Trueman has Seemingly Lost his Mind

https://firstthings.com/pope-francis-my-worst-protestant-nightmare/

https://wng.org/opinions/an-office-of-great-cultural-significance-1746424321

These articles left me baffled but they demonstrate how cultural and political motivations have taken over and now drive the thinking of most Christians. Trueman in particular surprises me as he once passionately argued for a kind of sober detachment but now is at the forefront of culture war battles even being promoted by and collaborating with the likes of Charles Colson protege John Stonestreet.

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.

Rome vs. Geneva

I've been unable to find the source for the quote but there's a statement made by someone in the 18th or 19th century about how the civilisational clash is between Rome and Geneva. The point being, the Geneva in question is not the Geneva of Calvin but of Rousseau and Voltaire. In other words Geneva represents not the Reformation but the Enlightenment.

Both Low Church and High Doctrine

Driving home from a rather High-Church Anglican service, I reflected on the many different understandings of worship and the relationship (if any) between our service and the celestial or heavenly realm.

Inbox: The Northern Kingdom Analogy Expanded (II)

Confessionalists and Evangelicals, (the two dominate groups in my Judah- Southern Kingdom analogy) don’t quote their own prophets as do the Charismatics but they do rely on alternate word-authorities. Evangelicals frequently quote the Founding Fathers or the founding documents treating such words as inspired or the very least deutero-canonical.

Inbox: The Northern Kingdom Analogy Expanded (I)

 Given all the overtly heretical forms of Christianity that are out there, why spend so much time criticizing conservative leaders and ministries? Where’s the threat? Are they not all more or less in agreement on the basics of the gospel? Are you not guilty of majoring on the minors?

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Over the years I have on occasion appealed to something I call the Northern Kingdom Analogy. The New Testament repeatedly reminds us that the Old Testament serves as an example. There were false prophets among them just as there will be among us. In Christ, we participated in the same events, and partake of the same spiritual meat and drink. The typology is relevant as well, and especially so when one understands Revelation provides a multi-faceted view of Church History cast in Old Testament forms and symbolism. Throughout the epistles, but especially in Jude and Revelation, there’s a direct analogy to Old Testament antecedents.

Historical Cycles: The Post-Napoleonic Context of Adolphe Monod, Reveil, and Some Contemporary Analogies (III)

As has so often been the case in Church history, persecution failed to defeat the faithful. They were instead defeated by peace and flourishing, and through compromise, the ability to attain status and respect in society. The American Beast did not persecute the Church, instead it seduced it. The crisis for American Christianity came at the turn of the twentieth century when the Classical Liberalism of its founding (with its secular assumptions) finally overtook and began to openly subvert the (by then) weakened and deformed Christian consensus – thus creating the crisis that would generate new cycles and chapters of reaction and compromise in American Church history throughout the twentieth century right up to the present.

Historical Cycles: The Post-Napoleonic Context of Adolphe Monod, Reveil, and Some Contemporary Analogies (I)

I recently finished Constance Walker's small biography on Adolphe Monod (1802-1856) which I would recommend to anyone interested in nineteenth century conservative Protestantism on the European continent – of which there is not a great deal. This is why figures like Monod stand out.

Glorying in their Shame: Celebrating the Magisterial Reformation's Sacral Heritage (II)

Kennedy then takes a strange turn by invoking the memory of Reinhold Niebuhr who was not a Christian by any kind of New Testament measure. His faith was not in keeping with the message delivered by the apostles and so I continue to be somewhat baffled as to why his flawed paradigms and bogus 'realist' dilemmas are granted any standing.

The UCC Backlash: Conservative remnants within old Congregationalist, Hungarian, and German Reformed Congregations

https://www.ironsharpensironradio.com/podcast/june-15-2023-show-with-ed-boyle-micah-clouse-on-is-there-hope-for-the-united-church-of-christ/

A recent episode of Iron Sharpens Iron caught my eye as it called attention to some of the conservative remnants and their resistance to theological liberalism within the United Church of Christ (UCC).

Myths Concerning Second Temple Judaism

Having recently finished Gerard Russell's Heirs of Forgotten Kingdoms (Basic Books, 2014) I found myself once again irritated and put off by popular but erroneous narratives concerning Second Temple Judaism.

