Old New Calvinism: The New School Presbyterian Spirit
Young people on college campuses and in seminaries are finding Calvinism to be an intellectually satisfying articulation of the faith, especially attractive in an increasingly anti-Christian American environment.
New Calvinism may not be as “new” as some suggest, but rather the latest installment of an older version of Calvinism which has had its unique expression among every generation of American Calvinists since the era of the colonial revivalists. In 2008, Christianity Today’s Colin Hansen, wrote a fascinating book, Young, Restless, Reformed: A... Continue Reading
The Cross and the Crown
The fundamental reason for the church’s very existence is the finished work of the crucified and risen Christ.
We are called to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, ascension, and intercession, and we are called to proclaim boldly His second coming, not merely through a personal testimony, but by the preaching of the Good News of Jesus Christ so that the lost might believe and so that we might rightly live coram Deo, before the face... Continue Reading
Should the Visible Church, as an Institution, Form and Express an Opinion on Political Violence?
Has Jesus Christ, as the only head of the church, authorized his church to make such statements?
Presbyteries, as an institution of the covenant of grace, do well to remember the limits of their competence and authority and to remember the Christian liberty of their members to disagree with the cultural, poltical, social, and economic opinions of her ministers and ruling elders. According to the PCA’s denominational magazine, By Faith, the Potomac Presbytery... Continue Reading
Endorse Religious Liberty
The Supreme Court has a chance to make clear that the Constitution does not permit, let alone require, the government to discriminate against expressions of faith.
Despite reiterating, in case after case, that the Constitution demands government neutrality toward religion, the Court has stubbornly failed to clear away an undergrowth of older precedents that arguably suggest the opposite. Bureaucrats and judges alike cling to these outdated precedents, using them to mask their confusion, ignorance, or outright animus toward religious believers and... Continue Reading
Elders in the New Testament—Elder and Overseer
Godly elders and overseers are a gift from God, empowered and equipped by the Holy Spirit himself.
While no elder or overseer on this side of death is perfect, we can see that God’s plan for his church is certainly a good one. God cares for his people with a zealous, faithful, promise keeping love. He provides and protects his church through supplying elders to serve. Thus far in our study... Continue Reading
Postmodernism’s Revenge
Postmodernism was dead. Until it wasn’t.
If God has not been gagged, and if the Spirit has been at work in the history of the church, let us not relegate and relativize the greatest theologians, preachers, and practitioners of the past based on our twenty-first century obsessions with race, gender, and sexuality. Texts have meanings (Matthew 9:12-13), and teachers are given... Continue Reading
The LORD Knows—Psalm 1:6
The LORD has numbered each hair, each heartbeat, each breath, of both the righteous and the sinner.
Even if Christ does not return for another millennia, each of us will surely see His face, in either grace or judgment, within the next century. But we certainly do long for the day when the very path to destruction itself will be destroyed. for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but... Continue Reading
Overcoming Doctrinal Pride
Theology doesn’t save you; Jesus does.
The Apostle Paul rightly warned that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor.8:1). Paul anticipates that you can understand much and not have it be real and powerful over your heart. Knowledge by itself can be a danger and a deception. Jonathan Edwards’ short essay on Undiscerned Spiritual Pride[1] is something that should... Continue Reading
Wisdom and Hope in Difficult Days: Reading Revelation in 2022
God’s people need the wisdom that God and the Lamb reveal, that we might rightly understand our situation and faithfully follow our Savior to the end.
We don’t read the news to decode Revelation’s mysteries. It’s the other way around: Revelation gives us profound resources to make sense of our world and live with wisdom and hope through difficult days. So beware the beast, follow the Lamb, and long for home. Come, Lord Jesus! This calls for a mind with... Continue Reading
Why the Dobbs Leak Is Dangerous
If the rule of law is to survive, Americans will need to maintain the Court as a functioning institution. The recent disclosure poses grave risks in that regard.
