One of the Clearest (and Earliest) Summaries of Early Christian Beliefs
Since I am currently writing a book on Christianity in the second century, my research has been focused on some of our earliest patristic texts. These texts are a treasure trove of fascinating statements and declarations that provide tremendous insight on what early Christians really believed.
Some of my prior posts on this theme include discussions of the persecution of Christians, early Christian sexual ethics, the divinity of Jesus, and the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
Most recently, I came across an amazing paragraph in one of our earliest Christian apologies. Aristides, a converted Athenian philosopher, wrote an apology to emperor Hadrian around 125 A.D. As such, … Continue reading...
Tim Ward Reviews “The Question of Canon”
Tim Ward, Associate Director of Proclamation Trust’s Cornhill training course in London, just published a very kind review of my book The Question of Canon (IVP Academic, 2013) over at Reformation 21. Of course, Tim is the author of his own book on Scripture (also with IVP), an excellent piece of work entitled Words of Life: Scripture as the Living and Active Word of God (IVP, 2009).
Tim’s review actually covers two books, first J. Merrick and Stephen M. Garrett, eds., Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy (Zondervan, 2013), and then The Question of Canon. As he observes, the first is a book on the theology of Scripture, the … Continue reading...
Did the Earliest Christians Really Believe in Substitutionary Atonement (and Even Imputation)? One Important Example
In a prior article (here), I explored how the second-century work the Epistle to Diognetus clearly affirmed the full divinity of Jesus–a doctrine that some say did not come around until the fourth century. I continue this theme by exploring yet another doctrine that some suggest is a late invention: substitutionary atonement.
The average internet-level narrative goes something like this: the earliest Christians had no clear understanding for why Jesus died on the cross and what it accomplished. The idea of a substitutionary atonement is a late invention designed to retroactively explain the (otherwise embarrassing) death of Jesus. In fact, it was not until Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo … Continue reading...
Melissa Kruger Launches New Blog
I am very excited about my wife Melissa’s new blog which launches today. There are a tremendous amount of resources available on this site, covering a wide variety of topics such as women’s ministry, motherhood, contentment, life as a pastor’s wife, and more.
The site also includes a number of her articles, podcasts, talks, and videos. Many of these have been published on other sites like the Gospel Coalition, Christianity.com, Reformation 21, and others.
Based on Psalm 107:27, she has creatively titled her new blog “Wit’s End: Having Nothing, Possessing Everything.” Here is her explanation of the meaning of the title:
…Slowly I am learning that being at my wit’s
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A Christmas Gift from the Mainstream Media: Newsweek Takes a Desperate Swipe at the Integrity of the Bible (Part 2)
On Christmas Eve, I wrote part one of my review of Kurt Eichenwald’s piece (see here), and highlighted not only the substantive and inexcusable litany of historical mistakes, but also the overly pejorative and one-sided portrait of Bible-believing Christians. The review was shared by a number of other evangelical sites and thinkers—including the Gospel Coalition, Tim Challies, Denny Burk, Michael Brown, and others—and ever since I have been digging out from under the pile of comments. I appreciate that even Kurt Eichenwald joined the discussion in the comments section.
But the problems in the original Newsweek article were so extensive that I could not cover them in a single … Continue reading...