The Priesthood of All Believers: A Call for All to Proclaim the Gospel
As priests in the household of God, let us go and tell the world about Jesus Christ, our great high priest.
Now that the veil has been torn, all children of God are given access to pray and to present Gentile converts to the Lord as living sacrifices. Wonderfully, such a ministry does not require a seminary degree or a clerical robe. It does require that the knowledge of the Lord would be on our lips and that... Continue Reading
Language Matters
Language makes an incredible tool of control, and often unwittingly we let forces we are unaware of control us through its use.
When we use inhuman words to describe ourselves, we slowly imagine ourselves less human. In time we become less human because our metaphors matter. In the church, the great Spirit-filled vehicle of becoming more human as we become more like Jesus, more like the world that sin made us forget, we should be especially careful to... Continue Reading
Background on Genesis
Genesis sets the groundwork for the remainder of the Bible.
The events and thematic devices presented in Genesis are seen throughout the rest of Scripture. Crucial doctrines begin in this text, from the attributes of God to the depravity of man. This is the primary goal of Genesis: to set up themes in the Bible, which will ultimately culminate with Jesus Christ. Author Since Genesis is the first book... Continue Reading
Is It Loving for a Faithful Christian to Go to a “Gay Wedding”?
The moral answer is a relatively easy one: certainly not.
Christians who attend a “gay wedding” should be honest with themselves and announce publicly that they have changed their mind about homosexual practice in key ways that deviate from the only witness of Scripture. They will eventually come to that realization in the not-too-distant-future if they aren’t already putting on a fake mask now. ... Continue Reading
The Place of Conscience
The Westminster Confession of Faith is somewhat unique in its emphasis upon the place of conscience in the Christian life.
Clearly, conscience plays a very important role. But with that said, a person’s conscience is not an inerrant or infallible guide, for it is possible for one’s conscience to be mistaken…as the Westminster Confession of Faith rightly says, the Bible alone is to be our “Final Umpire.” The Wesleyan Quadrilateral vs. The Presbyterian Pentagon... Continue Reading
Evangelical Bible College Fires Lecturer over Tweets on Sexuality
Dr. Edwards believes as a result of the sacking and subsequent controversy that he might not be able to work in UK higher education again.
Increasingly, under the banner of “tolerance” and “kindness,” conservative evangelical Christians, especially in the Methodist Church and Church of England (CofE), are unable to hold or express biblical teaching, which does not affirm LGBT ideology, without fear of reprisals. A Christian theology lecturer with five young children has been sacked and threatened with a... Continue Reading
What to Do When Revival Comes
Don’t be cynical; don’t be gullible; be discerning.
Keep watch on your heart and fan the flames of personal devotion to Christ. Abundantly use the ordinary means of grace. Instead of relying on the intensity of the revival, turn again and again to Bible reading, prayer, self-examination and confession, death to self-interest, a joyful focus on the cross, faithful evangelism, service, and eager... Continue Reading
Is My Depression Really Part of God’s Plan?
The Bible is unequivocal about God’s total and complete sovereignty.
My depression is a thing that exists. Therefore, God is using it to conform me more to the image of Christ, to conform believers around me more to the image of Christ, to potentially bring other elect members of the kingdom to the point of faith so that they become more like Jesus, and in... Continue Reading
Courage to be Christian
The early Church’s refusal to live by the lies of culture provides evangelicals with a powerful example for today.
What is alarming is the number of evangelical Christians who bow to culture by incorporating the cultural lies into the life of their institutions/organizations and justifying it as Christian. This involves participating in the lies of Marxist cultural ideology as embedded in the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” (DEI) doctrine. It is appalling to witness Christian... Continue Reading
What Is Reformed Theology?
At its most basic level, the term Reformed theology refers to the theological conclusions that flowed out of the Protestant Reformation.
Today when people in evangelical churches refer to “Reformed theology” or to “being Reformed,” they often mean something less historically grounded. It is often the case today that when someone refers to holding to “Reformed theology,” they mean that they believe that God’s sovereign grace is at work in electing and saving sinners (the doctrine... Continue Reading
Preterism: Exposition and Critique
A brief exposition and critique of these two schools of eschatological thought.
Concerning full preterism I cannot help but see it as eschatological heresy. Obviously it robs the Church of her Blessed Hope. But more than this, it radically undermines her confidence in the perspicuity of Scripture, thereby discouraging us from turning at all to the life-giving streams of the Word of God. This essay is... Continue Reading
Humility, a Mother’s Beautiful Gift
Fear of the Lord resulted in the sweet gift of humility my mother left her family and world.
As she aged becoming very frail, we were living together; I tended to her needs. One Sunday afternoon, I prepared dinner and served it in our little kitchen. I asked her to say grace. Being raised Catholic she once knew only a prescribed prayer. Growing in her faith in Christ, she began to pray more... Continue Reading
The Reality & Hope of Sanctification
Progressive sanctification and the continued sexuality debates within the PCA.
The sanctifying power of the Spirit is much like uprooting and killing all the weeds that threaten to overtake us. Without the sanctifying power of the Spirit, sin would overrun our lives and choke us to death, but since we have a Helper – One who comes alongside of us in our weakness – we... Continue Reading
Incorruptible Love FOR Jesus
Where there is no love for Christ, there is no true Christianity.
