Faith
The Sermon on the Mount is, perhaps, the most famous discourse on record from the Lord Jesus. Snippets of this sermon appear in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, but the fullest treatment, of course, occurs in Matthew’s Gospel, chapters 5–7. Spanning three chapters [...]
by Franciscus Junius; translated by Joshua Schendel The following is a translation of Franciscus Junius’s (1545–1602) De Fide Iustificante, a set of twelve theses over which Junius presided while they were publicly defended at Leiden University sometime in the 1590s. The text of this disputation is taken from Francisci Iunii Opuscula theologica selecta, ed. Abraham […]
by Herman Bavinck; translated by Gregory Parker Jr. This essay was originally published in Dutch as a three-part series in De Vrije Kerk in 1883.[1] That same year, Bavinck was installed as a professor at the Theologische School in Kampen. What follows is an excerpt from the English translation, which may be found in its […]
I can imagine believing that I
Will see you again in all of your ways,
Will know the grace of God in which you died […]
In my previous article (January/February 2022), I made the case that in Hebrews 12:14, the “holiness” required to see God does not refer to our personal sanctification or holiness, but to the consecration obtained by faith in Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice. The point of that discussion, as well as this one, is to illustrate how one […]
Every one of us, I’m sure, has a friend we wish we didn’t have. You know the sort: the obnoxious friend, the really colossal copper-plated bore, the one-subject expert, the incessant autobiographer, the crackpot inventor. The variations on this sort of friend are endless, but our response is always the same. Patiently, with gritted teeth, […]
Many Western Christians have a problematic understanding of faith. The concept of “faith” has been reduced to a person’s religious beliefs or the mere intellectual assent of an individual to a specific set of religious doctrines or dogmas. This view of faith is not only incomplete when compared to how the Bible speaks of faith, […]
According to reports, Prince Charles intends—if he ever ascends the British throne—to change his title from “Defender of the Faith” to “Defender of Faith.” What’s the loss in dropping a definite article? Everything, actually—the traditional title refers to the defense of a particular confession, a body of doctrine concerning the Triune God who has rescued […]
In protest of the new president of the United States, TIME magazine recently resurrected one of their most infamous covers, which instead of asking if God is dead now asks, “Is Truth Dead?” The difficulty of answering that question seems like a modern problem, but even Pilate cynically asked our Lord, “What is truth?” (John […]
When our associate editor was in seminary, one of her professors used an illustration (seen to the right) to explain the popular perception of both Reformational and mainline Christians. It was meant to be a joke, and like all jokes, it was funny because there is a sense in which the caricature is true (on […]
There are all sorts of ways we turn the conversation back to ourselves, especially in this selfie generation. We’ve always been self-obsessed; we just have better gear for it now. We can express ourselves, publicize ourselves, and project our own uniqueness to the rest of the world. We can update our Facebook profile and tweet […]
On October 15, 1555, bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned as Protestant heretics under the reign of Queen Mary. Shortly before they were murdered, Latimer said, “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” Although […]
My feet rarely stand idle when God is around. He's always telling me to go. It's been that way from the beginning, when he spoke to me in Ur: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." I remember hearing those first words as […]
In his book After Heaven, Robert Wuthnow says the watchword of Americans today is spiritual. People say, ‘I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious. I am searching for spiritual reality, but I don’t expect to find it in religious institutions or sets of dogmas.’ What Wuthnow articulates so well here is Americans’ combined rejection of the […]
Editor's Introduction In January 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated the German Reformer Martin Luther. Later that spring Luther was called to the Diet of Worms, a gathering of political and ecclesiastical officials in the presence of Emperor Charles V, to defend his beliefs. When he famously refused to recant, staking his position on the word […]
