Reformation21

Do you remember when you first learned you would have a child? You likely prayed over your little one day after day. Even though you'd never met him or her in person, you loved your child more than anything. You waited for months--and if you were an adoptive parent, sometimes years--anticipating...

The Mesha Stele is an ancient slab of basalt stone from the 9 th century BC. It was named for Mesha, the king of Moab (2 Kings 3:4). This stele is actually an ancient document which records the struggles of the Moabite people at the hands of the king of Israel, Omri. After the split of the Jewish...

Last week, Avengers: Endgame , the final blockbuster Marvel movie, was released, smashing box-office records. The movie is the culmination of an ambitious story arc encompassing 22 movies that Marvel Studios began planning 14 years ago. Endgame brings that plan to its final conclusion. It may...

As I've been reading through G.K. Chesterton's book Heretics , I was interested to happen upon his treatment of dogmatism and the arts. Reflecting on his consideration of the life and work of Rudyard Kipling, Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells, Chesterton wrote: "The fiercest dogmatists can make the best...

Many years ago, at one of the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society, Allan Fisher gave me (a poor doctoral student at the time) one of the best gifts that an aspiring student of theology could ever receive: a copy of Francis Turretin's three-volume Institutes of Elenctic Theology...

Since the early 19 th Century the American church has largely taken for granted the necessity and legitimacy of mission agencies, both church and para-church. By the mid 20 th Century they were as firmly entrenched as any feature of American church life. But a surprising deja-vu moment occurred...

In his remarkable book, The Suffering Savior , Frederick Krummacher made the astonishing observation that by Jesus' prayer for mercy from the cross for those who crucified him, we can conclude that "while offering up the Lord Jesus, [those crying out for his death] unconsciously pay the ransom for...

In the first post in this short series on the theology of the seventeenth Anglican poet, George Herbert, we considered the centrality of salvation by grace in the altar poem. It shows up throughout his other poems as well. But of course the Gospel is only good news if preceded by the bad news of...

In my first article on the topic of theology proper, I discussed why we must know the God who created us. I will now explain how we can know that God whose ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9) Christianity is a religion of revelation, and our God...

Isaac Watts wrote nearly 600 hymns in the 18th Century. Churches around the world still sing many today. For instance, if you visited a congregation on any given Sunday in the English speaking world, it would not be a surprise for you to hear believers singing one the following hymns penned by the...