What Does ‘Ex Nihilo’ Mean?
Unless that power of being is over us and prior to us, nothing could possibly be.
By what means did God accomplish the feat of creation ex nihilo? By His speech. Augustine called this the divine imperative or fiat. God spoke the words “Let there be” (Gen. 1:3, 6, 14)—meaning “There must be”—and things appeared. In the film Anna and the King of Siam, the king frequently says, “So let it... Continue Reading
There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
Costly, offensive, beautiful forgiveness.
Christianity is unlike any other religion. Not merely because it is true, but because it is beautiful. Yet it offends a man before it can save him. It tells him that he is dead in sin. It tells him that he’s a rebel. It tells him that unless he plunges himself underneath the flood of... Continue Reading
The Kind of Preaching the Church Needs
Like those in John 12:21 who came to Philip with a request, the church must demand of its preacher: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
It’s easy to find great stories, emotional manipulation, and cultural pandering in many pulpits today. It’s harder to find biblical preaching. A dear pastor friend will often exhort younger men to ask themselves this convicting question when assessing their approach to preaching: “Am I using the Bible to preach my message, or is the Bible... Continue Reading
From the Head to the Heart: The Motivation Behind Obedience
Successfully moving from only hearing to faithfully doing.
In order to be faithful doers of the Word, we need to think more deeply about the biblical nature of ethical instruction and how to cross the bridge from hearing to doing. Recognizing the bridge that connects our listening and acting will help those of us who read the Bible daily, listen to sermons weekly... Continue Reading
Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
God has chosen to use the foolishness of the cross and it’s preaching to save those who believe.
Natural man looks at the cross and the message of the Gospel and scoffs. However, when the Holy Spirit moves through the preaching of it, opening hearts to it, then the object of God’s love sees it as the most glorious wisdom. Then they see the wisdom of the world as the ultimate foolishness. ... Continue Reading
Covid, Christians, & the Civil Magistrate
In the U.S. and many other nations, if a magistrate sins or oversteps his bounds, the church can remind him of it.
Are the restrictions on certain aspects of corporate worship such as singing an Acts 5 situation worthy of civil disobedience? These kinds of questions are becoming more and more frequent in some contexts, at least in the United States. I am certain many are going to disagree with my thoughts on these issues. It may... Continue Reading
What Can We Learn about God from His Name?
God’s names reveal his nature, his attributes, or his work.
What does YHWH actually mean? After many past attempts and failures, it is now commonly agreed that the Hebrew word יהוה, represented by YHWH, does not in itself represent any other noun, adjective, or verb in the Hebrew language. It seems to have been coined to be God’s name, and only to be God’s name.... Continue Reading
No, the Woke Won’t Debate You. Here’s Why.
If you don’t yet understand this, you don’t know the fight we’re in.
Debate and conversation, especially when they rely upon reason, rationality, science, evidence, epistemic adequacy, and other Enlightenment-based tools of persuasion are the very thing they think produced injustice in the world in the first place. Those are not their methods and they reject them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked... Continue Reading
Christian Liberty, Christian Conscience
In regards to contemporary circumstances, what role should the conscience play?
Our conscience is placed within us as we are created by God in relation to other creatures. God governs this world by covenant relationship to His creatures, and by instilling a natural structure within us as we carry out our covenant obligations. Recent events have forced many Christians to re-consider the nature of their... Continue Reading
The Elusive Trait of Reasonableness
While being open to persuasion may in the short term lead to admission of error, in the long run it leads to growing in the ability to be right.
Reasonableness is a practical outworking of our finitude. We don’t have all the answers, we don’t have infinite knowledge, and we are sinners. In short, we can be wrong. We live in an increasingly polarized world. Everything is binary. Nuance is suspect. Taking time to understand another is tantamount to compromise. Entrenchment is seen... Continue Reading