A Patchwork Quilt of Broken Vessels

2011-02-13T22:03:00.003-06:00

I haven’t blogged in a while and it’s getting high time I did. Your humble correspondent must admit that he has been a bum and an insufferable jackass for a good little bit now, and explaining my recent experience and unloading some of the insights gained from said experience is a good preparatory exercise for leaving that state and returning to productivity.

Learning from the “Sacramentalists”: Weaknesses of the Commemorative Ordinances View

2010-06-23T21:05:00.000-05:00

I issue apologies for last time and issue them ahead of time in this post. Labels are tricky. Usually they are misnomers. It is a bit inaccurate to associate the Baptist view of the sacraments with Zwingli, who retained infant baptism (though the Anabaptist movement did begin among Zwingli's followers in Zürich who simply disagreed with the Reformer on the mode and subject of baptism but not on

Learning from the Zwinglians: Strengths of the Commemorative Ordinances View

2010-06-17T20:09:00.000-05:00

A good exercise in intellectual honesty, Christian charity, and theological humility is to discern the points at which theological positions that one finds to miss the mark are helpful or valuable in considering the issue said positions seek to address. In addition to helping us put the best construction on our brothers and sisters and what they believe and so preserving love and unity in the

Seminary Shenanigans 3

2010-06-15T15:41:00.003-05:00

The following is my research paper on the biblical permissibility of capital punishment for my Christian Ethics course. I oppose the current practice of capital punishment because I believe the temptation to statism is too great a danger when a secular state takes it upon itself to put criminals to death. It seems that the only situation in which capital punishment is ultimately sensible is in

A Jason Kettinger-Style List of Random Thoughts for the Day

2010-05-24T13:29:00.000-05:00

1. Dr. Mark Dalbney is pretty dang solid. This is a Reformed-to-the-hilt worship professor at a conservative denominational Presbyterian seminary who manages simultaneously to follow the Presbyterian Church in America party line while engaging heretics like Jeffrey Meyers in a friendly and sympathetic manner and speaking of elements of New Covenant worship in terms of sacrifice, making him far

Seminary Shenanigans 2

2010-05-20T23:06:00.003-05:00

The following could potentially be the longest blog post in world history. This is the grand project from my Christian Worship class, a transcript of a worship service of our own design, featuring every word to be spoken or sung in said service and including, in our notes, our rationale for using the words, songs, elements, etc. we used and for placing them where we placed them in the course of

Seminary Shenanigans 1

2010-05-20T17:54:00.000-05:00

The semester is over, so my really busy days are over for a while. I now have no excuses for not blogging more frequently, so stay tuned for my snarky, irrelevant, and irreverent thoughts throughout the summer. I'll take the opportunity in my next several posts to share my big projects from my seminary courses at Covenant this past semester. I would like your input and constructive criticism on

Taking Zwingli to Task

2010-03-13T11:59:00.000-06:00

As a certain controversial friend has noted, I haven't posted anything on this blog since the Reagan administration. Well, JK, since the market demands it, I will oblige by putting forth this tidbit I posted on the discussion board for my Christian Worship class this week. Since anti-Gnostic crusading is one my favorite hobbies, I couldn't resist taking a pot shot at the Reformer who didn't even

TRC "On Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Reformed Catholicity"

2010-01-20T12:50:00.000-06:00

I've wanted to engage this document for a little while now. It's a statement from the session of Trinity Reformed Church, Moscow, Idaho, on Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. I must begin by saying that I don't fully endorse it. I generally appreciate the statement, but I also have some important concerns about it. Here are the aspects of the statement I find laudable:The first two sections

More Thoughts on Rome and Constantinople

2010-01-11T15:02:00.000-06:00

3. I do not view the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox positions on apostolic succession and their concomitant views on the Church's infallible teaching authority to be absurdities that can be summarily swept aside by all sensible, clear thinking people, as most Protestants seem to think. Indeed, in light of the fractiousness that has always characterized Sola Scriptura Protestantism, these

Where I Sit with Churches of Apostolic Succession

2009-12-22T20:59:00.001-06:00

As those of you who know me know, I've been expressing a certain affinity with Roman Catholicism for awhile now. Indeed, my encounters with the Church of Rome and to a lesser though still important degree my brushes with Eastern Orthodoxy have resulted in a rather significant shift in my theological outlook. I've gone from being a dogmatic Protestant to a confused one of the kind that should

