We Persevere in the Faith Because of God’s Preserving Grace
In my prayers, I rarely fail to be grateful for God’s saving grace in Christ, but I realized that I seldom thank him for the daily grace that keeps me saved.
What happened? Where are the kids? What destroyed their marriage? What shipwrecked their faith — assuming they’ve left it behind? It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. Then it hit me: This could have been me. It could have been my family. I clicked on her Facebook page with eager anticipation of seeing... Continue Reading
Jesus Saves The Prince Of The Publicans
Zacchaeus was particularly dirty and, by implication, Jesus was to be regarded as tainted too.
For Jesus to associate with a “tax farmer” was politically incorrect. It was an affront the nationalist sensibilities. Zacchaeus, a Jew, was a traitor to his people. Still, he had a certain social (or at least economic) position. He was management not labor. This background makes Luke’s narrative all the more interesting One of... Continue Reading
Our View of Human Beings Matters
Worldviews shape and direct real people’s lives, creating real-world consequences.
“Tiamat has endured discrimination, abuse, and sexual violence—a lifetime of injustice committed against her at the hands of men. So, over time, she stopped identifying with our species…. Tiamat doesn’t seem like a human. She seems like a dragon, a mythical entity that has, through a series of ritualistic procedures, managed to escape the confines... Continue Reading
God’s Control and Our Responsibility
R.C. Sproul's ministry was largely built on the central idea that if God is not sovereign, then He cannot be God.
we read in 1 Timothy 6:15–16 that God is called the “only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, [and] who dwells in unapproachable light.” In Psalm 95:3, we are told that nothing is more powerful or more authoritative than God. He is “a great King above all gods.” No one can... Continue Reading
To Know Ourselves…
Living makes sense and gives joy only when we live out that relationship before God.
The question “What is man?” must be answered by a sentence that has a reference to God in it. When, in the pursuit of the project of the self, we a priori exclude the person of God we not only cut ourselves off from knowing him, but from knowing ourselves. The project ends in frustration. Fulfilled life... Continue Reading
Conrad Cordatus and Solus Christus
Adding a “but” or “meanwhile” after “Christ alone” is dangerous – especially for listeners who are just beginning to grasp the foreign concepts of Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, and Solus Christus.
Cordatus was willing to allow that Cruciger meant well, and waited for a clearer explanation. The next words were more troubling, “Thus, our contrition and our effort are indispensable prerequisites (causa sine quibus non) of justification.” Still, Cordatus didn’t face the preacher immediately. He spent an entire evening discussing the matter with Melanchthon, who had... Continue Reading
The Horrors and Habitat of Hell: Some Details You May Not Have Considered
Hell is seen as the great scarecrow of Christianity, an antiquated tactic used by preachers of yesteryear to frighten people into making professions of faith.
Some of these attempts to air condition Hell include universalism (everybody is saved in the end, and all roads lead to Heaven), annihilationism (sometime after death a person’s soul simply ceases to exist), and viewing Hell as merely a place of spiritual torment rather than physical. Some will go so far as to deny Hell... Continue Reading
Out of and Under Control
Life is not always good, but God is good, and He is in control.
The truth is that everything is not going to be just fine; everything is going to be perfect. Everything is indeed under control, and world peace will come when the Prince of Peace returns. Until that day—and we pray it comes quickly—we strive against the chaos, conflict, and confusion of this world, resting in the... Continue Reading
Michael Kruger Responds to Two Challenges to the New Testament
"If one wants to portray the New Testament canon as developing in a way that was entirely haphazard and open-ended until the fourth century, that’s simply not the case."
“When we look into the early centuries of the church, particularly the second century, we realize that the core of the New Testament canon was in place almost from the very beginning. What do we mean by “core”? What we mean is the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and at least ten, if... Continue Reading
Natural Theology and Christian Apologetics: A Brief Primer
A number of truths are implied, rooted, or presupposed within the ability to give a rationally coherent explanation that accurately expresses God’s word.
Romans 1:20 tells us that God’s invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen through what has been made (by him) so that all people are without excuse (for their sin). Because some in the history of Christian theology have used the term natural as a synonym for the physical creation, some have spoken of... Continue Reading