AKA, A Question of Character 6 Our present age is interesting both for its preoccupation with youth and its demand for the instantaneous. Such has not always been the case in human history: legend had it that Confucius was born an old man, and anyone visiting countries in south east Asia today will...

As we move into 1 Tim. 3, I have drawn verse 2. Paul launches his list of qualifications for an overseer with a series of practical characteristics. At key points in 1 Timothy, Paul is concerned at the connection between true belief (under attack from false teachers) and correct behaviour. For Paul...

Anyone who has studied the path which theology has followed over the last century will know that the concept of victimhood is absolutely central. Indeed, it has generated some of the most creative theology of the last hundred years. Auschwitz and the victims of the Holocaust inspired The Crucified...

In the last twenty four hours, two friends sent me two different news stories. The one here refers to events outside the church; the one here within it (WARNING: the church one is not for the easily offended). These raised a number of questions in my mind. The first caused me to wonder, at a...

Before my colleagues launch into 1 Tim 3 proper, one further thought comes to mind, provoked by an email from a friendly correspondent: why is it that character is so low on the agenda in the modern church when it comes to choosing officers? Ironically, Samuel Miller might be a help to us here at...

As the time of the apostles was drawing to a close, and hearing news that the church in Ephesus was being assaulted by both false teaching and the inroads of worldliness, Paul's response was to write to Timothy to tell him to stay in Ephesus. He also told him to appoint men as elders and deacons...

One of the great lacunae in many of the current debates surrounding ministry in the contemporary world is the issue of character. In the world of confessional Presbyterianism, our focus is generally on elaborate theological integrity and intellectual accomplishments, reflecting the ideal of an...

Rod Liddle (We are not worthy! We are not worthy!) has a typically pungent article in this week's Spectator (Warning: usual caveats apply for the easily offended). There he deals with the culture of instant gratification that pervades modern British society; but the phenomenon is something of a...

Westminster Seminary in California (no relation) has recently been placed in the invidious position of having an entire book explicitly devoted to clobbering them, as we say back home. In response, they have issued a temperate and graciously firm statement which you can read here . It does make the...

The Rev. Thabiti Anyabwile has an excellent post on the real cost of giving T D Jakes a pass. It is a moving story and one that deserves to be read by all -- especially those ministers who gave Jakes a pass the other week.

A great post from Dan over at TeamPyro here . It is a great thing to limit one's feudal ties for it gives great freedom to speak.

I was recently reminded of a very thoughtful post from a little while ago at The Internet Monk . It is a most helpful reminder of a problem that the church has had since at least the advent of the printing press: if teaching in church is to be assigned to, and overseen by, men ordained to that task...

Garry Williams, the English theologian who is one of the most articulate scholarly advocates of penal substitutionary atonement,has recently published an article on the extent to which the Church Fathers can be regarded as holding to the doctrine. It is available online here .

Now that it is official that the kind of questions raised in the third and fourth centuries relative to Trinitarianism are nothing more than the constructs of a bunch of middle aged white guys, it is worth perhaps spending a few moments in methodological and historical reflection. Methodologically...

Pastor Chris Anderson has a very perceptive post from a Fundamentalist perspective, on recent events. On another note, these recent events have really only brought to the surface tensions and problems which are bound to exist when one tries to make too hard and fast a separation between doctrinal...

In the last week, three great new(ish) books have landed on my desk. First, the Rev. Thabiti Anyabwile has taken time off from preparing my Festschrift to write an excellent little volume entitled Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons . It is part of the 9Marks series from Crossway. Those familiar...

Many thanks to Richard Barcellos for sending this link in. It may prove helpful to some in understanding the Oneness movement.

A Librarian, whose tailor wishes to remain anonymous, has written to complain about the Librarianophobic nature of some of the comments on this blog. On legal advice, we reprint the whole of his missal below: Reverend Sir: I am writing to protest the cavalier attack that the Reverend Dr. Carl R...

Thanks to the great and the good (both the vocal and, more worryingly, the strangely silent), I am sure many pastors of churches will now have to waste a lot of valuable time reading the works of T D Jakes in order to help their congregations understand why there is concern not simply about his...

A number of Ref21 readers have emailed and asked me to comment on the Elephant Room. To be honest, Frank Turk , over at TeamPyro, has expressed what thoughts I do have but better than I could have done so. One thing is worthy of general comment, however: it is a classic example of the current...

My attempt to trigger class warfare by blaming the English public school system for the popularity of annihilationism seems to have worked, with a mass rising of the OBN and the OST to protest my thesis. Indeed, Pete Sanlon (not, I believe, a public school boy)sent me a link to this article which...

Anglican theologian, Pete Sanlon, recently sat down with Dr. Alister Chapman to talk about the latter's new book on the life and ministry of John Stott. The interview is now available here . With all of the uncritical adulation that typically surrounds late leaders, this is something of a breath of...

Watching The Iron Lady was a strangely emotional experience. As for anyone who came of age in eighties Britain, the formative years of my life were dominated by the presence of Mrs Thatcher. The riots of 81, the Maze hunger strikes, the IRA bombings, the Falklands, the miners' strike, the poll tax...

A few years ago, I was on a panel discussing the Puritans. A member of the audience asked if I could provide `a few bullet points' to summarise Puritan theology. My mind immediately went to those passages of John Owen and Richard Baxter where they give the reader the fifteenth point of the...