Category: Uncategorized

Real or Imaginary Hypotheticals A hypothetical can be either a real or an imaginary hypothetical. It is important to classify the sort of hypothetical that is intended when reading an author who is using hypotheticals. For instance, “if pigs can fly” is an imaginary (not possible) hypothetical. Pigs do not normally have wings. There could…

Anglican Bishop, N. T. Wright, writes: By “the gospel” Paul does not mean “justification by faith.” He means the announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus is Lord. To believe this message is to give believing allegiance to Jesus as Messiah and Lord” is to be justified in the present by faith (whether or not…

The founder of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Dr. C. F. W. Walther, gave a series of lectures starting in 1884 on the distinctions between Law and Gospel. These are published as a set of thesis in a book entitled, “The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel“. The book provides a set of six rules/guidelines…

The dominant method of pastoral caregiving today is based on Rogerian therapy. In this method, the therapist repeats back the words of the person being cared for. The therapist may ask probing questions, but those questions are always to be based upon something that was given from the patient in the conversation. In this method,…

I have been thinking a lot lately about a question that is deceptively simple. The question is “What is the Gospel?” The answer is surprisingly evasive for a number of reasons. One of these is that there are few clear definitions of “the gospel” in Scripture. Another reason is that the word “gospel” seems to…

A recent story has the warned from Lyle Schaller warning his Northern Illinois Conference of the Methodist Church that they are headed to extinction. Schaller’s words ought to be listened to because he is a well-known expert on church growth. But more importantly Schaller is knowledgeable on church decline. Schaller sees all of the signs…

The Grammatical-Historical-Contextual (GHC) method is the method used by many people to understand Scripture. Using the GHC method a person is said to be able to come away with the original meaning of the Scripture as the author intended. There is much in the GHC method to commend itself. There are also weaknesses in the…

What is the place of parachurch ministries? Should Christians participate in parachurch ministries? Does support of parachurch organizations take away from the church or does it add to it? Is the mission of the church diluted or built up by parachurch organizations? Definitions A few definitions are in order. A parachurch ministry is one that…

Ephesians 2:8 is often quoted as evidence that faith is a gift. The Greek text makes this interpretation a difficult one, however. It may be the case that faith is a gift from God but this verse is inconclusive as proof. Greek has a concept known as gender agreement. Nouns, pronouns and adjectives share the…

For some, this question is like asking “Reformed or Pelagian?” They view things in particular categories that were historically formed hundreds of years ago or more than fifteen hundred years ago in the battle between Augustine and Pelagius. Today, for many, calling someone “Arminian” is a curse. Who was Arminius? Jacob Arminius was a Dutch…

Relecting a bit this morning about creeds and the the purposes they serve. Function of Creeds Historically, creeds served a purpose. They were the road markers for the faith. Issues were clearly delineated by the creeds. If a person strayed from the creed they went too far from the faith. Creeds provided a confessional unity.…

Romans 9:13 is frequently by double predestinarian advocates as Biblical evidence of individual election. The passage has: Romans 9:13 – Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” At first glance it appears that this passage is referring to the historical individuals, Jacob and Esau. The story is so familiar that…

Paradigms. That’s the fancy word for systems of belief. Definition #3 at dictionary.reference.com gives the definition of paradigm as: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline. Everyone has a paradigm. In fact, everyone has a paradigm…

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about eternal security and thought I’d lay out my own thoughts. Take them for what they are worth. There are a lot of different ways of approaching this subject and mine is not unique by any means. I need to start with a confession of humility of what I…

Are there female angels? In the book of Genesis, the angels that visit Abraham were men. Other angels in the Bible have masculine names (Gabriel, Michael). These names describe attributes of God. Genesis 6 describes the sons of God that married the daughters of men. In all of these examples, angels are manifested as men.…

Homeschooling is a movement which is growing quickly in the United States. The Covenant Companion (published by the Evangelical Covenant Church) ran an article on Homeschooling. Twenty years ago there were very few homeschoolers. Now there are more than a million homeschooled kids. See the Homeschool Legal Defense Association website for information about homeschooling. For…

The Evangelical Covenant Church has a fairly unique practice when it comes to baptism. Covenant Churches practice both believer and infant baptism. (The Confederation of Reformed Evangelicals also has the practice, but they are quite small.) Local churches may prefer to operate in one mode or the other but Covenant pastors are required to baptize…

In yet another front of the raging culture wars, the Southern Baptist Convention has a proposal that its members withdraw their children from public schooling. If this clears the Resolution Committee, this would take the form of a resolution to the Convention. Home school or private Christian schooling is given as the means of education…

At church we been learning about the Love of God for this past semester. Today, we talked about what God hates. There are a lot of passages which talk about how God hates sin. We are familiar with many of them. The Psalms are full of them. In the Psalms, sin is understood as falling…

Today I am looking at the baptism of John and the TULIP of the Calvinists. These verses seem problematic to the Calvinistic position with respect to the I in the TULIP: Luke 7:29-30 And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees…

Gary North has an interesting article (from 2001) on the history and future of education. North’s tracks three stages of economic theory which he applies to education. These are: oligarchic/autarchic, the democratic, and the individualistic stages. In the oligarchic stage only the children of the rich afford an education. In the democractic stage, the rich…

N. T. Wright is the Anglican ishop of Durham, England. Wright was interviewed by the National Catholic Reporter on various social issues including ordination of homosexuals, abortion on demand, ordination of women, and the current international crisis in the Anglican Church caused by the ordination of a homosexual priest. Wright even weighs in on the…

There are a number of people out “there” who call themselves Reformed Baptists. They are Calvinists, hence the part of the title, Reformed. They also hold to adult baptism only, hence they are Baptists. Where they run into trouble is when they try to show that the two systems are compatible. Historically, the Reformed rejected…

Interesting blog on Hauerwas and the Bible Gestapo. After reading Hauerwas in seminary and in the process acquiring a critical dislike for the contents of his writing, this critique comes as a breath of fresh air. The inconsistencies of Hauerwas are equally invisible to his disciples and obvious to his critics. Hauerwas is an advocate…

Is forgiveness contingent upon repentance? If God forgives based on repentance, should we also forgive based on repentance? Or should we forgive even where the other person refuses to repent? On first thought, the idea that we need to always forgive regardless of whether the other person repents seems right but does it stand up…