Time to Bury the Bibles?
Few things bring out the hysteria in all of us like a presidential election. Perhaps only the close of a millennium (anyone remember Y2K?) can compete for catapulting Americans into…
Aaron Denlinger
Faith is a Gift (But Not That Kind of Gift!)
Any theological system worth its salt affirms that faith is a gift from God rather than the exercise of some innate power of the human soul. But that affirmation can…
On Burials and Bargains
Upon the surface, Genesis 23 seems rather curious in its choice of emphases. In the terse space of a single verse it records Sarah’s death and Abraham’s mourning (Gen. 23.2).…
A Valuable (or not) Historical Resource on Gender Roles
The last year or so has witnessed some controversy about the meaning and value of the term complementarianism (not to be confused with complimentarianism, which is belief in people who…
Statism and Parachurchism
Several weeks ago I re-read J. Gresham Machen’s pivotal, early twentieth-century work Christianity and Liberalism in preparation for giving the final lectures of a seminary course on modern church history.…
The Justification of Works by Faith
The Protestant Reformers, following Scripture’s lead, roundly rejected the notion that believers might be justified in part or in whole by their own good works. Sinners, they maintained, are justified…
“The Labyrinth of Temptation”: Calvin on Genesis 22
“This chapter contains a most memorable narrative.” Thus Calvin introduces his readers to Gen. 22, that text which records God’s instruction to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, the long-awaited…
John Webster (1955-2016) Ref21 Contributions
Ref21 readers who are familiar with the British theologian John Webster will, I’m sure, already know that he passed away late last month. I’m equally sure that many readers of…
Papist Wildlife and Providentialist Histories
Several days ago I was distracted from my mid-afternoon, back-porched task of grading college research papers by the presence of a pair of cardinals flitting around our yard. As I…
Luther, Palmerworms and Theological Precision
The details of Luther’s mid-1520s tussle with Erasmus over the issue of sin’s impact on human freedom are generally well known. Luther responded to Erasmus’s 1524 De libero arbitrio diatribe…