Scholasticism and Muller's Concession

https://derekzrishmawy.com/2015/06/30/dont-underestimate-the-scholastics-or-gleanings-from-richard-mullers-prrd/

Critics of the Calvin vs. the Calvinists thesis often seem to suggest that those who posit the notion have erected a straw man – the supposed epistemological and methodological divide between the first generation of Magisterial Reformers and their seventeenth century descendants just isn't there.

Responding to Kenneth Bailey on the Role of Women in the New Testament

https://theologymatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/00Vol6-No1-TM.pdf

While there are certainly some advantages to understanding the context of the Ancient Near East and while this knowledge can sometimes elucidate certain episodes in Scripture, Bailey provides a sterling and noteworthy example of how this should not be done.

The Oracular Mark and Historiography

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

The following is by no means exhaustive but it is my hope that it provides an alternative (or at least a working alternative) basis for a metanarrative to Church History. While I've been critical of the aforementioned narratives the concept of a metanarrative itself is not invalid – even while it has its dangers. Painting with a fairly broad brush I hope to establish some principles that will (in the most general of terms) provide a framework for an alternative view that some will identify as a kind of Third Way – a positive narrative that avoids the traps and pitfalls of both Roman Catholicism (and by implication Eastern Orthodoxy) and Magisterial Protestantism.

Nevin's Early Christianity

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

The study of Church History is one dominated by narratives. For some it's a question of progress, a narrative of the application of principles, the expansion of the Kingdom in the form of Christendom and for others it's a story of remnant groups persevering in the face of apostasy and relentless persecution. Needless to say variations of the former model have proven to be far more popular and marketable.

Anabaptist Storm Clouds on the Horizon (Part 1)

In December 2019 I was visiting the Mennonite website for The Sword and Trumpet and was rather stunned to find that their Spring 2020 colloquy was hosting John Stonestreet of BreakPoint. He was to address the conservative Mennonite assemblage on issues of media and technology.

Inbox: An Elaboration of Biblicism (III)

A third consideration which while hinted at above, requires further elaboration, this is the relationship between Authoritative Sufficiency and Biblicism:

Worldviewism is a philosophical construct rooted in Sacralist assumption and inference and as such posits the Sufficiency of Scripture in terms of a holistic vision for the transformation and sanctification of culture. This is in fact a de-covenantalised abuse of the doctrine of Sufficiency.

Stonestreet's Hat Trick (Part 1)

John Stonestreet has taken up the mantle of Charles Colson and promotes his Dominionist Theology through the BreakPoint outlet which runs its daily commentaries on Christian radio stations all across the United States. I often listen but very rarely do I agree with what is said. Even when Stonestreet is right, it's usually for the wrong reasons. Their religion is not the Christianity of Scripture but is instead Capitalist Western Civilisation, a kind of Christo-Americanism. Though ostensibly Protestant their version of Christian Sacralism is particularly broad and easily embraces everything from Roman Catholicism to significant elements within the theologically liberal mainline. What really matters for Stonestreet is that everyone is engaged in trying to build Christian culture, whatever that means.

Mythical Animals, Secular Analysis of Religion and the Anti-Sacral Uniqueness of New Testament Christianity

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/darmstrong/the-bible-and-mythical-animals

The King James translation erred in some of its translation choices, particularly with regard to animals and beasts that the translators were unfamiliar with. The cockatrice and unicorn are but a couple of well known examples, and their usage has generated some confusion among readers. In some cases the use of fantastical creature nomenclature has engendered mocking and ridicule from both within and without the Church.

An Example of Kuyperian Two Kingdom Theology Applied

https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/should-churches-have-christian-schools-a-test-case-regarding-church-and-society

This is another example of what I often refer to as Pseudo-Two Kingdom Theology. While it purports to avoid the direct theocratic models advocated by some, it nevertheless operates on a Dominionist basis. The form is different and while it ostensibly observes the necessary distinction between Church and culture, it nevertheless operates on the false assumption that the Kingdom includes, incorporates and redeems culture. As Doriani states:

...the kingdom is wider than the visible church. The visible, corporate church is the vanguard, the concentration point, the training ground, and the sending agency for kingdom work, but kingdom work is broader than church work.