Earlier this Spring, Christianity Today invited me to write a review of John Piper’s latest book, Providence (Crossway, 2020) and this week they published the review here. The time I had to write the review overlapped with my teaching a masters level online course, “Survey of Historical Theology,” comprised of 25 students from all over …
Last year around this time, I preached a message in Midwestern Chapel that I called ‘The Most Important Diagnosis I Learned in College & Seminary,” which followed by 2019 message, “The Most Important Discovery,” 2018’s “The Most Important Discipline,” and 2017’s The Most Important Doctrine.” This year, I returned to this theme with “The Most Important …
The Most Important Directive I Learned in College & Seminary Read More »
During his final years in Northampton, Massachusetts, Jonathan Edwards received an invitation from Scotland to participate in a Concert of Prayer as a “means” of rejuvenating the revivals. Edwards had already come to think of prayer as an appropriate conduit for advancing the awakenings and in response he published in 1748, sermons on Zechariah 8:20-22 …
Extraordinary Prayer, A Good Way to Study the Modern Era Read More »
Oxford is J. R. R. Tolkien’s home. And, as The New York Times has reported, a group of Tolkien scholars and aficionados have banded together in a fellowship in an effort to purchase and restore the home Tolkien owned when he wrote The Hobbit. “Project Northmoor” rightly recognizes that there is no formal literary center …
This week I presented a paper for the national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society that gives a survey of the history of Baptist confessionalism. What follows is an excerpt from that paper. The entire paper will function as the introduction in a new textbook that chronicles the formation of Baptist Confessions from Christian Focus, …
Creeds added to the Bible? Defining and Defending Baptist Confessionalism Read More »
In 1853, a young Charles Spurgeon was invited to leave his church in the country and take up a preaching ministry at New Park Street Chapel, where he would stay until his death in 1892. The story goes that the famous London congregation sent him a letter requesting him to come and when he read …
Beauty for Trials from the Father of Lights – Fall 2020 Chapel Message Read More »
In 1536, Martin Luther published his Disputation Concerning Justification, a series of statements concerning Romans 3:28: For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. From Luther’s Disputation, one passage he uses to describe the beauty of the believer’s standing before God lingers in my mind: a simple image …
Martin Luther’s Umbrella, A Good Place for Reformation Studies Read More »
In light of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, we at Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College have now doubled the number of summer intensive courses available for our students and have sought to provide new online avenues for students to continue with their studies even during uncertain times. As our President, Jason K. Allen, said …
In the mornings this year I’ve been re-reading a fourth century masterpiece. While Athanasius’s On the Incarnation is remarkable, it was C. S. Lewis who termed it a ‘masterpiece’ in his famous introduction to a new English translation of Athanasius’s work. As I read through the chapters of De Incarnatione Verbi Dei, I started summarizing each of the …
On the third day He rose again — A Sonnet for Easter Read More »
For the last five weeks I’ve been re-reading a fourth century masterpiece. While Athanasius’s On the Incarnation is remarkable, it was C. S. Lewis who termed it a ‘masterpiece’ in his famous introduction to a new English translation of Athanasius’s work. As I read through the first three chapters of De Incarnatione Verbi Dei, I …
For us, and our salvation, He came down—Starting 2020 with a Sonnet Read More »
