Reformed Forum

Dr. Carl R. Trueman joins us to speak about his significant new book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Crossway), in which he addresses the factors undergirding modern culture’s obsession with identity. Sexual identity in particular has dominated public discourse since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015. Tracing influential thought from Augustine to Marx and beyond, Trueman explains the historical and intellectual phenomenon of the modern conception selfhood. Trueman writes,

"My aim is to explain how and why a certain notion of the self has come to dominate the culture of the West, why this self finds its most obvious manifestation in the transformation of sexual mores, and what the wider implications of this transformation are and may well be in the future."

Dr. Trueman is professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College. He is an esteemed church historian and previously served as the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life at Princeton University. Trueman has authored or edited more than a dozen books, including The Creedal Imperative, Luther on the Christian Life, and Histories and Fallacies. Trueman is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Direct download: ctc670.mp3
Category:Christ the Center -- posted at: 11:00pm CDT

Dr. John Bower speaks about constructing a critical edition of the Westminster Confession of Faith using four historical authoritative texts. Bower has done a tremendous service to the church and the academy. Both with benefit greatly from his careful scholarship.

Direct download: ctc669.mp3
Category:Christ the Center -- posted at: 11:00pm CDT

This week on Theology Simply Profound, Bob continues a reading of Geerhardus Vos's 1903 book, The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church. In chapter 5, Vos discusses current misconceptions regarding the present and future kingdom.

Direct download: tsp212.mp3
Category:Theology Simply Profound -- posted at: 1:00pm CDT

We turn to pages 243–244 of Geerhardus Vos's book Biblical Theology to discuss the prophet's view of God's relation to time and space.

In terms of God's relation to time and space, two relations occur. What we have to affirm first of all is that God is everywhere present in all of his fullness. But Vos speaks of a special relation to Zion (on earth) and heaven itself as the temple dwelling of God. Two things help us grasp the significance of this: the notion of covenant and the location of the fellowship.

Direct download: ctc668.mp3
Category:Christ the Center -- posted at: 11:00pm CDT

As the Gospel According to Matthew begins we are introduced to the royal line of Jesus, where Matthew presents Jesus to us as the Davidic king, the universal king, and the final king through whom all of God’s purposes are fulfilled.

Direct download: pc088.mp3
Category:Proclaiming Christ -- posted at: 2:28pm CDT

On this week’s episode of Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob pick up their discussion of the fruit of the Spirit in light of the troubling and confusing days we currently live within. What is goodness? Is God really good? what does that mean?

Direct download: tsp211.mp3
Category:Theology Simply Profound -- posted at: 4:01pm CDT

Dr. James Eglinton speaks about the life and thought of Herman Bavinck. Eglinton has written a superb critical biography of Bavinck that has been published by Baker Academic.

Direct download: ctc667.mp3
Category:Christ the Center -- posted at: 11:00pm CDT

On this week’s episode of Theology Simply Profound, Rob and Bob pick up their discussion of the fruit of the Spirit in light of the troubling and confusing days we currently live within.

Direct download: tsp210.mp3
Category:Theology Simply Profound -- posted at: 2:55pm CDT

Hosea brings a word of judgment upon Israel, threatening to send them into exile and judgment for their sin. Christ as the true and obedient Israel secures for his people the promised deliverance from sin’s guilt and power. Christ calls us therefore to exclusive fidelity to him.

Direct download: pc087.mp3
Category:Proclaiming Christ -- posted at: 11:00pm CDT

Rev. Michael J. Glodo, Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Dean of the Chapel at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, speaks about dispensationalism and its development in light of several historical, sociological, and theological contexts. Rev. Glodo is the author of “Dispensationalism” in Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Perspectives edited by Guy Prentiss Waters, J. Nicholas Reid, and John R. Muether.

John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) introduced dispensationalism as a theological system, which bears several key characteristics, including an insistence upon a “literal” hermeneutic or “plain reading” of the biblical text in addition to separate divine purposes for Israel and the church. Yet several features of “classic dispensationalism” have since been modified or altogether eliminated. Glodo remarks that “from its beginnings until the middle of the twentieth century, dispensationalism grew rapidly in popularity and underwent several refinements.”

Links

Direct download: ctc666.mp3
Category:Christ the Center -- posted at: 11:00pm CDT

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