Adam Ramsey on Gazing at God

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (September 2025) it’s Truth on Fire: Gazing at God Until Your Heart Sings – ‘a call to know God clearly, worship Him wholeheartedly, and let truth set your heart ablaze’ – which is available in exchange for an email address here.

Foundations 88 (June 2025)

Issue 88 of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology, published by Affinity, is now available from here (requiring an email address for a link to a downloadable pdf, though check here) which includes the below essays (abstracts posted where available).

Donald John MacLean

Editorial

Mostyn Roberts

The Power and Personhood of God

This paper explores the biblical and theological understanding of God's power, asserting that divine power is inseparable from God's personhood and character. It traces the expression of God's power through creation, providence, and redemption – culminating in the cross of Christ where power is paradoxically displayed in weakness. The paper contrasts God's righteous and purposeful exercise of power with human abuses of power, engaging critically with Michel Foucault's analysis of power-knowledge dynamics. It argues that true power in the church must reflect God’s character, aim at restoring believers into the image of Christ, and be exercised through godly leadership, spiritual means, and humble dependence on divine strength.

Robert Letham

Faith and Reason: Reflections on Theistic Proofs

When considering the nature and purpose of arguments for the existence of God, much depends on those for whom the particular argument is intended and what it is designed to achieve. Moreover, we must address the question of the legitimacy and validity of such an argument. This paper explores the classic theistic proofs – particularly those of Aquinas and Anselm – and evaluates their strengths and limitations in establishing the existence and identity of God. It argues that while a posteriori arguments (like Aquinas's Five Ways and modern design arguments) may suggest the existence of a supreme being, they cannot reveal the triune God of Christian revelation. Likewise, a priori arguments (such as Anselm's ontological proof) offer rich theological reflection for believers but are not designed to persuade sceptics. Ultimately, the paper contends that God is not the conclusion of human reasoning but its starting point, and that the knowledge of God is rooted not in abstract proofs but in divine self-revelation through Scripture and the person of Christ.

Thomas Brand

The God of Unchanging Glory: From Nicaea to Hegel and Back

This paper explores the enduring theological significance of divine impassibility – the doctrine that God does not suffer or undergo emotional change – in light of both its historic affirmation within classical theism and the modern movement toward divine passibility. Beginning with the rise of this modern trend, shaped by existential crises and philosophical developments from Hegel to Moltmann, the paper traces the consistent witness of the early church, scholastic theology, and Reformed orthodoxy in upholding God’s simplicity, immutability, and impassibility. Through theological, philosophical, and scriptural analysis, it contends that only the impassible God of classical theism can offer the steadfast hope and saving grace proclaimed in the gospel. In doing so, it also highlights what is lost – both doctrinally and pastorally – when divine impassibility is denied or diminished.

Steven Duby

The Weaknesses of Christ: Their Theological and Pastoral Significance

In studying God’s providence and difficult questions about God’s permission of evil and the Christian’s experience of trial and suffering, many things are worth considering. These include the wisdom and will of God, the goodness and justice of God, the nature of evil as privation (not some substance created by God), and our blessed hope – the face-to-face sight of God that will secure our everlasting joy. Yet at the centre of our life with God is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose own suffering indicates, among other things, that God did not choose simply to stay above the fray. Accordingly, this paper will focus on the faith and the human weaknesses and sufferings of Christ, with a view to how his way of navigating these things can be an example for us. For it seems to me that study of Christ’s faith, weaknesses, and sufferings provides us with a model that can help us both to clarify certain aspects of suffering and emotion and to move forward through suffering in a humane and spiritually healthy manner.

Michael McClenehan

The Trinitarian Resurgence?

Book Reviews

Credo 15, 1 (2024) on Divine Simplicity

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the topic of divine simplicity.

