Calling for a Return to the Doctrinal Ideals and Kingdom Ethics of the First Reformation
We've considered various Sola Scriptura camps that are found wanting in their claims as well as briefly touching on some of the groups that esteem Scripture down to those who functionally despise it.
We must weigh all of these versus a genuine Biblicist rendering of Sola Scriptura. For some this is an impossibility, for others Pandora's Box that can only lead to chaos.
Author Brian Godawa appeared on my radar back in the early 2000's when Christian publications called attention to his participation in the 2001 film To End All Wars. For my part, I didn't really care for the film - all the more as I refuse to accept some of the assumptions at work in the Anglo-centric narrative.
Godawa was an open Theonomist and was pointed to as an example of positive Christian cultural engagement. He seemed to be something of a rising star in those circles but then I didn't really hear about him again for the next decade or so. Then in the mid-2010's he popped up on my radar again in connection with his fictional works on the Antediluvian world and the Nephilim. I listened to and read some of his material in connection to these themes and found it palatable, interesting, and sometimes refreshing.
https://reformedforum.org/vos-and-neo-calvinism-rethinking-a-transatlantic-identity/
Bucey provides some helpful analysis regarding this rather pivotal episode in the life of Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949) and his 1886 refusal to join Abraham Kuyper at the Free University in Amsterdam. The young Vos instead made his way to Grand Rapids to teach at what would become Calvin College and Seminary.
https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/book-review/not-god-divine-simplicity-simple/
I appreciated this review of James Dolezal's 2017 work All That is In God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism - a work that has generated controversy and led to the creation of new factions within Reformed circles. As the subject interests me, I find myself returning to it once again.
https://philosophical-theology.com/2025/10/17/abandoning-the-faith-in-college-really/
DiGiacomo finds parental discourse surrounding the issue of apostasy to be confused but we could say the same adjective describes his discourse as well. The bottom line is this - what does the New Testament say? And this is the rub, Calvinism all too often commits itself to rationalist systemic frameworks that logically prioritize certain truths and as a consequence, verses (even if there are literally dozens of them) that suggest something to the contrary must be explained away and/or subordinated.
https://petehurst.com/prosperity-the-big-lie-and-the-big-truth/
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-sweet-taste-of-vomit.html
I commented on Hurst back in December of 2025 but this article crossed my path and left me more astonished than usual. Does anyone actually read the Scriptures?
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-I-C-Herendeen/dp/B0FJZ4ZFY7
I am pleased to endorse this 2025 work authored by my son, Isaac. It would seem that our visits to Swengel, Millmont, and Lewisburg, Pennsylvania piqued his interest some years ago. I had visited those places in connection to Arthur Pink. I knew of Herendeen, but Isaac picked up his story and pursued his own course of research and I must admit I find Herendeen's life to be noteworthy.
John MacArthur died three months ago (July 2025) and the buzz concerning him and his ministry have waned. This is especially true in light of subsequent events such as the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
There were some voices of concern and criticism lodged regarding MacArthur, his ministry, and testimony, but overwhelmingly the assessments have been positive.
There is a great deal of confusion out there. This hardly needs to be said but I was reminded again of it on a recent Sunday when talking to a very zealous and proud CREC member who launched into a criticism of Sacralism. He's really opposed to the idea of the Church being intertwined with the government.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jTld1nmkq4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpVz4okhdRU
Several weeks ago I caught Jordan Cooper's videos dealing with the Ethiopian Orthodox man and the Knechtle's over questions regarding the Early Church. The videos of the exchange went viral and have been the source of considerable discussion. It's been something of a boon to Orthodox and Catholic apologists at the Knechtle's were demonstrably incapable of defending their position.
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/beginning-at-the-end-of-all-things/
The theology and thought of Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) is riddled with contradictions. On the one hand contemporary Dominionists wishing to posit a monistic view of society will quote Kuyper's famous dictum : 'There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!'
