Yesterday at the national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, I presented a paper evaluating Isaac Watts’s Trinitarian views. I hope to get the paper published soon, but in the meantime, here are several of the very relevant implications I drew related to the boundary of Christian fellowship, the importance of church tradition and creeds,… Continue Reading
The gospel is the boundary of Christian fellowship and cooperation, but the degree to which we cooperate with others who believe the gospel will be necessarily affected by the degree to which there is agreement in important secondary matters because those secondary matters affect the gospel and our worship of God. This is the idea… Continue Reading
Up to this point in this series, I have described the essence of conservative Christianity, particularly its philosophy of beauty and culture, and described the nature of ecclesiastical cooperation. So where, then, do philosophies of culture fit on the spectrum of Christian fellowship and cooperation? First, to state the obvious, philosophy of culture is clearly… Continue Reading
There are several adjectives that I happily use to describe myself and my beliefs. The first is obviously, “Christian,” but there are a lot of people and groups that call themselves “Christian” with whom I have significant disagreement, so I need other adjectives to modify “Christian.” I happily call myself a Baptist Christian, which says… Continue Reading
Last week I suggested that differences of worship and music philosophy will sometimes necessitate withholding cooperation, but that depends upon (1) the particular difference and (2) the particular situation. I also pointed out that when we do express those differences, we should be sure to accurately portray our opponent. Today I would like to address… Continue Reading
Recent kerfuffle over a Christian university changing its philosophy and practice of music has led to much discussion over whether disagreements over music and worship philosophy warrant separation between believers. Here’s my attempt at an answer. What do you mean by separation? I do not view separation as some kind of binary “on/off switch.” In other… Continue Reading