Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the Scientific Naïveté of the Ancient World in Genesis 1 (July 2, 2014)

The sun, planets and angels and the firmament. Woodcut dated 1475. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an amazing, tiny commentary on Genesis 1-3 titled, Creation and Fall, Temptation. He once boasted that it was better then other commentaries that were many times longer. It is a refreshing and helpful explanation of those pesky and […]

Related: Babylonian Epics, Creation Myths, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Enûma Eliš, Enuma Elish, Firmament, John Calvin, science, Sumerian

Yes to Us All: Karl Barth’s Final Words to Emil Brunner (June 20, 2014)

~ Updated and Revised: February 21st, 2019 ~ Karl Barth and Emil Brunner is the greatest tragedy since Romeo and Juliet. The friendship between Barth and Brunner is nearly as famous as its tragic demise. Brunner's famous essay "Nature and Grace" was responded to with a loud "Nein!" by Karl Barth that […]

Related: CD II/1, Church Dogmatics, Church Dogmatics II/1, Emil Brunner, institutes of the christian religion, John Calvin, Karl Barth, Natural Revelation, Natural Theology, Peter Vogelsanger, Secular Parables

John Calvin confessed Double Predestination is a Horrible and Dreadful Decree (May 31, 2014)

~ Updated and Revised: February 26th, 2019 ~ John Calvin confessed that the doctrine of Double Predestination was a horrible and dreadful decree in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin believed that the scriptures taught that God made an "absolute decree" (latin. decretum absolutum) before the foundation of the world that […]

Related: Decretum Absolutum, doctrine of election, Double Predestination, dreadful, dreadful decree, election, heaven, Hell, horrible, Horrible Decree, institutes of the christian religion, John Calvin, Karl Barth, Universalism

John Calvin believed the Original Autographs of the Bible had Errors (May 26, 2014)

John Calvin allowed for errors in the original autographs of the Holy Scriptures. Biblicist proponents of Evangelical literal theories of inspiration have advanced the myth that Calvin only allowed for scribal transmission errors in the extant Scriptures but not in the original autographs. The truth is that Calvin and the Magisterial Reformers (including […]

Related: A.A. Hodge, François Wendel, Inerrancy, John Calvin, Literal Theories of Inspiration, Magisterial Reformers, Martin Luther, Plenary Verbal Inspiration, Rogers and Kim

John Calvin on Nicolaus Copernicus and Heliocentrism (May 21, 2014)

Geocentric Model of the 16th Century John Calvin's reputation has suffered tremulously due to the following quotation that was wrongly attributed to him by famous men such as Bertrand Russell, Thomas Kuhn and many others, which Calvin had never uttered: "Who,' asks Calvin, 'will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that […]

Related: Bertrand Russell, Calvin, Evolution, geocentricism, heliocentricism, John Calvin, Keith C. Sewell, Keith Mathison, Martin Luther, Nicolaus Copernicus, R.C. Sproul, Robert White, scientific consensus, Theodore Beza, Thomas Kuhn

Bruce McCormack on Double Predestination is not the Central Doctrine of John Calvin and classical Reformed theology (May 19, 2014)

Orthodox and Modern: Studies in the Theology of Karl Barth, by Bruce L. McCormack Friedrich Schleiermacher was a Calvinist, and although he is known as the father of Liberal Protestantism for his definition of god as "a feeling of absolute dependence", he was nevertheless a Calvinist and John Calvin was his […]

Related: Alexander Schweizer, Bruce McCormack, Calvin: Origins and Development of His Religious Thought, calvinism, Calvinist, Double Predestination, François Wendel, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Institutes, institutes of the christian religion, John Calvin, Karl Barth, Orthodox and Modern: Studies in the Theology of Karl Barth, predestination, The Theology of Calvin, Wilhelm Niesel

John Calvin on Errors in Scriptures (Quotations from Calvin’s Commentaries) (January 30, 2014)

At many times, John Calvin's describes the ontology of Scripture using the same vernacular as contemporary statements such as the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy, as well as dictation theories such as Plenary Verbal Inspiration that makes strong assertions about the Scripture's inerrancy, infallbility, and identity with the Word of […]

Related: Calvin Commentaries, Errors, François Wendel, Inerrancy, Inerrancy of Scripture, Institutes, J.K.S. Reid, John Calvin, John Murray, John T. McNeill, Plenary Verbal Inspiration, Ronald Wallace, Wilhelm Niesel

B. B. Warfield on why John Calvin’s Doctrine of Creation is an Evolutionary One (January 28, 2014)

~ Updated and Revised: March 8th, 2019 ~ Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (1851—1921) was a professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary (and successor of Charles Hodge and his son A. A. Hodge), and B. B. Warfield is among the greatest and most influential Reformed theologians in American history. B. B. Warfield […]

Related: b.b. warfield, Calvin's Doctrine of Creation, Charles Darwin, creation, Darwinism, Evolution, John Calvin, Warfield

John Calvin on Genesis 1 as an Accommodation to the Ordinary Custom of Men (January 27, 2014)

How are we to understand the two famous Creation narratives in Genesis 1-2, considering the scientific knowledge we have of the cosmos today? If we were to read Genesis 1-2 as a straightforward scientific account, we'd come to conclude that the Sun is the greatest luminary in the cosmos, and […]

Related: Accommodation, Accommodation to the Ordinary Custom of Men, Ancient Near East, Commentary on Genesis, Cosmology, creation, Darwinism, Evolution, John Calvin, Moses, Ordinary Custom of Men

Jürgen Moltmann On Why He Is Praying For The Dead (January 16, 2014)

Jurgen Moltmann Jürgen Moltmann discusses Calvin and Luther's positions on prayers for the dead, and explains why he prays for the dead. This audio clip is from the fifth session of the 2009 Conversation with Jurgen Moltmann by the Emergent Village. To listen to all the audio for that conference, see my […]

Related: Ancestor Cult, John Calvin, Jürgen Moltmann, Martin Luther, Prayer for the Dead