Open Thread: Is There a Form of Suffering in the Intermediate State?
From time to time, I’d like to kick-start a discussion by asking a thought-provoking theological question. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another.” It is my hope that by...
View ArticleA Review of Bound Together by Chris Brauns
Camden Bucey and Jim Cassidy review Chris Brauns’ book Bound Together: How We Are Tied to Others in Good and Bad Choices published by Zondervan. This book is a welcome and accessible introduction to...
View ArticleBook 2, Chapter 2, Sections 14-20 – Man Now Deprived of Freedom of Will
Sections 14-20 14. The power of the intellect, secondly, with regard to the arts. Particular gifts in this respect conferred on individuals, and attesting the grace of God. 15. The rise of this...
View ArticleJonathan Edwards on Adam Before the Fall
The Christ the Center panel gather for an informal discussion about Jonathan Edwards and his treatment of the question of how Adam, who was created in righteousness and holiness and knowledge could...
View ArticleCovenant Solidarity
Chris Brauns visits Christ the Center to speak about covenant solidarity through his book Bound Together: How We Are Tied to Others in Good and Bad Choices published by Zondervan. Chris is the pastor...
View ArticleBetter Than the Beginning: Creation in Biblical Perspective
Jim Cassidy reviews Better Than the Beginning: Creation in Biblical Perspective by Richard Barcellos. Participants: Camden Bucey, Jim Cassidy
View ArticleBook 2, Chapter 2, Sections 21-27 — Man Now Deprived of Freedom of Will
Sections 21. Fourth argument. Scripture ascribes the glory of our adoption and salvation to God only. The human intellect blind as to heavenly things until it is illuminated. Disposal of a heretical...
View ArticleBook 2, Chapter 3, Sections 1-4 – Everything Proceeding from the Corrupt...
Sections 1. The intellect and will of the whole man corrupt. The term flesh applies not only to the sensual, but also to the higher part of the soul. This demonstrated from Scripture. 2. The heart also...
View ArticleReformed Theology in African American Perspective
In this special interview, we welcome Jemar Tisby and Phillip Holmes, President and Vice President respectively of Reformed African American Network (RAAN), to talk about their website, race, the...
View ArticleWas Eden As Good as It Gets?
In the discussion on “Redemptive-Historical Hermeneutics, Divine Authorship, and the Christotelism Debate” at the first Reformed Forum conference (audio download), Lane Tipton asked a question...
View ArticleRedemptive History, Merit, and the Sons of God
Dr. Lane G. Tipton builds upon his first plenary address by developing a biblical-theological and systematic approach to considering whether there is a republication of the Covenant of Works in the...
View ArticleBook 2, Chapter 3, Sections 5-9 – Everything Proceeding from the Corrupt...
Sections 5. Though man has still the faculty of willing, there is no soundness in it. He falls under the bondage of sin necessarily, and yet voluntarily. Necessity must be distinguished from...
View ArticleWhich Comes First, the Intellect or the Will?
Jeff Waddington compares Alvin Plantinga and Jonathan Edwards on the perennial anthropological question regarding the relationship between the intellect and the will. In 2000, distinguished Christian...
View ArticleBavinck on the Image of God
In our treatment of the doctrine of the image of God, then, we must highlight, in accordance with Scripture and the Reformed confession, the idea that a human being does not bear or have the image of...
View ArticleBook 2, Chapter 3, Sections 10–14 — Everything Proceeding from the Corrupt...
Sections 10. A fourth Objection. Answer. Fifth Objection. Answer. Answer confirmed by many passages of Scripture, and supported by a passage from Augustine. 11. Perseverance not of ourselves, but of...
View ArticleBook 2, Chapter 4, Sections 1–8 — How God Works in the Hearts of Men
Sections 1. Connection of this chapter with the preceding. Augustine’s similitude of a good and bad rider. Question answered in respect to the devil. 2. Question answered in respect to God and man....
View ArticleBook 2, Chapter 5, Sections 1–5 — The Arguments Usually Alleged in Support of...