The leak of an entire draft opinion in the middle of deliberations in a vitally important case suggests…a desire either to bully or destroy the Court as an effective institution. After this episode, justices will feel less secure about the confidentiality of their deliberations and think twice about what they put in drafts. The work... Continue Reading
This Is Why We Sing
We must sing because of the aesthetic, instructive, and relational nature of music.
The Apostles desired that we would apprehend the truths of our faith together. They intended that the process of sanctification would be corporate. Through singing, we begin to enact this responsibility. Every verse is an articulation of truth, mediated through our fellowship with one another. Our choruses unite, and this is why we sing. ... Continue Reading
The Fiction of Managerial Effectiveness: Alasdair MacIntyre
It is important that we explore all the connections between enlightenment liberalism, personal autonomy, the idea of human rights, the idea of human progress, scientific thinking, technology, and the administrative state.
MacIntyre discusses why “managerialism” cannot provide a proper framework for a flourishing society: the idea of managerial effectiveness is dangerous fiction that will lead to social collapse. Many of those who express concern for the current condition of our society, as well as the trajectory it is on, tend to pour a lot of... Continue Reading
A Rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem?
A Look at Ezekiel's Vision in Chapters 40-48
Ezekiel’s vision is one not of an earthly temple (although the prophet uses earthly language his readers could readily understand), but of an eschatological temple, depicted in its consummated form and unspeakable glory by John in Revelation 21-22. In light of periodic calls to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple (Time to Rebuild the Temple?), the... Continue Reading
The Bible’s Strange Reasons for Generosity: to Prove
Does our giving reflect ultimate trust in God for his provision?
If we claim to be Christians and are stingy, we need to look in the mirror and ask if we really are Christians. Have we been changed by God’s generosity? Do we really believe the first reason: that generosity is a grace, an opportunity, given to us by our Savior? No one argues... Continue Reading
Dear Mrs. So and So
All human life has value and all human life should be protected.
You have freedom over your body, so long as your freedom does not impinge upon the rights of another human life. When it does, and the murder of an innocent human life in the womb (again, that is a scientific fact of genetics) certainly qualifies, then your rights must be limited, to protect the rights... Continue Reading
Homosexuality Comes to Church: Standing Firm in a Culture That Embraces Chaos
Over the past 50 years, homosexuality has been one of the most controversial topics among Christians.
The mainline denominations were riddled with theological liberalism, particularly in their view of Scripture. Theological liberalism doubted the Bible’s relevance for modern times and sought to make it more palatable for the modern man. When psychiatric professionals said homosexuality was healthy and normal, the push by theological liberals was to rethink the Bible in light... Continue Reading
This Article Is Not About Tim Keller
The ‘winsome, third way framework’ seems to view politics through the lens of evangelism, and thus in an apologetic mode.
What does this have to do with the winsome, third way framework? Well, as I argued in my piece, it seems to me that this framework tends to think about politics through the lens of evangelism, and thus in an apologetic mode. This gets expressed in the overwrought concern with how Christians are perceived by... Continue Reading
The Power of Slander: How We Are To Deal With Slander Part 3
How should we proceed when we are tempted to slander another?
Slander is a powerful evil. We should avoid slander, either speaking or hearing it. Our calling, far from slander, is rather to speak the truth in love. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Eph. 4:15).... Continue Reading
Murder Or Miracle In The Cathedral: Two Augustines!
Whenever anyone is “born again” or “born from above,” a miracle takes place, whether in a cathedral, a church, or anywhere else!
While enrapt in the progress of this mystery, I was suddenly jolted by a common misunderstanding of many relating to the need for conversion and what it means to be a Christian. Augustine of Canterbury may have been born an Anglican, but he could not be born a Christian. One may be born a Muslim,... Continue Reading
Learning to Forgive
Forgiving doesn’t mean we simply act like nothing happen, but means we cancel the debt the person who sinned owed us.
Those who have been forgiven by God of all their sins—past, present, and future—should be the ones most readily to forgive—no matter the severity of the sin. I understand the urge to hold a grudge. We’re all sinners so that is what comes most naturally. But when we remember we’ve been completely forgiven, we should... Continue Reading
Do Women in the Church Really Know God?