We Already Share in Body and Blood

2009-11-21T13:36:00.000-06:00

Here's just one gem of many from today's Calvin reading:But the flesh of Christ does not of itself have a power so great as to quicken us, for in its first condition it was subject to mortality; and now, endowed with immortality, it does not live through itself. Nevertheless, since it is pervaded with fullness of life to be transmitted to us, it is rightly called "life-giving." In this sense I

A Change of Direction

2009-10-08T15:23:00.000-05:00

I'm not much good lately about keeping the promises I make regarding what I'm going to write about in the future on this blog. I've promised posts on predestination, the doctrine of Scripture, and probably numerous other things, so I apologize to my great faithful horde of blogosphere followers for my grave dereliction of duty. I know the two of you (presumptuous, I know) are desperate to learn

Evangelicalism and the Problem of Subjectivity

2009-10-08T13:16:00.001-05:00

Scott Clark is once again smoking crack over on the Heidelblog, but he has characteristically captured a small slice of truth in the midst of an otherwise delusional, drug-induced haze. He's way off base and downright mean in comparing Tim Keller to Neville Chamberlain and mainstream evangelicalism to Hitler in his title to this post, even if he's right to warn us against a postmodern

Christ and Country Music

2009-09-26T01:25:00.000-05:00

As I sit here 15 minutes prior to midnight listening to some classics from the deeply R&B-influenced country great, Ronnie Milsap, I am reminded that one of my desires has been to develop a theology that is conversant with that paradoxically humble yet profound, down-home, All-American, everyday-life-glorifying genre that is country music. Correct me if I'm wrong, but country music is

Top Five Signs You’re Exactly The Kind of Reactionary Religious Conservative You Swore You No Longer Were

2009-09-01T13:47:00.000-05:00

5. You meticulously search the weekly liturgy of your mainline congregation for the places where masculine referents for God have been replaced with more gender-neutral ones.4. You think to yourself, "Man, this hymn book is absolutely full of this dreadful, humanistic rot!"3. A smile crosses your face as you secretly daydream about bringing the Inquisition back.2. You wonder where the Old

Fun with Predestination, Pelikan, and Post-millennialism

2009-08-29T21:20:00.000-05:00

I've been working on and wrestling with some pretty rich and thought-provoking material since I last posted. Of course, Calvin's Institutes has been my constant companion throughout this year and has continued to provide depths of profundity for my soul to glory in and my mind to contemplate. I have also been recently engaging patristics beyond the encounter with the Church Fathers I have found

Calvin on Mother Church

2009-08-25T12:26:00.000-05:00

Calvin is a bit too decretal and Augustinian for my taste in his opening remarks on the Church in his Institutes. He incorrectly applies the discussion of the Body of Christ in Ephesians to the invisible Church, evidencing an over-spiritualization of the communion of saints and a high degree of individualism. Much better are these remarks on the necessity of membership in the visible Church:But

Leithart on the Kingdom of God

2009-08-07T17:35:00.000-05:00

Some really good stuff on the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the Church in Peter Leithart's The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church.I have emphasized in this chapter that Jesus rules as the Son of David and the Last Adam over all things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. At the same time, however, I will insist equally strongly that His rule has

Predestination Thoughts

2009-08-07T14:36:00.000-05:00

I'm currently in Book 3, Chapter 21 of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. This is where he puts forth his comprehensive teaching on the doctrines of predestination and election. I'm still fairly early in his discussion, but so far I'm finding his teaching to be sober, balanced, careful, and non-speculative—all the things that are commendable about him. Instead of forcefully plowing

The Worship Wars 2

2009-08-06T00:04:00.000-05:00

Not the ranting of a curmudgeon on the pitfalls of worship forms but a few remarks about the relationship between worship forms and culture inspired by an article in this month's issue of Christianity Today. In "Here We Are to Worship," (page 33) Brad Harper and Paul Louis Metzger give us six principles that should guide our efforts to keep worship relevant and authentically Christian. They

For the Life of the World 3

2009-07-27T13:36:00.000-05:00

The Time of Mission: Eastern Orthodoxy and the Sacrament of TimeThe last few times, we have been up on the mountain in the new Jerusalem. We have been talking about the Sunday feast of the Church, the Eucharist. We have gotten a glimpse of heaven. Now we have to go back out into the world again to do mission. We have to come out of the timelessness of heaven and enter again into time.Time. How do

