Should Self-Described Homosexuals Hold Office in the PCA?
If unnatural sexual desires characterize a man such that he thinks he should publicly identify with them, then he is not fit to hold office in the church.
If a man feels honestly compelled to describe himself as a homosexual Christian, and the description is accurate, we heartily commend his honesty and desire to help him overcome this sin, but he is not qualified to hold office in the Presbyterian Church in America. If, however, homosexual lust no longer dominates a man, he... Continue Reading
The Danger of a Good Reputation
Jesus often behaved and spoke in ways that some of our more pious brethren would consider “un-Christlike.”
If the prophets of the Bible were to appear on the scene in our day they would be lectured on winsomeness and shipped off for a Dale Carnegie re-education course. The court prophets of Evangelicalism would write long-winded think pieces against such “troublers of Israel,” in which they opine, “If only these Tishbites would stop... Continue Reading
Pride and Humility
We need to gain a clearer understanding of pride and humility and of how to forsake the one and embrace the other.
Developing the identity, attitude, and conduct of a humble servant does not happen over night. It is rather like peeling an onion: you cut away one layer only to find another beneath it. But it does happen. As we forsake pride and seek to humble ourselves by daily deliberate choices in dependence on the Holy... Continue Reading
Replanting Our Churches
The coronavirus exposed a massive discipleship gap in nearly every church in America.
The discipleship gap in our churches has been exposed. What are we going to do about it? The more robustly we can connect our church re-planting efforts to making actual disciples of Jesus Christ, the deeper and wider and healthier our churches will be as we launch into the future. Every church in America... Continue Reading
Why “Cool Church” Is No Longer Working with Millennials and Gen Z
So, what do they want? Depth.
To lead a generation with no biblical background or common knowledge, the church must assume just that: that there exists a fundamental need to provide Bible teaching and basic doctrine. We must lay the foundation. I am a Millennial. I almost left church. For me, the exodus of Millennials and Gen Z leaving the... Continue Reading
The Dismantlers
San Diego public schools want to overthrow “heteronormativity” and promote “genderqueer,” “non-binary,” “pansexual,” and “two-spirit” identities.
To divide the world into man and woman and to encourage the development of families and children is not “oppression,” but a basic process of human nature—one that should not be discarded under the false pretenses of academic postmodernism. San Diego Unified is the latest school district to adopt the principles of academic queer... Continue Reading
Gates
The gate symbolizes the city itself; it represents the people, culture, status, prominence, and life of the city.
Two kingdoms…the one besieged, built of death and darkness and protected by a great barred gate; the other triumphant, built of living stones and surrounded by wide-open gates, beckoning the multitude to enjoy its peace and light. Pretend for a moment that you, like Simon Peter, are an ordinary and faithful Jew, awaiting the... Continue Reading
What the Early Church Can Teach Us about Living in This Strange New World
Engaging in cultural warfare using the world’s tools, rhetoric, and weapons is not the way for God’s people.
The Apologists and Augustine both offer a vision of the church in a hostile culture that calls on the church to be the church and on Christians to be constructive members of the wider society in which they are placed. Some might respond that failing to engage in aggressive and direct confrontation looks rather like... Continue Reading
An Open Letter With A Broken Heart to My Beloved Church
After close to 8 years as member of this church, I began seeing changes in our preaching and worship that were detracting from the message of God's free grace.
[Editor’s Note: This is a letter from a member to her church explaining the reasons she left a church she loved after being a member for eight years. We are publishing the letter anonymously to avoid publicly impugning anyone’s integrity and to allow the content of the letter to be read on its merits.] I... Continue Reading
Kingdom Race Theology: Is This God’s Plan or Something Else?
Dangerous definitions serve as the foundation for KRT.
The ideas that serve as the foundation of Kingdom Race Theology are dangerous and destructive. When paired with the challenges evident within the SBC, this work will take Southern Baptists in a dangerously leftward direction. KRT lacks biblical definitions of anthropology. It applies partiality to ethnic hatred—assuming that only whites (the group with power) can express... Continue Reading
Minority Reports, CCB, & the SJC – Part 1: The Parliamentary Rules
Reasons why any minority within the Committee on Constitutional Business (CCB) has the right to submit a minority report to the PCA General Assembly.
