Deconstructing Dolezal

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.

Calvinism's Inability to Reckon With Apostasy

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.

The Sufficiency of Scripture, the Christian Life, and the Rejection of Psychology

https://churchandfamilylife.com/sermons/6952196ce386b6135c21f915

As regular readers of my websites will know, I am not a fan of Scott Brown and his Theonomic movement within Reformed Baptist circles.

I first encountered him around twenty years ago (or more) in connection with the question of family-integrated worship. I had already more or less developed convictions with regard to worship, and as a paedobaptist, I had wrestled with how to view Christian children. And so on that point, I actually go a good deal further than Brown and this also shaped my thinking in terms of worship. Sunday School for me had come up in the 1990's as I wrestled with ecclesiology and the regulative principle.

The Life and Times of IC Herendeen

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.

The SBC Founders Find the Road to not just Loserdom but Functional Apostasy (II)

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.

The SBC Founders Find the Road to not just Loserdom but Functional Apostasy (I)

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.

Evangelical Ecclesiology and the Question of Authority

https://religionnews.com/2025/03/04/why-are-southern-baptists-still-arguing-about-women-preachers-credentials-committee-newspring/

The reason the Southern Baptist Convention is still arguing about women preachers is because they won't address the fundamental issue. The vast majority of the conservatives have no problem with women teaching - which is to exercise authority. The arguments in the New Testament that forbid women office are tied to the question of authority and the role of women which is one of domesticity.

How Should Christians View Their Children?

https://jacobrcrouch.wordpress.com/2024/11/01/train-your-kids-to-be-christians/

There is much that is positive in this article and I do not doubt Crouch's sincerity nor do I wish to simply cast his comments in a negative light. Rather I wish to utilize them and discuss some of the tensions and inconsistencies that exist within the Reformed and Evangelical communities.

Sola Scriptura and Divine Simplicity (II)

To my mind, it makes perfect sense that this dispute over the doctrine of God has arisen in the context of Reformed Baptist circles as I have long argued Baptist doctrine and understandings regarding concepts such as the covenant and sacraments tend toward reductionism and result from a kind of rationalism at work that will not tolerate ambiguity, tension, and paradox – even though a true Biblicist hermeneutic demands the embrace of such mysteries.

Sola Scriptura and Divine Simplicity (I)

https://www.ironsharpensironradio.com/podcast/june-17-2022-show-with-dr-sam-waldron-on-do-we-still-believe-sola-scriptura-a-word-of-caution-to-reformed-churches-leaders-about-present-day-dangerous-paths-slippery-slopes-on-the-rise-among/

Though I've made it abundantly clear in the past that I'm not a fan of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron, when I saw that Sam Waldron was to be the guest I decided to give the show a listen. I was all the more intrigued by the suggestion that there were problems or challenges with regard to Sola Scriptura.

I was mostly pleased by what I heard. I feared that the show would be about Critical Race Theory, alien epistemologies and things of that order, but that wasn't it at all. They were talking about a debate taking place within Reformed circles and given Arnzen and Waldron – specifically within Reformed Baptist circles.

The Deacon Problem in Both Anglican and Baptist Circles (II)

But they're not the only group that has a problem with the diaconate. In Baptist circles there's also a great deal of confusion on this point. For them, the office of 'pastor' is akin to Paul's bishop in 1 Timothy 3.

The Deacon Problem in Both Anglican and Baptist Circles (I)

I recently had an exchange with a priest from the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). As our church situation has collapsed due to the degeneration of worship into therapy, politics, and entertainment and the fact that Trumpites are running rampant in many local congregations including our own, we've been looking for an alternative.

The Testimony of IC Herendeen and World War I

Irwin C Herendeen (1883-1982) is a name few remember today. Those who are familiar with the name usually connect it to Arthur Pink. A Christian book and tract publisher, Herendeen laboured in Central Pennsylvania and published many of Pink's works among others.

Metanarratives of Church History: Mercersburg, Confessionalism, and Landmarkism

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (III)

Nevin imposes a theological paradigm and metanarrative on his reading of Church History but ignores the fact that the New Testament repeatedly and forcefully warns of apostasy and appeals to the Old Testament as a pattern which is replete with examples of corruption, defection and compromise. In other words the Scriptures all but told us to expect this course in terms of the history of the Church and yet Nevin's progression paradigm has no room for it.

Membership Chaos within the Confessional Presbyterian Context (Part 2)

As you pursue communicant membership, rest assured that he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6). “May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thess. 5:23–24). Amen. 

Apart from the terminology and conceptualisation of 'communicant membership', the statement is not unsound. And yet it is lacking. To be fair it was not the author's intent to provide an exhaustive statement and yet I think this is important. He rightly emphasizes the need for good works and the Philippian exhortation is tied to the concept of perseverance – an idea that permeates the New Testament and yet must be distinguished from the deduced and popular but erroneous concept of eternal security.

Membership Chaos within the Confessional Presbyterian Context (Part 1)

This brief statement on membership caught my eye while perusing New Horizons, the OPC monthly that I continue to follow even though I departed the OPC about twenty years ago. My early Christian days were in connection with that denomination and while I would never even consider regularly attending another one – I still follow its trajectory and movements and though the numbers grow fewer, there are still people I know (or knew) within its fold.

Evangelicals and Their Children: The Crisis of Kids at Home

I have heard through family and friends that many are lamenting the fact that their kids are now at home due to school closures. There is apparently some stress or crisis resulting from the family being brought together and forced to spend long hours in each other's company. It's a sad commentary on the degenerate state of the family in this society and apparently within the Church that echoes it.

Washer's Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church: Critiquing the Critics (Part 2)

Washer refers to infant baptism as the golden calf of the Reformation. To put it bluntly, he's wrong... but there's a sense in which he's right. He's wrong on the issue of paedobaptism there's a hint of truth to his statement.

Paedobaptism is Scriptural and despite Baptist assertions to the contrary it is even testified to in the book of Acts but the problem is when it's applied in a Sacralist milieu. Then it becomes distorted and destructive. Baptism, paedo- or otherwise should never be universally applied to a tribe, nation or culture. It is applied only to the separatist pilgrim Church that has come out of the world and continues in perseverance. Within that context paedobaptism has its import and can function correctly. Sacralism necessarily waters down discipline to the point of near irrelevance and it destroys the Church's distinct identity and (as a consequence) renders the Word and Sacrament almost meaningless.

Disquiet in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)

I've recommended Jeff Riddle's work in the past. He's a Reformed or confessionally Calvinistic Baptist pastor out of Virginia.

By way of clarification I personally am an ex- or more probably post- Reformed Christian and most definitely not a Baptist in any sense, but there are some in those circles I can appreciate. I think Riddle demonstrates some wisdom when it comes to discussing certain topics but most of all I appreciate his work defending the traditional text and concepts like providential preservation as opposed to the pseudo-conservative position of inerrancy and its embrace of the Critical Text.

I listen to his Word Magazine podcasts and while at first I wasn't that interested in this particular topic, it pulled me in. He and a guest (Clevenger) are talking about developments within the Southern Baptist Convention, both of them are apparently ex-members.

The Presbyterian Fallacy

Recently I encountered (yet again) another example of what I have termed The Presbyterian Fallacy.

Briefly by way of context, Episcopal forms of Church government do not claim their authority is based on Scriptural exegesis. While they believe their polity is 'Biblical' in the sense that it 'flows' from Scripture, they will freely admit that it's not something that can be appealed to chapter and verse. They would argue the New Testament does not prescribe a specific form of polity. Or they might argue that the Apostles established a type of regional hierarchy which over time legitimately developed into the episcopacy.