One of the most popular linguistic and exegetical fallacies in modern times is that the Greek word for love, agapao, carries in it the implication of a divine love that is unconditional and comes to us in spite of our sin. That is not true. Context must decide if...
Theology
John Frame on Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
You’ll want to read this carefully (I added paragraph divisions to help you do so): It often comes as an exciting discovery that doctrines that seem at first glance to be opposed are actually complementary, if not actually dependent one on another. For Calvinists, for...
Thoughts vs. Feelings
NPR yesterday ran a story about capital punishment in Connecticut. Apparently, the state may possibly get rid of the death penalty just as a notorious double murder—a wife and daughter brutalized and killed for no reason—goes to trial. This has made for an interesting...
Augustine on Love
Do not for the sake of reward love God; let Him be the reward. —Augustine (Philip Schaff, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Vol. VII, 25)
Warfield: “Are They Few that Be Saved?”
This is my own summary of Warfield’s article, “Are They Few that Be Saved?” I am studying the issue because I am writing on Matthew 7:13-14 for the BJU Press Bible Truths series. “The paucitas salvandorum [the idea that few will be saved] has long ranked among a wide...
John Frame and Rand Hummel
Ever since I read John Frame I started seeing threes everywhere. His triperspectivalism has a way of worming into your brain and growing a secret third eye. My wife and I even decided to have a baby—three Wards in one house! It’s kind of creepy. So whenever I hear...
Head, Heart, and Compatibilism
I just picked up a review copy of John Piper's Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, because his views on the relationship between thinking and feeling have some bearing on my preparation for the dissertation defense. As always with Piper, I was struck by...
Kevin Bauder—A Fundamentalism Worth Saving Takes the Human Condition Seriously
I know this is a bit late, but the breaks were so short at the Preserving the Truth Conference that I had a hard time getting to the gym to post my updates. And then I let this sit… Anyway, here are my notes from one of Kevin Bauder’s plenary sessions, the one at 9 am...
NPR on Abortion
Husbands and wives have their compromises. I get speakers in the bathroom so I can listen to NPR in the shower, and she gets… love. I mean, she’d get it anyway, but still. So I’m listening to NPR this morning and a blog post pops into my head—because of this story....
Paul: The Reepicheep of Christian Evangelism
I do love Paul's personality. Bold and persuasive but full of tender affection—and a Reepicheep streak! When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together...
The Flip Side
Duncan Johnson made a valid comment on a recent post. The Internet may be an opiate for the people, but that's not the whole story. So here's something on the flip side. I recently attended a large evangelical-ish church while on vacation (and limited by snow from...
Preserving the Truth Almost-Live Blog (Friday, Jan 7)
Instead of writing the last few pages of my dissertation, I’m at the Preserving the Truth Conference at First Baptist Church of Troy. Here are my notes from last night: Breakout Sessions Scott Aniol argued this, if I could boil it down: we can't have a-cultural church...