In the New Testament, most of the letters are written to rip the “coexist” bumper stickers off the new assemblies’ doors or to warn of its danger. Jesus condemned the same diabolical spirit when He warned the Church through St. John at Patmos of the deadening effects and judicial consequences of relativism on the Church,... Continue Reading

The study then measured feelings of commitment and intimacy for cohabiting couples. It found couples in cohabiting relationships, even long-term ones, never achieve the closeness of married couples. … The low commitment levels in cohabiting are particularly tough on females. Women agreeing to move in with a partner typically look for a deeper, more committed... Continue Reading

Another factor that geneticists usually fail to consider is the original genome of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. From a creationist’s point of view, the optimal DNA and genetic diversity of the first couple formed by the hand of God is impossible to quantify because it has been lost to time, and... Continue Reading

… eschatology is so deeply and inextricably interwoven into all of Scripture that it’s virtually impossible to trace the storyline of God’s redemptive purposes without understanding something of its meaning and direction. Eschatology enables us to see the unified purpose of God in summing up all things in Christ. There’s something profoundly edifying and spiritually... Continue Reading

Many things in life are binary, and there is no third way. But I do believe there are errors both to the right and to the left of a biblical philosophy of ministry. On the left are the errors of pragmatism, and on the right are the errors of authoritarianism. What’s most striking to me... Continue Reading

  The doctrine of limited atonement impacts us powerfully with regard to the psychology of our devotion to the Lord. There are some who die for principles, and we admire them for it. … But there is another category of devotion that rises far above the rest. Some die for principles and others for causes.... Continue Reading

This is an embarrassing unforced error by one of the world’s most esteemed newspapers.* But other journalists can learn from their mistake and can avoid such shame-inducing gaffes by using a technique that has worked for four centuries: When you want to know what Calvinists think, ask them. Today is the 504th anniversary of the... Continue Reading

See, the vast majority of the time, our life isn’t EPIC, it’s mundane. And if you think that anything less than epic isn’t pleasing to God you begin to see vocation (jobs) as either spiritual or non-spiritual. Working at the church, then, becomes “more holy” than, say, working at McDonalds. Spending the weekend at a... Continue Reading

Any theology that denies God’s moral law, and then domesticates sin by its absence, does not have Christ’s atoning love, God’s justifying pardon, or the Holy Spirit’s kind company. The Red Letters of the New Testament, unmoored from the moral law of the whole Bible, offer only half the God-man, mangling the gospel by wrenching... Continue Reading

Because my Western default definition of success is worldly, it will bother me when attendance is low or they don’t respond well to my teaching. Because I am deeply prideful and filled with self-love, I am often offended when church members see weekends at the beach/lake/mountains as vastly more compelling than hearing me talk about... Continue Reading