By Luke Stamps– I recently came across this passage from Robert Louis Wilken’s book The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God.  In it, Wilken describes how early Christian theology served the piety and worship of the church.  Every Christian theologian (which is to say, every Christian) would do well to remember [...]

By Luke Stamps –   Harold Bloom once wrote about the Western literary canon, “The Canon’s true question remains: What shall the individual who still desires to read attempt to read, this late in history? The Biblical three-score years and ten no longer suffice to read more than a selection of the great writers in [...]

By Luke Stamps As we prepare our hearts for Christmas this Advent season, it is important that we keep in view the person of Christ as the object of our worship and adoration.  Here’s a quote from John Owen to help in that regard.  In typical Owenian fashion, it is densely packed. Unto them that [...]

By Luke Stamps – As those of us in America turn our attention toward Thanksgiving Day this week, I thought it would be appropriate to consider Spurgeon’s commentary on Psalm 100 which reads,                 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!                                 Serve the LORD with gladness!                                 Come into his presence [...]

We would like to draw your attention to two reviews over at The Gospel Coalition written by Luke Stamps and Matthew Barrett, both of whom write for the Credo blog. Luke Stamps has written an insightful review of Scot McKnight’s new book, The King Jesus Gospel. Stamps begins his review, Judging by the attention, Scot [...]

By Luke Stamps   I recently found a funny and, at the same time, insightful list of “51 Untruths I’ve Learned from Television.”  Many of the items are hilarious.  Here are a few choice cuts: 1. Law enforcement departments hate working together. Someone will always pull rank or jurisdiction. 18. Ventilation systems prove to be [...]

By Luke Stamps – The Credo blog has been host this week to some insightful reflections on the Reformation.  So, perhaps these commentaries, historical analyses, sermons, and interviews could stand alone in answer to the question, “Why should we celebrate the Reformation today?”  The edifying nature of these historical reflections is self-evident.  But perhaps it [...]

By Luke Stamps I suppose it’s safe to say that there has been a revival of interest in all things “gospel” among evangelicals in the last several years.  Evangelical churches, organizations, conferences, blogs, sermons, ministries, and writings are as likely to feature the language of “gospel” as any other biblical theme.  And with good reason.  [...]

By Luke Stamps Jesus is a friend of sinners.  It is a glorious gospel truth that Jesus befriends those who are entangled in sinful and complicated circumstances and loves them even when ostensibly religious people do not.  We see this countercultural acceptance of sinners throughout the Gospel accounts, as Jesus extends divine forgiveness to tax [...]

Postmodernism as an intellectual and philosophical movement has been with us for several decades now.  Some have even suggested that we are now moving into a post-postmodern context in Western culture.  Nevertheless, the effects of postmodernism will survive long after its status wanes in French philosophy departments or avant-garde art communities.  As Richard Weaver once [...]

By Luke Stamps It is well known that the nineteenth century British Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a firm believer in both God’s sovereignty in salvation and the free offer of the gospel. So far from setting these things in opposition to one another, Spurgeon believed that God’s sovereignty actually empowers evangelism, because it [...]

By Luke Stamps Was Karl Barth a universalist? Some readers of Barth point to passages in his mammoth, multi-volume Church Dogmatics that seem to suggest that he was. Barth’s insistence upon God’s election of humanity in Christ and upon Christ’s objective work of atonement on behalf of all humanity appears to lead inexorably to the [...]

By Luke Stamps David Brooks has an insightful opinion piece in the New York Times this week that evangelicals would do well to read. In his column, “The Rugged Altruists,” Brooks observes, “Many Americans go to the developing world to serve others. A smaller percentage actually end up being useful.” By contrast, he describes the [...]

By Luke Stamps One of the subtle temptations of Christian ministry is the tendency to assume that all of our teaching must be immediately and specifically applicable to our hearers. This statement needs qualification. To be sure, all of our teaching and preaching should be ultimately applicable to our hearers. The Christian faith is not [...]

By Luke Stamps Theological movements come and go. They wax and wane. This is as true in popular contexts as it is in academic contexts. For example, just when the emerging/emergent church was starting to show up on some people’s radars, others were claiming that the movement was already in decline or perhaps altogether dead [...]

By Luke Stamps What is the fundamental Reformation legacy? Is it a matter of content or method? Did the Reformation leave us a deposit of truth: the recovered content of the biblical gospel? Or did the Reformation provide us with a theological method: a willingness to part ways with tradition in order to give Scripture [...]

by Luke Stamps Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) was a Dutch theologian whose four-volume Reformed Dogmatics is considered one of the most significant works of Reformed theology ever written. It has been called “the best statement of the Reformed system since Calvin’s Institutes.” I have recently been reading through volume one of Bavinck’s magisterial work and came [...]

by Luke Stamps Since the time of the Reformation, there have been some Protestants who have denigrated the role of tradition in Christian theology. “No creed but the Bible” has been their mantra. Leaving to one side the fact that, “No creed but the Bible,” is itself a creed—albeit in abbreviated form—since it expresses in [...]

by Luke Stamps Last week, I posted a short article on the differences between Charles Hodge and Herman Bavinck with regard to theological method. Bavinck criticized Hodge’s “empirical” method by which he treated the Bible as a “store-house of facts” that must be collected and organized by the theologian. In its place Bavinck offered his [...]

by Luke Stamps “The Bible is to the theologian what nature is to the man of science. It is his store-house of facts. . . . The duty of the Christian theologian is to ascertain, collect, and combine all the facts which God has revealed concerning himself and our relation to Him.”[1] In the opening [...]