Here’s the blurb:

‘As goes divine simplicity, so goes classical theism. For some theologians, the affirmation of divine simplicity proves too much to bear, and the denial of such a doctrine requires them to dismiss classical theism as a whole. For many others, however, it was the discovery of divine simplicity that set them on their way to embracing the classical doctrine of God in all of its beauty. The doctrine of divine simplicity teaches that God is not made up of parts and that all that is in God is God. God is not merely good but is goodness itself; God is not only loving but is love. On this truth hangs many classical doctrines – immutability, impassibility, and even Nicene trinitarianism. Readers of this issue of Credo Magazine will find, ironically, that the “whole” of Christian doctrine is very much dependent upon this one “part.” It is no wonder that divine simplicity has been held by Protestants of all denominations and is ubiquitous throughout the Reformed confessions. To confess divine simplicity was nothing less than an alliance with the orthodox doctrine of God handed on by the Great Tradition. Take up, read, and confess with ancient Israel and the Church as a whole that the Lord our God is one!’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

Primer

All 12 issues of Primer, published by the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, have been made available for free as pdfs.

From the website:

‘Primer was born out of a desire to help church leaders to stay theologically sharp. Sometimes, pastors train for ministry at a theological college but then find it hard to maintain further study after moving into ministry […]

‘[E]ach issue of Primer takes one topic of theology and expands on it six or seven long-form articles.

‘Each issue looks at what’s been said about the topic historically, and how the church is engaging with it today. There are often reviews of helpful books to encourage further reading as well as chapters focused on how the topic shapes pastoral ministry. There are even interviews now again with ministry leaders.’

The following volumes were published:

Issue 01: True to His Word – on the trustworthiness of Scripture

Issue 02: How Far We Fell – on the doctrine of sin

Issue 03: True to Form – a biblical approach to gender and sexuality

Issue 04: A Place to Stand – on justification by faith

Issue 05: Coming Soon – on the end times

Issue 06: Newness of Life – on sanctification

Issue 07: Show & Tell – on apologetics

Issue 08: How Great a Being – on the doctrine of God

Issue 09: All Being Equal – on the Trinity

Issue 10: This World with Devils Filled – on the devil, demons, and spiritual warfare

Issue 11: A Little Lower than the Angels – on the doctrine of humanity

Issue 12: In the Flesh – on the incarnation

See here for more information, and to download the issues.

Vern S. Poythress on the Mystery of the Trinity

Vern S. Poythress, The Mystery of the Trinity: A Trinitarian Approach to the Attributes of God (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2020).

A recent book by Vern Poythress on the attributes of God explored through the lens of the Trinity has been made freely available in its entirety. Here’s the blurb:

‘Starting with the doctrine of the Trinity, Vern Poythress addresses six challenges concerning the compatibility of God’s independence with his activities in the world. The eternal activities among the persons of the Trinity offer a foundation for God’s activities in the world. Alternative metaphysical frameworks for explaining God’s transcendence and immanence run the danger of overriding the truths of biblical revelation.’

The book (which comes with some sterling endorsements but has had mixed reviews) is available here as a pdf.

The Master’s Seminary Journal 32, 2 (2021)

The latest Master’s Seminary Journal has been posted online, this one focused on the Trinity.

A pdf of the journal can be downloaded here.

Peter Sammons

Editorial

J.V. Fesko

The Covenant of Redemption and the Ordo Salutis

In this article Dr. Fesko brings rich historical insight into the necessity for the pactum salutis and its relationship to the ordo salutis. This article retrieves the historical consensus that intra-trinitarian processions, missions, and ordo salutis are all interrelated. Drawing from the WCF and Vos, he proves that to neglect, minimize, or disregard any one of these has crushing ramifications. While establishing the necessity of these doctrines and answering objections, Fesko demonstrates a precision in Trinitarian thought which helps establish long-lost guard rails that need to be regained by evangelicalism.

Richard C. Barcellos

Change in God Given Creation?

In this article Dr. Barcellos takes on the important question often asked, “Was there any change in God when He created the world?” Or, how can a Triune being act in creation and remain immutable? Barcellos answers these often-raised questions by relying on a rich history of the Church. If the Church has univocally answered this question and yet modern “Christians” are starting to answer it another way, what does that mean for modern Evangelicalism? Is there anything historically Christian about the modern answers? What are the ramifications of equivocating on this important issue? All that and more are aptly addressed in this article by Barcellos as he tackles the Theistic Mutualists new take on the Trinity and Creation.

