To sin is to use a gift that God provided for the purpose of pointing to his glory in a way that the Creator never intended. That’s how God’s good gift of relaxation degenerates into vacations that end in frustration because they fall short of our self-centered expectations. That’s how God’s gifts of food and drink […]
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Theology: How Free Is Humanity?
How free are your choices? Do human beings possess free will? Does God determine your choices or do you? Part of the answer depends on how you define “freedom” and “free will”! With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the notions of human freedom and free will. Does God Save People Against Their […]
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Theology: Do God’s Plans Ever Fail?
Broken dreams are woven deeply into the fabric of human existence—so deeply that it’s easy for us to assume God’s plans fail, just like ours. In fact, that’s precisely what some theologians have claimed over the past few decades. According to one best-selling book from a certain Jewish rabbi, God wishes he could make everything right […]
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Family Ministry: The Difference Between God’s Adoption and Ours
Thirteen years ago, my wife and I sat at a table in a cramped office that reeked of scorched coffee and mildewed carpet. By that point in our lives, we had journeyed for nearly two years on a long and difficult road toward adoption. While social workers shuffled around us, we pored over page after […]
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Family Ministry: PROOF Pirates Book and Vacation Bible School Material
Chore charts. Report cards. Standardized tests. Athletic banquets. Kids are inundated with messages about their performance. Because performance—work and reward—is one of the basic structures of our lives, kids often grow up thinking, “I am what I am because of what I do . . . or because of what I’ve failed to do.” How […]
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PROOF: Martin Luther on Beards and Human Depravity
There’s nothing we can do to change our sinful nature. From time to time, we may have calmed our consciences by pulling the plug on a sinful habit or two. Perhaps we flushed a few pills down the toilet, vowed not to gossip so much about our coworkers, or made a New Year’s resolution to […]
[Read More...]PROOF: Who Invented the TULIP? (Part 3)
Did you miss Parts 1 and 2 of “Who Invented the TULIP?” Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2. Where Did McAfee Find His Points in the First Place? Others have explored the origins of TULIP as far back as Cleland McAfee’s 1905 lecture. I find it highly unlikely, however, that this […]
[Read More...]PROOF: Who Invented the TULIP? (Part 2)
Did you miss Part 1 of “Who Invented the TULIP?” Click here to read it. Tiptoeing through (the History of) the TULIP The earliest name clearly connected to the TULIP seems to be Cleland Boyd McAfee. Born in Missouri in 1866, McAfee became a prominent leader in the Presbyterian Church. He moved to Union Theological […]
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PROOF: Who Invented the TULIP? (Part 1)
Chances are, if you’ve ever heard of the “five points of Calvinism,” you heard them first in the form of a flower—a tulip, to be exact. If your earliest awareness of these points was anything like mine, it began with the fallenness of humanity and ended with the security of the believer, with the most […]
[Read More...]PROOF: The Pirates are Coming
PROOF and the doctrines of grace are the theme for this year’s Vacation Bible School at Sojourn Community Church—and it’s all wrapped up in a high-seas pirate adventure! Look carefully in the video, and you’ll see PROOF coauthor Timothy Paul Jones falling to the deck with the rest of the Sojourn VBS pirate crew. Be […]
[Read More...]PROOF: Cutting through the Confusion about What to Call “the New Calvinism” (Part 2)
For part one of this series on naming the “New Calvinism,” click here. A Trinity of “Neo’s”: Neo-Calvinist, Neo-Puritan, Neo-Reformed The relatively recent introduction of “neo-Calvinist” to describe the latest resurgence of interest in Reformation theology has muddied the semantic waters even more—but not because “neo-Calvinist” or “new Calvinist” carries too many different meanings (not […]
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PROOF: Cutting through the Confusion about What to Call “the New Calvinism” (Part 1)
The mention of Calvinism may provoke revulsion or comfort—but it rarely produces apathy. “Calvinism,” journalist H.L. Mencken opined in 1937, “occupies a place in my cabinet of private horrors but little removed from that of cannibalism.” Mencken included these words in his obituary for J. Gresham Machen, a Presbyterian theologian who whispered on his deathbed, […]
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PROOF: PROOF and Union with Christ
By Garrick Bailey The New Testament provides extensive witness to the oneness between Christ and Christians. According to Paul, this oneness, through the Holy Spirit, is the foundation for the unity of the church (Eph 4:1-6). Historically, this concept of oneness found predominantly in the writings of the apostles John and Paul has been called […]
[Read More...]PROOF: A Quick Overview of a New Acronym
PROOF: Planned Grace and the Sovereignty of God
By Wyatt Graham R. K. McGregor wrote No Place for Sovereignty in 1996, launching a detailed critique of Freewill Theism. In place of Freewill Theism, Wright proposes a reformed model of God’s sovereignty over human freedom. Following the long tradition of Reformed Theology, Wright holds to a theology of God’s sovereignty derived from Scripture and […]
[Read More...]PROOF: An Interview with Justin Taylor
Justin Taylor, senior vice president and publisher for books at Crossway and blogger for The Gospel Coalition, recently had a conversation with PROOF authors Daniel Montgomery and Timothy Paul Jones about grace, Calvinism, and the purpose of PROOF. You open the book by talking about how we live in a delusion from which we need […]
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PROOF: #24HoursUntilPROOF Winners
The winners of today’s contest were Mark Kuykendall and Bill Haynes! Both of them will be receiving free, signed copies of PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace. There will be one last giveaway tomorrow, on the day the book is released, so keep on posting!
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PROOF: What Is Forever Grace? #24HoursUntilPROOF
“Forever grace”? You mean, once you’re saved, you can never lose your salvation? And so, if someone says they’ve trusted Jesus and then spends their life in love with sin, they’re still Christians, right? Maybe you’ve heard that line of reasoning at some point in your life. So have we–but such thinking isn’t even close […]
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PROOF: #2DaysUntilPROOF Winners
The winners of today’s contest were Tim Hawkins and Kenneth Bruce! Both of them will be receiving free, signed copies of PROOF: Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace.
[Read More...]PROOF: A Short Review of PROOF #3DaysUntilProof
The following is a review of PROOF found in the May 2014 issue Towers Magazine, the campus newspaper for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. A couple of years ago, violinist Joshua Bell showed up at a metro station in Washington, D.C., took out his violin and started to play. The casually dressed violinist played as hundreds of people walked […]
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