Why Elder Subscription Is a Good Idea
Should your elders subscribe to a confessional document more comprehensive than the statement of faith you use for church membership?
“At first glance, there is something attractive about only requiring pastors to subscribe to one’s confessional standards. Even the staunchest Presbyterian and Reformed folks can likely think of gifted, devout, theologically minded, pastorally sensitive brothers who–though a bit squishy on all five points of Calvinism and not really convinced of infant baptism–have proven to be... Continue Reading
The Gospel Truth Of Jesus
What Happens to Apologetics If We Add "Legend" to the Trilemma "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord"?
“It’s less common these days to hear Jesus honored as a great moral teacher by those who doubt his deity. Today’s skepticism runs deeper than that. The skeptics’ line now is that Jesus probably never claimed to be God at all, that the whole story of Jesus, or at least significant portions of it, is... Continue Reading
10 Pastors I’m Concerned About
10 types of pastors that may be contributing to the Church's decline
“I’m concerned about the pastor who attracts people with fancy self-help sermons instead of teaching people to be students of the Bible and theology. Sure topical sermons can be helpful teaching tools when used appropriately and in moderation. But to pique interest in the unchurched, church-growth pastors have promoted episodic sermons ad nauseam and to... Continue Reading
Reformed (Covenant) Theology
The new covenant is new in that the long-awaited Messiah has come and has fulfilled the old, and the new covenant is superior in its scale, simplicity, and scope
“It wasn’t until I came to grasp the newness and the nature of the new covenant and the relationship between the old and new covenants that I came to see God not only as sovereign over the salvation of His people, but also as covenantal in the way He relates to, sanctifies, and saves His... Continue Reading
Orthodoxy vs. Heterodoxy: The Fundamental Divide in the United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is in a fundamental struggle over the gospel of Jesus Christ
“Paul called Timothy to “preach the Word!” because a time is coming when “people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3,4). This testimony is true... Continue Reading
“I Feel Super Great About Having an Abortion” — The Culture of Death Goes Viral
Emily Letts decided to make a video about her own abortion
If Emily Letts truly believes that there is no guilt rightly associated with abortion, she would not have to insist, over and over again, that she feels no guilt. When she tells of women who “feel guilty for not feeling guilty,” she testifies to the fact that they are moral creatures who cannot stop making... Continue Reading
Does a Christian Wife Have Fewer Rights than a Slave Wife in Moses’ Day?
The moral law is abiding; Old Testament case laws and civil laws apply now only in general equity
The Exodus passages quoted above are examples of restraining laws that aimed to limit the most heinous types of sin which fallen humanity would get up to. Another way of putting this is that the laws we see in Exodus 21 and many other case laws in the Mosaic Code were aimed at protecting the most vulnerable: refugees... Continue Reading
Back to the Future
What is the future of Protestantism? In short, we need an exile theology, a theology which gives us historical identity, theological resources and future hope.
It is sophisticated theological confession which shapes and drives local pedagogy and gives individual churches their identities and their resources. The ten point doctrinal statement simply is not going to hold any Protestant church together in the coming cultural storm. Mere Christianity is good for building parachurch alliances and good for evangelistic purposes; but it... Continue Reading
Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Church
In my experience, looking over the fence into the churchyard next door is the perfect opportunity for sin.
Seeing my neighbor’s church’s spiritual harvest, its abundance of gifts, its overflow of zeal, and then looking back over my shoulder at the all-too-obvious weaknesses in my own? Holding up two sets of membership numbers and budget totals to the light of the same sun? Standing at the property line between ours and theirs? Oh... Continue Reading
The Pride Behind Anxiety (Ps. 131)
Since we do not fully know all that God is doing in our lives, let us put off vain pre-occupation and put on humility
I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother.This imagery vividly captures a soul at rest. The child is content with his mother’s presence. How much more should we be content, as children of the Most High God? The Great I Am graciously invites us to take part in quieting... Continue Reading
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