Praise for Praise Teams and Contemporary Worship Music
Some thoughts as to what is important in worship music and what is a matter of preference
Recently there have been a number of articles about why praise teams are bad for worship. In a similar vein, there have been several posts and comments on why contemporary music is awful. While I don’t deny that there are churches whose worship practices are unbiblical and therefore wrong, I don’t believe that it’s right to lump... Continue Reading
Throw Open the Doors
Why do we hide the wonderful news of pregnancy?
If we hide pregnancies we hide the dignity, wonder, and beauty of human life. We dehumanize the miracle of life that is the child in the womb. Why would you not want to share that something so wonderful and exciting has happened? By doing so, family and friends can pray for you and the baby.... Continue Reading
Homosexuals in the Church: Keep Reading in Ephesians
The progressive wing of evangelicalism seems to be ramping up its demand that Bible-believing churches accept homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle.
While homosexuality clearly involves a sub-culture in America, it is also defined by the Bible in moral terms. The issue, then, is not whether Bible-believing Christians can accept people from a different sociological sub-culture – we can and indeed are eager to do so – but whether we can accept moral behavior that is specifically... Continue Reading
Parents: Do Your Jobs or Your Kids Might Turn Out Like Lena Dunham
Lena Dunham is indeed rich and famous, but she’s a rich and famous cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t parent your children.
That’s what strikes me about Lena Dunham’s story. Admittedly, I don’t know anything about her parents other than her Dad’s profession and the fact that, by Dunham’s admission, the spectrum of her behavior regularly included the sorts of things she now probably wishes she never told us about. Therefore, it’s fair to assume that basic... Continue Reading
The Calvinist on the Bestseller List
Marilynne Robinson’s rich, grace-filled prose strikes again.
The three most recent, interrelated novels—Gilead, Home, and Lila, which was released last month—are exquisitely imagined human stories that work out many of the theological themes to which Robinson’s writing returns again and again. It is not quite accurate to describe them as “engag[ing] deeply with the thornier aspects of Calvinist theology,” given that Robinson’s characters—themselves... Continue Reading
Justifying Self and Sex
You must flee to a power greater than your nature to handle this. You must also stop trying to craft justifications for moral sin.
The law was originally given to support the institution of marriage. Thus when we’re told by God not to commit adultery in act or in our hearts, he is really telling us that these relations are off limits. But within those limits is the proper place for human sexuality. Within the marriage relationship established by... Continue Reading
Canadian Legislation Would Ban ‘Barbaric Cultural Practices’
Canada is weighing legislation that would ban arranged marriages of minors and make polygamy grounds for deportation
If passed into law, the measure will make it a criminal offense to participate in or officiate at the marriage of an underage child. Removing a child from Canada for the purposes of arranged marriage would also be a crime. In addition, those practicing polygamy would no longer be allowed to immigrate to Canada with... Continue Reading
Why Isn’t Millennial Support For Abortion Rights Increasing?
Exploring why young Americans are increasingly supporting gay marriage, but not abortion
Do you know who has the most accurate grasp of the number of abortions performed annually in this country? My pro-life friends. My pro-choice friends, in my limited experience, usually cannot come within half a million of the actual number. Now, you can argue that my pro-life friends are unusually well informed, and that’s true–I’m... Continue Reading
One Man’s Common Sense May Be Another Man’s Nonsense
Truth is not a matter of common sense; it is a matter of presuppositions
In some cases even the Devil cannot modify common sense. For example, if you want to lose weight, then you need to reduce your calorie intake. However, in regard to many issues in the public square today, truth is no longer a matter of common sense. Truth is a matter of authority. It’s a matter... Continue Reading
What Is “Orthodoxy?”
An editorial by Dr. J. Gresham Machen that appeared in the November 4, 1935 issue of The Presbyterian Guardian
The word “orthos” in “orthodoxy” means “straight,” and the word “heteros” in “heterodoxy” means “other” with an implication of “different.” Accordingly, the real state of the case is that “orthodoxy” means “straight doxy” and “heterodoxy” means “something different from straight doxy”; or, in other words, it means “crooked doxy.” The following editorial by Dr.... Continue Reading