Zero Sum Game
A recent blog post by Sammy Rhodes, a minister in the PCA and RUF chaplain, has caused something of a storm. Pitched as an apology by a theological conservative to the LGBTQ community in the wake of the Orlando massacre,…
Category Reformation21
The Gentleness and Fierceness of Christ
Isaiah’s first Servant Song (Is.42:1-4) pictures a Servant who is gentle, patient, unthreatening and tender hearted. It is a magnificent portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect Servant of the Lord. It is remarkable that in his recorded public…
The Eternal Subordination of the Son Controversy: The Debate so Far
The most recent eruption of the eternal subordination of the Son controversy began with a couple of provocative posts by Liam Goligher, pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, over on Aimee Byrd’s Housewife Theologian blog. Goligher’s posts…
Walker Percy on the Bankruptcy of Naturalistic Materialism
About a year ago I took a solo road trip from Jackson, MS to St. Joseph’s Abbey in Covington, LA, which is the final resting place of the Roman Catholic novelist, Walker Percy. It was an opportunity to pay my…
Eternal Submission and the Story of the Seven Ecumenical Councils
[Editor’s Note: The editorial team, being aware of Dr. Glenn Butner’s 2015 article in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (“Eternal Functional Subordination and the Problem of the Divine Will”) asked him if he would be willing to distill the…
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 this site will not have heard of Webster, or will…
Refuting Theological Error
There is a profoundly important section titled, “On the Preaching of the Word,” in The Directory for the Public Worship of God, in which we find a very short and very wise statement about the minister’s responsibility to refute false teaching…
Some Thoughts on the Current Complementarian Trinitarian Civil War
Many of you are no doubt aware of the current controversy within the Reformed complementarian community about the issue of grounding male and female roles of subordination in the inner-Trinitarian life of the Godhead. The desire to establish the rationale…
God the Son–at once eternally God with His Father, and eternally Son of the Father
Editorial Note: Our friends, Carl Trueman and Liam Goligher, have raised concerns about the Trinitarian theology employed by some scholars who support gender complementarianism (see this, this and this posting). Ref21 is pleased to publish a response from Dr. Bruce Ware. While letting Dr.…
The Adversary and the Intercessor
I love the hymn “Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners” – but one line makes me uncomfortable every time I sing it: “Jesus! What a strength in weakness! Let me hide myself in him; tempted, tried, and sometimes failing, he,…