The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), having just rejected that America is a Christian nation, has earned unsought praise from the ultra liberal and secularist Americans United for the Separation for Church and State (AU).   “The NAE represents a broad swath of evangelical denominations, so these results give us some cause to celebrate,” recently... Continue Reading

There are a number of Calvinists out there today who would espouse virtually all of these views (perhaps even tyrannicide? I’m not sure …). I don’t think most Reformed Christians give the time of day to these thinkers, but there is a minority that is with them all the way.

Benjamin Keach was a Puritan Particular Baptist pastor who lived from 1640-1704. He is the namesake for the annual Keach Conference. The slightly edited extract below is taken from The Glory of a True Church and its Discipline Displayed (1697), one of Keach’s many works addressing ecclesiology and ministry.

We don’t know the reason God allows evil and suffering to continue, or why it is so random, but now at least we know what the reason isn’t, what it can’t be. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he doesn’t care. He is so committed to our ultimate happiness that he was willing to plunge into the greatest depths of suffering himself.

How do we know that gay marriage is a positive social arrangement? In fact, one objection to this change in law is that we have no idea what the consequences — positive or negative — of such a change to millenia of legal arrangements and cultural expectations will be. Though we do have some data from social scientists on the benefits of regular marriage

It is a bad, dangerous, and devious encroachment on constitutional liberty, and could undermine one of the greatest pillars of American national success. The balance between faith and reason is for the determination of each individual, and of the people as a whole, not of unauthorized government officials uttering impious humbug as they arbitrarily try to define that balance.

And, while referring to a particular group as evangelical may be more accurate than simply calling them Christian, the increasingly varied shades of evangelicalism make even that term insufficient. For example, are we referring to the ultra-conservative televangelist and one-time Republican presidential hopeful, Pat Robertson? Or, do we see Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners and vocal Obama supporter as the quintessential evangelical?

The wisdom of impartiality is the practice of receiving in love a sincere believer as my brother in Christ regardless of inherent qualities such as race, social status or spiritual maturity, and of making any distinctions of my treatment of people to be based solely on the moral code of Scripture.”

This means that if God will trump worldly wisdom, he must forbear its existence. God tolerates man’s wisdom to show his foolishness is wiser; God tolerates man’s strength to show his weakness is stronger. Gay rights activists across the country plan to descend upon Chick-fil-A this evening in response to Wednesday’s “Appreciation Day.” Here will... Continue Reading

The truth is, whether we lead with gospel or law, we are going to be offensive. The gospel is more offensive than the law because it hits humans at the point of pride. “Do this and live” stokes pride. “You can’t do it no matter how hard you try” slaps pride down. Too much has... Continue Reading