By the fourth year of my first church plant the congregation was in financial jeopardy. Members of my denomination’s Home Mission Board had informed me with all solemnity that it would take ten years to plant a church. In the…
Luther on the Christian Life
Dr. Carl Trueman joins us to speak about his book Luther on the Christian Life, in which he paints a portrait of Martin Luther through his historical context, theological system, and approach to the Christian life. Luther is often treated in a black-and-white…
God and Necessity
Jared Oliphint and Nathan Shannon discuss Brian Leftow’s God and Necessity (Oxford University Press). In this volume, Leftow seeks to offer a metaphysic of modality. This leads him into a discussion of necessity and possibility, truth making, God’s nature, and divine simplicity.…
The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg
Carlton Wynne leads us into the world of modern theology by introducing the theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg. Pannenberg (1928–2014) was a leading systematic theologian who introduced an innovative relationship between eschatology and theology proper. By studying his theology in a polemical fashion,…
Genesis 4:8–15 — Genocide and Judgment
This week on Proclaiming Christ we discuss Cain’s brutal murder of Abel and consider this act in light of God’s promises made in ch. 3. The brutality and desperation of human nature is uncovered as well as hope for life from…
Pastoral Lessons from My Betters, Part 1
I was sinking fast. It was my third year of church planting and I was having one of those “seminary didn’t prepare me for this!” moments. If memory serves me, I was taking what felt like my last gulp of…
Redeeming Mathematics
Vern Poythress joins us to speak about his book Redeeming Mathematics: A God-Centered Approach. Dr. Poythress explains how the Triune God of the Bible is the foundation for mathematics by arguing that the harmony of abstract mathematical truths, the physical world of…
Intuition in Contemporary Philosophy
In this short essay, I want to draw out the nature and downfalls of a salient principle of analytic philosophy: the primacy of rational intuition. Philosophers think of rational intuition as the capacity in human persons to believe (and know)…
Will the Real Bonhoeffer Please Stand Up? Part 5
Speaking theologically, what was Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Was he a German liberal or might we label him a conservative evangelical Christian? Bonhoeffer’s use of Kantian Transcendentalism as a theological beginning point seems to disqualify the latter. However, some remain unconvinced. For…
Revelation in the Patriarchal Period, Part 3 — The Patriarch Abraham
Lane Tipton and Camden Bucey discuss the patriarch Abraham as they turn to pp. 76–81 of Geerhardus Vos’s book Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments. This chapter covers Abraham’s election, and we connect that to the doctrine of God, the…
