Category: Uncategorized
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Christian Nationalism and the Noahic Covenant
This is from an X post from October, 2024, responding to this Paul Miller talk: Paul Miller’s talk was maddening. It’s not that everything he said is false, it’s that he managed to mix error into every single sentence, even those that included hints of the truth. I’ll limit myself to commenting on one aspect…
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Church in Three Dimensions
The church exists in three dimensions — as a culture, a counter-culture, and the transformer of culture: Church as culture — gathered worship/community — priestly Church as counter-culture — mission/mercy/”holy war” — kingly Church as transformer of culture — creating a new world through word and deed — prophetic
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Nature and Grace — Again!
What is the proper relationship of grace and nature? When grace eats up nature, you end up with the antinomianism of progressivism. There is no natural order inherent in creation to which we must conform. There is no divine design embedded in reality, so anything goes. You can be whatever you want to be. You…
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What is America? Some Notes from X
We must push back against both propositionalism and race-essentialism. Both approaches are too shallow to effectively answer the question, “What is a nation?” We have to reckon with the fact that there is much about America that is unique, and thus the question, “What is America?,” or, “What is an American?,” becomes a good bit…
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