“We must be diligent to keep the main thing (the gospel of Christ) the main thing, and I fear so-called Christian Platonism (at best) distracts us and/or (at worst) keeps us from the main thing.”
From my essay
@Christ_OverAll
. 🔗👇
“Platonism leads to the death of theology and philosophy in a dark cave, whereas Christianity leads to true wisdom, knowledge, and eternal life thanks to the empty tomb of the risen Christ.”
~
@MichaelCarlino
Essay Link 🔗 👇👇👇
This is a 🔥2 minute clip of
@holland_tom
responding to the question: "Nominate for me just 1 thing that Christianity has introduced that doesn't have some source/parallel/analogy in previous civilizations. Just 1 novelty/innovation in thinking of anything ethical/metaphysical."
History Maker: Why Tom Holland changed his mind about Christ
Episode 10 of the Surprising Rebirth podcast charts how the Christian story shaped us.
I hear from
@holland_tom
on why he changed his mind about Christianity, alongside thinkers, historians and converts on why
I'm not all that interested in how deftly one can articulate their Trinitarian or Christological bonafides if they think baby murder needs to be a more nuanced discussion to placate the spirit of the age (Matt 7:21-23; 18:16).
The earliest Christians were marked by their peculiar otherness when in Rome. When living in Rome, they didn’t do as the Romans did. Their Christocentric love and care for the least of these earned persecution.
Don’t just choose the sins our Rome already denounces to reject.
"So like it or not, the bear historical fact is that the American nation was born saturated with a biblical and indeed a Protestant Christian worldview. And I suggest that the only sanity for this nation is in acknowledging that and respecting that."
~
@albertmohler
If a Baptist hears this and is unable to distinguish it from an establishmentarianism/state church, it's not that they're "more" Baptist than
@albertmohler
, it's that they've drunk far too much secularist kool-aid.
I want to maximize the Christian commitments of the state. I call that "acknowledgment."
I'm not claiming that every citizen will be a confessing Christian. but that does not mean they are not obligated to the acknowledgment of the Christian structure of this civilization.
“My fear is that one day we’re going to wake up realizing we never talk about the Great Commission anymore.”
Me too. I am concerned SBC churches with female pastors not teaching Christ’s disciples to observe all that He commands will render us saltless.
#adopttheamendment
#SBC24
Welp, it’s that time of year where Sovereign Grace’s “Prepare Him Room” and Andrew Peterson’s “Behold the Lamb of God” are on repeat. Any other theologically rich Christmas albums I should be aware of?
This table puts
@bobby_jamieson
's &
@tylerwittman
's 7 principles and 10 rules for Christological and Trinitarian exegesis on one page. I've found these to be insightful and clarifying.
@bobby_jamieson
&
@tylerwittman
on the symbiotic relationship between dogmatics and exegesis from Biblical Reasoning:
"To put it more formally: when rightly defined and practiced, the goals and products of exegetical and dogmatic reasoning harmonize, complement, and inform each
Beeke and Smalley have a great section on cultivating spiritual discipline in volume 3 of their Reformed Systematic Theology.
I’ve summarized pages 691-694 into a chart. Simple and necessary reminders for the Christian life.
Disappointing.
But:
-61% of the SBC voted for the
@sbcamendment
-
@CBMWorg
council member
@pastorclint
was elected president
-91% of the convention voted in favor of not remaining in friendly cooperation with FBC Alexandria
In these things I take heart.
#SBC24
Well, we did our best. Sixty-one percent of the messengers voted in favor of the Law Amendment, but that falls short of the 66% supermajority that was required.
“The Lord reigns. Let the whole earth rejoice.” -Psalm 97:1
#SBC24
The distinction
@joe_rigney
makes between natural vs. ideological complementarianism is the way forward.
Male leadership/headship is not merely a product of Bible verses, as though Scripture speaks such concepts into existence ex-nihilo. The Bible ratifies God's design/reality.
The law is a tutor. May this week’s SCOTUS decision be used by God as the starting point of a nationwide recalibration and reform our moral ecology from a culture of death to one of life.
T-Minus two weeks until I get to teach my first lecture as an adjunct instructor
@BoyceCollege
.
I can't wait! Getting to teach a Systematic Theology course for this institution is a dream come true.
Hoekema is my go-to for Revelation 20:
"There is no indication in these verses that John is describing an earthly millennial reign. The scene, as we saw, is set in heaven. Nothing is said in verses 4-6 about the earth, about Palestine as the center of this reign or about the
“I think Walsh is appealing to the ability of ordinary people to see what is really there in nature over and against the tortured musings of gender propagandist…that is what Walsh’s wife’s words so powerfully demonstrate.”
