A Bucket With No Bottom

I am currently reading A Humble Inquiry by Jonathan Edwards, in which he explains the reasons why he was putting some doctrinal daylight between himself and his predecessor Solomon Stoddard. And since these basic issues, being what they are, cannot ever go away, and because in addition they have become deeply embedded in the American …

One Kind of Baptism Means Two Kinds of Christian

In my stack of books being read, there are a handful of writers that are always in there somewhere. I make a constant point of always having a book by Chesterton, Bunyan, Lewis, Thomas Watson . . . and, to come to our point this morning, Jonathan Edwards. I am currently in Volume 12 of …

Making Seneca Crack Up

My friend Garry Vanderveen has been kind enough to suggest a side-by-side comparison of what Jim Jordan and I teach on the subject of regeneration, coming to the conclusion that we are not all that far apart. I commend that post to you, with the exception of whatever was going on when they justified the …

The Chewy Porter of Reformation Evangelicalism

As I never tire of saying, the new birth is not an optional add-on extra. It is absolutely essential, but since we tend to get gummed up on this kind of thing, it is also important to fill that statement in. Essential to what? If we say “essential to salvation,” which is the correct answer, …

All the Condemnation You Could Ever Want

In a fallen world, there must be an antithesis. But since the devil is the accuser, we should therefore see that his power rests in accusations that misplace the antithesis. Seeing this is the heart of all spiritual wisdom, and the beginning of all spiritual life. The only liberation from accusation is to accuse the …

Dry Bones Born Again

My friend Peter Leithart tags to an argument by Alan Kerr on the Spirit in John 3. Kerr’s argument, in sum, is that in the gospel of John, the Spirit is not given until later in the gospel (John 20:22). This means, on this reading, that whatever Jesus was talking about with Nicodemus could only …