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In the minds of Christians who appreciate classical music, whether as performers or simply as listeners, perhaps no figure so fully epitomizes what it means to be a "Christian composer" or a "Christian musician" as does Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). While Lutherans can most legitimately claim Bach as their own’the composer was a part of […]
Martin Luther and the Reformation he initiated are famous for the so-called three solas: sola scriptura, sola gratia, and sola fide‘Scripture alone, grace alone, and faith alone. This fame is justified, for these three emphases permeate Luther's thought. To understand Luther on the Lord's Supper or salvation, or on how God works in the secular […]
Southern Baptists speaking in tongues. Presbyterians attending healing crusades. The old divides between charismatics and cessationists seem to be breaking down. C. Peter Wagner, former professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and known among charismatics as a modern-day “apostle,” argues that this is the fruit of a New Apostolic Reformation that God has unleashed around the […]
The Ancient Spirit The mystical practice of speaking in divine and unintelligible languages was common in the ancient world from the eleventh century BC. The prophetess of Delphi and the sibylline priestesses spoke in unknown tongues, giving revelation from the gods. In the early church Irenaeus and Tertullian spoke of glossalia favorably, while Chrysostom disapproved […]
Can you hear color? Can you taste sound? The neurological phenomenon known as “synesthesia” refers to the connection between the stimulation of one sensory organ and the experience of that stimulation by another organ. Even though most of us usually think of our senses as operating independently of one another, we have also all had […]
It is common for Christians to think that there was far greater demonic activity “in Bible times” than there is today, but this isn’t exactly true. It is rather the case that a spiritual clash with demons occurs in a narrow window of time, namely, the early ministry of Jesus between his baptism and his […]
In January 2014, I attended an urban ministry class at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, through the Reformed African American Network. Dr. Carl Ellis said something there that startled me: although he has talked with countless urban ministries that target women and children, very few target men. Why is this the case? First, kids […]
In this interview, Michael Horton talks with Stan Way, pastor of Cornerstone Christian Church in Medford, Oregon, about his journey from classic Pentecostalism to an understanding of reformational Christianity. Tell us your background and how you came to understand the gospel in a clearer way. I was raised in a Pentecostal home’classic Pentecostalism, third generation. […]
As we read in Acts 2 about Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles, it's important to ask what God intended that event to be’a paradigm for church revival, or a unique, unrepeatable redemptive-historical event. Before considering the answer, it's important to recognize that Pentecost belongs to the history of salvation (the […]
According to the Nicene Creed, the “one holy catholic” church is also “apostolic.” What does that mean? What constitutes the apostolicity of the church? Answering that question biblically is the important first step in the case for the cessation of certain gifts of the Spirit. Here the focus will be on those gifts most contested […]
At the heart of the Reformation was the call to go back to the Bible as our sole authority. The Bible contains clear commands to pursue spiritual gifts that were never rescinded. I would therefore argue that the charismatics are most consistent with Reformed principles. I contend that the idea that prophecy and other gifts […]
Anyone who reads the New Testament’wishing to interpret it accurately in its historical context’must first acknowledge that these were no ordinary times. The time of transition from the old to the new covenant era was a time full of wonders and signs to signify that the promised Messiah had come and that he was establishing […]
