Creeds are not scary

William Lumpkin, the Baptist creeds guru, says,
The fear of creeds is, largely, an irrational fear. Christianity is a confessing religion. It is a content-filled faith. The option for Christians is not whether they will confess their faith or conceal it, but whether their confessions will be made in oral or written form. Every Southern Baptist [...]

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From the Preface to the Trinity Hymnal

The following excerpt from the preface to the Trinity Hymnal–Baptist edition* highlights several important facets of hymnody. First, the theology taught by hymns have a great impact on the church's theology. For example, how do you know that Jesus is your friend? Because the hymnal tells me so! ("What a Friend we have in Jesus"). [...]

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Comparisons by G. K. Chesterton

My wife and I came across this poem by Chesterton in Douglas Wilson's book Future Men (p 18):

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Quote of the week (5/28)

"Thus must a soul be educated which is to be a temple of God. It must learn to hear nothing and to say nothing but what belongs to the fear of God. It must have no understanding of unclean words, and no knowledge of the world’s songs. Its tongue must be steeped while still tender [...]

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Bach criticizes P&W

Bach believed that all music was to be written for the glory of God. This foundation lay under not only his sacred music, but his secular also. Bach would read from Niedt's book on the thorough bass for his students, and, in commenting on Niedt's text, said,

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Not serious about unity*

Those who are really serious about unity are not serious about unity. Today we are exhorted on every side by appeals for more “unity within fundamentalism” and even more “unity between fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals.” And there are all sorts of ways proposed to get unity: prayer meetings, conferences, and public relations committees. “We must [...]

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The difference betwen the Campbellites and Baptists

Though I suspect a slight slant in Mr Spencer, I found his articulation of the distinction between the Baptist and Campbellites interesting:
"There was the widest conceivable difference in the spirit and temper of the two parties. The Baptists were like Moses when he looked upon Aaron's golden calf; the Campbellites exhibited the spirit of those [...]

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On martyrdom in the early church

This exerpt is from The Letter of the Churches of Vienna and Lugdunum to the Churches of Asia and Phyrgia (written around 180 A.D.).
"Sanctus also nobly endured all the excessive and superhuman16 tortures which man could possibly devise against him; for the wicked hoped, on account of the continuance and greatness of the [...]

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Twelve springs and seventy palm trees

Right from the beginning, the children of Israel were a people of unbelief. Though from time to time they show glimpses of faith (Ex 4:31; 15:19-21), their overall pattern was one of unbelief and testing the Lord. The Lord intended to use them to make known his might and power, and to get glory [...]

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Cathedral pictures

A couple weeks ago a few of us took a tour of a local cathedral, St Mark's Episcopal in Minneapolis. Here are couple pictures from that trip.

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Ron Howard tells it like it is

"This is supposed to be entertainment, it's not theology."
No, this is not Rick Warren, Tronn Oilham, the CEO for Every Tribe Entertainment or your Vacation Bible School director. This is Ron Howard, telling it like it is. Of course, Ron Howard is wrong. He is certainly trying to say something about God. But in another [...]

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Calvin the Platonist

I have heard the rumbles of concerns around the fundamentalist blogosophere that some of us conservatives are dangerously influenced by the evil Greek philosophers such as (gasp) Plato himself. Well, that is only partly true. But consider the good Saint Calvin who approved of at least some of the views of Plato when it came [...]

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The Role of Creeds in Theology

Creeds are “summary exhibitions of what the Scriptures teach.” Many Baptists have historically held up the necessity of creeds for the Church as a mechanism of setting forth in clear terms the doctrinal basis of the union the body holds in the Scriptures. The important element here is that the union is held in the [...]

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Spirit and truth

I recently heard this in a sermon by John Piper:
I don't think there is such a thing as purely intellectual worship.

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