In 1884 the Appleton publishing company in New York released an anonymous novel with the title Arius the Libyan.  Its titular main character is the fourth-century arch-heretic Arius, who is cast as a moral example, a spiritual giant, and a tireless fighter for the simple gospel of the primitive church versus the sinister schemes of Constantine and the sophistry of Athanasius. The author of this novel was Nathan Chapman Kouns (1833-1890s), an opinionated Missouri lawyer and librarian with journalistic ambitions... Read more

(A sermon preached Sunday, Dec 30, 2012, at Tulare Evangelical Free Church, Tulare, California) We are gathered today to ordain Dr. Jason Sexton to Christian ministry. What language shall we borrow to describe this Christian ministry? We could use the word pastor, of course, meaning shepherd. That is a very biblical image, drawing our attention first of all to the work of God (the Shepherd of Israel) and Christ (the Good Shepherd). But precisely by pointing so strongly to the... Read more

Theology students of all sorts, and especially those of you within driving range of southern California, it’s time to register for the first annual Los Angeles Theology Conference (Jan 17 & 18). It’s two days on the doctrine of christology from some of the top scholars in the field: Crisp, Hunsinger, Leithart, Sonderegger, Torrance. And we’ve got nine good parallel papers from folks like Telford Work and Scott Swain. And never mind the presenters, just take a look around the... Read more

The new issue of Biola Magazine has a sidebar article about the upcoming Los Angeles Theology Conference. In our conversation, the interviewer (Amber Amaya) picked up on the theme of the incongruity of combining “Los Angeles” and “theology.” She quotes me as saying that “everyone has been really positive and very polite, but there’s kind of this sense that L.A. is not really smart, as if we don’t have a cluster of world-class universities here. … We clearly do, and... Read more

N.T. Wright totally looks like Leonard Maltin. I noticed this while watching some Disney cartoons after reading some New Testament theology.  That’s Wright on the bottom with the open hymnal just behind him. No, wait. Dang it, I did it again. Read more

This January, we’ll be having the first annual Los Angeles Theology Conference, a two-day event which you could think of as an intensive class on christology. We’ve got five major theologians doing plenary sessions in the big room, and then talking things over at a final panel discussion (this panel is the part of the conference that I’m most eagerly anticipating). And then there are electives: three different parallel sessions during which you can choose to hear 3 of the 9... Read more

This is the Lord’s Supper meditation I gave at Grace Evangelical Free Church in La Mirada on Dec 2, 2012. Sometimes people stand up in front of a group and just start saying stuff. They just have a microphone, and an audience, and some ideas in their head, and they start talking. And you don’t know if the stuff they’re saying is accurate, or if they’re going to do anything about what they say, or if it has anything to do with what’s... Read more