Jordan B. Cooper's Blog, page 43
April 7, 2015
“Reading the Bible With Martin Luther”? Or With His Modern Existentialist Interpreters?
Post by Nathan Rinne “But because we have for so long been persuaded of the opposite by that pestilential saying of the Sophists that the Scriptures are obscure and ambiguous, we are obliged to begin by proving even that first principle of ours by which everything else has to be proved—a procedure that among the [Read More...]
April 3, 2015
The God Who Died
Death. The idea is perhaps more real to us this Good Friday than in years past, as 147 people were killed at a Kenyan University by Muslim terrorists on Thursday. These terrorists specifically targeted Christian students, opening fire at a morning prayer meeting. These horrific actions are unthinkable, and we mourn as a society and [Read More...]
April 1, 2015
Why Businesses Run by Christians Should, in General, Eagerly Serve All Comers
Post by Nathan Rinne UPDATE: Please note that in this piece I am offering my opinion to Christians and not saying what government laws should look like. In light of new developments with “Memories Pizza”, noted indirectly in the article, I recommend reading what David Brooks said a couple days ago. Earlier this week, I [Read More...]
March 31, 2015
The Fight Against Indiana’s RFRA is a Fight Against Religious Liberty
The past few days in the media have been full of discussion about a supposedly anti-gay discrimination law in Indiana. Like most events covered by the media, a quick false impression has been given about the law, and anyone who supports such a law is declared to be a bigot, stuck in the stone age, [Read More...]
Q&A March, 2015
I did a second Question and Answer program today, dealing with multiple topics. I talked about the AALC, differences in beliefs about fellowship between synods, theonomy, the relationship between baptism and salvation, and many other important topics! Here is the Program
March 30, 2015
How Should We Show Christian Love in Indiana and Beyond?
Post by Nathan Rinne The recent events surrounding the newly-passed religious freedom law in Indiana – particularly as they have been framed by Brandan Robertson on his “Revangelical blog” here on the patheos site (you can see the comment I left for him here) – have got me thinking hard again about how the world [Read More...]
March 28, 2015
John Brug’s Critique of Gerhard Forde’s Doctrine of Sanctification
This essay was presented at the North Atlantic District Conference of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod in 1993. Brug presents a Lutheran doctrine of sanctification in contradistinction to the various views expressed in Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification. He demonstrates that Forde’s teaching in this book, which he calls the “Liberal Lutheran” position on [Read More...]
March 27, 2015
A Helpful Chart on the Two Kingdoms
Rev. Kyle Dillon, a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America, made this very helpful chart explaining the differences between a Lutheran doctrine of the two kingdoms, an Escondido view of the two kingdoms, and a NeoCalvinist view of the state. He helpfully differentiates Luther’s perspective from that of theologians like Michael Horton, David VanDrunen [Read More...]
March 26, 2015
“Cultured Despisers Gonna Despise”: the Nature of Liberal “Evangelical” Theology Versus a Truly Biblical Theology
“The Holy Spirit is no skeptic…. a man must delight in assertions or he will be no Christian.” — Martin Luther to Erasmus Post by Nathan Rinne Recently, in an interesting First Thoughts piece on the current debates about Karl Barth, the name of Immanuel Kant was invoked. The author of the article, Philip Cary, [Read More...]
March 25, 2015
The Grace of God Toward Fallen Man
On today’s program, I was joined again by Rev. Lewis Polzin to continue discussing Henry Eyster Jacobs’ book A Summary of the Christian Faith. We discussed chapters nine and ten, on “the grace of God toward fallen men,” and “the preparation of redemption.” Here is the program
