Covenanter Quote

Their antislavery views predated even those of the Quakers. Unlike the Quakers, these were Christian militants, protecting their Underground Railroad stations with both prayer and gunfire. Joseph S. Moore, Founding Sins: How a Group of Antislavery Radicals Fought to Put Christ into the Constitution PS this is about Presbyterian Covenanters

Atonement Thoughts

How did Christ atone for His People? Protestant Theologians debate whether it was in an Equivalent or Exact Sense: Equivalent: “Not indefinite as to the duration, still…equivalent as to the value on account of the Person suffering.” -Turretin Exact: “Christ “made satisfaction by undergoing the same punishment…they themselves were bound to undergo…essentially the same in…

Christ’s Dominion via Atonement

George Smeaton has a beautiful section in his work, “Christ’s Doctrine of the Atonement” on how the atonement denudes Satan of his power. He suggests that in the atonement, Christ merited the right to His current rule of the world of mankind as the God-man, as well as the right to subdue Satan’s reign. I’ll…

Book Review: Compel Them to Come In

Compel Them to Come in: Calvinism and the Free Offer of the Gospel by Donald MacLeod My rating: 4 of 5 stars MacLeod’s new work echoes much of what is said in Murray’s much-shorter work, albeit in a more readable format. It has an interesting structure, addressing divine sincerity in the middle of the book…

Certainty and Doubt

Christians have looked warily at postmodernism for some time now.  Its amorphous nature has never been appealing, and its candy-shop variety of metaphysical conclusions has been hard to accept.  Sure, one can enjoy certain aspects of so-and-so’s post-structuralism, or rejoice in what’s-his-face’s view of textual analysis, or delight in another fellow’s critique of modernism’s epistemological…

The Historical Jesus Goes To University

The Historical Jesus Goes To University Though I agree with J. Gresham Machen that McGrath’s form of liberal/progressive Christianity is “another religion”, I still applaud McGrath’s recent post for showing that scholars across the board recognize Jesus as an historical person.

Never the Twain Shall Meet

Paths Christians Take When They Encounter Evolutionary Theory  As a student in Seminary, I’m surrounded by the theological debates of the day.  Within Reformed circles, the debates mainly revolve around confessional subscription, Sabbath observance, and the doctrine of sanctification. But, more Church-universal issues are centered around things like doctrine of Scripture, the nature of authority,…

How to Do History and Science

I’ve been reading through Michael Licona’s, “The Resurrection of Jesus,” and think that his first chapter is seriously helpful in beginning a conversation on the philosophy of history and science.   He has an excellent paragraph on the relation of scientific inquiry to historical inquiry located on pg. 66 of this pdf, under heading 1.2.12,…