Triablogue's Take on Child Rearing

On more than one occasion I've had people recommend Triablogue to me as a sterling Reformed website. I've explored it on numerous occasions and never really found much that interested me or that I agreed with. It seems like it's mostly Baptistic-leaning material and thus contains a lot of minimalist rationalist-driven theology alongside a good deal of dubious historical commentary. I've always felt like there was something a bit off about the site. 

Redemptive-Historical Theology Part 3: Christocentric Thinking and Ethics

There are some who will insist that Systematics and Biblical Theology are complimentary and admittedly some Systematic theologians are better than others. And yet ultimately we return to basic questions - What is the Bible? What is the nature of revelation? How do we judge and interact with it? How did the Fall affect our intellect? And how do we faithfully understand and communicate what God has spoken? Is it our task to reflect Scriptural teaching even if it results in unresolved tensions and we are forced to limit some of our concepts - leaving loose ends and unanswered inquiries? Or is it the task of the theologian as Charles Hodge (1797-1878) argued - to treat the Scripture as something like data or a 'storehouse of facts' to be organized? The theologian's task consequently becomes something like a scientific discipline with the primary requirement being philosophical training.

Sola Scriptura and The Spectrum of Scriptural Authority (VI): Revelatory Correspondence, Text, Canon, and Conclusions

In terms of philosophical analogy, the Biblicism being advocated here is akin to the Correspondence Theory of Truth - the Logos-Scriptures being the epistemological measure and our task is to reflect (or mirror) and project these teachings as they are taught (in their context). This framing (in contrast to the Coherence Theory) is usually tied to Empiricism and on that point we must depart. We communicate an analogy wherein we must acknowledge the danger of our ideas becoming a filter or playing a mediatorial role in how God's truths are understood. Our understanding always runs the risk of being slanted or tainted by how our eyes, minds, and hearts see and understand these things and so that too is a cause for caution and humility. This in contrast to the kind of 'direct realist' approach (or ethos) seen in Fundamentalist literalism - an effort that results not only in oversimplification but is often blind to its own biases. It also differs (strongly) from the systematics approach which seeks to reorganize and reframe revealed doctrine into a coherent and comprehensive theological product - I use this term deliberately.

Vos and the Two-Age Ethics of Redemptive-Historical Theology

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.

My Kingdom is Not of This World

There are few books out there that I would fully endorse, but Joshua Immanuel's 2024 work - My Kingdom is Not of This World is one of them. A friend of this website, Immanuel excels at laying out some of the basic ideas surrounding the nature of the Kingdom and the ethics that flow from it.

Christian Nationalism, the Wilson Ethos, and the Venture Capital Backing American Reformer

Christian Nationalism is nothing new but it has been re-cast and reinvigorated in recent years. Preferential Pluralism once dominated the Evangelical scene. The absolute nature and universal claims of Reconstructionism were considered fringe and even revolutionary and yet now are mainstream. Basically, Reconstructionism lives on in a slightly modified form. It lives on under the aegis of the more recently named Christian Nationalism.

Kuyper and Schilder on Eschatology and Culture

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.

The Rich Young Ruler, Law, and New Covenant Supremacy (II)

So if the Rich Young Ruler had (in faith) obeyed the commands of God, his works would mean something. This does not suggest he could earn his salvation but rather it would be a testimony to the Holy Spirit working within him. Instead, he was an idolater and his understanding of the law was of the letter not the spirit. He had no real faith to speak of and when standing before Christ and receiving a face to face invitation from Him - he turned away. He wasn't interested.

The Rich Young Ruler, Law, and New Covenant Supremacy (I)

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.

What Kingdom Fellowship?

Recently I discovered a new congregation in the area. It's not really in my area but I decided to make the drive and investigate. There was very little online and I couldn't really find a lot of information about it but the name indicated to me that they were Kingdom Christians. As such I figured they were Anabaptists of some stripe and committed to the kind of Kingdom life and ethics associated with New Testament passages such as the Sermon on the Mount.

Reflecting on Independence Day 2024 (II)

The original nation under the Articles of Confederation wouldn't hold together and so for many the revolution was betrayed by the creation of the Constitution and federalism. Some are aware of this to be sure but the masses of flag wavers are not.

