Category: Evangelical Calvinist

For some reason there are many Christians, through the centuries even, who want to make an attempt at reading Holy Scripture without reading it from its God-given context in Jesus Christ. That is to say, there are Christians who want to read the Bible from a christologically contextless frame wherein the Bible becomes a wax-nose given shape by their wits and capacity to marshal the latest reading strategies of the day. But the Bible isn’t a book like that. It isn’t open to naturalist or immanentist frames of reference. It has its whole and its parts altogether, in regard to…

Being a confessional Christian is the way. Some might read this and think I am referring to being ‘Reformed.’ But that would be mistaken; the Reformed might think they have a corner on this language, but they don’t. What I mean when I say ‘confessional’ is being a Christian in the Christian existence who lives and breathes and does theology based on the confession that Jesus is Lord. Doing theology based on the premise that God has spoken (‘Deus dixit’), and only after that fact, that reality can a genuinely Christian theology obtain. Being confessional is to live life in…

I just recently had an exchange on X with a type of guy who is often referred to as an “Orthobro,” short for “Orthodox brother,” but with a “dude” edge. I am not going to use his name, which to his credit he actually uses his (real name) on X. But he is a recent convert from Anglicanism (as an ordinand for the ministry) to the Eastern Orthodox church (where he will be soon, apparently, also an ordinand). As you will notice, only by inference, I would suggest that he is still in the so-called “cage-stage.” Often this terminology is…

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, …” Colossians 1:13 Do you see how this is not a dualistic scheme—like light versus darkness, good versus evil? Christianity does not operate in a dualistic frame of reference. It presents the world and the church with the fact that everything in relation to God in Christ is asymmetrical; and asymmetrical in a way where there is no comparison between who He has offered for Himself in the eternal Son become flesh in Jesus Christ, and every other thing in this…

I put together the following some time ago, and only had it saved as a draft here on the blog. I thought I would publish it now. I actually don’t even recall who my interlocutor is anymore; maybe he’ll see this and remind me. I shared the following passage on Facebook and X, from John Baillie, as cited by TF Torrance in his book: Theological Science. The fact is that no true knowledge, no valid act of perceiving or thinking, can be explained by beginning from the human end—whether it be my perception of the number of peas in a…

Who is Israel? Is the Church, Israel now? Are there still ethnic Jews? My response will be brief, but hopefully to a point. Israel in the Bible are Yahweh’s chosen, covenant people. Israel in the Bible was chosen by God to be the people He vocationally used to mediate the Messiah to the world through; through the seed of the woman, Mary. This “election” had a special promise tied into it: i.e., that the ethnic Jew would always be tied into the promises and gifts of the living God. According to the Apostle this entails that ‘all Israel,’ all of…

Death, just like life, in the secular and pagan realm, but even in the Christian realm, insofar as the latter mirrors the former—and it does at ubiquitous levels—is thought of in abstract and wondrous terms; indeed, in fearful terms. But for the Christian all things have been resurrected; including our dead bodies. We are now of the ‘firstborn from the dead,’ Jesus Christ. But this is to the point: when we contemplate our own mortality, which most of us attempt to hideaway from, most of us conjure some type of ethereal somethingness “out there,” that doesn’t seem real to us….

I was just accepted into the Postgraduate Diploma, PgDip (aka Master’s degree) program in New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. It is a taught program which I will do fully by distance. I will begin, Lord willing, January 20, 2025. Relatively speaking it is quite affordable at approx. £7,000 ($ 9,360 usd) for the total program. I am looking into the possibility of getting a scholarship through the school; not sure if that is possible. Also, if you would like to be a donor and help me out with this send me an email…

Qualification. This whole post is an exercise in de jure. The basic principle I am getting at on this occasion is to touch on whether or not a sinner, or someone who has been found to be in sin, could have still been used of God to bear witness to Christ in spite of their own personal moral and egregious failures.  As most know now, at least those in the “right” circles, Dr. Steven Lawson has fallen morally. The church he started in Dallas, TX, Trinity Bible Church, made the announcement a few days ago that Lawson had admitted to being in an…

The nomist (law based) “Gospel” is a performance-based message that has no grounding in the true message of the Incarnation&Atonement of God in Jesus Christ. It is based on a mercantile quid pro quo transactional framework present in medieval and reformational times that isn’t attested to in the canonical Scriptures. Either the Gospel is God’s Grace all the way down, or it is a works-based Gospel typically associated with, in the history, what is known as Pelagianism. The tragic thing is that people in the classical Calvinist and Arminian, and generally Latin frames of Christian theological understanding, are beholden to…