Kevin Zuber

Indications of the Trinity in the Old Testament

The Trinity is not explicitly revealed in the Old Testament, but after the revelation of the Trinity in the New Testament and after that revelation was given greater clarity in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (AD 325/381), it became possible to recognize the indications of the Trinity revealed in the Old Testament. This article examines key Old Testament texts that contain these indications. This examination includes: Texts that Reveal Aspects of the OT Doctrine of God (that are pertinent to the doctrine of the Trinity); Texts that Reveal Indications of the Trinity including: Texts that Reveal Plurality / Triads—Conversation Texts and in a Blessing and Vision; and finally, Texts that Reveal the Indications of “Others” in Relation to Yahweh—the Angel of the LORD, the Spirit of the LORD, the Servant of the LORD, and Wisdom. This study demonstrates that the revelation of the Trinity in the Old Testament, while not explicit, does disclose truth about the Trinity that is pertinent to a full appreciation and understanding of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity.

Peter Sammons

When Distinction Becomes Separation: The Doctrine of Inseparable Operation in the Contemporary Evangelical Church

The doctrine of the Trinity has made a rich impact on the believer’s theological taxonomy. In fact, Christians cannot even explain divine action without utilizing the precise, time-tested language upon which Trinitarianism rests. Sadly, many Bible scholars today are so narrowly focused on their modest field of “expertise” that they intentionally exclude this type of language in the name of academic fidelity. The modern exegetical task, therefore, has been hamstrung by a focus on the myopic. This article seeks to demonstrate that those Bible scholars who refuse to utilize historical- theological categories and terminology in their exegetical method will be left proliferating inadequate exegetical conclusions at best or damning errors at worst. A test case of John 1 will confirm the inadequacy of the ahistorical exegetical method to explain divine action apart from the nomenclature of inseparable operations. In this instance, such a method ends up resorting to either inaccurate language or practical tritheism. Furthermore, this article aims to prove that the taxonomy of inseparable operations is the necessary ramification of classical theism (in accordance with the doctrines of pure actuality and divine simplicity in particular). Therefore, classical theism—and the terminology supplied therein—functions as a proper guardrail for explaining divine action in a way that keeps the exegete from the pitfalls of tritheism or social trinitarianism.

Phil Johnson

A More Excellent Name: Eternal Sonship and Psalm 2:7 in Hebrews 1

In this article Executive Director of Grace to You, Phil Johnson, masterfully addresses the pitfalls with Incarnational Sonship while retrieving the Biblical necessity for Eternal Generation. Johnson focuses on the New Testament (Hebrews 1) use of the Old Testament (Psalm 2) as a key to properly retrieving the doctrine of Eternal Generation. In this piece Johnson shows how the church of recent generations has neglected and abandoned Eternal Generation on faulty grounds, misunderstanding monogenes, and aims to aid the church in retrieving this precious doctrine taught in Scripture.

Fred Sanders

Incorruptible Trinity: Sketch of a Doctrine

The doctrine of divine incorruptibility deserves more focused attention than it has generally received, especially in the modern period. This article draws the doctrine from its Scriptural sources (especially making use of the phthora word-group) and sketches its basic shape for systematic theology. First, it establishes the doctrine as a statement about God’s nature (that it is not subject to decay), and then traces its implications through Christology and soteriology. Finally, with the overall doctrine sketched out, the article suggests what is especially trinitarian in the doctrine of God’s incorruptibility.

Glenn Butner

The Obedience of One Man

This excerpt from The Son Who Learned Obedience, is excellent evidence why proper Trinitarian orthodoxy informs the taxonomy of incarnational theology. Modern evangelicalism has been too swift to violate the principle of Communication of Properties (from Theistic Mutualists, to social trinitarians, to EFS and ERAS, to name a few), where they read back into the Metaphysics of Trinitarian dogma (the ontological trinity) by ignoring the taxonomy of ecumenical councils. This trend has created a new Christology that is not Trinitarian in the historic sense of the term. Butner aptly shows why this error must be avoided if the church is to maintain its creedal confessions for future generations. In this article Butner invites us to sit at the feet of Maximus the confessor and see what’s really at stake in the Son’s Obedience.

Craig A. Carter

Denying Divine Eternity: Can Evangelical Theology Resist the Temptation?

