Latest from Keith Mathison
-
Through Western Eyes
from Keith Mathison Aug 19, 2010 Category: Articles
According to estimates provided by Robert Letham, there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 180 million Eastern Orthodox believers in the world today. Until recently, Protestants in the West had little contact with the Eastern Church and, as a consequence, little knowledge about it. That is no longer the case. Immigration of people from the East into Western countries, continued urbanization, and internet communication have made this church much more visible to a larger number of people. Keep Reading -
Atheism Remix: Confronting the New Atheism
from Keith Mathison Aug 12, 2010 Category: Articles
In 2004, Alister McGrath published a book entitled The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World. Although the book did not suggest that atheism was dead, its publication may have been a bit premature. For in 2006, atheism scored a propaganda coup with the media attention given to three best-selling books promoting a new and aggressive form of atheism: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, Breaking the Spellby Daniel Dennett, and Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. Not to be outdone, Christopher Hitchens published the best-selling God Is Not Great in 2007. Dubbed the “New Atheists” for their belligerent tone and militant intolerance, these authors have declared war on theism in general and Christianity in particular, and they have emboldened a new generation of skeptics. Keep Reading -
Embryo: A Defense of Human Life
from Keith Mathison Aug 02, 2010 Category: Articles
Since the 1973 Supreme Court decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, the question of the status of the human embryo (and fetus) has been at the center of heated political debate, typically focusing on the issue of abortion. Such debate has only intensified as disputes over stem cell research have entered the public consciousness as well. The ethical questions involved in these issues are numerous. The most significant question, however, is the one that is often overlooked as rhetoric about “choice” and “privacy” drowns it out. This question that must remain at the forefront of such debates is this: At what point does the life of an individual human being begin? Keep Reading -
Christ & Culture Revisited
from Keith Mathison Jul 26, 2010 Category: Articles
In the first centuries following the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah and the inauguration of the new covenant under which the people of God became a trans-national people crossing all borders, the church had few choices in the matter of her relationship to the surrounding culture. The options were limited due to persecution. As the church gained in numbers and influence, however, the situation began to change. Keep Reading -
Mere Coincidence?
from Keith Mathison Jul 21, 2010 Category: Tabletalk Magazine
One of the most interesting stories ever published was a novella called The Wreck of the Titan, or Futility by Morgan Robertson. Robertson tells the story of the sinking of a large luxury liner named the Titan. The Titan in Robertson’s book was the largest ship in existence at the time: over eight hundred feet in length with a passenger and crew capacity of three thousand. It had numerous watertight bulkheads and was considered unsinkable. It carried the minimum number of lifeboats required by law, but far short of the number needed for three thousand people. While carrying many wealthy passengers across the North Atlantic on a cold April night, the Titan struck an iceberg at 24 knots just before midnight about ninety-five miles south of Greenland. The iceberg tore a gash in the ship’s starboard side, which flooded the watertight compartments. The unsinkable ship sank. Because the Titan did not have enough lifeboats, more than half of her passengers died in the icy waters. Keep Reading -
The Reformation: How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World
from Keith Mathison Jul 19, 2010 Category: Articles
There are hundreds of books on the Reformation, but if one coming to the subject for the first time were looking for the best place to start, he would be hard pressed to find a better introduction than Stephen J. Nichols’ The Reformation (Crossway, 2007). For those who find history difficult, Nichols’ style of writing is a breath of fresh air. He does not fill page after page with dry lists of names and dates. Instead, his gift is the ability to draw readers into the lives of the people about whom he writes, allowing us to see these great historical figures, warts and all. Keep Reading -
Upcoming Doctor of Ministry Courses
from Keith Mathison Jul 12, 2010 Category: Ligonier Academy
Ligonier Academy is pleased to announce the courses that will be offered in 2011 as part of our Doctor of Ministry program. For more information on this new program, please visit the Ligonier Academy Doctor of Ministry website. Keep Reading -
The Christ of the Prophets
from Keith Mathison Jul 10, 2010 Category: Articles
It is probably not an exaggeration to say that most Christians have little difficulty reading the Five Books of Moses and the Historical Books of the Old Testament. Sure, we may scratch our heads in puzzlement while reading certain sections of Leviticus, but all in all, these books do not pose too much of a problem for us. They contain a narrative, a story with a beginning and end. In these books, we are on familiar ground. The poetic books are a bit more challenging because of the way in which they are written, but we still find them somewhat familiar. Many of us, however, become completely lost when we open the prophetic books. We open these books and encounter a strange new world: apocalyptic oracles of judgment and promises of salvation, strange visions of winged angels and of flying scrolls, of fearsome beasts rising from the sea and of stars falling from the sky. How are we to understand all of this? Keep Reading -
Why I Am Not an Arminian
from Keith Mathison Jul 06, 2010 Category: Articles
When Dutch Calvinists and Arminians squared off against one another in the early part of the seventeenth century, the Calvinists won the opening battle. The controversy, however, soon spread beyond the borders of the Netherlands. Now, four hundred years later, the conflict continues, and in terms of numbers alone, Arminianism is clearly winning the war for the hearts and minds of professing Christians. Today, Calvinists are a small minority. But why the debate in the first place? Is it really that important? Keep Reading -
Doctrine of the Work of Christ: Recommended Reading
from Keith Mathison Jul 02, 2010 Category: Articles
Before Jesus was born, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and told him that Mary would bear a son "and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). The Son was sent to accomplish redemption for his people. The work of Jesus has to do, then, with our salvation. In systematic theology, the study of salvation is termed "soteriology." Keep Reading
