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Conservatism, the Protestant Dilemma, and the Theocratic Element
This post was inspired by what was for me an eye opening piece at American Reformer by Timon Cline titled, “Can Protestants be Conservative?” I’ll explain what he means and lay out some of his arguments below, but this piece is really about setting up why Cline’s...
Epistemology and the Fall: The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Knowledge is better than ignorance, knowing than not knowing, as you can appreciate when you see the pilot enter the cockpit on a flight you’re about to take. Or when you see the surgeon and medical professionals wheel a loved one into an operating room. Or let’s say...
Ephesians 2 & 3: God’s Sovereign Almighty Power for Our and the World’s Salvation from Sin
After being a born-again Christian for five years, one night by God’s providence I was introduced to Reformed theology, what some call Calvinism. In its broad contours it goes back to the great Bishop of Hippo (North Africa), Augustine (354-430), who emphasized man’s...
Articles on Theology
The Dominion Mandate for Today
For most of my Christian life the Dominion Mandate was not something I gave any serious thought to. For me what counted was what some call the Cultural Mandate. From early in my Christian life, I always thought we should bring our Christian worldview and thinking to...
The Miracles of Jesus and their Meaning
I was inspired to write this post because of an unpleasant Twitter interlocutor who claimed to know things about me from one sentence I wrote in a comment: “Jesus’ healing ministry was a metaphor for spiritual reality.” He came back in so many words with, why do you...
Christian Children Are Not Strangers to the Covenant
In this life the debate between Baptists and paedobaptists, or baptizing babies, will never end, and this post doesn’t seek to do the impossible. My powers of persuasion are not that great, nor is my knowledge. It is written, rather, for those who are open to trying...
Articles on Explanatory Power
Have You Ever Tried to Kill a Fly?
I'm not sure there is anything more annoying then a pesky fly, other than maybe a pesky mosquito. Recently one of those pesky flies somehow made its way into my office, and didn't want to leave. Eventually, swatting it withy my hand wasn't going to dissuade it from...
McCartney 3, 2, 1: Only God Can Explain Music!
I recently learned of an interview legendary producer Rick Ruben did with one of the two remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney, called McCartney 3, 2, 1.
Are We Mere Matter? Logic and Mind Proves We Are Not
It's amazing to me how many Christians in the 21st century live in a state of insecurity about their faith and the nature of reality. I'm not myself immune to the secular temptation that wafts unseen through the secular culture pushing material reality as the only...
Articles on Culture
This is Us, Alzheimer’s and the Programming of Modern Medicine
My wife and I recently watched a TV series called This is Us, and one of the main characters came down with Alzheimer's. Given I’ve had a health epiphany because of Covid, I now see portrayals of disease like this differently than I used to. This Is Us was a series...
We Went from Negative to Positive World in One Day!
For those not familiar with the phrase “negative world,” it comes from Aaron Renn who wrote a piece for First Things in early 2022 titled, “The Three Worlds of Evangelism.” He lays out his assessment of where American culture was at the time: As I laid out back in...
Pietistic Gnostic Dualism’s Influence on Modern Christianity
In a couple previous posts I wrote about what it means that the Christian’s citizenship in is heaven, and what it does not mean, and how the understanding of our spiritual home developed in the history of Pietism. This happened, along with the predictable consequences...
Articles on Apologetics
Rebuilding Christendom and the Consideration of the Alternative
As we slowly, but I trust surely, rebuild Christendom, i.e., push back and defeat secularism, Christians and the church in general need to rebuild the Christian plausibility structures of Western society. I recently wrote about the role Jordan Peterson is playing in...
Uninvented: I Corinthians 15, Either Paul is Telling the Truth or He is a Liar
I was recently making my way through I Corinthians and hit chapter 15. I had a hard time getting past it, so I parked there for a while. You may remember this chapter is Paul’s great declaration of resurrection, first of Christ’s, then ours. Having written a book...
The Apostles Turning the World Upside Down-Today!
Reading through Acts is an incredible apologetics experience. I once heard an ex-atheist interviewed on the Side B Stories podcast say it was reading through Acts that brought him to faith. He said there was no way it could be made up, and of course I agree! One of my...
Articles on Parenting and Family
God is Doing A Glorious Work in You, and in the World!
Some weeks back our pastor preached on these verses in Colossians 2: 6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. The sermon was...
He Came to His Own, and His Own Received Him Not: Jesus, the Religious Professionals, and AD 70
One thing many Christians seem to miss is that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, that he came first exclusively to his own people. There is a tendency to see all of Jesus’ words as written to us and universally applicable, and ignoring the historical context in which the...
Tim Allen, the Hollowness of Philosophy, and the Consideration of the Alternative
The great comedian Tim Allen, Buzz Lightyear himself, sat down with fellow comedian Bill Maher for a long conversation about their careers, and at one point discussed the credibility of Christianity. Maher’s at best an agnostic, but Allen clearly believes in God, and...