"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us"
To commemorate the executionary death of Jesus on what is called Good Friday, it is appropriate to contemplate a truth apart from which every person would be damned. This doctrine is perhaps more synonymous with the Christian faith than any other doctrine. However, it is also a tenet that has come under criticism from myriad angles. I am referring to the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. This doctrine is about the theological meaning of Christ’s death on the cross. If you take the concepts articulated in the doctrine individually (in reverse order), it’s making three distinct claims...
Things Unseen: A Systematic Introduction to the Christian Faith and Reformed Theology
On a Sunday afternoon in 1935, J. Gresham Machen stepped into a broadcast booth at WIP Radio in Philadelphia and began something no one had tried before: teaching Reformed theology over the radio. In the vein of C.S. Lewis’s landmark “Mere Christianity” talks, Machen’s addresses are a crystal-clear articulation of the basics of the Christian faith, unfolding into an exceptional and persuasive explanation of Reformed theology.
Things Unseen is both an accessible systematic theology, and a masterclass in evangelistic apologetics. Introduced by Timothy J. Keller, Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson, Historical Preface by Stephen J. Nichols, Afterword by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. Join us as we sit down with Dr. Nichols and get a glimpse into the life, context, and work of J. Gresham Machen.
Part 1 of 3 on the Three Forms of Unity
Part 1 of our 3-part-series where Danny Hyde gives us a primer on each of the 3 documents that comprise the Three Forms of Unity. Today Danny Hyde takes us to school on the gloriousness that is the Belgic Confession. Listen in as we get a proper primer on the Belgic Confession that isn't boring, smug or crusty.
by Jacob Aitken
Imagine if Abraham Kuyper didn’t hold to his famous doctrine of common grace, yet still believed in Christ’s lordship over all spheres. Imagine if one believed that the church would be persecuted in the future, but nevertheless believed that the church will be on the front lines. That gives one a close approximation of the Dutch Reformed minister Klaas Schilder. It is the mark of a faithful Christian that one’s theology should match up with his life. It is even more interesting when a system of doctrine matches one’s life on the particulars.
For Moms, Biblicists and Lovers of 90's Music
Join us as we sit down with Dr. Guy Waters, contributor and co-editor of Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives (Crossway, 2020), and discuss Covenant Theology asking: Is the principal of Covenant Theology something that a Bible reader could easily, or difficultly, glean from actively engaging their Bibles apart from secondary sources? How do we see Covenant Theology in seed form amongst the Church prior to Augustine? In your own life, as you are commuting to work, BBQing with friends, looking around at this world and thinking about your creator – in what ways has Covenant Theology enriched your day to day as you encounter the hopes and fears of all the world? Which came first: the covenant with the Son to dwell with his church, or the covenant with the Son to redeem lost sinners? If God's eternity means that he is outside of time (not just before time), do reformed people place too much emphasis on his eternal past? And More...
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Dear Troubled Believer, I see you.I know it feels like you’re army-crawling through morning and afternoon. I know how your soul slinks on the ground, breathing in the dust, while everyone around you seems free as birds in the breeze. They don’t understand the willpower it takes to do the...
Interview with Rowland Ward
What would have happened if Adam and Eve never ate from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden? It’s a hypothetical question since they did eat, but the parallel with the last Adam, Jesus Christ, shows that obedience would ultimately have led to...
by Pierce Taylor Hibbs
My friends, God has marked the entire world, the entire cosmos, with his personal presence, and it can’t help but “speak” of him. God, in other words, is a writer. He was the first writer. We write reality as we know it, and we write in his image. Apply this...
by Joe Humphries
This article presents a Christian view of sales as a profession and will look to the scriptures to help formulate a basis for this view. Salespeople are often viewed as untrustworthy, greedy, and contemptible.
Dear Unmarried Christian, In autumn 2005 I entered graduate school (the first time around) to study philosophy in Amsterdam. While visiting churches, I met a woman in her mid-40s from Indonesia, studying theology. Most of her home village and her entire family had been slaughtered by Muslim militants some years...
Interview with Hans Boersma
I want to focus on your recent book “Seeing God”, which is a study of the so-called “beatific vision” in Christian theology. Could you just start by giving a brief explanation of the concept of the beatific vision for a layperson unfamiliar with the term? The beatific vision is the...
Interview with Rick Schaeffer
The power that spoke light into darkness and water to wine also breaks the hardest hearts and progressively turns people into the image of Christ as the same God speaks through the gospel.
Christians are the ones who confess their belief in the Holy Trinity. In practice, however, we seldom hear sermons, rarely discuss or rely on the power of the Holy Spirit in everyday life. Hence, the Trinity plays only a nominal role for some believers, who in reality become mere monotheists...
Interview with Joel Beeke
The “good life” is a puff of vapor, for we live in a world of sin and misery and are rushing toward eternity. If you were on an airplane flying to another country where you would spend the rest of your life, which should your mind focus on: the snacks...
