Parchment & Pen Blog

My friend Trevin Wax is helping us out as he “Live Blogs” through the Elephant Room. Beyond controversy (at least in the small circles I run in) is how I would describe the invitation of T.D. Jakes to the Elephant Room to discuss spirituality, truth, and theology. He has traditionally been defined as a Modalist theologically. Essentially what this means is [...]

Michael, Thanks for your careful approach to this question. I appreciate your desire to properly honor our common heroes of the faith throughout these past 2,000 years of church history. But I have to say that I remain utterly unmoved and altogether unconvinced by your appeal to this argument from the life of the church [...]

Let me familiarize you with some of the sound bites in the Mike Licona situation that have people upset: “It can forthrightly be admitted that the data surrounding what happened to Jesus is fragmentary and could possibly be mixed with legend, as Wedderburn notes.” “We may also be reading poetic language or legend at certain [...]

I think you have to be qualified to critique someone. The qualification comes not merely in your knowledge of the subject upon which your critique is based (which is very important), but also in your relationship with the person. I have many “friends” (especially in the blog world) who feel the need to contact me [...]

There are moments when I am proud to be an Evangelical. This is not one of them. I was listening to a discussion between two gentleman at the Credo House this afternoon. The conversation started as one man introduced another man to a guest scholar we have invited to the Credo House for our “Coffee [...]

Here at the Credo House in Edmond Oklahoma, Tim Kimberley (@pastortimk) and I are teaching a series on the top theologians of church history on Tuesday nights. I have insisted that C.S. Lewis be part of the mix due to his abiding theological influence on so many people today. Though he is called a “lay” theologian [...]

The question to which we now turn is this: “If the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:7-10 are valid for Christians beyond the death of the apostles, why were they absent from church history until their alleged reappearance in the twentieth century?” My answer follows. 1)         They were most decidedly not absent. They were at [...]

Sam, There is so much in your arguments that I agree with. In fact, I think I would be safe saying that I believe, when taken by themselves, the biblical arguments for the continuation of the gifts in question are slightly stronger than the arguments for their cessation. Now, don’t take that too far; as I [...]

What a presumptuous question, right? The presumption is in the fact that I would even pose such a question. The question itself presumes that I might answer in the negative. Chill. It is just a question. But your are right. The presumption behind the question does evidence my uncertainty as to its answer. I was [...]

Michael, thanks for your post on why you believe the gifts have ceased. Once again, I think that much of what I would otherwise say in response can be found in my post defending continuationism. So, I hope it won’t annoy you or our readers if I simply refer everyone to something found there. I’ll [...]

It is my job to make a biblical argument for cessationism. Though I have not necessarily identified myself as a cessationist, I think the label fits in most cases. However, I am not very comfortable saying something like “the Bible teaches cessationism.” I don’t think it does; however, just because the Bible does not teach something [...]

 In order to bring this massive subject down to manageable proportions, I’m going to articulate what I believe are ten bad reasons for being a cessationist, followed by ten good reasons for being a continuationist. Ten Bad Reasons for being a Cessationist (1) The first bad reason for being a cessationist is an appeal to [...]