Reflecting on Independence Day 2024 (I)

My criticism of the United States and its wars as well as expressions of patriotism are not meant to trample on personal feelings, nor am I trying to make people feel badly about remembering their forebears.

Inbox: The Church as Institution vs. Sect (I)

What of those who insist it's wrong for the Church to be viewed as a sect? Is it an institution? Is it right for us to think of it in such terms?

Over the past several years I've heard more than one statement or discussion regarding the question of the Church needing to function as an institution or fixture within society and not fall into the category of being a sect and it connotations of marginalisation, exclusivity, and even extremism. The acceleration and amplification of the culture wars and the perceived marginalisation of the Church has fueled this discussion.

A Dispensationalist Voice from Yesteryear

I happened to be up in Western New York the other day and picked up Insight for Living, the radio programme of Chuck Swindoll on WDCX out of Buffalo. I tend to associate him with a generation that has now passed away. I looked him up and wasn't too surprised to find out that he's eighty-nine years old. The regional radio station FLN (the so-called Family Life Network) used to broadcast his show during their prime-times but then he was relegated to the 5am slot and I'm not even sure they run his show at all any more. They removed men like Swindoll and replaced them with sticky-sweet therapeutic types like Chip Ingram and hipsters like James MacDonald and Greg Laurie. Compared to the latter, Swindoll seems like a breath of fresh air, and so I left his show on and listened for a bit. But alas, it was not the case.

Limited Epistemology and the Place of the Lost in Cosmology (I)

At certain times it hits you. Someone you know dies and that someone was a lost person, and you think about their life and you wonder what was it for?

Belgic Article XXXVI and Kuyperianism (II)

These discussions and debates are further confused by the influence of Neo-Calvinism (not to be confused with New Calvinism) and Theonomy which build on Kuyper and in some cases apply his ideas (by means of holistic assumption and inference) to their monistic models. Under such thinking, Sola Scriptura is effectively redefined not only in terms of philosophy but with this recasting comes a notion we might call hyper-sufficiency.

Belgic Article XXXVI and Kuyperianism (I)

https://reformedperspective.ca/on-the-proper-role-of-government-and-article-36-of-the-belgic-confession/

The Reformed Perspective/Bredenhof article in question provides a worthy discussion of the some of the dynamics concerning Article xxxvi of the Belgic Confession (1559) and the views of Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920). To many in the Reformed sphere, their teachings are effectively one and the same and yet this is not actually the case. For some Kuyper actually represents a serious departure creating an uncomfortable situation for those who would both champion Kuyper as the twentieth-century Reformed Theologian par excellence, and yet demand a strict Confessional Subscription.

In Belgic Article xxxvi we read:

Two Kingdoms and the Reformed Tradition (III)

It must be granted the appeal to different understandings of law and its implications for Kingdom thinking by Evans is rather astute and is worthy of more reflection – but that's a question of historical theology and while interesting, is of a secondary importance. In terms of the question of Law vis-à-vis the New Testament, the Lutheran Law/Gospel paradigm is certainly artificial and forced, an outworking of the school's absolutising of Sola Fide – to the detriment of other aspects of soteriology, in particular sanctification. The Reformed understanding is more nuanced and remains a point of contention – different camps understanding it in different ways. There certainly is a case to be made (and one badly needed!)for a Law-Gospel distinction in terms of Redemptive History, but this is not the same as the Lutheran attempt to relegate all New Testament imperatives to a contrived category of law.

Two Kingdoms and the Reformed Tradition (I)

https://theecclesialcalvinist.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/the-two-kingdoms-theology-and-christians-today/

The cited article by William B Evans provided a well-argued and concise analysis of the question of Two Kingdom theology viewed from the perspective of Reformed Confessionalism and as such provides a good opportunity for some interaction and comment. Reading this essay alongside the work by Evans will hopefully assist readers in understanding the nature of the issues and just what is at stake.

Revisiting Revisiting Constantine

https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2015/03/constantine-defended-and-revisited.html

Recently, I decide to re-read this book and the article I wrote about it in 2015. The book I'm referring to is "Constantine Revisited: Leithart, Yoder, and the Constantinian Debate" edited by John Roth (Wipf and Stock 2013). This book was written in response to Peter Leithart's "Defending Constantine" (IVP Academic 2010).

As I wrote in 2015, the book made many good points against the Leithart thesis, but most of the contributors missed the mark and some don't even belong within its pages.