In God’s hands, fire and force can be used for a number of “drosses,” “impurities,” and “excesses”….But His purpose is always the same: separation for purification.   Last week, we explored the rich and ancient nuances behind Jesus’ renowned metaphor: “You are the salt of the earth”—7 to be exact. In biblical times, salt carried... Continue Reading

Love Thy Body is an extended consideration of what a Christian ethic of the body is. Pearcey contrasts the Christian and the dualistic contemporary Western understanding of the body. She then navigates how these distinctive views of the body play themselves out in everything from abortion to euthanasia to understanding gender and sexuality.   Who... Continue Reading

The Church does not need more people trained to scan for wolves. She needs shepherds who feed sheep, guard the fold, and correct error without turning the flock into spectators of accusation.   Discernment is biblical; the way we’ve professionalized it is not. When correction detaches from shepherding, exposure replaces formation, and platforms become rival... Continue Reading

If justification occurs at a moment in time, as Scripture clearly teaches, our self-righteousness and fear of condemnation are eliminated simultaneously as God, at the first moment of faith, declares us righteous apart from our works.   It has been said that justification is the article by which the church is standing or falling. This... Continue Reading

Ultimately, the authors invite the reader to do what they themselves have done—to test the claims of Christianity and to enjoy the wonders of this world through the lens of one who sees the existence and attributes of God displayed in the things He has made.   Whatever else young people know today, they know... Continue Reading

The righteous run to the name of the Lord. They run to who He is, not just what He does. They anchor themselves in His character….His name is strong. His name is holy. His name is enough.   The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is... Continue Reading

God loves the person He created you to be, and He hates what sin has done to you. His compassion toward you is matched by His relentless opposition to the disease that enslaves you.   The refrain has been repeated often enough over the past 50 years that it now passes for common sense: The... Continue Reading

Disestablishment by the middle of the 19th century led to an ecclesiocentric order in the South, where practical secularism had been the norm during the Enlightenment-influenced 18th century. In the 19th century South, secular politics created the conditions for a disestablished dominion of unparalleled ecclesiastical socio-political influence.   What did the Presbyterians who met in... Continue Reading

It is good to know–especially when facing the next world–that for every time we have failed to conform to God’s will in thought, word, and deed, by actively sinning or failing to conform to His revealed will, His Son has fulfilled the obedience that we owe.    Dismissing his doctor’s orders, J. Gresham Machen, beaten... Continue Reading

We should follow the example of Christ himself, actively engaged as salt and light in the world, contending for the faith and engaging the culture—with an eye towards restoring the culture—all from a distinctively Christian worldview.   In 2010, sociologist James Davison Hunter—perhaps best known for coining the phrase “culture wars”—published To Change the World:... Continue Reading