How Jesus Saves
Jesus saves by grace, through faith, unto works. We don’t want Scripture to be crumbs in a bag, after all. When we forget that, or try to manage it that somehow we’re just tokens of his glory, we abandon the…
Category Reformation21
Jesus saves, faith does not.
Jesus is the “agent” of salvation. Faith is the “instrument” of salvation. We must not confuse the two. Jesus is the agent who accomplishes all saving graces for us and in us. Jesus “saves,” “justifies,” “sanctifies,” and “glorifies” his people…
Frank Turk
Frank Turk received his MA in Literature in English from St. Bonaventure University, and years later became a Christian in the basement of his parents’ house one night while contemplating suicide. He’s married to a woman who’s much smarter than…
Bible Ignorance
People who have an excellent understanding of the Scriptures really impress me. If there’s one thing I detest, besides Manchester United, it’s Bible studies or theological discussions where the Scriptures function like the crumbs in a bag of chips: you…
Hong Kong protests a Christian mission? But first, . . .
Offline eighteen days and Trueman vanishes from the site, Turk takes on Jones’s and Levy’s presbyterianism, and I miss “Deviant Calvinism week.” Conspiracy theorists (and perhaps certain biblical theology practitioners) might discern a theme, but enough about what everyone else is…
Pick on someone your own size
In response to a mortifying podcast on patriarchal abuse, from certain former Ref21 bloggers, let me just say a word or two about the very stupid idea that husbands can beat their wives. I knew someone once who told me…
How to Choose a Spouse: Calvin on Gen. 6.1-3
“The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose” (NASB). It is not entirely obvious who the parties (“sons of God” and “daughters of men”) to the historical…
The Christian Political Conundrum
I was privileged today to have lunch with a Republican US Senator at a small gathering of evangelical pastors. It was quite enjoyable to interact with a politician who has absolutely no fears of losing his election and therefore is…
On pastoral (dis)qualification and other things
This is not about Mark Driscoll, though it is prompted by a few notes being sounded (not by him, as far as I am aware) with regard to his resignation letter, and the circumstances surrounding it. First, pastoral qualification is…
Replacing a Teetotaller
What’s this? Carl’s gone but there’s a new guy on Ref21? He sounds familiar… from somewhere. Yes, I’m British. English actually. Which apparently makes me sound about 20% more intelligent than I really am, to some Americans. I should move…