16 Jul 2018
Posted by Joseph Minich 
Christians struggle with two kinds of assurance - assurance that God loves them and assurance that God likes them. We might immediately cringe at such language as overly anthropomorphic and sentimental. I want to forestall this reaction, however, by admitting that such language can and has been used...
Read more → 07 May 2018
Posted by Joseph Minich 
Matthew 16:13-20 has been the subject of enormous controversy in the history of the Christian church. This is particularly the case with respect to the interpretation of its famous “rock” and “keys of the kingdom of heaven” clauses.[1] It is safe to say, in fact, that the church has never quite...
Read more → 31 Aug 2017
Posted by Joseph Minich 
James Dolezal - All That is in God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), 162 + xiv pages. James Dolezal has written an important book, a passionate and pastoral defense of a doctrine (divine simplicity and its implicates)...
Read more → 14 Oct 2015
Posted by Joseph Minich 
In this recent post, Roger Olson has attempted a deflationary argument against any argument presented in favor of a Reformed doctrine of election. His argument seems to be that (a) we can only trust the Bible if God is trustworthy, (b) we can only be confident that God is trustworthy if He does not violate...
Read more → 11 Aug 2015
Posted by Joseph Minich 
It is not surprising that the conservative reaction to the recent Planned Parenthood scandal has been varied. Some are hopeful that these videos will have substantive effects. Others are more cynical. In either case, the footage is iconic-- making plain what technocratic medical-speak really sounds like...
Read more → 22 Apr 2015
Posted by Joseph Minich 
Following up on Pastor Wedgeworth’s post regarding “Reformed Irenicism,” I thought it important to explain a few points regarding the relationship of this term to the idea of “Reformed Catholicism,” as it is often called. As it turns out, different people mean very different things by the label...
Read more → 08 Dec 2014
Posted by Joseph Minich 
It is almost historical orthodoxy in some circles that Luther fundamentally revised the Medieval doctrine of God, particularly with respect to God's "impassibility." Luther, it is argued, anticipates Jurgen Moltmann's claim that, in Christ, suffering enters into the divine nature itself. Significantly...
Read more → 03 Sep 2014
Posted by Joseph Minich 
Introduction Like many who consider themselves Reformed (of the “young and restless,” confessionalist, or whatever varieties), I was introduced to the world of Reformation theology through the doctrine of election. And like many within this camp (especially the “young and restless”), the doctrine...
Read more → 19 May 2014
Posted by Joseph Minich 
Alastair Roberts has posted some very helpful reflections on The Future of Protestantism conversation here. In particular, he has some very helpful reflections in relation to Leithart's seeming collapse of redemptive and ecclesiastical history. If we do not reckon with the uniquely redemptive-historical...
Read more → 05 Mar 2014
Posted by Joseph Minich 
Justin Taylor quotes C.S. Lewis on the psychology of scathing book reviews: Reviews filled with venom have often been condemned socially for their bad manners, or ethically for their spite. I am not prepared to defend them from either charge; but I prefer to stress their inutility. . . . Automatically,...
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