I believe that our "Frankenstein's monster", the result of unintentional consequences is statism: the perpetual philosophical lie that human redemption can come from a centralized political collective and that it will lead us to the utopia we inherently desire.

And so at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the church—graced with a confession of such joy and a calling of such beauty—nonetheless finds itself burdened with deep questions over the nature of its identity, the efficacy of its labors, the character of the culture around it, and the possibility of faithfully being the church in the late modern world. To all appearances, the answers to these questions are far from certain.

In the end ministers are pawns – not of fate but of God. He puts us where he sees fit, uses us as suits his purposes, and sets us aside according to his timing. He need not explain his ways to us. Perhaps that is the most important lesson of all

The Lord's Supper is important. It is important for biblical obedience. It is important for church discipline. It is important for comforting the afflicted and the weak. We neglect it to our very great impoverishment.

Much has been written over the past several years regarding the Adopting Act of 1729 and the idea of “scrupling.” A recent article by Frederick Heuser included a brief overview of the Adopting Act while pondering the various controversies and splits within our history as American Presbyterians. Dr. Jeffrey C. Francis, Sharp Chaplain of the... Continue Reading

The practical impotence of in thesi declarations is why I think them corrosive to the Church's well-being. Church officers are free to agree or disagree with them with whatever degree of openness they prefer; disagreement brings with it no automatic sanctions

What are the theological maturity qualifications for ‘joining the church’? I know the wrong answer. I know churches where you ‘join’ around high school graduation time, so you join and then leave town, maybe never to find your way back to church again.

The OPC found a way to avoid J&R with the PCA and in the process recovered something of its older polemical edge. The PCA became a refuge for disaffected Orthodox Presbyterians of a New Life persuasion. The CRC debated and finally gave its blessing to women’s ordination. As the OPC hardened, the PCA softened, and the CRC amended, Reformed Protestantism fractured.

Thus, it is the Congregationalists who also believed in a gathered church of visible saints. It is true that they continued to practice paedobaptism, but the fact is that they, by their statement of faith, believed that only those who were visible saints who were visibly repenting of sin and visibly turning to Christ were the only proper subjects for church membership. It was also the Congregationalists who, like the Baptists, embraced the completeness of the local church in such a way that connectionalism in the Presbyterian sense is not needed and not Biblical.

Now I married a blond, green-eyed Baptist. This does not put me in the category of Hosea, but it does say that what I saw trumped theological differences. Moreover, I have had and have quite a few Baptist friends. (In the South one would be hard up for friends if he did not include Baptists.) I have also had Baptists preach in my pulpit a number of times