10 Things You Should Know About J. C. Ryle
Ryle celebrated Christian conversion as radical, supernatural, and life-transforming.
Ryle promoted evangelical faith, which is experiential, personal, and emotionally engaged, set against Christian formalism, legalism, and barren orthodoxy. His parish church, in the Suffolk village of Helmingham, is dominated by impressive seventeenth-century memorial statues, all portrayed in formal pose, kneeling or lying down, with a fixed gaze. “They never show any feeling”, Ryle quipped.... Continue Reading
A Review: ‘Confederate General D. H. Hill: A Military Life’
“He Feared Not the Face of Man but Feared and Trusted God with All His Heart”: Gen. D. H. Hill
Throughout his book, Hartley examines these polarizing perspectives and draws his own fair-minded conclusions. He does so with well-documented and well-written prose, reminiscent at times of the late Shelby Foote. Even though the biography primarily focuses on the Civil War years, military historians and confessional Protestants both should enjoy Hartley’s engaging presentation of a complex,... Continue Reading
4 Bible Passages That Help Explain the Doctrine of God’s Aseity
God names himself as “I AM,” as the one who doesn’t need anyone or anything.
When we move forward into the New Testament and the unveiling of the gospel story, we see that this God exists as the fullness of Father begetting his Son eternally, and the Father and the Son pouring out the Spirit eternally. In other words, this a se God is a Trinitarian a se God. He is a God of... Continue Reading
Hell Bent on Deconstructing Christianity
In this view, Jesus didn’t atone for sin, but His death was simply to demonstrate unity with man.
Allegedly, everyone will be with God! In the end, love wins (with a hat tip to Rob Bell). In his deconstructed “Christianity,” Recker reads the Bible out of its historical-grammatical context and depends heavily on liberal theologians and those who hold to non-Christian worldviews. The phrase, “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all... Continue Reading
Christian Zionism or “The Divorce of Israel”
Christian Zionism is a theological-political view of the Christian Faith that divides the people of God into two groups—the Church and the Nation of Israel.
The Reformed Church, and including Roman Catholics, have upheld the position that there is only one people of God in the Bible—the Church. The Church includes both Gentiles and Jews. It is made up of all those who look to Christ as Lord and Savior, whether Jew or Gentile from both the Old and New... Continue Reading
Time To Expose Evil
Believers are called to expose lies and darkness with truth and light.
Jesus and the disciples were routinely opposed, rejected, hated on and violently assaulted. They were even put to death. The world hates the gospel, and the demons can’t stand Christ. So to be a follower of Jesus means we will also be hated and abused. Even if we do not directly speak out about the... Continue Reading
Trueman Among the Pagans, or Jonah in Nineveh
Carl Trueman’s latest exploration of what our abandonment of God is doing to our humanity may sound familiar, but it will be news to his new, larger, and secular audience.
Trueman recalls the biblical Jonah. Jonah preached his message to covenant Israel, and his reward was to be sent to Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire, with a message of doom. “In three days, God will destroy your city.” Something unexpected happened—the people of Nineveh obeyed their king’s command to repent in sackcloth and ashes.... Continue Reading
Sometimes I Get It Wrong
[Bingham] shows how the Reformed tradition offers better answers and, crucially, answers that are more consistent with Scripture.
‘A Heart Aflame for God’ is as good a book as any I have read this year and one I wish I had read last year. It refreshed my understanding of spiritual formation and deepened my confidence that the Reformed tradition has deeply satisfying means for developing, increasing, and moving forward as a Christian. ... Continue Reading
Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism
Israel-hatred and Jew-hatred usually go together.
[Antisemitism: What Everyone Needs to Know by David Harris]. Those not familiar with the age-old diabolical curse of antisemitism need to be educated here. And a book like this is just the place to start. Yesterday I examined the brand-new volume by Hussain Abdul-Hussain: The Arab Case for Israel: And Other Essays from a... Continue Reading
Book Review: The Desecration of Man by Carl R. Trueman
The only real options, Trueman argues, are the consecrated Christian or Nietzsche’s atheistic madman.
Our culture rejects the Christian idea that the question of man’s significance is directly tied to the question of God. If, as Christianity teaches, human beings are created in the image of God, the two questions are inseparable. According to the Christian view of man, human beings are created, embodied persons with obligations, limits, and... Continue Reading