Theology Learned in the Flames of Adversity
In hard times, when Luther often found himself terribly discouraged and downcast, he would turn to Melanchthon and say, “Come, Philipp, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm.”
Out of Luther’s dark distress shined this brightest light of confidence in God. Philip Schaff marvels that this monumental hymn could issue from such deep travails, saying, “The deepest griefs and highest faith often meet.” This was the case with Luther, as “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” was “born of deep tribulation and conquering... Continue Reading
Good Faith Subscription? (Part 2) Confessional Integrity in the PCA
There is a great deal of confusion about the role a healthy and functional confessionalism ought to play in the life and ministry of pastors, elders, and congregations.
If we are to recover our confessional integrity, brothers and sisters, we must do more than analyze what is wrong. We must take our own responsibility seriously to love and defend and promote a healthy adherence to the Westminster Standards, in the firm conviction that the theology, piety, and practice expressed and promoted in them... Continue Reading
You Can’t Have a Casual Relationship with Sin
Don’t believe the lies from outside or inside yourself telling you that you can have this kind of casual, occasional, relationship with sin.
Here is the creep of sin. Sin starts small – just a little compromise. But it never stays that way. We walk with it, then stand with it, then sit down right in the middle of it. And the most frightening part is that we never really intended to. It just sort of happened. Like... Continue Reading
Book Review of When Disability Hits Home by Paul Tautges with Joni Eareckson Tada
Tautges challenges able-bodied readers to consider the allegory of physical disability and the truths it communicates about our spiritual disability.
This book is not the work of a man who has analyzed the topic of disability from an ivory tower, but the work of one who has wrestled with the pressing realities and daily battles of living with the presence of a disability. If that person is you, maybe you too will read this book... Continue Reading
Why You Can’t Love Jesus and Condone Immorality
Much confusion about this issue arises from a misunderstanding of the gospel’s dividing line.
Based on Jesus’s words, we cannot love him and say it is “morally acceptable” to commit sexual immorality. We cannot love Jesus and say committing adultery, consuming pornography, engaging in homosexual relations, or engaging in sex as an unmarried person (whether adult or teen) is “morally acceptable.” Jesus doesn’t give us the option of loving... Continue Reading
Dealing with Decay, Dying and Death
Death stinks, as does suffering and decay. But it will not always be with us.
While many believers do tire of sin and self and this world and do long to depart and be with the Lord, the main way we should look at death and all that goes with it is with dislike, even disgust. As I see what happened to B. B. King, and is now happening to... Continue Reading
Why Was Jesus’s Teaching So Astonishing?
That’s what the Pharisees wanted—the end of Jesus as a cultural force. But Jesus eluded the trap, turned the whole question on its head, and left them all, again, astonished.
Far more important than any discussion about political philosophy or one nation’s relationship to another is the question of every human being’s relationship to God. Jesus was teaching that all of us are made by God, that indeed you are made by God. You are created in his image and in his likeness, and therefore you belong to him... Continue Reading
The Books Are Already Burning
Why do so few oppose the pressure, lies, and the corrupting force of these bullying campaigns?
If you are a teacher, you entered the profession in order to expand young minds. If you are watching them being warped, it’s your responsibility to fight that. If you are a journalist witnessing lies being spread by your colleagues, it’s your responsibility to stand up for truth. If you are a professor, watching your colleagues being... Continue Reading
The Subversion of Biblical Authority
Some of the very evangelicals who claim support of the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy seem to be waffling on the sister statement on hermeneutics.
It is true that Christians are imperfect and absolute epistemological certainty may elude Christians at times, but in the end standpoint epistemology denies the possibility of meaningful dialogue, but more importantly it removes the possibility of objective knowledge of God subverting biblical authority In the latter half of the 20th century (1978), a number... Continue Reading
Don’t Give Sin Too Much Credit
The Bible does teach that in Christ through the word and by the Spirit it is possible for us to fight sin.
Sometimes I find myself thinking that certain sins are set to dog me for my whole life, they loom large, they seem too big too strong, I am defeated by them before I start. Now, we will sin – I don’t believe the Bible teaches sinless perfectionism, but it does teach progressive sanctification. Living... Continue Reading
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