What is the “total” in “total depravity”? When we speak of total depravity, we do not mean that every person is as quantitatively bad as they could possibly be. We do not mean that every person has committed every possible sin or that every person does all the heinousness of a Stalin or Hitler. We...

It is unfortunate that many Christians reject the doctrine of God’s impassibility with the assumption that since Scripture portrays God as having love, wrath, kindness, and anger, God cannot be “impassible.” It is a gross negligence in understanding the doctrine and its relationship to God’s aseity...

In recent years, the doctrine of the simplicity of God has fallen on hard times and faced various misunderstandings. It does not impinge on God’s infinite nature and his majestic glory that is beyond us. Rather, the simplicity of God means that God is not composed of parts. He is not a complex...

When I was in seminary, our apologetics professor regularly reminded us that all of God’s relationships with humanity are covenant relationships. The covenant ungirds every facet of our existence as humans. Not only has the truth of this affected me since then, but also I remember it well because I...

The battle over inerrancy can get quite messy and convoluted. It can become an exercise in losing the forest for the trees as varying sides’ debate the minutia of issues. More than one scholar has complained that the problem with the doctrine of inerrancy is that definitions become so qualified...

Samuel Miller (1769-1850) one of the early professors at Princeton Seminary was a minister and churchman. He was licensed to preach in 1791 and became Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government in 1813 serving the school until 1849. He was not afraid to address controversies of his...

For those of us who love the truths of Reformed theology, and look up to our heroes of the Reformation, there can be a tendency and even a weakness that assumes that profound truths and rich doctrine will always be expressed in dense and complex language. If we are not careful, we can admire those...

When you ask the average churchgoer about worship, very rarely will they respond with a discussion on preaching. In fact, particularly for those of us who are pastors, when a person asks you “what style of worship does your church have?” very rarely are they think about what the sermon looks like...

Evangelicalism, properly conceived, has been from the beginning cross and gospel centered. But let us consider this question: does the doctrine of the ascension get minimized or neglected in our evangelical theologizing? The ascension of Christ is part of the gospel. Nevertheless, what role, if any...

Not many of us will have the privilege and the opportunity in our lives to write out an entire systematic theology. However, because the Christian life is built on doctrine (starting with the confession that Jesus Christ is Lord), we all have need and use to understand the whole counsel of God, a...

The historicity of the Jesus’ resurrection is a non-negotiable of the Christian faith. If a person does not believe that Jesus rose bodily from the dead, then they are not a Christian. The apostle Paul includes the resurrection of Jesus as a matter of first importance to the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4...

Providence is the doctrine of Scripture that teaches us that God is still in control of the universe which He created. He still exercises authority over all of the creation and the unfolding of history within His creation is not haphazard but according to the plan and permission of God. Louis...

The basic issue behind the concept of limited atonement is whether or not the cross of Christ is effective in accomplishing what God has intended or not. In the death of Christ was sin actually put away? Does it merely make salvation possible or does it effectively accomplish the salvation of God’s...

What is Biblical Theology? We all want our theology to be Biblical so that what we believe and obey is derived from the Bible. However, that is not typically what we mean when we say “Biblical theology”. Biblical theology is a way of understanding the Scripture that pays specific attention to the...

There is an old joke for those who cannot sing that I may not be making a joyful noise but at least I’m joyful when I make it. For those reasons, some people can find congregational singing to be intimidating, yet, hopefully, we would all acknowledge the importance of congregational singing as a...

Martin Luther...

The word “simple” can be used in several ways in the English language. If we say a person is “simple” or “simple-minded,” it is pejorative. As an insult it lowers them in comparison to other human beings. However, if we speak of a ‘simple machine,’ we are not speaking of a machine’s value but its...