“I remember sitting in prison, contemplating and even planning my suicide. I began to pray for the first time in a long time. I prayed that God would do something. I had lost everything. I got involved in AA and various drug programs and became substance-free. But I knew that still was not enough.”  ... Continue Reading

How does a Christian living in an aggressive world please God? In part, Paul says, by aspiring “to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands” (1 Thess. 4:11). It’s hard to imagine an Apostolic command that is more mundanely practical than this.   We live in a society marked... Continue Reading

Had we only this one case to which we could point to show the dangers of claims of extra-biblical revelation, it would be enough. Sadly, however, we have hundreds and probably thousands of cases to which we can easily point to show the dangers of claims of continuing revelation.   Introduction I am catching up Christianity... Continue Reading

If “the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh” (Galatians 5:17), then what could be more normal than for Christians to feel divided, split, torn asunder in our inner being—or as Ryle says, to feel that we have “two principles within us, contending for... Continue Reading

The Savior has taken away the sin of our hypocrisy by his sincere obedience. Who but Jesus could keep the commands of God with such sinless sincerity? Then, having perfectly done what he taught in absolute sincerity, Jesus left us with the most potent example to follow.   Jesus constantly warned about hypocrisy throughout his... Continue Reading

In a biblical worldview, Satan is out to deceive the nations, that’s Revelation 20. The church is out to disciple the nations. God says to Abraham, “if you follow me, I will bless you. I will make you a great nation.” But how would Abraham become a great nation? God says in Genesis 18: 18-19... Continue Reading

 If you follow Jesus you will have your sins forgiven. Your shame will be wiped away to be replaced by the Father’s smile on his beloved daughter, his beloved son. Your fears and afflictions from evil spiritual forces will be defeated by the victory of Jesus on the cross. But they are not the good... Continue Reading

Perhaps the price of elite evangelical respectability in the modern academy is adoption of the embarrassment reflex—understood as, in its deepest sense, a willingness to allow the idea of the “social” to displace that of the classically theological at the taproot of intellectual life. Such a displacement demands that evangelicals norm their theological claims against... Continue Reading

It’s tempting these days to see a secessionist movement coming out of the sharp divide between Trump and Biden supporters. But long before Trump ran for office, back when Biden was a grandfatherly senator and later vice president, state officials began acting as if their colleagues in other states were the moral equivalent of leaders... Continue Reading

Christ’s commission to make disciples is directly connected with his worship—making disciples is making worshipers of God through Christ, and the sincere worship of God’s people will help to draw more people in that communion.   After Jesus died and rose again, he appeared to his disciples and many others, beginning a short period of... Continue Reading