BREAKING: Us Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade in Historic Ruling
The long-awaited victory for the pro-life movement means that abortion will be effectively banned in more than 20 states immediately.
Now that abortion policy can be directly decided through the elected branches of government, and politicians can no longer invoke the judiciary as an excuse for inaction, abortion-related legislative and lobbying efforts are certain to increase dramatically across the country, with the issue prioritized even higher by activists and voters alike. WASHINGTON (LifeSiteNews) – The... Continue Reading
Like A Dog Following After Two Men
If God is his master, he will follow and obey God. But if the world is his master, then he will follow after it.
An individual may pursue the world and retain a Christian profession at the same time and it is often difficult to ascertain whether God or the world possesses his affections. But by and bye he comes to a parting road where God calls him one way and the world another way. It is then that... Continue Reading
It Turns Out Transgender Ideology is Pretty Unpopular
Seventy-eight percent were opposed to children being encouraged to undergo gender transition.
Adults have a responsibility to prioritize children’s needs and well-being. Subjecting children to irreversible “treatments” in an effort to change their bodies is harmful, and many Americans still recognize this, even if they are afraid to say so in public. It is discouraging and troubling when people are unable or unwilling to say what a woman is.... Continue Reading
Redemptive Historical Preaching Under Fire
When we understand the history of the ancients through a redemptive historical grid, we also learn to understand our own history through God’s plan of redemption.
What does that plan of redemption involve? Scripture teaches us to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, it teaches us about grace, it teaches us about the fruits of grace in that Christ teaches us how to live in this world as He also saves us from our old ways and patterns... Continue Reading
Are Southern Baptists Still People of the Book?
A new rift is developing within the SBC, as it is in other conservative evangelical denominations.
This time the fight is not as much over Scripture’s inerrancy as it is over its sufficiency. The question is whether Scripture ought to be regarded as a comprehensive guide for the Christian life, the place where our inquiry starts and ends; or is it instead a mere touchpoint to be reinterpreted and mediated through... Continue Reading
The Unforgivable Sin
Jesus tells us that what a man blasphemes “to the Holy Spirit” (εἰς τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα) will not be forgiven.
The idea of blasphemy, especially in this context, is to denigrate the Holy Spirit (and the entire Godhead) in such a way that it harms the message of the truth. But, as we noticed in the phrasing of Luke 12:10, the term may also indicate that the blasphemy is directed towards (εἰς) the Holy Spirit. There are... Continue Reading
Did Jesus Die for Everybody?
Jesus’ death was a substitutionary death—that is central to the gospel!
Marvel at God’s love, marvel at Jesus’ redeeming sacrifice, marvel at the Holy Spirit’s sovereign regenerating work. Believer, take this to heart and cherish it: Jesus died specifically for you on the cross. Your salvation is purchased, paid for. Live like it’s so. Did Jesus die for everybody? This question seems rather simple on the... Continue Reading
Isn’t Christianity Just An Oppressive Set of Rules?
A Christian is someone who belongs in God’s family, and because of that is secure and blessed. It’s not to do with rules at all.
Christians often give the impression to the watching world that the rules matter the most. We give the impression everyone else should also follow the rules we do, even though they don’t trust in Jesus. That doesn’t make sense and turns people off Christianity. If all outsiders see is restrictions, where is the attraction in... Continue Reading
Do Christians Leave Behind the Basics?
Making Sense of Hebrews 6:1-2
Hebrews’ concern is not that his readers are plenty familiar with gospel basics and now need to advance to other deeper Christian teachings. Rather, his concern is that in toying with the idea of returning to Judaism, they are demonstrating that what they lack is precisely an understanding of the gospel itself, the exclusive sufficiency... Continue Reading
Are Christians “On the Wrong Side of History”?
The thing that matters is not whether your viewpoint is a popular one in your culture right now; what matters is how your view measures up against the true God.
