“Presbyleaks” From a Business Analysis Perspective
Using Business Analysis to assess “Presbyleaks,” the release of the National Partnership documents.
From a BA perspective, if the NP asked about how to go forward, I would advise it to publish a purpose and mission statement compatible with PCA officer vows, accept all such within the PCA who desire to participate in order to grow in their understanding of PCA polity and practices, and do away with... Continue Reading
Canadian Pastor, Who Faced Six Years in Prison, $600,000 in Fines for Holding Worship Services, Receives Small Fine
Pastor fined for conducting worship services inside and outside of the church building.
On January 20, 2022, Richardson was fined $3,000 (plus lawyers’ fees). In response to this court ruling, Richardson wrote on his Twitter account: “Thank you for your prayers. I have been overwhelmed at the outpouring of support in prayer that I have received in the last few days. Praise God for a wonderful outcome: That... Continue Reading
Brother-Theologians: Preach the Word
Theologians Need to Prepare to Preach
Brother-theologians, preach the Word! Labor to study the works of God (Ps 111:2) and tell of them before the congregation (111:1). Pursue the finer points of theology and learn how to communicate them to Christ’s bride. If you are graced with the chance to study theology, remember: It is not just for you! It is for the church. Therefore,... Continue Reading
West Lafayette [RPCNA] Pastor, Elders At Center Of IndyStar Investigation Resign
The pastor and three elders of the RPCNA in West Lafayette, Ind., have submitted their resigntions.
Earlier this month, the judicial commission announced Olivetti was required to “refrain from the exercise of office of teaching elder until the judicial process is complete.” At that time, the commission announced that charges had been dropped against two of the 2020 Immanuel elders, Zachary Blackwood and Nate Pfeiffer, who had since resigned their positions.... Continue Reading
Do We Know the Whole Truth About Evangelical Half Truth?
We all want truth and to be associated with it but sometimes we cannot handle the full truth or we think others cannot and so we only emphasise part of it.
If people are told only that God is a God of love without any mention of his holiness and justice (or vice versa), then are we telling them the whole truth about God? When the message “God loves you” is given as a substitute for the gospel with no real qualification or supplement it gives... Continue Reading
Distinctively Christian Retirement: A Biblical Call To Serve Jesus Well In Older Age: An Excerpt
If age and health issues are limiting factors for you, what might your service of Jesus look like?
Perhaps you are convinced that those who are older or who have health issues should be active in serving God, but you find it hard to picture what that looks like. After all, you might not be able to preach or lead a congregation or head to the mission field. If age and health issues... Continue Reading
Update On Supreme Court Appeal: Supreme Disappointment and Sovereign Trust
The root issue in the case was whether the government has the right to define who is or is not a minister.
Justice Neil Gorsuch made a strong statement supporting our request. He wrote, “This case may be a small one, and one can hope that the error here is so obvious it is unlikely to be repeated anytime soon. But I would correct it. Bureaucratic efforts to ‘subject’ religious beliefs to “verification” have no place in a... Continue Reading
Songs in the Night
When Jesus entered the dark night of His soul on Calvary’s cross, He had these psalms on His heart.
When Jesus entered the dark night of His soul on Calvary’s cross, He had these same songs on His heart. He quoted from the Psalms, expressing both His despair in the words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps. 22:1), and His hope when He finally said, “Into your hand I commit my... Continue Reading
How Paul Measured the Missionary Task
The taught word of God is primary.
Paul’s concepts of a “reached area” and the primacy of the taught Word of God can be a help to every church and pastor who are wrestling with how to effectively be about reaching every tribe, language, people, and nation. Is every sent one from the church to go to an unreached location, and is... Continue Reading
The Application of Scripture
What God demands of us is that we receive his word so that we are not conformed to this world’s way of thinking.
The most important application that preachers can make is to show how the text demands a particular pattern of thought that is then to be applied amongst the innumerable variables of life. Of course, only the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom can apply God’s word to the soul transforming the mind of the hearer.... Continue Reading
The Difficult Habit of Quiet
How often do we choose activity over quietness, distraction over meditation, "productivity" over prayer?
