Note: I originally wrote this post on another blog as part of an FAQ for my church in 2013. I am re-publishing here (with minor edits), since I will be using it in an upcoming class on science, faith, and Old Testament interpretation. What’s the problem? Genesis 1-11 has sometimes been called “primeval history” because […]
Continue reading
Archive by Author
The American Solidarity Party: Would Kuyper Vote for Them?
August 22, 2016 
1 Comment
This election cycle has forced a lot of Christians—myself included—to rethink their approach to politics from the ground up. While Hillary Clinton’s nomination by the Democratic Party didn’t come as much of a shock, this time last year I couldn’t have predicted that Donald Trump would emerge victorious from the Republican primaries. And yet here […]
Continue reading Review: Baptized into Christ, by Jordan Cooper
August 12, 2016 1 Comment
Jordan Cooper, Baptized into Christ: A Guide to the Christian Life, Just and Sinner Publishing (2016). 175 pages. Jordan Cooper is a conservative Lutheran pastor, whose blog and podcast can be found at Just and Sinner. Although I have never personally met Jordan, we have engaged in conversations via social media over the past couple years, […]
Continue reading Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jesus As Theos in John’s Gospel
March 21, 2016 0 Comments
The doctrine of the deity of Christ has been affirmed by the vast majority of the Christian church throughout its history. Ever since the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, it has been considered a litmus test for orthodoxy. It is one of the few doctrines that unites the main branches of the faith—Protestantism, Roman […]
Continue reading Review: By Faith, Not By Sight, by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.
March 15, 2016 1 Comment
As I began preparing to teach a class on the New Perspective(s) on Paul (NPP), I made use of a number of sources to guide my research. Most of my sources were coming from a broadly confessional Reformed perspective, and one stood out as especially worthy of mention. At only 125 pages, Richard Gaffin’s By Faith, […]
Continue reading Robert Rollock on the Merit of Christ
March 2, 2016 3 Comments
Robert Rollock was a 16th-century Scottish Reformed theologian, credited with developing the idea of a distinction between a covenant of works and a covenant of grace between God and man (aka “bicovenantalism”), and with helping bring Reformed theology to the British Isles. Although his work was influential for later mainstream Reformed theology, he was also […]
Continue reading Kuyper on the Church and the Kingdom of God
February 9, 2016 0 Comments
Exactly what is the relation of the church to God’s kingdom? Are they the same thing? Are they distinct? Abraham Kuyper responds to these questions in the following quote, taken from his address to the Free Church in Amsterdam, now translated in the volume Rooted and Grounded: The Church as Organism and Institution (Christian’s Library Press, 2013): […]
Continue reading In Defense of Worldview
January 4, 2016 2 Comments
The term “worldview” is thrown around a lot in evangelical circles—especially in the world of Christian education—but very rarely is it defined with any care or precision. Much less do many Christians realize just how controversial it is. After all, the term doesn’t come from Scripture or even from Christian theologians, but rather from modern […]
Continue reading Review: One Kingdom: The Practical Theology of John M. Frame, by John Barber
December 24, 2015 3 Comments
John Barber. One Kingdom: The Practical Theology of John M. Frame. Lakeland, FL: Whitefield Media, 2015. 346pp. Disclaimer: Although I have never personally met the author, we have been friends via social media for several months. When I heard that his book was being published, I offered to write this review for him. Dr. John […]
Continue reading Setting the Record Straight on Lutheranism: Four Myths
September 22, 2015 5 Comments
Calvinists and Lutherans have a complicated history. Both traditions are rooted in the Protestant Reformation understandings of justification (sola fide) and authority (sola scriptura). Calvin himself acknowledged his debt to Luther and was even accused of being a Lutheran. In their early years, the two movements were able to find much common ground, and at […]
Continue reading
Allkirk Network 