Mike Wittmer

Category: Christian Worldview

  • Bavinck on the exclusivity of grace

    Herman Bavinck includes this important footnote in his Reformed Dogmatics, 3:491-92.  It comes from Max Müller in a speech he gave at the turn of the twentieth century.  “I may say that for 40 years, as at the University of Oxford I carried out my duties as professor of Sanskrit, I devoted as much time…

  • now I see

    In Joe Stowell’s excellent talk on Monday, he distinguished between the Greek terms for good, agathos and kalos.  He said that agathos meant something like moral purity and kalos meant acts of service.  He illustrated the difference by saying that if you pass by a pornographic shop on the street, that is agathos good works,…

  • who’s got next?

    The audio from yesterday’s worldview symposium, “Who’s Got Next?” is available at http://grts.cornerstone.edu/resources/tpoints. Jim Grier peppered his talk on epistemology with his usual provocative thoughts about preaching and ministry.  The one that caught a lot of attention, and seemed right, is that within the next ten years many of us who believe in the exclusivity of…

  • the evil of inertia

    Our Daily Journey is now up and running, with all of the professionalism and networking ability that you’d expect from Radio Bible Class.  These devotionals are printed in attractive, 3 month booklets, and available on-line–just click on “Our Daily Journey” from the blog roll at the right. Here is a Lenten type devotional that I’m…

  • boomers or tankers?

    This may be a gross oversimplification, and I’m willing to be corrected, as long as you’re nice about it.  But what is a blog for if not for trotting out ideas that are not yet ready for prime time?   So here goes.  While certainly there are many generations at fault for our economic crisis,…

  • upcoming opportunities

    This week there are some valuable opportunities for those in West Michigan to learn and dialogue about contemporary issues in the church.  On Thursday night Michael Horton will speak about his new book, Christless Christianity, at the Baker Book House on East Paris, just north of the E. Beltline (7:00). On Friday night I will…

  • what went wrong

    If you want to understand how our country and the world landed into this financial mess, you should listen to NPR’s This American Life episodes “Bad Bank” and “The Giant Pool of Money.” They are the clearest and easiest to follow explanations that I have heard. You can listen to a streaming podcast or download…

  • is this anything?

    In the February 9, 2009 edition of Newsweek, Richard Mouw, the President of Fuller Seminary and former Grand Rapidian, objected in a “My Turn” column to Newsweek’s incendiary cover story on the Bible and homosexuality.  Mouw said that “one remark that hit especially close to home was made by the editor of this magazine.  He…

  • southern kuyper

    I just had an extremely stimulating day with the students, recent graduates, and friends of David Naugle at the 12th annual Paideia conference at Dallas Baptist University.  There may not be anything else like it.  Nearly 40 students read papers at this day and a half long event, and the ones that I attended were provocative…

  • the beginning and the end

    As we enjoyed our complementary cookies and punch after Udo Middelmann’s economy lecture on Saturday night (which was a better value than Dave Ramsey, who charged at least $40 for his talk on Thursday and made people buy their own food), his wife Debbie said something which I’ve been thinking about all weekend. Debbie said…