Our quietness says, “Without him, you can do nothing.” Our refusal to be quiet, on the other hand, says, “I can do a whole lot on my own” — and that feels good to hear. It just robs us of the real strength and help we might have found. God strengthens the quiet with his strength,... Continue Reading
The Blessings of a Confession of Faith
Confessions and creeds, while not bulletproof, can be extremely beneficial when used properly in the life of a Christian home, denomination, or organization.
When it comes to the local church, a confession of faith serves as a transparent advertisement as to where the church stands on important theological matters and can be extremely helpful for potential new members in the community. When people are looking for a church home, it’s important to define the church’s position on key... Continue Reading
What Does “Becoming Fishers of Men” Look Like?
Being fishers of men has much to do with human flourishing.
Jesus uses his authority (his power) in order to “fish men” out of the clutches of demonic oppression. He sets the on the bank and into flourishing. That is what it means to “become fishers of men”. And the disciples must learn this lesson. It isn’t about catching enough fish to sink your boat and... Continue Reading
Are You a “Judgmental” Christian? Good.
The goal in passing judgment then is dual-faceted, in that we point the believer back to the cross in the hope of their restoration.
What we should be looking for in correction of another believer is a pattern of sin, where the goal is one of restoration (Matt. 18:15; Gal. 6:1; Jd. 1:22-23). There are proper channels in which we are to do this in the life of the church (Matt. 18:15-20). We are likewise not to judge the unbeliever in... Continue Reading
Jesus Christ — The Israel of God
Jesus is the servant of YHWH and the true obedient son of God, Israel.
According to the New Testament writers (in this case, Paul), the prophecies of Israel’s future restoration are not fulfilled in a reconstituted national Israel, which appears after Jesus returns—as dispensationalists claim. The ramifications for this upon one’s millennial view should now be obvious. If Jesus is the true Israel of God, and if the New... Continue Reading
A Method for Self-Examination
The more we know God through His Word, the more we truly know ourselves.
Given that no one, by nature, likes to have their life laid open to someone else’s scrutiny, what gave David the courage and the confidence to allow himself to be scrutinized by God in this way? The only answer can be that in the midst of the glory of God to which he had been... Continue Reading
Christian Nurse Who Lost Job Over Cross Necklace Wins Lawsuit
It was astonishing that an experienced nurse, during a pandemic, was forced to choose between her faith and the profession she loves.
The hospital alleged that the necklace presented a health risk and disciplined Onuoha by demoting her to non-clinical duties. After she was given a final warning for failing to remove the cross necklace, she resigned in 2020 and sued Croydon Health Services, alleging it had violated her freedom of religion. A Christian nurse who... Continue Reading
The Freedom of Death
Seeing the Blessings of the Life to Come
We are made perfect in holiness at death. It is a freeing mercy without compare. All the pleasures of this life are nothing to that moment when the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit is complete. It is not a selfish thing to desire that beautiful blessing which we have in Christ. We all experience the corruption... Continue Reading
Only Christ Is Enough
When is anything ever enough?
If you have a relationship with Christ, the righteousness of Christ, and will be called to life at the resurrection by Christ, it is enough. And if you have the resolve of Christ to live by his power to face whatever comes, it is enough. Don’t yearn for more when Christ is all you need.... Continue Reading
Law Opposed to Law
The Puritans, including Thomas Manton, saw grace in law and law in grace, all while maintaining a rigorously Christ-centered Gospel of free grace.
The Covenant of Grace is a “law of the spirit.” The Spirit of God has instituted this covenant and applies it to the lives of men and women who believe. Manton said that Christ himself speaks of covenant in terms of spirit and truth. He says, “Not only because of its spiritual nature, as it... Continue Reading
Song of Songs: The Intoxication of True Love in its Time
The chief audience for the Song of Songs is the virgin daughters of Jerusalem, who are addressed all throughout the book.
