Report of the 51st Presbyterian Church in America GA (2024)
The General Assembly continues to strengthen the PCA's commitments to be both robustly Reformed and profoundly Presbyterian in its polity, personnel, and procedures.
God has been abundantly kind, patient, and good to the PCA for the last 51 years and especially so recently. Since 2018, the PCA is has strengthened her commitment to marriage and historic, biblical sexuality, she has enhanced her focus on holding one another accountable through the Presbyteries, and is currently seeking to expand her ties... Continue Reading
A Report of the 220th Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church General Synod
The 220th General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP) met at Bonclarken Conference Center in Flat Rock, NC from June 11-13, 2024.
An action I alluded to above, concerning Freemasonry, is a good example of that. We as a Synod passed some recommendations about Secret Societies, which include a set of questions that a local church session can use to help their members and other members of the local church think through whether or not being a... Continue Reading
God Is Dead. Long Live the Gods.
What the early church can teach us about living in a pagan world.
Christians such as Polycarp, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyons weren’t part of the cultural elite but, following the apostles’ footsteps, worked from below and slowly and steadily guided the church through a pagan world. They didn’t sit in the prominent seats of the senate nor hobnob among the intellectuals populating the philosophical schools. Instead,... Continue Reading
An Earnest Appeal to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church
An earnest plea to the EPC to ponder the following four points as they reflect upon Dr. Johnson’s fitness for office in the EPC.
I write to you in reference to reports that you are on the cusp of receiving Memorial Presbyterian in St. Louis, Missouri into your fold, along with her leadership, including her senior pastor, Greg Johnson. Before taking such action, I earnestly implore you to ponder the following four points as they reflect upon Dr. Johnson’s... Continue Reading
Feminism as a Critical Social Theory: Implications for Christians
The critical social theory that undergirds contemporary feminism must be rejected by Christians.
While women in many countries legitimately constitute an oppressed group that is consistently subjected to cruel and unjust treatment, this is not the case in most of the Western world. Affirming the proposition that “women in America are oppressed” requires us to redefine “oppression” not in terms of concrete unjust treatment, but in terms of... Continue Reading
WCF Chapter 25: Of the Church
There is no perfect church. But we also must strive for perfection living out all that Scripture teaches about the church.
Churches must teach and embrace the true gospel. More than anything we must know God’s grace for lost sinners. But not in a simplistic way, mindlessly repeated. We must leave the elementary, simplistic “doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity” in our gospel teaching (Heb. 6:1). Second, churches must properly administer the ordinances or... Continue Reading
God’s Image: Two in One, Two Become One
Our spiritual dimension is the fountain of what it means to be human. From it flow all our thoughts, desires, will, emotions, passions, choices, and love.
God’s priorities are different from the world’s. He encourages us to look and see the deeper undercurrents of beauty and the things that endure. It is there that one finds a prelude of the majesty to come. But marriage, Paul reminds us, is a picture of a far greater mystery—namely, the union between Christ and the... Continue Reading
A Personal Appeal to the SBC Messengers on the Law Amendment
The issue of female pastors has been a canary in the coalmine for many denominations—it’s the first domino to fall.
Southern Baptists appreciate the Baptist Faith & Message because we believe that it is an accurate summary of the Bible’s teachings. Thus, when state conventions openly defy the Baptist Faith & Message, they are defying our God’s Word. The authority and sufficiency of the Bible are functionally abandoned when the faithful are absent or fail... Continue Reading
Relevant, Old Paths
Biblical values are relevant in every generation.
Much of society is being overtaken by a youth-driven culture because we have neglected God’s call to train up the next generation of young people in the way they should go. If we are to redirect the current paths of young people, we must begin in the church by taking up the charge to come... Continue Reading
Know Thyself
Knowing your heart is harder than you think it is.
With our souls fogged by sin we are natural hypocrites; knowing ourselves is like trying to drive in a steamed-up car. Knowing the world is about as difficult. We see what we expect to see. Matthew Lee Anderson puts it like this: “We will not see if we do not want to see—and we will only see... Continue Reading
When the Desire to be Accepted Sets In
God should be the only Audience that we should please.
In Christ, there is nothing that we could ever do for our Father to disown us. The acceptance that we receive from the Creator and Sustainer of the universe should overshadow the acceptance that we try to achieve from other people whose opinion does not truly matter. At the end of the day, only God... Continue Reading
What Is Orthodoxy and Why Does it Matter for Christian Discipleship?
To be orthodox is to live into the truth of God’s full revelation in Jesus Christ.
The Bible, read with the creeds as a guidepost, focus us on the revelation of God made known in Jesus. Together, they keep us from falling into heresy (i.e. idolatry), so that our focus can be right, our praise directed to the God who called the people of Israel to be his own, and was... Continue Reading
What Does It Mean to Walk in the Spirit?
The giving of the Spirit comes at God’s initiative, but we must seek to be increasingly filled with the Spirit.
The Spirit is involved in everything needed for creation, salvation, growth, and the renewal of all things. But in all these activities, one thing is at the center of his essence and activity. The Spirit is God’s empowering presence. He isn’t merely omnipresent in a general sense; he’s present with us. The Spirit’s presence means... Continue Reading
Biblical Fathering: On Being Flexible
A biblical dad needs to be flexible by being willing to show how he feels and also willing to admit mistakes when he is wrong.