While RONR acknowledges that “Each society decides for itself the meaning of its bylaws,” the next sentence gives an important qualification: “When the meaning is clear, however, the society, even by a unanimous vote, cannot change that meaning except by amending its bylaws” (RONR [12th ed.] 56:68). I have argued in this article that... Continue Reading
The True and Better Leonardo
Just as a Leonardo worked on the Mona Lisa, so too is God working on us all our lives.
Rather than taking a blank canvas and layering paint drop by drop, he takes a soiled heart, made hard by sin, and softens it, reworks it, in fact, remakes it into his image. His art is not of the kind to hang on a wall for admiration. It’s the kind that stands in the hall,... Continue Reading
If I Was the World’s Only Christian…
It gives me confidence to know there are some Christians who are fantastically wealthy and some who are extremely poor, but that both have entrusted themselves to the same Savior.
If I was the world’s only Christian, or the world’s only kind of Christian, I would have good reason to question my faith and to doubt its validity. But it’s beautifully and wonderfully true that our God is the God of all kinds of people and that he is building a kingdom of young and... Continue Reading
Where Mercy and Justice Meet
When justice is what we deserve, mercy pardons.
“What does the Lord require of us? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8). Here justice, mercy and humility are all introduced as the Lord’s requirement. Picking and choosing our preference is not presented as an option. We’ve all seen it. Two believers squaring off... Continue Reading
Making Use of the Visible Signs
Just as one couldn’t sacrifice a heifer himself in the backyard in the OT, it’s not right to take communion in your living room in front of the TV.
When it comes to the sacraments there are a few things necessary, including faith, to bring the full measure to bear on your soul. First of all you need to have a lawfully called minister of the gospel applying the visible signs of God’s covenant blessings. This year at Synod the ARP Church made it clear... Continue Reading
Reading the Bible as a Covenantal Document
Meredith Kline argues that biblical canon must be read holistically as a treaty-canon.
It can be seen that the foundational treaty form which was adopted in the Mosaic covenants anticipated in its composite pattern the subsequent development of the Old Testament. The treaty form was a remarkable documentary epitome of the whole covenant relationship. One of the prominent features of contemporary historical criticism is to dissect the... Continue Reading
Overnight Fire Destroys Historic PCA Church In Oxford- UPDATE
College Hill PCA in Oxford, Miss., destroyed by fire
A fire destroyed College Hill Presbyterian Church in Lafayette County overnight Saturday [August 13, 2022]. The church is a part of the Presbyterian Church in America. The church, located at 339 Co Rd 102, burned for more than three hours, according to reports. Crews from the Lafayette County Volunteer Fire Department and Oxford Fire Department... Continue Reading
Romans 8: Christ is Our Life
We cannot lose our salvation and we cannot lose the presence of the Holy Spirit. To have the Spirit dwell within you means to have Christ forever!
Though our outer-self is wasting away, our bodies decaying and dying, nonetheless in Christ we have true life, life everlasting, and unending spiritual life. God has not left us for dead but has sent his Son to enter into death on our behalf, and in his resurrection, pull each of those for whom he has... Continue Reading
Letters to the Seven Churches: To the Church in Ephesus
Yes, remain faithful to the truth, but don’t lose the depth of your first love for Jesus.
When someone loses a loved one, do they get calls and cards of sympathy? Are meals prepared and baby-sitting provided when someone gets sick? When someone loses a job, do people in the church help them find a new one? When someone stops attending church, do they get calls from concerned members who miss them?... Continue Reading
Conservatism and the Reformed Doctrine of Covenant
Broad Conservatism, at the human level, encapsulates the attitude of one who believes he has something, deeply tied to his identity, that is worth defending and holding fast to.
