I’ve recently published all my articles on the debate around whether desire and temptation are sin in one e-book. Here’s the introduction to that volume. This little book started life as a series of articles for Faithroot.com in 2024. At the time a little controversy had begun to brew in conservative evangelical circles. Technically the… Continue reading Desire and temptation: Essays on the concupiscence controversy
Tag: concupiscence
Cultivating the affections
Psalm 37:4 tells us to Delight yourself in the Lord and he will grant you the desires of your heart”. Such positive encouragement should caution us to a wholely negative view of desire as automatically and only sin. We can have good desires. We may also think of those things as affections, the people, things,… Continue reading Cultivating the affections
What should we do with a brother’s teaching when he falls? Were TGC right to pull Sam Allberry’s articles?
In my previous article in the light of Sam Allberry’s resignation from Immanuel, Nashville and TGC, I referred to the statement that TGC had made. It’s fairly short, so I’ll quote it in full here: “TGC was informed yesterday by Sam Allberry about “an inappropriate relationship with another man a few years ago” and that… Continue reading What should we do with a brother’s teaching when he falls? Were TGC right to pull Sam Allberry’s articles?
Having the nature of sin
There’s an interesting little phrase in the Thirty Nine Articles, it appears in article 9 which discusses original sin. In full, the article says: “Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk;) but it is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man, that naturally is… Continue reading Having the nature of sin
Desire (the YouTube walk and talks)
I’ve been fleshing out my thoughts on Desire and the affections in a series of video talks. You can now watch them all together here.
Why the debate about sin, temptation and desire matters
I’ve had four concerns about the debate around temptation, desire and sin (concupiscence). I wanted to just pick up on three crucial implications from these. First of all, by narrowing the debate down to one application, the impression has been unfortunately given that this isn’t to do with all of us. Rather, it only affects… Continue reading Why the debate about sin, temptation and desire matters
Really alive, really reborn
I revisited James 1:13 as part of my discussion on desire today. It struck me that in that debate, we need to pay attention to what James says about how desire conceives and gives birth to sin which grows into death. That statement should make us sit up and think carefully about what is going… Continue reading Really alive, really reborn
An alien interloper?
One of the key questions that has come up in the debate about sin, desire and temptation is whether or not we are responsible for our temptations. This in fact is key to the position that Matthew Roberts and others hold. The argument is that the desires which tempt us according to James are our… Continue reading An alien interloper?
Matthew Roberts and John Stevens debate sin, temptation and desire in Evangelicals Now: Initial reflections on Matthew’s article
Well, Matthew Roberts and John Stevens’ articles are now live on the Evangelicals Now website, should you choose to read them. Sadly, Matthew continues to repeat the same errors that I’ve already identified in his article. In summary, Matthew sets out a position on sin which we would all agree with, namely that sin is a heart… Continue reading Matthew Roberts and John Stevens debate sin, temptation and desire in Evangelicals Now: Initial reflections on Matthew’s article
External or internal temptation … and does it really matter?
One of the issues raised in the concupiscence debate is about the extent to which we can distinguish between external and internal temptation. In fact, in some respects the whole debate is about what we distinguish. So, first of all, there is the question about whether we need to distinguish temptation, desire and sin from… Continue reading External or internal temptation … and does it really matter?
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