Tag: hermeneutics

  • Being Reformed: The Essentials

    The following beliefs make a person Reformed. These are the sine qua non of being reformed! Covenant theology is not essential to being reformed. It was inherited from Rome. Scripture teaches dispensationalism. The truly reformed, including myself, affirm believer’s baptism, not infant baptism. The latter was inherited from Rome. An amillennial eschatology also came from…

  • Always Reforming

    Sadly, my experience with the Reformed is that most of them exist in a bubble, and dare not think outside their confessional strictures. Like myself, a truly Reformed person affirms the normative principle of worship, not the overly restrictive regulative principle. Reformed have made no progress in eschatology since the 1600s. Biblical theology is premillennial…

  • Some Thoughts on Sola Scriptura

    Background The more I interact with Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, and some non-Reformed Protestants, the greater I see the need and absolute necessity of the Reformed principle of Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone). Sola Scriptura ensures that our doctrines align with God’s Word. It gives us purity and completeness of doctrine. And it acts as…

  • The Reformers Didn’t Go Far Enough

    The magisterial Reformers of the Protestant Reformation, men like Calvin, Luther, and Knox, were used mightily by God to restore the preeminence of Scripture and to declare every precept and doctrine taken directly from the Word of God which itself stands as the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith, morality, and praxis.…

  • Covenant Theology vs Dispensationalism: Towards a Definition of Reformed Essentials

    Introduction Covenant Theology (CT) and dispensationalism (D) are both frameworks created by man to understand and make sense of Scripture (both the Old Testament and New Testament). They are meta-systems of analysis and synthesis. Think of them as interpretive grids. Theological propositions or rather truths are distilled into a framework that aids in understanding the…

  • The Baptism Debate

    Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, other Reformed, and some Anglican all believe in either infant baptism or both infant baptism and baptismal regeneration. I submit, respectfully, that these believers are all wrong in their understanding of baptism. In this post, I will discuss the fundamental differences between the credobaptist and paedobaptism positions, and I’ll…

  • Early Church Fathers and the question of authority

    As I see it, Scripture confers no special status to the so-called Early Church Fathers. As such their theological opinions should be judged against the Scriptures and they should not be given substantial weight when interpreting Scripture. They were closer to the Apostolic age and may well have some insights into certain matters, but their…