~
@DennyBurk
We cannot miss this line from Jeff Iorg's essay yesterday:
"The previous issues (homosexuality, sexual abuse and racism) have a defined moral component. They are sinful acts clearly condemned in the Bible. Women serving in pastoral roles are not in this category. Gender
This essay minimizes/denigrates the fact that the risen Christ commands his disciples/churches to baptize disciples in the triune Name AND ensure we are "teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you" (Matt 28:20a).
We can't be a "Great Commission people" otherwise.
Humbled, honored, and thrilled to teach my first college-level course
@BoyceCollege
this Fall. Grateful to be entrusted with this weighty and blessed responsibility/opportunity. Can't wait!
I appreciate that Paul Smalley was able to make a case for credobaptism in his and Joel Beeke's Reformed Systematic Theology. A tacit endorsement of the fact that "Reformed Baptist" is an entirely legitimate term. 😇😉👇
In less than 12 hours I get to teach my first class as a professor. I have the privilege of teaching 50
@BoyceCollege
students what theology is ("faith seeking understanding") and how theology is done (exegetical, biblical, historical, systematic, and practical theology).
#letsgo
Students
@SBTS
should move to campus b/c on-campus learning is much more conducive to rich relationships with professors.
Case in point, I graduate from
@andrewtwalk
’s student to his student AND friend in the span of 113 pages! 😂
Btw, you should get “Faithful Reason.”
@thisisfoster
"First time obedience: right away, all the way, with a happy heart." I feel like my wife and I are repeating this mantra incessantly. It's a joy to see the fruit from consistency on this point though. Makes the home a delight.
If you profess to be a Christian and find opposition to gun control to be an act of sacrificing our children on the idol of the NRA, but find it necessary to nuance legislation on abortion due to its complexity, you’ve lost the plot.
Steve Wellum's section on "Christological Orthodoxy: The Chalcedonian Definition," from his book "The Person of Christ: An Introduction" is fantastic.
He provides the following 5 points which have established Christological orthodoxy in the church, even up to today.
Stephen Wellum on why the Lord's Day is not the Christian Sabbath:
"So why does the Sabbath appear in the Ten Commandments? Because it’s the sign of the old covenant (Ex. 31:12–17). But doesn’t it still function as God’s eternal moral law for us today? I answer no for three
No this isn't a parody... This is an actual conference held by the United Methodist Church in North Carolina.
This is what the woke mind virus does to people's brains.
He's pro-choice.
Every single pro-life evangelical voting for him is voting for a man who is pro-choice *and* found liable for sex abuse by a jury of his peers.
I never, ever thought I'd see this day. To restore the pro-life movement in the GOP, he has to lose.
It has become necessary to dissolve the Supreme Court of the United States.
The first step is for a state the "court" has now forced guns upon, to ignore this ruling.
Great. You're a court? Why and how do think you can enforce your rulings?
#IgnoreTheCourt
“Cultural Christianity” is what happens when common grace/natural revelation are reinforced as good and right through the influence of Christianity.
To celebrate its demise is to celebrate the waning influence of the gospel on a society’s moral ecology.
Don’t do that.
Listen in as
@MichaelCarlino
connects the dots from
@joe_rigney
's book on emotional sabotage to the SBC, highlighting how political operatives use well-intentioned but untethered empathy to steer the Convention leftward.
Full Episode:
“If I say, ‘I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,’ His message becomes like fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail…Yahweh is with me like a fearsome warrior.”
~Jeremiah 20:9, 11a
@William_E_Wolfe
So you are saying Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work? Oh wait, that was Paul, too.
One of these days, maybe I’ll be able to sing “The Power of the Cross” with my church family and not choke up at least once throughout. But, it was not this day, and I doubt it will happen soon.
“Finished, the victory cry,” “Death was crushed to death, life is mine to live.”
@megbasham
Ironically, the Greek is “I AM” and is one of the many times John records Jesus’s clear affirmation of deity. English translators supply the pronoun. 🤓
"Donald Trump’s position on abortion is deplorable and Kamala Harris’ position is demonic. Despite his great track record on abortion when he was president, Trump isn’t campaigning against abortion. Kamala Harris, however, is campaigning for abortion.
Essentially, between the
This is my latest article:
"There is no such thing as “Evangelicals for Harris.” If you’re voting for Kamala Harris, you are not an evangelical.
They know the best way to deceive evangelicals is to present ungodly people as one of our own."
Said no one.
"Christian nationalism is a kind of Great Commission in reverse—in which the nations seek to make disciples of themselves, using Jesus’ authority to baptize their national identity in the name of the blood and of the soil and of the political order." ~Russell Moore
“Augustine should help us realize that outside the garden their is no innocent sexuality.”
~Hill
“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled.”
~Heb 13:4
Augustine was wrong about sex, and so is Hill. This is unbiblical teaching.