Fathers and mothers both need to have the flexibility that allows them to come to an agreement on rules and limits and clearly define them for the children. Doing so prevents the possibility of the kids playing one parent against the other. Our efforts to teach our children to obey both parents make it easier for... Continue Reading
A Christian Alternative to Optimism and Pessimism
Hope is a Christian Alternative
Both optimism and pessimism describe ways of looking at the future, and both are unhealthy in some respects. I’ll offer the lens of Biblical hope as a robust alternative. Hope is the eager expectation that God will keep his promises. This means that if we are to be hope-filled people, we need to know what God has... Continue Reading
The Lord’s Prayer and Our Weakness
How Christ has Given Us the Words to Say When We Don't Know What to Say
Even those who are black belts find it worthwhile to do the most white belt katas despite knowing the most rigorous moves and expert-level defenses. For the Christian the Lord’s Prayer finds a similar role. Whenever we get confused about how we can go about asking God for help the Lord’s Prayer is the perfect... Continue Reading
What are the “All Things” I can do in Christ?
“I can obey God’s revealed will, through him who strengthens me."
When the Christian life gets hard, we find God asking us to do things that we think are too hard. “I can’t”, we tell ourselves. “I can’t forgive that person”. “I can’t give God my money this week”. “I can’t submit to my husband’s petty requests”. “I can’t keep the Sabbath today”. “I can’t parent my disobedient child at the moment”. “I can’t deal with this difficult situation... Continue Reading
The Faithful Church’s Ever-Open Door
He has set open before them the doors to the heavenly temple.
This open door leads us into the heavenly temple, before the throne of God above, and, as Jesus works both in and through our worship, this is what gives our worship its meaning, its worth and its power. The Philadelphian church was not to consider itself worse off that the earthly temple had closed its... Continue Reading
The Moving Extravagance of Authentic Worship
Mary's Love
There are some, for sure, who make great displays of worship for their own recognition. But not the Marys among us. She was thinking of nothing but Jesus, and she cared not what others thought. Jesus knew, and as He did with the little children who had come to Him earlier, He didn’t rebuke true... Continue Reading
As for Those Rich in Books in this Present Age
Want to know of a good opportunity to be generous with that particular kind of wealth?
I read of the opportunity to send 30,000 good books for a groundbreaking African theological library. Central Africa Baptist University has been gifted a shipping container that can hold 30,000 books. These books will help establish the Paul Kasonga Theological Library, a vital resource for a continent awash in the prosperity gospel. We can send our gently-used... Continue Reading
Previously On…
A Devotional from Deuteronomy 1-3
Are you quick to forget like Israel? These stories are included to remind us that we are weak like they were. We are forgetful. We are disobedient. The next time you walk in a wilderness or are disciplined by the Lord, remember, that he was, is, and always will be your faithful God who remembers... Continue Reading
Christian Parents, Know What You Are Up Against
Pride Month is an aggressive attempt to catechize children into the sexual revolution.
When your 7-year-old asks this month, “Mommy, what does the rainbow mean?,” be ready with something like, “Well, honey, remember the story of Noah? The rainbow is God’s promise to never flood the earth again and a reminder of God’s covenant with His people. But some wicked people who hate God and His word are... Continue Reading
On the Worst Day of Your Life, Jesus has been Praying for You
While we don’t know what the day holds, Jesus does.
We, like Peter, are gloriously confident in our own faith and will. We are, in our minds, invincible to the lure of sin and the brokenness of the world. But we, like Peter, can take heart in the fact that while we don’t know what the day holds, Jesus does. And, amazingly, He’s been up... Continue Reading
Praying to the Father with Childlike Faith
Resting in the Heavenly Power of Heard Prayer.
We are not to think of God as this big grandpa-like figure handing out Werther’s Originals to his grandchildren; just kind of a benevolent super-star up above doting on his little ones. While we confess and gladly believe that the Lord loves us with all His might and grace, we also recognize in humble reliance... Continue Reading
Intinction
Dipping the Bread into the Wine: A Few Considerations
You can neither “crush” nor can you “drink” soggy bread. All the rich symbolism intended by Jesus as he deliberately separates the two symbolic elements from one another are lost. By the action of dipping the bread in the wine you have numbed the intended impact of both elements. Dipping the bread in the wine... Continue Reading
And They Will be Mine
The incomparable hope of belonging to God.
The distinction that exists between the righteous and the wicked is as wide as one side of the cosmos is from the other. The temptation is always to view it the other way, to see these parties like two disgruntled boy scouts bickering over who gets to steer the canoe. But the reality could not... Continue Reading
Decisive Moments: How a Horse Saved Orthodoxy
God worked to preserve the truth of who Christ is.
The sister of Theodosius, Pulcheria, was next in line to the throne. She was a supporter of the orthodox view of Christ’s two natures, and not only her, but also her husband Marcian. Her husband became the new emperor and he fairly quickly convened another ecumenical council to settle the issue of Eutychianism and other... Continue Reading
Deconstructing – But From What?
"Faith deconstruction is a postmodern process of rethinking your faith without regarding Scripture as a standard."
We would like to offer a solution that could bring the deconstructors right back to their senses if they will only accept it. They should put aside their rage, ask God’s forgiveness, and call on the One who purchased and provided redemption for all of us at His own expense. Deconstructionism is really just another... Continue Reading
Lessons from a Job Season
God Remembers
In the midst of a Job season, no matter how difficult, God is there. He is still in control. He is still on His throne as Creator and King of the universe. And if your faith is in Jesus Christ and His salvation, then you are secure in Him now and forever. I lift... Continue Reading
Love Doesn’t Trump God’s Moral Commands
True love is defined for us by God’s commandments.
Love 2.0 now means acceptance and celebration, and if one of God’s moral laws seems to oppose acceptance and celebration, then obviously the second great commandment to love-2.0 your neighbor should trump that law. In other words, now love 2.0 trumps actual love. The sad truth is that anyone who rejects God’s moral commands in order... Continue Reading