Reformation21

In the past I've been hard on Australians, minimalism and biblical theology gone totally mad but there are times when you have to take your hat off to them. This is one of those occasions and I want to give kudos to the St Helen's guys for managing to keep a straight face most of the way through...

For an explanation of what follows, see the previously posted introduction to this series. Calvin discerned four basic claims in Rome's teaching on Scripture as discovered in the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent. The first claim was comprised in the opening sentence of the first decree of...

The American missionaries that I work with are the best; I wouldn't swap any of them. They've served us so well and helped us, strengthened our congregation and enabled us to reach people we wouldn't have been able to reach without them. The needs are enormous and millions are without the gospel;...

I intend to offer, over the next several weeks, a four part series on Calvin's response to Rome's doctrine of Scripture as discovered in the fourth session of the Council of Trent. It's my impression that very few Protestants today -- even the confessing kind -- have informed views on what Rome...

In the opening chapters of On Christian Teaching (I.1-5), Augustine argues that everything that exists can be divided into two groups: things to be used and things to be enjoyed. "To enjoy a thing," he proposes, "is to rest with satisfaction in it for its own sake" (I.4). An object of enjoyment is...

Jeremiah Burroughs, in the book Gospel Conversation , tells us that "the gospel of Christ in general is this": It is the good tidings that God has revealed concerning Christ.... More largely it is this: As all mankind was lost in Adam and became the children of wrath, put under the sentence of...

Bruce Baugus has responded carefully to what I had written in reaction to the proposed series on the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT). I thought it might be helpful to expand my initial response, not least lest "brief and rapid" be misconstrued as "...

I confess to having no clue that Vicar Gatiss was setting out to lampoon my post on Wesley, although I did find the mockery of style confusing. I fear he rather missed the point of my post as much as I missed the point of his. I had no thought of snidely suggesting that the Vicar's previous...

I've been preaching on Corporate Worship and last week got to the Lord's Supper, after preaching and before the supper we sang this hymn by Alec Motyer, the Old Testament scholar. I'd never seen it before but it is outstanding and deserves to be more widely known O God, your mercy, moved by love,...

On this blog, fellow contributor Jeremy Walker has offered a "rapid response" protest of the first installment, by Timothy George, of a three-part series on the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Evangelicals and Catholics Together. In doing so, Walker no doubt gave voice to the concerns of...