In this article Craig Carter addresses the new wave of assaults on divine timelessness. This assault has ranged from quarters of liberal Protestantism from Moltmann, to Kant, to Open Theism, but most importantly has found a home in Evangelicalism. Modern evangelicals have fallen in love with the seeming simplicity with which these quarters of liberalism have answered the difficulty of explaining the Eternal Trinity and the Economic Trinity. In this article Carter masterfully demonstrates why giving up on the metaphysical attributes under the anti-metaphysical pressure of late modernity is a bad idea.

Mike Riccardi

Triune Particularism: Why Unity in the Trinity Demands a Particular Redemption

The doctrine of the Trinity is the fundamental doctrine of Christian theology, and thus is rightly brought to bear on every doctrinal locus. Trinitarianism is particularly relevant to the doctrine of the atonement, and the extent of the atonement more specifically. The doctrine of inseparable operations (grounded in consubstantiality) has implications for the unity of the saving intentions and acts of the persons of the Trinity, namely, the Son cannot act to atone for the sins of any more or any fewer persons than the Father has elected and than the Spirit will regenerate. Particular redemption coheres most consistently with a particular election and a particular regeneration, and thus inseparable operations provides a theological argument for embracing a particular rather than universal atonement. These conclusions are vindicated by examining how the multiple intentions view of the extent of the atonement fails to account for Trinitarian unity, demonstrating that particular redemption is most consistent with orthodox Trinitarianism.

Matthew Barrett

What Is Eternal Generation? (and Interview)

This contribution by Matthew Barrett is an excerpt from his book Simply Trinity. In this piece Barrett helps present the doctrine of Eternal Generation and its importance to a proper doctrine of the Trinity. Following this excerpt, we have an original interview between the TMSJ managing editor Peter Sammons and Matthew Barrett on some of the most pointed questions facing Christian education concerning the doctrine of the Trinity.

Reviews

Credo 11, 1 (2021) on the Undivided Trinity

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the topic of the ‘Undivided Trinity’.

Here’s the blurb:

‘Every generation is tempted to forfeit an essential component of orthodox trinitarianism. Our generation is no exception. Not only modern theology but evangelical theology has grown suspicious towards the simplicity of God. Naturally, without simplicity evangelical theology risks segregating Father, Son, and Spirit. Taking its cue from social redefinitions of the Trinity, evangelicals have redefined the Trinity as a society, one in which each person has his own center of consciousness and will. As a result, a core doctrine like inseparable operations is foreign to many and sometimes held in disregard. This issue of Credo Magazine tries to remedy this problem not only by reaffirming divine simplicity but confessing with the church that ancient and scriptural mantra: the external works of the Trinity are undivided. Such indivisibility, however, is no mere cooperation or division of labor. The persons are inseparable in their works because they are indivisible in essence and singular in will. Without this basic commitment the church will not remain faithful to Christian orthodoxy.’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

John Piper on Providence

John Piper, Providence (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020).

Crossway have made available a substantial volume (over 700 pages) by John Piper on the doctrine of providence.

Here’s the blurb:

‘The providence of God is his purposeful sovereignty by which he will be completely successful in the achievement of his ultimate goal for the universe. God’s providence carries his plans into action, guides all things toward his ultimate goal, and leads to the final consummation.

‘John Piper draws on a lifetime of theological reflection, biblical study, and practical ministry to lead readers on a stunning tour of the sightings of God’s providence – from Genesis to Revelation – to discover the all-encompassing reality of God’s purposeful sovereignty over all of creation and all of history.’

Further information is available here, and a pdf of the book can be downloaded here.

Credo 10, 4 (2020) on Eternal Generation

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the topic of ‘Eternal Generation’.

Here’s the blurb:

‘The eternal generation of the Son has fallen on hard times. In the last century, evangelicals have dispensed with the doctrine in the spirit of a narrow biblicism – We just believe the Bible! Others have thrown out the doctrine because they cannot master the mystery of such a belief – It just doesn’t make sense! The consequences have been brutal: generation after generation has been cut off from Christian orthodoxy. Just as egregious, evangelicals have not learned how the warp and woof of redemptive history reveals the Son’s origin from the Father from all eternity. In this issue of Credo Magazine, the contributors abandon the critical spirit of our contemporary era and clothe themselves in a spirit of hermeneutical humility. As they sit at the feet of ancient interpreters, they labor to understand why eternal generation not only serves to distinguish the Son from the Father but safeguards the Son’s divine equality with the Father.’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

Foundations 79 (Autumn 2020)

Issue 79 of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology, published by Affinity, is now available (here in its entirety as a pdf), which includes the below essays.

