iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

The sinful inequality in people’s lot in life offends Jesus, and his wrath is ignited at the hardness of those who have. Abraham Kuyper, Christ and the Needy

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

The Reformed social ethic is as alien in its nature to the inflexibilities of conservative orthodoxy that does not take into account the evolution of human situations as it is to any revolutionary ethic that frees itself from the Word of God. Biéler, 456

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

[so] Calvinism in its original form could not fail to see the dangers and vices of capitalism from its very beginnings and oppose them with absolute rigour. André Biéler, Calvin’s Economic and Social Thought, 454

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

and has produced a conservatism that had often been reactionary, totally contrary to its original social dynamism. André Biéler, Calvin’s Economic and Social Thought, 366

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

W. Fred Graham, The Constructive Revolutionary, 76

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

We are murderers when we kill our neighbor’s soul. This happens when we flatter our neighbor’s pride, incite their evil lusts and desires, weaken their tender consciences, shock their faith by our doubt, crush their faith by our ridicule, or offend them in anything whatsoever. H. Bavinck RE 2:454

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

how messy and challenging it was for the early church to live out its multi-ethnic calling. The screenshot below shows Byron's taxonomy for these rhetorics.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Trimmed the blackberry and raspberry canes today. Small leaves are budding. Starting seeds inside this week. It’s happening. Spring is almost here.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

The early church “opposed pagan political philosophy inasmuch as it was embodied in the emperor and the apotheosis of the state, emperor worship, the deification of human beings, and they drew or at least sought to draw a distinction between religion and public life.”

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Kevin Vanhoozer: Western evangelical theologians have been "fatally abstract" in their theology by ignoring cultural context. This has resulted in "criminal negligence" toward the church: "Twentieth-century evangelicals in Europe and North America largely agreed with Charles Hodge that theology

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

The Church thus appears to be God’s pilot scheme for the reconciled universe of the future. F. F. Bruce on Ephesians 3:10-11 (cf. 1:8-10)

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

The offices in the church of Christ are not a ruling but a serving power. Even though the offices exist for the sake of the church, they are not its organ and do not derive their power from it.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

A charity which knows only how to give money is not yet Christian love. You will be free of guilt only when you also give your time, your energy and your resourcefulness to help end abuses in society for good, and when you allow nothing that lies hidden in the storehouse of your Christian religion

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Wolterstorff: If we do not consider the worth of human beings, we will produce all kinds of harsh, distorted, oppressive actions in the name of “justice”: To employ the category of rendering justice is to place the worth of the other in the forefront of one’s attention.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

One of the reasons why I started my DMin in Urban Missiology at Fuller w/ Dr. Rah was to make the case for urban Presbyterianism to scholar-practitioners who are rightly critical of Reformed theology and movements. This feedback, then, meant so much to me:

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

According to Anglican theologian Christopher Wright, God’s people are responsible for pursuing just laws that benefit the poor, immigrants, and those seeking asylum: There is a persistent demand that the processes of the legal system should be just and, as they say, seen to be just.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

I’ve been on a neo-Cal/school break for 6 weeks (kinda, not really) to focus on some other things. Looking forward to jumping into this stack soon (+ Bavinck’s Foremost Problems). Any excuse to show off that new Power Ranger frame.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

The historic First Lutheran Church of Indianapolis building caught on fire last night. Indianapolis has several beautiful historic church buildings. This one was right off our memorial plaza downtown. I hate to see it go this way—a real loss.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor—spending and being spent—to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern,

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Every Christmas I make a batch of Chex Mix with double the butter, garlic, and onion powders, and at least quadruple the amount of seasoning salt. A good batch will burn the tongue a little bit. 😁

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Harvie Conn on liberation theology: The evangelical must also hear in the liberation call for praxis a call for repentance, a reminder of the "unpaid bills of the church"… an opportunity to rectify the polarity between proclamation and presence…

