Thomas Case was a 16th/17th century Puritan. I recently ran across something he wrote that encourages the regular practice of morning devotions. It is not small advantage to the holy life to “begin the day with God.” The saints are want to leave their hearts with Him over night, that they may find them with…
A number of years ago I took the Strength-Finders test as part of an evaluation process. In taking this particular test it was said that one of my areas of strength, so to speak, is “context.” That means I like thinking about the past. That’s true and I’ll chalk it up to a tool…
According to the Bible, humanity is clearly responsible to exercise Spirit-wrought faith in Jesus. When sinners willing place their faith in Jesus, God responds by justifying the sinner for their good and his glory. However, before we talk about the necessity of man acting in faith, we should first remember that justification is by grace.…
Perhaps another way to clearly note the differences between the Reformation view and the Roman Catholic view of justification is to pay attention to Aristotelian categories of causation. The rediscovery of Aristotle was important to the development of the Western Christian tradition.[1] In terms of justification, Catholic theology differentiates between at least four causes of…
Historically, in the Western Christian tradition, the good news of the saving message of Jesus Christ has been linked closely to the doctrine of justification by faith alone.[1] In short, according to the Reformed tradition, upon the exercise of faith, a person is united to Christ by the powerful working of the Spirit. Having been…
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is…
One of the realities that should govern your life is that there is a God and you are not him. That is, there is a Creator and there are creatures. We should not confuse the two. Christians have understood this in the past and have spoken, with a fair bit of consistency, accordingly. To maintain…
*Upfront, I should disclose that I am not a philosopher. What I’m doing in this post is wrestling with some ideas that I’m busy trying to research as I write a dissertation. In order to learn, I write. And I write as I learn. If you persevere through a few paragraphs, I try to make…
*Click on the link at the bottom of the post to read the entire review. William R. Estep, Jr., The Anabaptist Story, 3rd Edition (Eerdmans, 1995). William R. Estep (1920–2000) was a historian who served as a distinguished professor of church history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) from 1954–1990, though he continued to teach…
In a couple of weeks, I am taking off to Serbia in order to teach a course on church history. The opportunity to engage with students around the world, particularly as we talk about our common “family” history, is tremendously exciting. The first lecture is aimed at introducing students to the study of church history.…
Theology Along the Way 