The point here is not to debate gender roles or the expression they have taken at various points in American history. The point, rather, is to demonstrate that the story of marriage to which both Jesus and Paul point Christians is a story that affirms the comprehensive, unconditional, complementary sexual bond not simply for the... Continue Reading

Sometimes you find people who are a little hipper than thou who conspicuously eschew the title “Christian.”  They would rather we called a “Jesus follower” or a “disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.” There’s no problem in using this biblical language, unless it is to steadfastly avoid other kinds of biblical language. In our day there... Continue Reading

No, I was not envious or jealous of Queen Esther and King Solomon. Scripture teaches us that what they had God gave them. I was ashamed when I realized that my sins of envy and jealousy showed that I wasn’t content with all the Lord had given me.  It was time for me to count... Continue Reading

It is this big-tent, anti-confessional mentality that has caused some confessional, Reformed, Calvinistic Baptists to leave the SBC and join other like-minded associations. The big tent is falling, just like it has before. Does an examination of church history reveal that the big tent, anti-creedal, anti-confessional approach leads to eventual decline? There is a marked... Continue Reading

He never loses patience with a question, and neither do people who are serving him. If you take a question to more mature Christians, those who really are men or women of God, you likely will find they don’t think it is so dumb. Maybe they used to struggle with the same thing. Maybe they... Continue Reading

If abortion rights campaigners and their media supporters were polled, I believe you’d find that a hugely disproportionate number of them have had abortions or have encouraged family members to have one. This alone can explain their zeal for their cause, and also the irrational and unreasonable hostility towards any and all pro-life people and... Continue Reading

Paul tells them, “Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you.” When he tells them to aspire to live quietly, he is essentially telling them, “work hard to live quietly” or “make it your ambition to be without ambition.” At our guilty worst... Continue Reading

The worship gatherings of the churches I’ve mentioned are very similar, yet very different. They faithfully obey God’s clear commands in Scripture to sing the word, pray the word, and preach the word. But as you can tell from my descriptions, they are far from identical—and I don’t think they should be. This diverse sameness... Continue Reading

When that pastor retires or takes another call, the congregation assembles a committee and calls another man who will carry out his functions in the context of this congregation’s characteristics (both good and bad). Out of these circumstances emerges a form of spontaneous order where congregations and pastors have reasonable expectations of each other, ones... Continue Reading

Historic Reformed theology has also understood its doctrine of justification to entail a blessed sense of assurance on the part of believers and to guarantee their perseverance to the end. If faith is reconceived as faithfulness, or is thought to include such in its basic definition, as it is for many who promote the Federal... Continue Reading