I pray that we love Christ so greatly that our souls feel that Christ deserves more love than we have toward him, so we continually cry out to Him to help us love Him more. I pray that we love the Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. In the final verse of Ephesians,... Continue Reading
‘Christianity and Liberalism’ at 100
It’s worth pointing out that this year is the 100th anniversary of this landmark work: J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism
Machen notes how liberal Christians ignore what the Bible clearly notes as sin (see how timely it is?) when he writes, “Without the consciousness of sin, the whole of the gospel will seem to be an idle tale. But how can the consciousness of sin be revived? Something no doubt, can be accomplished by the... Continue Reading
White Fragility Is Pro-Racism
Like all anti-racists, Robin DiAngelo rejects the biblical definition of racism. That’s because the biblical definition of racism is inconvenient for her racist ideology and her ridiculous concept of white fragility.
Robin DiAngelo writes like a white supremacist, and according to her concept of white fragility, it would be racist for her to reject my accusation—according to her own silly standards, she would have to agree with me that she’s indeed a white supremacist. When I was a boy in Ghana, I once had a... Continue Reading
Promise: The Good Shepherd Promises to Always Provide for You through Affliction
God prepares your table in advance.
Christ keeps His sheep rotating through different areas of sanctification, assuring us, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Yet Phillip Keller notes that shepherds also take the sheep into deep wells of dark caverns for water: “Many of the places we may be led into will appear to... Continue Reading
God of Ages Past
The Awakening We Need Today
Spurgeon kept the baptismal pool filled — even when no baptisms were scheduled (81). His people would always have the mission set before them. May our pools be figuratively filled with importunate prayers, compassionate tears, and joyful proclamations of the excellencies of our glorious Christ. May we be fully awake, fully alive, sowing much. And... Continue Reading
The Old Testament is Christian Scripture
Embracing sixty-six books for your discipleship.
The Old Testament is relevant for the Christian life because it is Christian Scripture. We are children of Abraham by faith, so the earlier covenants and redemptive acts of God are part of our history. We need the warnings and exhortations of the Old Testament. We need its songs and proverbs. We need to know... Continue Reading
A Letter to the Bereaved Parent
God is always Good, even when we do not see it.
It will not always be winter, though it may be a long and dark winter. On that final Day, “the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings” (Malachi 4:2). In the meantime, you must meditate on the goodness of God, even when we do not see it. I do not know why... Continue Reading
3 Things You Should Know about Matthew‘s Gospel
Matthew tells us that Jesus is the son of Abraham, by which he means not merely that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham, but that He is the promised seed of Abraham, the One in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 22:18; 26:4). This “all nations” reach of the salvation... Continue Reading
Husbands, Likewise
Christ must be the center of the heart and the home.
Paul, in speaking of the authority structure of the home, says that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Husbands are to serve their wives in the model of Christ. To borrow from what Peter will later say about elders, husbands are to exercise shepherding care... Continue Reading
You Need to Know Jesus to Understand the Bible: The Clarity of Scripture Part 5
The Son of God lights the Word of God.
If you do not read the Bible with the ultimate goal of seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, you don’t understand Scripture. We need to see Christ’s glory through his illumining power to truly appreciate why his Word is and what his Word does. Without illumination, Scripture is a textbook... Continue Reading
Two Ways We Argue with God
False humility is always at one of two extremes. It is either lower than God would have it, or it is higher than God can tolerate.
False humility goes lower than God allows when it treats it as a faux pas to put little things into God’s hand. Many think it would be injudicious for them at such a time as this to ask God to heal their sore head which incapacitates them from hearing the preaching, or to help their... Continue Reading
Our Response to Suffering is a Powerful Teacher
Suffering with Patience Opens a Door
Our faith and obedience in the midst of suffering matters—a lot! It matters not just in regards to our own relationship with God, but because both unbelievers and fellow saints look on. When we respond in faith, as Mike did, we shine the light of the Gospel brightly. When we endure well in God’s grace,... Continue Reading
4 Ways to Show Your Love for the Lord
What does it practically look like to love the Lord and how can we grow in that love?
My prayer is that as Christians we would grow in that love as we go about our daily lives learning to be satisfied in the situations that God has placed us in, reading and trusting in God’s Word and promises, obeying His commands as a sign of our faith and always thanking Him for the... Continue Reading
Brokenness is His Speciality
Yes we are all broken, but we have a God who specialises in dealing with this.
I need to be reminded afresh of a gentle, tender Lord who wants to heal our wounds and deal with our hurts. And because he has shed his own tears as the perfect God-Man, he is well placed to wipe our tears as well. Our God specialises in mending the brokenhearted and restoring the prodigal.... Continue Reading
Christ or Chords? The Manipulated Emotionalism of Hillsong, Asbury, and Pentecostalized Evangelical Worship
Musically Manufactured Emotion is No Work of God
True religion does consist in the religious affections, and music is a wonderful gift from God that helps to give expression to the affections created by the Spirit through his Word. But we must be careful to define spiritual affections biblically and put music in its proper place. Otherwise, we risk worshiping chords instead of Christ.... Continue Reading
How the Divine Armor of the Messiah Becomes Ours
The different elements of the “panoply of God.”
One temptation we have in our examination of the armor of God is to get wrapped up in the armor itself and not in the one who gives it to us. As noted, this armor is the Lord’s own which he wore to defeat all his and our enemies in his great conquest of sin... Continue Reading
How Does the Bible Talk about Sin?
Sin’s most basic feature is that it puts human beings at odds with God and His good design.
One of the strategies of the Evil One is to try and convince us that sin is no big deal. He wants to convince us that “sin” is just a handful of harmless things that prudish church people don’t like. He says, “Nobody knows. Nobody sees. And even if they do, it doesn’t matter, because... Continue Reading