“Today’s a good die to die for our church families, finding and loving those you aren’t typically drawn to, meeting mercy needs before anyone else even knows about them, being willing to serve in the little ways no one else might see. Today’s a good day to die because death brings life.”   A line... Continue Reading

So is sex a need? Even if you believe it is a duty to provide sex to your spouse, does that make it a need equivalent to, “if I don’t get oxygen, I will die”?  Will the absence of it lead to bad things? It seems that some have  bought into this little formula: SEXUAL... Continue Reading

Is having The Original Piece of Paper really the only way we can have any confidence that what we do have is in fact what was written? Are we forever doomed to saying that we don’t really have any idea what Homer or Plato wrote because we don’t have the pieces of paper on which... Continue Reading

In order to produce sanctity among believers, the Remonstrants sought implicitly to put Christians back under the law, under a covenant of works, for salvation. In contrast, as the Reformed churches understood that it is by grace we are saved, through faith (Eph 2:8–10) unto good works appointed by God for us. God’s grace produces... Continue Reading

Dysfunctional leadership is the reason churches become both depressing and desperate. These last two qualities actually feed on each other. The church is depressed because it is not doing what it should be doing, which leads members to become desperate in their attempts to stem the tide of decline that results from dysfunction in a... Continue Reading

After hearing from Pastor Sauls on the valuable contributions from those who disagree, we read Mark Jones who has his own objections to the narrow road. Maybe Pastor Sauls qualifies as one of Jones’ Reformed irenics since the former is not beholden to Reformed orthodoxy. But I suspect Sauls would fall short because he doesn’t... Continue Reading

I’m not revealing anything exegetically new here. Many have commented on this passage in similar ways. I only make the humble suggestions that we need to pay careful attention to: a) our own biases and culture that may affect our perception of words; b) the translation we are reading and not to gloss quickly over... Continue Reading

Canons thoroughly demonstrate that when God elects someone to salvation, he will give them a living faith, assured confidence, peace of conscience, and every other saving good, including holiness. This makes the doctrine of election a sweet encouragement to the believer’s conscience, as God intended it to be. Maybe what this sanctification debate needs to... Continue Reading

When I was a student of theology at Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary over half a century ago I wondered why God did not inspire one of his apostles to settle this issue once and for all with a simple statement — one way or the other — either that ‘children of believers are to be baptized,’ or... Continue Reading

In summary, the rise and fall of any celebrity pastor is merely a symptom of an underlying malady within American evangelicalism. Why are there now so many celebrity pastors? Because they generate a lot of revenue for the Evangelical Industrial Complex. Why do these pastors fall with such regularity? Because the Evangelical Industrial Complex uses a business standard rather than... Continue Reading