God, Creation, and Humanity, Part 1: Beginning a Conversation
When we think wrongly about God, we necessarily begin to think wrongly about other things, too. When we feel wrongly toward God, we inevitably feel wrongly toward other things. When we choose against God, we direct our wills such that making wrong choices about other...
Acton University
The last week of June, I had the opportunity to attend Acton University for a second time. Acton University is not really a university but a week-long conference held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is sponsored by the Acton Institute, and its focus is represented by...
Thinking About Immigration
The immigration policies and procedures of the United States are a mess. Anyone who has had to deal with the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement knows that this agency is unpredictable to the point of seeming arbitrary. It sometimes feels like a Third...
On Knowing One’s Limitations
Nobody is omnicompetent. Nobody. At some point, everybody has to rely on somebody else for information, advice, and perspective. The trick is in knowing whom to rely upon. Most people gain considerable expertise in some one area. I had a friend who was an outstanding...
The Foundations Baptist Fellowship International 2024
This week I had the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the Foundations Baptist Fellowship International. The meeting was hosted by the Tri City Baptist Church in Westminster, Colorado, pastored by Will Senn. The meeting began with scheduled training for...
Those Pesky Premillennialists
[This essay was originally published on July 31, 2009.] Disagreeing with someone’s perspective is one thing, but dismissing it is something else. People can disagree respectfully. Respectful disagreement involves listening carefully to other individuals in...
Dominion
It was never meant to be easy, this business of exercising dominion. When God blessed the first humans, he gave them the power to fill the earth and to subdue it. Yes, subdue it, like the sons of Manasseh were to subdue the land across the Jordan (Num 32:22), like the...
That Dog Won’t Hunt
Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, recently stirred up controversy when she admitted in print to shooting an unmanageable dog. The story is in her new book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward (Center...
It’s Time To Live It
Among the books that I was reading last week was Peter Sammons’s volume on Reprobation and God’s Sovereignty. Perhaps I should say that if reprobation is understood as symmetrical with election—i.e., that God elects and then creates some individuals simply to condemn...
A Complex Event
Sometimes the events of biblical prophecy are relatively simple. The foretold event occurs and the prophecy is fulfilled. From that moment, it slips into the past. Noah prophesies the flood, and it comes. Elijah prophesies a drought, and the rain stops. Micaiah...
Ending Another School Year
Here at Central Seminary the school year draws to an end in May. It is a bittersweet time. The “bitter” side of bittersweet comes from two sources. One is because the season always involves intense work. Professors are always crunched to do final grading. We don’t get...
Equality
We often hear equality spoken of as if it were one of the greater goods. The assumption seems to be that any form of inequality is intrinsically unjust, and that inequalities only exist because one person or group of people is oppressing another. Inequalities that...
Vocation and Vocations
[This essay was originally published on February 5, 2016.] The Reformers erected the doctrine of calling in reaction to the Romanist distinction between clergy and laity. At the time, Catholics recognized only two vocations: the calling to consecration (which...
Libraries and Bookstores
I learned to read in first grade. I loved it immediately. Being able to conjure meaning from black marks on a white page was like magic. I no longer had to rely on others to read stories to me. I could discover for myself what Dick and Jane, Sally and Spot were doing....
It’s Gratifying
Central Seminary typically offers two weeks of modular classes in the middle of each semester. During those weeks, professors do not teach their usual courses, but they don’t just take the time off. We have plenty of other responsibilities to keep us busy. One of the...
Cambridge: A Lesson
I first entered Cambridge when I was fifteen years old. I was too young, really, to know what I was doing or to appreciate the advantages that had been presented to me, and I’m afraid that I rather frittered away my time on walks to the river, tramps in the...
What Is Conservatism?
After the Second World War, three thinkers established an intellectual foundation for modern conservatism in America. The philosophical case for conservatism was articulated by Richard M. Weaver in his book Ideas Have Consequences. The link between political and...
Was Patrick a Catholic?
I spent part of my childhood in a heavily Roman Catholic area near Bay City, Michigan. These Catholics were ethnic Poles, but they had no hesitation about celebrating March 17 as Saint Patrick’s Day. For that day, at least, my classmates would be festooned with...
Erecting the Right Fences in the Right Places, Part 13: The Final Chapter
Over the process of a dozen essays, I have been interacting with Gavin Ortlund’s book, Finding the Right Hills to Die On. Of course, much more can and should be said, but to say it all would take a book as long as Ortlund’s. Indeed, it would take a longer...
Erecting the Right Fences in the Right Places, Part 12: Young Earth Creationism
Gavin Ortlund’s book, Finding the Right Hills to Die On, explores how different doctrines affect different levels of Christian fellowship. Top-rank doctrines are essential for Christian fellowship, second-rank doctrines affect some levels of fellowship, and...
About In the Nick of Time
Occasional Essays and Other Stuff for Christian Students Presented by the Research Professor of Systematic Theology of Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Minneapolis.
American Christianity needs Christian leaders. Christian leaders explain the Scriptures, bringing them to bear upon life’s urgent questions. Christian leaders exemplify the life of faith, finding their ultimate satisfaction in God alone. They unite intellectual discipline with ordinate affection, turning their entire being toward the love of God. These essays are dedicated to the task of inviting Christian students to become tomorrow’s Christian leaders.
—Kevin T. Bauder
“Be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”
APPLICATION & AID