Reformation21

Things have sure heated up here in South Carolina over the move by the ARP general synod to ensure doctrinal fidelity at its denominational college and seminary, Erskine. As usually happens, the continuing conflict has only shown how necessary that synod's action really was.

Mark Beach has done us all a service by publishing an introduction to Calvin's Institutes -- Piety's Wisdom .I have to confess that my first encounter with Calvin's magnum opus proved a difficult one. Calvin's logic was not mine at the time, and I have discovered over the past thirty years that I...

Just landed on my desk: a copy of The Trials of Theology: Becoming a 'Proven Worker' in a Dangerous Business edited by Andrew J. B. Cameron and Brian S. Rosner (Christian Focus). Essays include voices from the past (Luther, Spurgeon, Warfield, Bonhoeffer and Lewis) and the present (John Woodhouse,...

An Edinburgh taxi driver, James Kerr, of Simple Minds Cabs, Morningside, has asked Ref21 to bring readers' attention to the upcoming Herman Bavinck conference at New College. Details can be found here . It is disappointing to see that there will be no discussion of Bavinck's contribution to...

Five Reasons to come to PCRT in Greenville In a little under a month, the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology will make its second trip to Greenville, South Carolina. Why should you come? Here's at least 5 reasons: • First, and foremost, you'll get to hear four of the top preachers/...

Rumor has it that there was a minor panic across the Bible belt this morning when a number of pastors focused on this story as a sign that Matthew 24:15 was about to be fulfilled, advising their congregations to flee to the mountains. Derek Thomas, however, wants to assure ref21 readers that there...

Prof Sandy Finlayson of Westminster Theological Seminary has published a new book on the formative leaders of the Free Church of Scotland. Unity and Diversity has been published by Christian Focus Publications. It gives biographical studies of men like Thomas Chalmers, William Cunningham, Andrew...

Okay, I'll take the bait. Carl just wrote, "If the game is simply to get from Text A to Bethlehem, what do you do with a book like Judges? Preach 200 sermons which essentially say, 'This judge failed, but surprise, surprise, there is a judge who didn't fail; let's talk about him, shall we'?" My gut...

Further to my last post, my good friend Dr. John Ross (Dumisani Theological Institute, King William's Town, SA), made the following insightful comment: " I fully agree it is pushing the envelope to say that a meaningful encounter with God happens nowhere else other than in preaching. God meets us...

Further to Carl's comments on Barthian preaching... Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Barthian preaching is their belief that something happens in preaching that happens nowhere else. Lacking an authoritative epistemological base, Barthians assume the posture all too common elsewhere -- "you...