It Pleased God…to Create
The words “it pleased God…to create,” in Westminster Confession of Faith 4.1, refer to divine willing, to the decree of God. Creation is due to the will of God. It is not necessary to the divine essence, however. The Triune…
Tag Creation
Defining Creation
What is creation? Quite often, when asked that question, everyday Christians would immediately direct attention to what has been made. One might say, “Look at the vast sky above, with its moon and stars, its sun and clouds which give…
Creation Calls For Wonder
“The work of creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.” Thus the Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes the Christian doctrine of creation (WSC 9).…
No Adam, No Christ!
Preaching through Genesis over the past year and a half has encouraged me to re-open quite a number of significant theological subjects–not least of which is the historical character of the foundational portions of God’s revelation. Over the past 150 years, biblical…
A Christmas Reflection
If the dank earth forming marrow and flesh does not entice your wonder, then neither will the Incarnation. This Christmas season, I have been thinking of how integrally related Adam and Christ are in redemptive history, as made plain in…
Dispatch from Notre Dame’s Creation out of Nothing: Origins and Contemporary Significance Conference (part 2)
This is the second (and final) part to the report. One can read the first part here ~ the editor …The ‘nothingness’ that enters into human experience through acts of sin is something of which Augustine was acutely aware when…
Scarcity and Abundance
In recent decades, Western culture has developed what the business analysts might call a ‘scarcity mindset’. There are good reasons for this of course. For a long time, we’ve been behaving like a teenager in a bedroom, consuming non-renewable energy…
Dispatch from Notre Dame’s Creation out of Nothing: Origins and Contemporary Significance Conference (part 1)
In early July the University of Notre Dame’s “Institute for Church Life” held a comprehensive, high-octane – and free – conference on the doctrine “Creation out of Nothing” (one of the rare doctrines that might be better known by its…
Adam and Eve and Karl
In a recent article posted at The Daily Beast, Dr. Karl Giberson laments that there are vocal elements within the CRC (Christian Reformed Church) who still believe the Bible and their own confession of faith concerning human origins. In an…
Chapter 4.2, Part Two
ii. After God had made all other creatures, he created man, male and female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after his own image; having the law of God written in their hearts, and…