Archive for July 2019
Does regeneration precede faith?
Does regeneration precede faith? What does it mean to be a slave to sin? How does Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus help us understand regeneration as a monergistic act of God? What does the birth metaphor teach us about the Spirit’s power to create new life? How then are we to understand the role of faith?…
Read MoreNew Credo Video with Matthew Barrett: Does regeneration precede faith?
Does regeneration precede faith? What does being a slave to sin mean? How does Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus help us understand regeneration? How does the birth metaphor help us understand the Spirit’s work of creating new life? How then are we to understand the role of faith? In this new Credo Video, Dr. Matthew Barrett…
Read MoreWhy Pastors Should Engage Basil of Caesarea
Division in the Church, widespread doctrinal confusion and ignorance, a sometimes hostile government, a sexually permissive culture, scores of Christians marginally committed to the Gospel, the suffering of the poor—these challenges that confront today’s pastors are the very ones that Basil of Caesarea (330-379) faced. How did he handle them? What can we learn from…
Read MoreTheology and Corporate Worship
What hath theology to do with worship?” Being tasked to answer such a question is, for me, a bit like offering a dog a mountain of bones. Not a bone. A mountain. Exciting—overwhelmingly so. Where to begin? Though a measly essay can scarcely explore the relationship between these foci exhaustively, I scratch the surface, first,…
Read MoreWhy Pastors Should Engage Thomas Aquinas
Thomas’ early life was one of riches to rags. Born to nobility in southern Italy, he needed to escape to Paris and be trained as a Dominican, at the still new House of Studies there. Three years later, in 1248, he moved with his mentor Albert the Great to Cologne after the latter’s call to…
Read MoreDoctrine for Life: Recent Episodes from the Credo Video Series
In the last several episodes of the Credo Video series, a range of topics have been covered, including J. C. Ryle, Jesus and the Psalms, justification in the Old Testament, divine authorial intent in biblical interpretation, and the importance of theology for the everyday Christian. In each episode, fellow theologians talk about the most important…
Read MoreI AM and the Burning Bush
You are familiar with the setting, of course. Having left Egypt forty years before, while tending the sheep of his father-in-law, Moses comes to Mount Horeb and sees “this strange sight” — a bush ablaze with fire though not consumed by that fire. A fire burning on its own, inside the bush. When Moses curiously…
Read MoreWhy I Left Marxism for the Resurrected Christ
What drew Michael Haykin toward an intellectual neo-marxism? Why did the resurrection of Christ convince Haykin to leave neo-marxism and eastern religions for the Christian gospel? What persuaded Haykin to become a historian? Why has he devoted his life to studying the church fathers and Baptists like Andrew Fuller? In this new episode of the Credo…
Read MoreWhy I Left Marxism for the Resurrected Christ: New Credo Podcast with Michael Haykin
What drew Michael Haykin toward an intellectual neo-marxism? Why did the resurrection of Christ convince Haykin to leave neo-marxism and eastern religions for the Christian gospel? What persuaded Haykin to become a historian? Why has he devoted his life to studying the church fathers and Baptists like Andrew Fuller? In this new episode of the Credo…
Read MoreA Love for God Leads to Joy in His Church: How Theology Affects Church Membership
As Dante approaches the second sphere of heaven in the Paradiso, the poet is greeted by thousands of glorified saints, sparkling with joy so real and palpable that it manifests itself in visible light and beauty Dante can barely tolerate. With one accord, each of these saints proclaims as they wheel and dive around Dante,…
Read MoreThe Pastoral Benefit of Baxter and Burroughs
We scarcely need to add to the existing praise for the two puritan pastors before us today — Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646) and Richard Baxter (1615-1691). We can allow a few old saints to speak for themselves: “I have made, next to the Bible, Baxter’s Reformed Pastor my rule as regards the object of my ministry”…
Read MoreThe Future: How Does God Know It?
One aspect of God’s omniscience is his knowledge of the future. Open Theists have denied this, of course, but the question is not really a difficult one. Over and again in Scripture God is presented as knowing what will happen. Not just selectively but exhaustively God knows all that will be. Indeed, in Isaiah 46:8-10…
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