Sections 1. Absurd fictions of opponents first refuted, and then certain passages of Scripture explained. Answer by a negative. Confirmation of the answer. 2. Another absurdity of Aristotle and...
View ArticleCreated in the Image of the Creator
The doctrine of man’s creation in the image of God has received considerable attention in the history of the Reformed churches. Zacharias Ursinus provides a reasonably full statement of the main...
View ArticleThe Image of God: Historical and Contemporary Challenges
The panel discusses the image of God live from the 2016 Reformed Forum Theology Conference. The event was held at Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Grayslake, Illinois beginning on October 7, 2016....
View ArticleThe Image of God: Biblical-Theological Foundations
Lane Tipton delivers the first address at the 2016 Reformed Forum Theology Conference held at Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Grayslake, Illinois. Participants: Lane G. Tipton
View ArticleThe Trinity, Image of God, and Apologetics: Bavinck’s Consistently Reformed...
Jim Cassidy speaks on Herman Bavinck’s consistently Reformed defense of the faith at the 2016 Reformed Forum Theology Conference held at Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Grayslake, Illinois....
View ArticleImage of God and Images of God: The Second Commandment and Reformed Worship
Glen Clary speaks at the 2016 Reformed Forum Theology Conference held at Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Grayslake, Illinois on October 8, 2016. Participants: Glen Clary
View ArticleThe Image of God and Imaging God: A Plea for Including the Ontological and...
Jeff Waddington speaks at the 2016 Reformed Forum Theology Conference held at Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Grayslake, Illinois on October 8, 2016. Participants: Jeff Waddington
View ArticleThe Archetypal Image in Colossians 1:15: Theological Implications
Lane Tipton delivers his second address at the 2016 Reformed Forum Theology Conference held at Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Grayslake, Illinois on October 8, 2016. Participants: Lane G. Tipton
View ArticleEschatology and the Image of the Last Adam
Camden Bucey speaks at the 2016 Reformed Forum Theology Conference held at Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Grayslake, Illinois on October 8, 2016. Participants: Camden Bucey
View ArticleThe Image of God: Then and Now
Camden Bucey and Jeff Waddington discuss the image of God and whether man retains the image after the fall into sin. Man was made in the image of God, yet there has been a change in humanity that was...
View ArticleAm I Free If God Is Sovereign?
God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom are often thought to be in competition with one another in a sort of zero-sum game: either God is sovereign or I am free. This has led to thinking that there are...
View ArticleThe Eschatology of the Image of God
We speak about God’s original intent for the image of God and how his offer to Adam in the garden was of a higher, consummate mode of life. Participants: Camden Bucey, Glen Clary, Jeff Waddington
View ArticleThe Tree of Life and the Covenant of Works
What did the Tree of Life symbolize in the Garden of Eden? Why does it reappear in Revelation 2:7 and 22:2? We discuss the symbolism of the tree and the eschatological mode of life it signifies and...
View ArticleA Brief Introduction to the Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius
Jeff Waddington previews his address for the 2018 Theology Conference. He speaks about Pseudo-Dionysius, a key influence upon Thomas Aquinas. Dionysius attempted to integrate neoplatonism with...
View ArticleThe Trinity, Creation, and Covenantal Condescension: The Deeper Protestant...
Lane Tipton delivers the first plenary address at the Reformed Forum 2018 Theology Conference at Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Grayslake, Illinois. Download the lecture notes to follow along....
View ArticleReformed Apologetics
J. V. Fesko has written Reforming Apologetics: Retrieving the Classic Reformed Approach to Defending the Faith (Baker Academic, 2019). In the book, Dr. Fesko criticizes, among others, Cornelius Van...
View ArticleThe Gospel and Self-Conception: A Defense of Article 7 of the Nashville...
If you stop and take the time to take notice of just how often in the New Testament the Gospel impacts, changes, gives imperatives for, or opposes the cognitive life of man, you will find that the...
View ArticleThe Gospel and Self-Conception
Daniel Schrock speaks about self-conception in light of the Revoice movement and the Nashville Statement. Looking to the believers’ union with Christ in his death and resurrection, Schrock provides a...
