Gay Marriage: No One Expects The Secular Inquisition
Except that we did expect it. In fact, it’s inherent in the fundamental basis of the left’s arguments
“The test of liberty isn’t what happens to people who agree with the intent of a particular edict. The test is what happens to people who disagree. That brings us to the reason why gay rights advocates insisted on the government granting same-sex unions the title of “marriage.” The theory behind this was that homosexuals... Continue Reading
A Biblical Theology Of The Wilderness
When we fix our eyes on Christ crucified, we see how the wilderness of this world is already being restored to a Garden-Paradise and will one day gloriously manifest itself fully in the New Heavens and the New Earth
“Israel’s wandering in the wilderness serves as a typological picture of the New Covenant church’s wandering through the wilderness of this world on the way to the Heavenly Canaan. Hebrews 3-4 and 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 make the experience of Israel in the wilderness analogous to the New Covenant church’s experience in the world.” In elementary school, one... Continue Reading
Putting To Rest A Bad Argument: Marriage Law And Sex Discrimination
Marriage laws use a criterion necessarily linked to a good social purpose that we didn’t just invent
“The primary question regarding the definition of marriage is not whether any particular class of individuals (gay, straight, male, female) has a special link to the common good, but whether certain couples do. And it shifts the burden of proof onto those who would find no such link.” When will the Supreme Court rule... Continue Reading
What David Gushee’s Change of Heart Really Means
Ethicist David Gushee no longer believes homosexual, bisexual, or transgender behavior to be sinful
This is no surprise for those who have been following David Gushee’s career. He’s been on a leftward slide for many years now on a range of issues. That he is making this announcement now shocks no one. In fact, earlier this year Gushee endorsed a book making revisionist arguments about the Bible and homosexuality.... Continue Reading
Matt Recker and The Gospel Coalition: Inerrancy and Creationism
How much damage do progressive creationism, theistic evolution, and old-earth cosmogony wreak upon the system of Christian faith?
On the one hand, Keller can technically claim that he has not denied the inerrancy of Scripture—much as Richard M. Nixon, in his resignation address, claimed that “technically I did not commit a crime.” On the other hand, his teaching about origins is such a serious distortion of what Scripture actually says that one is... Continue Reading
Justification By Faith Alone Is Presbyterian Doctrine
The divines were precise in their definition of justification because this was the material question of the Reformation: how are we right with God?
Rome accused us, by teaching this doctrine of imputation, of making justification a “legal fiction.” In response we confess that no, it is Rome who teaches a doctrine of legal fiction because it is they who teach that God accepts our imperfect efforts toward justification. We confess Christ’s righteousness is real, that he made a... Continue Reading
Prince of Translators: William Tyndale
The ambitious task of translating the Bible into English was Tyndale’s driving mission.
In August 1536, Tyndale at last stood trial. A long list of charges was drawn up against him and he was condemned as a heretic. That same day, Tyndale was excommunicated from the priesthood in a public service. He then was handed over to the secular powers for punishment. The death sentence was pronounced. Tyndale... Continue Reading
Biblical Inerrancy and the Greener Pastures Fallacy
Scholarly communities that reject the inerrancy of Scripture have a slew of new problems with which they must deal
Read with a critical eye both of what the author is saying and what the author is not saying. Do they only voice concerns in one direction? Do they only care about the overreach of the evangelical interpreter and not the overreach of critical scholarship? Does their approach provide the grounds upon which they can... Continue Reading
Sex and Sunday School
How would you explain David and Bathsheba to children?
So what did David do wrong? (Which brought me back to where I started: trying not to explain sex to someone else’s five-year-old.) I think the original Sunday school script got at least one thing right; the seventh commandment is about the sanctity of marriage. And to explain David’s sin to our kids, we have... Continue Reading
Working on Learning to Rest
The effect of resting in the finished work of Christ ought to be a restful attitude in our everyday work and rest.
If you’re anything like me, you know that you have to be intentional about learning how to rest. It’s hard for some of us to downshift. Some have a bent toward laziness and others a tendency to overwork. Phil Ryken has made the helpful observation that busyness stems from the same sinful root as laziness. Both... Continue Reading