Is death now our friend? Or is it still our foe? For believers, death is a friend insofar as it ushers us into the immediate presence of Christ. But insofar as it is still coupled with much suffering, it remains the last enemy that must be totally vanquished.    “Halt! Who goes there?” Such might... Continue Reading

One former moderator of the General Assembly characterized this year as the “Pitchfork Assembly,” because of the outrage in the pews related to some of the events of recent years in the PCA. This is both cause for prayers of thanksgiving (i.e. that people in the churches are willing to sacrifice to send their elders... Continue Reading

Whatever we’ve been doing isn’t working. Even granting that the temptation in moments like these is to overstate the frequency of mass killings, the fact remains that the social and spiritual condition of young American men accords perfectly well with their ascendant role in these horrific events.   Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, was thirty-six... Continue Reading

The Westminster Confession of Faith summarizes, “there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent” (WCF 15.4), no matter the sin, Christians can always approach God with confidence in His compassion. When we confess our transgressions, we can trust that in God’s compassion He will forgive us.   Throughout... Continue Reading

We have set this scene, yet when the predictable script plays out, we ask, “Why do we keep letting this happen?” Neither rifle bans, tougher background checks, nor any other “do something!” policy aimed at mass shootings will actually stop the carnage.    As the country reels over the Texas massacre, where 19 children and... Continue Reading

If you need the worlds of sports, entertainment, education, media, and government to celebrate your sexuality in order to feel proud, maybe your conscience is trying to tell you something. Might it be that deep down—behind the torrent of rainbow flags and the blitz of billionaire sponsors—God is speaking to us a different word?  ... Continue Reading

Pure is a good and helpful book that insightfully analyzes the shortcomings of the purity movement and offers a much better, much more compelling, and much more biblically-grounded vision for singleness, dating, marriage, and sex.    Do you remember the purity movement? Or perhaps it’s better to ask this: How could you possibly forget the purity... Continue Reading

It seems that Evangelicalism is destined to divide into two divergent streams in the twenty-first century, one Protestant and one sectarian. The gap is destined to grow ever wider because one stream is tethered to the past whereas the other has slipped its moorings and is destined to drift endlessly.    Evangelicalism in the twenty-first... Continue Reading

Gender ideology denies the goodness of the male-female binary and praises all deviations from that binary. This way of thinking implies that intersex conditions are not a terrible affliction to be borne, but actually a blessing to be desired.    The term “intersex” describes a small percentage of people who are affected by a congenital... Continue Reading

We may rightly regard Calvin as a hero of the faith, but he didn’t ultimately see himself that way. Humility had taught him to walk modestly before God and others—and, in the end, the freedom to lie down in a forgotten grave.   On May 27, 1564, just after eight o’clock in the evening, a... Continue Reading