Church history is filled with the debates over whether to read this book as an allegory of God’s love for his people or as a literal picture of human marriage. Frankly, I’m not convinced we have to choose only one of those options. If it’s not about human marriage, then the metaphors of God’s relationship with his... Continue Reading
Fame Among the Faithless
Proximity to famous ministers of the gospel is of little benefit to the soul if the Christ who is proclaimed by the minister is not believed in.
Let us not be content to know of Elisha in these chapters of Scripture. Let us not be content to know of Christ and His glory in the Scripture. There are many in that great day who may say Lord Lord did not we know these famous prophets of old and He will tell them to depart from Him.... Continue Reading
Burnout and Vocation
So what are the solutions to vocational burnout?
A caution, though, is in order. Economic vocations can easily change, and sometimes people in one line of work, which they find frustrating, can be called to another line of work. Some vocations, though, such as the family callings and the calling of the Gospel, are permanent. Dealing with the COVID epidemic has been... Continue Reading
Overtures 23 & 37: For Good Order & Sweet Ardor
Rather than the nurture of members or even the discernment for receiving members, both amendments address only the qualifications and examinations for office.
The rubric of Overture 23 is a common sense Presbyterian adaptation to our context. It does not promulgate a stricter sexual ethic or a narrower view of sanctification. It specifies qualifications for office exactly where they may well be misunderstood or challenged. Our society has largely and even unconsciously adopted new corrupt assumptions about homosexuality…... Continue Reading
We Are Not Home Yet
As believers, we are called by God to train our minds and hearts to firmly latch onto the biblical teaching that we are passing through this world as pilgrims and strangers.
The eternally glorious Son of God was treated as a stranger among His own people (John 1:10–11). But He came to make us heirs of the world to come. He came to fulfill the hope of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. He entered that state of sojourning to secure redemption for His people. He identifies with the... Continue Reading
The Vertical, Horizontal, and Inward Realities of Sin
Sin is never done in isolation. In fact, there are vertical, horizontal, and inward effects of it.
So sin is a lose (offends God), lose (hurts people), lose (hurts you). Nobody is perfect. But if we think more deeply about the multi-dimensional impact of sin, we’d be more eager to avail ourselves to the means of grace to grow in love for our Savior and hatred of our sin. Vertical (offends... Continue Reading
Critical Race Theory Program Teaches Disabled Preschoolers That “Whiteness Affects Everything”
preying on disabled 3-year-old children, getting them to participate in a political movement, and to hate themselves based on skin color in the process, shows our public schools to be more morally corrupt than all others.
The program explains to teachers that “we are all products of a racialized society” and that “Whiteness affects everything … inside and outside the classroom.” “When we use Clarifying Conversations we deconstruct whiteness,” according to the program’s training documents. “People experience compounded disadvantages or advantages as a result of intersectionality.” A program designed by the University... Continue Reading
Christian Platonism, Neoplatonism and Modern Naturalism
It should be clear that Platonism has at least some things in common with Christianity and that Naturalism is the common enemy of both.
Christian Platonism shares with Neoplatonism a hierarchical understanding of reality, the idea of teleology, and belief in a spiritual realm of reality on which the visible, material world depends. Modern philosophical naturalism rejects all these things. It insists that all that exists is what we can discover using our five senses and that our minds... Continue Reading
The Growth of Christianity in the World’s First Atheist Country
“When God wants to move, he’s going to move.”
In the space of three decades, nearly all of Albania’s officially atheist population claimed or reclaimed a religion—by 2018, self-identified atheists dropped to less than 1 percent of the population. People primarily sorted themselves into their family’s pre-communist religions—about 75 percent are now Muslim, 11 percent are Catholic, and 7 percent are Orthodox. While the... Continue Reading
Should We Preach with a Wider Audience in Mind?
Aim to help the people of whom God has sovereignly placed in your care and it will likely be fitting nourishment for a wider audience.
Newton genuinely loved his people. And they knew that he loved them. He wouldn’t use the pulpit to clobber them, to share their secrets, or anything of the sort. But he was often among the people and heard their hearts. This would inform his preaching. When he picked a text he likely had a conversation in... Continue Reading