If we do not know our God then how can we call ourselves Christians?
Women are not inferior to men by Gods design. We have been made to have the knowledge and personal relationship with our God. As women, we need to get away from thinking we need women only books and Bible studies. Instead, lets realize that we are Gods children just as men as and should spend... Continue Reading
40 Random Pieces of Advice for the Christian Life
Distinguish between what is mandated by God and what is simply a matter of wisdom or prudence.
The Bible says nothing about date nights, the Billy Graham Rule, sleep training, and so on. Don’t hold strongly to what the Bible holds loosely (or vice versa). And that includes pretty much everything I’ve included in this article. Not every idea is worthy of an entire article. Hence, this one contain a long... Continue Reading
Of Stars and Black Holes
"Jesus called his people to be salt and light, to shine like stars in the world in their obedience to him."
Black holes are formed when stars die. They become like Dyson vacuums, sucking up all the mass and matter around them, exhibiting a gravitational pull so strong that even light particles cannot escape. A black hole’s existence is dependent upon the consumption of everything around it. Likewise, humanity’s selfish heart sucks up everything God created good... Continue Reading
The Balance of God’s Grace – Part 2
Grace has a call toward increasing Christlikeness, which we refer to as personal sanctification.
We desire to understand God’s grace in balance. If we only think of the comfort of God’s grace, we miss that grace has a direction and agenda. If we only consider the call of God’s grace, we end up being legalistic, list-oriented, and evaluating our relationship with God almost exclusively by our spiritual resume of service. Yet, both are... Continue Reading
Elders in the New Testament: Occasional Letters
Elders are involved even in the training and launching of others into Christ-honoring ministry.
The Christian elder in the first century church had responsibility to serve under Christ’s authority, caring for the people of Christ, providing Godly conflict resolution, decision making, teaching, preaching, administrating, praying, serving the sick, and diligently working up a Christ-like sweat while seeking the good of Christ’s people. Last post we began to discuss... Continue Reading
Practical Ways to Teach Your Children to Pray
Your attitude about prayer is important in building a foundation of prayer for your children.
Remember to model for them, but also give them opportunities to pray alongside you. James Dobson rightly concludes, “There is nothing more important than parents passing on a generational legacy of faith and values to their children.” When you teach your children to pray you are giving them a greater opportunity for a close relationship with God. ... Continue Reading
Judge Not
We are not to hold one standard for ourselves and another standard for someone else. That’s called hypocrisy.
In a Christian family it is not only the children who must abide by the law of God but the parents must as well, even though they are the ones who exercise discipline. We are all sinners in need of grace. None of us occupies the high moral ground. Any judgment on our part must be... Continue Reading
Defective Evangelism
The chief work of the evangelist, is to preach upon SIN.
As Christ’s salvation is a salvation from sin, from the love of it, from its dominion, from its guilt and penalty; then it necessarily follows, that the first great task and the chief work of the evangelist, is to preach upon SIN: to define what sin (as distinct from crime) really is, to show wherein its infinite enormity consists,... Continue Reading
Faith in Princes
Elon is neither your enemy nor your savior.
I don’t think he’s trying to fool us about what he believes, and I don’t think we’re fooling ourselves, either. The friends of freedom always have to build coalitions. Those coalitions always come with risks, some of them severe. But we take them knowingly because we understand this fallen world, and because we are not... Continue Reading
The Push to Normalize Infanticide
There must be justice for the five babies whose remains were recovered from Cesare Santangelo’s abortion business, and the legislative efforts to legalize infanticide in California must be stopped.
Thankfully, some states (18) have their own laws requiring medical care to be given to abortion survivors; however, D.C. has no such law. This fact makes it even more necessary that the D.C. medical examiner perform an autopsy on the five babies found to determine if they suffered an illegal abortion or an act of infanticide. ... Continue Reading
