The Covenantal Contours of Limborch's Compleat System

  The efforts of self-identified Arminian (or Wesleyan) theologians in recent decades who debate over the heart of “Arminianism” have mostly aimed to undermine the mischaracterizations prevalent among those with whom they disagree on important soteriological issues but who nevertheless share with them in the communion of saints (read: Young, Restless & Reformed).1 The church at large ought to be grateful for this work to that end, for it has ably shown that Arminius is rightly to be distinguished (but perhaps not separated) from, say, Philip van Limborch (1633–1712), the subject of this brief descriptive summary. While no discernible difference exists, for example, in the way Limborch lays out the order of God’s eternal decrees as...

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When Teleology Trumps Soteriology

I delivered this rant a few weeks ago in a doctoral seminar I'm taking from Tom McCall (co-author of Jacob Arminius: Theologian of Grace). It's basically a riff on Newbigin's doctrine of election and how it completely subverts the ordo decretorum (logical order of God's decrees) debates of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries between supras, infras, conditional infras, etc., etc. Due to the required length of the paper, I had to leave a whole lot of thoughts on the floor, so it definitely runs the risk of presenting a lopsided view of the matter. I also focus criticisms on Arminian arguments because, well, it's a seminar on that very subject. The Logical Order of Things About Which We Know Next to Nothing Mercutio: I am hurt.A...

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Fear Is (not) the Heart of Love

  {A portion of what follows originally appeared in my introduction to Perspectives on the Sabbath, B&H Academic, 2011.} If someone had it incessantly banged into his head, when it came to the practice of Christianity, that “fear is the heart of love,” then we might empathize with him if he “never went back.”1 But it would still be a shame, never going back because of such a blatantly false proposition, at least as it relates to being a follower of Jesus. Quite to the contrary, “perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). But how does love do this? C. FitzSimons Allison argues that the answer is worship—“the means whereby we are opened to the love of God. . . . Worship is an immediate and present means of God’s love, making us...

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Eden Raised

A CROWD GATHERED around Jesus of Nazareth and wondered: Could this person be the son of David, the one who, like David, wreaks havoc upon our enemies? A few of the local leaders standing by did not take kindly to the clear implications of what they witnessed and accused the man of beating up his own people by the power of the prince of demons. He responded with no ounce of timidity: “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. . . . How then will his [Satan's] kingdom stand? . . . But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house” (see Matt....

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A Little Lower Than God

  “O LORD, what are human beings that you should notice them,
 mere mortals that you should think about them?” (Ps. 144:3) In certain circles, Christian Humanism gets a bad rap. But I think it may have to do with a fundamental misunderstanding of what it actually is—from both a theological and methodological perspective. Most of us realize that it has little to do with twenty-first century secular humanism, as it strives to affirm the dignity of humanity without any reference to God, an unthinkable prospect to the Christian humanist, since any talk about the dignity of humankind apart from the imago Dei is unintelligible. In contrast, Christian Humanism argues that, precisely because Christ Jesus is Lord of both the kingdom of God and...

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Photography Friday (9)

Unlike previous incarnations, this time the photography below was not shot on film, but an iPhone. Perhaps you'll find this an affront, a break from something sacred. If so, let me know. In short, some of my favorite shots have been caught on my phone. Today, I'll start with those taken in Chicago's downtown (proper). I'll follow up sometime soon with a Chicagoland neighborhoods selection—the sites, food, drink, and people are far more interesting in the neighborhoods. Cityscape from Navy Pier Navy Pier attractions Commentary on city life? The Bean The world to him; the world to me ...

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Stop Counting

  In light of the parable of the unforgiving slave (Matt. 18:21–35), which of us has heard, sometimes from the pulpit, that a Christian has no obligation to offer forgiveness to one who hasn’t asked for it, to one who doesn’t seek it? Such advice, however understandable the idea is that justice limits mercy, flies in the face of God’s call for us to reflect his grace, to extend, as Jesus teaches here, unlimited forgiveness. We’re all pretty familiar with the parable: One day, Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him. The Lord responds with a little story about a king who forgave a servant’s ridiculous amount of debt (“10,000 talents” is equivalent to today’s “gazillion”—the largest single number Greek...

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Ode to Ridderbos

  Ode to Ridderbos Or, contemplating the excellencies of the unfurling heilsgeschichte Upon the lynchpin of history hangs the murdered, yet risen, son. When the time had come fully, the herald proclaimed the battle was won. The teacher then explained the history of redemption: The old age has passed away; the new man, no more arraigned, being-in-him, a creation and aeon of spirit; the flesh now allayed.     “But congregation, Christ is risen from the dead. That is the new point of view. And it is with that point of view that the apostle Paul wants us to look at life, our own life and the life of the world. Indeed, also the latter. For if we can only see the world, as many Christians do, from the viewpoint of evil, then we are...

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The God Who Risks?

The Discworld gods as they appear in The Last Hero, illustrated by Paul Kidby  John Sanders landed a great title for his book The God Who Risks (1998), and it still enjoys a wide readership today. But does his definition of “risk” line up with what Scripture and tradition say about what God is like? For Sanders, God risks because he waits to see how we will respond to him; in fact, God’s not quite sure how we’ll respond to him. And, he himself forbid, God never forces a response out of us. He hopes for the best possible outcome—for us to love him in return—but more often than not, he ends up hurt, frustrated, and even surprised. He is the God who risks. Well, to the title’s credit, Scripture does portray a God who risks, but that risk...