It is possible to swim against the tide and have views on issues that are unpopular. That makes life difficult in many ways right now for faithful, Bible-believing Christian people. It is hard to believe in something when everyone around you sees it as superseded, bizarre or even just wrong. Christians should hold the line.... Continue Reading
5 Quick Takes for New Culture Wars
Truthful Witness in the Public Square
We’re in uncharted territory as we head into an increasingly post-Christian environment. Assume the best of your brothers and sisters trying to figure out what faithfulness looks like. And trust that God is going to make the most of all our bungling attempts at truthful witness, that he will fulfill his plan and build his... Continue Reading
How “You Do You” is Leading to Narcissism and a Mental Health Crisis
The modern attempt to situate all meaning in the self has led to an increase in anxiety and depression, along with a decline in resilience. Instead of basing our identity on God, we look elsewhere for our purpose and are inevitably disappointed.
We weren’t designed to find our identity by looking within but by looking to our Creator God. Unfortunately, humanity is instinctively repelled by any thought of looking for our identity in Him (Romans 1:18-30), and so, left to ourselves, we look for identity anywhere but the living God. And in the modern secular West, that search... Continue Reading
The Harder Our Earth, the Sweeter Our Heaven
The sorrows here prepare us for the glories there.
We know that heaven will be a wonder for all who are admitted, a place of perfect peace and perfect satisfaction for all who enter its gates. But surely heaven will be a greater wonder still for those whose joys were fewest, whose sorrows were deepest, whose earth was most distant from heaven. The... Continue Reading
The Fundamental Significance of the Lord’s Supper (pt 1)
Nothing can be more certain than that He deliberately chose the Passover Meal for the institution of the sacrament of His body and blood.
Precisely what our Lord appears to have done was to change the symbols which represented his sacrificed Person in the feast, was to adapt it to the new conditions of the kingdom as now introduced by him, and thus to perpetuate it throughout the new dispensation. The lamb had hitherto been the symbol of the... Continue Reading
The Gospel of Life in the Triune God
Book Review — Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church, J. Todd Billings
By its strengths in both scholarship and evangelism, Union with Christ can indeed help theologians and pastors develop further reflection and teaching on life in Christ, especially areas like sanctification, prayer, evangelism, and ecclesiology. The book’s tone is academic, and readers without experience in theological study might find its arguments (especially chapters 2 and 3) difficult to... Continue Reading
Corporate Worship’s Essence: Spiritual Response
How do we know we have worshiped?
It is important that we recognize the proper function of our physical expressions of worship and the fundamental spiritual essence of worship. The physical expressions themselves are never the essence of our communion with God; plenty of people do the physical stuff without truly worshiping. Rather, the physical aspects of worship should be an expression... Continue Reading
The End of the World According to Jesus
Jesus is coming in two different ways to deal with two very different kinds of people.
To the disciples, much about Jesus’ coming Kingdom would be learned through these secretive parables (Matthew 11:34-35). They understood that for a period of time, imposters would exist alongside the true followers of Christ, like a field of wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-31). But, by the end, the Kingdom of Christ would tower over all... Continue Reading
Why Did Jesus Compare God’s Kingdom to a Mustard Seed and Leaven?
Jesus anticipated the misconceptions people would have about the kind of redemption and the type of kingdom he was bringing upon them.
This is the paradox of Christ’s kingdom—a mysterious mix of humility and glory, power and weakness. But why is this the paradox of the kingdom? Because this paradox matches Christ’s cross. Our Lord’s salvation is to save you from death, to free you from Satan’s prison of the grave. When the Lord ushered his... Continue Reading
The Story of COVID Cries Out for Common Sense
From Luxor to Los Angeles, how I was able to dispel the lies with common sense and you can, too.
We’ve seen through the charlatans like Fauci, claiming that they are the experts, and we are not. In fact, we have what they fear most: plain, honest, and straightforward common sense. We are individuals with our own capable minds, and we will continue to question and debate and draw our own conclusions. When the pandemic struck, I... Continue Reading
How I Would Explain a Christian View of Transgenderism to a Non-Christian
We all know deeply held beliefs can be wrong. The question is which ones.
To miss God’s design is to not live as God intended. It’s to sell ourselves short, to make for us lives and identities and destinies that are far, far poorer than what God intends. That’s why Christians talk about this stuff: because the good life really is possible. Let’s begin with the observable facts... Continue Reading
“He Descended into Hell”
We confess that the benefits of Christ’s suffering for us sinners extend from the visible to the invisible, even from the least extreme to the most extreme torments, pains, anguish, and ignominy of both soul and body.
