for pastors. This set is titled the “Everyone” series. As a preacher of the Gospel, I find coming up with sermon illustrations to be a challenge week in and week out. I spend more time thinking…

  • Reading more Wright

    I’m now up to page 300 in “The New Testament and the People of God” (NTPG). This is the first book in the series of 3 or 5 volumes by N. T. Wright. The second and third volumes are now out as well; “Jesus and the Victory of God” and “The Resurrection of the Son…

  • The two issues in Romans 14

    Exactly what is the nature of the two issues that Paul is referring to here in Romans 14? Eating meat is almost certainly not an issue of vegetarianism or eating meat, but rather of eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Paul is saying that since an idol is nothing in and of itself,…

  • The New Testament and the People of God

    Presently I am doing a very hard task. I am reading from the very first page with the intention of getting to the last page, Dr. Wright’s book, The New Testament and the People of God. This book is a lot of work. The first 144 pages of the book are prelimary to the tast.…

  • Book Review – "What Saint Paul Really Said"

    Subtitled: “Was Saul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?”N. T. Wright published this book in 1997. This book is a great book and is quite readable. Wright takes the phrase “the righteousness of God” to mean God’s own righteousness rather than a forensic, imputed righteousness that man gets from God. Wright demonstrates that this…

  • The Sanders Revolution

    Our Debt to E. P. SandersWright’s book, What Saint Paul Really Said points out the debt that we owe to E. P. Sanders. The central point of Sanders was that “Judaism in Paul’s day was not, as has regularly been supposed, a religion of legalistic works-righteousness.” (pp 18-19). This is the key point in properly…

  • N. T. Wright's writings

    The unofficial N. T. Wright page has quite a few of Dr. Wright’s writings and some audio files as well.

  • Summary of the NPP Five Points

    These are directly from N. T. Wright’s paper New Perspectives in Paul. Stating the five points in the positive. Restating each of the five in the negative.

  • The NPP and Rom 10:6-7

    Romans 10:6-7 are admittedly tough verses. Testing them against the standard Reformed views of these passage is quite informative. Something is seriously wrong with the standard Reformed views of this passage. The problem posed by these passage is not the passage in and of itself, but in the passage that they are quotes from. They…

  • The Lectionary

    The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) is a weekly selection of Biblical texts. Two of the texts are taken from the Old Testament and two come out of the New Testament. One of the Old Testament texts is from the Psalms. One of the New Testament texts is taken from the Gospels and the other text…

  • Christians and the Law

    I have been a Christian for a over 25 years and have struggled in one way or another with one question above all other questions during my years. The question centers around the relationship of the Christian and the Law. Where the problem comes in is with the seemingly irreconcilable passages where Christ and Paul…

  • No condemnation

    Lectionary Text – Rom 8:1-11 Series: Help for the helpless Message: No Condemnation <>Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not…

  • Two Things are Needful

    Who is my Christian Brother? There are two criteria for what makes a person a Christian. One is belief that Jesus is the Messiah. The other is belief that Jesus is the Son of God. What this all means is where the rub comes in.

  • N. T. Wright on the Resurrection

    Resurrection:(1) Current Questions and the Contemporary Setting Resurrection:(2) The Evidence of the Early Church Resurrection:(3) Paul and the Gospels

  • The Atonement and Atonement Models

    This blog is in response to a question about my views on the atonement. I have to confess at the offset that I am not terribly sophisticated in my theology on this subject but as a good theologian I will not let that keep from commenting. Just do not expect my comments to be all…

  • The Sin of Man and the Justice of God

    The Augsburg Confession rightly says that God is not the cause of man’s sin: Of the Cause of Sin they teach that, although God does create and preserve nature, yet the cause of sin is the will of the wicked, that is, of the devil and ungodly men; which will, unaided of God, turns itself…