John Mark Hicks

As I revealed in a previous post, I pray the Lord’s prayer at least three times a day…and these are some thoughts that often accompany that prayer in recent months and especially given how May 21 is now meaningful in the same way for both John and Maggy Dobbs and myself with the death of our sons, John Robert […]

It almost never fails. Every time I raise the question of “Why me?” I hear the kind, mild and well-intentioned rebuke that perhaps I should ask the question “Why not me?” I understand the point–I think. Of course, why should it not be my child that dies? Why should it not be my wife that […]

Kenney Carl Moser (1893-1976) was one of the most significant players in the theological arena of Churches of Christ in the twentieth century. My friend Bobby Valentine has recently demonstrated in a paper delivered at the 2007 Christian Scholar’s Conference at Rochester College (entitled “In with Wallace, Out with Brewer: K. C. Moser in the 1920s”) that K. C. […]

There is considerable confusion in terminology when talking about current views of assurance on the theological scene.  In this post I want to clarify at least one significant difference. Calvinists and Arminians agree on a signifcant point:  all the elect will persevere in faith.  Those who do not persevere in faith are not elect.  They […]

All who persevere in faith are elect. Both Calvinists and Arminians can agree with the above statement. For the Calvinist, those who do not persevere in faith, though they at one time seemingly had faith, never possessed authentic faith in the first place (e.g., Calvin’s own example is Simon Magus in Acts 8). For the Arminian, those […]

The often acrimonious debates between contemporary Arminians and Calvinists are not new.  The history of this discussion dates back 1600 years and has been continuous within Christian circles.  It can be tracked, in part, with the following discussions: Augustine vs. Pelagius (early 5th century) Gottschalk vs. Rabanus (late 9th century) Bradwardine vs. Ockham (mid 14th […]

There has been significant interest over the past decade in a resurgent Calvinism (or Reformed Theology).  Some call it a “New Calvinism” (as per Collin Hansen’s book Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists). The popularity of John Piper as well as the renewal of Calvinism among the Southern Baptists (specifically Southern Baptist Theological […]

Originally prepared for a discussion among faculty, I have used this handout as a point of discussion in several of my graduate classes.  It is a “bare bones” introduction to how Christian theology and postmodern perspectives might intersect or complement each other. It is intended as a discussion starter for my classes; it is not […]

I have added one of my earlier published pieces to the blog.  I presented this lecture at a Harding Graudate School of Religion forum in 1992. It addresses the relationship between justification and sanctification in the context of assurance.  You may access the lecture here. I plan to continuously add to my pages the rest […]