A good theologian once drew me a diagram of the progress of Christian doctrine and Christian history from the apostles to our day. He drew a rather jagged line, with offshoots and branches coming off it. He explained, “The line from the apostles to us today is not a straight one. It includes many errors ..read more

We began this series by making the claim that Pentecostalism has quietly (or not so quietly) colonised Protestant worship, even in those churches and groups that explicitly reject Pentecostal theology. We have described the distinctives of Pentecostal worship, not in terms of its views regarding the operation of the charismatic gifts, but in terms of ..read more

Pentecostal worship places great emphasis on intensity. By intensity, they mean a strongly felt experience of emotion, intimacy, joy, wonder, or happiness. Indeed, this is a close cousin of the ecstasy in ecstatic utterances. The experience sought is one where active seeking gives way to a passive experience of overwhelming pleasure or emotion. Critically examining ..read more

A polarized debate goes on between different stripes of Christians over the place of experience in Christianity. One side asserts that experiential faith (what the Puritans used to call “experimental religion”) is fundamental to a living, supernaturally-empowered relationship with Christ. The other side asserts that experiential religion is of passing interest, for spiritual experiences range ..read more

I am very pleased to announce that I have accepted a position with G3 Ministries as Executive Vice President and Editor-in-chief. I am so thankful for the strong stand for biblical truth that Josh Buice, Virgil Walker, and others in G3 leadership have taken over the years, as well as the enriching ministry the G3 conferences have ..read more

Christian worship has often had a remarkably similar shape across traditions. Bryan Chapell showed in his work Christ-Centered Worship that corporate worship (sans communion) in Roman, Lutheran, Reformed and Evangelical traditions had a very similar form: a Call to worship, a Kyrie or Confession, followed by Thanksgiving, an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading ..read more

Ezra wrote the book that bears his name approximately 450 BC. Similar to Luke’s writing of Luke-Acts, Ezra writes history in the third person and then shifts to first person when he is part of the story (cf. Ezra 7:27–28). Ezra 1:1–3a echoes 2 Chronicles 36:22–23, indicating that he perhaps wrote the Chronicles. He likely ..read more

Kevin T. Bauder During a recent conversation, a friend and I were reminiscing about some of the hazards we had faced as children. I’ve heard my parents tell about a couple of occasions when, as a baby, I was dropped on my head (which probably explains some things). I can recall being kept home from ..read more

Last week I started a short series looking at God’s two-fold revelation as expressed in Psalm 19. This week we focus on the first form of God’s revelation—his natural revelation. Verses 1–6 of Psalm 19 express God’s natural revelation. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” This is ..read more

An easy error for a historian to commit is to equate or link events or movements in history that are similar, while ignoring or underplaying their differences. One example of this is when historians of worship note that modern negative reactions to contemporary pop-rock worship contain similar objections to ones levelled against the hymns of ..read more