The Gospel
In 1920, a “Plan of Union” for American Protestantism was put forward based on an “evangelical creed.” In his essay “In Behalf of Evangelical Religion,” Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield observed that the new confession being proposed “contains nothing which is not believed by Evangelicals,” and yet “nothing which is not believed… by the adherents […]
Invited to give a plenary address in Wittenberg on the weekend of the Reformation’s quincentenary (October 31, 2017), I took my teenage son on a tour of Martin Luther sites along the way. I’ll use this travelogue as a way of exploring what it means—or at least meant—to be an “evangelical.” *** We visited the […]
The English Puritan search for the New Testament’s pattern or blueprint of how to “do church” formed the matrix of Baptist origins in the first half of the seventeenth century. Of the two Baptist communities that emerged in this era—the General Baptists, who were Arminian, and the Particular Baptists, who were Calvinistic—the latter were far […]
The bad news, as Martin Luther continually reminded himself and others, is that I am a sinner. Inevitably, I intractably doubt, disregard, or dismiss God’s speaking to me from the pages of Holy Scripture, defying his will and demanding to go my own way. That, Luther knew, leads only to death. The good news is […]
“Woe Is Me If I Preach Not the Gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16) St. Paul’s heartfelt exclamation of his calling before God has echoed down through the ages. The Christian church in all its many forms is called to preach the gospel—that is its purpose. There are many subsidiary activities that the church engages in, such […]
translated by Casey Carmichael Georg Aemelius—or Oemler in German—(1517–69) was a Lutheran theologian and botanist. His father was a friend of Hans and Margarethe Luder, Martin Luther’s parents. After studying theology at Wittenberg, Georg worked in school administration in various places throughout Germany. The following translation is a portion of his Biblicae Historiae, magno articifio […]
In the late 1520s, Martin Luther wrote a letter to Henry VIII of England in which he responded to the king’s charges of “detestable heresies.” Henry was particularly outraged by Luther’s notion of “evangelical liberty,” by which he thought Luther was calling for a freedom from all law. To Henry VIII, Luther was the “man […]
Meditate for a moment on the climactic scene in John 18:6–11, when Jesus was arrested, betrayed by one of his intimate circle. “When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.” Here was a man without so much as a stick in his hand, and the Roman soldiers […]
I recently noticed a statement by leadership guru Seth Goden, who said that one of the things that best prepared children in the late twentieth century for life was “sea monkeys.” Do you remember the old comic books with advertisements for sea monkeys and how the pictures depicted these sea monkeys as majestic-looking characters, with […]
And by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (1 Cor. 15:2) Christians throw the word gospel around a lot. Based on my experiences, however, as a high school teacher, campus minister, parish pastor, and college professor, and in my work […]
I have had several close friends convert to Orthodoxy over the years, and they’re always excited to talk about their transition. “Come and see,” said one friend, smiling. “The iconography, the vestments, the beauty!” It’s not just the visual engagement. There is also an ancient stimulation of the other senses—the smells, the chanting, all of […]
Why was there a Reformation? What was the church like just before the Reformation took place? Why did the Reformation have to happen? By looking at these questions we can begin to gain some understanding of our own situation today. One of the reasons why the Reformation happened is that there was a rediscovery of […]
For the past two millennia, the church has wrestled with the questions of how she should best grow in her faith and what exactly it is she’s called to do in the world. People from ascetic hermits to monastic orders to parachurch organizations have attempted to answer these most basic questions concerning the Christian life. […]
“The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters” by Sinclair Ferguson
Having benefitted from his lectures on this topic years ago, I was excited to hear that Sinclair Ferguson was finally going to publish his work on the Marrow Controversy. Weaving together the insight of a church historian and the heart of a pastor, Ferguson uses the Marrow Controversy as a map to help track our […]
There are all sorts of ways we turn the conversation back to ourselves, especially in this selfie generation. We’ve always been self-obsessed; we just have better gear for it now. We can express ourselves, publicize ourselves, and project our own uniqueness to the rest of the world. We can update our Facebook profile and tweet […]
