Tag Archives: doctrine

May a Baptist (or any other Protestant) sing Catholic hymns?

May a Baptist (or any other Protestant) sing Catholic hymns?

A critic recently approached me about our hymnal and rebuked us for (among other things) including hymns written by Catholics in our hymnal. It is no secret that we include Catholic and Orthodox hymn texts. For example, we include the very ancient Te Deum (“Holy God, We Praise Thy Name”). We include works by or attributed to… Continue Reading

The Importance of Weighing Doctrines

The Importance of Weighing Doctrines

Kevin T. Bauder George Dollar’s 1973 History of Fundamentalism in America includes a section warning against dangers that face fundamentalism. One of those dangers was “Crusading Calvinism,” which, Dollar warned, “will continue to attract the more intellectual to its position, confuse others, and cause its opponents to be disturbed and sensitive over the issue” (276).… Continue Reading

A New Catechism

A New Catechism

Through the years as our children have grown, we have given attention to catechizing them. We’ve used several different catechisms, and have found this traditional question/answer format to be of great value in teaching our children the core doctrines of our faith. However, for a number of reasons, some practical and some doctrinal, I have… Continue Reading

Implications from Isaac Watts’s Trinitarian Controversy

Implications from Isaac Watts’s Trinitarian Controversy

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

Maintaining appropriate unity and necessary disunity through worship

Maintaining appropriate unity and necessary disunity through worship

This entry is part of 8 in the series Worship and Doctrinal Distinctives You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

Over the past several weeks, I have been demonstrating how the theology and practice of worship has historically divided Christians into various denominations, provided the means for appropriate unity across denomination lines, and more recently blurred important doctrinal distinctions. What I have shown is that worship theology and practice has always been central to denominational… Continue Reading

Worship and doctrinal disctinctives

Worship and doctrinal disctinctives

This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Worship and Doctrinal Distinctives You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

The watering down of doctrine in evangelicalism, evidenced perhaps most acutely in the minimizing of important denominational distinctives and the growth of the “Nones,” is problematic to be sure. The question is, what has caused this? Over the next several weeks I plan to show the role worship philosophy and practice has had in both… Continue Reading

Changing Doctrine

Changing Doctrine

When I was a sophomore in high school my father was a student in Bible college. One Sunday he was sent to preach at a small Reformed Presbyterian church. The church was without a minister, its small denomination was unable to help, and it was appealing to a Baptist college for pulpit supply. The people… Continue Reading

Four Commitments of the Infant Church

Four Commitments of the Infant Church

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a fervent defender of the Regulative Principle of Worship. However, today I’d like to set that debate aside and address something that both sides of the issue should be able to agree on. (For non-regular readers, allow me to summarize the principle briefly: the regulative principle states… Continue Reading

Is corporate worship better than private worship? (Part 4)

Is corporate worship better than private worship? (Part 4)

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Public Worship and Private Worship You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

| | Private and public worship are not the same. There is a difference between the regular, ordinary times of worship for a gathered group of Christians organized as a church and the irregular times of worship personally, in our homes as families, and with other groups of Christians. The former is what we call… Continue Reading

The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer

The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer

This entry is part 3 of 18 in the series Books Every Conservative (and Liberal) Christian Should Read You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” “It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute… Continue Reading

Teaching children hymns: recommendations

Teaching children hymns: recommendations

Last week I argued that, if we are committed to conservative worship, it only follows that we should be committed to perpetuating conservative worship in the next generation. We want to continue developing this theme as we post at the Religious Affections blog. What hymns might we teach children? Before I name some specific recommendations, there… Continue Reading

Teach children hymns

Teach children hymns

We believe that the great Christian tradition of hymnody should be perpetuated. We treasure the invaluable contributions of the saints to our corporate and private worship in the great texts and tunes. Artistically, we admire the great hymns’ beauty and profundity. Intellectually, we appreciate their imaginative but careful communication of great Christian theology. Experientially, these… Continue Reading

Is the Bible Enough?

I continue to receive e-mails concerning seemingly more and more common explanations of Sola Scriptura that in effect strip it down to nothing more than what Kevin Bauder calls Nuda Scriptura. You can read a good explanation of the doctrine by Jason Parker here, along with links to more pertinent articles. Along the same lines,… Continue Reading

Contents of Worship in Song by Scott Aniol

Contents of Worship in Song by Scott Aniol

Pre-order for 30% off | Book Website SECTION ONE: LAYING THE FOUNDATION Chapter One: Biblical Authority in Matters of Faith and Practice Many Christians insist that because the Bible says nothing explicitly regarding the kind of music that pleases God, God must not care what we listen to. This chapter dispels that idea by demonstrating… Continue Reading