In God’s reckoning, when He laid our iniquities on His incarnate Son, He effectively relocated hell onto Christ Himself such that from Gethsemane to the grave His humiliation for sinners reached its nadir in both soul and body. It’s an understatement to say that the last phrase of Article 4 of the Apostles’ Creed—He... Continue Reading
On Tradition
Each generation requires the whole counsel of God.
In the writings of his prophets and apostles, God has granted the church a wholesome word and a precious deposit (2 Timothy 1:13-14): which explains our past, opens up a future, and guides us on the path whereby we might inherit it. One generation shall commend your works to another (Ps 145:4). I’ve just... Continue Reading
Jonah—Preacher of Repentance, Part 5
Three Days and Nights in the Watery Grave
The prophet will endure the three days and nights as a man made ready to receive and obey YHWH’s call. Having completed his ordeal and preparation, the sovereign God will ensure that Jonah’s mission resumes. The Fate of the Reluctant Prophet It is impossible to imagine the misery Jonah endured for those three days... Continue Reading
Pastor Warns SBC against Using Politics, Social Justice or Music to Grow Churches
"Is it possible that the reasons our congregations have been so thrust by the winds and the waves, is because we have not ground them in the Word of God?”
“If you win them with music, you’ve won them to music. If you win them with children’s ministry, you’ve won them to children’s ministry. If you win them with politics, you’ve won them to politics. If you win them with your personality, you’ve won them to you, but not to the Lord Jesus Christ.” ... Continue Reading
John Witherspoon, Protestant Statesman
Witherspoon set forth a uniquely Protestant understanding of the American Revolution, insisting on personal regeneration for the war’s success and the new nation’s public virtue.
As a Protestant, Witherspoon understood that the sure foundation for a Christian civilization is not an established state church imposing generic morals on a population; it is the presence of actual Christians with converted hearts and minds. Christian Political Action at America’s Founding Introduction In October of 1753, John Witherspoon wrote a discernment blog.... Continue Reading
You Need to Rest—The Seventh Day of Creation
Jesus determines what is good for the Sabbath because it is His day.
The Pharisees loaded the Sabbath with untold stupid laws and turned it into a day of fear and misery. Jesus now recovers it. For he is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the God of the seven days of creation. He was the one who created the world and who rested on the Seventh Day. My good... Continue Reading
How OT Scriptures Changed the Course of History at the Jerusalem Council
The turning point at the Jerusalem Council was a passage from the Word of God.
James’s appeal to Scripture at the Jerusalem Council changes the course of history. God has spoken, and that changes everything. Stepping back, his use of the prophets has amazing things to teach us. A Crucial Moment in the Early Church Tensions were running high. The “who’s who” were all there, for the stakes were... Continue Reading
Christians Must Protest Pride Parades and Their Violent, Sodom-like, Riotous Stonewall Origin
Do not give in. Fire and brimstone are coming.
As God’s chosen, Christians must carefully choose how to live where they live. You are not to be anything like those living around you. Especially if it is a place like Sodom. During this month, as the LGBTQ+ community annually parades its banner colors they blasphemously hijack from God’s noahic covenant,[1] Christians will benefit revisiting Genesis 19:1-25[2] (as Carl... Continue Reading
Whosoever Will
How do we preach evangelistically?
It is the Spirit who opens eyes to His beauty and opens ears to His call. Whether at the tomb of Lazarus or before the Athenian philosophers or to the hearers assembled before us, the response of the congregation is not elicited by the preacher but by the One preached. A group of pastors... Continue Reading
How to Save Men
Recovering masculine virtue will require more than "owning the libs."
The recovery of American masculinity will be a counterrevolution of dignity, encouraging men to embrace their God-given strength, competitiveness, and desire for meaning as signposts pointing them toward a rich life of worship, temperance, and self-sacrifice. The firebrand gender philosopher Camile Paglia once famously declared that there is no female Mozart because there is no female... Continue Reading
