Do You Believe in a Santa Christ?
A sad reality: many Christians have a Christology that is more informed by Santa Claus than Scripture
Santa Christ may be a mystical Jesus, who, like Santa Claus, is important because of the good experiences we have when we think about him, irrespective of his historical reality. It doesn’t really matter whether the story is true or not; the important thing is the spirit of Santa Christ. For that matter, while it... Continue Reading
Dear A&E, Congratulations, You Just Committed Suicide
An open letter to the A&E Network the Duck Dynasty Dustup
Did you think the “gay rights” crowd would stick around and “support you” for meeting their ransom demands? No, silly A&E, that isn’t how this works. The speech-controllers on the left are like a black hole. They can only suck you in and obliterate you. They’re like the devil — they ask for your soul... Continue Reading
Settling Some Dust in the Sanctification Debate: Remembering A Neglected Section of the Westminster Confession
There is one often-neglected paragraph in the Westminster Confession of Faith that can provide an answer to the sanctification debate
And so this section of the Westminster Confession provides important guidance and balance to these discussions. To the “rest” side, it reminds us that the Christian life involves effort – God empowered effort, but effort nonetheless. And effort that at times even trembles at the threatenings of God’s Word. To the “effort” side, it reminds... Continue Reading
Machen’s Testimony of His Father
He was a quiet stream whose waters ran deep
He was a profoundly Christian man, who had read widely and meditated earnestly upon the really great things of our holy Faith. His Christian experience was not of the emotional or pietistical type, but was a quiet stream whose waters ran deep. He did not adopt that “Touch not, taste not, handle not” attitude toward... Continue Reading
A Nail in the Coffin of the Hebrew Roots Movement
Paul wanted to win all sinners, Jews and Gentiles, to Christ, not to the OT ceremonial laws
It is important to notice here that when Paul is saying these things about the law, he is not abrogating the Ten Commandments. After all, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, quite clearly states their continual application. Paul himself in chapter 5 will go on to list a bunch of sins on the one... Continue Reading
Paul and the Law: A Review
Paul's apparently contradictory statements about the law have occupied interpreters for centuries
Having undergone redemptive-historical modification, the law very much has a home in the New Covenant. The law continues to provide the moral standard that binds all people, not just Christians. It is this understanding of the law that helps us to grasp what the prophet meant when he looked to the day when God would... Continue Reading
Don’t Pull a LOST
When it comes to leading in worship, many are like the writers of LOST: Lost in direction and purpose.
Sometimes I see worship leaders who remind me of the writers of LOST. There’s some good stuff, which should be commended, but then on occasion there are random bits of nonsense. The ABC drama “LOST” had it all: great acting, lots of suspense, beautiful beaches, and high ratings. Its fans were devoted, many to... Continue Reading
A Birthday Like No Other — A Children’s Story
Giving gifts at Christmas is a reminder of the life-giving Son we have been given.
The whole reason Jesus was born into this world was so that God could give us a gift. Jesus didn’t come to get presents. He came to give presents. Pretend it’s your birthday. What would you think if people gave presents to everyone else but not to you? That would be a strange birthday.... Continue Reading
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Book review of Miles Hollingworth's "Saint Augustine of Hippo: An Intellectual Biography."
Hollingworth takes us back to the pre-Socratic philosophers of ancient Greece and the beginning of classical civilization. We cannot understand how Augustine was trained to think unless we master the origins of Platonism, and that means returning to the world Plato addressed and transformed. To say this isn’t to argue Augustine was a Platonist, but... Continue Reading
Why Christians Should Listen to Punk Rock
Classical music captures the world as it should be, Punk Rock captures the world as it is.
Whereas classical music embodies order, law, structure, and beauty, punk rock embodies–not the world as it should be–but the world as it is. Also, punk music has a social awareness that would put Beethoven and his ministry to the deaf to shame. Punk rock music is the true Christian art form. I know it’s hard to... Continue Reading