Category: Evangelicalism
Church Membership and the Definition of Baptism
(1: Gavin Ortlund’s Initial Post, 3: Gavin Ortlund’s Response, 4: Jonathan Leeman’s Final Response) Gavin, Thank you for the opportunity to interact with you on this matter. I’m grateful for you and our partnership in the gospel, and I remember your time...
Can We Reject Paedobaptism and Still Receive Paedobaptists?
By Gavin Ortlund (2: Jonathan Leeman’s Response, 3: Gavin Ortlund’s Response, 4: Jonathan Leeman’s Final Response) There are some great discussions happening on Twitter about baptism and church membership (for instance, Jake Meador started this one, which carried on for quite...
Evangelicalism, Christian Identity, and Church Membership
A little while back one of my favorite preachers offered a long list of Christian books he recommends. It included excellent books about God and salvation and missions and the Christian life. But, strangely, it did not point to a...
Savage Love: A Review of the Work of Elisabeth Elliot
“‘You are loved with an everlasting love,’ that’s what the Bible says, ‘and underneath are the everlasting arms.’ This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot…” I grew up hearing those words regularly on the radio as they opened Elisabeth Elliot’s “Gateway...
An Evangelical Response to the ‘Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel’
By Malcolm Foley and Justin Hawkins (originally published on Justin’s blog) We dream neither of a faith devoid of good works nor of a justification that stands without them…Do you wish, then, to attain righteousness in Christ? You must first...
Loving Others Theologically
By Brandon D. Smith “How dare you?!” You might remember this phrase from Mark Driscoll, one of my early heroes in the so-called “New Calvinism” movement. His growl was aimed at men during a rant about how they misuse women...
The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way: Against the Culture War
One of the saddest consequences of the culture war is that it has managed to make people boring. The culture war has made us predictable, even if individual people are anything but. The libertarian online troll is in real life...
The Fall of the Village
There’s a movie scene I’ve been thinking about this week in which a pastor and a journalist sit down to talk about their home city. The pastor offers his help to the newly appointed editor and says, “I find that...
On Paige Patterson’s Missing Link
By Brian Mesimer Paige Patterson’s comments on handing abuse in a Christian relationship are concerning. Spoken at a conference in 2000, they were recently rediscovered by Jonathan Merritt in a Washington Post expose. For clarity’s sake, I will reproduce the...
Stanley Hauerwas: Modern American Puddleglum
By John Shelton The scene is despairing: four adventurers have lingered far too long in a subterranean city. Slowly, under the enchantment of an evil witch, they have begun to forget that there is life beyond the cavern she rules...