Imputed & Original Sin
Modern Reformation magazine, along with its sister radio show, the White Horse Inn, has always been committed to engaging in conversational theology among the four confessional traditions of the Protestant Reformation: Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, and Baptist. In that spirit, we’ve assembled the following harmony of confessional and catechetical excerpts on human nature as created, fallen, […]
“They fill the world with their chattering and scribbling—as if the Spirit could not come through the Scriptures or the spoken word of the apostles, but the Spirit must come through their own writings and words.” — Martin Luther In 1537, at the behest of Elector Johann Friedrich the Elder, Martin Luther composed (with the […]
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Ps. 51:5) It’s a curious truth that through their attempts to deny the doctrine of original sin, marketing companies and self-help gurus unconsciously end up reinforcing it. If we’re so wonderful and capable of so much, how is it that […]
Every major doctrine in Christianity is cloaked in mystery. Some claims to “mystery” are actually excuses for not having to support your claims with arguments and evidence—many play the mystery card when their claims turn to outright contradiction. But Christianity is full of mystery. There are answers—real answers—but they only go so far, and even […]
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. (Macbeth, […]
Today, we are confronted by an invasion of morality that seeks to define right and wrong, good and evil, and justice and judgment without invoking the concept of sin, the narrative of the Garden of Eden, and the reality of an omniscient God. Books such as Good without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do […]
When people first hear about the doctrine of the bondage of the will, it almost always strikes them as a dark teaching. When I myself was first handed some books on predestination in my youth, I remember seeing the supporting verses and thinking, ‘This looks like it is probably true, and if it is, I […]
My parents sent me off to college with, among other things, a copy of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. Despite the majesty of Calvin's theology, reading through the Institutes can be a difficult endeavor. Most difficult are the parts where Calvin engages in extended refutations of his contemporary opponents. As a college freshman, I […]
On the first day of class, my seminary English Bible professor announced that he was a "Calminian." As he explained, there are certain passages in the Bible that are "Calvinistic" and others that are "Arminian." Throughout the semester he peppered his lectures with phrases such as "this is a Cal passage" or "this is a […]
As Luther climbed the Santa Scala in 1510 on his knees in Rome, the principal thing on his mind was the possibility of salvation. The farthest thing from his mind was the certainty of salvation, and this was because, to that point, the only theology of salvation Luther knew taught him to count on two […]
Each issue we're looking at a book published during Modern Reformation's 15-year history, with a look to why this book was and still is significant. It is easy to recognize sin when it is packaged in the fires of an explosion. When a car bomb ripped through the World Trade Center in 1993, and then […]
