God’s Sovereignty and Our Responsibility
To say that God is sovereign is to express His almightiness in every area.
Reformed theology, on the other hand, insists that no event happens that is a surprise to God. To us it is luck or chance, but to God it is part of His decree. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Prov. 16:33). Language of God changing His... Continue Reading
Train up a Child…but Remember, it’s God who Saves Them
I tried to train my children up in the way they should go, but God showed me again and again, that it was not my training that was going to save them.
I thought that if I just did all the right things as a parent – if I had daily devotions, if I prayed every night with them, if I lovingly disciplined them, if I took them to church, if I got a “swear box” that removed bad words from movies we watched, if I made... Continue Reading
Is the Bible Enough for Us? – Sufficiency
Has God really given us enough in these multi-millennia old books to address our modern conundrums?
Immediately upon my regeneration, I had no problem understanding that the Bible alone is the word of God. However, I did not grasp the implications of that. Issues came at me one after the other. I immersed in my local Christian culture. Professing believers were kind, friendly, and zealous. We hung out often and talked... Continue Reading
Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: Consequences of Pitting Rationality Against Faith – Part 4
When rationality contends against faith, one is not able to establish a system of morality.
Schaeffer challenges us, “Let us Christians remember, then, that if we fall into the trap against which I have been warning, what we have done, among other things, is to put ourselves in the position where in reality we are only saying with evangelical words what the unbeliever is saying with his words. In order... Continue Reading
4 Reasons Why We Need Biblical Theology
To read the Bible faithfully, we need the proper tools. The discipline of biblical theology is one of those helpful tools.
Biblical theology helps us read, understand, and teach the Bible the way Jesus said we should. Jesus himself says in Luke 24 that he is Scripture’s interpretive key. So if we fail to read and understand Scripture in a way that leads us to Jesus, then we will miss the point of the Bible, and... Continue Reading
The Federal Vision and Union with Christ
One of the chief problems with the Federal Vision is a wrong definition of what union with Christ is.
As with all the Reformed creeds, Owen connects all our graces together in an unbroken chain from election to justification to adoption to perseverance to glory. The Federal Vision contradicts Reformed theology and the Scriptures by separating both perseverance and glory from the other graces. “In baptism we are brought covenantally and publicly out... Continue Reading
The Creation Account: Literal Or Literary?
The Westminster Confession of Faith declares that God created the world "in the space of six days" (WCF 4:1).
Had Moses intended that six days represent six eras, he could have chosen a more fitting expression: olam. This word is often translated “forever,” but it also means a long period of time (e.g., Ex 12:24; 21:6; 27:20; 29:28; 30:21). Furthermore, he should not have qualified the days with “evening and morning.” The great... Continue Reading
The 10 Commandments of Progressive Christianity
Although its advocates present liberal Christianity as something new and revolutionary, it is nothing of the sort.
The abiding presence of liberal Christianity struck me the other day when I came across a daily “devotional” from Richard Rohr. Ironically, it was entitled, “Returning to Essentials.” And that devotional listed out 10 principles that Rohr thinks Christianity needs to embody (his list is actually drawn from Philip Gulley’s book, If the Church Were Christian).... Continue Reading
The Spirit’s Role: Regeneration
If we are changed by God’s Spirit, then is there nothing to do but sit back and wait for the Spirit to work? No!
The Spirit ordinarily regenerates people by the preaching of God’s Word. The Apostle Peter uses another picture for new life, drawn this time not from animal but plant life: “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.” (1 Pe 1:23) This change... Continue Reading
How to be a Better Boaster
At heart, it’s really all about worship, self-worship and getting others to worship you.
Virtue-signaling is a recent innovation, and we’re still refining it, but it’s a way of show-casing your own virtue to gain you higher standing in a social group. Some good ones I’ve seen on social media are: “Saying prayers for the poor in Africa,” or, “Grieving over global warming.” Social media has also made it... Continue Reading