Thoughts on the Bible 3

2009-07-24T00:13:00.000-05:00

The Word of God under Four HeadsThis spring, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland voted to uphold Aberdeen Presbytery's decision to ordain Scott Rennie, an openly gay man, to the pastorate of Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen. When the initial decision was made by Aberdeen Presbytery to ordain Rennie, Presbytery members who had voted against the ordination wrote to the body at large,

Thoughts on the Bible 2

2009-07-22T20:26:00.000-05:00

Karl Barth, Neo-Orthodoxy, and the BibleKarl Barth was easily the greatest Protestant theologian of the 20th century (arguably the greatest in all of Christendom during this time). When considering the doctrine of Scripture, I think Christians in our day and age need to spend a little time with Mr. Barth, especially since he essentially reclaimed the centrality of the Bible in Christian theology

Thoughts on the Bible 1

2009-07-20T20:42:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning to put together some thoughts on this for a little while, but I've been mired in a bit of a summertime slump of laziness, apathy, and boredom. I've been needing just a bit of a kick in the seat of my pants to get me to write on this subject, and that came in Sunday School yesterday. In celebration of Calvin’s 500th birthday, we've been taking some time to get acquainted with

Calvin's Legacy

2009-07-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

Kevin DeYoung nailing it on Calvin's legacy. Let us stand as firmly on the Word of God as Calvin. "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever."http//www.revkevindeyoung.com/2009/07/withering-and-word-john-calvin-at-500.html

For the Life of the World 2.2

2009-07-08T01:49:00.000-05:00

"Lift up Your Hearts!": Eastern Orthodoxy, Reformed Protestantism, and the Eucharist (Part 2)What is the Lord's Supper?Westminster Shorter Catechism again, Q 96- The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ’s appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made

For the Life of the World 2.1

2009-07-04T13:41:00.000-05:00

“Lift up Your Hearts": Eastern Orthodoxy, Reformed Protestantism, and the Eucharist (Part 1)Before we progress forward with our study, I think we need to backtrack a little bit to last time. What, according to Schmemann, is the purpose for the world that God has created? Blessing, communion with God, food that fulfills the hunger of our bodies and inclines our hearts to the One all of our

For the Life of the World 1

2009-07-03T15:46:00.000-05:00

Here are my notes for chapter 1 from the group study I led on For the Life of the World. The key issue throughout the whole study was secularism and its incompatibility with historic Christianity as embodied in Eastern Orthodoxy. The conclusion is that secularism is sin because it attempts to carry forth life in the world as if God does not exist. It essentially tries to steal the world away from

Church: Love It, Don't Leave It

2009-07-01T14:57:00.000-05:00

Young pastors Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck writing on Newsweek/Washington Post "On Faith: Guest Voices" blog about the importance of the Church. Though they screwed Calvin and Cyprian's statement up, (which is actually: "Those who wish to have God for their Father must have the Church for their Mother.") they are otherwise spot on.http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/07/

The Worship Wars 1

2009-06-15T18:30:00.000-05:00

The war over worship has opened a new front in my family. I went away to college and fell in love with a history-conscious, liturgical-sacramental, "high" Church style of worship, but, since I've returned home and we have started going to a very formal, liturgical Presbyterian church, it has become apparent that my mom and little sister are not as enamored with this traditional form as I am.

Blessed Be the Name of the Lord

2009-06-15T15:12:00.000-05:00

In commemoration of John Calvin's 500th birthday (which coincidently falls on July 10, yours truly's birthday), I've been reading his great systematic theology Institutes of the Christian Religion. Fortunately, Princeton has been given permission to offer daily readings from the Battles-McNeill translation, which is much better than the 19th-century Beveridge translation. Love Calvin or hate him,

For the Life of the World 6

2009-05-31T16:49:00.000-05:00

"O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?": Christian Mission and the Reality of DeathToday, we are concluding our study on For the Life of the World. I hope you all have enjoyed this study as much as I've enjoyed leading it. I hope that this book has challenged you as much as it has me. I hope we have been able to see during the course of it that this world is God's good creation and that the true life of

