We have in Christ what we have lost in Adam. - John Calvin Baptism is one of the most remarkable and profound rituals of church life. It emerges in scripture as part of the nexus of sin, salvation, and the new humanity birthed in the second Adam. Properly understood, its themes maneuver like tendrils through the Old Testament narrative, full
“Autonomy and independence involve taking care of yourself—not doing things that diminish you.” - David Schnarch In the previous article, I introduced a simple approach to the doctrine of Christian unity as the one doctrine among all the others which—while often ignored in an academic or apologetic sense—happens to be the one Jesus declared would g
Society is not homogenous, and those who do not deliberately close their eyes have to recognise that men differ greatly from one another from the physical, moral, and intellectual viewpoints. - Vilfredo Pareto The doctrine of unity is not one that we often turn to when thinking about secular outreach. In the realm of modernist skepticism, Ch
In the previous article, I introduced three concepts that have helped me reformulate my approach to remnant theology without settling for the historic sectarian approach nor our modern reactionary “just get rid of the whole thing” trend. Those three ideas I referred to as the, Axiomatic Permanence and Ethereal Essence of Ideas Necessary Cohe
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death. — John F. Kennedy In the previous article, we closed off by moving from the concept of church to the concept of the remnant. During that transition, I took for granted the acceptability of a theological construct like the remnant. However, the
The reason most people don't go to church is because they've already been. – Mark Twain Before moving on from the concept and practice of church, there is one more angle I must encroach upon which would be imprudent to ignore. The angle that I speak of is the contemporary overarching motion of the church which, while transcending Adventism itself,
We must cultivate our garden. – Voltaire For decades, church leaders have been attempting to unravel the complex reasons why young people leave church. In recent years, the task to understand why the church fails to retain millennials or reach emerging, post-church culture has also amplified. And now, new reports are indicating that unlike o
The blessing that God bestowed upon Jacob brings us face to face with the fact that God wants a fight.—Peter Rollins Matthew J. Korpman’s latest book—Saying No to God: A Radical Approach to Reading the Bible Faithfully—is a compelling and stunning dance between the axiomatic and the uncomfortable. On the one hand, much of what is in the book
Love just seems to make life not just livable, but a galant, galant event. - Toni Morrison Last Sabbath I took my kids to the beach to watch the sunset. While we were there, I reminded both of them to be careful with the seashells because blue ring octopus - a poisonous species - sometimes hide underneath them. In Australia, the blue ring oc
Teach me, O God… to breathe deeply in faith.—Soren Kierkegaard Imagine a scenario with me. You are an allied lieutenant during World War II. Your platoon is part of an assault on France aimed at liberating the country from its German occupiers. As the raid begins, you find yourself with a small company of stranded paratroopers. Radio checks indicat