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Photography Friday (8)

Photography Fridays have suffered a hiatus for long enough. So today we're going to Alaska—on a floater plane, to be exact. I don't remember which part of Alaska we were above, but, not being a huge fan of flying, I do recall being almost completely at peace during this ride. I think it may have something to do with being closer to the ground. Or maybe it was the just the sights. Per the usual, all of these photos were taken on a Canon AE-1 with E100VS (slide film). Click on an image to get a closer look. That's a mighty round hilltop, isn't it? Glacial expanse Glacial release Yes, this exists. Beautiful silt The wifey shooting B-rol...

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That Won’t Do, Pig. That Won’t Do.

When was the last time you went to a private social club? If you think that kind of thing is for the elite members of our society alone, guess again. The Yellow Pages are filled with lists of social clubs in which anyone in the neighborhood can become a member. They meet mainly on Sunday mornings—but don’t be foolish enough to wait for an invitation. Unfortunately, like most other clubs, this one is designed to keep certain people in and other people out. You will find in it a decidedly internalized and individualized faith, complete with its own set of man-made regulations. You will find in it a group of folks who act as if they are enjoying life to the fullest, no matter where they are or what they are doing. And what do they do? They do...

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Forgive or Die

  Forgiveness in the teaching of Jesus is not for the sake of moral purity; it’s quite simply for the sake of a future. ~Fr. Richard Rohr The above quote from Rohr is nagging at me. I think it may be profoundly true on a level we're happy to miss. On the surface, it's a fine piece of rhetoric: by a simple use of antithesis, Rohr challenges a common assumption—that the letting go of one's offenses, as if they had never been committed, in the teachings of Jesus had as its primary objective the cleaning up of one's life (inside and out). Sure, that may be one means to the end, but it's the end—the future—that faces extinction without forgiveness. This idea isn't original with Rohr, of course. I think most notably of former Archbishop...

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Frustrating Kindness

 “One who loves instruction is one who loves knowledge, but one who hates correction is an ignoramus” (Prov 12:1). It's nothing new: those who dare embrace the label Christian must be known by their love—indiscriminately to all, and especially to each other in the household of faith. They must practice, in a word, friendship. They must risk shame; they must wash feet. They must exclaim, at least in actions if not in words, “Hosanna!” So, in the proverb quoted above, we see that they must “love instruction”; otherwise, they’re just ignoramuses—brutish, senseless creatures—indeed, less human than God desires. Enter the amazing grace of our triune Lord, without which our destiny, declared by the Creator to be a life centered around him,...

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You Don't Love Me Like I Love You

This past Lord's Day, I visited Mosaic Cincinnati as my wife sang in the band during the service. The pastor, as is typical in churches of this sort, preached topically (though exegetically at times) on a theme especially pertinent to fathers: discipline. It was a good word, and timely for a culture that not only belittles fatherhood, but in which fathers themselves eschew their fatherly responsibilities. At one point, the issue of unity among parents, husband and wife, was unpacked. It got me thinking about unity in marriages in general, about first loves, about long marriages, and about the church (because, unlike many evangelical churches, I am a "churchy" guy. Or, put differently, "He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the...

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A Sacred Place

A long time ago, as Genesis 1 recounts, God began naming, separating, and assigning functions and roles to his creation. In other words, he spoke purpose for his creation into existence (often when God speaks, reality changes). The garden that resulted—Eden, by name—was pervaded with the presence of God, not in the general sense of omnipresence but in a special, intimate way—a perpetual, ongoing presence. The garden was the temple of God Almighty. Fast forward a good amount of time (but not too much, say, between 2,500 years and 2.2 million years), and we come to the building of God’s dwelling place among his people, Israel (see Exod 25:10–40:33). Clearly, the look and materials employed throughout are meant to symbolize the original creation...

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The Stuff That Sticks: Ron Nash

Oftentimes, the best we can hope for (besides dying in our sleep) is that some of the good stuff we experience throughout life sticks. I know that those of us who mentor, teach, counsel, parent, and so on, hope the same for those in whom we invest. First in my journal-like series about the stuff that sticks centers around a professor I had in graduate school at RTS-Orlando. He's not first in the series because he has priority of place or anything like that. He's just the first stuff that stuck I thought of when thinking through what this series would contain. His name is Ron Nash (1936-2006). To get a glimpse of his life and work, follow that link attached to his name above. Professor Nash gets a spot here not because I'm a devotee—that I...

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Book Review: Destiny of the Species

“We all know the same truth, and our lives consist of how we choose to distort it.”1 Lemme get the criticism out of the way: don't judge the book by its cover. Okay, moving on. I don’t know Jason as a colleague. But I do know him as a friend, the sort that won’t always tell you what you want to hear but one that is primarily concerned with what’s true, the sort that will follow his convictions wherever they lead, even to his own detriment. That has to count for something in this seemingly God-forsaken short life. It is to this life as “water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered again” (2 Sam 14:14), and its nagging absurdity before the face of . . . nothing—Deus absconditus, if you will—that Jason confronts in his new book, The Destiny of the Species: Man and the Future That...

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