Christian Living

Perhaps the most disturbing sign of the impoverished condition of many professing Christians, Christian congregations and denominations is their inability to recognize and self-consciously live in the practicality of the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is the distinguishing...

The Christian doctrine of the Triune Godhead is often thought more in terms of an intellectual puzzle to be solved than a truth to be adored . But the fact of the matter is that the truthfulness of this Scriptural teaching is of immense practical comfort for the child of God. It is the Triune God...

If, as we believe, God is Triune, what difference does it make in our daily Christian lives? If God is Triune, how does this shape our Christian lives and our church life. First, the value of the Trinity is not primarily the benefits that we receive or how it shapes us. God’s glory and majesty are...

I have a question for you. Can existence be separated from attributes? Perhaps a definition or two is in order. My guess is that you know what it means to exist. But what is an attribute? An attribute is a quality, feature, or characteristic about a person or thing. So, for example, think of a fire...

Why does my church - the mourning widow, the lustful high-school jock, the overworked dad, or the tired homeschooling mom - need to relish in the doctrine of God’s Simplicity? Why do I as a pastor have a duty to ground my people in this seemingly obscure doctrine? Before I answer I want to briefly...

It is an ironic point not lost on many theologians that the doctrine of divine simplicity is not so simple. To study the doctrine you must be prepared to welcome an expansion of your theological vocabulary. Every time I read or listen to something on simplicity I frequently pause and consult a...

My wife and I are planning a fairly substantial gardening project in our front yard (she more enthusiastically than I). We’re going to uproot some bushes that no longer seem to fit, and are planning to plant other flowers in their place. It’s all fairly conventional, I suppose, and right now it...

I have been having a lot of theological conversations of late. In fact, just last night I spent nearly five hours with a friend discussing the current Trinitarian controversy among Reformed complementarians while enjoying a delightful dinner (we were worried we were overstaying our welcome but no...

Today theology has fallen on tough times and that includes confessional theology. Listen closely to contemporary conversations, because depending on the participants the discussion will usually include a wink and a nod, as if to say, the narrative, of which these confessional documents are a part,...

Some folk seem to have the misapprehension that holding to a confession and catechisms (as do Presbyterians, the continental Reformed, Reformed Baptists, Lutherans, and Anglicans, just to name a few) thrusts a straightjacket on the theologian or the average Christian precluding freedom to follow...