Today is an exciting day. In the vein of Books & Culture in the evangelical world and First Things in the Catholic world comes a new journal: Permanent Things. Read the official Midwestern Seminary press release here. I am thrilled to announce the digital release today, June 5, 2019, with the print release to come in coming weeks (I’ll have info in days ahead on how to get it in print form). Download the first issue here. Permanent Things is a Southern Baptist journal on... Read more
In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. Many evangelicals know the words of Genesis 1:1 by heart–but fewer have recognized the full ontological and metaphysical significance of this verse’s claim. In the beginning, Genesis teaches us, God not only made matter, he made order. In creating the cosmos ex nihilo, he ordered it–that is, he gave form and structure and coherence and beauty and symmetry to it. Order is not incidental to Christian doctrine; order is central. God... Read more
In a major and heartening announcement, Covenant Theological Seminary President Mark Dalbey just announced that no faculty members would participate in the 2019 Revoice Conference. This event, which promotes that idea that one can be a “gay Christian,” caused considerable uproar in 2018 when held in St. Louis. In his five-minute video, Dalbey says the following: “Homosexual desire is a result of the fall; it’s a sinful desire that is to be mortified and resisted and in no way dignified.... Read more
The training of pastors has changed a great deal over the years. Here’s a quick narratival arc for you: once pastors were the best-educated members of their community (17th and 18th centuries in America), then the pastorate broke from formal education (19th and 20 centuries), and now many pastors are reclaiming the former model (in the 21st century). They were told they didn’t need training, they didn’t need “book learning,” they just needed a warm heart and a good church-growth... Read more
The recent scandal surrounding the treatment of a boy from Covington Catholic (Kentucky) has prompted much rumination on social-media usage. I just wrote an essay on this shameful cultural moment for the Center for Public Theology; what follows is an attempt to make more practical my response. Basically, I am arguing for the treatment of other human beings as conditioned by their image-bearing nature (Gen. 1:26-27). The doctrine of the imago dei, in other words, necessitates that we as the church... Read more
Recently, Lauren Daigle made headlines when she was asked about her position on homosexuality. Here’s what she said when asked if homosexuality is sinful: “I can’t honestly answer on that, in the sense of I have too many people that I love and they are homosexuals. I can’t say one way or the other, I’m not God. When people ask questions like that, I just say, ‘Read the Bible and find out for yourself. And when you find out let... Read more
Jordan Peterson is far and away the most consequential public intellectual in America right now. Peterson’s book 12 Rules for Life has sold over 2 million copies; he draws over $80,000 of monthly support on Patreon; he is essentially a one-man movement, though he visits the mysterious back rooms of the Intellectual Dark Web as well. In an age when “diversity” typically means holding to one viewpoint, and “free speech” means shutting down evangelical campus groups, and “tolerance” means shouting politicians... Read more
Just a few weeks ago, expert historian Douglas Sweeney and I published a book on Jonathan Edwards. Our goal: to provide readers with an accessible summary of the theology and ministry of America’s greatest theologian. The Essential Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to the Life and Teachings of America’s Greatest Theologian is out, and I just got word that it is on sale for all of $11 today, and today alone. There is a trend away from writing lengthy books on doctrine... Read more
Doubt is back in the news. We’ve all heard a great deal about postmodernism over the years; one of the ways it continues to influence us as a culture is to make us prize uncertainty and distrust certainty. It seems more authentic, more truly human, even more virtuous, to live in gray areas than it is does to traffic in certitudes. You could sum up the spirit of the age like this: we’re being encouraged to have faith in doubt.... Read more
The greatest need of God’s church today is this: sound doctrine. Sound doctrine grows the sheep, blesses the church, warns the wolves, and glorifies the Lord. If this is true, then the greatest imperative of God’s church today is this: we need to train agents of sound doctrine. We need to produce a massive harvest of faithful theologians and pastors who will teach and preach sound doctrine. There are numerous ways to stimulate such a movement. Here is one: to... Read more
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