Sabbath and Dominion: New Calvinism and the Question of the Mundane

I've mentioned this in passing before but I think it's a point worth revisiting. When I hear Confessionalists discussing New Calvinism they are often uneasy with regard to several points and rightly so.

I'm not a Confessionalist either (though I certainly used to be) and I don't share all their views or concerns but there is a marked difference between Reformed Confessionalism and the New Calvinism.

Inbox: Kingdom Clarity and Soteriological Fog

As usual I have reworked the questions a bit but essentially I was asked the following. If God has made the distinctions between the Kingdom and the World with such lucidity and clarity, why then do I argue that issues like Justification are so nuanced? Why would God present something as critical as what it takes to be made right with Him, what it takes to possess eternal salvation... in terms that seem so unclear? Isn't Sola Fide, the question of justification the primary focus of Scripture from beginning to end?

It's a very interesting way of framing the question to be sure and one I've not encountered before.

Inbox: Daniel and the Beastly Magistrate

I was asked a question regarding Daniel serving in government. Clearly Daniel was willing to serve (as a slave) in the governments of Babylon and Persia and yet stood his ground regarding overt idolatry. If he refused to worship idols, why didn't he refuse to work for the Beast power? If (as I argue) working for the state was and is truly the wrong thing for a believer to do, why didn't Daniel refuse service altogether just as he and his friends refused to bow down to the king?

And obviously by implication the question suggests that my Christians should not participate in government argument may be flawed.

The Poway Shooter, Replacement Theology and the Charge of Anti-Semitism

There's another related issue to the Poway Shooting. I have detected a resurgence of Replacement Theology talk. This reminds me of Hal Lindsey's 1990 'The Road to Holocaust' which contains the subtitle: Unchecked the Dominion Theology movement among Christians could lead us – and Israel – to disaster....

It's a lie with a hint of truth.

The Social Justice Controversy: An Addendum (Poway, R2K and the Inherent Violence of Sacralist Theology)

I was stunned to learn that some have dared to argue that Two Kingdom theology led to the Poway Shooting.

In reality the exact opposite is true.

Inbox: The Social Justice Controversy (Part 2)

Racism can go both ways but maybe it takes a pilgrim to understand that post-Renaissance/Reformation Western Civilisation is a story of empires clamouring for resources, trade routes, markets and raw power. It is a story and paradigm deeply rooted in racist assumptions, the assumption that the West and its culture and race were superior and had the right (even the prerogative) to use and take the resources and lands of others. It was moral we're often told, the right thing to do and in many cases it is cast as being for their own good.

Inbox: The Social Justice Controversy (Part 1)

The controversy was generated in 2018 when a group of men led by John MacArthur issued a document (sometimes referred to as the Dallas Statement) condemning the recent spate of 'social justice' movements at work within US political culture and in particular Evangelicalism.

Inbox: Problems with Sola Scriptura (Part 2)

With regard to questions of text and canon, Christ provides the final ratification of the Old and establishes the basis for the New. In terms of the Old Testament canon it is established. I do largely accept the Protestant argument concerning His references to the valid blocs of canon that we call the Old Testament. That said, given the provisional and typological nature of the Old Testament, and that revelation itself was (prior to Christ) incomplete, there were always possibilities in terms of both extra-canonical revelation and typological reference and interpretation. The matrix of Old Covenant revelatory epistemology was vast, rich and deep but always incomplete and in shadow. I say this because at once I would argue that the nature of Old Testament canonicity contained a degree of fluidity as exemplified in the New Testament's use of the LXX and deuterocanonical sources.  

Inbox: Problems with Sola Scriptura (Part 1)

How can Sola Scriptura be defended in light of historical theology and the record regarding the development of Scripture? How can a strict Sola position reckon with concepts such as canonicity and authority?

How can a concept like perspicuity exist in light of translations and all the more given that the individual reader still belongs to a context?

Confessionalism's Embrace of Progressive Theology and Historiography (Part 2)

And when (it must be asked) did the Roman Catholic Church become the Roman Catholic Church?

That is a difficult question indeed and one I've addressed from time to time. There is an answer but it's not straightforward. Recently I've even heard some rather absurd arguments from Confessionally Reformed circles, one history professor (of all things) has tried to argue that the Catholic Church only became 'Roman' at the Council of Trent! Roman Catholicism apparently didn't exist until the mid-16^th century!

Confessionalism's Embrace of Progressive Theology and Historiography (Part 1)

The right side of history. It's a phrase we hear all the time in the news, in lectures and interviews.  The phrase contains the idea that history is moving forward, that it has a destination. In this way it is reminiscent of old Whig histories which one can still find on dusty shelves in used bookstores. Tales of progress, early progress and similar phrasing dominate their titles.

This view of history was also quite common in some of the Church histories of the 19^th century.