Election

The T&T Clark Handbook of Analytic Theology (book review)

July 16, 2021 by Chuck Ivey

The T&T Clark Handbook on Analytic Theology is a landmark resource from a team of authors hoping to bridge the gap between philosophy and theology.

Unconditional Election

January 11, 2021 by Allen Nelson IV

The biblical doctrine of election is God’s unconditional, eternal, immutable, particular, and effectual choice to save specific persons in Christ according to His own pleasure and not on the basis of foreseen faith or merit. This precious doctrine is the wellspring of every other salvific blessing believers experience for without election, other tenets of soteriology […]

How to Know if You’re Elect

December 21, 2020 by Allen Nelson IV

For an upcoming project I’ve been reading some of Wilhelmus A. Brakel’s (1635–1711) The Christian’s Reasonable Service. It’s a four-volume work on which Reformation Heritage Books has a great price (link). The other night I was reading in Volume 1 on his treatment of election and reprobation. Toward the end of that chapter, he gave […]

The Christian Letter Project – Whitefield to Wesley on Election

December 24, 2018 by Allen Nelson IV

The Christian Letter Project at ThingsAbove is about exposing our readers to one of the greatest traditions in our Christian history: writing letters! It is our goal to publish one each Monday. We are not endorsing everything found in each of these letters nor every doctrine held by those who wrote the letters. We hope […]

Allen Nelson IV

Allen S. Nelson IV is the pastor of Perryville Second Baptist Church in Perryville, Arkansas. He and his wife Stephanie have been married since 2006 and have 5 children. Besides enjoying time with his family, Allen loves teaching the Bible, reading good books, and time outdoors. He is the author of From Death to Life: How Salvation Works and Before The Throne: Reflections on God’s Holiness He is an avid Dallas Cowboys and Arkansas Razorbacks fan, which means he's always excited about 'next year.' You can follow him on twitter @cuatronelson.

Michael Coughlin

Michael Coughlin lives near Columbus, OH, and leads local outreaches to glorify our Lord and reach the lost with the gospel. Michael’s joys are spending time with his dear wife and children, programming computers, and studying and discussing God’s Word. He is a member of Covenant Bible Church.

By God’s grace, Chuck Ivey grew up in a Christian home and came to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at a young age. He has been married to his wife Ashley for 20 years. They have seven high energy children by adoption (yes seven), also by God’s grace. Chuck works full time in local law enforcement as an investigator and chaplain. He serves as a deacon and teacher at Beech Haven Baptist Church in Athens, GA. Chuck is a graduate of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary where he earned a Masters of Theological Studies. Coffee and books are involved. You can follow hi...

George Alvarado

George Alvarado is a now retired member of our Armed Forces, has a beautiful wife, a very tall son, and currently resides in Texas. He loves to serve his local church by teaching, counseling, and equipping the saints for the work of the gospel. And he loves spending time with his family and friends, traveling, photography, and continuing his education in linguistics and theology.

God-Breathed: A Response to Rachel Held Evans’s View of Scripture – Part 6

In the last post on Rachel Held Evans’s (RHE from now on) new book Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again we talked about her view of the Old Testament. Today, we’ll discuss her view of the New Testament. All totaled this project has been several hours of work. Between reading the book and […]

Book Review — Human Nature from Calvin to Edwards

The Doctrine on Which the Church Stands or Falls takes its title from the Reformation era conviction that justification by faith is the dividing line between the biblical gospel and man-centered efforts to earn favor with God. Matthew Barrett serves as editor and co-author with several significant theologians. In the forward, D.A. Carson writes that nothing is more important than the subject of this massive volume (15). The book is organized into four parts, grouping the chapters by looking at justification according to what the Bible itself teaches, theological perspectives on the doctrine, church history, and pastoral practice.

Systematic Theology – 2nd Edition (book review)

Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology has rightly become a modern classic. Readers can benefit from this book as an introductory source. I also think the author would agree that his listed resources for further reading should be used as a springboard to lead into deeper waters.

Seven Books I’ve Read So Far In 2018 (And You Should Too)

I read books! I told a young friend of mine the other day, “Christians are readers.” Obvious sentiment, I know, because there is no such thing as a Bible-less Christian, and, if you don’t want to be Bible-less, you have to read. This is a skill every Christian needs to hone. Thankfully, in the centuries following the […]

On the Election of Infants – Part 2

Earlier, we reviewed four of the six reasonable categories (Click here to read Part 1) one can fall in concerning their belief about the election of infants. Many folks have argued whether babies go to Heaven for centuries. For the sake of ease of writing, I will use the term “infants” to describe those “who […]

Six Friends You Need

One of the things that is most helpful to me is hearing different perspectives from friends and acquaintances. We are constantly opining about the world around us and it is in a multitude of counselors that we find victory (Proverbs 24:5). With that in mind, here are six categories of friends where I think we […]