Where Will its Stand on the Six Days of Creation Lead the PCA?
How did the PCA, with only 170 out of over 900 elders dissenting, decide that something other than the six 24 hour days of creation view was acceptable?
Throughout history, the church has read Scripture as reporting a God-created creation that occurred over six 24-hour days (or instantaneously, in at least one instance) within the last several thousand years. From the church fathers through Augustine (instantaneous creation), Aquinas, the Reformers (including Calvin), the Westminster Divines, and the post reformers, this has been the... Continue Reading
How to Discern Biblical Truth
As we spend more time in God’s word studying it, reading it, listening to it, and memorizing it, we fine-tune our discernment muscles.
Discernment is more complicated than simply checking out the endorsements or letting someone decide for us who is good and who isn’t. By discerning, we have the opportunity to grow. We have the opportunity to become more rooted in what we believe. This is the kind of noble discernment the Bereans had, and it is... Continue Reading
Sanctification: Besetting Sins
Sin is sin.
There are plenty of places in the New Testament that speak of sin as a “principle” operating within us or as a specific violation of the law of God, but we cannot find any other support for the idea that there is a unique sin in each believer’s life that is somehow more powerful than... Continue Reading
John Bunyan and Pastoral Calling
Bunyan and the Puritans understood the high calling of the pastorate and were eager to protect the office.
If God called a man into the pastorate, the Puritans believed his life would display certain characteristics that confirmed this calling. A survey of Puritan writings on the subject reveals that the Puritans did not elevate one aspect of calling above the rest but rather sought a confluence of characteristics that demonstrated God’s wise hand... Continue Reading
David Bentley Hart’s Lonely, Last Stand for Christian Universalism
A Review of "That All Shall Be Saved"
These pages breathe an atmosphere of weary resignation. Hart depicts himself as a lonely battler for the truth of universalism—which hardly seems to be the case, given that many academic theologians today share his views. Here’s another oddity: the total absence of joy in this book. Someone who is genuinely convinced that everyone is finally... Continue Reading
Why We Always Leave
We’re always on the move, restless, vaguely chasing something rather than oriented to a destination.
We leave because we’re looking. For something. For someone. We leave because we long for something else, something more. We leave to look for some piece of us that’s missing. Or we hit the road to leave ourselves behind and refashion who we are. We hit the road in the hope of finding what we’re... Continue Reading
A Biblical View of Race(s)
The Church triumphant will be comprised of people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
We can rightly acknowledge the differences that exist between us, and we can rightly acknowledge that some “races” or “kinds” have historically been mistreated by others. If we focus solely on the unity of the human race and deny the existence of different “races” or “kinds” of people, we may well minimize the very real... Continue Reading
The History of the Reformation
The Reformation revolved around two pivotal issues: Sola Fide (“justification by faith alone”), and Sola Scriptura, the Bible alone has the authority to bind the conscience of believers.
In our day we have seen a revival of interest in the Bible and a renewed commitment to the authority and trustworthiness of Scripture. But the Reformation was more than a doctrine about the Bible. It was sparked by a deep and serious study of the Bible. It is not enough to extol the virtue... Continue Reading
A Plea to Reconsider the Influence of Governors’ and Superiors’ Sabbath Example
Can believers practice the Lord’s Day in an activity-filled culture?
Pastor Grayson’s “sort of channel” is the very boundary we need most of all, the gracious institution of one day a week in which we are called by God to cease from that which occupies our time and energy on the other six days, especially for the purpose of corporate worship under the ministry of... Continue Reading
Why the Ascension Was Important for Your Salvation
The ascension is the key to the salvation narrative.
As our perfect high priest and spotless lamb, Jesus (and Jesus alone) was capable of ascending the hill of the Lord in order to stand in God’s holy place. In the second half of Psalm 24, David rejoices because the “king of glory returns from the battle victorious” (24:7-8). Jerusalem is to open its gates... Continue Reading