The best of Conservatism has a place for the family and of the families’ education as a principle mechanism of the conservation of the good and the transmission of knowledge. Reformed Theology, likewise, maintains that the children are a vital part of the covenant life who are members being trained up for the conservation of the... Continue Reading
I Remember Your Name in the Night, O Lord | Psalm 119:55
We ought to have God’s name in mind whenever we are most alone.
We ought also to remember God’s name whenever night falls upon the soul, whenever sorrows or trials seem to have obscured the very light of God’s face. In such moments, we are to remember God’s character as expressed by His holy name. Today, we are to remember particularly that we now call God our Father because of... Continue Reading
Shepherding with Hospitality
3 benefits come to the congregation when its pastors and elders open their homes to the flock.
Hospitality furnishes family. In this broken world of ours, the poor, the stranger, and the widow often live in isolation. When elders provide hospitality to folks such as these, they learn that they are truly regarded as brothers and sisters in God’s house. All Christians are to practice hospitality (Heb. 13:2). But elders are... Continue Reading
Be Gone gods of Wood and Stone!
Seeing Rest and Peace in the One and Only Living LORD
We desire power. Authority. The right to determine that which is good and holy. Problem is that this belongs to One, the One. Try as we may to rest it from Him it’s like a short man trying to punch a tall man. As long as the reach factor exists the vertically challenged individual will... Continue Reading
Salt
Words seasoned with salt never compromise the truth because they preserve and reflect the purity of the gospel, but they need not be harsh, strident, or unkind.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus urged His disciples to have salt in themselves (Mark 9:50). This exhortation occurs at the end of various warnings about sin and temptation that conclude with the solemn reminder that a day of judgment lies in the future when “everyone will be salted with fire” (v. 49). Christ’s followers... Continue Reading
For Believers Who Find Themselves in Darkness
When we are in this dark, benighted state, we want light.
We want the clouds to part and the light of God’s countenance to shine into our souls to show us where we are, and what we are, and make it clear that we are still interested in the love of the Father, the blood of the Son, and the teachings of the Holy Ghost. It is... Continue Reading
Eagles’ Wings
The eagle is portrayed in Scripture as a source of heavenly deliverance, an image of youth, vitality, and freedom, and a picture of heavenly glory and triumph.
He comes in judgment against His enemies, none can withstand Him. He swoops in against His prey, swift, fierce, and strong, and none can deliver. When He secures an eternal home for His people and covers them with His protection, we are safe indeed. None can harm us there. When He elevates and upholds our... Continue Reading
The Filthy Will Be Filthy Still
His word remains true. The time will come for every living person when they will not be able to ignore their impurity.
In scripture, the idea of gnashing teeth does not only mean anguish but also hatred. They will continue to hate God for all eternity, but because they are separated from their creator, they will hate themselves too. Their self-deception will have come to an end. To paraphrase Albert Barnes, nothing more awful can be imagined. Their polluted soul will be fixed as nothing... Continue Reading
Don’t Sacrifice Your Children
The degeneracy of public education is manifest.
To all the Christian parents who still have your kids drinking from the filthy waters of public education, you also need to repent. Stop sending your children to Baal. Stop sending your children to Caesar. Go and get your kids and give them the education they deserve. Christian children have a right to a Christian... Continue Reading
You Are Welcome to Have Your Faith as Long as You Don’t Really Believe It
Those who tell you to stop pushing your beliefs are happily pushing theirs.
The truth is, ALL law is ultimately based on someone’s morality. And everyone wants their particular morality to have some sort of legislative enforcement. Even atheists and secular humanists do. In fact, they push their worldviews and morality on us all the time, even suing people and taking religious folks to court, and so on. If... Continue Reading
Civil Duties
What are our obligations as Christian citizens in the midst of all this?
We must not insult our leaders in our speech nor fight with them. We must forbear them under their heavy responsibilities and with their human weaknesses. We must be gentle and kind. While respectfully contending out of our convictions, we must yield to their leadership whenever we can do so without sin. As with everyone,... Continue Reading
