The Calvinist International
Dr. Hutchinson’s recent post on Augustine reminded me about a point of Calvin’s eschatology that I wanted to explore. Agreeing with Augustine, Calvin argues that there will come a time when Christ’s mediation will come to an end, and the godman will deliver the kingdom over to the Trinity (considered properly; its deity as such). […]
The doctrine of the Beatific Vision, so central to medieval Western theology, is much rarely discussed in Reformed churches. It does appear in most of the older dogmatic writers, however. There are interesting points of variety between them too– take, for instance, Calvin’s view and Owen’s (more on them in a later post…). Here is […]
In his comments on Romans 8:20, John Calvin makes a profound observation about the natural order in creation pointing to the redemption of the cosmos. What Calvin points us to is the eschatological end of creation, and the way in which the natural law, set in motion and sustained by God, points to a future […]
My friend and colleague, Dr. Eric Hutchinson, has offered some very insightful comments on the biblical “exile” motif that is often applied to the church in our time. The church in which we both serve devoted the June issue of its New Horizons magazine to just this motif, and I think its feature articles give […]
In what is surely a passage begging for a dissertation, John Calvin makes some astounding observations about 1 Corinthians 15:24 and its implications for the rulers of the temporal world: When he shall have abolished all rule. Some understand this as referring to the powers that are opposed to Christ himself; for they have an eye […]
In his sermons on Ephesians chapter 2 [works Vol 2. Sermon no. 3. p. 33] Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680), member of the Westminster Assembly, embarks upon a slightly speculative theological reflection with regard to the Kingdom of Satan and the Kingdom of Christ. This angle he attributes to Zanchius and the school-man Suarez. Goodwin contends that […]
Last week I posted on Augustine on the new heaven and new earth. This week, here is something similar from John Chrysostom, one of Calvin’s favorite commentators. What follows is from his fourteenth Homily on Romans–in particular, his comments on Rom. 8:19-21. It will be evident that his position is similar to what we observed […]
Giving a mixed review of Bavinck on natural law and the two kingdoms, David VanDrunen recently wrote, Though a complete account is more complex, a good general argument can be made, I believe, that his defense of the natural law and the two kingdoms categories belongs to the orthodox Bavinck and his advocacy of themes […]
Writing about the role of hope in utopian movements, Eric Hoffer says: Discontent by itself does not invariably create a desire for change. Other factors have to be present before discontent turns into disaffection. One of these is a sense of power… For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must […]
David C. Barker and David H. Bearce would have us believe that Christian belief in the return of Christ is linked with lack of concern about the natural environment. Joe Carter does a good job providing some perspective on this piece, which appears in Political Research Quarterly under the title, “End-Times Theology, the Shadow of the […]