Donald John MacLean
Editorial

Lee Gatiss

Pleasing the Impassible God

The Bible says, “find out what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 5:10). But is God not already perfectly happy, and therefore not susceptible to changeable emotional reactions as we so often are? This article unpacks issues of accommodation in divine speech, anthropopathism, and the doctrines of immutability and impassibility (the idea that God is “without passions” as some confessions put it), in order to understand better the scriptural metaphor of pleasing or displeasing God.

Sarah Allen

Complementarianism, Quo Vadis?

This article examines the current state of complementarian practice and attitudes within UK churches, seeking to understand how, where and why change might be occurring. The research is twofold: the first part is an overview of recent publications and online discussion of complementarianism and related matters. Here questions are raised about the causes for and possible consequences of dis-ease with some theological models and cultural expressions of sex-difference. The second part of the article is an examination, by way of interview and surveys, of practice in churches which could be described as complementarian. Here we consider the way the Church is responding to contemporary culture’s growing concern for equality of opportunity and representation, as well as the influence of different ecclesiologies and social settings on practice and change.

David Owen Filson

The Apologetics and Theology of Cornelius Van Til

This essay provides an appreciative analysis of two key, sometimes misrepresented apologetical contributions of Cornelius Van Til: the definition of presupposition, and paradox and the Trinity. Recent criticisms of Van Til tend to repeat the suggestions that he operated with a Kantian and Hegelian synthesis, accounting for inconsistencies in his theological and apologetical programme. Rather than directly addressing recent scholarship, a relatively unfamiliar debate between Van Til and J. Oliver Buswell will be examined in an effort to let Van Til speak for himself. In doing this it will become evident why he remains an important and needed figure for the Church in a post-postmodern, secular/pluralistic cultural moment, aptly described by Chares Taylor as a “...spiritual super-nova, a kind of galloping pluralism on the spiritual plane”.

Steve Bishop

Abraham Kuyper: Cultural Transformer

Abraham Kuyper was a theologian, statesman, journalist, church reformer, church historian, church pastor, founder of a Christian university and a Christian political party, and one-time prime minister of the Netherlands. He was a Reformed Christian whose writings have shaped a movement known as neo-Calvinism. Yet he is little known in the UK. In this article, I examine several key themes that shaped Kuyper’s approach to theology, culture and society. These include the sovereignty of God, the cultural mandate, the role of worldviews, common grace, the antithesis, and sphere sovereignty. These themes provided the theoretical framework for Kuyper’s neo-Calvinism. I look at how they shaped his approach to church, politics, education, art and mission.

Song-En Poon

Samuel Rutherford’s Doctrine of Sanctification and Seventeenth Century Antinomianism

This paper seeks to examine Samuel Rutherford’s particular emphasis on the doctrine of sanctification in his response to the Antinomian Controversy in seventeenth century England.

Book Reviews

On Knowing God

The below is an excerpt from an email written for the congregation where I am one of the pastors.

Last Saturday, news broke over my social media feeds that J.I. Packer was, as some in his generation might well say, ‘promoted to glory’ on 17 July 2020, a few days shy of his 94th birthday.

One of the most influential evangelical theologians of the last 70 years, tributes have steadily poured forth in the days since, with one describing him as ‘saintly and sensible, brilliant and practical, faithful and peaceable, courageous and charitable, cheerful and serene, blunt and gentle, humble and bold, submissive to Scripture and sensitive to the Spirit’.

Even those who have never heard of J.I. Packer are arguably indebted to him, along with a few other significant figures in the years following the Second World War, who – in the providence of God – defended the Christian faith during a period when it might otherwise have been overtaken by swirling currents. Packer demonstrated the credibility of evangelical expressions of faith at a time when Christians were being made to feel they were committing intellectual and spiritual suicide because of their beliefs in the sovereignty of God, the authority and trustworthiness of Scripture, and the saving significance of the death of Christ.

