Between the Trees

So yesterday we left our heroes - Machen, Scofield, Sunday, and the rest - in an awkward coalition whose primary commonality was a shared disdain for the liberalism - which was termed “modernism” in their day - that had taken over northern churches. And we said the theology that emerged was essentially the basic points [...]

Note: This is part of an ongoing series. Part 1, Part 2.
First, we’ll need to describe the basic view-point Tullian is getting at in Unfashionable. The way of thinking espoused by Tullian is largely novel in the broadly evangelical movement in the USA so the discussion has arose as a result of this view’s challenge [...]

Note: This is part of an ongoing series called What is the Gospel? Part One can be found here.
Before presenting the two sides, let’s start with some basic ground rules:
1) This is an intramural discussion. In other words, it’s a disagreement amongst brothers and sisters. As such whatever discussion we have has to be consistent [...]

Recently Christianity Today posted a discussion of Tullian Tchvidjian’s new book Unfashionable. It was prompted by a mostly-critical review by Tullian’s friend Tim Challies. Tchvidjian is a rising star in evangelicalism whose first book Do I Know God? drew rave reviews a few years ago. He’s also recently become the pastor of James Kennedy’s former [...]

Note: This is part 3 of an ongoing series discussing the question of hell. Here are posts one and two.
Last time, I tried to offer a take on the big story of Christianity, putting the questions of hell and divine judgment in their proper contexts. I’d like to sum up four major points from this [...]

To start talking about hell, it is critical that we place it within the framework of the larger biblical story. Both the objections people outside Christianity have to the doctrine and the distortions that tend to creep into our own ways of discussing it come from placing hell into a different story than the biblical [...]

One of the issues which keeps cropping up in my interactions with friends who aren’t Christians is the question of hell. While I usually end up sidestepping this issue, both its commonness and intensity have driven me to ponder lately how we as Christians should answer the question, and I wanted to post a series [...]

I was recently visiting with a co-worker when out of the blue she informed me that she had a big struggle with Christianity (being in seminary evidently makes you the go-to guy for this sort of thing, no matter how un-seminary-ish you are at work.) She just couldn’t see how Christians could believe in the [...]

Mike Morrell, a good brother whose gracious posts I’ve appreciated reading on several occasions, suggests in a recent post that there is a conflict between a penal substitution model for the atonement and Jesus’ teachings on non-violence.
I’ve heard the idea expressed before, but have never given it much thought. What do y’all think?

Last night a friend and I were discussing the way pastors present grace and law in their sermons. Complex discussions about the grace/law dichotomy aside, he said something that I’ve been thinking about ever since. He said that where he came from they wanted the pastor to talk about grace, but they also wanted to [...]