If truth is personal, then disagreement becomes impossible. If truth is personal, correction becomes oppression. If truth is personal, morality becomes preference. If truth is personal, reality itself becomes negotiable. And if reality becomes negotiable, civilization itself begins to dissolve. This is precisely what we are witnessing today.   Few phrases better summarize the insanity... Continue Reading

The short biblical section I did read over breakfast was in Colossians chapter 1. It knocked straight into my discouragement. Beginning in verse 9, Paul says the Spirit gives us wisdom and understanding of God’s will so we can: 1) bear fruit through our works 2) grow in the knowledge of God 3) draw on... Continue Reading

A congregation sees the sermon on Sunday, but not the hours of study, prayer, and wrestling beforehand. They may notice a hospital visit, but not the many quiet phone calls, follow-up conversations, and intercessory prayers. They benefit from the church’s spiritual health without seeing the behind-the-scenes work of planning, conflict resolution, discipleship, and administration. This... Continue Reading

We have an invisible wall of distinction between ordained ministers and the other offices. The Anglicans shape their clerical office by separating the clerical and lay offices through the use of the terms “ordained” and “commissioned,” and we do not. We ordain every officer, lay or not, and this should not confuse us as to... Continue Reading

Denominations do not wake up one morning debating monogamy by accident. The road from one compromise to another is not always straight and every church that stumbles in one place does not arrive at the same cliff by sundown. Still, the habit of compromise is real. Once a church learns to set aside Scripture in... Continue Reading

The RPCNA is made up of 86 congregations (several were recently released to form the RPC of Canada) across 7 presbyteries. Currently 10 congregations are without pastors; we are also in need of more ruling elders; and finances are stable across the denomination (we have a $37 million synod-level portfolio plus other assets).   The... Continue Reading

 Jesus, the Glorious One, has been anointed and is even now at the right hand of God. And yet that same one knows what it means to be tempted in every way, just as you are. He is high above, and at the same time, infinitely down to earth. This is who you have in... Continue Reading

The Councils of Orange and Carthage had closed the door on this doctrine. But what was closed there was opened at Trent. The Magisterium’s reaction to the Reformation placed the pre-modern and now modern church that remains tied to Rome in contradiction with orthodoxy. This is hard for Roman Catholics to hear. Because no one... Continue Reading

Paul’s metaphor of the soldier’s armor has become so familiar to many of us that we have forgotten that God (via a letter of Paul) is instructing us to do certain things in preparation for spiritual warfare. Granted, there is some disagreement among New Testament scholars about what some of these metaphors represent. But I... Continue Reading

From the conclusion of our executive report (drawn from the Pastoral Letter): We affirm that only those “who conform to the biblical requirement of chastity and sexual purity in their descriptions of themselves, their convictions, character, and conduct should be considered for leadership.” Additionally, we affirm that “Courts may consider for ordination candidates whose ongoing... Continue Reading