Gospel Coalition blog

The Gospel Coalition now has a blog. Two recent contributions by Mike Pohlman caught my particular attention.

First, reference to a new book, Baptism: Three Views:

IVP Academic released this month, Baptism: Three Views. Edited by David F. Wright, this helpful book includes contributions from Bruce Ware (believer’s baptism), Anthony Lane (mixed practice), and Sinclair Ferguson (infant baptism). .... To read the entire Introduction, go here.

From that introduction:

Karl Barth, who during his theological career changed his allegiance from paedobaptism to believers’ baptism, knew life on both sides of the fence He commented:

An important sign that a defender of infant baptism is certain that his cause has a sound theological basis ought surely to be that he is able to present and support it calmly. But he cannot become irritated in debating with his opponents If anyone does become irritated, it is a sign that he feels he has been hit at a vulnerable and unprotected point in his position, that he does not have a good conscience in relation to his cause, that consequently he cannot have a good and quiet conscience in relation to his opponents, and that he has to lay about him all the more violently for this reason.

This, of course, was Barth’s warning to his opponents (now paedobaptists) who might take up cudgels against him! The advice surely applies to parties on any side of the question, and it is a testimony to the "good conscience" and the good arguments of each of the contributors to this book that they commend themselves dispositionally.

And second, in a post titled "Truths Worth Singing," Pohlman uses as an illustration the hymn I once chose as the theme hymn for a conference I planned:

In his Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Wayne Grudem emphasizes that the study of theology must not be an end in itself:

I do not believe that God intended the study of theology to be dry and boring. Theology is the study of God and all his works! Theology is meant to be lived and prayed and sung! ....

And, of course, the best hymns (and worship songs) should be nothing less than great theology set to music. Consider "How Firm a Foundation" by John Rippon (1787):

How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word.
What more can he say, than to you he hath said;
To you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled? .... [more]

Baptism: Three Views – The Gospel Coalition Blog, Truths Worth Singing – The Gospel Coalition Blog