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  • Time for a New Reformation

    I love B. B. Warfield, but when he claimed the Reformation was the triumph of Augustine’s doctrine over grace over Augustine’s doctrine of the church, he was wrong. See Calvin’s Institutes Book 4.  The Reformation – at least at its best – was the *integration* of Augustine’s doctrine of grace with Augustine’s doctrine of the Read more

  • The Problem with a Demythologized Christian Nationalism: Doing Politics as if Satan Were Real

    Christian politics deals not only with earthly kings and presidents, but with heavenly principalities and cosmic powers. Our political theology is incomplete if it only deals with earthly rulers and earthly realities. A true politics embraces the politics of heaven as well. The principalities and powers are political actors as well. We must contend not Read more

  • A Note on Social Contract Theory

    Social contract theory, originating primarily with Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, is not only contrary to a biblical theology of the state, but also tells a story that is so patently absurd it is hard to believe it ever gained credence in the first place.  Social contractualists, in brief, assume that men, by nature, are Read more

  • Liturgy is the needle; Christendom is the thread it pulls through.

    The kingdom of Christ is far broader than the church. But the church, in both her gathered and scattered capacities, acts as the bearer of the kingdom. The church announces the kingdom by proclaiming Jesus is Lord and celebrates the kingdom in the Eucharist. Furthermore, the church embodies the lifestyle of the kingdom in her Read more

  • True Political Power

    An X post from February: There’s a lot of talk right now about Christians (and conservatives) learning to embrace and wield political power — something we have not really done for quite some time. This is all well and good. Being afraid of power is immature and irresponsible. Christians should seek to gain political power Read more

  • The Eschatological Life

    The Christian life is an eschatological life, lived in the power of the Spirit. It is resurrection life, the life of the future already breaking into the present. We have been delivered from an uneschatological moralism. The Christian is called to Pneumatological obedience, fulfilling the law in the power of the Spirit. Note that word Read more