Category: Evangelical Calvinist

Being a genuine Christian theologian starts at the point that we become Christians. The same confession made to become a Christian, is the same confession that remains as the ground of our theological witnesses as Christians. The fact of our sin never leaves us. We are constantly sinning, and the person who says otherwise “is a liar and the truth is not in them.” But the Good News, indeed, is that we have an Advocate with the Father; we have a Savior, and His name is Jesus Christ! This is the ground of all Christian theologizing; the only other ground…

Let me know if this new font is too small, and thus hard to read. Thank you. Athanasian Reformed

Here is what I presented as my dissertation by prior publication to Concordia Academic Theology Consortium, Intl. As noted, I have given the PhD back, but here is the work I presented to Dr. Enrique Ramos and Dr. Fred Macharia for examination. It really was just a coalescing together of what I had already written; whether that be published in book form, or various blog posts strung together. It is what it is. Click here: Evangelical Calvinism’s Portrait of a Knowledge of God and a Sure Salvation. Like I also said: I am still happy to have the honorary DTh from CATC, but…

Eberhard Juengal on the humanity of God in Christ: . . . The event of God’s justifying the ungodly teaches us to recognize his divinity in the act of selfless self-commitment by God. The New Testament calls this selfless commitment by God love – and in particular – love directed towards people. In this selfless commitment, that is, in his love to people, God is righteous, he is ‘OK’, he is consistent with himself. God’s humanity is the clearest expression of his divinity, not a contradiction of it (otherwise, talking of God’s humanity would be a paradox). God does not…

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…