I was working in the Christian bookshop in Southport in 1984 when his book, Keep in Step with the Spirit, first came out. It brought some much-needed clarity and charity at a time of confusion and contention, and we sold copies in the thousands. In later years, Packer served as general editor for the English Standard Version of the Bible, which many in our church use, a role he described as ‘the most important thing that I have ever done for the Kingdom’.

But the book for which he is most well-known, and which is rightly hailed as a ‘classic’ is Knowing God, first published in 1973. I pulled my copy off the shelf earlier today and a card fell out, reminding me that it was a gift from a friend on the date of my baptism (12 September 1982).

I confess I didn’t understand all of it when I first read it, but it was rich, and there was no escaping its central message – knowledge about God is no substitute for knowing God himself. As Packer says early on in the book: ‘if we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us [...] Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are.’

I needed that prompt at the start of my Christian life, and I need it still. Perhaps you do, too. Perhaps we need it as a church, given that we have just finished a series on ‘What’s so great about God?’, exploring some of the attributes of God. How easy it would be to fall into the trap of thinking that what really matters is knowledge about God, rather than knowledge of God. Packer’s advice, still good today, is that ‘we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God’.

Leaving the last word to him: ‘Godliness means responding to God’s revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be seen and lived in the light of God’s Word. This, and nothing else, is true religion.’

The Bible Project on the Character of God

The Bible Project team has produced a video on Exodus 34:6-7, ‘the most repeated and re-quoted text in the Bible’, kicking off a brand new series on the character of God. They write:

‘Exodus 34:6-7 is the first description of God’s attributes found in the Bible, and it’s referenced throughout much of the Bible. Here we learn that all of God’s actions are an expression of these attributes: compassion, grace, patience, loyal love, and faithfulness. This list of God’s character traits has been carefully designed to help us see the meaning and importance of each trait in relation to the others.’

Logos Questions

The Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology at the University of St Andrews is producing a series of short (10-pages or so) booklets – ‘Logos Questions’ – on various issues in analytic and exegetical theology.

The authors and titles of the first three are listed below, and the booklets are available to download as pdfs from here.

Jonathan Curtis Rutledge

Why Would a Good God Allow Suffering?

R.T. Mullins

Can God Change?

Joshua Cockayne

Why Bother Using Religious Rituals?

The Bible Project on Spiritual Beings and Elohim

The Bible Project continues to go from strength to strength, and has recently started producing a new series of videos on ‘Spiritual Beings’, with the aim ‘to profile all of the spiritual characters in the Bible, see how they fit into the world-picture of the biblical authors, and also how they figure in the larger storyline of the Bible’.

The introductory video is available here, and the second one, on ‘Elohim’, is available here. Future installments on Angels and Cherubim, The Satan and Demons, and The Divine Council are promised.

Michael S. Heiser has been publishing significant biblical-theological works in this area (The Unseen Realm, Supernatural, and Angels, all published by Lexham Press), and I see that he was a guest on the Bible Project podcast back in October 2018, looking at ‘What is God’s Name?’, available here.

Theology Magazine Issue 1

The first issue of a new theology magazine called, er... Theology Mag has been published and is available (including a pdf download) from here.

It looks interesting, though it’s not immediately apparent – to me, at least – who’s publishing it and sponsoring it.

According to Brandon J. O’Brien in the Editorial:

‘Theology Mag aims to be a digest of clear thinking and fresh perspectives on essential theological subjects. It points you to both classic and emerging voices that have something meaningful to say.’

The first issue is devoted to the Trinity, and contains pieces by Fred Sanders, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Mike Reeves, Tim Chester, Kevin DeYoung, among others.

The email notification I received said the first issue was free, which suggests there might be a charge for subsequent issues.

Credo 8, 4 (2018) on the Immutability of God

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to ‘the immutability of God’.

