Chris Whisonant – Alpha and Omega Ministries

Further Thoughts on the Origins of the Term “Biblicism”

Chris Whisonant, June 17, 2024, Church History, Reformed Baptist Issues

As there continues to be pushback against those of us who would refer to ourselves as “Biblicists” (or, better yet, as “Reformed Biblicists“), I have been looking at the history of the usage of the term. This is not very hard to do, yet some professors and pastors seem to have difficulty with it. In my previous article, which detailed

John Owen’s Usage of Thomas Aquinas, Part 6

Chris Whisonant, May 24, 2024, Church History, John Owen

This is a follow up to the previous posts in this blog series where I will go through the works of John Owen detailing where he has mentioned Thomas Aquinas. I hope that this series is helpful. In this sixth part, I would like to finish looking at the mentions of Thomas Aquinas in the 7 Volumes of his “Exposition of the

The Descent of Christ and Confessional Subscription

Chris Whisonant, March 29, 2024, Church History, Reformed Baptist Issues

In 2022, Dr. Sam Renihan wrote “Crux, Mors, Inferi: A Primer and Reader on the Descent of Christ”. This is a helpful guide through the Biblical Data regarding Christ’s Descent as well as a look at the history of the doctrine as taught in the early church by the Apostle’s Creed (as well as the Athanasian Creed, although it was

John Owen’s Usage of Thomas Aquinas, Part 5

Chris Whisonant, March 14, 2024, Church History, John Owen

Owen uses Aquinas for a definition as well as offering both disagreements and acceptance of some things.

John Owen’s Usage of Thomas Aquinas, Part 4

Chris Whisonant, March 5, 2024, Church History, John Owen

This is a follow up to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 in this blog series where I will go through the works of John Owen detailing where he has mentioned Thomas Aquinas. I hope that this series is helpful. In this fourth part, I would like to look at the mentions of Thomas Aquinas in Volume 14 of

John Owen’s Usage of Thomas Aquinas, Part 3

Chris Whisonant, February 20, 2024, Church History, John Owen

This is a follow up to Part 1 and Part 2 in this blog series where I will go through the works of John Owen detailing where he has mentioned Thomas Aquinas. I hope that this series is helpful. In this third part, I would like to look at two different types of usage. First will be a couple of

John Owen’s Usage of Thomas Aquinas, Part 2

Chris Whisonant, February 12, 2024, Church History, John Owen

This is a follow up to Part 1 in this blog series where I will go through the works of John Owen detailing where he has mentioned Thomas Aquinas. I hope that this series is helpful. In this second part, I would like to look at a couple of different types of usage that we find. First will be some

John Owen’s Usage of Thomas Aquinas, Part 1

Chris Whisonant, February 8, 2024, Church History, John Owen

Recently, Carl Trueman has stated the following: “I had a breakthrough on John Owen when I realized how often he cited Thomas Aquinas in his marginal notes in his texts. Struck me as odd.” With this in mind, I would like to begin looking through just how extensive this usage really is, since this is a topic that tends to

A Review of “The Revealed God”

Chris Whisonant, January 30, 2024, Reformed Apologetics, Reformed Baptist Issues

Dr. Jeffrey Johnson has written another excellent book dealing with the issue of the utilization of Greek Philosophy as the lens through which a Christian must look in order to have a “Classical” understanding of God. Dr. Johnson’s concern is for the believer to not feel that he must place undue emphasis on certain Greek Metaphysical and Philosophical notions. As

Tertullian (~200): Children should not be baptized until they can ask for salvation themselves

Chris Whisonant, December 18, 2023, Baptism, Church Fathers, Church History, Reformed Baptist Issues

In the earliest mention of infant baptism in all of Church history, caution is given that little children should not be baptized and the church should wait until after they have asked for salvation.

Tertullian (~200): Baptism Should Be In Enough Water for Immersion

Chris Whisonant, December 12, 2023, Baptism, Church Fathers, Church History, Reformed Baptist Issues

Tertullian listed several options for where a baptism could occur. All of them show that the expectation is there is enough water for one to be immersed.

