Mary was not so green when she mistook Jesus for a gardener (John 20:15). God is a gardener: he sows; he waters; he grows (Gen. 1:11; 2:6; Ps. 104:14; 1 Cor. 3:6). To him belongs horticulture and humanity. Yet, in…
The Essential Van Til — No God But the Christian God
Both Van Til and Barth rejected all forms of bare theism. That is, they denied a generic view of God. Both believed this “god” was an idol. This is the god of human autonomy and philosophy. It comes from an…
The Essential Van Til — The Centrality of God
We at the Reformed Forum have a burning desire to see Christ as preeminent in all things. We believe that the Scriptures reveal to us Christ, from Genesis to Revelation. Therefore, the ministry of the pulpits of Christ’s church are…
The Essential Van Til – Introduction and the Trinity
I’ve come again, afresh, to the writings of Cornelius Van Til. Lord willing, my plan is to compose a monograph on Van Til’s critique of Karl Barth over the next several years. In light of relentless criticism, from both Barthians…
Herman Bavinck’s Trinitarian Worldview: A Brief Overview
The doctrine of the Trinity is the architectonic principle of the whole theological and apologetic enterprise of Herman Bavinck. While it may be debated as to how consistent he was in the application of this principle with his occasional nod…
The Heart of Trinitarian Heresy
All heresies with respect to the Trinity may be reduced to the one great heresy of mixing the eternal and the temporal. — Cornelius Van Til Cornelius Van Til cut through the densest theological controversies like a hot knife through…
Standing on Giants’ Shoulders (6): The Ancient Church and a Figural Reading of Scripture
After a hiatus we are back to our reading through and engaging with the text of Lewis Ayres’ Nicaea and its Legacy. We come now to the third point of departure that Ayres’ discusses in the opening chapter of the…
Criterion 4: The Traditional Well-Worn Path
Lewis Ayres begins his consideration of the four points of departure in his Nicaea and Its Legacy by looking at the circumstances which obtained in the church from the time of Arius until the Council of Nicaea in 325 (15–20).…
Criterion 3: Let’s Begin at the Beginning
A New but Classic Text We are reading through Lewis Ayres’s Nicaea and its Legacy (Oxford University Press, 2004). Our goal is to read this relatively new but still classic text on the fourth-century Trinitarian controversy with intelligence and understanding.…
