For years it was merely an overused rhetorical trope, a hyperbolic claim that followed a predictable pattern: Step 1: Take an issue of concern for Christians (e.g., abortion, sex trafficking, global persecution, the gospel). Step 2: Claim that no one in our churches is talking about the issue. Step 3: Assume the dual role of... Continue Reading

Thompson directs our attention to this fact in order to make his larger point: our marriage crisis is making income inequality worse. Those who are getting married and staying married are, on average, moving ahead in the economy. In contrast, those who are not married are falling behind—fast. Add to this the fact that when... Continue Reading

When Paul describes the gentleness of a nursing mother, he’s not describing a passivity or assumed tenderness; he’s describing a gentleness that comes from a place of deep self-sacrifice, self-giving, and tireless commitment. Nursing an infant requires gutsy, down-in-the-trenches, hour-by-hour dedication. And it is motivated by the depth of love that a mother has for... Continue Reading

What’s wrong with America? According to Frank Schaeffer, God is. In a recent post entitled “I Blame God for the Shutdown” he concludes that the real problem in America is religious delusion. Senator Ted Cruz and his cadre of grandstanding Republicans are not motivated by concern for the economy, but by deranged religious zeal. All... Continue Reading

At one level I have a great deal of sympathy with Josh.  It takes a great deal of courage to stand up and preach to passing people who mock, yell abuse and more often just ignore you.  I have to believe that his desire is to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ.  I also... Continue Reading

Historic confessions and creeds protect the Church from foolish “cereal aisle” autonomy. The Spirit who authored Scripture has through the years drawn the Church to understand it, and the great Church confessions greatly aid us in employing faithful hermeneutics. We are not advocating a paper pope, but a biblically grounded confidence in the historic analogy... Continue Reading

“God has always worked to prosper God’s people and God always will. Just as God worked in history to preserve Israel, so he is now working to preserve the Church. Though God’s Church will undoubtedly face challenges and often be co-opted into the unholy agendas of governments and politicians and false teachers, and though the... Continue Reading

This is not just a lament for the evident slide of the CRC toward the American mainline (liberalism) but to note how that happened. The CRC didn’t become liberal overnight. Most of the CRC still probably isn’t classically liberal as much as it is broadly evangelical, which is the bridge between confessionalism and liberalism. Conservatives, even staunch... Continue Reading

The Lord took hold of Calvin, and Calvin thus could not help but take away “dominion and rule from his own reason” and yield it to the Lord alone. That is the glorious brilliance reflected by any study of Calvin. There was nothing in Calvin himself that was superhuman, super-theologian, or super-churchman. Calvin was a... Continue Reading

Why Enns is willing to welcome Bell’s aids to spirituality but keeps fundamentalist or evangelical helps to devotion at arm’s length is anyone’s guess (though Bell is hipper than John Piper). It would seem to me that if you’re in the business of pulling down the secular order, you take help from inerrantists as much... Continue Reading