If you are a faithful pastor or church member, the probability that you have met one or both characters in this evil duo is quite high. In Scripture, Diotrephes and Jezebel were both abusers. Today, they still exist within many if not most churches. Masquerading as pious saints, they set themselves up in power and... Continue Reading

The most fascinating aspect of Stonewall’s character was his intense Presbyterian faith. Having been baptized an Episcopalian, Jackson joined the Presbyterian Church after thorough study of the Westminster Confession of Faith, becoming “the bluest [most traditional] kind of Presbyterian,” according to one newspaper account. Jackson was rigorously principled and devout, assiduously avoiding activities on the... Continue Reading

For those not familiar with this series, it is a series of essentially blank journals published by Reformation Heritage Books for the purpose of encouraging Christians to write out their own copy of the Scriptures. It is based on two considerations: first, that the king of Israel was required to write out for himself a... Continue Reading

For many good reasons, solid Christian theologians have sharply criticized and rejected Darwinian macro-evolution as an unchristian and unbiblical teaching. Darwinism doesn’t square with the biblical record nor does it mesh with biblical doctrine. I bring up this topic because a friend pointed me to a recent article on evolution by a retired Christian Reformed... Continue Reading

The local church is one of the favorite hiding places of the abusive person. Conservative, Bible-believing religion is his frequent choice of facade. Within the evangelical church, women (and sometimes men) are being terribly abused in their homes and marriages. The children of such abusers are suffering as well. And when those victims come to... Continue Reading

In my mind, the most useful chapter of her book is the one that deals with the ways we are tempted to covet the seasons and circumstances of others—which, in my experience, is widespread among even Christian women. She concludes this chapter with a beautiful picture of how women of various circumstances who value one... Continue Reading

In the end, my overall concern about this volume is a simple one: it is not Christian. Bell’s makeover of Christianity has changed it into something entirely different. It is not Christianity at all, it is modern liberalism. It is the same liberalism that Machen fought in the 1920’s and the same liberalism prevalent in... Continue Reading

An entire chapter is devoted to “Saints and Sexual Immorality.” DeYoung argues that in our culture, this is one area where professing believers have been pressed into the world’s mold without even realizing it: holiness is obviously lacking in this area, and De Young takes the opportunity to outline what holiness would look like in... Continue Reading

Burroughs begins by making the point that contentment is in many ways more difficult for the rich than it is for the poor. We trust in our riches, rather than trusting in God. Riches become idols for us, so that we are unwilling to let them go. We abuse our riches by using them to... Continue Reading

This idea that the New Testament canon was not a natural development within early Christianity, but a later artificial development that is out of sync with Christianity’s original purpose, is, in my opinion, a central framework that dominates much of modern canonical (and biblical) studies. … It is this overall canonical approach (which I call... Continue Reading