For the Life of the World 5

2009-05-23T15:06:00.000-05:00

The Mystery of Love: The Sacraments of Marriage and OrdinationIn the course of our study, we have talked about the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, that we as Presbyterians are familiar with, but we have addressed the world, the Church, and time as having a sacramental nature in that they are all means of communion with God. I hope that what has come across so far in our discussion

For the Life of the World 4

2009-05-17T15:38:00.000-05:00

I've been given the opportunity by my church to lead a small group study about the Church and the sacraments. We have been reading and discussing For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy by the late Father Alexander Schmemann. If you are interested in issues relating to the sacraments, ecclesiology, and Christian mission in secular society, this is absolutely an essential read. It is,

Edges of the Lord

2009-03-25T20:09:00.000-05:00

Of the movies I watched this weekend, Role Models was easily the most fun, not to mention sinful, but Edges of the Lord was by far the most edifying. If you want to know how to grow up undercover in the midst of persecution and war, Edges of the Lord is the movie to watch. Surprisingly I had never heard of this movie before, but it was released in 2001 and stars Haley Joel Osment. Bad Polish

Fast and Feast, Flesh and Spirit

2009-03-21T12:23:00.000-05:00

For someone who just joined a congregation in a mainline denomination three weeks ago, I was awfully hard on that segment of American Protestant Christianity in my last post. All criticisms aside, the orthodox majority of mainline Protestants have done some things better over the last century than most evangelicals have. They have done particularly well with two areas I am keenly interested

American Religious Identification Survey: What It Means for Evangelicalism?

2009-03-10T18:52:00.000-05:00

The latest American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College of Hartford, Connecticut should be no cause for alarm to American Christians, but, neither can we regard its results as a cause for celebration. The most notable features of the 2008 survey are:The percentage of Americans claiming no religion has jumped from 8.2 in 1990 and 14.2 in 2001 to the current figure of 15

Covenant Objectivity and Apostasy

2009-02-18T22:25:00.000-06:00

Here's a good essay on the benefits of membership in the "visible" Church and what, if anything, is lost by those within the covenant who are unfaithful or by those who finally and permanently "fall away" from the Church. The Reformed author does not privilege TULIP over explicit scriptural statements regarding Church membership and the possibility of losing one's salvation. His exegesis

Empathy

2009-02-15T19:18:00.000-06:00

Is God the distant Prince of the Stars?Is God the Indifferent One who cares not for His children?Is God the Cold Controller—the Perfecter of Power?Does He care how we feel?Is God beyond pain, suffering, and weakness?Is He the Cosmic Sadist who wounds us for kicks?Are You the God of the philosophers?Are You the bare, cold Reason above emotion and heat?Or if passionate, do You burn with wrath and

Thoughts on Calvin

2009-02-14T11:36:00.000-06:00

Here is my weekly post for my Reformation and Modern Church History class. I am discussing my impressions regarding John Calvin's personality and theology.John Calvin looms perhaps as large in my theological imagination as St. Paul. In moments when I forget that the seat of authority rests exclusively in the Scriptures, in those moments when I am over-awed by the power of the human mind to

The Sacraments Revisited

2009-02-01T23:44:00.000-06:00

I have not written exclusively or specifically on the sacraments for a little while now, but I'm not done treating the subject in depth. So far, I have written three installments about reclaiming the sacraments for evangelicals. In the process, I have challenged philosophical and theological assumptions that undermine right views of the sacraments, described in brief the sacraments' relation to

Come, Lord Jesus

2008-12-20T18:31:00.000-06:00

Advent and Christmas is the season of Christ's first appearing. We celebrate the mystery of God taking on flesh and becoming one of us. In light of all that the Incarnation means, this season fills our hearts with joy and hope.Christ has come. Light has descended into a dark and cold world. Life, peace, and righteousness have landed and the work of liberating the world from the forces of sin,

Controversial Ecclesiology

2008-12-07T18:50:00.000-06:00

I admit it. I got into my Christmas gifts a little bit early this year. I found the prospect of reading this book so exciting that I just couldn't wait the last three weeks before the big day. I haven't been disappointed so far. Peter Leithart is becoming my best friend already. He challenges presuppositions and questions foregone conclusions. He is therefore controversial, even heretical to some

One Flesh with Christ

2008-11-01T13:29:00.000-05:00

I must admit I have run with this "high church" ecclesiology stuff with a bit less exegesis from Scripture than I should have. Granted, I have spent a good bit of time in Scripture and a high ecclesiology seems to have answered logically those passages about the Church that typically stymie evangelicals. Not to mention, it effectively shows the unity of the covenants in a way that a totally

Our Mother, the Church?

