Essay / On This Day

Baptism of Aethelbert

Today (June 2) is the day King Aethelbert of Kent was baptized into the Christian faith by Augustine of Canterbury in the year 597. Bede tells us that Aethelbert “was the third English king to become High-King (Bretwalda) of all the provinces south of the

Essay / Theology

"When I accept Christ… I am in Communion with the Entire Trinity" (Schaeffer)

Francis Schaeffer had a powerful doctrine of the Christian encounter with the triune God. I’ve explored it here and here. One of the most remarkable characteristics of his teaching on the subject is how it consistently combined two virtues: simplicity and depth. Over and over

Essay / Theology

Review of Christopher Bass, That You May Know

There is only one biblical foundation for a Christian’s assurance of salvation: that God the Son came to be our propitiation and advocate. Only when faith is solidly founded there can a believer go on to apply these rigorous tests: Is my belief correct enough?

Essay / Theology

Answers to Your Questions on Baptism

“How do you explain the apparent contradiction between John 7:39 and 1 Corinthians 12:9? In John 7:39 we are told that we must have faith before the Spirit is granted, while in 1 Corinthians 12:9, we are told that faith is a special gift not

Essay / Art

Top Five Christian Comic Books

I sometimes promote myself as the “world’s greatest systematic theologian cartoonist,” because it’s a pretty safe boast. If I ever meet another professional theologian who’s also a published cartoonist, I’ll have to adjust my bragging to something like “one of the two greatest.” But while

Essay / Theology

Christ Did Something or Other

“Robertson believed that Christ did something or other, which, somehow or other, had some connexion or other with salvation.” This was the judgment of John Duncan on the theology of preacher Fred W. Robertson. It was a rather sharp-tongued remark, and Duncan never put it

Essay / Culture

Christian Imagery

This is an article that appeared in the Christmas Day edition of the Orange County Register back in 2001. It was written by award-winning religion reporter Carol McGraw (now of the Colorado Springs Gazette) and featured a large illustration by the Register’s staff illustrator Lisa

Essay / Theology

A Christ Worth Christmas

The Glory of the Manger is a great little book of Christmas meditations by Samuel M. Zwemer (1867-1952), the “Apostle to Islam.” The whole book is available online (a 730k pdf here, and a bunch of his other writings here) Zwemer’s most famous book was

Essay / Theology

How He Worked for Christ: R.A. Torrey

Like all reasonable people everywhere, I always expected to be a super-hero when I grew up. I figured it was just a matter of time before my latent superpowers manifested themselves. But my sixteenth birthday came and went, no superpowers. My eighteenth birthday came and

Essay / Theology

Union with Christ and Two Types of Christians

It seems to me that there are basically two types of Christians. I know that’s a silly statement to make, since there must be dozens of meaningful categories to sort Christians into: doctrinal, denominational, sociological, temperamental, left-handed, and so on. But what I have in

Essay / Theology

The Joy of the Lord

Luke 3:21-22, the baptism of Christ: “the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove…” Brothers and sisters, we are reading here about the Holy Spirit, so what is there for me to say? Lift up your

Essay / Theology

“I Give Myself, Becoming Man, the Spirit”

Athanasius of Alexandria occasionally put his own words in Christ’s mouth. But I think it was okay. Athanasius was an interpreter of Scripture who understood that responsible theological exegesis means asserting that it is possible to know what God means by a given passage of