At the very center of the Christian faith lies the belief in our Triune God. In fact, we contend in this issue of Modern Reformation that the heart of piety or Christian experience is the worship of God who is three in persons and one in essence. Nonetheless, there is a question that sometimes haunts […]
Justin Holcomb is an Episcopal minister and adjunct professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. He has written and edited a number of books, including On the Grace of God and Rid of My Disgrace. His most recent works are Know the Creeds and Councils and Know the Heretics (both Zondervan, 2014). […]
The weekly prayer meeting provides a wonderful opportunity to gather together to sing to the Lord, hear a short exhortation from his word, and intercede for one another in prayer. But why should we bother going to a prayer meeting? Given our busy schedules, a weekly prayer meeting may seem like a major inconvenience. Is […]
The honeymoon, at least proverbially, is one of the best of times. It is when Cinderella's happily-ever-after meets a beach in Bermuda. The flavors of the food sing higher notes. Your fabrics feel softer. The days crawl by with laughter and the constant touch of your new spouse. Upon the white sand, you gaze into […]
Of all the doctrines of the Christian faith honored in name and neglected in practice by evangelicals, the Trinity probably has no rival. Ask any evangelical if he believes in the Trinity, and you will almost certainly receive a strongly affirmative answer. Ask what difference the doctrine makes, and you might well be greeted by […]
It is common to hear claims that Christians, Jews, and Muslims worship the same God’the God of Abraham is often claimed as the father of the three great monotheistic faiths. A survey of the Bible, however, reveals a Triune God completely unlike the god of the Qur’an or even the God of contemporary Judaism. The […]
The doctrine of the Trinity is the highest affirmation the Christian church professes in her teaching and worship of God. The doctrine separates the Christian faith not only from the world’s polytheistic religions, but it likewise makes her worship distinct from the other great “monotheistic” religions of Judaism and Islam. Historically, Christians have refused to […]
In its earliest years, the Christian church was a Jewish sect, preoccupied with the challenge of bringing the gospel to Jerusalem and Judea. Soon, however, it entered the Gentile world’first through the Diaspora (that is, Jews scattered throughout the Roman Empire). In the process, the gospel encountered different objections and challenges. On the popular level, […]
Truth should be practical, and the doctrine of the Trinity, being utterly true, surely ought to show itself practical in some way. "Sound knowledge," said James Ussher (1581-1656), is "knowledge which sinketh from the brain into the heart, and from thence breaketh forth into action, setting head, heart, hand and all a-work." This is especially […]
In the introduction to his magisterial Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (Oxford University Press, 2004), Lewis Ayres observes that despite the revival of "Trinitarian theology," many theologians have engaged the legacy of Nicaea "at a fairly shallow level, frequently relying on assumptions about Nicene theology that are historically indefensible." If […]
In the first dozen pages of Through a Screen Darkly, Martha Bayles explores the foreboding feelings many have about the United States's soured image abroad as pop-culture exporters. Bayles should be thanked for her cultural analysis and wake-up call to America's citizens and policymakers. But her elucidation of this complex problem, and the reader's subsequent […]
In most areas of our lives, balance is key. My transition from the single life of microwavable pizzas and Doritos to the healthy home-cooking of my wife taught me the importance of a balanced diet. My belt size is proof. A biblical balance is precisely what Duane Litfin (president emeritus of Wheaton College) aims for […]
The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the classic achievements of early Christian theology. The fathers of the early church drew together the strands of biblical argument so compellingly that all through the Middle Ages and the Reformation, theologians have gratefully affirmed the doctrine of the Trinity in the classical form bequeathed to them […]
