Category Archives: Doctrine

In defence of doctrine

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The whole business of doing ‘doctrine’ has become quite unfashionable in the Christian world. But, as Michael Jensen argues, nothing is more important and essential because the gospel itself demands it. (more…)

Looking back, looking forward

Thought, Sola Panel

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Whenever I look back over the history of The Briefing—all 366 issues, all 21 years—I find it almost impossible to resist thinking about my eldest daughter, who (like The Briefing) was born in April 1988. In fact, I’ve used the image so often in the past, I’m sure long-term readers are heartily sick of it by now. (more…)

Driscoll’s New Calvinism

Thought

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Time magazine has called ‘The New Calvinism’ (whatever that is exactly) the third most influential idea changing the world right now. In response, Mark Driscoll has produced his list of four ways in which the New Calvinism is different to the Old one. For the sake of the discussion, let me repeat them below:
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On being generous

Thought, Sola Panel

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I keep hearing calls for a ‘generous orthodoxy’—one that is kind and open-minded towards those who differ, and that doesn’t come down hard on every mistake or variation in doctrine. This is a useful and attractive idea, as well as a dangerous one, of course (Carl Trueman has commented insightfully on the issues over at Reformation21). (more…)

Just how sovereign is God?

Up front, Sola Panel

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I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens—that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—the fall of sear leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.1

In one of his sermons, John Piper tells the story of a couple who approached him one day and shared that they had learned more about God’s sovereignty during six months at his church than in their whole Christian lives previously. Some time later, their family went through a time of terrible suffering. The mother thanked Pastor John with tears in her eyes, saying that they could never have made it through this time without the conviction of God’s sovereignty. (more…)

Is God boring?

Up front

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I was struck the other week when a friend spoke to me about the hard time he was having drumming up interest in a sermon series on God. It seems it is so much easier to grab people’s interest if the sermons are recognizably about us in some way or other. This is, of course, simply another form of the age-old concern about relevance. In a consumer-oriented age, those who listen to sermons want to know the cash value up front. (more…)

Nowist Left and Right

Up front, Sola Panel

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After reading Lionel Windor’s excellent little article on ‘nowism’ (the insidious Christian tendency to live for this world rather than the next) in last month’s Briefing,1 I couldn’t help noticing this fascinating snippet from Ross Douhat at The Atlantic Monthly. (more…)

Matters of indifference?

Life

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When Christians disagree, often it is helpful to sort the important from the unimportant, the essential from the indifferent. But what criteria should we use to do this? Mark Thompson investigates.

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