In the Reformed world, this kind of respect comes from publishing a book, or becoming a professor at a seminary, or having a prominent position in the denomination, or having a large church. It is easy to forget how eminently expendable we are, and instead start to think (even if it is not as crassly... Continue Reading

When a pastor insists on his preferences and suggests they are biblical truths, he will lose trust and influence. Church members have the Holy Spirit and the Bible at their disposal just like he does, and will usually know the difference. Further, if he twists the Scriptures to justify his self-centered demands, so will they.... Continue Reading

Now, what does all of this have to do with the contradictions between these Gospels? Well, think about it: If four different people write about someone’s life and public ministry, they’re going to choose different details to emphasize and they’re probably going to arrange their material differently. We also have to realize that these books... Continue Reading

I’m don’t fully agree with all of these, but it is interesting to see how pastors of old dealt with mental illness and things like depression. Most people think those who lived before Freud had little to nothing to say about mental illness. This is simply not true. The Puritans and many of those who... Continue Reading

Often in explanations of covenant baptism, the correlation is established between the promises God made to Abraham that were sealed with circumcision and the fulfillment in Christ of those promises that are now sealed with baptism. Yet clearly many struggle to make this connection, seeing it as too far a jump across the divide between the Old and... Continue Reading

“At least one presbytery also received a motion for the PCA to publicly call for financial reparations from white people to African Americans in compensation for the institution of slavery that existed in America prior to 1865.  These actions would seem to oppose the spirituality of the church.”   Last week I posted a piece... Continue Reading

“I have been shocked by how easily some Christian leaders (even counselors) break their commitments. On the other hand, I have witnessed wonderful examples of Christian integrity.”   The righteous man “swears to his own hurt and does not change,” according to Psalm 15:4. A dear mentor first made me aware of this verse when... Continue Reading

Approximately 40 lines out of ~20,000 lines in the New Testament text are in doubt, mostly the longer ending of Mark’s Gospel and the first 11 verses of John 8. So, the total number of seriously disputed lines in the New Testament is less than 1/2 of 1% of the total text. The New Testament... Continue Reading

It is not possible to survey theological liberalism here but those liberals who continue to profess some degree of adherence to the Christianity usually redefine the faith in subjectivist terms. Christianity becomes the quest to recover Jesus’ religious experience. Doctrine becomes a metaphor for personal experience, not claims about objective truth and reality. Liberals have... Continue Reading

Let’s face it, we become defensive when our judgment is challenged. And who wants to be the continual Debbie Downer in the conversation? And yet at the same time, you want to help encourage people whom you care about to discerningly engage with the content of what they are reading. Truth is important and our... Continue Reading