Just as my two-year-old son’s inability to know the reason for his pain did not mean that I had no such reason, so too our lack of capacity to know the reasons for our pain does not mean that God has none.
You shouldn’t expect every Bible passage to teach every doctrine. Very often a Bible passage teaches one idea. If we expect to find something in a passage that isn’t there then we’ll end up twisting it to suit what we want to find. However we should expect the Bible to present a consistent message. I believe that it does. The Bible is God’s Word and God isn’t confused about what he wanted to tell us. This is the basis of the famous principle of biblical interpretation: ‘compare Scripture with Scripture’. If something in a passage confuses you then compare it...
Sanctification and Sin John Newton was famously familiar with grace. As a slave-trader turned clergyman, he was a living depiction of his much-beloved hymn, Amazing Grace. However, Newton’s experience of grace did not climax at conversion. In a less remembered hymn, I Asked the Lord that I Might Grow, Newton captures the tension which lies at the heart of every Christian life: sanctification and sin. Accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour demands a whole-hearted and life changing pursuit of righteousness. The Bible commands us to flee from sin and God promises to mould us into the image of Christ. How...
How can a heresy be ‘godly’? In short, it can’t. Godliness is about conformity to sound doctrine (Titus 2:1). However, most cases of (reasonably convincing) false teaching will consist of biblical truths that have been skewed in some way. The ingredients are good, but the recipe is incomplete or else has had unwelcome things added, and the result is a theological and practical mess. Sinless Perfectionism is a doctrine like that. In short, it holds that it is possible for Christians to completely defeat sin in the present life and to live holy lives like Jesus did. At a glance,...
Not too long ago, Christian (2019 update: Taoist) hipster musician Michael Gungor caused a minor ripple in Christian social-media by firing off a flurry of (what he later called) “cranky tweets” about the Reformed doctrine of Total Depravity. The doctrine of total depravity is a lie. And a harmful one … it defames creation … “You are total trash. You were born total trash. Believe the right things so I can forgive you.” Here are 7 reasons why the doctrine of Total Depravity (TD) is not a lie but rather a liberating truth. 1. It Affirms Human Value. Many people...
