Justification

Still Protesting, a Pastor’s Perspective

Tim Bertolet
Sep 14, 2018
Let’s be honest: the evangelical and Protestant church has seen better days. We have our own scandals. In a fast-paced world, our faults are replicated through our communities at a much quicker rate than in previous generations. We may not have a pope but we certainly have a celebrity culture of...

Owen and Universal Redemption

J.I. Packer
Sep 4, 2018
John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ is a polemical work, designed to show, among other things, that the doctrine of universal redemption is unscriptural and destructive of the Gospel. There are many, therefore, to whom it is not likely to be of interest. Those who see no need for...

Literary Theological Imagination

Leland Ryken
Aug 23, 2018
The function of the literary imagination is to incarnate meaning in concrete images, characters, events, and settings rather than abstract or propositional arguments. To use the formula of Dorothy Sayers, the imagination images forth its subject, and in turn it is a commonplace that what literature...

Puritan Sayings (5)

Patrick Ramsey
Mar 15, 2018
S logans are memorable, simple summaries of truths that are often quite complex. By design, therefore, they are not meant to convey every nuance of a particular topic. Unfortunately, this makes them liable to misunderstanding and misuse. A case in point is the saying that I want to look at in this...

Justification, the teaching office of Rome, and confessing Protestants

Dan Doriani
Feb 15, 2018
My first exposures to Protestant-Catholic conversation were more like shouting matches than dialogues. Speakers took a confrontational approach and charges flew on both sides. In my mind, they sound roughly like this Protestants charge, "You…" Preach salvation by works Take Scripture from the...

Why Study Theology: John Murray's Answer

Jeffrey Stivason
Jan 27, 2018
Recently, I was reading John Murray’s commentary on the book of Romans. I was struck by what I read. In Romans 4:3 we read, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now, we know that our faith is not the ground of our justification but this is what Murray said, In terms...

Puritan Sayings (2)

Patrick Ramsey
Jan 23, 2018
C ontemporary Christian sayings are not necessarily new. In the last article, I pointed out that Edward Reynolds, an important member of the Westminster Assembly, encouraged us to ask what would Jesus do in a particular situation. Reynolds is not alone in building a bridge between the Puritans and...

Paolo Sarpi - a View of Rome after Trent

Simonetta Carr
Jan 16, 2018
Paolo Sarpi is not a familiar name in American discussions of the Protestant Reformation but was well known in 16th-century Europe. As was often the case, particularly in firmly Roman Catholic countries like Italy, placing a precise label on Sarpi’s theological beliefs is difficult and counter-...

Luther's Royal Marriage

Howard Griffith
Oct 31, 2017
Martin Luther was an outsized personality, with great faith and some great flaws. Living with this great person has a good effect on you. Let me commend his little book, The Freedom of a Christian . When he challenged the practice of indulgences in 1517, and when he debated Johann Eck a year later...

Francis Turretin on Justification

Guy Waters
Oct 30, 2017
Francis Turretin was the grandson of a Protestant Italian merchant who had emigrated to Beza's Geneva. When Turretin died in Geneva in September 1687, nearly 170 years had passed since Martin Luther had sparked the Protestant Reformation by posting the Ninety-Five Theses. During that period of time...