“What does this concern for normality look like when it is applied to public worship? In services it manifests itself in attempts to make visitors, especially non-Christian visitors, feel as comfortable as possible.”   My first article began with the observation that Satan ambitiously aims to attack the church at the very points that are... Continue Reading

“When he talks about himself the selfie preacher is always the hero of the story. Rarely—if ever—does the selfie preacher show himself to be a weak, desperate, depraved sinner who needs a strong, sufficient, righteous Savior. For the selfie-preacher, the pulpit is often a way for him to craft a story, and project his life... Continue Reading

“It is true that knowledge will need to become understanding and understanding must grow into wisdom.  True enough.  But if we fail to provide our children with the Biblical and theological knowledge found in the catechism, well then, we might one day find them doing the spiritual equivalent of yanking pork fat from their throats!”... Continue Reading

The New Testament contains no “magic bullet” verse to abolish one side or the other in this debate, although both sides sometimes act as if it does. The New Testament does not say, “You shall baptize the infant children of believers when they are 8 days old, just as Abraham had them baptized when they... Continue Reading

Now that is so important, because if my righteousness depends on my doing anything, it becomes my own righteousness. It is no longer an alien righteousness, and it is not the righteousness of God. Faith is then made into a work, and then grace is no longer grace. If any part of justification is our doing—if... Continue Reading

An elder is a pastor is a shepherd is an overseer is a teacher is a leader, and in many ways the unifying concept underlying the biblical material is that of guardian. Our job, as elders, is to protect the church from harm – from danger, dispersal, division, drift, deviant doctrine, disobedience, destruction and ultimately... Continue Reading

Some may think that the worst that can happen is a divorce, but I can think of other things that are far worse: A woman driven to substance abuse or even suicide by despair. A woman who is only a shell of her former self because her soul has been battered even if her body... Continue Reading

Our lives are acceptable to God not on the basis of our cooperation with grace (Rome et al), nor on the basis of congruent merit (a false covenant theology taught by some late medieval theologians and by the self-described Federal Visionists) but rather on the basis of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice for us. His sacrifice was... Continue Reading

A contemporary journalist naively opines: “We are opening up to the idea that classic binary conceptions of gender are unnecessarily rigid.” He fails to see that in this Oneist world a deep identity crisis is arising for our children and their eventual inability to understand the “binary” truth about the God of the Gospel, where... Continue Reading

Be thankful that God has worked in you from the time you were a child.  The evidence of your conversion is not that you have a spectacular story.  You probably don’t.  You sat in church and in family worship, and you absorbed everything that was taught.  The evidence of your conversion is simply that you... Continue Reading