The Coming Persecution
This trial isn’t just persecution against Päivi, it is persecution against Jesus and his Church.
LGBT ideology cannot co-exist with Christian theology. It cannot compete with the loving, hopeful, freeing gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it suppresses Christianity through persecution. It arrests Christians for preaching the gospel. It criminalises speech against homosexuality and transgenderism. And it charges people like Päivi Räsänen for quoting the Bible on social media. Don’t be... Continue Reading
Live Quietly and Eat Your Own Bread
A guest who stays to long or visits too frequently quickly wears out his welcome.
In frequenting the houses of others to find food, this lazy person would avail himself to the affairs of others, be a busybody, and thus live anything but quietly. Visiting a neighbor is like eating candy—it’s something fun, but one can have too much of a good thing. Proverbs 25:16 warns us not to indulge with... Continue Reading
WCF 9: Of Free Will
Understanding what Scripture teaches about the perfection of the will in glory is important. It keeps us from having unreasonable expectations here and now.
In contrast to natural man, converted people, said Augustine, are able not to sin. Why? God repairs our will. He doesn’t violate our desires. Rather, he “infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil will good…; he activates and strengthens the will” so that we can desire and live well.[i]... Continue Reading
The Problem with Jonah and Israel
A story of rebellion, captivity, and deliverance.
The account of Jonah was the story of Israel writ large. We’re rightly bothered by one of the Israel’s prophets who didn’t care about the perishing Gentiles and who failed to be light to them. The problem with Jonah, however, was the tip of the iceberg. Jonah’s problem was Israel’s problem. And judgment was coming—to... Continue Reading
Constantine’s Foil
How peace in Rome led to persecution in Persia.
Sometime before 325, the now-Christian Roman emperor Constantine wrote Shapur a letter, in which he encouraged the young shah to embrace Christianity.9 Constantine pointed out the presence of many Christians in Persia and urged Shapur to treat them well: “Now, because your power is great, I commend these persons to your protection; because your piety... Continue Reading
The Government Can’t Be Your Friend
God’s design for human connection is the key to what ails us … and it’s cheaper for the taxpayer.
Like a lot of political solutions, creating a government office to combat loneliness assumes human beings are less like God and more like problems to be solved. If we can just get the technique right, by setting up the right system at scale, we can “reboot” all these lonely humans back to their factory settings... Continue Reading
Christians Are Not Totally Depraved
Because of the power of salvation, our condition in Christ is not like our condition in Adam.
We have a new federal head, the bringer of everlasting pardon and life, the Lord Jesus. Through faith, we are united to Christ. And this union is not weak. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” In... Continue Reading
Review: Losing Our Religion
Sturm and Drang with little substance.
Losing Our Religion is an autobiography disguised as an indictment of evangelicalism, and not a very ecumenical one at that. Moore is not interested in convincing the reader. He does not make arguments but rather opts for emotive reflections, flippant diagnostics. It is a self-indulgent project and others of Moore’s sentiment and experience indicate the... Continue Reading
Worshipping God’s Way: Deuteronomy 12 and the Regulative Principle
Everything we do in public worship must have a biblical basis. We do that which is commanded.
God does not tell us to worship at 9 am or 10 am. He does not tell us how many songs we should sing in a service. He does not tell us how often we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper. He does not tell us every prayer we should pray or which instruments to use... Continue Reading
The Pro-Child Life
Three ways we love the littlest.
If anyone had good reason to shuffle past the children — “Sorry, kids, not now” — it was Jesus. No one had higher priorities or a loftier mission. No one’s time was more valuable. Yet no one gave his priorities or his time so patiently to those we might see as distractions. On his way... Continue Reading
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