But meditating through the story of the prodigal son has also left me intrigued and hopeful, especially for new church plants and pastors who long for a more gospel-centered approach to church discipline. How can we do church discipline differently? What do we need to put into place that will enable us to extend the corrective heart and hand of our heavenly Father in such a way that the gospel is more clearly driving the whole process?

The issue is about what sort of union the state will recognize as “marriage” and confer all the benefits thereof. The state doesn’t tell us who we can be friends with or who we can live with. You can have one friend or three friends or a hundred. You can live with your sister, your mother, your dog, or your buddy from work. You can celebrate your relationship with your grandma or your college roommate however you want. But none of these relationships–no matter how special–are marriages.

Wisner (1830's) ran moral tales concerning the consequences of seduction, adultery, and abandonment, and wrote that he had received “much complaint” from some readers—but he thought naming names of moral offenders was an important deterrent

Learning theology through the narrative of Scripture is incredibly important. But we’ve tended to replace our wider theological beliefs with the stories. So you can find a lot of teenagers who know the story of David and Goliath, but very few who can define sanctification, or even articulate a Christian understanding of growing in holiness.

The so-called Marrow Men advocated the ‘free offer of the gospel’ while the opposition did not see gospel ministers as having the right to offer the gospel to those who did not show signs of election.

If we want to see widespread change in our society, that change must be yoked to the proclamation of the Gospel. The Gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation, and it alone has the power to convert man’s hearts, and enable them to embrace Christ and His law. To prioritize something other than the Gospel, or to subjugate the Gospel to man-centered methods, is to fail.

Incidentally, Easter can be traced to Ishtar in the ancient world. But the Christian church coming together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus is hardly something I think would provoke the wrath of God. I wish we had more annual festivals.

Do you find as a Christian that “heaven above is deeper blue, earth below is sweeter green”, perceptions that “Christless eyes have never seen”? How would you measure the depth of the blue and the sweetness of the green? How would you know that your experience of the blue (deeper) and green (sweeter) is qualitatively different from that of an unbeliever?

The culturally relevant progressive gurus within evangelicalism who desperately want to be popular are going to try to move towards the culture rather than be marginalized, and the church administrations, pastors, and theological professors who follow them around like besotted puppies are going to want to do the same.

It wasn’t déjà vu. The reason the sermon sounded entirely familiar was because it was. The minister lifted the majority of his sermon from a commentary. He spoke the words as if they were his own. He didn’t introduce the source from which he attained the information nor did he remotely hint that these weren’t his ideas. All of the illustrations and the majority of his points were word-for-word from someone else. Is this dishonest?