Teamwork in baseball is beautiful especially when a double play is executed with athletic speed and grace. Of course, there is the lack of this beauty on the field when two players collide leaving the ball rolling behind them and then scrambling to recover the play.  On the baseball field of life Christians are in... Continue Reading

This is a remarkably good set of questions for pastors and elders to employ in evaluating their flocks and their own ministry. 1925 is also of interest since for Old Lifers that year was arguably THE turning point in the history of American Presbyterianism, a time when the PCUSA whitewashed the denomination’s health and started... Continue Reading

“Israel was born in sin. I can never recognize the right of Israel to exist,” he shouted. When I challenged him about the Bible’s view of the Land of Israel being essential to God’s covenant, Ateek told me that any theology that takes land seriously is “immature.” In one fell swoop he had delegitimized Judaism and the concept of the Jewish people.

So why the ho-hum attitude of the revisionist delegates? I’m sure no one reason will suffice. They don’t agree with the faith of their fathers—that much is clear. They obviously don’t like rules being enforced when they are breaking said rules. Most if not all are universalists: what Chesterton described as reverse or “soft” Calvinist, where no one has free will and everyone is predestined for heaven. Therefore, church discipline as well as the soteriological emphases in the confessions upsets their progressive sensibilities.

Quite unintentionally, the Byrds also revived and legitimized Christian themes in music for an audience wholly unaccustomed to them. If you want to revive America's roots music, it's hard to do so without incorporating hymns, gospel and Christian songs, and Sweetheart of the Rodeo featured such evocative classics as I am a Pilgrim and The Christian Life.

“Preferred man?” Talk about visiting the sins of the father upon his children! I’m not entirely sure which is more troubling: the idea of a woman using this test to kill her unborn child because he has the “wrong” father, or the nonchalant way the Times raises the possibility.

"If Sandusky would have lived 2000 years ago, he would not have been found guilty of anything. He would not even have been noticed. His actions would have been entirely unremarkable. There would have been no disgust, no anger. The verdict would have been innocent, and in fact, the notion that he was guilty of anything would have been unintelligible" --Catholic World Report

The new paradigm that must be embraced—or rather, an old paradigm embraced anew—is that of incarnation. The incarnation paradigm suggests that the calling of the church is to go into the fullness of the culture, bearing the fullness of the gospel, for the purposes of redemption (Jn. 1).

Luther replied, "Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simply reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason---I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other---my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."

The principle of “firstfruits” also show you, in my opinion, that the tithe check should be written first, and not at the end of the month when you see how much left over you have. If you do the latter, you will inevitably never have enough to give God 10%. You’re giving him your scraps.