When church discipline is done properly, the holiness and good of the church are promoted. The negative outcomes of discipline are never desired but are a grace from God for the blessing of His church.   When I first started attending a Reformed church, I remember an announcement that was made about a former member... Continue Reading

Here we are—on the other side of the world and 2,000 years removed from the place and time of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. And on any given Sunday, untold millions gather to worship Christ and hear his teachings. Truly, this is Christ’s church. He is building it. And nothing will prevail against it! This... Continue Reading

God tells us, essentially, “Don’t set up your own judgment seat, because I know the motives of the heart that you don’t.” We lack a few important qualifications for being judges: not only holiness, but also a little thing called omniscience! These words of our Lord are worth repeating: “But I tell you that men will... Continue Reading

Under theonomy…the implementation of all the old covenant death penalties was not supposed to occur until the culture had been spiritually conquered through spiritual means. That spiritual conquest was either temporally distant or strictly hypothetical, depending on the optimism of one’s eschatology.   A label can be confusing when its meaning changes over time. This... Continue Reading

Pastors are men gifted by God and given to the church for the teaching and care of His very own flock, and they must approach their task with high regard and a holy life worth imitating. Only God can give pastors the grace to lead faithfully, but He can and has now for thousands of... Continue Reading

[Hypothetical Universalism] betrays not just a few but several core features of Reformed soteriology, and cannot make good on its own claim upon the efficacy of Christ’s death for the elect. But why should that be surprising given the intricate nature and interdependence of Reformed Christian doctrines?   An entailment of the Reformed doctrine of... Continue Reading

That discipline is a privilege does not mean that it is always enjoyable. It is often unpleasant. The wilderness wandering of Israel was a period of forty difficult (though not wasted) years.  This time of testing and humbling was the “way of the wilderness” (Ex. 13:18).  Moses describes it in Deuteronomy 8, saying in effect:... Continue Reading

The Bible highlights a wide variety of (often disruptive and disobedient) activities that it describes without censure. The implication for student life staff and college administrators, then, might be to help channel students’ energies for dissent in positive directions that align with the biblical witness rather than to be quick to quash dissenting activity, even... Continue Reading

Remembering that we serve Christ as our Master will help us make the right choices and choose the right words when we find ourselves in the war zone. In 1 Peter 4:12–19, Peter focuses on the trials that Christians might face, urging his readers to “not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes... Continue Reading

I like to say that I made a friend, and my friend was the apostle Paul. I started reading Paul’s letters and started to see how Paul integrates things of eternity into every aspect of the Christian life. Not just, “This is what happens when you die,” but, “This is why you repent from sin,... Continue Reading