God compares his people to sheep. In ancient Palestine sheep “were totally dependent on shepherds for protection, grazing, watering, shelter and tending to injuries. In fact, sheep would not survive long without a shepherd. Sheep are not only dependent creatures; they are also singularly unintelligent, prone to wandering and unable to find their way to a sheepfold even when it is within sight”(Dictionary of Biblical Imagery). How we need a shepherd!

To those ruling elders, ministers, and concerned laity in the CRC, you established your boundary when you stood before God and the church and promised to uphold, teach, and defend the Word of God as confessed by the churches. If church discipline is your line (not a bad one, since its is one of the three marks of the true church in Belgic art. 29) then why does it begin only at the ordination of homosexuals or homosexual marriage? Why does it not begin with the ordination of females to ministerial office?

At times, doctrinal error propagates due to incorrect use of words in argumentation. Watts proposes several errors. First, when words are vague, overly-flowery, or have no idea associated (e.g. “[A]s when the mystical divines talk of the prayer of silence, the supernatural and passive night of the soul, the vacuity of powers, the suspension of all thoughts,” 188). The risk here is an acceptable imprecision of theological ideas and doctrines or a precision, but upon the wrong truth, both of which are entrances to error.

How can the virgin birth be an inconsequential spring for our jumping when it establishes the very identity of our Lord and Savior? If Jesus had not been born of a human, we could not believe in his full humanity. But if he birth were like any other human birth—through the union of a human father and mother–we would question his full divinity. The virgin birth is necessary to secure both a real human nature and a completely divine nature.

If I had spent as much effort in my life trying to convince myself to be more godly and obedient as I have spent trying to convince other people of some opinion of mine, I would be a very different man than I am.  And that’s why I always have the plank and the other guy... Continue Reading

One of the reasons so many Reformational Christians shy away from St. Thomas is because, during the Council of Trent, Thomas’ great Summa was set in the middle of the council and consulted often as Rome gave its conciliar canons and anathemas against the Reformation.  Since then, many lay Evangelicals have understandably wondered how a... Continue Reading

From Athanasius’s talk of ‘Ariomaniacs’ to Zwingli’s salvoes against Anabaptist fanatics, the rhetoric was always as high as the stakes involved, and rightly so. Indeed, I can think of no cardinal doctrine of the faith which was established through expressions of politeness towards error.  Yes, we must avoid slander and unnecessary meanness.  But we must... Continue Reading

“A crucial litmus test of the authenticity of our theology is where it ultimately leads us. Since God relates to us in the totality of our being – not merely as disembodied mind or spirit – then theology will always reflect those wider dimensions. God’s purpose for the church is that she may ‘be to... Continue Reading

“Dignity, by biblical definition, is tied to the biblical concept of glory. God’s glory, His weightiness, His importance, His significance, is what the Bible uses to describe the fountainhead of all dignity. And only God has eternal value and intrinsic (that is, in and of Himself) significance.”   As a Christian, I do not believe... Continue Reading

“Descriptions of God as just, merciful, wise, and true are accurate. But those words as such, no matter how artfully defined or movingly recited, don’t grip us the way that concrete stories demonstrating God’s justice, mercy, wisdom, and truthfulness do. And no story — that is, no historical event — puts God’s attributes more vividly... Continue Reading