Public Adjudication
Carl McIntire was the founder of the Twentieth Century Reformation Movement which, among other institutions, included the American and International Councils of Christian Churches. After about 1964, McIntire began pushing the leaders of the American Council to engage...
Actions, Intentions, Motivations
They say that actions speak louder than words. Maybe that is so, sometimes. But often, judging actions on their own proves difficult or impossible. One day I was walking down a residential street. Ahead of me, three women were talking on the sidewalk. One of them had...
The Annual Fellowship
I grew up in an association that held an annual conference. The point of that conference was supposed to be the preaching, and sometimes it was. Usually, however, the preaching was overshadowed by the politics of the organization. The real highlight of the week was...
I’m Changing the Way I Teach Eschatology
[This essay was originally published on January 20, 2017.] Good teachers will revise their notes every time they teach the same class. They’re always reading new books, attending seminars, hearing lectures, listening to papers, and perusing articles. Over time these...
Collective Nouns
It’s odd. The older I get, the more easily I can be distracted. I used to be able to concentrate on a textbook through the fragrance of a cooking dinner, the sound of a child practicing the piano, and the sight of a toddler diving into the sofa, all at the same time....
Your Church Covenant
Chances are that your church’s official documents include one called a “church covenant.” If you look at that covenant, you will discover that it represents a series of promises made between all the members of the church, usually in the presence of “God, angels, and...
What Shall We Call Them?
The New Testament specifies a threefold division within the local church (Phil 1:1). First are the saints, the members of the church. Then are the bishops or overseers. Then are the deacons or servants. Almost all churches understand bishops and deacons to be offices...
What Is a Baptist?
Baptists are certainly not the only Christians. Christians are defined by their belief in the gospel, which includes their commitment to Jesus Christ and their trust in His finished work. Genuine Baptists confess the gospel and all that it entails, but so do other...
An Outsider’s Experience with the Biblical Counseling Movement
When I came to Central Seminary nearly thirty years ago, I had little exposure to the biblical or nouthetic counseling movement. I had read Jay Adams’s Competent to Counsel as an undergrad, but that was years before. I couldn’t have told you how nouthetic counseling...
Real Presence, Sacramentalism, and Sacramentarianism
Christians debate the meaning of the Lord’s table. All agree that it is a picture of the gospel and a memorial of the sufferings of Christ. But is it more than that? Many—perhaps most—professing Christians want to see some real presence of the Lord in the communion...
Social Justice
[This essay was originally published on October 3, 2020.] All people everywhere want justice. Even a hardcore logical positivist feels a sense of injustice if you step ahead of him after hours of waiting at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The universal yearning for...
Favorite Interests—Airliners
God has created humans to exercise dominion over the created order. Exercising dominion includes the ability to invent devices that allow us to bend the natural world to our use, sometimes in wonderful ways. Such machines and their products reflect the image of God in...
Matters of Doubt
A friend recently forwarded a copy of A. T. Pierson’s little history of the Keswick Movement. I had read this work some years ago when I was more favorably disposed toward Keswick influences than I am now. But at my friend’s urging, I read it again. In particular, he...
The Bible Faculty Summit 2026
This past week, Central Seminary was privileged to host the annual Bible Faculty Summit. This meeting has been going on for about thirty years now. It grew out of a collaboration between David Doran and Bob Jones III. Both men led institutions of higher learning, and...
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...
Terms You Might Hear
Certain terms that get thrown around in theological conversation sometimes perplex novices. In fact, they sometimes perplex more advanced students, too. One reason is that these terms can be used in multiple senses. A word may have a more general meaning but also a...
Moving After Three Decades
My family moved into our present home in 1998. It was a HUD home. We bought it pretty cheaply, even by the standards of the late 90s, but we knew that making it livable was going to take lots of work. We received help with some of the most urgent tasks from the...
Favorite Places: North American Edition
I’ve already written about my favorite places to visit in Europe, Asia, and South America. The list is limited because I’ve never been to most places. I’ve visited none at all as a tourist. Anywhere I’ve traveled, I’ve gone because some...
Favorite Places
Five months ago, I began a series of essays on my favorite things. I won’t be surprised if you’ve forgotten. But I'll reproduce the opening paragraph, which took the form of an announcement. Let me give fair notice. I intend to begin a series, written only...
Preaching Politics
Some people think that politics should be left out of the pulpit. One small, Midwestern denomination articulates as one of its “fundamental principles” that partisan political preaching is “discountenanced.” The sentiment is echoed in many...
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