It's a pretty bold statement suggesting the boundaries of the Kingdom are all encompassing and there can be no room for dissent.
Not long ago I listened to a sermon on the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19 and I was struck by the difficulty the preacher seemed to have in dealing with the passage. I agree, there are some interpretive challenges but I think that often these difficulties are the result of theological baggage that's brought to the text.
We are then subjected to ridiculous ad for 'Christian Coffee' whatever that is. To be frank, I'd rather give my money to Starbucks than false Christianity. Don't be fooled, despite their claims, these people have no problem giving their money to support evil. The list of examples is long and would fill an encyclopaedia. It was ridiculous to say the least. Later we are subjected to a sacrilegious soap commercial cast in Dominionist terms and a biography of John Knox is promoted - certainly a whitewash of his actual history and views.
https://www.theblaze.com/abide/meek-not-weak-the-era-of-christian-loserdom-is-over
https://founders.org/podcasts/tstt-must-christians-lose-down-here/
The Founders here refers not to the American Founders but a movement within the Southern Baptist Convention to recover its Calvinist roots from the time of the antebellum split in American Christianity. I remember hearing about this movement back in the 1990's and it was spoken of with great approval and hope. Today, Tom Ascol is the leader of the Founders. I'm not entirely sure if he's cut from the same cloth as earlier men like Ernest Reisinger who got the movement going. There's no doubt that the Founders have played a significant role in the genesis of New Calvinism.
https://reformedforum.org/podcasts/ctc907/
https://churchandfamilylife.com/podcasts/scripture-applied/681b88f593d37c3f67415b85
Regarding the Salem Witch Trials of 1692/93, it was evident early on that the host of the show was not familiar with the subject when he raised the question of whether Britain had its witch episodes as well. I guess he's never heard of Matthew Hopkins (d.1647).
The 17th century represented probably the height of the witch craze in the Western world. Many wrongly think of the Middle Ages when it comes to witches. Most of the episodes actually occur in the post-Renaissance context and the phenomenon seemed to equally afflict both Protestant and Roman Catholic circles.
https://gospelreformation.net/dear-pastor-may-my-child-take-the-lords-supper/
Spinnenweber is to be commended as he covers all the bases and his treatment of the subject is fair. Unfortunately his conclusions are completely wrong.
Recently I was re-reading a book of essays on Klaas Schilder and on the question of Christ and Culture, NH Gootjes asks if the cultural mandate changed radically after the Fall? Psalm 8 show the opposite, he asserts. 'Man has been given dominion over the works of God's hands (v.6). Man can rule over God's creation as Joseph ruled over Egypt (Gen. 45:8, 26). The psalm reminds us of Genesis 1. Man still has the position in creation as he had in the beginning, sin notwithstanding.'*
https://www.crossway.org/articles/is-the-lords-supper-jesuss-actual-body-and-blood-1-corinthians/
On one level this article had moments in which it was a blessing to read. And yet another part of me wanted to crumple up the paper and throw it across the room.
We can agree that the Lord's Supper is not a repeated sacrifice as understood in the Roman Catholic Mass and while some of the Lutheran hair-splitting and insistence on ubiquity is not always helpful, Naselli's rendering of the Supper as merely symbolic does not account for the Scriptural data.
The recent death of Steve Schlissel (1952-2025) has rekindled some of the discussions regarding Federal Vision - something I also touched on in a recent piece.
https://regensburgforum.com/2016/12/12/political-theology-modernity-and-late-scholasticism/
The context for this discussion is the epistemological crisis that emerged with the Magisterial Reformation. The Protestant Reformers looked to the state to legislate their religious reforms and counter the authority of the Roman Catholic Church - which in many parts of Europe had lost its standing with the state. The Magisterial Protestant rebellion had to be justified philosophically and ethically and as such there were various appeals to Scripture, lesser magistrates, conscience, and early forms of social contract theory.