On Being a Normal Horse
The Horse and His Boy: What a brilliant, well-constructed story.
I was struck by the self-pity of Bree, the kidnapped Narnian horse who in the story is escaping homeward from the southern deserts of Calormen. He is a charger, a beautiful white war horse who has fought many battles, even earning acclaim for his feats in this foreign kingdom. But during the flight northwards to... Continue Reading
Review of God and the Gay Christian
I read the book hoping to understand how my former students came to accept such a position.
I can see the appeal of the book. It is written in a simple and endearing style. Further, the author, Matthew Vines, argues for the authority of Scripture throughout. He attempts to make the case for the acceptability of homosexuality within the biblical corpus. For those unfamiliar with the arguments made in favor of his... Continue Reading
Social Justice vs. Biblical Justice: A Timely Book on a Perennial Topic
Beisner analyzes the arguments of the social justice movement.
In this booklet, Dr. Beisner does not start with ideas from the Social Justice Movement and move from there to God and His Word. Instead, he first understands Scripture as sufficient and authoritative, and uses it to evaluate the Social Justice Movement. In that way, he accurately shows what God and His Word say about... Continue Reading
Holiness: A Reader’s Guide to a Christian Classic
Holiness takes Christ seriously. The person and work of Christ is, perhaps, the greatest theme of this work. Ryle certainly intended it to be so.
Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots proved to be one of Ryle’s most popular works. It is one of the best presentations of Puritan and Reformed spirituality ever written, and thanks to the simplicity and forcefulness of Ryle’s writing style, it is certainly one of the most accessible. Think of Holiness as The Pilgrim’s Progress stated propositionally. And like... Continue Reading
Why So Much Science is Wrong, False, Puffed, or Misleading
Book Review: "Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth"
The book, while scary and disheartening, is truth-seeking and ultimately optimistic. Ritchie doesn’t come to bury science; he comes to fix it. “The ideals of the scientific process aren’t the problem,” he writes on the last page, “the problem is the betrayal of those ideals by the way we do research in practice.” In... Continue Reading
Academics Shine a Critical Light on Progressive Christians
Book Review: One Faith No Longer: The Transformation of Christianity in Red and Blue America. From sociological research data, they argue that progressive and conservative Christians are headed for a permanent split.
The authors contrast the social identities of two groups of Christians: progressive and conservative. Their method begins with discerning the values in each group’s “cultural toolkit,” then identifying goals that bring each group fulfillment. Descending from early 20th-century fundamentalists, they tell us, conservative Christians seek to preserve past church teachings. The authors describe this as expressing... Continue Reading
Is Biblical Theology Older than Many Think?
In J. V. Fesko’s contribution to a book in honor of Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., he addresses an important issue—the antiquity of biblical theology.
Fesko says, “for those who criticize biblical theology as a novelty, they seem to forget the scriptural maxim that there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9)” (474). Though the phrase biblical theology is of modern origin, the hermeneutical concepts and trajectories of what we now call biblical theology are at least as old... Continue Reading
If You Could Go Back To Any Moment in Time…
Jesus’ time in the upper room has become known as his Farewell Discourse and it is the subject of Sinclair Ferguson’s new book Lessons from the Upper Room.
In Lessons from the Upper Room, he serves as a kind of tour guide who describes what has happened in this room, what it meant at the time, and what it continues to mean today. He offers a guided tour of one of the most significant evenings in human history and tells how and why it... Continue Reading
Covenantal Baptism
Our beliefs regarding baptism inform our parenting, our expectations of our covenant children, and even what church we attend and join.
If God counts children as members of the covenant community who are to receive this sign and seal of his covenant, then those who neglect covenantal baptism prevent covenant children from receiving one of God’s chief means of grace for their lives and the life of the church. These practical and theological implications are why... Continue Reading
Review of Stephen Nichols, R. C. Sproul: A Life, Wheaton: Crossway, 2021.
The life of Dr. Sproul is beautifully portrayed through a chronological outline of the major moments and convictions that shaped him in Stephen Nichols’ biography, R. C. Sproul: A Life.
Nichols, like Sproul, wrote this biography that people may discover the depths and riches of the God who is not only holy but is “holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3). Therefore, as we reflect on the life and ministry of R. C. Sproul, let us give glory to God, not R. C. Sproul. Dr. Sproul understood... Continue Reading