He goes on to quote Phillip Cary: "In Augustine’s teaching every sexual act, even of married Christians, is sin in need of forgiveness, precisely because it involves consenting to our inevitably concupiscent sexual desires rather than mortifying them." (2/2)
Biggest takeaway from the first
@KenwoodBC
Institute class today on Reformed theology from
@kdclaunch
:
Baptists are to Reformed theology what Reformed theology was/is to Protestantism, and what Protestantism was/is to Catholicity.
#semperreformanda
@DennyBurk
What's truly sad in this video, is that you can tell the word of God has zero effect on his thinking. He has no ears to hear the rebuke/irony of his wife "amplifying" a verse that condemns him.
“The SCOTUS has informed Idaho they may continue with their intention to stop child abuse/castration, thus allowing boys and girls to get through puberty without delusional and irreversible medical intervention.”
My friend/mentor
@kdclaunch
is a first-rate husband, father, churchman, professor/scholar
@SBTS
, and (as of tonight by congregational vote), pastor for
@KenwoodBC
.
Honored to “consider the outcome of his way of life and imitate his faith” (Heb 13:7).
Sam Emadi &
@DavidSchrock
on typology:
🔥🎯👇
“Notably, this survey of both the OT and the NT demonstrates that typology in Scripture is not merely superficial connections between two verses. Instead, the biblical authors develop a complex web of interrelated historical
To make female "pastors" a third-tier-issue for cooperation is functionally to make the toleration of female pastors within the SBC a second-tier-issue.
Both sides in this debate are wanting to make the tent somewhat smaller, it's just a question of which side of the tent we are
“Being in friendly cooperation is not just giving through the Cooperative Program. It requires acknowledging significant differences while working together – all while debating and defending our positions – on our overarching, eternal mission of getting the Gospel to people who
G.K. Beale is right that the rainbow surrounding the throne of God as depicted in Revelation 4:3 "speaks of God's mercy, as in the days of Noah, and suggests that, even as God's judgments unfold, He will be gracious to His true people...the rainbow is the first revelatory sign of
“God alone is sovereign. His authority alone is absolute and universal. All men and spheres are subject to God. The civil magistrate derives his authority from God. Apart from divine institution & sanction, civil government has no right to exist.”
~John Murray
I find what Wellum advances here in his upcoming ST to be more compelling and faithful to how the NT authors teach us to read our Bible.
Scripture is a progressive revelation, and this demands a canonical approach in which later revelation expands/enriches earlier texts.
When we interpret the Old Testament, we must reject “authorial ignorance” and cling to “authorial intent.”
The prophets did not write better than they knew (sensus plenior).
Identify the single meaning of the text and apply it properly.
#Preaching
#Christianity
Beeke and Smalley on speaking in tongues:
“Our understanding of tongues must be derived from the terms that Paul used and what he said about its activity, which both point toward real human languages.
Whereas the babble view of tongues reduces it to a humanly explicable
“In accordance with our bylaws, the executive committee has removed Brent Leatherwood as president.”
Praying for wisdom in selecting the next ERLC president.
The following summarizes
@kdclaunch
’s insights on what we learn from the Transfiguration.
Basically, it’s a microcosm of God’s revelation across redemptive history. 👇
In this superb clip from last week's
@KenwoodBC
Institute anchor class on Reformed theology,
@kdclaunch
deftly exposits 2 Peter 1:16-21, explaining how the Transfiguration demonstrates the Law, Prophets, and Apostles bear witness to God's supreme revelation, namely, Jesus Christ.
You’ll lose your carbon credits listening through this 3 hour plus plodcast, but my brothers
@D_B_Harrison
&
@VirgilWalkerOMA
are worthy of such a sacrifice.
Pagans have creeds too, and it’s important to highlight the spiritual/moral bankruptcy at the heart of “climate change.”
This is arguably the most important episode
@VirgilWalkerOMA
and I have done in the nearly five years we’ve been doing
@podcast_just
together. We humbly urge you to carve out some time to listen to—and share—this episode. Thank you. 🙏🏽
Making people "feel seen" is often said in reference to affirming immoral and disgraceful belief/behavior.
Be sure, we all are seen: "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."
Nehemiah Coxe is so helpful here. “Not all Israel was truly Israel” doesn’t merely entail the mixed nature of the old covenant community, it also implies true Israel wasn’t saved under the Mosaic covenant, but by their “spiritual relationship to Abraham” & his Seed, i.e., Christ.
I've resonated w/
@joe_rigney
's diagnosis of untethered empathy & am excited he's now moved into the prescription phase for the fever.
In this essay I apply his insights to the SBC. My prayer is that it helps us be sober, stable, & ready to respond to emotional sabotage rightly.
(1/2) "Conservatives within the SBC have (rightly) warned of a “liberal drift.” But the big takeaway from
@joe_rigney
's book as I think about my denomination is that it is more accurate to say we in the SBC are being emotionally steered."
