What Corrie ten Boom Taught Me about Suffering
In some of the darkest, most evil circumstances in human history, Corrie planted her feet on the firm foundation that is Jesus Christ.
Corrie ten Boom and her family boldly risked their lives to hide Jews in their home during World War II. After betrayal by a fellow Dutch citizen, they were sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Corrie was the only member of her family to survive the horror. “I could never do what she did,”... Continue Reading
The Universalistic Passages
God is the absolute sovereign Ruler of heaven and earth, and we are never to think of Him as wishing or striving to do what He knows He will not do.
Arminians insist that in II Peter 3:9 the words “any” and “all” refer to all mankind without exception. But it is important first of all to see to whom those words were addressed. In the first verse of chapter 1, we find that the epistle is addressed not to mankind at large, but to Christians:... Continue Reading
The Apostles’ Creed: The Resurrection & the Life
The “resurrection of the body” reminds us that to be fully human is to be soul and body.
When I stand and read these words with my brothers and sisters on a Sunday morning, each sentence in the Creed encapsulates so many vital truths of scripture. This often moves me to tears as I reflect on who God is and all that He has done. But of late, the last statement has been... Continue Reading
Defeat and Victory in the Church
Paul;s outrage was grounded in the public shame the church had to endure.
The judges of Corinth did not share in the common faith of the early believers and did not belong to the covenantal community. But what led up to this lawsuit? In the same verse, Paul states that neither party was willing to be wronged. The first mark of a church in defeat is when believers... Continue Reading
Like A Beast
If you allow yourself to believe that lasting fulfillment can be found in the comforts of the physical world, then your everyday life will be a hot pursuit of pleasure.
If we don’t protect our heart, we can function with a distorted worldview. This world was never designed to satisfy us, but we ask it to. People won’t submit to the law of our kingdom for very long, but we try to force them. Circumstances won’t obey our commands, yet we are surprised when they... Continue Reading
The Twofold Obedience of Christ
“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”
Believers’ union with Christ means that “in Christ Jesus” we are considered to have the same (perfect) “wisdom . . . , righteousness . . . sanctification, and redemption” that Christ possesses. This does not mean that we possess these attributes in our personal existence on earth. Instead, we are represented by Christ as becoming these things because of our... Continue Reading
How Should We Understand Genesis 3:16b Looking Through The Lens of Song of Song? (Part 3)
To understand how God hates abuse and why he gives incentives to encourage husbands not to abuse their wives, both the OT and NT must be interwoven and overlaid.
Lust is the fruit of worshiping self-absorption. Lust breaks the marriage Covenant. Lust commits the waywardness sins of horizontal and vertical alienation; it’s an act of disobedience. God’s Word, as spoken to us in Song, should now convince every husband and wife that marital sex is the greatest thing ever! What man would ever want... Continue Reading
‘Male and Female He Created Them’: Men, Women, and God
Although modern science emerged from a Christian worldview, many modern scientists have worked overtime to explain creation without reference to a Creator.
“The scientist’s pursuit of the past ends in the moment of creation…. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final... Continue Reading
Why Not All at Once?
There are some benefits that precede others in the order of the application of the redemption accomplished by Christ.
Reformed theologians have commonly insisted that regeneration precedes faith and faith precedes justification, adoption and sanctification. An unregenerate man or woman cannot and therefore will not believe in Christ. John Murray explained the rationale for insisting on a priority of calling to faith and of faith to justification. Christ, by his perfect life, atoning death and resurrection... Continue Reading
The Apostles’ Creed: The Holy Universal Church
Some churches have avoided the creed entirely because of this one line.
The word “catholic” in the creed is not a subversive cheer for Roman Catholicism. It describes, rather, the unity of the church under Christ. It seems the first use of catholic this way was in the second century when Ignatius of Antioch exclaimed, “Where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.” Notice he did... Continue Reading