Of course there are great difficulties in the Bible – what else would you expect? There is variety of genre, apparent (though not real) contradictions, and even the apostle Peter found some things hard to understand!   But as the living and enduring Word of God, it is still as fresh, and dynamic as the day... Continue Reading

To end with one down-to-earth example: How is it that the most Catholic continent of all, South America, with an open field for continuously implementing Catholic social thought ever since 1891, should come into the twenty-first century with the second-largest population of truly poor persons on the planet? With so many structural deficiencies? For all... Continue Reading

In other words, Ferguson looks at this controversy, dissects it, and then applies it to our day. And, as it happens, we, too, are struggling with issues related to legalism and antinomianism. That makes his book perfectly timed and a valuable contribution to the discussion about the role of the law, the role of obedience,... Continue Reading

And I can tell you, the result is absolutely devastating for the claim that Christianity and homosexuality go together.  A person might be able to convince themselves that the Bible allows it (by reinterpreting even the plainest of passages), but it is a bit hard to explain away 2000 years of absolutely consistent church history.... Continue Reading

At the time, all I found on the historic, Reformed practice of requiring profession of faith before admission to the Lord’s Table were a few passing references in the confessions and theological books, and a helpful though somewhat poorly recorded tape series by Kenneth Gentry.  Thankfully, Dr. Cornelius Venema’s scholarly yet accessible work Children at the Lord’s... Continue Reading

“It’s common now in this country to find parents who are chauffeuring their 8-year-old or 12-year-old around to various schools, among families that are choosing a school, and the parent functions as educational consultant. The parent makes a recommendation, but the child makes the final decision.”   Dr. Leonard Sax has been a family physician... Continue Reading

In the age of Black Lives Matter and the social expectation to support its agenda or be slandered as racist, Christian contributions to racial reconciliation should approach this issue carefully. Racial inequality deserves the attention and engagement of Evangelicals but not through a superficial and self-righteous agenda that does more damage than good. It’s simply... Continue Reading

I also knew that much of what Rachel Held Evans was literally living out was not actually in the Bible. The Bible doesn’t command a woman to call her husband master and so forth. But though I knew that much of what she was literally living out was not actually in the Bible, I didn’t... Continue Reading

Finally, the sad fact is that talk of ‘Jesus plus nothing’ usually ends in holding to a form of Christian faith that is ‘Jesus minus something.’  Most often it represents a faith with an inadequate grasp of truth or too little theology and thought, or a faith that is ‘all Jesus’ but no God the... Continue Reading

Now, I love to doodle, but I think it’s highly inappropriate to doodle all over God’s Word. And this is doodle-for-show. I get it when people like to add a visual element to learning, but this is not really a method that would help someone truly study God’s Word. So you paint an abstract scene... Continue Reading