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Macleod on liberation theology: Stress on 'the least of these brethren of mine' is most welcome, particularly after centuries of blind support for the forces of 'law and order', regardless of deeper issues of social justice.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

it comes up against the kind of religious people for whom a political ideology takes precedence over genuine faith, and who demand total submission from the church." André Biéler, Calvin's Economic and Social Thought, 93

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

This says everything about being a 37yo dad of four kids under six

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

The Gospel, after all, speaks to us about the price of reconciliation, a price demanded of those who have suffered as well as of those who have caused the suffering. The churches must therefore move beyond benevolence, offerings, and traditional programs

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

In Mary’s song, “The opponents of Jesus, and therefore of God’s purpose, are portrayed as persons who grasp for social respect and positions of honor,

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

J. Verkuyl utilized Herman Bavinck’s anthropology to address racism as early as 1971.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Everything in the Bible breathes resurrection. J. Verkuyl, The Message of Liberation in Our Age, 55

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

Nice! I have a copy of a book given to Marilynne Robinson by James Bratt.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

There is a close interrelationship between the four dimensions of the communication of the kingdom of God. These four dimensions are: proclamation, diakonia, fellowship, and participation in the struggle against injustice and for righteousness.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

The call to conversion does not come only to individuals; it has to do with the quest for justice in economic and political structures and processes. Deliverance is an indivisible whole which reaches the whole man and the whole society.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

When God starts his kingly dominion his oppressed people who look to him for everything will be filled with his justice, and those who are full now will have reason to weep. Herman Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom, 191

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

My favorite holiday recipe! This casserole could only come out of the Midwest. Don’t knock it till you try it!

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Much to learn from the first 100 years of Presbyterianism in Indianapolis. Many congregations were established throughout the city during this first century. Why did they all avoid the neighborhoods like mine?

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

114 pages, 36000 words, 89 sources in 3 weeks. On top of my normal church planting and dad-of-four load. It's far from done. I don't quite yet know all that this will become. I do know that I'm excited... and tired. And I haven't yet finished my 40-page paper for Soong-Chan Rah due next week. 🤣

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

My favorite passage from any theological work, from Herman Bavinck’s Common Grace. I’ve thought about these two paragraphs every day for nearly three years. This, to me, summarizes everything that matters. Christ the liberator of the whole man!

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Multiple reports of these flyers showing up in several Indianapolis suburbs. The past is not the past. @nytegan

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

I’m excited to finally get to take on the Devourer of Worlds! With a little help from some new friends. #CMON #marvel #marvelunited

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

What if Calvinism required both a commitment to social ethics on the side of the poor AND a robust theological framework?

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Economic justice for the poor is a core tenet of the Calvinist tradition. Any summary of Calvinism that neglects advocacy for the poor at the legislative, ecclesial, and individual levels is, at best, misguided, if not a lie. No economic justice, No Calvinism.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

We would also do well to remember that the institutional church's proclamation is made up of both what is said and what is not said. If the institutional church remains silent about all the important issues facing the human community and nonhuman world today,

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

This book has my new favorite essay by Boesak (“He made us all, but…”)! It includes: - A detailed definition of racism and white supremacy; - A clear articulation of why racism and apartheid are heresies according to Scripture and the Reformed tradition; and

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Heresy is not merely the expression of a false idea, but the use of the Word of God in such a way that it becomes divisive and separates human beings from God and each other. It threatens the community of love.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

This copy of one of Calvin’s sermons on Job is from 1584. A good friend gave me this when I graduated from seminary. I still need to get this framed!

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

For Calvin, standing by while the poor, the immigrant, and the political refugee are suffering and exploited is a sinful act, a violation of the image of God.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Neo-Calvinists are particularly concerned with issues related to the public stewardship of power. To be more specific, neo-Calvinists can often be found advocating that power should be pushed both down and out throughout society.

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Ben Hein @brheiny.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Some music should only be played on vinyl.

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