Mike Wittmer

Category: Theology

  • unfashionable is in

    Given the cover story of last week’s Newsweek, “The Decline and Fall of Christian America,” we Americans who believe in Jesus can expect to fall increasingly out of step with our culture.  Life was somewhat different in the 1950’s, when “under God” was added to the pledge of allegiance and “in God we trust” was…

  • how the resurrection justifies us

    Thank you all for your insights on how we are justified by Jesus’ resurrection.  I don’t have much to add, except to point to I. Howard Marshall’s fine chapter on this topic in his recent book, Aspects of the Atonement (Milton Keynes, UK:  Paternoster Press, 2007).   Marshall observes that the average Christian tends to…

  • another Easter thought

    This came up yesterday in class:  Romans 4:25 says that Jesus was “raised for our justification” and 1 Corinthians 15:17 says that if Jesus is not raised then we are still in our sins.  Paul seems to have more in mind here than the resurrection merely provides proof that Jesus is God or that his…

  • a thought for Sunday

    I just finished this RBC devotional last week, and though it isn’t quite ready for prime time, I thought that its content might provoke some thoughts in a sermon this Sunday, or at least give you something to preach against.  Easter is the one Sunday I have never been able to preach, as most pastors don’t…

  • 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…

  • Bavinck on the atonement

    And now two inspiring quotes on the atonement from Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatcs:   “Remember:  grace is that perfection in God by which, for some reason or other, he relinquishes his rights.  Hence, if as the righteous and holy one he did not have the right to punish, we cannot speak of grace in relation to…

  • satisfaction and the Socinians

    I was reading volume 3 of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics this morning, and I came upon his description of the Socinian view of the atonement.  The Socinians were the followers of Faustus Socinus, a 17th century rationalistic Unitarian who lived in Poland.  Bavinck explains their opposition to the satisfaction theory of the atonement in words…

  • 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…

  • Kierkegaard on the interpretation of Scripture

    I am reading Kevin Vanhoozer’s classic book, Is There a Meaning in This Text? (Zonderan, 1998), and I came across this timely parable on p. 16.    Kierkegaard said that some people read Scripture like disobedient subjects responding to their king’s decree.  Instead of obeying the word from their king, they set out to interpret…

  • tony’s unoriginal sins

    Here is my brief assessment of Tony Jones’ blogposts that deny the traditional Christian doctrine of original sin.  Besides the immaturity (“Watch out, Brian, the NeoReformed stormtroopers went after Scot McKnight last week, and they’ll probably come after you here!”), Tony’s posts suffer from ignorance and arrogance. 1. Ignorance:  Tony reduces original sin to original…