~
@MichaelCarlino
Full Essay Link🔗👇
Father’s Day was a hard day for me for many years following my dad leaving us. It’s impossible to put into words how grateful I am and how precious it is for me now as a dad to sit on the back patio and watch my 2 year old son diligently and joyfully transporting/pouring water
In his upcoming Systematic Theology "From Canon to Concept," Wellum builds off the 1689/WCF teaching on the clarity/perspicuity of Scripture, providing the following 5 defenses, rejecting a "mediatorial/magisterium" perspective in favor of a "ministerial" one on church tradition.
My new essay for
@firstthingsmag
documents the long history of abortion extremism from Kamala Harris. Short of coming out for killing toddlers, there simply is no way to be more extreme than Kamala Harris and her party now are. Read it here:
“Your new covenant isn’t new enough if it doesn’t mean that ‘ALL’ of its members know the LORD.”
Ross Shannon on Jeremiah 31 at the
@KenwoodBC
Institute Conference.
@megbasham
Just imagine Acts 2 doing this with the 3000 converts from all over the place, you know, just to ensure God's election wasn't disproportionate or anything! 🤣
I have found
@obbietylertodd
's work on Baptist Republicans vs. Baptist Federalists to be eye-opening.
I am growingly convinced that conservative Baptists today would do well to read these debates from Baptists in early America and be less like Leland and co.
I’ve enjoyed working through “The Illustrated Baptist Catechism” by
@FoundersMin
&
@RefToons
with my son over breakfast.
The explanation and illustration of Christ’s state(s) of humiliation & exaltation are excellent.
Excited to present another paper at ETS this November!
“From Babel to Pentecost & Beyond: A Biblical-Theological Response to Stephen Wolfe's [Christian] Nationalism”
(1/4)
Q: Who raised Jesus Christ from the dead?
A: The Triune God
As in all His operations, the resurrection is an act of God whereby Christ's body was raised/glorified from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.
Verses appropriating the resurrection to each person 👇
To this day this chart and explanation of Polanus's 14th axiom on the relative distinction between person and essence from
@FredFredSanders
& Ryan Hurd is one of the most clarifying pieces I've come across on the Trinity.
Definitions/explanation in link👇
“All of this suggests that the committee needs the clarity that the Law Amendment provides. We need the committee to act expeditiously and not delay for years on end on churches like Saddleback and FBC Alexandria.”
~
@DennyBurk
The messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention just voted on a motion to unseat the messengers from FBC Alexandria because of their views on female pastors. I would ask my fellow messengers to consider two things about this vote:
1. The motion to unseat the church’s
Had the pleasure of reading through a few of these review essays today. Superb work, by
@LondonLyceum
.
I particularly appreciated
@JordanBallor
’s contribution, “The Prophetic Role of the Protestant Reformation.”
Especially this section👇
I was today year's old when it clicked how Noah’s children are a microcosm of God’s dealing with all mankind following the Noahic covenant in view of the promised seed of the woman against the seed of the serpent.
Thanks, Nehemiah Coxe.
(1/2) We are blessed at
@KenwoodBC
to sit under faithful expository preaching each Lord's Day.
The clip below is
@DrJimHamilton
's closing exhortation from his exposition of Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 Sunday. The way he draws in its Christological implications is superb.
Why I think delaying the adoption of the
@sbcamendment
this month is disobedience to God's word, while delaying the addition of the Nicene Creed is deferential to God's Word and the Doctrine of God in the BF&M:
Because the Amendment not only deals with an acute pain point (our
PSA for SBC Messengers:
Any seemingly friendly change to the Law Amendment should be taken as an unfriendly amendment, because it only delays obedience to God’s Word.
If you support the
@sbcamendment
, you should be ready in Indy to reject any such amendments.
Good summary and resources cited here by
@brandon_adams
in drawing out how Baptists developed out of congregationalism as a natural offshoot.
“The only way to guarantee a church full of visible saints was to stop baptizing babies.”
Link 👇
I’m preparing to put forward my prospectus for a dissertation on Baptists/Progressive Covenantalism/and civil government this fall. Days like today reinforce why I committed to this project. Many dear friends end up flipping on baptism only after they affirm Christendom/CN.
If our moral outrage/fear is calibrated by the news cycle, God is not the One we are regarding as holy, as wisdom begins by being rooted in the fear of Yahweh (Prov. 1:7; Is. 8:12-14).
Parroting the talking heads online is an expression of foolish unbelief.
“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who foretold the grace to come to you searched and investigated carefully, trying to determine the time and setting to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow."
If something is unnatural it's immoral, b/c it subverts and/or rebels against God's design.
IVF is unnatural. It illicitly decouples the unitive & procreative goods of marriage, rendering children a commodity, & less than the result of the one flesh union.
Ergo, IVF is immoral.