In 1861, the Civil War began in earnest. Most northern cities experienced outburst of enthusiasm for the war. That enthusiasm often took the form of young men—whole neighborhoods of young men at times—enlisting in the Federal Army. Plumer avoided politics entirely in the pulpit and in his writings. Although a native of the North, he... Continue Reading

“In church history people have disagreed as to what justification is, and the purpose of this chapter is not to restate all the data for the Reformation’s view of justification as the biblical view. Numerous books have argued this case, along with other chapters in this book. Instead, I assume that the Reformation’s view of... Continue Reading

Thirteen years later, the church has grown, and so have the people. I sat with the pastor and listened over coffee to what God has been doing. It’s still messy. It’s still an almost invisible church. The room can hold a hundred no matter how they configure the church. You would probably never visit that... Continue Reading

During my cage-stage, I found a whole new world of Christianity that had been there all along that I was previously too blind to see, and it was wonderful. But there was a downside too. I had a few arguments, not too many though. I poked fun at Arminians and open-theists, and if anything broke... Continue Reading

Most school children are taught that the Enlightenment was a time in which science finally shook off the fetters of the church and archaic superstition. Copernicus and Galileo are lauded among the myriad of intellectual martyrs as they tried to distinguish science from philosophical and theological presumptions—the David of facts and evidence pitted against the... Continue Reading

There are two enormous problems with this interpretation. First the ancients, including those who lived in Ephesus in the first century, didn’t think of time the way we do, as an asset to be squandered or spent wisely. That is entirely a modern, and more precisely western, conception of time. I would add, it seems... Continue Reading

I written about him before, about reading his letters, about godly speech, about hearing sermons, and about pride among preachers. Newton is special, and he makes me think, but I love him more because he communicates in such a way that makes me want to be more like Jesus. As he said of another preacher, “he not only informed... Continue Reading

Fundamentally, the gospel itself makes sobriety an imperative (cf. Titus 2:12), which also explain why Christians are exhorted towards sobriety in light of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus (cf. 1 Peter 4:7). However, of what sort is this spirit of sobriety?   In my previous post, I discussed how patience (along with the closely-related virtues of... Continue Reading

We are glad to read a statement like this one but frankly we don’t get overly excited about it. After all, it doesn’t tell us much.  It says that God desires that we be devoted to him and so be separate from sexual immorality, which is really the focus of sanctification at this point in... Continue Reading

In basing their entire lives on sola scriptura, though, Luther and Calvin never devolved into nuda scriptura (“naked Scripture”). Rather, they believed that we read the Bible in community, learning from other sinners — alive and dead — how to understand the teachings of Scripture better and how to correct the blind spots in our biblical interpretation. Tradition... Continue Reading