Oops: Life got busy and I forgot to do this week’s Content Cluster. It was dark. They were big. Everything happened so fast. I forgot. Aliens kidnapped me, what year is it? The dog ate my draft. Leave me alone.
Content Cluster Muster [12-07-23]
David and Deception
Over the years, I have sought to make the point that deception is to lying and bearing false witness what killing is to murder. All murder is killing but not all killing is murder. Murder is prohibited ...
A Seven-Point Calvinist
“Some have interpreted the FV as thought it were some form of Arminianism or semi-Pelagianism. So early in the book [RINE], I set aside a chapter to demonstrate that I wish that the Synod of Dort had promulgated a couple extra points so I could believe them too.”
NQN Game Film 2023
Introduction: It has become our custom—and why shouldn't it have become our custom?—to review the month of November once we turn the page of the calendar, and all the pieces have fallen out ...
Red and Blue
“If I say that I believe in the Westminster Confession’s red use of the word election, but that I also believe that the Bible in various places uses election in the blue sense, I am not maintaining that blue is red. This is not redefinition; it is an additional definition.”
Letters Keep Arriving
Letter to the Editor: Regarding "Mud Fence Ugly" Reformed scholar Calvin Seerveld rightly said "When Christianity abandons the arts, they really do go to hell." Unfortunately, a century ...
Two Kinds of Christian
“I have two definitions of Christian in this chapter—someone who is born again by the Spirit of God, and someone who is baptized in the triune name. Suppose we have someone who is a Christian in the latter sense only. Do I believe in a distinction of benefits between the two? Yes. I hold to a radical distinction of benefits.”
My Rejoinder to Kevin DeYoung
Introduction: So Kevin DeYoung set off a national conversation with this article. When his article dropped, I was in the middle of wrapping up my November posts, and so a response had to wait ...
By Prophet Bards Foretold: Places/Part 1
Sermon Video Introduction: What we are going to do in this season of Advent is take a closer look at a number of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the birth of the Messiah. We are going ...
Effectual Means of Salvation
“Now a central part of the FV critique of the broader Reformed world is that we have accommodated ourselves too much with the American baptistic tradition, and this has affected how we read our confessional standards (which do not represent such an accommodation). For example, a number of our critics think they have put distance between themselves and the baptists (as they have, some) by saying that the sacraments are means of grace. But they hasten to add that this is always sanctifying grace. The language of salvation is inappropriate here. The problem with this is that the Westminster Catechisms both ask how is it that the two sacraments are effectual means of salvation. And so I say in this title [“Reformed” Is Not Enough] that you are not necessarily in the confessional tradition just because you call yourself ‘Reformed.’ That is what it meant.”