Here’s the blurb:

‘Does God change? Everything hinges on the answer to that question. If he does change, he is not the eternal, self-sufficient, simple, and infinite Lord scripture says he is time and time again. If he is not immutable, then our salvation is uncertain as well, for only one who does not change can ensure that his promises to redeem us will not change. In this issue of Credo Magazine, we see that immutability is not some abstract, irrelevant attribute of God but one that is essential to who God is and what he has promised to accomplish for a fallen world in flux.’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

Romans 12: God’s New People #2 – Where We Start

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

I wonder if you could guess what word is used most in Paul’s letter to the Romans? Once we disregard commonly-occurring words like ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘in’, and ‘he’, the word most used is not ‘law’ or ‘sin’ or ‘faith’ or ‘justified’ or ‘Jew’ or ‘Gentile’, or even ‘Jesus’. The word used most in Romans is ‘God’.

What is Romans all about? The gospel? Salvation? Justification? Faith? Jesus? Yes, all of these and more, but only as they are understood in relation to God. That’s where we start.

In particular, we start with the mercy of God.

The argument of the letter reaches a peak towards the end of chapter 11, where Paul refers four times to God’s mercy (11:30-32), making it clear that no-one, Jew or Gentile, can make any claim of entitlement on God, and that the ultimate basis of God’s actions in salvation is mercy.

It’s for that reason – ‘in view of God’s mercy’ – that Paul now urges us to live out the call to be God’s new covenant people. The starting point is not primarily community cohesiveness (live this way in order to get on with each other) or even missional effectiveness (live this way in order to display the faith to outsiders). Paul’s appeal to live this kind of life is grounded first and foremost in God’s mercy.

That’s where we start. And that could be worth remembering at the beginning of a new working week, in an uncertain political scene which seems to be changing daily, in the difficult patch in the relationship with the teenager in the household, in caring for the spouse suffering with ill-health.

There’s great encouragement to be had here. In all the particularities of life, many of us read passages like Romans 12 and think we could never live up to the demands that seem to be required. And then we remember what Paul has already described for us: the mercy of God in bringing us into covenant relationship with himself, without reference to our family history or ability to keep the law; the mercy of God seen in the good news of salvation available to all who call on the name of the Lord.

The gospel is about what God has done in Christ for the world. Christian lifestyle and mission flows from that, but it begins with God not with us. Start there.

Knowing and Doing (Spring 2017)

The Spring 2017 edition of Knowing & Doing – ‘A Teaching Quarterly for Discipleship of Heart and Mind’ – from the C.S. Lewis Institute is now available online (here as a pdf), and contains the following articles:

Joel Woodruff

President’s Letter – Looking for Adventure?

Joel S. Woodruff, President of the C.S. Lewis Institute, encourages believers to a life of adventure. What great adventure can be found by those who commit to Jesus’ great commission and answer his adventurous call to discipleship?

George Marsden

A Biography of Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity has a claim to being one of the most important religious works of the twentieth century. In this article, George Marsden discusses the origins of the book and its reception, as well as the factors that give the book its ongoing vitality.

Tom Schwanda

The Emergence of Evangelical Discipleship: Learning to Walk with Jesus

In this article, Tom Schwanda discusses how the early evangelicals of the eighteenth century sought to walk with Jesus, and what we can learn from them in following Jesus as his disciples today.

Bill Kynes

Growing in Prayer Part 2: Learning to Pray to Your Father

Jesus’ disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In this article, Bill Kynes addresses what Jesus taught in response to that request.

Joe Kohm, Jr.

The Wisdom of Jane Eyre

This article considers the lessons we can learn about how to live today from reading Charlotte Brontë’s mid-nineteenth century novel Jane Eyre.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer

Does a Red-Faced God Sing the Blues? Emotions, Divine Suffering, and Biblical Interpretation

Kevin Vanhoozer explores how we should understand, in a clear and biblical way, divine emotional attributes as part of our overall understanding of God.

Randy Newman

First Steps to Loving and Understanding Our Jewish Neighbors

In this excerpt from his book Engaging with Jewish People: Understanding Their World, Sharing Good News, Randy Newman considers the question: Who are the Jewish people?

Thomas A. Tarrants III

The Priority of Prayer

From the time of the apostles and throughout church history, the kingdom of God has moved forward through prayer. This article discusses the need to rediscover the power of prayer, and the path for doing so.