The Didache (~150): Baptism is by Immersion and for Converts

Chris Whisonant, December 8, 2023, Baptism, Church Fathers, Church History, Reformed Baptist Issues

The Didache relates that a person should be immersed in living (moving) water or standing water. If that isn't possible, then pouring water thrice on the head is an acceptable alternative. For the early church, pouring was not the normative.

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On The Origin of the Term “Biblicism”

Chris Whisonant, November 25, 2023, Reformed Baptist Issues, Roman Catholicism

On a Dividing Line in July of this year, Dr. James White discussed a section from a book by Dr. Matthew Barrett on the dangers of what he has termed “Biblicism”. The section was taken from Dr. Barrett’s forthcoming Systematic Theology. However, this post is not an interaction with the fuller points of that section but rather on what Dr.

On Extra-Biblical Language in the Nicene Creed

Chris Whisonant, November 15, 2023, Church Fathers, Church History

One of the most helpful books for understanding the usage of extra-Biblical words in the Nicene Creed is “A Defense of the Nicene Definition” by Athanasius (who was at the Nicene Council). This post can be seen as a follow up to this post and this post. In those posts, I related how thoroughly Biblical the language of the Nicene

The Epistle of Barnabas (~130): Baptism Is By Immersion

Chris Whisonant, August 1, 2023, Baptism, Church Fathers, Church History, Reformed Baptist Issues

Barnabas describes baptism as descending into the water and coming back up out of the water. In one of the earliest known writings of the Christian church, we see clear evidence that the practice of baptism was understood to be by immersion as the normative practice of the Church. It goes against basic exegetical practices when church traditions (such as Presbyterians) who practice sprinkling as the normative mode of baptism eisegete the Scriptures by saying that when Jesus was said to have gone down into the water that it just means he walked out a bit and was then sprinkled and then “came up out of the water”.

Comparing the meaning and application of “jot and tittle” from Matthew 5:18 with the assertions of Peter Van Kleeck

Chris Whisonant, January 20, 2023, Church History, Debate, Reformed Apologetics, Textual Issues, TROnlyism

During the recent debate between Dr. James White and Dr. Peter Van Kleeck, there was a brief discussion about Matthew 5:18 and the meaning of “jot and tittle”. The assertion which Dr. Van Kleeck was affirming, in relation to the topic of the debate which was “The Textus Receptus is equal to NT Autographs“, was that the Protestant Reformers (and

A Follow-Up on the Biblical Nature of the Nicene Creed

Chris Whisonant, July 12, 2022, Church Fathers, Church History, Exegesis, Reformed Baptist Issues

In my previous post on the Nicene Creed, I demonstrated that one can profess the Creed without the need to say that “Greek Philosophy is the grounding” for it. In this post, I would like to look back on a previous statement that I made there and then also demonstrate the Son’s co-eternal nature from Scripture. In that post, I

The Nicene Creed is Primarily Based on Scripture

Chris Whisonant, December 9, 2021, Church Fathers, Church History, Reformed Baptist Issues

There is an increasing emphasis today on the primacy of Aristotelian (or Thomistic) Metaphysical Philosophy in the formulation of the Christian Creeds. I have seen some statements such as “like, the grounding for literally all the creeds.” as well as this from a friend “any time you are teaching the Nicene creed, or any reformed confession with

James White’s Sermon Series on Baptism

Chris Whisonant, November 17, 2021, Church History, Reformed Baptist Issues

Earlier this year James White began preaching a series of sermons on Baptism at Apologia Church. Below are those sermons (so far) in order.