View ArticleChristian Perspectives on Sport Hunting
Dr. Bracy V. Hill, senior lecturer in history at Baylor University, speaks about Christian perspectives on sport hunting. While hunting isn’t the first thing on the minds of biblical scholars, hunting...
View ArticlePolitics after Christendom
David VanDrunen speaks about his forthcoming book, Politics After Christendom (Zondervan Academic), reflecting upon the status and responsibilities of Christians in their contemporary pluralistic...
View ArticleWith All Your Heart
Dr. A. Craig Troxel speaks about With All Your Heart: Orienting Your Mind, Desires, and Will toward Christ (Crossway, 2020). Whereas contemporary culture identifies the “heart” with feelings and...
View ArticleStewards of Eden: What Scripture Says About the Environment and Why It Matters
Camden Bucey reviews Stewards of Eden: What Scripture Says About the Environment and Why It Matters (IVP Academic, 2020) by Dr. Sandra L. Richter, the Robert H. Gundry Chair of Biblical Studies at...
View ArticleNature, Grace, and Covenant: The Deeper Protestant Conception and...
The beatific vision (1 John 3:2) is the consummation of God’s relationship with his people. While Christians of all traditions acknowledge this blessed future to some degree, there are significant...
View ArticleGeerhardus Vos and the Covenant of Works
Danny Olinger delivers an address at the 2021 Reformed Forum Theology Conference. The event was held October 8–9, 2021 at Providence OPC in Pflugerville, Texas. The conference theme was, “The Promise...
View ArticleVan Til, Aquinas, and the Natural Knowledge of God
Lane Tipton speaks about his new course on Van Til’s doctrine of revelation, which is the third course in our Fellowship in Reformed Apologetics. In this course, Dr. Tipton covers: The implications of...
View ArticleNatural Theology and the Effects of Sin
Lane Tipton, Ryan Noha, Rob McKenzie, and Camden Bucey pull up to a table for the first podcast recording at the new Reformed Forum headquarters in Libertyville, Illinois. We discuss the new facility,...
View ArticleBavinck on the “Implanted” Knowledge of God
A listener of Christ the Center raised a useful question about Bavinck, noting that he denies the speculative conception of “innate ideas” in Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 2, pp. 69–73 and wondered what...
View ArticleWhat Is the Creator-Creature Distinction?
In biblical teaching summarized by Reformed theology, the creator-creature distinction brings into view the absolute ontological difference between the Triune God and the creature. The Triune God is...
View ArticleWhat Is Mutualism or Correlativism?
Mutualism or correlativism are virtual synonyms. Cornelius Van Til, a prominent twentieth-century Reformed theologian, apologist, Orthodox Presbyterian, and founding member of Westminster Theological...
View ArticleWhat Is the Deeper Protestant Conception?
In Reformed Dogmatics 2:13–15, Geerhardus Vos coined a phrase for the image of God, entitled “the deeper Protestant conception.” When God formed Adam from the dust of the earth in Genesis 2:7, he...
View ArticleVan Mastricht: The Works of God and the Fall of Man
In the third volume of this new translation of Petrus Van Mastricht’s Theoretical-Practical Theology, Mastricht begins with a discussion of the decrees of God and how they establish His eternal...
View ArticleWhat Is the Point of Contact?
In another video, we spoke about the antithesis, the sharp distinction between believers and unbelievers. That distinction is covenantal, absolute, and ethical. We also spoke about how that...
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The Deeper Protestant Conception of Natural Theology
It was most likely between 1888 and 1890, during his time at the Theological School in Grand Rapids, that Geerhardus Vos both delivered his Natural Theology lectures and wrote his Reformed Dogmatics....
View ArticleVan Til Group #11 — Sin and Its Curse
Carlton Wynne, Lane Tipton, and Camden Bucey turn to pp. 63–67 of Cornelius Van Til’s The Defense of the Faith to discuss the Christian theory of knowledge. In this section, Van Til speaks of the...
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