2008-10-26T18:39:00.000-05:00

John Calvin echoes Saints Cyprian and Augustine in proclaiming, "He who would have God for his Father must have the Church for his Mother." How curious that one of the Reformers would heartily endorse such a Catholic-sounding view of the Church. Is this an unnecessary holdover from the Catholic Church that Calvin’s spiritual children did well to do away with, or, is it in fact representative of

Love the Lord Your God with All Your Strength.

2008-09-15T09:02:00.000-05:00

*Disclaimer: Though this writing deals with the kinds of things I have been writing about in this blog, it is of a more intensely personal nature than anything else I have posted so far. I post it with some trepidation but feel that it could possibly be of worth to someone. Some of what I have written is of a sensitive and mature nature. I just want to caution my female readers that this post

Putting the Scandal Back in the Gospel

2008-08-12T08:01:00.000-05:00

The ProblemThe Gospel is a scandal. It has been since the very beginning of its unfolding in history. The world finds the notion offensive that God called one particular man, Abraham, to be the father of one particular nation, Israel, through whom He intended to bless the whole world. And what a people to choose! An obscure, desert-dwelling, nomadic, tribal people who should have been forgotten

A Jelly Sandwich Jesus

2008-07-26T12:53:00.000-05:00

Today was my first Communion Sunday in quite some time. When I was still in school at Mizzou, I was going to a Presbyterian church where the Supper was served weekly. Since school has been out, however, my family and I have been attending a United Methodist church where Communion is celebrated monthly. For whatever reason, for the past three months or so, we had missed each Communion Sunday. I

Reclaiming the Sacramental (Part 3)

2008-07-03T17:46:00.000-05:00

Having laid scriptural, ecclesiastical, and philosophical foundations for the sacraments and having discussed baptism, I now turn to a discussion of the Bible's teaching on the other Gospel sacrament whereby we commemorate and participate in the atoning death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ—the sacrament known variously as the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, and the Eucharist.On

Reclaiming the Sacramental (Part 2)

2008-05-26T13:54:00.000-05:00

The God we as Christians serve is a Living Mystery who surprises us more and more the longer we follow him. The strangest thing about God is that as we come to know him in deeper and ever more profound ways, the more we grow in the realization of how very little we actually know about him. The distinction I want to highlight here is between that of the relational knowledge of God and the

Reclaiming the Sacramental (Part 1)

2008-05-18T19:43:00.000-05:00

My theological journey has taken me places I never thought it would. I grew up Southern Baptist, thinking that the conservative evangelical Protestant branch of Christianity was the truest expression of Christian faith and practice and thus the tape by which to measure all that Christianity truly should be. Granted, I continue to believe in the principles upon which our movement is based, such as

Where I Stand

2007-08-06T18:05:00.000-05:00

I have so far wiled away the better part of my summer in my room, sipping iced tea, playing countless games of Literati against people better at word games than I, and watching enough baseball and mediocre movies to fill a lifetime. I had set out to do some soul searching but instead opted for the easier option of simply peacing out for three months. Now I face the coming school year with few

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

2007-07-01T19:58:00.000-05:00

There's really just one great decision in life, and it must be made over and over again. That decision is the decision whether to take the road that is easiest, the road that seems the safest and most comfortable, or to take the right road. It's not that the safe and easy road is always the wrong one. No; sometimes it's easiest on us and safer too to do the right thing, but often it seems that

Jesus and John Wayne

2007-06-19T14:37:00.000-05:00

I've spent this summer off from college trying to escape the fears and questions I have about my future. I've spent my time with nose in book, eyes glued to the TV, hoping for something that will satisfy or at least take my mind off my existential struggle. It has not succeeded, so I'm going to chart a new course in which I seek to figure out where I'm going for my tomorrow. I told myself prior

On The Road Home

The Hidden Power of God at Christmas

Our Suffering Savior

Filling the Universe with the Fullness of God

Justification: Whose Legal Fiction?

Overreacting to John Piper's 2 Minutes with the Pope

Life Digestible in the Blogosphere and the Soul

Filling Up Christ's Afflictions