A Possible Source of Plato’s Natural Theology, According to Augustine

Chris Whisonant, November 12, 2021, Church Fathers, General Apologetics, Reformed Apologetics, Reformed Baptist Issues

In my last post, I directed our attention to Book VIII of City of God. It was there that Augustine took up a discussion regarding the Platonic philosophers. After his overview of this philosophical lineage, Augustine continued his discussion of the philosophers of the Ionic school. In this post, I would like to first direct you to a few generalities

The Philosophical Genealogy of Aristotle, According to Augustine

Chris Whisonant, November 2, 2021, Church Fathers, Church History, General Apologetics, Reformed Apologetics, Reformed Baptist Issues

In Book VIII of City of God, Augustine takes up a discussion regarding the Platonic philosophers. He gives a fascinating genealogy of the philosophers (which he takes from Plato) who were in the line of succession up to Aristotle. In this post I want to review what he said there, consider some of the implications, and then consider what Augustine

Romans 13, Lock-downs, and Consistency

Chris Whisonant, September 24, 2021, Christian Worldview, Misc, Persecution

I began working on this post in December of 2020, but I have put off coming back to it along with forgetting about it. But a recent sermon at my church on Romans 13 caused me to realize that I should address this. I will leave my thoughts from last year in place below and then pick up with where

Download the Alpha & Omega Ministries App Now!

Chris Whisonant, June 28, 2021, Blog Stuff, Misc, Technology

We are pleased to announce the availability of the Alpha & Omega Ministries Application. The app is now available in the Google Play and Apple App Stores! And don’t forget to subscribe to the “Live Stream Starting” notification group under Settings > Notifications. Link to App on Google Play Link to App on Apple App Store

When President Biden Quotes Augustine (Poorly)

Chris Whisonant, February 9, 2021, Church Fathers, Church History

During his inaugural address, Joe Biden quoted someone who is near to my heart – Augustine. That quote can be found here: And I pledge this to you: I will be a President for all Americans.I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did.Many centuries ago, Saint Augustine, a saint of my

Discussing Ken Wilson’s Work, Part 13 – Augustine Refutes Wilson’s Insistence That He Remained Manichaean

Chris Whisonant, January 28, 2021, Church Fathers, Ken Wilson

With two sections from one of Augustine’s later works, we see his insistence that he was no longer a Manichee.

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A Brief Primer on Using RSS

Chris Whisonant, December 2, 2020, Technology

What is RSS? It stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a way that you can subscribe to new posts from a website. This is called the “feed” of posts. Why should I use RSS? Since you’re visiting this site, you might like a way to view the posts from here without always having to visit the site and figure out

Sweater Vest Dialogues

Chris Whisonant, September 10, 2020, Christian Worldview, Federal Vision, General Apologetics, Misc, Reformed Apologetics, Resources

In December of 2019, James White and Douglas Wilson began a series of dialogues and discussions that they have called The Sweater Vest Dialogues. Links to all of the episodes are below. Hopefully these are edifying for you! Episode I: The Federal Vision, December, 2019. Episode II: The Trinity and Patriarchy, January, 2020. Episode III: Catholicism and Salvation, March, 2020.

An Introduction to Textual Criticism

Chris Whisonant, September 1, 2020, Textual Issues

In 2008, Colin Smith posted a 13-part series as an introduction to textual criticism. I thought that this would be an ideal time to create a post with links to all of those in the series. Hopefully this is edifying and helpful to you! An Introduction to Textual Criticism: Part 1–Introduction An Introduction to Textual Criticism: Part 2–The Writing and

James White’s Debates Online

Chris Whisonant, August 27, 2020, Debate

One of the new features that we have on this site is a searchable table of the debates of James White that are available online. You can view all of them from the James White page. You can search by debate topic, opponent, or even dates. There are currently 153 debates listed, but if there is one that you find

Audiobooks for The Forgotten Trinity and What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur’an

Chris Whisonant, August 24, 2020, Christian Worldview, Islam, Theology Matters

In case you have missed it, audiobook versions have recently been released for these two books by James White. Here are links to them on Audible in the Amazon store, but you should also be able to find them in your favorite audiobook apps. The Forgotten Trinity What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur’an

Augustine on Apostolic Tradition

Chris Whisonant, August 5, 2020, Church Fathers, Church History

While listening to Dr. White discuss the Marian doctrines the other day, I was reminded of a post that I wrote a couple of years ago. My original post was a longer response to Dr. R. Scott Clark who was, it would appear, attempting to use a quote by Augustine to prove that infant baptism was rooted in Scripture –

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