Category: Evangelical Calvinist

As I have been wont to say many times in the past: ‘who we think God is determines everything else following.’ In North America, and in my closest experience, John MacArthur, Paul Washer and their respective acolytes, illustrate this quite readily. John MacArthur and Paul Washer, both self-styled 5 Point Calvinists, maintain that God is a singular monad, an actus purus, a pure being who has been appropriated by the Christian God of revelation, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The result of thinking and speaking God this way, for MacArthur, Washer, and all else, no matter what interpretive tradition…

I’ve been struggling, conflicted, whatever you want to call it, since 2017, with reference to what to do with Barth. I publicly began this struggle here at the blog, and you can read that series of posts here. Unlike many, like the recent TGC post on Barth and Von Kirschbaum, I have skin in the game. I’ve been reading Barth since 2002, and on him for just as long. I am a proponent of many of his theological themes, particularly his doctrine of election (which of course, impinges on everything else). This might sound melodramatic, but I’ve been wrestling with…

As I have written previously on Barth’s unrepentant sin, with reference to his relationship with Charlotte von Kirschbaum, it is completely unacceptable. But when it comes to his theological themes, for me, those are loci that bear witness to Jesus Christ in ways that I have never seen any other theologian accomplish in the same type of way (TF Torrance is very close). His doctrine of election, as a reformulation of the classically Reformed doctrine of election, is brilliant; and it solves a gazillion problems that attend the classical Reformed and Arminian versions of the same doctrine. His anti-natural theology…

I post lots of things that are full of theological jargon, and I’m sure leave many scratching their heads. But I think it’s elevating. One of my former Bible College profs, Dr. Rex Koivisto, used to say “I like your altitude,” if he could tell you were tracking with things; stretching, and thinking deep thoughts about the Bible and the living God. If nothing else it is important for other Christians to understand that deep thoughts are available, often signified by “precision language,” or jargon. Theological jargon might appear to be merely academic jargon, but it isn’t. The best of…

Ludwig Feuerbach, a German philosopher (if his name didn’t give it away), offered a critique of religion, particularly the Christian religion, that ought to have weight as we self-criticize our own understanding of God. Karl Barth took Feuerbach’s critique to heart as he saw in it a critique of natural theology. Here is a key passage from Feuerbach that synopsizes his critique: Religion, at least the Christian, is the relation of man to himself, or more correctly to his own nature (i.e., his subjective nature); but a relation of it, viewed as a nature apart from his own. The divine…

We all interpret. Whether it be while driving down the street, and stopping at a stop sign, or reading the various sections of a newspaper. We bring readerly expectations and conditions to our daily lives that inform how we arrive at our interpretive conclusions. But for some reason when it comes to biblical interpretation many people in the churches place that into a special mystical, even magical category; as if said people can simply open the text, read it, and receive it as is without interpretation. But this is false of course. We are all faced with interpretive dilemmas, particularly…

In Barth’s Church Dogmatics III/1 we get into his doctrine of creation. As I was reading along, as is typical when reading Barth, I was struck with something he noted in regard to creation’s beginning; with reference to creation’s telos. Here he presents what sounds something like an argument from contingence, in regard to God’s Word as the inner ground and reality of the externally created order. Unlike the proof for God’s existence, like we often come across in philosophical or apologetic theologies—indeed, where an argument from contingence is used to argue for the universe’s non-contingent fund, namely, God—here Barth…

Here is a copy of my Bibliography for the PhD dissertation. I’m not going to share the whole dissertation yet, and much of it is already available by viewing our two books on Evangelical Calvinism. I plan on writing a book after, and based on the contents of the dissertation in the future. But to continue to give access into the dissertation I’ll share one more piece of it. Maybe you can make some inferences about the body of the work by looking at the biblio. If you’re that nerdy click here to see the bibliography. Athanasian Reformed

I created a Pdf file for chapter 1 of my PhD dissertation for anyone interested. Some of the formatting may be off a bit, but the content is there. Click here.  Athanasian Reformed

I work the graveyard shift at work. I have a work vehicle I drive around in all night. And so, I often will listen to Christian radio. The lineup of pastors they have preaching throughout the night includes John MacArthur’s Grace To You broadcast. The broadcast for January 6th, 2023 was a sermon MacArthur originally delivered back in 1989. The sermon title is: Spiritual Stability, Part 3: Humility and Faith—Phil. 4:5-6a. So, he’s clearly going to be discussing anxiety, and its cure by trusting and resting in Christ. And absolutely, the Lord, as we humbly and boldly come to His…