I don’t normally do this at my blog, but friend Brian Abasciano of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical Arminian, has written an important book on Romans 9-11 from an Arminian perspective. An early review appears to misrepresent some ideas of the book and Brian has asked me to post his response here. If you know someone who has read the review in question, please see that they read Brian’s response. Here is the response: Steve Moyise recently reviewed my... Read more

How to Believe without Being Fundamentalist Because of the prevalence of fundamentalism (and what I have here called “neo-fundamentalism”) in American religious life, many moderate Christian pastors struggle with how to preach and teach Christian truth, doctrine, without being absolutistic, narrow, presumptuous and exclusive. I receive questions like that all the time and it seems to be a question hanging “in the air,” so to speak, in many, if not most, moderate Christian churches and educational institutions. I have been... Read more

Part 10 of Response to The Gospel as Center: Chapter 10: “The Holy Spirit” The chapter’s author is Gospel Coalition member Kevin DeYoung, a minister of the Reformed Church of America. Like many other chapters of The Gospel as Center, this one does not provide the fodder for controversy and criticism one might expect. For the most part it is a straightforward exposition of traditional Protestant doctrine of the Holy Spirit as person, God and distinct from the Father and... Read more

I put “fundamentalism” in scare quotes to distinguish its use here from its proper, historical-theological use. It’s proper historical-theological use has to do with the movement of conservative Protestants to oppose theological liberalism in denominations and seminaries (etc.) that arose in the early 20th century and with its various manifestations past and present. In that proper sense, there is no “fundamentalism of the left.” However, many people (including yours truly occasionally) use “fundamentalism” to designate a certain mindset and style... Read more

The question of megachurches arises frequently. Recently someone here reported that an influential Baptist seminary president asked whether megachurches are the new liberalism. I’m not sure what that even means. “Megachurch” is a sociological phenomenon with theological implications. “Liberalism” (in this context, anyway) is a theological phenomenon. I am not aware of any sociological phenomenon called “liberalism” (when “liberalism” is used theologically). So, the question itself puzzles me. Perhaps the seminary president was thinking of cultural accommodation. Liberal theology has... Read more

I did not get to hear Alvin Plantinga when he spoke at my university a couple weeks ago. His topic was theology and science. He has a new book about it that I plan to read (when I have a month to digest it!). Several people have asked me here about what role I think science does play in theology. That’s because I rejected as invalid “Dear Abby’s” claim that modern science has made the Bible’s view of homosexuality invalid.... Read more

In a recent column a Christian woman asked “Dear Abby” (Pauline Phillips) about God and homosexuality. Her son came out to her and she was afraid to ask her pastor about God’s attitude toward gay people because she was afraid of what he would say. So she wrote to “Abby” asking her how God views homosexuality. Abby’s response was predictable–that science had shown the Bible to be unreliable on this subject and that entrance to heaven depends on a person’s character only.... Read more

Here I post two e-mails that typify responses I’ve received from individuals about Against Calvinism. I’m not going to comment on them, just reproduced them here. I’ll let you, my faithful readers, decide what you think and comment on them. I’ve removed anything that would identify their authors. First: “I recently read your book, Against Calvinism.  I first became aware of your work when I heard the debate you participated in with Dr. Horton on the White Horse Inn podcast.... Read more

Part 9 of Response to The Gospel as Center: Chapter 9, “Justification” by Philip Graham Ryken After a brief hiatus I return to my promised series of responses to The Gospel Coalition’s book The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices edited by D. A. Carson and Timothy Keller (Crossway, 2012). Philip Graham Ryken, Presbyterian Church of America minister and president of Wheaton College writes about the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone... Read more

About a year ago my friend Mike Horton published a book entitled Christless Christianity. Mike is a Calvinist and we certainly disagree about TULIP (well, at least we disagree about the U, the L and the I). But we agree that much of American Christianity, even much that claims to be “evangelical,” is slipping into what I would call “Christianity without Jesus.” He calls the same phenomenon “Christless Christianity.” Of course that’s an oxymoron–to both of us. I think it’s... Read more