“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 ...
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.”
Nice of Him to Check
Eastward, Ho
“I set out for Geneva (and have been settling in here for almost twenty years now), but a bunch of American friends think that I moved to Rome. They can’t tell the difference between Rome and Geneva because both of them are across a lot of water and are way east of Kentucky.”
Yeah. Don’t Get It.
“How am I put right with God? By grace through faith. How do I earn money to feed my family? By grace through faith. How do I keep the weeds down on my three acres? By grace through faith. How do I see answered prayers? By grace through faith. There is nothing whatever that any obedient creature can ever do, in this world or in any other, in this generation or any other, in this covenant or any other, that is not done by efficacious grace appropriated by living faith. Ever. Period. For this doctrine of mine, I am sometimes accused of trying to undermine the doctrine of sola fide, which I don’t quite understand either.”
Mud Fence Ugly
Introduction: It is commonplace for traditionalists to describe the well-balanced life as built on the foundation stones of truth, goodness, and beauty. This structural support seems intuitive ...
Letters As November Fades to Black
Letter to the Editor: I must thank you for your work in Collision—your debates helped persuade a Hitchens fan into Christianity. Do you have any advice on learning how to initiate and handle ...